Dr. Timothy George, who is the founding dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, will present the address “Where Are the Nailprints? Luther’s Road to Reformation” as the 2016-17 Danforth Lecture at Hope College on Thursday, April 6, at 4 p.m. in Winants Auditorium of Graves Hall.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The presentation has been scheduled in conjunction with the college’s Presidential Colloquium series, which is commemorating the Protestant Reformation’s 500th anniversary with multiple events this spring and during the forthcoming fall semester within the theme “The Reformation and the Making of the Modern World.” The Protestant Reformation was sparked when Martin Luther delivered his 95 theses to the Archbishop of Mainz on Oct. 31, 1517.
George is a life advisory trustee of Wheaton College, is active in Evangelical–Roman Catholic Church dialogue, and has chaired the Doctrine and Christian Unity Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. He serves as senior theological advisor for Christianity Today, and is on the editorial advisory board of First Things. George is the general editor of the “Reformation Commentary on Scripture,” a 28-volume series of 16th-century exegetical comment. A prolific author, he has written more than 20 books and regularly contributes to scholarly journals. His recent books include “Reading Scripture with the Reformers,” “The Great Tradition of Christian Thinking: A Student's Guide” (with David Dockery), “Our Sufficiency Is of God: Essays on Preaching in Honor of Gardner C. Taylor” (with James Earl Massey and Robert Smith, Jr.) and “Amazing Grace: God’s Pursuit, Our Response.” His “Theology of the Reformers” (25th Anniversary ed., 2013) is the standard textbook on Reformation theology in many schools and seminaries and has been translated into multiple languages.
An ordained minister in the Southern Baptist Convention, George has served churches in Georgia, Massachusetts, Kentucky and Alabama. He and his wife, Denise, have two adult children.
The Danforth Lecture is sponsored by the Hope College Department of Religion with support from an endowment established by the Danforth Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri. The program was established by the foundation “to deepen and enlarge the religious dimension of the campus family through speakers who can reflect on the broad, interdenominational and yet positive sense of the Judaeo-Christian perspectives of life and existence.”
Some of the many distinguished scholars who have visited the campus through the program in the past include theologian Dr. Martin E. Marty of the University of Chicago Divinity School; Dr. Phyllis Trible of Union Theological Seminary; Dr. Jon D. Levenson of Harvard University; Dr. Daniel Maguire of Marquette University; Dr. Allen Verhey of the Divinity School at Duke University; John Webster of the University of Aberdeen; Dr. John L. Esposito of Georgetown University; Dr. David Nirenberg of the University of Chicago; Dr. James VanderKam of the University of Notre Dame; Dr. Luke Johnson of Emory University; Dr. Oliver O’Donovan of the University of Edinburgh; and Dr. John Stratton Hawley of Barnard College of Columbia University.
The other Reformation-themed events at Hope this spring include the concert “A Reformation Celebration” by the Grand Rapids Symphony on Wednesday, March 29; the Presidential Colloquium address “Why the Reformation Still Matters in 2017” by Dr. Brad Gregory of the University of Notre Dame on Thursday, March 30; and the Presidential Colloquium address “Dangerous Choices: Women, Clerics and Marriage in the German Reformation,” by Dr. Marjorie Elizabeth (Beth) Plummer of Western Kentucky University, on Monday, April 10. The fall-semester events have not been finalized, but are anticipated to include panel discussions exploring the experience of local communities and residents.
The Presidential Colloquium, initiated by President John C. Knapp, is a recurring lecture series that brings prominent thinkers to Hope to share their insights on the academy, leadership and global civic engagement. Speakers since the series debuted in September 2013 have included Dr. Richard Carwardine, who is an internationally recognized expert on Abraham Lincoln and president of Corpus Christi College of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom; Professor H. Russel Botman, rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University; Scott Aughenbaugh, who is a deputy director of Strategic Futures at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS); and David Brooks, New York Times columnist and best-selling author.
More information the series is available online. Details regarding the fall events will be posted nearer the beginning of the college’s fall semester.
Graves Hall is located at 263 College Ave., between 10th and 12th streets.