Dr. John Fea, Ph.D
Distinguished Professor of American History, Department of History
Messiah University, Mechanicsburg, PA
CurrentPub.com
Saturday, September 21
Title: “The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump”
7:00 pm
North Anderson Community Church, Presbyterian
4200 Liberty Highway, Anderson, SC
(This is offered in person only.)
Sunday, September 22
2:00 pm (Eastern Time) – Not Our Usual Time
Two 40-minute lectures with a break, each session ending with Q&A:
Title 1: “Was America Founded as a Christian Nation”
Title 2: “A Usable Past?: The Christian Right and American History”
The Benson Room of the Bleckley Inn
151 E Church St, Anderson, SC
This will be a hybrid event: both in person and via Zoom
(To Register for Zoom: Click here.)
John’s first book, The Way of Improvement Leads Home: Philip Vickers Fithian and the Rural Enlightenment in Early America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), was chosen as the Book of the Year by the New Jersey Academic Alliance and an Honor Book by the New Jersey Council for the Humanities. His book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011) was one of three finalists for the George Washington Book Prize, one of the largest literary prizes in the United States. It was also selected as the Foreword Reviews/INDIEFAB religion book of the year.
John is also co-editor of Confessing History: Explorations in Christian Faith and the Historian’s Vocation. (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010), a finalist for the Lilly Fellows Program in Arts and Humanities Book Award. Other books include Why Study History?, The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society, and Believe Me: The Evangelical Road to Donald Trump.
His essays and reviews on the history of American culture have appeared in The Journal of American History, The Atlantic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The William and Mary Quarterly, The Journal of the Early Republic, Sojourners, Explorations in Early American Culture, Pennsylvania Heritage, Education Week, The Cresset, Books and Culture, Christianity Today, Christian Century, and Common Place. He has also written for The Washington Post, USA Today, Al-Jazeera, Philadelphia Inquirer, Fox News, CBS News, New York Daily News, AOL News, Houston Chronicle, Austin-American Statesman, Harrisburg Patriot News, Salt Lake City Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Religion News Service, and other newspapers. He blogs daily at The Way of Improvement Leads Home, a blog devoted to American history, religion, politics, and academic life and serves as the Executive Editor of Current, an online magazine of opinion and commentary.
John has lectured widely at institutions such as Duke University, Columbia University, Southern Methodist University, Bucknell University, Gettysburg College, University of Colorado, University of Southern California, University of Mary Washington, Wheaton College, Grove City College, University of Tennessee, University of Pennsylvania, University of Notre Dame, Woodberry Forest School, Boston Trinity Academy, Georgetown University, Colonial Williamsburg, University of Minnesota, Southwestern Theological Seminary, Northwestern College, Fort Ticonderoga, Syracuse University, Eastern University, Fraunces Tavern Museum, Valparaiso University, the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, and the David Library of the American Revolution. His is a Distinguished Lecturer with the Organization of American History and has appeared on NBC News, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and dozens of radio programs across the country.
Dr. Heather Macumber
“Metaphors for God: Disrupting the Familiar & Embracing the Uncanny”
Sunday, October 27, 2024
3:00 pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Event (with possible watch group locally)
To Register for Zoom: Click here.
Heather Macumber is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Providence University College in Otterburne, Manitoba (Canada). She received an MDiv from Tyndale University (Toronto, Canada) and graduated with a PhD in Old Testament from St. Michael’s College (Toronto, Canada).
Her work focuses on the intersection of the divine and earthly realms found predominantly in Jewish prophetic and apocalyptic texts. Recent publications employ monster theory as a critical lens to examine the monstrous in Daniel, Revelation, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. In 2021, her book Recovering the Monstrous in Revelation was published with Lexington Books/Fortress Academic as part of the Horror and Scripture Series. She has also published articles in academic journals including the Journal of Hebrew Scriptures, Biblical Interpretation, and the Journal for Interdisciplinary Biblical Studies.
Heather Macumber has appeared as a guest on the popular podcast the Bible for Normal People (episode 149) highlighting her work on monsters in Revelation. Additionally, she is also a contributor to the Visual Commentary on Scripture organized by King’s College, London (England). This is an open access site that features online exhibitions of artwork and biblical commentary by experts. Her exhibition “Leah’s Struggles (Genesis 29:21-35)” is available here.
She lives in southern Manitoba (Canada) with her family. You can follow her on Twitter: @heathermacphd.
Rev. Jim Dant
Sunday, December 1, 2024
4:00 pm (Eastern Time) [not 3:00 as usual]
“Understanding the Development of the Christmas Nativity Stories
Through the Lens of Jewish Midrash
(What You Were NOT Taught in Sunday School)”
To Register for Zoom: Click here.
Jim Dant was born Jewish, christened Roman Catholic, baptized Baptist and received his doctorate from a Presbyterian Seminary. (He’s ecumenical.) He survived a tumultuous childhood — riddled with divorces, adoption and more divorces — He’s had two mothers, seven fathers and a host of step, half and adopted siblings. (He’s empathetic.)
He is the proud father of three daughters, two granddaughters, and one grandson. (He’s broke.)
Jim is a graduate of Georgia State University, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Columbia Theological Seminary. He has also enjoyed post-graduate studies at Princeton Theological Seminary, Hebrew College, Macon State College, and the
University of the West Indies. He has received certifications in spiritual direction, group spiritual direction, Ignatian retreat direction from Mercy Center in Burlingame, California, and is an RYT500 Yoga Instructor. (He’s fairly educated.)
Jim currently serves as co-pastor of Nineteenth Avenue Baptist Church in San Francisco, California and is the recently retired Senior Minister of First Baptist Church, Greenville, South Carolina. Over his career, Jim has also pastored in the state of Georgia, taught at Mercer University, Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology, Brewton Parker College, and led conferences throughout the USA, as well as, in Israel, Greece, Turkey, and Egypt. (He’s experienced.)
He has written nine books, several series of curriculum, numerous articles and essays…and a poem for Highlights magazine when he was nine years old. (He’s published.)
Finally, Jim has been known to ride motorcycles on the weekends, is an avid concert attendee, an ironman triathlete, a student of the classical guitar, bass guitarist for one of San Francisco’s newest and best cover bands, and a semi-professional Texas Hold’em
Poker player. (He’s fun.)
Ani Zonneveld
Sunday, January 12, 2025
3:00 pm (Eastern Time)
Zoom Event
To Register for Zoom: Click here.
“Progressive Islam – Universal Values vs. the Politics of Human Rights – What’s the Difference Between a Progressive Muslim and Other Muslims?”
Founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values, an international human rights organization that advocates for social justice and equality for all, Ani Zonneveld is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; on the U.N. Inter-agency Faith Advisory Council, and recently commissioned by the U.N. Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect to create an anti-hate speech workshop for Muslim communities. In 2023 she was selected as an “inspirational woman” in the LA Times. Recently, Ani co-authored and co-designed an “Inclusive Islam Curriculum Rooted in Human Rights” for children ages 4-7 and co-authored a chapter titled “Transnational Progressive Islam: Theory, Networks, and Lived Experience” for a book titled “Handbook of Contemporary Islam and Muslim Lives”. She is the subject of a documentary title “al-imam” featuring Ani’s activism works, and screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Dr. Philip Dorroll
Sunday, April 27, 2025
3:00 pm
Location to be announced
“Religion, Politics, and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine”
In person and via Zoom
Philip Dorroll is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and co-chair of the Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit at the American Academy of Religion. His research and writing focus on the history of Islamic and Orthodox Christian theology in Arabic and Turkish, and the history of Orthodox Christian-Muslim relations. His research and writing have also been published in such venues as Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies, Journal of Islamic Studies, Public Orthodoxy, and The Wheel: A Journal of Orthodox Christian Thought and Culture. He is the author of the book Islamic Theology in the Turkish Republic, co-author of the book Spatial Politics in Istanbul, and co-editor of the books Maturidi Theology: A Bilingual Reader and The Oxford Handbook of Religion in Turkey (forthcoming).