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Boston University School of Theology

Boston University School of Theology is a seminary of The United Methodist Church. The School is also a robustly ecumenical institution and welcomes students from diverse faith traditions.

http://www.bu.edu/sth/

  • The Boston University School of Theology is proud to present the bi-annual Lowell Lecture, which features a renowned speaker in a field related to theological studies. The Spring 2024 lecture, titled "Testifying: Notes on the Futures of Theological Education," will be delivered by Dr. Keri Day, Professor of Constructive Theology and African American Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • The dominant model of theological education positioned schools of theology as centers for training leaders of many different kinds of voluntary associations. But now powerful economic, political, and cultural forces are unraveling the network of voluntary associations these schools emerged to serve. The record number of people who identify as “nones”—people without any particular religious affiliation—is only one index of this unraveling. As this wider ecology comes undone, schools of theology across the spectrum are struggling for students, funds, and purposes. But the same forces that are unraveling voluntary associations are also authorizing new values, characters, and organizations. Refusing narratives of both progress and decline, Smith tries to read these developments by an eschatological light. Seeing by that light, he tries to name a series of affordances for theological education in this time between the times.

    Reception starts at 6 pm and lecture starts at 6:30pm.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • The Boston University School of Theology is proud to present the bi-annual Lowell Lecture, which features a renowned speaker in a field related to theological studies. This year, topics explore the spiritual dimension of artistic expression. The Spring 2023 lecture, titled "... when artists go to work...", will feature Dr. Bill Banfield and the Imagine Orchestra.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • The Boston University School of Theology is proud to present the bi-annual Lowell Lecture, which features a renowned speaker in a field related to theological studies. This year, topics explore the spiritual dimension of artistic expression. Our first speaker Rev. Dr. Emmett G. Price III, lecture is entitled What does sacred sound like… and how do we learn to hear it in the voices of Black disinherited creatives? This lecture will explore the brilliant resilience and demonstrative hope of Black folk through the lens of two exceptional spiritual beings: Nina Simone and John Coltrane. Rarely touted as theologians and even rarer, as Christians, these two serve as exemplars of far too many Black creatives endowed with spiritual wisdom yet treated as disinherited.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • Thanks to the generous support of the Lowell Institute, BU School of Theology (STH) is able to host its bi-annual Lowell Lecture, which features a renowned speaker in a field related to theological studies. This semester, the school of theology welcomes Lee H. Butler, Jr., Ph.D. whose lecture is titled, "Stop Listening with Your Eyes: Transcending Stereotypes Wrapped in Color Consciousness." About the guest speaker: Lee H. Butler, Jr., Ph.D., is Vice-President of Academic Affairs and Academic Dean, and the William Tabbernee Professor of the History of Religions and Africana Pastoral Theology at Phillips Theological Seminary in Tulsa, OK. Prior to joining Phillips, he was the Distinguished Service Professor of Theology and Psychology at the Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) for 24 years. In 2006, he was promoted to the rank of full professor and became the first African American to achieve this rank at CTS. He is the founder of the Center for the Study of Black Faith and Life at CTS. He is co-editor of The Edward Wimberly Reader: A Black Pastoral Theology (Baylor University Press, 2020), the author of Listen, My Son: Wisdom to Help African American Fathers (Abingdon Press, 2010), Liberating Our Dignity, Saving Our Souls (Chalice Press, 2006), A Loving Home: Caring for African American Marriage and Families (Pilgrim Press, 2000), and numerous articles. He is a Past-President of the Society for the Study of Black Religion, a member of the American Academy of Religion, the Society for Pastoral Theology, and the Association of Black Psychologists. An ordained minister of the American Baptist Churches/USA since 1988, he is a preacher-scholar-teacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Bucknell University, Master of Divinity from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Master of Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary, Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy from Drew University.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • Rev. Dr. Yvette Flunder is a San Francisco native and pioneer behind the founding of the City of Refuge United Church of Christ in 1991. Bishop Flunder explores the meaning of eros in humanity and chastises the church for avoiding the teaching of sexuality, even avoiding practices that could help young people make informed choices. Image: Pexels.com & Boston University
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • The title of Dr. Gary Dorrien's talk is The Social Gospel in Black and White, Then and Now: Imagining Economic Democracy, Breaking White Supremacy. Dorrien's most recent book is Social Democracy in the Making: Political and Religious Roots of European Socialism, published in April 2019 by Yale University Press. His next book, In a Post-Hegelian Spirit: Philosophical Theology as Idealistic Discontent, will be published in 2020 by Yale University Press, and he is currently completing a book on the history of American democratic socialism. Image: Speaker Image
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • Emilie Townes, an African American Christian social ethicist and theologian who serves as Dean of the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University, explores what a good theological education should look like.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • The Reverend Traci Blackmon visisted Boston from The King United Church of Christ in Florissant, MO. To mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Reverend Blackmon led a reflection on his legacy. Photo credit: [Revolutionary Love Conference 2018](http://revolutionaryloveconference.com/videos/ "Revolutionary Love Conference 2018")
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology
  • Bishop Karen Oliveto served as senior pastor of the 12,000-member Glide Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco for eight years. She was the first woman to be senior pastor at Glide, the fifth largest United Methodist congregation in the US. Bishop Oliveto has the distinction of being the first openly lesbian bishop in The United Methodist Church. She and her wife, Robin Ridenour, a nurse anesthetist and United Methodist deaconess, were married in 2014. Bishop Oliveto now serves as the leader of 400 churches in the Mountain Sky Area of The United Methodist Church.
    Partner:
    Boston University School of Theology