The Cross, The Lynching Tree, and the Crosshairs: Racial Violence and American Christianity

Rev. Dr. Joanne Marie Terrell
Associate Professor of Theology, Ethics, and the Arts
Chicago Theological Seminary

April 10, 2018
Grawemeyer Award in Religion

(Dr. James Cone's book, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, won the 2018 Grawemeyer Award in Religion.  Dr. Cone was unable to present a lecture due to personal reasons.  Dr. Terrell, a former graduate student of Dr. Cone's, spoke in his place.)

Dr. Cone's book contrasts the Christian tradition regarding the Cross of Jesus with the Christian response to lynching.  White Christians murdered over 5000 black men, women, and children during the lynching era, and did not see the parallels between the persecution and murder of Jesus on the cross and the death by lynching on the tree.  Anger over this, and the continuing mistreatment of black and brown peoples, is the only reasonable response for a Christian.  The key is to use the anger to move beyond guilt to doing the work of justice and love.  Listen to the lecture.

Breaking White Supremacy: The Black Social Gospel as New Abolitionism

Gary Dorrien

Reinhold Niebuhr Professor of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary
Professor of Religion at Columbia University

April 18, 2017
Grawemeyer Lecture

Dorrien discusses how the Black Social Gospel became an important tradition of religious thought and resistance, helping to create an alternative public sphere of excluded voices, and providing the intellectual underpinnings of the civil rights movement.  Listen to the lecture.

Health Justice - Hermeneutic of Blessing?

Susan R. Holman
Senior Writer at the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University


Grawemeyer Award in Religion
April 13, 2016

Both faith-based and human rights organizations work to address global health issues, but divergent ideological approaches can create discord and ultimately undermine the efforts of both groups.  Listen to the lecture.

How Should We See Race?

Willie Jennings
Associate Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, Duke Divinity School

April 15, 2015
Grawemeyer Award in Religion Lecture

Listen to the lecture.

A God Who Joins

Willie Jennings
Associate Professor of Theology and Black Church Studies, Duke Divinity School

April 15, 2015
Acts 10:19-29

Listen to the sermon.

When God Talks Back

Tanya Luhrmann
Watkins University Professor of Anthropology
Stanford University

April 14, 2014
Grawemeyer Award in Religion Lecture

How can rational people living in the 21st century believe that God speaks to them, and why should the rest of us take those people seriously?  Listen to the lecture.

A Quiet Revolution: Broad Findings and Further Thoughts in Changing Times

Leila Ahmed
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School

April 10, 2013
Grawemeyer Award in Religion Lecture

Dr. Ahmed received the 2013 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion for ideas set forth in her book, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence from the Middle East to America.  She examines the increase in American Muslim women who wear the veil, or hijab.  She looks at the experiences of women in Islam in both broad and personal terms, and examines Muslim American women in the post-9/11 world.  For some women wearing the hijab can be a simultaneous demand for justice for Muslims in American and justice for women in Islam.  Listen to the lecture.

The Politics of Black Religion

Barbara D. Savage

Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought and Professor of History in the Department of History of the University of Pennsylvania

April 11, 2012

Grawemeyer Award in Religion Lecture

Dr. Savage received the prize for the ideas set forth in her book, Your Spirits Walk Beside Us: The Politics of Black Religion which introduces important new perspectives on the study of black religion and the political role of African American churches.

Dr. Savage explains why it is misleading to speak of ‘the black church’ given the enormous diversity among African American congregations. She also challenges the popular belief that black churches have been prophetic and politically active throughout history. Listen to the lecture.

Christianity and the Ways of Being Religious

Luke Timothy Johnson

Winner of the 2011 Grawemeyer Award in Religion

Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University

Grawemeyer Lecture
April 12, 2011

Ancient Christians had more in common with their Jewish and pagan neighbors than most people realize. Listen to the lecture

The Point of Exegesis is Exegeting Life

Luke Timothy Johnson

Winner of the 2011 Grawemeyer Award in Religion
Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University

Classroom presentation
April 12, 2011

If we approach the New Testament books the way they approach us we must consider four separate yet distinct elements: the anthropological, the historical, the literary, and the religious. Failure to consider even one diminishes understanding of the message of the New Testament. Listen to the presentation.

Acts of Faith: Interfaith Leadership in a Time of Global Religious Crisis

Eboo Patel's speech in acceptance of the Grawemeyer Award in Religion. The speech was given April 14, 2010 in Caldwell Chapel at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Listen to the speech.

Grawemeyer Lecture: Doing Justice by Remembering Injustice

Rev. Dr. Donald W. Shriver, Jr.

March 4, 2009

Dr. Shriver asks how and why we should remember the negative past. He suggests that this remembering is required to change our relationship to history, and to publicly repent for the sins committed by a country and its people. Dr. Sue Garrett introduces Dr. Shriver. His lecture begins at 6:45 on the recording. Listen to the lecture.

Some Sympathy for King Herod

Dr. Timothy B. Tyson
Winner, Grawemeyer Award--Religion (2007)
Author of Blood Done Sign My Name

April 19, 2007
Matthew 2:1-23

Timothy B. Tyson, winner of the 2007 Grawemeyer Award in Religion, reflects on how King Herod's strategy for dealing with the threat to his kingship posed by the birth of the messiah parallels the "measured military responses" favored by U.S. leaders today. But, such "rational" strategies are not permissible within a Christian framework because they are not undergirded by love. Through the course of the sermon, Dr. Tyson moves steadily from his starting position of "sympathy for King Herod," to a crescendo of criticism of the present war in Iraq and a stirring call to all Christians to make their voices heard. Listen to the sermon.