NASHVILLE, Tenn. – It’s time to rethink common assumptions about the nature of God which support the subjugation of women and non-whites, believes a leading feminist theologian set to lecture at Vanderbilt University.
Laurel C. Schneider, associate professor of theology, ethics and culture at Chicago Theological Seminary, will deliver the 32nd Antoinette Brown Lecture at 7 p.m. on March 16 in Benton Chapel on the Vanderbilt campus at 2201 West End Ave.
The lecture is free and open to the public. Schneider’s topic will be “When Hell Freezes Over: Feminism, Ontology, and Multiplicity.”
“Feminist theologians aware of the historic vulnerability of the ‘male and lordly’ interpretations of God to patriarchalism and white supremacy must devote ourselves to new ways of conceiving of ‘divine being’ toward a more complete and inclusive understanding,” Schneider said.
Schneider earned a doctorate from Vanderbilt’s Graduate Department of Religion in 1997 as a Harold Stirling Vanderbilt Graduate Scholar. She is the author of Re-Imaging the Divine: Confronting the Backlash Against Feminist Theology and the upcoming Revelations: Divine Multiplicity in a World of Difference.
The Antoinette Brown Lecture Series is a student-run event that brings a distinguished female theologian and/or church leader to Vanderbilt each year. The series began in 1974 with a gift to Vanderbilt Divinity School by Sylvia Sanders Kelly of Atlanta, a 1954 Vanderbilt graduate. It is named for Antoinette Brown Blackwell, an abolitionist and feminist who became the first woman ordained to the Christian ministry in the United States in 1853.
Previous speakers in the series include Renita Weems, Stephanie Paulsell and Sallie McFague.
Limited free parking for the lecture will be available in the Wesley Parking Garage on 21st Avenue South.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu