Theologian Celia Deane-Drummond

With climate change looming as a great challenge of this century, theologian Celia Deane-Drummond will call for the development of a collective conscience as a moral response to the phenomenon in a lecture at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 30, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

The annual Zerby Lecture in Contemporary Religious Thought is sponsored by the Office of the Multifaith Chaplain. For more information, please call 207-786-8272.

Deane-Drummond’s talk, A Case for Collective Conscience: The Moral Challenge of Climate Change, will articulate the need for a collective conscience among differing races, faiths and cultures in the face of global challenge. Her talk will also address issues of social responsibility and religious solidarity in relation to collective conscience and climate change.

“Collective fervor surrounding climate change in the Western world was stirred up in the aftermath of email leaks about climate science, known as ‘climategate,’ ” says Deane-Drummond. This fervor seemed to have a measureable impact on the outcome of the international climate-change talks in Copenhagen in 2009.

“I suggest in my talk that collective conscience is a useful tool in helping analyze the dynamics of social responsibility at a collective level,” she says.

Deane-Drummond is professor in theology at the University of Notre Dame. From 2000 to 2011 she held a chair in theology and the biological sciences at the University of Chester, United Kingdom, and was founding director of the Centre for Religion and the Biosciences.

In May 2011 she was elected chair of the European Forum for the Study of Religion and Environment. She was editor of the international journal Ecotheology from 2000 to 2006.

Her books include Christ and Evolution: Wonder and Wisdom (Fortress Press, 2009); Creaturely Theology: On God, Humans and Other Animals, edited with David Clough (SCM Press, 2009); Seeds of Hope: Facing the Challenge of Climate Justice (CAFOD, 2010); and Religion and Ecology in the Public Sphere, edited with Heinrich Bedford Strohm (Continuum, 2011).

Deane-Drummond graduated with a master’s in natural sciences from Cambridge University and a doctorate in plant physiology at Reading and Letcombe Research Station, Oxford University. She earned a second doctorate, in theology, at Manchester University.

The Rayborn Lindley Zerby Lectureship on Contemporary Religious Thought was established with a gift to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ by the Campus Association in April 1965. The series was initiated the following year by the late Samuel Miller, dean of Harvard Divinity School.

The lectureship honors Zerby, a man who devoted many years to the growth of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College as a teacher and as dean of the faculty.

As an instructor at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, he was promoted to assistant professor of religion in 1932, associate professor in 1935 and full professor in 1942. He chaired the Department of Religion and Philosophy from 1930 to 1945.

Zerby served as director of the Chapel from 1945 until his retirement, in 1962, and was appointed dean of the faculty in 1958.

Paul Knitter, a leading theologian of religious pluralism, offers the lecture Without Buddha, I Could Not Be a Christian, at 7 p.m. Monday, March 7, in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College, 70 Campus Ave.

The annual Zerby Lecture in Contemporary Religious Thought is sponsored by the Office of the Multifaith Chaplain at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. For more information, please call 207-786-8273.

Professor of theology, world religions and culture at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Knitter has written several works for Orbis Books, including Introducing Theologies of Religions (2002), Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility (1996) and One Earth Many Religions: Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility (1995).

In these works, Knitter explores interreligious dialogue and ways that the world’s diverse religious communities can cooperate in promoting human and ecological well-being.

He holds a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and a doctorate from the University of Marburg, Germany. He serves on the Board of the International Interreligious Peace Council.

Stephen Prothero, professor of religion at Boston University, will give a presentation titled Religious Literacy: What Americans Don’t Know About the World’s Religions, and Why Their Ignorance Is Imperiling Our Politics at 8 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 6, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave., at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College. The public is invited to attend the 2005-06 Zerby Lecture in Contemporary Religious Thought, sponsored by the chaplain’s office, free of charge.

Chair of the department of religion and director of the graduate division of religious and theological studies at Boston University, Prothero is a historian of American religion who specializes in Asian religious traditions in the United States.

Prothero’s first book, The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Indiana University Press, 1966), was awarded the Best First Book in the History of Religions for 1966 by the American Academy of Religion. He has published articles in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion and American Religion and Culture.

Prothero is co-editor, with Thomas Tweed, of  Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press, 1998), and the author of Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America (University of California Press, 2001). His most recent book is American Jesus: How the Son of God Became a National Icon (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003).

The annual Zerby lecture honors the late Rayborn L. Zerby of Lewiston, professor emeritus of religion and dean of the faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Each year, the program brings to campus leading commentators on contemporary religious thought. Previous Zerby lecturers have included Holocaust chronicler Elie Wiesel and Harvard University theologian Peter J. Gomes, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ class of 1965.

For more information, call the chaplain’s office at 207-786-8272.

Judith Plaskow, author of the landmark text Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective (HarperCollins, 1991) and professor of religious studies at Manhattan College, will give a presentation titled Asking the Right Questions: The Development of Jewish Women’s Studies at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5 (snow date: Thursday, Feb., 12), in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Avenue. The public is invited to attend the 2003-04 Zerby Lecture in Contemporary and Religious Thought, sponsored by the chaplain’s office, free of charge.

Like many other areas of women’s studies, Jewish women’s studies emerged out of a concrete sense of women’s exclusion from both Jewish scholarship and Jewish public religious life, says Plaskow. Early feminist work tried to move women from margin to center within the Jewish community. A new generation of feminists has been critical of the notion of studying “women and Judaism,” arguing that such scholarship simply reproduces the marginalization of women. Plaskow’s talk considers the right questions to ask about Judaism, women and gender. She will examine how feminist scholarship relates to the transformation of Judaism as a religious tradition.

Called “one of those exceptional books which is born a classic” by Hadassah Magazine, Standing Again at Sinai brought 20 years of feminist theological reflection to bear on the transformation of Judaism. In the book’s introduction, Plaskow wrote: ”For me, then, feminism is not about attaining equal rights for women in religious or social structures that remain unchanged, but about the thorough ongoing transformation of religion and society…The project of creating a feminist Judaism fits into a larger project of creating a world in which all women, and all people, have both the basic resources they need to survive, and the opportunity to name and shape the structures of meaning that gave substance to their lives.”

Co-editor of such widely respected anthologies as Womanspirit Rising: A Feminist Reader in Religion (Harper San Francisco, 1978) and Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality (HarperCollins, 1989), Plaskow is researching a progressive, constructive sexual ethics and theology written from a Jewish feminist perspective. Her forthcoming book, tentatively titled Just Sex: Judaism, Sexuality and American Culture, will place issues of interpersonal ethics in the borader context of the contradictions surrounding sexuality in Jewish tradition and U.S. society.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Plaskow received her bachelor’s degree from Clark University and her master’s and doctoral degrees from Yale University.  She has taught at a number of colleges and universities, including New York University (1974-75), Wichita State University (1976-79) and Manhattan College (since 1979).  Plaskow is past president of the American Academy of Religion, the disciplinary guide in the field of religion.

The annual Zerby lecture honors the late Rayborn L. Zerby of Lewiston, professor emeritus of religion and dean of the faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½.

Each year, the program brings to campus leading commentators on contemporary religious thought. Previous Zerby lecturers have included Holocaust chronicler Elie Wiesel Harvard University theologian Peter J. Gomes, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ class of 1965.

For more information, call the chaplain’s office at 207-786-8272.

The Georgia Harkness Professor at Garrett Theological Seminary and a member of the graduate faculty of religion at Northwestern University since 1976, Reuther also began the first year of a half-time appointment to the faculty of the Graduate Theological Union at the University of California, Berkeley, in September 2000.

Reuther’s scholarly focus includes history, ecology and culture. Her scholarship and reputation as a gifted teacher have received as much acclaim. A Roman Catholic known for her progressive and inclusive theology, Reuther has lectured throughout the world at more than 900 universities and theological or church conventions during her academic career that spans more than three decades.

Reuther serves as a regular columnist for the independent weekly National Catholic Reporter and as a contributing editor to Conscience: The Journal of Catholics for a Free Choice, Women of Power, Sojourners, The Egg: Ecojustice Quarterly and Cross Current: Journal of Religion and Intellectual Life.

In addition to the hundreds of articles she has published in encyclopedias, anthologies and scholarly as well as popular journals, Reuther has written or edited more than 30 books, including Gaia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing, Women Healing Earth: Third World Women in Feminism, Religion and Ecology, In Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of American Women’s Religious Writings, Women and Redemption: A Theological History, Reimagining Families: Work, Home and Gender in Christian History and the groundbreaking classic of feminist systematic theology, Sexism and God-Talk: Toward a Feminist Theology.

In addition to pursuing her research and teaching, Reuther serves on the boards of Catholics for a Free Choice, the Grail Institute for Feminism and Religion, the International Network on Religion and Animals, the Chicago Center for Peace Studies and the Centre Oecumenique des Liaisons Internationales. In recognition of her scholarly accomplishments and contributions, she has received numerous honors and awards, including being named U.S. Catholic of the Year in 1983 by U.S. Catholic Magazine, the service award of the progressive Catholic organization Call to Action. Reuther received a doctorate in ancient history from the Claremont Graduate School.

The annual lecture honors the late Rayborn L. Zerby of Lewiston, professor emeritus of religion and dean of the faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Each year, the program brings to campus leading commentators on contemporary religious thought. Previous Zerby lecturers have included Holocaust chronicler Elie Wiesel and the Rev. Peter Gomes ’65, minister of Memorial Church at Harvard University.

Throughout her academic career Hassan, a native of Lahore, Pakistan, has challenged the conservative Muslim belief that women are inferior to men and repressive laws such as Pakistan’s Hadud Ordinance, which restricts testimony in rape cases to that of “four male believers.”

Hassan’s career as a feminist theologian is rooted in her 10-year study of the Koran, in which she found a gap between what the holy text outlined for women and what was actually happening to women in Muslim society.

“Development of a feminist theology in the context of Islam is essential if the continuing assault upon the rights of Muslim women is to be reversed,” Hassan said. “Women in general, and Muslim women in particular, need to know the point at which they became theologically derailed to reclaim their proper place in the world.”

Hassan believes that three foundational myths of the Book of Genesis have played a pivotal role in legitimizing discrimination toward women in the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions. According to Hassan, the myths declare that Eve was created from Adam’s rib, thus making her secondary; that Eve was the primary agent of expulsion from the Garden of Eden, making all women as daughters of Eve worthy of suspicion; and that Eve was not only created from Adam, but also for Adam, making her instrumental while Adam is fundamental to God. Though none of these myths are supported by the Koran, Hassan argues most male Muslims believe them to be true and use them to support unjust laws.

In 1994, Hassan spoke at the United Nations International Conference on Population and Development in Cairo, representing the Religious Consultation on Population, Reproductive Health and Ethics. She also has spoken on women’s rights at the Non-Governmental Organizations Forum of the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women in China, which drew more than 30,000 women in 1995.

Hassan received her bachelor’s and doctorate from St. Mary’s College, University of Durham, England. She has taught at the University of Louisville since 1976 and has been an adjunct professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary since 1980.

The annual lecture honors the late Rayborn L. Zerby of Lewiston, professor emeritus of religion and dean of the faculty at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Each year, the program brings to campus leading commentators on contemporary religious thought. Previous Zerby lecturers have included Holocaust chronicler Elie Wiesel and the Rev. Peter Gomes ’65, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumnus and minister of Memorial Church at Harvard University.

The talk by theologian, teacher and author Vincent Harding, Martin Luther King and the Future of America, will be presented in the Edmund S. Muskie Archives. The public is invited to attend at no charge.

Harding’s books include his best-known work, There is a River, and his most recent, Martin Luther King: The Inconvenient Hero. Focusing on the end of King’s life, the essays in the book reflect on how Americans might take the civil rights leader’s final years as a challenge and a resource for the nation’s future.

Harding was senior academic adviser for the acclaimed public-television series Eyes on the Prize. Currently he is professor of religion and social transformation at the Iliff School of Theology at the University of Denver.

Previously he was chair of the history and sociology department at Spelman College in Atlanta. He served from 1969 to 1974 as the first director of the Atlanta-based Institute of the Black World.

A native of New York City, he earned his master’s degree and doctorate at the University of Chicago.

The Zerby Lecture is a memorial to Rayborn L. Zerby of Lewiston, who contributed to the growth of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ through years of service as professor of religion and dean of the faculty before retiring in 1962. He died in 1987 at the age of 95.

Each year, the program brings leading commentators on contemporary religious thought to campus. Previous Zerby lecturers have included Holocaust chronicler Elie Wiesel and the Rev. Peter Gomes, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ alumnus and minister of Memorial Church at Harvard University.