Hood Theological Seminary will present its annual Ruben L. Speaks Memorial Lecture Series on Thursday and Friday on the campus, 1810 Lutheran Synod Drive.
This year’s featured presenter is the distinguished author, theologian and professor, Dr. J. Kameron Carter.
The two-day event will feature two lectures and is open to the public, free of charge.
This year’s Lecture Series is titled “Postracial Blues.”
“Hood is very fortunate and honored to have Dr. Carter on our campus as our featured speaker for the Speaks Lecture series,” said Dr. Vergel Lattimore, president-elect of the seminary. “He is an acclaimed author and theologian, as well as a highly respected member of the faculty of Duke Divinity School.
“The entire Hood Seminary community is pleased to invite the public to join us for his talks.”
Carter’s opening lecture, “White House Blues: Dispatches on Race and Religion in the Age of Obama” will be presented at 10:10 a.m. Thursday.
The second lecture, “Jailhouse Blues: 50 Years After the ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’” will take place at 7 p.m. Friday.
Professor Carter is associate professor of Theology and Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2001.
A 1990 graduate of Temple University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, he received a master’s in theology from Dallas Theological Seminary and a doctorate in religious studies from the University of Virginia.
He also studied at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
Carter’s much acclaimed book, “Race: A Theological Account,” was cited in The Christian Century as one of the “essential theology books of the past 25 years.”
In a more recent Christian Century article, Carter is cited as a leading figure in what some are describing as “the new black theology.”
He has two forthcoming books including “Postracial Blues: Essays on Religion and the 21st Century Color Line” and “The Color of Sovereignty: A Fugitive History of Political Theology.”
The Ruben L. Speaks Lecture Series is named in honor of the late Bishop Ruben Lee Speaks, a gifted African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church leader acknowledged on numerous occasions for his leadership and creative engagement in ministry.
Speaks received the Chancellor’s Award from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and the Distinguished Citizen Award from the Brooklyn Advisory Committee of the New York Urban League.