Harry Vaughan Smith Distinguished Visiting Professors of Religion

2024 Distinguished Visiting Professor

Najeeba Syeed

Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Christian and Muslim Resources for Restorative Justice

• The End of Punishment: A Holistic Approach to Cultures of Peace
• Fragile Democracies: Peacebuilding and Polarization
• Am I in Your Future?: Transitional Justice and the Role of Spiritual Communities

About the visiting professorship

Dr. and Mrs. Harry Vaughan Smith made a liberal gift to Mercer University in 1990 to establish a distinguished visiting professorship and lecture series in the Christianity Department. The gift bears witness to the life-long commitment the late Harry Vaughan Smith had to Mercer University that began when he enrolled as a freshman in 1920.

A 1924 graduate of Mercer, Harry Vaughan Smith served as pastor of several prominent churches in Georgia before becoming Alumni Secretary and Assistant to the President at Mercer in 1946, a post he held until 1955. From 1955 until 1970 he distinguished himself as Executive-Director of the Georgia Baptist Foundation. In all his years of service, Dr. Smith was a faithful worker on behalf of all Georgia Baptist causes, but always he maintained a special interest in Mercer University and the cause of Christian higher education.

Past Harry Vaughan Smith Distinguished Visiting Professors

2023: Rev. Dr. Michelle Voss Roberts

Multireligious

• Dialogue
• Solidarity
• Transformation

2022: Dr. R. Kirby Godsey

Romancing the Unknown

• The Fabric of the Unknown
• The Myth of God
• Amazing Grace

2020: Peter Phan

Christian Theology in Migration

• God the Primordial Migrant
• Jesus the Paradigmatic Migrant
• The Holy Spirit, the Power of Migration, in the Church as a Community of Migrants

2019: Stephanie Paulsell

Lost in the Mystery of God: Spiritual Practices

• Lost in the Mystery of God
• The Soul’s Journey
• On Pilgrimage

2018: Catherine Keller

Political Theology of the Earth

• The Political:  Sovereign Exception or Collective Inception
• The Earth: Climate of Closure, Matter of Disclosure
• The Theology: Kairos of Endless Entanglement

2017: Brad R. Braxton

The Beloved Community in a Pluralistic World

• Lifting the Veil: The Apostle Paul and Racial Reconciliation
• A Blueprint for the Beloved Community: Vocation, Values, and Voice
• Street Corner Religion: Public Theology for a Pluralistic World

2016: Charles Marsh

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: New Perspectives of His Life, Thought and Promise

• “I Heard the Gospel Preached in the Negro Churches of America”: Bonhoeffer’s Spiritual Awakening
• Theological Storm Troopers on the March: Bonhoeffer’s Protest Against the Nazis’ Twisted Cross
• “Are We Still of Any Use?”: Bonhoeffer’s Final Questions and the Christian Witness in the 21st Century

2015: Amy-Jill Levine

Hearing the Parables Through Jewish Ears

• Dangers on the Road to Jericho: How the Good Samaritan Goes Wrong
• Finding the Lost: Where Prodigal Readers Go Astray
• Assessing Our Values: What Contributions Pearls, Yeast, Pharisees, and Tax Collectors Make

2014: Carol A. Newsom

A Thousand Years of Feminist Biblical Interpretation

• The Quest for Dignity and Autonomy: Medieval and Renaissance Women Interpreters
• The Bible and the Right to Preach: Women and the Word in Protestant Christianity
• Radical Outsiders and Ambivalent Insiders: Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s Woman’s Bible

2013: Miroslav Volf

Faith and Globalization

• Faiths in a Globalized World
• Religious Exclusivism and Political Pluralism
• Globalization and Reconciliation

2012: Diana Butler Bass

Christianity After Religion

• Millennial Disappointment: The Great Religious Recession
• The Longing for Experience: Being Spiritual and Religious
• Patterns and Prospects of Awakening

2011: Walter B. Shurden

Thin-Slicing the Life of Faith

• The Flight of the Dove: Giving In to Being Loved
• The Ascent of the Mountain: Giving Up to the Demands of Love
• The Descent Into the Valley: Giving Back Because of Love

2010: Pui Lan Kwok

Christianity in the 21st Century

• Postcolonialism and World Christianity
• The Bible and Sexuality: Does the Church Have Anything Good to Say About Sex?
• Obama, American Empire, and Prophetic Christianity

2009: Marcus Borg

Rethinking the Big Questions: God, Jesus, and the Christian Life

• Thinking about God Again
• Thinking about Jesus Again
• Thinking about the Christian Life Again

2008: Tony Campolo

A Sociological Deconstruction of American Christianity

• Durkheim and Marx Considered and Critiqued
• Being Christian in a Post-Modern Society
• Becoming Red Letter Christians

2007: Renita J. Weems

Prophets, Preachers, and Finding Your Purpose: Lessons from the Book of Jeremiah

• Jeremiah 1:1-10: Your Purpose in Life Is to Figure Out Your Purpose in Life
• Jeremiah 7: Politics, Prayer, and Prophets in Times of National Crises
• Jeremiah 9:17-21: Weeping, Wailing, and Recovering Women’s Voices

2006: Bill J. Leonard

Signs of the Times: Contemporary Religion in Historical Perspective

• Spirituality in America: Catholics, Evangelicals, Buddhists and Serpent Handlers
• The Church: Joel Osteen, Mega-Churches, and the Non-Denominationalizing of America
• Drinking the Golden Calf and Other Strange Bible Stories: Revisiting the Ancient Text

2005: William E. Hull

Best-Selling Christianity: Jesus Christ as Superstar

• The Da Vinci Code: Dan Brown on Women in the Life of Jesus
• Beyond Belief:  Dan Brown on Jesus Outside the New Testament
• The Passion of the Christ: Mel Gibson on the Death of Jesus

2004: Katie Geneva Cannon

Traversals and Reversals in Contemporary Christian Ethics

• Untying Ethical Tongues: Social Teachings in Black Sacred Rhetoric
• Unshackling Ethical Truths: A Womanist Critique of the Transatlantic Slave Trade
• Unearthing Ethical Treasurers: The Intrusive Markers of Social Class

2003: Walter Wink

Jesus and the Spiral of Violence

• The Myth of Redemptive Violence
• Jesus’ Answer to Violence
• Nonviolence for the Violent

2002: James Forbes

The Spiritual Renewal of the Nation

• The Case for Prophetic Patriotism
• The Recruitment of Human Race Activists
• Spiritual Courage for Justice, Peace, and Compassion

2001: Luke Timothy Johnson

Lessons from the Past: Patristic Interpretation of the New Testament

• Listening to Voices Strange Yet Familiar: The Interpretation of the Bible Before the Reformation
• Scripture and the Freedom of the Mind: Origen of Alexandria
• Scripture and the Constraints of Charity: Augustine of Hippo

2000: Martin Marty

American Religion at the Turn of the Century

• The American Past as a Foreign Country Religiously
• The Familiar Country That Is the American Present: Today’s Faiths
• The Nation on the Horizon of the Future: Religion Tomorrow

1999: Barbara Brown Taylor

The Luminous Web: Addressing the Gap Between Science and Religion

• Origins: The Evolution of Praise
• Community: The Myth of Sovereignty
• Awe: The Limits of Knowledge

1998: Paul Duke

The Poetic and the Worship of God

• The Poetry of Awe
• The Poetry of Lament
• The Poetry of Vocation

1997: James Dunn

A Faculty for Freedom

• Freedom’s Roots: Presuppositions
• Freedom’s Tracks: Reports
• Freedom’s Future: Challenge

1996: Fred Craddock

Jesus and the Life of Prayer

• Jesus as a Person of Prayer
• Jesus as a Teacher of Prayer
• Jesus as Leader of a Community of Prayer

1995: Ralph Wood

Flannery O’Connor and the Southern Race Question

• The Place of Blackness in “The Artificial Nigger”
• The Racial Legacy of Her Letters
• Black and White Reconciliation in “Judgement Day”

1994: Elizabeth Achtemeier

Making Sense of the Scriptures

• The Basic Theme
• The Theme Worked Out
• Fulfillment and Future

1993: Walter Brueggemann

A Counter-Life in a Counter-World

• Remembering Against Amnesia
• Hoping Against Despair
• Covenanting Against Commodity

1992: Walter Harrelson

The Old Testament as Literature

• The Literature of the Old Testament
• The Old Testament – as Literature
• How the Christian Claims the Old Testament as Scripture