Kelsey Candler School of Theology welcomes David H. Kelsey as the spring 2017 distinguished visiting professor in the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Chair on the Life and Teachings of Jesus and Their Impact on Culture. Kelsey is the Luther A. Weigle Professor Emeritus of Theology at Yale Divinity School, where he taught from 1965 to 2005.

As holder of the McDonald Chair, Kelsey will give two lectures during the semester, the first on Wednesday, February 1 and the second on Wednesday, March 29. The lectures are free and open to the public, but registration is required. A boxed lunch will be provided for all who register by the deadlines. Registration links and deadlines can be found in the descriptions below.

In both lectures, Kelsey will address the question of 20th-century German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, “Who is Christ for us today?”

Wednesday, February 1: “Who Is Christ for Us Today? A Human Being Just Like Us But Raised from the Dead?”

11:00 a.m.—12:45 p.m., Room 252, Rita Anne Rollins Building

This lecture focuses on the Gospels’ narratives as a description of who Christ is as a human being anointed for a ministry proclaiming the imminence of the inbreaking of God’s eschatological rule—and becomes, in his resurrection from the dead, the beginning of that inbreaking. Kelsey will address what difference this makes for the nature of hope today. Register here by January 25 at 5:00 p.m.

Wednesday, March 29: “Who Is Christ for Us Today? God Crucified?”

11:00 a.m.—12:45 p.m., Room 252, Rita Anne Rollins Building

This lecture focuses on the Gospels’ narratives as a description of who Christ is as one in whom God is uniquely one of us—in the midst of the consequences of our estrangement from God, one another, and ourselves—to the point of undergoing crucifixion. Kelsey will explore what difference this makes for the notion of “being saved.”  Register here by March 22 at 5:00 p.m.

Born in Egypt to Presbyterian missionaries, Kelsey received his BA in philosophy from Haverford College, his BD from Yale Divinity School, and his PhD in theology from Yale Graduate School. He taught in the department of religion at Dartmouth College from 1961 to 1965, and served on the faculty of Yale Divinity School and Yale Graduate School from 1965 until his retirement in 2005. Kelsey has authored six books, including his seminal two-volume work Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology (Westminster John Knox, 2009), which explores humanity’s relationship to God.

In addition to his two public lectures, Kelsey will also teach a spring semester course in systematic theology on “What Theological Difference Does the ‘Historical Jesus’ Make?”

About the McDonald Chair

The Alonzo L. McDonald Family Chair on the Life and Teachings of Jesus and Their Impact on Culture is supported by gifts from the McDonald Agape Foundation, chaired by Alonzo L. McDonald, a longtime trustee of Emory University. The McDonald Agape Foundation “supports lectures and other public presentations that deal creatively and imaginatively with the person and teachings of Jesus as they shape and form culture.”

Recipients are given a distinguished visiting professorship, in which they speak and teach in the focused area of Jesus’s effect on culture and conversely, culture’s shaping of the figure of Jesus.

Past McDonald chair lecturers include Judge John T. Noonan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit; composer Alice Parker; art historian Herbert Kessler; historian and documentary filmmaker Randall Balmer; author James Carroll; Episcopal priest and bestselling author Barbara Brown Taylor; Pulitzer-Prize winning author and historian Garry Wills; and Jesuit priest and film professor Lloyd Baugh, among others.

Candler School of Theology is located on the campus of Emory University, at 1531 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322.