After a successful showing in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this year, TheoEd Talks returns to Atlanta with an event at Center Stage on Sunday, September 18, at 5:00 p.m. EDT. A virtual viewing option is also available. Sponsored by The Candler Foundry at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology and First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta, this round of talks will feature speakers Jim Wallis, Robert Wright, Kristin Du Mez, and Gary Mason, as well as the inaugural winner of TheoEd’s Graduate Prize in Public Theology, Jennifer Carlier.
An ecumenical speaker series where leaders in the church and the academy share “the talk of their lives” in 20 minutes or less, TheoEd Talks aims to spark conversations that change the way people think about God, religion, and the power of faith to change lives.
General admission is $15 for in-person attendance and $10 for virtual attendance. Student admission is free. Register for in-person, virtual, or student tickets via the TheoEd website. For information about large-group discounts or hosting a virtual audience, email TheoEd@emory.edu.
Meet the speakers:
Professor of the practice at the McCourt School of Public Policy and founder and director of the Center for Faith and Justice at Georgetown University, Jim Wallis is a globally respected writer and speaker, public theologian, and justice advocate. He is the founder of Sojourners magazine and a New York Times bestselling author with recent titles including America’s Original Sin, God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It, and Christ in Crisis: Why We Need to Reclaim Jesus. He is also the host of the Soul of the Nation podcast. He regularly speaks at national and international colleges, universities, seminaries, churches, and faith-based conferences and conventions.
The Right Rev. Robert Christopher Wright is the first African American bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta. Prior to being elected bishop in 2012, he served as rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta. He holds a master of divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary and has been awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary, School of Theology at Sewanee: The University of the South, and General Theological Seminary. Wright regularly teaches short intensives at Candler School of Theology and serves as chair of the board for General Theological Seminary and on the boards of Habitat for Humanity International and Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School. He has been named among the 100 most influential Georgians by Georgia Trend magazine and the 500 most powerful leaders in Atlanta by Atlanta magazine. His podcast, For People, has listeners in over 4,000 cities.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and professor of history and gender studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame, and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS, and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation.
Gary Mason is a Methodist minister and holds a PhD from the School of Psychology at the University of Ulster. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in divinity from Florida Southern College for his role in peace building in Ireland. He completed his theological studies at Queens University and holds a bachelor’s degree in business studies from the University of Ulster. He is a senior research fellow at the Kennedy Institute for Conflict Intervention at Maynooth University, an adjunct professor at Candler School of Theology, and a faculty advisor to the Negotiations Strategies Institute, a Harvard University program for leaders in the Israeli-Palestinian context. He has lectured in political, religious, and academic forums throughout Europe, South Africa, the Middle East, and the USA, seeking to engage, mentor, and share lessons from the Irish peace process.
Jennifer Carlier won TheoEd’s inaugural Graduate Prize in Public Theology (2022). She is a Louisville Institute postdoctoral fellow at Candler School of Theology, where she teaches ethics and theology. Her work focuses on the encounter between lived experience and theology and seeks to retrieve theologies and practices that are liberative for underrepresented communities, especially those struggling with addiction and mental health issues. Her research interests include feminist and queer theologies, the intersection of theology and mental health, and metaphorical theology. She is an active member of Kirkwood United Church of Christ, where she is a youth mentor and an advocate for reducing the stigma around mental health and addiction.
Past TheoEd Talks speakers include Miroslav Volf, Otis Moss III, Chanequa Walker Barnes, Doug Shipman, Wil Gafney, Hillary McBride, Jonathan Merritt, and Austin Channing Brown, among others. Watch recordings of these and many more previous TheoEd Talks events on the TheoEd website.