Candler’s Black Church Studies program will welcome Vincent Lloyd, professor of theology and religious studies and director for the Center for Political Theology at Villanova University, as distinguished guest speaker for the 2022 Howard Thurman Lecture.
Entitled “Understanding Abuse: Lessons from the Enslaved,” the lecture will take place in person on Wednesday, October 19 from 11:00 a.m.–1:00 p.m. in Room 252 of Candler’s Rita Anne Rollins Building. The event is free, with registration required by October 18.
In the lecture, Lloyd will argue that the distinctive theological significance of abuse in religious contexts can be shown through narratives of enslaved women. He will focus particularly on the narrative of Harriet Jacobs, who, Lloyd contends, offers a paradigm for understanding the harm of slavery that differs from the familiar paradigm advanced by Frederick Douglass, and is much needed for responding to abuse today.
Lloyd holds a BA in religion from Princeton University and a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. The editor or author of twelve books, his research explores the connections between religion, race, and politics, using the tools of critical theory. His books include Black Dignity: The Struggle Against Domination (Yale, 2022), the co-authored Break Every Yoke: Religion, Justice, and the Abolition of Prisons (Oxford, 2019), and the co-edited Anti-Blackness and Christian Ethics (Orbis, 2017). He is currently writing a book about abuse, from the personal to the political.
Lloyd co-edited the journal Political Theology from 2012-2022 and is now a member of the journal’s editorial collective. He edited the American Academy of Religion’s book series, Reflection and Theory in the Study of Religion (Oxford University Press), and currently co-edits Routledge’s Transforming Political Theologies series. He serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards, including the advisory board of the Institute for Christian Socialism.
Prior to coming to Villanova, Lloyd held faculty appointments at Syracuse University and Georgia State University. He has been a visiting fellow at the University of Notre Dame, the University of Virginia, Durham University, and Emory University’s James Weldon Johnson Institute.
Beyond his academic writing, Lloyd has published in The Guardian, Religion Dispatches, The Atlanta Journal Constitution, the LA Review of Books, the Immanent Frame, Church Life Journal, and Black Agenda Report.