The Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings of the Yale University Divinity School faculty will present “To Build a Holy Place” on Friday, Sept. 20, at 3:30 p.m. as the Green Lecture on Faith, Race and Community at Hope College in the Concert Hall of the Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
Jennings teaches in the areas of Christian thought, race theory, decolonial and environmental studies. He is the author of “The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race” published by Yale University Press and now a standard text read in colleges, seminaries and universities. He is also the recipient of the 2015 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his groundbreaking work on race and Christianity,
His recently-authored commentary on the Book of Acts won the Reference Book of the Year Award from The Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of “After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging,” which was the inaugural book in the book series Theological Education between the Times and won the 2020 book of the year award from Publisher’s Weekly; was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category; and in 2023 won the Lilly Fellows Program Book Award. He is currently working on a two-volume work on the doctrine of creation, tentatively titled, “Reframing the World.”
Jennings has been selected to give several prestigious lectures, including the Bampton Lectures at Oxford University, the Hulsean Lectures at Cambridge University, the Cole Lecture at Vanderbilt University, the Parks-King Lecture at Yale University, the Ferguson Lecture at Manchester University, and the Hughes-Cheong Lecture at the University of Melbourne. In addition to being a frequent lecturer at colleges, universities and seminaries, he is a regular workshop leader at conferences.
He is also a consultant for the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion, and for the Association of Theological Schools. He and his wife, the Reverend Joanne L. Browne Jennings, served as associate ministers at the Mount Level Baptist Church in Durham, North Carolina, and for many years they served together as interim pastors for several Presbyterian and Baptist churches in North Carolina.
Jennings was born and raised in Grand Rapids. He received his B.A. in religion and theological studies from Calvin University (1984); his Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California; and his Ph.D. from Duke University.
First held in 2019, the Green Lecture on Faith, Race and Community is sponsored by the college’s American Ethnic Studies program, Hope College Diversity Lecture Series for Phelps Scholars and Provost’s Office. The annual lecture series is named in honor of Dr. Chuck Green, who retired in December 2021 as professor emeritus of psychology after teaching at the college since 1983. He was founding director of the Phelps Scholars Program, which he led from 1998 through 2013, and emphasized teaching and advocacy around issues of diversity and inclusion across his nearly four decades at Hope.
To inquire about accessibility or if you need accommodations to fully participate in the event, please email accommodations@hope.edu. Updates related to events are posted when available at hope.edu/calendar in the individual listings.
The Jack H. Miller Center for Musical Arts is located at 221 Columbia Ave., between Ninth and 10th streets.