The series was first given in 1951 by H. Orton Wiley, professor of theology and distinguished former president of the university. The lecture series, which has continued annually in his honor, focuses on areas of relevance to the Christian ministry from a Wesleyan perspective in areas of philosophy, theology, church history, or biblical studies.
The series is sponsored by the Graduate Faculty of the School of Theology and Christian Ministry primarily for the enrichment of our University's graduate and undergraduate students and is free of charge. The public is always welcome, but we do ask that you let us know if you plan to attend so that we might better accomodate you. We recommend planning to arrive early as campus parking is very limited.
ANNOUNCING:
H. Orton Wiley Lectures in Theology 2010
April 12-13, 2010
"A Ravishing and Restful Sight: Seeing America with Mother Julian"
featuring guest lecturer:
Dr. Amy Laura Hall
Associate Professor of Theological Ethics
Duke University
Amy Laura Hall is the author of Kierkegaard and the Treachery of Love, Conceiving Parenthood: The Protestant Spirit of Biotechnological Reproduction, and numerous scholarly articles in theological and biomedical ethics. She is currently writing one book on Julian of Norwich and hospitality and another on muscular Christianity and social Darwinism. At Duke University, Professor Hall served on the Steering Committee of the Genome Ethics, Law, and Policy Center and as a faculty member for the FOCUS program of the Institute on Genome Sciences and Policy. She has served on the Duke Medical Center’s Institutional Review Board and as an Ethics Consultant to the V.A. Center in Durham. A member of the Bioethics Task Force of the United Methodist Church, Hall has been asked to present her work on reproductive ethics to the World Council of Churches, as well as to academic audiences across the U.S. and Europe. While her primary research concentrates on bioethics at the beginning of life, she also serves on the Faculty Council of the Institute on Care at the End of Life. An ordained elder in the Southwest Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, she has served in both suburban and urban parishes.
A Synopsis of the Series :
Julian of Norwich wrote a theology of love for fourteenth century Christians torn by fearful divisions. During a time of migration, rebellion, poverty, and plague, English Christians had ample evidence of danger. Individual bodies and the social body were to be regulated carefully. It was a period in history when it was quite reasonable to separate yourself and your family from your neighbor and his family. Yet Mother Julian conveys in her little book a vision of safety brought through the uniting of God’s children, rather than through separation. Through God’s kindness in Jesus, people on one side become kin to people on the other side. We will consider her a useful voice to interpret anxieties today about families, neighborhoods, congregations, and schools. For instance, she encourages readers to risk crossing over into schools where those people’s children attend. Her vision of wellness invites Christians to worry less about scarcity, and about other children’s germs, and to live into a liturgical abundance whereby we are genuinely kinned (Julian’s word) with other Christians. We will consider her vision alongside instructions for order and safety today, from Lysol to border control to birth control, hoping for new visions of kinship and safety. Counter to a trend toward discriminating taste, Julian welcomes her contemporary hearers to receive the hospitable familiarity of the Lord's Supper.
Lecture 1: “Who Are We? Bodies and the Social Body”
Date: Monday April 12, 2010
Time: 11:00am-12:15pm
Place: Crill Performance Hall
Lecture 2: “Germs, Safety, and the Blood of Christ”
Date: Monday April 12, 2010
Time: 1:30-2:45pm
Place: Crill Performance Hall
*Special Event: TBA —Monday April 12, 2010
*Special Event: TBA — Monday April 12, 2010
Lecture 3: “Immigration and Holy Miscegenation”
Date: Tuesday April 13, 2010
Time: 9:30-10:45am
Place: Crill Performance Hall
Lecture 4: “The Reckless Repetition of the Liturgy”
Date: Tuesday April 13, 2010
Time: 1:30-2:45pm
Place: Crill Performance Hall
*Special Event: A Conversation on Gender, Art and Theology:
Sponsored by the Women's Studies Center of PLNU.
Date: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Time: 3:00 - 4:30 p.m.
Place: Colt Forum
Updates will be posted to this site as they become available. Please direct any questions to: MAreligion@pointloma.edu, or: (619) 849-2234.
PAST LECTURE SERIES AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD:
We began podcasting the H. Orton Wiley Lectures Series in 2007.
2009
Welcomed Into God's Life: Re-thinking Hospitality in a Post-Christian World
March 18-20, 2009
Guest speaker: Dr. Amy Oden (more details)
(Podcast) | 
(mp3)
2008
American Evangelicalism: Past, Present and Future
February 21-26, 2008
Guest Speakers: Dr. George M. Marsden & Dr. Stan Ingersol (more details)
(Podcast) | (mp3)
2007
The Dead Sea Scrolls and Earliest Christianity
February 5-7, 2007
Guest speaker: Dr. James Vanderkam (more details)
(Podcast) | (mp3)