Emilie M. Townes, the Dean of Vanderbilt University Divinity School, will present on the necessity of peace and justice as Christian values on Oct. 10.
The event was previously scheduled for November of last year, but was abandoned due to travel problems. The rescheduling of the event was announced by DePauw University on Oct. 4.
The presentation, which is a part of the Mendenhall Lectures, will be given in Gobin Memorial United Methodist Church at 7:30 p.m..
Townes background, while extensive, mainly focuses on postmodernism and womanist theology. Womanist Theology is a discipline that critically looks at religion and its practices through the lens of African-American women.
She is the author of four books on religion including, “Womanist Ethics and the Cultural Production of Evil.” In 2008, Townes became the first African-American woman to be elected president of the American Academy of Religion.
Dr. Candida Moss visited DePauw in March 2016 as a part of the Mendenhall series and gave a lecture titled, “Heavenly Bodies: Disability, Infertility, and Bodily Values in Early Christianity.”
The Mendenhall Lectures are endowed by Reverend Doctor Marmaduke H. Mendenhall, a reverend in the Methodist Episcopal Church. The series brings speakers to DePauw to lecture about academic issues that relate to Christianity.
The event is free and open to the public.