Theme

Unitarian Universalism in the Nation’s Capital and Beyond

Theme Speaker

The Reverend Dr. Mark Morrison-Reed, will give a theme talk on the topic “Race: The Circumstantial Influence of UUism on U.S. Policy.”

Writer, teacher, speaker and Unitarian Universalist minister, Morrison-Reed is the author of several acclaimed books that examine the history of race relations within Unitarian Universalism. These include Voices from the Margin, Darkening the Doorways, and Black Pioneers in a White Denomination. Reading Rev. Dr. Morrison-Reed’s books will prepare you to engage his theme talk.

Distinguished Scholar

Collegium’s 2013 Distinguished Scholar Dr. Philip F. Gura will speak on the topics “From Edwards to Emerson, Revisited” and “Self and Society in Antebellum Religion and Literature.” In the first, he will ask attendees to think about the relationship between these two seminal American spiritual thinkers, addressing the reason that he as a UU wished to write about Calvinist Edwards. In the second, he will explore the central debate in the years before the Civil War about “to what Americans owed their allegiance–to the notion of civic virtue or to liberal individualism.”

Gura (Ph.D. Harvard) is a scholar, writer, editor, and educator. He is the William S. Newman Distinguished Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he holds appointments in the Departments of English and Comparative Literature, Religious Studies, and American Studies. He is the author or editor of nine books. Reading his works, Jonathan Edwards: America’s Evangelical(2005), and American Transcendentalism: A History (2007), which was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist in non-fiction, will prepare you to engage his lectures. Some knowledge of Emerson is also important.