This endowed annual lecture was established to honor the Reverend Edward L. Mark’s preaching ministry at Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church from 1964 to 1996.
Reverend Mark’s legacy is one of thoughtful, intellectually rigorous, Bible-centered sermons. In both his sermons and his life he has been animated by prophetic concern for the poor and oppressed.
In keeping with Reverend Mark’s spirit, each lecture features a highly regarded theologian or biblical scholar, whose scholarship is not simply an arid academic exercise, but rather something that can have meaning for active church members and others for whom religious faith is a vital part of their lives.
StephaniePaulsell, 2013
Houghton Professor of the Practice of Ministry Studies,Harvard Divinity School.
“Praying the Song: Recovering the Song of Songs as a Text of Devotion for Christian Practice”
Gary A. Anderson, 2011
Hesburgh Professor of Catholic Theology at the University of Notre Dame.
What Explains the Christian Virtue of Charity Toward the Poor?
November 7, 2011
Professor Richard A. Horsley 2010
Distinguished Professor of Liberal Arts and the Study of Religion, Emeritus, University of Massachusetts Boston
The American Jesus—and the Galilean Jesus
November 10, 2010
Professor Elaine Wainwright 2009
Richard Maclaurin Goodfellow Professor in Theology and Head of the School of Theology, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Parable and Parabler, Habitat and Humanity:
Telling Gospel Stories Anew in the Face of the Ecological Imperative
November 12, 2009
Professor Amy-Jill Levine 2008
E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of New Testament Studies, Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Department of Religious Studies, and Graduate Department of Religion
The Misunderstood Jew: How the Church Gets Both Jesus and Judaism Wrong
November 13, 2008
Professor Ellen Davis 2007
Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School
Reading and Responsibility Toward the Other:
The Bible and Religious Difference
November 5, 2007
Professor Luke Timothy Johnson 2005
Robert W. Woodruff Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University
The Prophetic Church and Human Liberation
November 7, 2005
Professor Paula Fredriksen 2004
William Goodwin Aurello Professor of Scripture at Boston University
The Death of Jesus and the Invention of the Passion
November 17, 2004
Professor E.P. Sanders 2003
Arts and Sciences Professor in the Department of Religion at Duke University
Jesus, Jefferson and Humanism
October 30, 2003
Professor Marcus J. Borg 2002
Hundere Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University
Biblical Images for Christian Life:
"Born Again" and "Kingdom of God"
March 21, 2002
Bishop Krister Stendahl delivered the inaugural lecture
"Why I Love the Bible"
March 12, 2001
