LCU to host James D. Strauss Worldview Lectureship Oct. 5 & 6

[September 21, 2010]  The 2010 James D. Strauss Worldview Lectureship -- honoring the retired professor of theology and philosophy -- will be presented Oct. 5 and 6 at Lincoln Christian University. The guest speaker will be the Rev. Dr. David P. Gushee, Christian scholar, teacher, activist and churchman who currently serves as Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University.

The lectureship will provide two lectures on Oct. 5: at 9:30 a.m. in the chapel and at 7 p.m. in Restoration Hall. The day will also include a book-signing event at 10:30 a.m. in the bookstore and a question-and-answer lunch session at the LCU Warehouse Coffeeshop. The final lecture will be delivered Oct. 6 at 9:30 a.m. in Restoration Hall.

Before being called to serve at McAfee School of Theology and with undergraduates at Mercer University, Gushee led a Christian ethics program at Union University. At Union, he was named Faculty of the Year in May 2000 for his deep commitment to teaching and mentoring his students. He continues such teaching and mentoring at Mercer and is committed to ongoing relationships with his graduates.

Gushee is the author of “The Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust” (1994), which is recognized as an authoritative treatment of the rescuer behavior and motivations. In recognition of his work on the Holocaust, he was named to the Committee on Church Relations and the Holocaust of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2008.

Gushee has written or co-written, edited or co-edited 12 books and has published hundreds of scholarly and popular articles, book chapters, and reviews related to his field in ethics. His work has primarily focused in the areas of social ethics, Christian engagement in relation to public forums and Christian higher education. His newest book is “Religious Faith, Torture, and Our National Soul,” co-edited with his students Jill and Drew Zimmer and released in March 2010 by Mercer Press. He is currently working on a book that explores the theological and ethical conviction that human life is sacred.

In recent years he has engaged as a scholar on a number of controversial issues such as torture and has been provided opportunities to address issues related to U.S. foreign policy since 9/11. He was the principal drafter of the 2006 Evangelical Climate Initiative and remains deeply involved in efforts to address climate change and other environmental issues.

He was recently elected to the board of directors of the Society of Christian Ethics.

He holds degrees from the College of William and Mary, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and earned his doctorate in Christian ethics in 1993 from Union Theological Seminary in New York.

He and his wife, Jeanie, live in Atlanta, Ga., and have two college-age children.

Lincoln Christian University is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; the Commission on Accreditation of the Association for Biblical Higher Education; and the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada. The university's three schools -- the Seminary, the School of Undergraduate Studies and the School of Adult & Graduate Studies -- have a combined enrollment of about 1,000 students, 300 of which reside on campus in Lincoln. Learn more about LCU, the academic programs, alumni events and church ministries at www.lincolnchristian.edu.

[Text from file received from Lincoln Christian University]