Dr. Christopher Ocker, Professor of Church History at San Francisco Theological Seminary (SFTS), will deliver the 2014 Distinguished Faculty Lecture entitled, "Reformations that Matter (and Some that Don’t)."
Does the Reformation matter? Protestant traditionalists, evangelical activists, Catholic conciliarists, and European and American secularists have all claimed ownership. Pundits say: Islam needs one, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews have had their own, and Christianity is cycling into another Reformation right now. Historians, meanwhile, have broadened, qualified, and relativized the historical concept of the Reformation into a fine powder. So, what must an historian of religion or a theologian tell us about a half-millennium ago that helps us understand the riddle of right now? What are the Reformations that matter, and why?
Augustine Thompson, Professor of History at the Dominican School of Philosophy & Theology (DSPT) will be the respondent.
The lecture will be held in the Chapel of the Great Commission, Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Avenue, Berkeley, and will be followed by a reception in the Badé Museum.