Prolific author Dr. Mark A. Noll will deliver the 27th Annual C. S. Lewis Lecture “Race and Religion in American Politics: A History in Desperate Need of Theological Evaluation” on Monday, March 23, at 7:30 p.m. in the Benwood Auditorium of the UTC Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science Building, at the corner of Vine and Palmetto Streets. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Noll has also agreed to meet with students from the University Honors program on the day of his lecture, from 3-4 p.m., in the Flag Room of the Guerry Center. The session is open to the public.
Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, a position he accepted in 2006 after 27 years with the History and Theology Departments at Wheaton College, Illinois. Noll holds a Bachelor of Arts (English) from of Wheaton College, a Master of Arts (Theology) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and a Doctorate of Philosophy (History of Christianity) from Vanderbilt University. Time Magazine, in 2005, recognized Noll as one of the top twenty-five influential evangelicals in America. Among his impressive list of publications include: God and Race in American Politics: A Short History (Princeton University Press, 2008); Religion and American Politics: From the Colonial Period to the 1980s (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed., 2007); The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (University of North Carolina Press, 2006); America’s God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Oxford University Press, 2002); The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity (Eerdmans, 2001); The Work We Have to Do: A History of Protestants in America (Oxford University Press, 2002); and, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada (Eerdmans, 1992).
Noll’s visit has been supported by the Collegiate Christian Fellowship, the Chattanooga Community Foundation and the Speakers and Special Events Committee of UTC. Established in 1983 by Charles Hummel of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the C.S. Lewis Lectureship is designed to help perpetuate the Christian and literary legacy of Oxford scholar C. S. Lewis.
Among the UTC faculty and staff who have served on the planning committee for the 27th Annual C.S. Lewis Lecture are: Dr. Bryan Hampton, UC Foundation Assistant Professor of English; Dr. Greg Heath, Guerry Professor and head of the Department of Health and Human Performance; Dr. Immaculate Kizza, Professor of English; Dr. Joseph Kizza, Professor of Computer Science; Dr. Doug Kutz, Dr. Ben Gross, Professors of Chemistry; Dr. Bill McClay, SunTrust Chair of Excellence in Humanities; Dr. Dennis Plaisted, Professor of Philosophy; Bill Prince of the Lupton Library; Daniel H. Webb, Director of Personnel Services; and Dr. Michelle White, UC Foundation Associate Professor of History.
