2023 Theology & Mission Brady Lecture: Sarah Coakley
This year’s Brady Lecture features Dr. Sarah Coakley presenting on Sin, Racism and Desire: A New Exploration.
Rev. Dr. Sarah Coakley will be joined by Northern faculty and panelist as we explore new contours of theology for the church on mission. The lectures will take place at the historic New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago. General public is invited to attend. Registration is required for all in-person attendees.
Schedule
- June 8th | 7:00pm-8:30pm: Lecture 1: Racism and Sin: Reassessing their Relation
- June 9th | 8:00am-9:00am: Breakfast with Dr. Coakley (LIMITED TO 50)
- June 9th | 10:00am-Noon: Lecture 2: ’The Ground of Union’: Contemplation, Desire, and Our Response to the ‘Interior Landscape’ of Racism
In Person & Livestream Registration
In Person Registration Livestream Registration
Location
Location4301 W. Washington Blvd, Chicago IL 60624
Parking is available on Kildare Ave, across the street (east) of the church.
The New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church is the congregation of Northern professor Dr. Marshall Hatch. New Mount Pilgrim boasts stained glass windows that depicts the struggle, resilience, and divine deliverance of the African American church. Their work extends beyond the sanctuary.
About Dr. Sarah Coakley
Sarah Coakley is an English Anglican priest, systematic theologian and philosopher of religion. She is an honorary professor at University of St Andrews, after she stepped down as Norris–Hulse Professor of Divinity (2007–2018) at the University of Cambridge. She is also a visiting professorial fellow at the Australian Catholic University, both in Melbourne and Rome. Previously she has also taught at Oxford and Princeton Universities.
Born in 1951 in England, Coakley earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at New Hall College, which is the historic women-only school at Cambridge University. It has recently been renamed Murray Edwards College. She also earned her doctorate in theology at the school, and later a master’s in theology from Harvard Divinity School.
In addition to serving Anglican and Episcopal congregations in England and the United States as an ordained priest, Coakley began her teaching as a lecturer and senior lecturer in religious studies at Lancaster University, England. She taught as a tutorial fellow in theology at Oriel College, Oxford, and then spent from 1993 to 2007 at Harvard Divinity School, where she was Mallinckrodt Professor of Divinity. She also taught a year at Princeton as Eli Lilly Visiting Professor of Religion. In 2007 Coakley took up her appointment as Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at Cambridge University, where she is also a fellow of Murray Edwards College, her alma mater.
As a priest, scholar, teacher, and mother of two daughters, Coakley has described her interests as wide-ranging. They include the nature of human rationality, the passions, the idea of the “spiritual senses,” and the nature of religious truth claims. She did her doctoral thesis on the Christology of Ernst Troeltsch, a German theologian and sociologist of church history, and she has also had a particular interest in the patristic period of the first few hundred years of the early Christian tradition. She has exposited on gender theory and feminist philosophy. Coakley is currently working on a four-volume systematic theology. The first volume was published in 2013 by Cambridge University Press as God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity.’
She has written numerous journal articles, studies for the Anglican Church, and an array of book chapters for anthologies.
Panelists
Rev. Dr. Marshall Elijah Hatch, Sr. has been the Senior Pastor of the New Mount Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church of West Garfield since 1993. Born March 11, 1958 in Chicago , Illinois , his spiritual development began in the Shiloh Baptist Church under the pastorate of his father, the late Reverend Elijah J. Hatch. In 1985 he was ordained and appointed as the Pastor of Commonwealth Baptist Church of North Lawndale. In the Summer of 1998, he was awarded the Charles E. Merrill Fellowship of Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge , Massachusetts . This highly coveted fellowship in residence was shared with three other distinguished scholars in the practice of ministry in the Spring of 1999. In August of 2000, he was appointed Adjunct Professor on the faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary. In 2010, he was appointed Adjunct Professor of Northern Seminary and in 2020 he moved into the Associate Professor of Ministry position.
Dr. Beth Felker Jones, who earned her doctorate at Duke University, teaches theology at the seminary. She is the author of books including Faithful: A Theology of Sex, Practicing Christian Doctrine: An Introduction to Thinking and Living Theologically, God the Spirit: Introducing Pneumatology in Wesleyan and Ecumenical Perspective, and The Marks of His Wounds: Resurrection Doctrine and Gender Politics.
Dr. Gabriel J. Catanus is the founding and lead pastor of Garden City Covenant Church, a congregation serving immigrant families and young professionals. He is also the Director of the Filipino American Ministry Initiative at Fuller Theological Seminary, where he teaches Christian ethics. He has been a lead pastor for twelve years and he received his PhD from Loyola University in Chicago where he lives with his wife and two children.
Rev. Michelle Dodson is the Associate Pastor of New Community Covenant Church- Bronzeville as well as a Teaching Fellow at North Park Theological Seminary. Michelle has been dedicated to the work of racial reconciliation for over two decades, helping to plant two intentionally multiracial churches in Chicago, Il: New Community Covenant Church-Logan Square and New Community Covenant Church-Bronzeville. Michelle received her Master of Divinity from Garrett Evangelical- Theological Seminary, her Master of Arts in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago and is currently a Doctoral Candidate at Loyola University-Chicago. Her research centers on the role of Multiracial Churches in Society. Michelle is the co-editor of Challenging the Status Quo: Diversity, Democracy and Equality in the 21st Century. Last, but far from least, she and her husband, Karlos, are the proud parents of two amazing daughters.
Dr. David Fitch is B. R. Lindner Chair of Evangelical Theology at Northern Seminary Chicago, IL. He is also the founding pastor of Life on the Vine Christian Community, a missional church in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago. He coaches a network of church plants in the C&MA linked to Life on the Vine. He writes on the issues the local church must face in Mission including cultural engagement, leadership and theology and has lectured and presented on these topics at many seminaries, graduate schools, denominational gatherings, and conferences.
About the Brady Lectures
The Brady Lectures are named after William W. Brady of Elgin, Illinois. William Brady served on the board of Northern Seminary for over 25 years and was elected to several key positions. Brady was active in the community and received numerous awarded from Elgin civic and charitable organizations. He was a member of the faculty at Northwestern University School of Law. In addition to his distinguished law career and community service, he was a member and leader at First Baptist Church in Elgin, Illinois.
Previous notable speakers have included Willie Jennings, Stanley Hauerwas, Reggie Williams, Soong-Chan Rah, Fleming Rutledge, Michael Gorman and Stanley Grenz.
