At the beginning of the spring semester, the new Gershom Lecture series on Jewish-Christian relations officially kicks off with three lectures: Jan. 20 at 4:00 p.m., Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m., and Jan. 21 at 7:30 p.m. in Phillips Auditorium.
The three lectures, given by Walter S. Kaiser, are entitled “When Believing Jews and Believing Gentiles Were One in Messiah,” “When Supersessionism and Replacement Theology Drew the Lines,” and “When the Christian Church Needs Israel and Israel Needs the Church.”
Kaiser is an Old Testament scholar and was the president of the Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary from 1997-2006.
“The Lectures are the Inaugural Lectures of the Gershom Lecture Series, the purpose of the latter to explore Jewish-Christian relations biblically, historically and sociologically,” Dean of Humanities Tom Burke said.
“We’ve been eager in the department to do more justice to the ‘Judeo’ in our mission statement,” Professor of Religion Don Westblade said in a previous interview. “We’re aware that Judaica is kind of a weakness in the department, so we’re really happy to be able to bolster that end of things.”
Funded by a gift from Messianic Rabbi G. Robert Chenoweth, a founding member of the Messianic Jewish Rabbinical Council and a friend of Hillsdale College, the lecture series had a pre-inaugural lecture last month to introduce the concept to campus. In addition to the Gershom Lecture series, there is potential for some short, seminar courses on the same topic – Jewish-Christian relations – in the future.
–Kelsey Drapkin
