Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures
The annual Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State travel to campuses across the country, bringing a speaker to engage with the community and inspire students to stand up for religious freedom for all people.
Designed to enhance the ministry and programs of BJC, the Lectures are held at Mercer University in Georgia every three years and at another seminary, college or university in the intermediate years. in October 2026, we’ll be on the campus of Wake Forest University to hear from Maya Wiley.
2026 Shurden Lectures
Faith and Freedom at 250: Religious Liberty, Justice, and the Unfinished Work of Democracy
Join us October 21-22 on the campus of Wake Forest University for the 2026 Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures on Religious Liberty and Separation of Church and State.
We’ll hear from Maya Wiley, a nationally respected civil rights attorney and activist who has dedicated her life to the fights for justice, equality, and fairness. She serves as president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
More details and registration links are coming soon — save the date!
History
History of the Shurden Lectures
In 2004, Dr. Walter B. Shurden and Dr. Kay W. Shurden of Macon, Georgia, made a gift to BJC to establish an annual lectureship on the issues of religious liberty and the separation of church and state.
The lecturers may be academicians, politicians, ministers, church historians, ethicists or activists. Above all, the Shurden Lecturer is someone who can inspire and call others to an ardent commitment to religious freedom and the separation of church and state.
Who are Walter and Kay Shurden?
A nationally noted church historian, Dr. Walter B. Shurden is the founding executive director of the Center for Baptist Studies and a minister at large for Mercer University. Shurden served at Mercer for almost 25 years as Callaway Professor of Christianity in the Roberts Department of Christianity in the College of Liberal Arts. During 18 of those years, he served as Chair of the Roberts Department of Christianity. Dr. Kay W. Shurden retired after serving for 17 years as a professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Mercer University School of Medicine. An admired teacher, conference leader, mentor and church leader, she is an author and was a marriage and family therapist in Middle Georgia.
Lecture Archives
Lecture Archives
2025, Oct. 21-23
The 2025 event was in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., featuring Dr. Sergio M. González.
A historian of U.S. immigration, labor and religion, Dr. González teaches at Marquette University and is a co-founder and former organizer for the Dane Sanctuary Coalition. He is the author of Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press) and Mexicans in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press).
For those interested in this topic, Dr. González recommends these resources:
- Brad Christensen, Alexia Salvatierra, Roberto Chao Romero, and Nancy Wang Yuen, God’s Resistance
- Leo Guardado, Church as Sanctuary
- Gina Perez, Sanctuary People
- Jonathan Blizter, Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
Lecture Archives
20th Annual Shurden Lectures: Nov. 13-14, 2024
Lecturer: Dr. John Compton, a professor of political science and chair of the political science department at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
Location: Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta
Click here to read a recap of the lectures.
Watch the lectures online:
Lecture 1: Democratic Values in a Secular Age
Lecture 2: Secularization and the Rise of Political Extremism
Lecture 3: Secularization and the Fracturing of the American Left, featuring responses from the Rev. Dr. David Gushee and the Rev. Dr. Angela Parker.
Lecture 3 and the responses are also available as a podcast
Lecture Archives
2024, April 2
Symposium Panelists: Rev. Dr. Joseph Evans, J. Alfred Smith, Sr. Endowed Professor and Chair of Theology in the Public Square and Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Restorative Justice Center at the Berkeley School of Theology; and Rev. Dr. Christopher The, director of student research and initiative management for the Association of Theological Schools
Moderator: Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard, assistant director of community and public engagement with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture
Location: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif.
Recap from Baptist News Global: MAGA equals authoritarianism, professor says in Shurden Lectures
Podcast: Race, religion and citizenship
Lecture Archives
2023, May 31
Lecturer: Dr. Catherine Brekus, the Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School
Location: Old North Church in Boston
The myth of American ‘chosenness’ (Article in BJC magazine)
Watch the presentation on YouTube
Listen to the lecture as a podcast
Listen to the panel discussion as a podcast
Lecture Archives
2025, Oct. 21-23
The 2025 event was in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., featuring Dr. Sergio M. González.
A historian of U.S. immigration, labor and religion, Dr. González teaches at Marquette University and is a co-founder and former organizer for the Dane Sanctuary Coalition. He is the author of Strangers No Longer: Latino Belonging and Faith in Twentieth-Century Wisconsin (University of Illinois Press) and Mexicans in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press).
For those interested in this topic, Dr. González recommends these resources:
- Brad Christensen, Alexia Salvatierra, Roberto Chao Romero, and Nancy Wang Yuen, God’s Resistance
- Leo Guardado, Church as Sanctuary
- Gina Perez, Sanctuary People
- Jonathan Blizter, Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here
Lecture Archives
20th Annual Shurden Lectures: Nov. 13-14, 2024
Lecturer: Dr. John Compton, a professor of political science and chair of the political science department at Chapman University in Orange, Calif.
Location: Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, and Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology in Atlanta
Click here to read a recap of the lectures.
Watch the lectures online:
Lecture 1: Democratic Values in a Secular Age
Lecture 2: Secularization and the Rise of Political Extremism
Lecture 3: Secularization and the Fracturing of the American Left, featuring responses from the Rev. Dr. David Gushee and the Rev. Dr. Angela Parker.
Lecture 3 and the responses are also available as a podcast
Lecture Archives
2024, April 2
Symposium Panelists: Rev. Dr. Joseph Evans, J. Alfred Smith, Sr. Endowed Professor and Chair of Theology in the Public Square and Director of the Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Restorative Justice Center at the Berkeley School of Theology; and Rev. Dr. Christopher The, director of student research and initiative management for the Association of Theological Schools
Moderator: Rev. Dr. Najuma Smith-Pollard, assistant director of community and public engagement with the USC Center for Religion and Civic Culture
Location: University of Southern California in Los Angeles, Calif.
Recap from Baptist News Global: MAGA equals authoritarianism, professor says in Shurden Lectures
Podcast: Race, religion and citizenship
Lecture Archives
2023, May 31
Lecturer: Dr. Catherine Brekus, the Charles Warren Professor of the History of Religion in America at Harvard Divinity School
Location: Old North Church in Boston
The myth of American ‘chosenness’ (Article in BJC magazine)
Watch the presentation on YouTube
Listen to the lecture as a podcast
Listen to the panel discussion as a podcast
