LIBRARY

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.

The 2025 Shurden Lectures will be Oct. 21-23 in St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., focusing on sanctuary and migrant justice. Scroll down for details, as well as information on previous events.

Designed to enhance the ministry and programs of BJC, the Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures are held at Mercer University in Georgia every three years and at another seminary, college or university in the intermediate years.

 

2025 Shurden Lectures

Criminalizing Mercy: Sanctuary and Government Repression of Migrant Justice

The Walter B. and Kay W. Shurden Lectures are headed to St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minn., on Oct. 21-23, 2025, 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).

Save the date! Event and registration deatils will be released soon — return to this page for the latest!

Lecture Archives

Shurden Lecture speaker Eboo Patel

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 reponses are also available as a podcast

Shurden Lecture speaker Eboo Patel

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

LocationUniversity 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

Shurden Lecture speaker Eboo Patel

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