Upcoming Lecture
2025 Harold E. Hill Lectures Series with Brian McLaren
November 2025 – more details to come as it gets closer.
“Brian McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. His newest books are Faith After Doubt (January 2021), Do I Stay Christian? (May 2022), and Life After Doom: Wisdom and Courage for a World Falling Apart (2024). His co-authored children’s book Cory and the Seventh Story was released in 2023.” https://brianmclaren.net/
Past Lectures
2024 Harold E. Hill Lecture Series with Brian Kaylor
Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood’s book, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, goes beyond explaining how we now see politicians in the pulpit by explaining how it is our mainline churches played a role, consciously or not, in fusing politics and religion in ways that go beyond our fail influencing our day-to-day lives. The book focuses on congregations in the mainline denominations. We mainliners may find it easy to day, “Christian Nationalism? That’s an evangelical thing – we don’t do that,” but the fact of the matter is that mainliners do engage in Christian Nationalism. As the introduction states, “Addressing the threat of Christian Nationalism requires an honest acknowledgement of all the places it shows up and the historical forces that contributed to its rise.” https://briankaylor.com/
Link to YouTube Video of Brian Kaylor’s lecture “Facing Christian Nationalism”
2019 Harold E. Hill Lectures Series with Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass (Ph.D. Duke University) is an award-winning author and internationally known public speaker and thought leader on issues of spirituality, religion, culture, and politics. She is the author of: Grateful: The Subversive Power of Giving Thanks; Broken We Kneel: Reflections on Faith and Citizenship; Grounded: Finding God in the World, A Spiritual Revolution; Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening; Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith; and more. https://dianabutlerbass.com/
Audio of the lecture “What’s Gratitude Got To Do With It? How Giving Thanks Help Us Through Chaotic Times”:
2018 Harold E. Hill Lecture Series with John Pavlovitz
John Pavlovitz is a pastor, writer, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina. A veteran in the trenches of local church ministry, Pavlovitz is committed to equality, diversity, and justice—both inside and outside faith communities. Prior to speaking at College Hill Presbyterian Church as a guest of the Harold E. Hill Lecture Series, he had recently released his first book A Bigger Table: Building Messy, Authentic, and Hopeful Spiritual Community. The book asks us to consider: How can we extend unconditional welcome and acceptance in a world increasingly marked by bigotry, fear, and exclusion? How can we create spiritual communities that are big enough for everyone? What is the path forward in days that seem more hostile to diversity? https://johnpavlovitz.com/
Audio of the lecture, Part I:
Audio of the lecture, Part II:
2014 Harold E. Hill Lecture Series with Krista Tippett
Krista Tippett, who grew up in Oklahoma, is the Peabody Award-winning host of American Public Media’s “On Being.” On April 7, 2014, Tippett was the inaugural speaker in the Harold E. Hill Lecture Series, held at the University of Tulsa, Great Hall of the Allen Chapman Activity Center. Tippett’s address focused on “Einstein’s God: Conversations About Science and the Human Spirit” which was also the title of a collection of interviews that she published. In 2014, Tippett was awarded the National Humanities Medal by U.S. President Barack Obama. https://onbeing.org/our-story/krista-tippett/