The Carmichael-Walling Lectures will be held Thursdsay, Nov. 10, in Room 114 of the Biblical Studies Building at Abilene Christian University.

The lecture series is sponsored by the university’s Center for the Study of Ancient Religious Texts. The lectures are free and open to the public.

Dr. Harold W. Attridge of Yale Divinity School will give the 2022 Lectures on the theme, “The Fourth Gospel: A Mystagogical Drama.” The first lecture, “A Philosophical Evangelist? Theological Epistemology in the Fourth Gospel,” begins at 4 p.m. Thursday. The Fourth Gospel can perhaps be best described as a “mystagogical drama,” inviting readers to encounter the Word of God enshrined in human words and in the process to deepen their faith in that Word. As part of that process the gospel engages in a set of questions that intrigued contemporary thinkers. These questions involve exploration of how sense perception and human words work to make God known. The evangelist, aware of philosophical discussion, provides a challenging response focused on the Word incarnate. 

The second lecture, “A Feminist Evangelist? Women in the Fourth Gospel,” begins at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Gospel according to John prominently features several women who interact with Jesus in significant ways: an unnamed Samaritan; the sisters of Bethany, Martha and Mary; Mary Magdalene; and the mother of Jesus. The dramatic scenes in which these women appear deliver important messages about discipleship and about the role of women in the Johannine community of believers.

Dr. Harold W. Attridge

Dr. Harold W. Attridge is the Sterling Professor of Divinity at Yale Divinity School. He has made scholarly contributions to New Testament exegesis and to the study of Hellenistic Judaism and the history of the early Church. His publications include Essays on John and Hebrews, Hebrews: A Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, The Interpretation of Biblical History in the Antiquitates Judaicae of Flavius Josephus, Nag Hammadi Codex I: The Jung Codex, and The Acts of Thomas, as well as numerous book chapters and articles in scholarly journals.

He has been active in the Society of Biblical Literature and served as president of the society in 2001 and in the Catholic Biblical Association, of which he was president in 2011-12. He was elected to be a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015.