Goodspeed Lectureship

The Goodspeed Lectureship enables the Religion Department—often in conjunction with other departments and programs—to bring to Denison credentialed scholars related to Religious Studies, to deliver an all-campus convocation lecture. The convocation lecture, of publishable quality, is the central event of the scholar’s visit, but the visit also includes significant classroom participation and other engagement with students. The scholar’s publications are typically integrated into the curriculum of courses offered during that semester. While the principal benefactor was in the field of Biblical studies, the lectureship has enabled the College to invite scholars to lecture at Denison from the field of Religious Studies as broadly conceived.

 

The Goodspeed Lectureship was endowed with funds donated to Denison by the brothers Edgar Johnson Goodspeed (1871-1962) and Charles Ten Broeke Goodspeed (1869-1949), both of whom graduated from Denison in the Class of 1890. The Lectureship is named after Edgar Goodspeed, who was a scholar of Greek and the New Testament, and one of the most important American Biblical scholars of the twentieth century.

 

The brothers were born in Quincy, Illinois, where their father, Thomas Wakefield Goodspeed, was an American Baptist minister. The boys were educated at the preparatory school connected to the old University of Chicago, from which they both graduated in 1886. The University closed soon after their graduation, and so the brothers came to Denison University for their undergraduate education. Edgar majored in Classics, and also studied Biblical Greek. The two were among a graduating class of twelve in 1890, both receiving a B.A. degree. Thereafter Edgar studied Semitic languages (Hebrew and Arabic) at Yale for one year. In 1892, he entered the revived University of Chicago for graduate studies; Goodspeed’s father Thomas played a major role in raising the funds necessary to restart the University. Edgar received a D.B. (Bachelors in Divinity) degree in 1897, and a Ph.D., summa cum laude, in 1898 (studying, among other subjects, Accadian, Ethiopic, Aramaic and Syriac languages). He then joined the New Testament Department of the University of Chicago. He spent his next two years studying abroad in Germany, England, Italy, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine. He taught at the University of Chicago until retirement in 1937, whereupon he and his wife Elfleda retired to Santa Barbara, California. He died there in 1962.

Goodspeed was the first American scholar to collect and publish Greek papyri relating to the New Testament. He came to national attention for his publication in 1923 of The New Testament: An American Translation. This translation combined detailed attention to all the latest scholarship on the Greek text with a concern to render it into contemporary American English. His emphasis on making the Bible accessible to contemporary speakers of American English met with much resistance, but also much acclaim, and over the years his approach has proven to be the dominant trend in Biblical translation into English. The translation was reprinted many times, and was also serialized in a number of daily newspapers around the country. From 1930 he worked on the committee that produced the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, which remains a central Protestant translation until today. During his long career he wrote sixty-four books on his own, collaborated on sixteen additional books, and wrote more than two-hundred articles and essays. Not all of these were scholarly efforts. He published popular articles aimed at a broader public in magazines such as Atlantic Monthly and Look, and also wrote a mystery novel entitled The Curse in the Colophon. He was active in the P.E.N. Clubs, first in Chicago, and then after retirement in Los Angeles.

Charles Ten Broeke Goodspeed also attended Denison University, and received a B.A. in 1890.  He returned to Chicago, where he earned a law degree from the Chicago College of Law in 1893. He co-established his own law firm, Goodspeed and Bates, in 1902. He was active in a number of civic organizations in Chicago until he retired, also to the Los Angeles area, in 1939.

 

The two brothers donated equal amounts to Denison University in their wills, to establish the Denison Lectureship. The first lecture was delivered in 1964 by George F. Kennan, the famous diplomat and political scientist. In the subsequent decades, the Lectureship has brought many distinguished scholars of Religion to speak at Denison.

 

Information on Edgar J. Goodspeed can be found in his 1953 autobiography, As I Remember (New York: Harper & Brothers); and in Edgar Johnson Goodspeed: Articulate Scholar, an intellectual biography written by James I. Cook in 1981 in connection with the centenary of the Society of Biblical Literature. Further information on Goodspeed, and his bequest to Denison of a collection of rare and valuable Bibles, can be found on the Denison Library website

The following is a partial list of Goodspeed Lectures:

• April 16, 2012, William Propp, University of California
• April 2, 2012, Kelly Brown Douglas, Goucher Colleg
• eNovember 15, 2011, John K. Roth, Claremont McKenna College, “Crying Out for Action: The Holocaust, the Dead, and the Responsibility to Protect”
• November 7, 2011, Stephanie Kaza, University of Vermont, “Buddhist Environmentalism”
• October 5, 2011, Patrick S. Cheng, Episcopal Divinity School, “Radical Love: Why Christianity Is a Queer Religion”
• April 13, 2011, Martin Marty, University of Chicago, “Beyond the Codes of Honor”
• April 5, 2011, David Billotti, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “Christian-Jewish Reconciliation”
• March 29, 2011, Ulrich Duchrow, University of Heidelberg, “Why Capitalism is Death-bound and How People Can Opt for Life—A Theological Proposal to Economists” 
• March 4, 2011, M. Zuhdi Jasser, advisor to the U.S. Embassy in the Netherlands, “Moderates and Radicals in Islam: How to Tell the Difference . . . and why it Matters”
• February 8, 2011, Kate Ott, Religious Institute, “In Search of a Relationship:  Queering Faith, Sexuality, and Hooking-up”
• November 11, 2010, David Loy, Xavier University, “Buddhist Ecology:  Reflections on Consumerism and the Environmental Crisis”
• April 28, 2010, John Francis, Planetwalker
• March 29, 2010, Andrea Raynor, hospice chaplain, “Serving God Around 9/11”
• February 25, 2010, Russell Sanders, Indiana University, “Caring for Creation”
• November 12, 2009, Stephanie Mitchem, University of South Carolina, “Praying for Answers:  Race, Culture, Class, and Consumerism”
• November 9, 2009, David Schilling, Interfaith Center, “Activism at the Intersection of Faith and Economics”
• November 5, 2009, James Krehbiel, Ohio Wesleyan University, “Sightlines and Site Lines:  Art and Archaeoastronomy"
• October 14, 2009, Beverly Mitchell, Wesley Theological Seminary, “The Struggle for Human Dignity”
• September 24, 2009, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen”
• April 2, 2009, Ronald Grimes, Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands, “Ritual, Media, and Conflict in the Santa Fe Fiesta”
• March 30, 2009, Abdi Roble and Doug Rutledge, writers and photographers, “The Trails of Somali Muslim Refugees in Africa and America”
• March 5, 2009, Donald K. Swearer, Harvard Divinity School, “Buddhist Economics:  An Oxymoron?”
• March 5, 2009, Eddie Glaude, Princeton University, “Black Studies:  A Moment of Transition”
• November 5, 2008, Melissa Raphael, University of Gloucestershire, “Sexuality, Idolatry and the Hiding of God’s Face:  A Post-Holocaust Perspective on the Representation of Jewish Women in Modern Jewish Art”
• March 27, 2008, Rhodessa Jones and Idrissa Ackamoor, Cultural Odyssey, San Francisco, “Theater for the 21^st Century:  The Arts as a Healing Process”
• October 17, 2007, Stephanie Mitchem, University of South Carolina, “African-Americans and Healing:  Facing Fears, Feeding Dreams”
• September 24, 2007, Kathleen Erndl, Florida State University, “Body, Voice, and Spirit:  Hindu Women, Goddesses, and Possession”
• September 20, 2007, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “God of the Oppressed”
• March 28, 2007, Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee, “The Human Face behind the Global Economy”
• March 26, 2007, Douglas Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University, “The Perennial Relevance of St. Paul:  Paul’s Understanding of Christ and a Time of Radical Pluralism”
• February 28, 2007, Emilie M. Townes, Yale University Divinity School, “Vanishing into Limbo”
• January 24, 2007, Traci West, Drew University, “Who Should Decide that Marriage is Good for You?  Religion, Race, and Welfare Reform Policy
• October 30, 2006, Sir Anthony Kenny, University of Oxford, “Happiness:  In this World or the Next?”
• October 25, 2006, John Haldane, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, “Faith, Reason, and Philosophy”
• October 10, 2006, Kelly Brown Douglas, Goucher College, “The Black Church and the Politics of Justice”
• Tuesday, October 3, 2006, Jan Willis, Wesleyan University, “The Ethics of Interconnectedness”
• September 27, 2006, Carl Ernst, University of North Carolina, “Islam, Mysticism and Globalization”
• September 21, 2006, Gayatri Reddy, University of Illinois, “Sexuality and Its Discontents:  Hijras and the Negotiation of Social Differences in South India”
• March 30, 2006, Ann Mayer, University of Pennsylvania, “Islam as a Framework for Rethinking Women’s Rights:  Evolving Debates on Women’s Rights in the Middle East”
• March 2, 2006, Mathew Forstater, University of Missouri, “From Civil Rights to Economic Security:  The African-American Struggle for Full Employment, 1945-1978”
• February 21, 2006, Cheryl Kirk-Duggan, Shaw Divinity School, “Truth and Consequences:  Violence—As American as Mom, the Flag and Apple Pie”
• January 31, 2006, Terry Tempest Williams, University of Utah, “Circles of Community:  From Castle Valley to Rwanda”
• January 19, 2006, Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Colby College, “Dreaming Beyond the Mountain Top:  Confronting the Continuing Crises of Social Justice”
• October 25, 2005, William O. Beeman, Brown University, “The ‘Great Satan’ vs. the ‘Mad Mullahs’:  Cultural Impediments to U.S.–Iranian Understanding”
• September 22, 2005, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “The Cross and the Lynching Tree”
• September 21, 2005, Jualynne Dodson, Michigan State University, “Sacred Spaces:  Afro-Cuban Religious Traditions Today”
• April 13, 2005, Linda Hess, Stanford University, “Kabir Says, ‘Listen Seekers!’ A Saga of Religious Transmission in India and Beyond”
• April 6, 2005, Adrian McFarlane, Harwick College, “Is Forgiveness Free? Forgiveness, Injunctions, and Exhortations”
• April 5, 2005, Shahzad Bashir, Carleton College, “Shah Isma’il and the Qizilbash:  Corporeality and the Religious Imaginary in Early Safavid Iran”
• March 22, 2005, David B. Edwards, University of Michigan, “Summoning Muslims:  Print, Politics, and Religious Ideology in Afghanistan”
• February 21, 2005, Kelly Brown Douglas, Goucher College, “Life as a Womanist 25 Years After Denison”
• November 9, 2004, Aparna Rao, University of Cologne, Germany, “Fundamentalist Religious Movements from the Perspective of Villagers”
• September 28, 2004, Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee, “Meet the Human Face behind the Global Economy"
• April 20, 2004, Margaret Mills, Ohio State University, “Leadership, Gender and Islam:  Development in Afghanistan”
• April 14, 2004, Mary Daly, Boston College, “Amazon Grace:  Rekindling the Fires of Radical Ecological Feminism”
• April 5, 2004, Mel White, Soulforce, Inc., “Stranger at the Gate:  To Be Gay and Christian in America”
• April 1, 2004, Father Ferman Gonzalez, Bogata, Colombia, “From Conservative Resistance to Social Activism”
• March 29, 2004, Francis X. Clooney, S.J., Boston College, “Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary:  Re-Doing Theology in a Global Context”
• March 26, 2004, Eric Vickland, SRA International, “Salafism:  Islam in the Face of Modernity”
• March 25, 2004, Douglas Oakman, Pacific Lutheran University, “The Radical Jesus: ‘You Cannot Serve God and Mammon’”
• March 23, 2004, Leila Ahmed, Harvard Divinity School, “Women in Islam and America:  Reflections on Where We are Today”
• November 18, 2003, Michael Sells, Haverford College, “Love, War and Islam”
• November 6, 2003, David Solomon, Notre Dame University, “What is Medicine For? Mother Theresa and the Modern Hospital”
• October 29, 2003, Fawaz A. Gerges, Sarah Lawrence College, “America and Political Islam:  Clash of Cultures or Clash of Interests?”
• October 14, 2003, Juan R. I. Cole, University of Michigan, “Contemporary Iraq:  Between Democracy and Theocracy”
• September 25, 2003, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “The Challenge of Race”
• April 17, 2003, William Herzog II, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, “When Worlds Collide:  The Conflict between the Great Tradition and the Little Tradition in the Prophetic Work of the Historical Jesus”
• April 3, 2003, Rachel Fell McDermott, Barnard College, “God as Mother of the Universe:  Studying the Hindu Goddess”
• February 11, 2003, Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University, “Responding to America’s New Religious Diversity”
• March 25, 2002, Brian Davies, Fordham University, “God and Evil”
• October 30, 2001, Haideh Moghissi, Atkinson College, “The Missing Link:  Gender Politics and Reform under Islamic Rule in Iran”
• October 29, 2001, Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee, “Sweatshops, Bangladesh and the Clothes We Wear”
• October 1, 2001, Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University, “Landscapes of the Hearts:  Ecology and Community in Rural North India”
• September 25, 2001, Thomas Coburn, St. Lawrence University, “Liberal Arts in a Global Environment:  Reflections on an Ellipse”
• September 20, 2001, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “The Easy Conscience of America’s Churches”
• April 29, 2001, Daniel E. Gawthrop, Shenandoah University, “Music as a Moral Force:  Marketing Transcendence in Pre-Apocalyptic Society”
• April 18, 2001, Peter E. Hodgson, Oxford University, “Nuclear Energy and the Environment:  A Cluster of Issues”
• March 7, 2001, Henry Rosemont, St. Mary’s College, “Confucian Perspectives on Freedom, Human Rights and Equality”
• January 30, 2001, Charles Kernaghan, National Labor Committee, “Sweatshops, Workers’ Rights, and the Clothes We Wear”
• November 7, 2000, John Haldane, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, “Faith and Culture:  Catholic Intellectuals in a Secular Age”
• October 6, 2000, Victor Hori, McGill University, “Expressing the Unspeakable:  The Zen Koan”
• November 1, 1999, Claudia Stevens, Pianist/Singer/Actor, “An Evening with Madam F”
• September 30, 1999, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “Calling the Oppressor to Account”
• February 15, 1999, Michael Berenbaum, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation, “The Uniqueness and Universality of the Holocaust”
• November 9, 1998, Susan Griffin, Eco-feminist writer and activist, “The Greater Life of the Body:  Feminism, the Environment, and Spirituality”
• April 16, 1998, Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago, “Politics and Forgiveness:  Public and Private Lives”
• March 2, 1998, Janice Love, University of South Carolina, “Controversies among Christians:  Churches in International Affairs”
• February 16, 1998, William Cronon, University of Wisconsin, “Uncommon Ground:  Rethinking the Human Place in Nature”
• October 9, 1997, Carol Delaney, Stanford University, “Abraham on Trial:  A Feminist Perspective”
• September 25, 1997, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “The Vocation of a Theologian
• February 27, 1997, Leonardo A. Villalon, University of Kansas, “Mysticism and Modernity:  Islam and Politics in Contemporary West Africa”
• February 11, 1997, Carolyn Merchant, University of California, Berkeley, “Reinventing Eden:  Women, Nature and Narrative”
• February 10, 1997, Valerie Lee, Ohio State University, “A High and Holy Calling:  Subversive Midwives in Life and Literature”
• October 8, 1996, Diana L. Eck, Harvard University, “America’s New Religious Landscape:  The Frontiers of Pluralism
• March 19, 1996, Bruce Lawrence, Duke University, “Go God Go!  The Use and Abuse of Religions in the 20^th Century”
• February 27, 1996, David B. Burrell, University of Notre Dame, “Meeting Christ in Islam:  Francis of Assisi and Malek El Kamel”
• November 9, 1995, Stephen Lansing, University of Michigan, “The Goddess and the Green Revolution”
• October 10, 1995, Edward Loring, The Open Door, Atlanta, “Entering the World of the Homeless:  Hungry and Angry”
• September 28, 1995, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “Martin and Malcolm and Black Theology”
• September 27, 1995, Kelly Brown Douglas, Howard University,  “A Womanist Loves other Women Sexually and/or Non-sexually: Womanist Theology, the Black Church and Sexuality”
• April 5, 1994, James Nelson, United Theological Seminary, “Sexuality and the Sacred”
• February 22, 1994, Tu Wei-Ming, Harvard University, “Confucian Ethics and the Economic Culture of East Asia”
• September 29, 1993, Carter Heyward, Episcopal Divinity School, “Sex, Spirit and Power:  “A Lesbian Feminist Theologian Speaks Personally and Thinks Critically”
• March 4, 1993, Herman E. Daly, Louisiana State University, “Sustainable Development:  From Religious Insight to Ethical Principle to Economic Policy”
• February 25, 1993, James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary, “Malcolm X:  A Cultural Revolutionary”
• October 6, 1992, Kelly Brown Douglas, Howard University, “The Black Church and the Urban Crisis”
• March 31, 1992, Virginia Mollenkott, Rutgers University, “Eros is a Sexual Urge”February 6, 1992, Rosemary Radford Ruether, [where?], “Eco-feminism:  Symbolic and Social Connections between the Domination of Women and of Nature
• March 5, 1969, Harvey Cox, Harvard Divinity School, “Christ the Harlequin” (Prof. Cox was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree on the occasion)
• 1964, George F. Kennan