Under the auspices of the Helen and Wm. Gordon Ross Lectureship on Religions, Spirituality, and Culture, the Faculty of the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality annually offers lectures on and presentations about religious and spiritual topics of interest.  The Faculty invites to campus both well-known scholars who study varieties of religious or spiritual phenomena and influential religious or spiritual leaders to deliver lectures and presentations on important historical and contemporary topics, issues, questions, and problems in this vast region of human experience, history, and culture.

When one of the namesakes for this lectureship, Wm. Gordon Ross, retired from Berea College in 1968, colleagues, friends, and admirers of Helen and Wm. Gordon Ross established an endowed lectureship in appreciation of the Rosses and their many years of faithful service to Berea College and its students.  The generous donors stipulated that the College use the income from this endowment, in the names of Helen and Wm. Gordon Ross, to bring outstanding philosophers, religious thinkers, and scholars of religions and spiritualities to Berea College.  Both the Department for Studies of Religions and Spirituality and the Department of Philosophy jointly administer the income from this endowment: the endowment supports lectureships for both academic departments.

Through the years, Ross Lecturers have included a wide variety of interesting scholars and religious leaders.  As one example, Rev. Thomas Jay Oord, Ph.D., an ordained elder in the Church of the Nazarene and an independent theologian, delivered the following lecture: “Ten Reasons that the Science-and-Religion Dialogue Matters.”¹ Another well-received Ross Lecturer, Robert P. Jones, Ph.D., C.E.O. of the Public Religion Research Institute, delivered a presentation during a College Convocation on findings that he had published in his most recent book at the time: “The End of White Christian America.”²

Endnotes

¹ Thomas Jay Oord, “Ten Reasons that the Science-and-Religion Dialogue Matters,” Helen and Wm. Gordon Ross Lectureship in Religions, Spirituality, and Culture (Berea, Kentucky: Berea College, Yang Discover Center, Room 455, MAC Building, 14 November 2019, Thursday, 6:00–8:00 p.m.).

² Robert P. Jones, “The End of White Christian America,” Helen and Wm. Gordon Ross Lectureship in Religions, Spirituality, and Culture, Convocation (Berea, Kentucky: Berea College, Phelps Stokes Chapel, 26 October 2017, Thursday, 3:00–4:00 p.m.).