Talk Examines Women, Christian Higher Ed

Lauren Winner, assistant professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School, delivers a lecture, “Beyond the Calm Waters: Some Musings on Women and Christian Higher Education,” on Wednesday, March 9, at 3:30 p.m. in Hieronymus Lounge at Westmont’s Kerrwood Hall. The lecture, sponsored by the Lilly Endowment NetVUE grant, is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (805) 565-6239.

Winner writes and lectures widely on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish-Christian relations. She is an Episcopal priest and vicar of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Louisburg, N.C.

“I’ll reflect on some of the challenges posed to women in Christian higher education and some of the opportunities women have in the landscape of Christian higher education,” says Winner. “We’ll also talk, among other things, about ambition and envy, and also about Thomas Aquinas and, possibly, Prince Charming.”

Winner has appeared on PBS’s Religion & Ethics Newsweekly and has served as a commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She has written for the New York Times Book Review, the Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today, and her essays have been included in several volumes of The Best Christian Writing.

Her books include “Girl Meets God,” “Mudhouse Sabbath,” “A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith,” “Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis” and “Wearing God.” She is currently completing a book called “Characteristic Damage,” which examines the effects of sin and damage on Christian practice.