Annual Lecture Series - Divinity School

Campbell University Divinity School Lecture Series

It’s important to Campbell Divinity School that ministers have resources and opportunities available to them throughout the year that enrich them academically, spiritually, and in their ministries. The annual lecture series brings scholars from around the country and world to deliver lectures on a wide variety of topics that are related to evangelism, biblical studies, and preaching.

The L.B. and Mabel Reavis Professorship and Scholarship Program

September 26, 2023

Lecture Times: 11:00 am & 3:00 pm

Dr. Rebecca DeYoung (Ph.D. University of Notre Dame) has enjoyed teaching ethics and the history of ancient and medieval philosophy at Calvin College for over 20 years. Her research focuses on the seven deadly sins, and virtue ethics, as well as Thomas Aquinas’s work on the virtues. Her books include Glittering Vices (Brazos, 2^nd edition 2020), Vainglory (Eerdmans), and a co-authored volume entitled Aquinas’s Ethics (University of Notre Dame Press). Recent essays about various vices and virtues—hope, despair, sloth, courage, magnanimity, wrath, and vainglory—appear in Virtues and Their Vices (Oxford), Being Good (Eerdmans), and Cambridge Critical Guide to Aquinas’s De Malo (Cambridge), and the journals Res Philosophica, ACPQ, the Thomist, and Faith and Philosophy. Awards for her work include the Book and Essay Prize from the Character Project and the C.S. Lewis prize for Glittering Vices. She speaks widely, including opportunities to teach in prison. She and her husband Scot live in Grand Rapids, near the beautiful Lake Michigan shoreline. They have four children ages 15-22.

E.J. and Amaretta Prevatte Biblical Studies Lecture Series

November 7, 2023

11:00 am: John’s Dramatic Transformation of the Synoptics

3:00 pm: Who Was the Beloved Disciple? John for Readers of the Synoptics

Mark Goodacre is the Frances Hill Fox Professor of Religious Studies at Duke University, North Carolina, USA. He earned his MA, M.Phil and DPhil at the University of Oxford. His research interests include the Gospels, the Apocryphal New Testament, and the Historical Jesus. Goodacre is the author of four books including The Case Against Q: Studies in Markan Priority and the Synoptic Problem (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002) and Thomas and the Gospels: The Case for Thomas’s Familiarity with the Synoptics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2012). He is well known for creating web resources on New Testament and Christian origins, including his podcast, the NT Pod. Goodacre has acted as consultant for several TV and radio programs including The Passion (BBC / HBO, 2008) and Finding Jesus (CNN, 2015-17). Goodacre is currently working on a book on John’s knowledge of the Synoptic Gospels.

The James C. Cammack Institute of Preaching Lectures

March 28, 2023

10:40 am – 11:30 am: Chapel Sermon, Butler Chapel
“Ain’t Gonna Study War No More”
Joshua 22:10-34

2:00 – 3:00 pm: Afternoon Lecture, Butler Chapel
“Exalting Jesus in Joshua: An Overview”‘

Rev. Dr. Robert Smith, Jr.

Robert Smith Jr. serves as professor of Christian preaching and holds the Charles T. Carter Baptist Chair of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School. Previously he served as the Carl E. Bates Associate Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Smith is the 2017 E. K. Bailey Expository Preaching Conference Living Legend. A popular teacher and preacher, he received Southern’s 1996 Findley B. Edge Award for Teaching Excellence. An ordained Baptist minister, he served as pastor of the New Mission Missionary Baptist Church in Cincinnati, OH for twenty years. He earned his Ph.D. while serving as a pastor.

He is a contributing editor for a study of Christian ministry in the African American church, Preparing for Christian Ministry, and is co-editor of A Mighty Long Journey. Additionally, he has served as an editor of Our Sufficiency Is of God: Essays on Preaching in Honor of Gardner C. Taylor (Mercer University Press, Macon Georgia: 2010) and Worship, Tradition, and Engagement: Essays in Honor of Timothy George (Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2018). He has written the book, Doctrine That Dances: Bringing Doctrinal Preaching and Teaching to Life (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville: 2008), which was selected as the winner of the 2008 Preaching Book of the Year Award by Preaching magazine and the 2009 Preaching Book of the Year Award by Christianity Today’s preaching.com. In 2010, Preaching magazine named Doctrine That Dances one of the 25 most influential books in preaching for the last 25 years. He also has written, The Oasis of God: From Mourning to Morning—Biblical Insights from Psalms 42 and 43, and has a forthcoming book called, Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Joshua (B&H Publishing Group, Nashville).

Smith has spoken at more than 135 universities, colleges, and seminaries in the United States, Great Britain, the Middle East, Africa, Australia, New Zealand and the Caribbean. He has taught congregations in several countries including Greece, Turkey, Rome, the Holy Land and Switzerland. Smith brought the closing message of the 22nd Baptist World Congress/Baptist World Alliance, which was scheduled to be held in 2020 in Rio de Janeiro and transformed into a fully virtual event held on July 7-10, 2021, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. His research interests include the place of passion in preaching, the literary history of African American preaching, Christological preaching and theologies of preaching. Smith has contributed essays and articles to various books, magazines and commentaries. At Beeson, Smith teaches Christian preaching and other electives in homiletics. He received Beeson Divinity School’s “Teacher of the Year Award” in 2005.

He and his wife, Wanda Taylor-Smith, Ph.D., are the parents of four adult children (one in heaven).

In appreciation of Dr. James Cammack’s love and legacy of preaching, his son, Chris Cammack, established the James C. Cammack Institute of Preaching Lectures in 2011.

Lecture Information

These events are offered at no charge and will include a ministry focus, a biblical focus, an academic focus, and a preaching focus. The lectures will be held in the Robert and Anna Butler Chapel. Follow Divinity School event signs for parking.

Mark your calendars now! Bring another minister with you and join us for any or all of these spiritual growth opportunities. These speakers will encourage you, stretch you, and inspire you. Campbell University provides a variety of venues for any meals you want to purchase.

We are glad to provide these growth and renewal opportunities for you.

Lodging

Please call numbers listed below and mention the Ministers Continuing Education Program at Campbell University Divinity School for reduced rates.

COMFORT INN, FUQUAY-VARINA
7616 Purfoy Rd. (27526)
919-557-9000

QUALITY INN, FUQUAY-VARINA
511 N. Judd Parkway NE (27526)
919-557-2009

HAMPTON INN, DUNN
100 Jesse Tart Circle (28334)
910-892-4333

HOLIDAY INN EXPRESS, DUNN
900 East Pearsall Street (28334)
910-892-4400

MARRIOTT FAIRFIELD INN AND SUITES, DUNN
513 Springs Branch Road
Dunn, NC 28334
(910) 891-4064