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TheoEd Talks to bring big ideas about God, religion and faith to the fore

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Candler School of Theology at Emory will host speakers Ted Smith, Austin Channing Brown, Jonathan Merritt and Mihee Kim-Kort at a TheoEd Talks event on Sunday, Sept. 22.

As part of its new initiative in public theological education, Candler School of Theology at Emory University is partnering with First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta to sponsor TheoEd Talks on Sunday, Sept. 22, featuring Austin Channing Brown, Mihee Kim-Kort, Jonathan Merritt, and Ted Smith. The event will take place at 5 p.m. in the Ivan Allen III Pavilion of The Carter Center. Tickets are $20 general admission/$10 for students and can be purchased through the TheoEd website.

TheoEd Talks is an ecumenical speaker series where leaders in the church and the academy share “the talk of their lives” in 20 minutes or less, aimed at sparking conversations that change the way people think about God, religion and the power of faith to change lives. 

Austin Channing Brown is a speaker and author who helps communities of faith practice racial justice and reconciliation together. In her book “I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness,” she reflects powerfully on a lifetime spent navigating America’s racial divide and her own personal journey toward self-worth in an era of rising racial hostility. In addition to speaking and writing, she serves as resident director and multicultural liaison for Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Born in Seoul, Korea, Mihee Kim-Kort is a Presbyterian minister, speaker and storyteller whose writings and books address issues ranging from Asian American feminist theology to the intersection of faith, family and ministry. Her most recent book “Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness Will Transform Your Faith” explores how becoming aware of her own queer sexuality strengthened her faith.

Recently named by Outreach magazine one of the top 30 young leaders reshaping Christian leadership, Jonathan Merritt 10T is an award-winning author who writes on faith and culture for outlets such as USA Today, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed, Christianity Today and The Atlantic. His most recent book, “Learning to Speak to God from Scratch: Why Sacred Words Are Vanishing and How We Can Revive Them,” helps people re-learn how to speak about faith in ways that are honest, authentic and understandable in an increasingly pluralistic and postmodern society.

Ted A. Smith is professor of preaching and ethics at Candler. His academic work delves into topics related to social ethics, economic inequality, issues in contemporary preaching and the future of theological education. His book “Weird John Brown: Divine Violence and the Limits of Ethics” works through memories of the raid on Harpers Ferry to show the limits of social ethics for thinking about violence.


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