The Center for Christian-Jewish Learning’s 12th Annual John Paul II Lecture in Christian-Jewish Relations

Willie James Jennings, "To Touch the World Together: Why Jews and Christians Need a New Doctrine of Creation"

Jews and Christians are joined by a shared recognition that we are created by the same God. Yet that recognition has never been allowed to shape our moral and social imaginations. What should this shared recognition create in our racially divided, war-torn, capitalist driven world? This lecture considers how we move from a shared recognition to a shared life.

The Reverend Dr. Willie James Jennings is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School. Dr. Jennings received his B.A. in Religion and Theological Studies from Calvin College, his M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena California, and his Ph.D. from Duke University. Dr. Jennings, who is a theologian, teaches in the areas of Christian thought, race theory, decolonial and environmental studies. Dr. Jennings is the author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race (Yale University Press). His recently authored commentary on the Book of Acts won the Reference Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, the inaugural book in the book series "Theological Education between the Times" and the 2020 book of the year award winner from Publisher’s Weekly.