DR. JOHN INAZU TO BRING EIGHTH ANNUAL ANDREWS LECTURE
Published: January 15, 2025
GREENVILLE, IL - Dr. John Inazu will give the eighth annual Andrews Lecture, entitled "Christian Engagement in a World of Difference" at Greenville University on February 4. The Andrews Lecture is given in honor of The Full Salvation Union, which endowed the James F. and Leona N. Andrews Chair for Christian Unity. The event will be held at 7 pm in the Whitlock Recital Hall on the Greenville University campus.
According to Dr. Ben Wayman, Andrews Chair, "The generosity of The Full Salvation Union in endowing the James F. and Leona N. Andrews Chair for Christian Unity has made possible several years of lectures and programming in Christian unity. The annual Andrews Lecture is the most prominent piece of Andrews Chair programming, and I'm delighted Dr. John Inazu accepted the invitation to bring the lecture this year. Dr. Inazu's expertise in political theory and civil discourse is deepened by his witness as a disciple of Jesus Christ."
Dr. Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis. His latest book is Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect (Zondervan, 2024).
In Learning to Disagree, Inazu shares memorable stories and draws on the practices that his legal training imparts – seeing the complexity in every issue and inhabiting the mindset of an opposing point of view. Inazu explores how to handle daily encounters and lifelong relationships with those who see life differently.
"I look forward to learning from Dr. Inazu and hearing how the church can point to Christ at this moment in our national context,” Wayman said. “Inazu has an important word for the church today."
Inazu is also the author of Liberty's Refuge: The Forgotten Freedom of Assembly (Yale University Press, 2012) and Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference (University of Chicago Press, 2016) and co-editor (with Tim Keller) of Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Thomas Nelson, 2020).
He founded The Carver Project, the Legal Vocation Fellowship and is a senior fellow at Interfaith America, where he co-directs the Newbigin Fellows and Evangelicals in a Diverse Democracy. Inazu serves on the boards of The Carver Project, the John Burroughs School, and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, the advisory boards of the Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center at the University of Texas School of Law and the Honors College at the University of Tulsa and is a Senior Fellow at the Trinity Forum.
Inazu holds a B.S.E. and J.D. from Duke University and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He clerked for Judge Roger L. Wollman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. He served four years as an associate general counsel with the Department of the Air Force at the Pentagon. His weekly newsletter, “Some Assembly Required,” can be found at https://johninazu.substack.com/.
Dr. David L. Andrews and The Full Salvation Union established the Andrews Chair in 2017 to coordinate a program, interdenominational in effort and nonsectarian in spirit, that leads to greater understanding and unity of spirit among all of God's children.
Dr. Benjamin Wayman was appointed the James F. and Leona N. Andrews Chair for Christian Unity in 2017. He is an associate professor of theology and chair of the department of theology in the Donald N. and Kathleen G. Bastian School of Theology, Philosophy, and Ministry at Greenville University.
"As people who witness to the difference Christ makes, Christians are called to be a people of unity in our differences,” Wayman remarked. “Part of our witness is to display that our
differences are not obstacles to our flourishing and friendship but rather enrich our life
together."
The February 4 lecture is free and open to the public.
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Greenville University is an accredited Christian liberal arts university with over 1,000 students, including traditional undergraduate, graduate, and adult degree completion students. Founded in 1892 and affiliated with the Free Methodist Church, the University is located in Greenville, Ill., 45 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. For more information, visit www.greenville.edu.
