Roger W. Heyns Lecture
Roger W. Heyns
Established at Memorial Church in 1994, the Roger W. Heyns Lecture in Religion and Society, is an annual event that features a major speaker focusing on problems and challenges of religion and community. Heyns, who was a resident of Atherton, was a member of the Memorial Church congregation from 1977 until his death in 1995. Heyns served as chancellor at the University of California at Berkeley from 1965 to 1971. The lectureship honors Heyns on his retirement after 16 years as a board member of the James Irvine Foundation.
Past Heyns Lecturers
May 23, 1996
Satan and All His Angels (How Early Christians Came to Demonize Jews, ‘Pagans’ and Heretics)
Prof. Elaine Pagels
Princeton University
October 15, 1997
Christian Conviction in a Pluralist Society
Prof. Maurice Wiles
Christ Church, Oxford
May 13, 1998
America’s New Religious Landscape: Negotiating Identities, Negotiating
Differences
Prof. Diana Eck
Harvard University
April 22, 1999
Revisiting Religious Pluralism
Prof. Bruce Lawrence
Duke University
October 13, 2004
Islam: A Short History — and Contemporary Issues
Karen Armstrong
Leo Baeck College for the Training of Rabbis
November 4, 2005
The Heart of Nonviolence
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
April 25, 2007
Misquoting Jesus: Scribes Who Altered Scripture and Readers Who May Never Know
Prof. Bart D. Ehrman
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
April 18, 2008
Jesus and Judaism: The Connection Matters
Prof. Amy-Jill Levine
Vanderbilt Divinity School
January 27, 2009
Acts of Faith: Interfaith Leadership in a Time of Religious Crisis
Dr. Eboo Patel
Interfaith Youth Core
February 22, 2010
Rev. Jim Wallis
Sojourners Magazine
June 1, 2011
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori
Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
May 1, 2012
Anna Deavere-Smith
Actress and playwright
