Click here to register for this ONLINE Lecture and follow-up discussion which will be offered via Zoom!
Trans Theology Without Apology: Using Art and Historical Exegesis to Celebrate Trans Figuration and the Trans Aesthetic in the Bible
with Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer
The 12th Annual CLGS Georgia Harkness Lecture
ONLINE on Thursday, 14 October 2021, at 6:30pm | Pacific Time
Veiled metaphors and transgressive embodiments of Hebrew and Greek bibles have been ignored, forgotten or intentionally omitted forgotten. Using early Christian and Medieval art as inspiration, Bishop Rohrer will make an unapologetic case for reading scripture with a genuinely trans aesthetic.
The Rev. Dr. Megan Rohrer (they/he) is the first openly transgender Bishop of a mainline Christian denomination, currently serving as Bishop of the Sierra Pacific Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA). Bishop Megan earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Augustana University in 2001, a Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion in 2005 and a Doctor of Ministry from Pacific School of Religion in 2016.
Bishop Megan is an award-winning filmmaker, musician, historian and author and has been featured on Queer Eye, Cosmo, People and in Wittenberg, Germany for the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation.
The CLGS Georgia Harkness Lecture
In the fall of 2010 CLGS inaugurated The CLGS Georgia Harkness Lecture, the second of the Center’s two named lectures which is presented every October. (The CLGS John E. Boswell Lecture, offered every April, was launched in 2008.)
Georgia Harkness (1891-1974) was a pioneering theologian in the Methodist tradition, a leading figure in the ecumenical movement, and the first woman hired to teach theology at a Christian seminary. Harkness focused her teaching and writing (more than thirty books and many articles) on the practical application of theology to the pressing social issues of her day, ranging from women’s rights to racism, war and peace, international relations, and, later in her life, full civil rights for gay and lesbian people. Harkness retired from teaching after serving on the faculty at Pacific School of Religion from 1949 to 1960.
The passion Harkness brought to her work of making vital theological connections among wider cultural and political issues, her keen interest in employing poetry and the arts to her theological work, and her firm commitment to civil rights and social justice — all of this contributed to PSR’s “tradition of boldness” — a tradition that shapes the ongoing work of PSR’s Center for LGBTQ & Gender Studies in Religion.