Dr. John Haught, an authority on systematic theology, will deliver the annual Redding lecture at 11 a.m. Tuesday (Sept. 25) in John L. Hill Chapel. The public is invited to this free Cultural Enrichment Program event.

Haught is a Roman Catholic theologian and a retired Professor of Theology at Georgetown University. After receiving his doctorate from Catholic University of America in 1970, he taught in Georgetown’s theology department through 2005, and was department chair 1990-1995.

Haught was the winner of the 2002 Owen Garrigan Award in Science and Religion and the 2004 Sophia Award for Theological Excellence. He established the Georgetown Center for the Study of Science and Religion, and is the author of twelve books, including important ones on the creation-evolution controversy, such as Deeper Than Darwin: The Prospect for Religion in the Age of Evolution, God After Darwin: A Theology of Evolution, and Responses to 101 Questions on God and Evolution.

The annual lecture is named in honor of Dr. George Walker Redding, a much loved member of the Georgetown faculty for 30 years (1943-73) who taught courses in Bible and chaired what became the Religion Department. After retiring from the College in 1973, Redding continued to teach until his death in 1989. In 1997, Georgetown College inducted the 1927 graduate into its Hall of Fame.

Kristin Stratton, a senior from Fort Thomas and a President’s Ambassador, had Rabbi Harold Kushner sign his latest book Overcoming Life’s Disappointments – which features the life of Moses – after his lecture in Hill Chapel. Joseph-Beth Booksellers, which provides book awards to outstanding seniors on Academic Awards Day each spring, brought the inspirational author to Georgetown College as part of a speakers series partnership.

Kushner’s nuggets on Tuesday included:

1. Don’t let someone else – or their rejections – determine your self worth; and
2. sometimes one should let go of a dream, but keep on dreaming.

He is best known for When Bad Things Happen to Good People (1981), a No. 1 best-seller that Georgetown professor Chris Nix uses in his Health Communications class.

Joseph-Beth Brings Rabbi Kushner to College

By Amy Hall ‘10
Georgetown College News Bureau

Amy Thaxton ’07 first heard about an inspirational book by Rabbi Harold Kushner when her grandmother was diagnosed with cervical cancer 10 years ago. “Evidently she read the book and it changed her life, so she suggested that the rest of the family read it,” said the Owensboro native, who finally took that life-changing opportunity to read When Bad Things Happen to Good People for a class her senior year at Georgetown College.

“Our discussions in class about each chapter were some of the most intense, enlightening hours of my educational experience, often carrying over into the walk back to our dorms, or even into dinner that evening,” said Thaxton, now operations project manager for Lexington’s Thomas & King, Inc. “I grew as a person and will never forget my Kushner experience.”

Now every student at Georgetown will get to have their own “Kushner experience.” Rabbi Kushner, best known for that 1981 No. 1 best-seller, will speak and sign books at 11 a.m., Sept. 18 in the College’s John L. Hill Chapel. A limited number of free tickets are still available at the Provost’s Office; call (502) 863-8146. Those who purchase one of Kushner’s books at the bookstore in Lexington Green receive two tickets to this Joseph-Beth Speakers Series event and a place in the book-signing line.

Kushner, currently Rabbi Laureate of Temple Israel in the Boston suburb of Natick (MA), is on tour to promote his latest of eight books – Overcoming Life’s Disappointments, which has just come out in paperback. But, his When Bad Things Happen to Good People, that has been translated into 14 languages, is the one that continues to draw attention – such as recognition by the Book of the Month Club as one of the 10 most influential books of recent years.

To the Time magazine writer who asked what he thought gave the book such resonance, he replied, “It doesn’t explain; it comforts. This is what people in times of difficulty need. They need consolation, not explanation. Too many books, especially ones written before mine, didn’t understand that. People want a book that says it is terrible, but you can handle it.”

Kushner wrote the book in 1981 in response to the death of his son Aaron, who died of premature aging. In the book’s preface he wrote, “I knew…I would write it out of my own need to put into words some of the things I have come to believe and know. And I would write it to help other people who might one day find themselves in a similar predicament. I would write it for all those people who wanted to go on believing, but whose anger at God made it hard for them to hold on to their faith and be comforted by religion. And I would write it for all those people whose love for God and devotion to Him led them to blame themselves for their suffering and persuade themselves that they deserved it.”

Dr. Chris Nix of Georgetown’s Communications department uses Kushner’s first book in Health Communication, the same class that impacted Amy Thaxton, in part to encourage students to explore. “Kushner asks: Are you comfortable with what your beliefs do for you? I like this because there are no simple answers and students have to come up with their own questions,” Nix said. “I’ve never had a student walk away who hasn’t been moved to think deeply about their life and faith.”

Ashland native Davonna Hobbs ’06 said she uses what she learned in Nix’s class from Kushner’s book every day as a patient advocate at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington. “People tend to use the whole ‘things happen for a reason’ excuse anytime something goes wrong in life,” she said. “I disagree with this theory, and Kushner’s book confirmed it was okay for me to feel this way. [The book] opened my eyes and ears to how people deal with grief and where they seek spiritual support.

“I deal with patients and families asking ‘Why’ on a daily basis here in the hospital,” said Hobbs, who still leads worship at Georgetown Baptist Church’s contemporary service on Sundays. “It has helped me to meet [them] where they are when I become involved in their lives at the hospital, and for that, I am grateful for this piece of work.”

Dr. Jack Birdwhistell of Georgetown’s Religion department called Kushner’s appearance “a great educational opportunity for our college community and a genuine coup for Georgetown! He comes from the Conservative branch of Judaism and has found a wide readership among non-church folk and many thoughtful Christians.”

Religion in American Life chose Rabbi Kushner as their Clergyman of the Year in 1999 and, in 1995, the Christophers, a Roman Catholic organization, named him one of the 50 people who have made the world a better place in the last half century.

Dr. Dwight Moody, the College’s Dean of Chapel, just read Kushner’s Overcoming Life’s Disappointments – about the life of Moses – and said, “I recommend it strongly. Many Christian pastors will find great help in Rabbi Kushner’s new book as it utilizes the resources of the Jewish community to expound the meaning of life and the struggle to triumph over life’s difficulties.”

When asked by a Time magazine writer why he chose Moses as the key figure in his book, Kushner replied, “I wanted to give people a more rounded picture of Moses, not simply the triumphant hero who splits the sea and works the miracles, but Moses the man who fails and perseveres, who gets over frustration and rejection. [His] greatest achievement is that he comes to the end of his days not angry at God, not bitter over not having gotten what he deserves in life. And it’s in that way that I think Moses can be a model for us.”

An excerpt from page 117 reads, “Humility means recognizing that you are not God and it is not your job or responsibility to run the world. Some people are disappointed to learn that; most mentally healthy people are immensely relieved. Moses was able to surmount the problems and frustrations in his life because he understood that he was not God and could not be expected to be, and that God’s plan for humanity did not depend solely on him.”

What others say:

“No human relationship is without betrayal, irritation and annoyance, but Kushner makes clear that it’s what we do about such obstacles that matter.” – Los Angeles Book Review

“Overcoming Life’s Disappointments offers the reader some sensible answers, suggestions for softening life’s journey, and ways of dealing with the inevitable disappointments. The key is seeing God as the center of our lives, as did Moses. Overcoming disappointment means putting aside any idea that the story is about “us,” recognizing that the path is more meaningful when we look outside ourselves to the Divine that guides our lives, our journeys, even our myths.” – Jeffrey Needle for the religious website, www.explorefaith.org

“From the life of Moses, Kushner gleans principles that can help us deal with the problems we encounter. Through the example of Moses’ remarkable resilience, we learn how to weather the disillusionment of dreams unfulfilled, the pain of a lost job or promotion, a child’s failures, divorce or abandonment, and illness. We learn how to meet all disappointments with faith in ourselves and the future, and how to respond to heartbreak with understanding rather than bitterness and despair.” – Random House

The public is invited to sample parts of “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” the inaugural conference of the Friends of the Network to Freedom Association, sponsored by the Underground Railroad Research Institute at Georgetown College.

Most of the talks and panels with prominent African American scholars and activists will be held at the College’s Thomas & King Leadership & Conference Center, Wednesday-Friday (Sept. 12-14). But, some performances are free and many individual sessions – appealing to teachers, students and history buffs – cost only $15 for those not participating in the whole conference.

For more information on the conference, see the release (below) that the Kentucky Department of Tourism sent out in August. Also, visit the UGRRI’s web site at www.ugrri.org or call executive director Alicestyne Adams at 502-863-2203.

Underground Railroad is Focus Of Georgetown College Conference Sept. 10-15

GEORGETOWN, Ky. (Aug. 2007) – The Underground Railroad, the network of anti-slavery activists and sites that helped enslaved African Americans escape the South and the Caribbean prior to emancipation, will be the focus of a conference at Georgetown College Sept. 10-15, 2007.

The inaugural conference of the Friends of the Network to Freedom Association is sponsored by the Underground Railroad Research Institute at Georgetown, which was established in 2001 to promote education and cultural understanding among students, communities and the nation. The theme of the conference is “Looking Back, Moving Forward.”

The conference will feature two bus tours of Kentucky Underground Railroad sites and locales associated with Abraham Lincoln in Kentucky, speeches by prominent African American scholars and activists, performances of African American music and dance, and panel discussions dealing with Underground Railroad issues of contemporary and historic interest, said Alicestyne Adams, the UGRRI’s director.

“We’re encouraging participation by teachers, students and history buffs, as well as professional scholars,” Adams said.

Participants can attend the entire conference or individual events. Registration for the entire conference, except for the bus trips, is $85 per person. A discount is available to attendees who join the Friends of the Network to Freedom Association, Adams said. The group is associated with the National Park Service’s National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Program. Four free performances will take place in the Exhibit Hall of the College’s Recreation Center on that Friday.

The fee for the two all-day bus tours is $25 each per person; lunch is not included in the fee.

Charles Ogletree, a Harvard Law School professor and executive director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, will be the conference’s keynote speaker at a 7 p.m. session in John L. Hill Chapel following the 5 p.m. picnic-on-the-grounds Thursday Sept. 13. The fee for this program is $25.

The luncheon presentation on Thursday features Emma Bush performing a Chautauqua on Margaret Garner, a famous fugitive slave law test case, for which admission is $15. Stephen Marc, a nationally prominent photographer whose work focuses on the African Diaspora, will be the featured speaker at Friday’s luncheon, for which admission is $15.

Robert George Stanton, who became the first African American director of the National Park Service in 1988, will moderate the Thursday session at 7 p.m. Admission to this and other panel sessions is $15 each.

For more information on the conference, visit the UGRRI’s web site at www.ugrri.org or call 502-863-2203.