Sunday Forum series to look at religious impact of Rice on community

Christ the King Lutheran Church will mark Rice’s centennial with a Sunday Forum series on “The Religious Impact of Rice University on the Houston Community.”

Christ the King Lutheran Church, at the corner of Rice Boulevard and Greenbriar, will host a Sunday Forum series on the religious impact of Rice on the Houston community Oct. 7-Nov. 11.

Located across the street from campus at the corner of Rice and Greenbriar, the church will host academic leaders from Rice who will share their perspective of the influence of the university on Houston each Sunday from Oct. 7 to Nov. 11. The forums will be held in the basement classroom of the church from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m.

The first lecture will feature John Boles, the William Pettus Hobby Professor of History. He will discuss the religious faith of Rice’s founding president, Edgar Odell Lovett, and the role of religion at Rice during its first decade or so, including a controversy over the supposed “atheism” (evolution) taught at Rice and Lovett’s reply to that charge. Other topics will include the beginning of religious organizations on campus and the later recognition of anti-Semitism in Germany and the rise of Nazism.

Other speakers in the series will be:

Oct. 14: Michael Emerson, the Allyn and Gladys Cline Professor of Sociology and co-director of Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research.

Oct. 21: Stephen Klineberg, professor of sociology and co-director of the Kinder Institute.

Oct. 28: Boles returns to present his work as a scholar in American history and religion.

Nov. 4: Mike Pardee, executive director of Rice’s Boniuk Center for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance.

Nov. 11: Matthias Henze, the Watt J. and Lily G. Jackson Chair in Biblical Studies and professor of religious studies.

For more information on the forum, visit http://ctkelc.org/the-religious-impact-of-rice-university-on-the-houston-community/.