The 2014 Schaff Lectures were held March 26. Ellen F. Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School, presented three lectures on the theme "Biblical Prophecy: Thinking Prophetically in the 21st Century.”
“A Prophetic Perspective” - How do the biblical prophets speak to us about God, the world, and the life of faith, often in the most difficult circumstances? This lecture outlines five features of a prophetic perspective, as it is represented in the Bible, and how that may inform Christian thought and practice in our own time.
“Destroyers of the Earth: A Prophetic Critique of Empire” - The lecture explores how the Book of Revelation sets the totalizing economy of ancient Rome alongside the economy of God's kingdom, and how that prophetic challenge to empire reads in our global context.
“Abraham and the Origins of Intercessory Prayer” - Abraham is the first person in the Bible to be named as a prophet (Gen. 20:7), specifically in his gift for prayer. We will consider the important dynamic of bold intercession and obedient submission in the story of the intimate relationship between God and Abraham.