Denison University welcomes Vanderbilt University Professor Victor Anderson, the Oberlin Theological School Professor of Ethics and Society at the Divinity School and Professor in the Program in African American and Diaspora Studies and Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences as the keynote lecturer for the university’s celebration of the life and legacy of The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Anderson will present his keynote, “ “Between King’s Arch of Justice and the World House: How Shall We Then Live?” at 1 p.m on Monday, January 24, in Swasey Chapel (200 Chapel Drive). The event is open in person to Denison University students, faculty, and staff. Community members are welcome to participate via a live stream of the event.

In his lecture, Anderson will situate “King’s visions in an era when public theologians from Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and Dorothy Day to David Buttrick held faith in a High Religion and a High Morality in confronting the polarization of society and culture.” He adds, “But the question I am asking is, ‘How Shall We Then Live’ in the absence of a High Religion and High Morality to ameliorate the polarization of our postmodern era.”

Anderson is the author of three books: Beyond Ontological Blackness: An Essay in African American Religious and Cultural Criticism (1995), Pragmatic Theology: Negotiating the Intersection of an American Philosophy of Religion and Public Theology (1999), and Creative Exchange: A Constructive Theology of African American Religious Experience (2008). He is the co-editor with Lewis V. Baldwin of Revives My Soul Again; The Spirituality of Martin Luther King Jr. (2018).

Anderson holds a Master of Divinity and Master of Theology in Philosophical and Moral Theology from Calvin Theological Seminary. He earned an M.A and Ph.D. from Princeton University in Religion, Ethics, and Politics. He teaches courses in Black Religion and Culture Studies, Religion and Philosophy, Ethics and Politics, and African American Studies.

The MLK Keynote speaker is sponsored by the Black Studies Program, Student Life, Office of the Provost, and Office of the President.