Woolman Lectures
John Woolman Christian Lecture Series
The Lecture Series is named for John Woolman (1720-1772), a Quaker from New Jersey who provided much of the theological, intellectual, and ethical foundation for the earliest anti-slavery activities in America.
Drawing from traditional Christian, Quaker, evangelical, quietist, and rationalist sources, Woolman published works that encouraged others to rethink the Friends’ role in addressing a range of topics including slavery, working conditions, spiritual discipline, pacifism, the use of wealth, the use of time, and relationships with Native Americans.
His antislavery writings and speaking campaigns throughout the colonies helped prompt the Friends to become the first body of Americans to actively denounce slavery and require all its members to free any person that they held in slavery. Providing some of the earliest inspiration for the major ethical shift in thinking about slavery, Woolman’s writings and actions influenced leaders in the early antislavery and abolitionist movements in America and Great Britain. Woolman Hall, a residence hall on Malone’s campus, is named in his honor.
Our 2026 Speaker
We are pleased to announce the 2026 Woolman Lectures in Christian Scholarship will be delivered by Lanta Davis, Ph.D., of Indiana Wesleyan University.
Biography
Lanta Davis, Ph.D., professor of Honors Humanities and Literature in the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University, teaches courses that invite students to explore beauty, rhetoric, and great texts with curiosity and wonder. She holds her terminal degree in Religion and Literature from Baylor University and is the author of Becoming by Beholding: The Power of the Imagination in Spiritual Formation, a Christianity Today Book Award finalist. Her interdisciplinary scholarship focuses on imagination, spiritual formation, and the arts, and her writing has appeared in publications such as Christianity Today, Smithsonian Magazine, and National Geographic.
Past Speakers
- 2025 – Phillip Cary, Eastern University
- 2024 – Kelly M. Kapic, Covenant College
- 2023 – Robert Tracy McKenzie, Wheaton College
- 2022 – Micah J. Watson, Calvin University
- 2021 – David Walsh, Catholic University of America
- 2019 – Thomas Hibbs, Baylor University
- 2018 – Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, Calvin College
- 2017 – Rod Dreher, The American Conservative
- 2016 – Patrick Deneen, University of Notre Dame
- 2015 – William Abraham, Southern Methodist University
- 2014 – William Cavanaugh, DePaul University
- 2013 – Eleonore Stump, Saint Louis University
- 2012 – Philip Jenkins, Baylor University
- 2011 – Ralph Wood, Baylor University
- 2010 – Elizabeth Newman, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
- 2009 – Paul Griffiths, Duke Divinity School
- 2008 – Frank Beckwith, Baylor University