Practicing Religion: Hospitality

In this week of “Practicing Religion,” Dr. David Greenhaw will welcome Dr. Michael Kinnamon to discuss the practice of hospitality as a means for founding interfaith life and relations.

Dr. Michael Kinnamon served as the ninth General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA. Before that, he was the executive secretary of the Co Faith and Order Commission for the World Council of Churches. An ordained minister in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ, he was the Allen and Dottie Miller Professor of Mission, Peace and Ecumenical Studies at Eden Theological Seminary for over a decade, and dean of the Lexington Theological Seminary from 1988 to 1998. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 1980 in religion and literature and has given lectures throughout the world on ecumenical work. He is the author of several books, including Can a Renewal Movement Be Renewed? Questions for the Future of Ecumenism (2014), The Witness of Religion in an Age of Fear  (2017), and Disciples: Who We Are and What Holds Us Together (2019) with Rev. Dr. Jan Linn.

“Practicing Religion” is a free ten-part lecture series sponsored by Interfaith Partnership of Greater St. Louis and taught by Dr. David Greenhaw. The course is organized around a central theme, namely that there are certain human “practices,” and that these differ among the religions of the world. For instance, nearly all world religions are committed to hospitality, but how they practice hospitality can be very different. Or again, religions of the world have an understanding of “dying well,” but how this most human of activities is practiced differs widely. Each class will focus on a “practice” and look at the practice from the perspective of differing religious communities. Classes will take a comparative approach, but not a comprehensive one; although every class will not be able to discuss every major religion, we will seek to include a breadth of examples over the course of the semester.

Rev. Dr. David Greenhaw, an ordained Christian minister, is the recently retired president of Eden Theological Seminary. Prof. Greenhaw began his teaching career at Vanderbilt University and has lectured on five continents. He is currently the Chair of the Cabinet of Interfaith Partnership.

This course will be offered for free to ensure that cost is not a barrier. That being said, Interfaith Partnership relies on donations to survive; if you are able to donate, we would deeply appreciate your financial support.

To register for the course, visit this link. It’s never too late to register, even if you’ve missed a few classes. If you’re unable to attend a session live, we are recording every class session. Email Gwyneth at admin [at] interfaith [dot] com to get the link.