Chaplain’s Speaker Series

Starting in Spring of 2013, the University Chaplain has been given the charge of starting a new speaker series to bring to Vanderbilt’s campus dynamic and thought provoking speakers who will speak to religious life and the life of spirituality on college campuses. Bringing one great speaker per semester, the Office of Religious Life welcomes the opportunity to hear from clergy, professionals and speakers alike to delve into a topic that is needed to be talked about more on university campuses.

Pastor Rob Bell – What We Talk About When We Talk About God

March 14, 2013 welcomed Pastor Rob Bell to campus. Rob Bell, the Founding Pastor and Pastor Emeritus of Mars Hill Bible Church and author of “Love Wins”, “Velvet Elvis”, and “Sex God” came to Benton Chapel to speak for the first event of the new Chaplain’s Lecture Series. Mr. Belll spoke on his new book “What We Talk About When We Talk About God.” Rob Bell graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, and Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. Read the recap of the event here.

Jonathan Haidt – The Righteous Mind

September 9, 2013 we will welcome Jonathan Haidt to Vanderbilt to be the second speaker for the new Chaplain’s Speaker Series. Jonathan Haidt (pronounced “height”) is a social psychologist at the NYU-Stern School of Business. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992, and spent most of his career (1995-2011) at the University of Virginia. Haidt’s research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures. In recent years he has examined the moral cultures of liberals, conservatives, and libertarians. Haidt is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and of the New York Times bestseller The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. To read about his upcoming talk, click here.