Duke Divinity School will host a panel discussion, "Turning Points in American Church History," exploring transitions in modernity and American Church history. Dr. Grant Wacker, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor Emeritus of Christian History, will serve as moderator for the event.

The discussion concludes a series of faculty-led reflections with the Hybrid Cultures and The History of Christian Innovation Project led by Polly Ha and the Historical Division. The project seeks to use broad historical contexts to explore transition points in church history, especially with the launch of new hybrid forms of learning and is sponsored by the Office of Faculty Advancement. This last panel is intended for a broader audience to join in on this conversation, bringing the past into dialogue with current questions about change.

• The Panelists

  Mark Noll is Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame in Notre Dame, Ind. He has written extensively on the history of Christianity in North America, including most recently America's Book: The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911. A fourth edition of his book, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity, was released in 2022, updated with the assistance of David Komline and Han-luen Kantzer Komline.

   

  Quinton Dixie is associate research professor of the history of Christianity in the United States and Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C.  Dr. Dixie specializes in American religious history and has written on a wide range of topics—from the African American Civil Rights Movement to the history of Black Baptists in the United States. Among his publications is an edited volume, The Courage to Hope, co-edited with Cornel West, as well as a companion to a PBS documentary, This Far By Faith, co-authored with Juan Williams.

   

  Elesha Coffman is associate professor of history at Baylor University in Waco, Tex. and a graduate of Duke’s Graduate Program in Religion. She is author of The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline, Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith, and the forthcoming Turning Points in American Church History.