TRANSCRIPT
>> Dr. Smith: Well, good evening. My name is Patrick T. Smith. I direct the bioethics at the bioethics for the history of medicine. I want to take this moment to welcome you to our webinar this evening. I am so glad that you're able to join always for our discussion of Dean Luke Powery's new book, "Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race." For our panel discussion, Dean Powery at the Duke Divinity School will be joined by two leading scholars in the fields that are important to the book. the Reverend Dr. Willie Jennings is from the Yale University Divinity School and Dr. Charmaine royal, professor of African studies, biology, global health, and family medicine and community health at Duke University. I have the privilege and pleasure as serving for the moderator for this session.
Dean Powery sees race as essential in valuing some bodies over others that are shaped by the biblical Pentecost that sees the diversity of human bodies as one of the gifts of the holy spirit. Published by Westminster John Knox Press and the winner of the 2023 book of the year award from the academy of parish implementationy, the box gets its title from the 1968 eulogy by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When he says, Dr. King was killed in one sense, because humankind is not quite human yet, Dr. Thurman said. May he live, because all of us in America are closer to becoming human than ever before. As Dr. Powery says many times in his book, the turn to the spirit is the turn to becoming much more human.
Now, we will begin with some conversation with Dr. Powery and then invite the panelists into the discussion. We will have some time at the end to take questions for those of you who are in attendance, so feel free to submit your questions at any time during our conversation in the question and answer box that you can see at the bottom of your screen. We will get to as many as we can. I will do my best in that regard.
So, let's get to it. I want to welcome each of you here. So glad to see you here in this space. Dean powier, first powery, congratulations on the book and your recent award.
>> Dean Powery: Thanks so much, Dr. Smith. It is a joy for me to be in this conversation with dear friends and colleagues and these esteemed colleagues.
>> Dr. Smith: That's great. Why don't you begin by telling us why you wrote this book.
>> Dean Powery: All right, I will make it short.
[LAUGHTER]
You quoted Howard Thurman, because that is where I was going to begin. In his memorium for Dr. King, we are not quite human yet. He does that in the wake of the assassination of Dr. King. We see the ongoing violence against blackness, war, hatred, tension, struggle, it continues. Inside the church and outside of the church, especially as it relates to what I call racialization, racism. And this concept of race.
So, what I tried to do is really, we have one of the key thinkers in the theology of race, Dr. Jennings on this call, what I tried to do is add a contribution, thinking about the work of the spirit in racialization in the history of the church and the world. I would say there would be size of hope underneath the words of the book. One of the hopes is that we would, as I draw on Pentecost as a metaphor that we would find a new tongue. We would find a new language, a new way of engaging one another, but talking about one another, and talking about this idea, this social construct of race. And so, the prayer in many ways undergirding this book is we would discover and become more fully human with each other, and ultimately that can only happen through the work of the spirit. It is an invocation for the spirit to come and help us in this endeavor, and in this challenge, ongoing challenge.
>> Dr. Smith: Yeah, it was interesting as you mentioned throughout the book, the dynamic between the spirit's work in transcending some of these challenges that we're facing and bringing folks together, but it is also d
