Praying, Singing and Catching Sense: Praise House Traditions in Gullah Geechee Communities
Experience the spiritual heart of Gullah Geechee culture through the sacred traditions of Praise Houses. This discussion explores the deep-rooted practices of communal worship, singing, and prayer that have sustained these communities for centuries. Learn how these traditions, steeped in African, Christian and Muslim customs, have fostered unity and resilience. The Praise House is not […]
“A Soul of Priceless Value”: The Contested Ideology of Slaveholding in the Lowcountry
This lecture examines white Christianity’s struggle for influence among slaveholders in Charleston and the surrounding South Carolina Lowcountry as the movement delineated both the ideological and the practical mechanisms that it believed necessary to sustain a slaveholding society in the face of increasingly sharp moral and social criticism, chiefly from outside the region. Religious paternalism’s […]
Touring the Tombstones: Charleston’s 18th Century Graveyards Tell a Tale to be Remembered
Skulls and crossed bones. Weeping willows and rosebuds. Did you know Charleston has more 18th-century burial grounds than any city in the United States? Find out why on this visual stroll through historic colonial and antebellum cemeteries as we explore a religious diversity unknown in the other thirteen colonies. Moreover, Charleston’s ancient graveyards are art […]
The Rise of ISIS and the Sunni/Shiite Schism
This presentation focuses on the differences between the beliefs and customs of Shiite Moslems in Iran and those of their neighbors, the Sunnis in Iraq. Focusing on the theoretical underpinnings of these two extreme branches of Islam, Dr. Williams discusses the historical changes which gave rise to ISIS in the light of the historical role […]
Growing up Gullah
This is a 45-minute one-man show in which Donald Sweeper tells stories shared to him by his ancestors and the elderly people from the community in which he grew up. This performance also includes Gullah folklore and traditions, as well as rites of passages performed by many of the African American Churches from Reconstruction up […]
From Samarkand to the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: The Story of the Silk Road
The history of the Silk Road in Central Asia covers a vast panorama of history, art, religion and commerce over the past 2,500 years. A major trade route linking Mediterranean and Far East cultures, its story includes exotic ancient cities like the legendary Samarkand. Explorers of the Silk Road are highlighted in this presentation as […]
Donne and Herbert: Facing God with Humor and Frustration
We may assume that 17th century poets, especially two who are priests, are boring, rigid, sanctimonious, and irrelevant to how contemporary life approaches spirituality. John Donne and George Herbert were, however, people like us – with families, career frustrations, facing illnesses and death, grappling with their relationship to God and their parishioners. We will look at […]
John Milton: Making and Destroying the World
Many of our contemporary notions of Heaven, Hell, and Eden come not just from the Bible, but from John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Milton did not contradict anything in Genesis, but built from centuries of interpretation and synthesis to create the most powerful images in English literature. He is also not, contrary to popular opinion, misogynistic or […]