Named after the world-renowned Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection held at Pitts Theology Library, Kessler Conversations (30-45 mins) offer opportunities for the general public to learn about the events in Europe the 16th century and to consider what they may tell us about the issues facing our communities. Conversations in a given academic semester focus on a single contemporary theme and trace it back to the Reformers. These conversations are free and open to the public, but registration is required. The theme of the Spring 2021 conversations is “Blessed are the Poor: Wealth and Poverty in the 16th and 21st Centuries.” Find more details about each session and register for the free webinars below!
Esther Chung-Kim, Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Associate Director of The Gould Center of Humanities at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California, joins Dr. Richard Adams in conversation titled “Caring for the poor during the Reformation.”
David Fink, Associate Professor of Religion at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina joins Dr. Richard Adams in a conversation titled “Wealth, Work, and Wisdom in Early Modern Society.”
Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Professor of Theological and Social Ethics at Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and the Graduate Theological Union, joins Dr. Richard Adams in conversation titled “Luther’s Ethic of Neighbor-love: A Theological Repudiation of Maximizing Profit.”
The featured image for “Blessed are the Poor: Wealth and Poverty in the 16th and 21st Centuries” comes from Pitts’ 1862 La grande danse Macabre des Hommes et des Femmes (The great Macabre dance of men and women), in which Death interacts with both a rich and poor woman, indicating that neither expensive jewels nor simple flowers ward off mortality. Find this image and others like it in the Pitts Digital Image Archive.
