Public Life Personal Faith Lecture: February 12, 2010

Perkins School of Theology hosts Dr. Ronald C. White, Jr., author of A. Lincoln: A Biography, for the inaugural Public Life/Private Faith Lecture and luncheon on Friday, February 12, 2010. White’s book is a bestseller with The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times, and was the main selection of The History Book Club for January 2009.

The luncheon and lecture will be held at the Rosewood Crescent Hotel Ballroom, 400 Crescent Court in Dallas, from 12:00 to 1:30 pm, with opening remarks and University welcome offered by SMU President R. Gerald Turner.

The lecture and symposium are organized by members of the Perkins School of Theology Second Century Campaign Steering Committee, including Talmage Boston, Dodee Crockett, Nita Clark, Rena Pederson, and Holly Philbin.

The event is being underwritten by Dr. Kim Carney and family in memory of Dr. Frederick S. Carney, former Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology and Christian Ethics at Perkins. Gold table sponsors to date include the Vin and Caren Prothro Foundation, the Dallas law office of Winstead P.C., Dodee Crockett, Katherine Glaze Lyle, Holly Philbin, Bob and Lola Sanford, Gay and Bill Solomon, and Kay Prothro Yeager. Proceeds from the lecture will benefit the building projects of the Perkins School of Theology Second Century Campaign.

White’s noon lecture is titled “Abraham Lincoln’s Sermon on the Mount: His Second Inaugural Address.” The afternoon symposium, “Abraham Lincoln’s Religious Odyssey,” will include responses by Professor Charles Curran, Scurlock University Professor of Human Values at SMU, and Professor Rebekah Miles, Associate Professor of Ethics at Perkins. These presentations are scheduled for 4:00 p.m. in the Elizabeth Perkins Prothro Great Hall, 5901 Bishop Blvd. on the SMU campus. The afternoon event is free and open to the public.

A graduate of UCLA, Princeton Theological Seminary, and Princeton University, White is presently a fellow at the Huntington Library and a Visiting Professor of History at UCLA. He has lectured at the White House, as well as at hundreds of universities, civic events, and conventions, and has appeared on the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

Pulitzer Prize winning author James M. McPherson has written that White’s treatment of the 16^th president in A. Lincoln is “the best biography of Lincoln since David Donald’s Lincoln (1995).”  Besides his acclaimed Lincoln biography, White is also the author of Lincoln’s Greatest Speech: The Second Inaugural (2002), honored as a Notable Book of 2002 with The New York Times, and a bestseller with The Washington Post and San Francisco Chronicle; and The Eloquent President: A Portrait of Lincoln Through His Words (2005), a bestseller with The Los Angeles Times and a selection of the History Book Club and the Book-of-the-Month Club.

The cost of the luncheon is $150. To purchase tickets, visit smu.edu/perkins/lifeandfaithlecture. For further information, contact Amanda Barbour at 214-768-3688 or abarbour@smu.edu.