Strengths and weaknesses of Christianity from the perspective of African American women

Diana L. Hayes, professor of theology at Georgetown University, will give a lecture on themes in her recent book, Standing in the Shoes My Mother Made: A Womanist Theology (Fortress Press, 2010), on Tuesday, April 26 at 4 p.m. in Rehm Library, Smith Hall at the College of the Holy Cross.

The lecture is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity presented by the College’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. It is free and open to the public.

In the book, Hayes combines personal reflection with theological analysis to explore strengths and weaknesses of Christianity from the perspective of African American women. A leading commentator and forger of womanist thought, Hayes is author of many books, including Were You There? Stations of the Cross (Orbis Books, 2000); And Still We Rise: An Introduction to Black Liberation Theology (Paulist Press, 1995); and Hagar’s Daughters: Womanist Ways of Being in the World (Paulist Press, 1995). She is co-editor, with Cyprian Davis, of Taking Down Our Harps: Black Catholics in the United States. (Orbis Books, 1998).

Hayes is the first African American to earn a doctor of sacred theology degree from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. She received the 2001 U.S. Catholic Award for furthering the role of women in the church. Hayes’s talk is supported by the Rehm Family Endowment and co-sponsored by the Women and Gender Studies and Africana Studies at Holy Cross. For more information about this and other events hosted by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, and to listen to lectures online, visit www.holycross.edu/crec.

College of the Holy Cross 1 College Street, Worcester, MA 01610 • (508) 793-2011 April 15th, 2011 Danielle Kane