KU News Release

Religion scholar to visit classroom, give lecture at KU

LAWRENCE — A well-known expert on church-state relations will speak to various groups at the University of Kansas next week.

Derek Davis was the longtime director of the J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University. His visit is sponsored by Theologian in Residence, a program supported by religious organizations in Lawrence along with KU, Baker University and Washburn University.

Each spring, Theologian in Residence brings a theologian or religious historian to Lawrence for a series of public lectures and workshops. This year, every program is free and open to the public.

Davis will spend most of Monday, April 16, on the KU campus. At 11 a.m. he will speak to a religious studies class in 208 Smith Hall. His talk is titled “Supreme Court and Religious Issues.” At 12:30 p.m. Davis will participate in a Brown Bag Conversation at Ecumenical Christian Ministries, just north of the KU campus. At 6:45 p.m. he will attend the Religious Studies Awards and Recognitions at ECM. Finally, at 7:30 p.m., Davis will speak on “Religion and Politics in the United States: Conflict and Anomalies” at the Kansas Room in the Kansas Union.

Davis will be in the area April 15-17, speaking to local churches and at Washburn University in Topeka. Highlights include the Eldon Fields Memorial Lecture at 2:30 p.m. April 15 at the Lawrence Unitarian Fellowship and the King Lecture at 7:30 p.m. April 17 at the Washburn Memorial Union.

A full bio for Davis and schedule of events can be found on the ECM Web site under “Faith Dynamics.”

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