Westminster Professor to Deliver Henderson Lecture

Dr. Bryan Rennie, associate professor of religion and philosophy at Westminster College, will deliver the Henderson Lecture, Wednesday, Oct. 9, at 7 p.m. in Wallace Memorial Chapel.

"Our world is possessed of a plurality of religions," said Rennie. "Each individual tradition has its witnesses, its martyrs, its saints, and its pious and virtuous followers."

His talk, "A Rational Response to the Problems of Religious Pluralism: Religious Narratives as Model of the Real," deals with the writings of three disparate authors - a theologian, a historian of religions, and an anthropologist - John Hick, Mircea Eliade, and Clifford Geertz.

The Henderson Lecture, founded by Dr. Joseph R. Henderson and his wife, Elizabeth, was established to encourage and recognize original and continuing research and scholarship among Westminster College faculty, and to afford the opportunity for faculty to share their learning with the academic community. Dr. Henderson, professor Emeritus of education at Westminster College, served as chair of the Department of Education and director of the Graduate Program.

Rennie, who has been with Westminster College since 1994, earned his undergraduate, master's and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was born, raised and educated in England and Scotland. Rennie has authored two books, had numerous articles in leading academic religion journals, organized an international symposium on Eliade in Durban South Africa, and has twice been invited to Romania to lecture on Eliade.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Rennie at (724) 946-7151 or e-mail brennie@westminster.edu.