Scholars Discuss “Becoming Human” with Author Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery

Scholars Discuss Dean Luke Powery’s Book ‘Becoming Human’

In this online conversation, Duke Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery discusses his latest book, Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race, with two leading scholars in fields that are important to the book.

Dean Powery, an associate professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, is joined by the Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings, associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University Divinity School, and Dr. Charmaine Royal, the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African and African American Studies, Biology, Global Health, and Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University.

In Becoming Human, Dean Powery contrasts a view of humanity that sees race as essential and valuing some bodies over others with a theological understanding of humanity, shaped by the biblical account of Pentecost, that sees the diversity of human bodies as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Published by Westminster John Knox Press and winner of the 2023 Book of the Year award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, the book gets its title from the 1968 eulogy for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. given by the theologian Dr. Howard Thurman: “[Dr. King] was killed in one sense because [hu]mankind is not quite human yet,” Dr. Thurman said. “May he live because all of us in America are closer to becoming human than ever before.”

The online conversation on March 7, one the Chapel’s Bridge Panels, is the culminating event for this year’s Duke Chapel Reads program, which promotes reflection and conversation on a common book reading each semester.

People watching the conversation online will be invited to submit questions for the panelists.

Read more about Dean Powery and the panel.

Watch Dean Powery discuss his book on Duke Professor Mark Anthony Neal's "Left of Black" webcast.

Campus co-sponsors of the event include: Department of African and African American Studies, Forum for Scholars and Publics, and Duke Divinity School Office of Black Church Studies.

Registration required.