The 2017 Dillard Forum was a great success. For details about this previous Dillard Forum event, please see below.
The Protestant Reformers and Scripture
Sunday & Monday, October 22-23, 2017
Featuring: Dr. G. Sujin Pak
Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity, Duke Divinity School
Free and Open to the Public
Why Should I Attend?
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther published his “95 Theses” which set into motion new thinking that turned upside down the religious, cultural, and political thinking of Roman Catholic Europe. Protestant reformers believed that the Bible, not tradition, should be the source of spiritual authority. Come hear Dr. Pak explore the church’s relationship with Scripture as the Protestant reformers saw it, and its importance for us today.
Dr. G. Sujin Pak
Dr. G. Sujin Pak served as Associate Dean of Academic Programs at Duke Divinity School from 2012-15 and has been a faculty member there since
2008. She specializes in the history of Christianity in late medieval and early modern Europe. She is a graduate of Emory University, where she earned her B.A., double-majoring in religion and psychology.
She earned her MTS at Duke Divinity School and her PhD at Duke University. Dr. Pak is an active lay preacher and Bible study leader in the United Methodist Church and the daughter of United Methodist missionaries to South Korea. Her father is a native Korean and a professor emeritus of worship at a Mokwon Methodist seminary in South Korea. Her father, both grandfathers, and aunts and uncles on both sides of her family are ordained United Methodist pastors and deacons.
Dr. Pak’s teaching, research and writing focus upon the theology of the Protestant reformers, the Protestant Reformation and the Jews, women and the Reformation, the history of biblical interpretation, and, more
recently, views and uses of prophecy in the early modern era. She has published two books, one entitled The Judaizing Calvin: Sixteenth-Century Debates over the Messianic Psalms (Oxford University Press,
2010) and another forthcoming with Oxford entitled The Reformation of Prophecy: Early Modern Interpretations of the Prophet and Old Testament Prophecy. Dr. Pak has also written several articles in journals such as Church History, Reformation & Renaissance Review, Religions, Calvin Theological Journal, and Church History and Religious Culture.
Dr. Pak lives in Durham, NC and is married to Ken Boyer, a Presbyterian who also grew up as a missionary kid in South Korea. She and Ken have two daughters, ages 10 and 12. In addition to her love of historical novels, Dr. Pak is an athlete who enjoys a variety of sports, particularly basketball, volleyball, and running.
Event Schedule
Sunday, October 22, 2017
9:30 AM: The Telos of Scripture and the Literal Sense
What the Protestant reformers believed was the main reason for reading scripture.
7:00 PM: The Perspicuity (Clarity) of Scripture, Justification by Faith Alone, and the Role of the Church
Three key contributions of the Protestant reformers and how they are interconnected.
Monday, October 23, 2017
12:00 PM: The Top Ten Changes or Contributions of the Protestant Reformation
A lecture discussion and lunch.*
*The cost for lunch is $7.00 per person. Request lunch reservations by
Friday, October 20, 2017 NOON by calling 804-288-6056.
7:00 PM: Scripture, Prophecy, and the Priesthood of All Believers
How the Protestant reformers, using Scripture, sought to carve out a middle ground between the Roman Catholic church and a more radical approach.
Childcare will be provided. Please call 804-288-6056 if you will need this service.
CEU
Participants can earn .5 CEU with attendance of three or more sessions
What is the Dillard Forum
The Dillard Forum is a ministry of Trinity United Methodist Church designed to examine how faith communities speak to the 21st century. An annual event featuring a theologian or biblical scholar, the Forum was established in 2003 to honor F. Douglas Dillard, Jr. who, with his wife Marion, served Trinity for eight years (1981-1989) as senior minister and later three and a half years as minister of congregational care. An eloquent teacher and scholar, Dr. Dillard died in 2005.
Previous Forum speakers have included the Drs. M. Douglas Meeks, Amy Jill Levine, Leander E. Keck, Stanley Hauerwas, James “Mickey” Efird, Roberta C. Bondi, Brian K. Blount, Denise Dombkowski Hopkins, L Gregory Jones, William H. Willimon, Kristin Swenson, Charles Marsh, R. Kendall Soulen, and Peter W. Ochs.
The Dillard Forum Endowment Fund provides the funding for this ministry. Gifts may be made payable to the Trinity Foundation/Dillard Forum.