Interfaith Lecture Series

Interfaith Lecture Series

3 Seasons

The Interfaith Lecture Series is designed to present issues that impact the lived experience of everyday life from theological, religious, spiritual, ethical, and humanitarian perspectives.

About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a unique mix of fine and performing arts, lectures, interfaith worship and programs, and recreational activities. As a community, we celebrate, encourage and study the arts and treat them as integral to all of learning, and we convene the critical conversations of the day to advance understanding through civil dialogue. CHQ Assembly is the online expression of Chautauqua Institution's mission.

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Interfaith Lecture Series
  • Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB

    Episode 1

    Premiering at 2 p.m. ET Friday, August 19, 2022.

    Joan Chittister is one of the most articulate social analysts and influential religious leaders of this age. For over 45 years she has dedicated herself to advocating for universal recognition of the critical questions impacting the global commun...

  • Honorable Jamie Raskin

    Episode 2

    Originally broadcast at 12:15 p.m. ET Tuesday, August 16, 2022.

    Honorable Jamie Raskin

    Everett Jewish Life Center Lecture

    About Chautauqua Institution: Chautauqua Institution is a community on the shores of Chautauqua Lake in southwestern New York state that comes alive each summer with a uni...

  • David Saperstein

    Episode 3

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Monday, June 27, 2022.

    This program is made possible by The Jack and Elizabeth Gellman and Zaretsky Family Fund

    For 40 years, Rabbi Saperstein directed the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, representing the Reform Jewish Movement, the largest segmen...

  • Mohamed Elsanousi

    Episode 4

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, June 28, 2022.

    This program is made possible by The Richard W. and Dorothy B. Comfort Religious Initiatives Fund

    Dr. Mohamed Elsanousi is the Executive Director of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers, a global network that builds b...

  • The Very Rev. Michael Battle, Ph.D.

    Episode 5

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 29, 2022.

    This program is made possible by the Religious Initiatives Fund

    The Very Rev. Michael Battle, Ph.D. is the Herbert Thompson Professor of Church and Society and Director of the Desmond Tutu Center at General Theological Seminary in N...

  • Satpal Singh

    Episode 6

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Thursday, June 30, 2022.

    This program is made possible by The Ralph W. Loew Religious Lectureship Fund

    Dr. Satpal Singh is a Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo. A Founding Trustee of the Sikh Council for Interfaith Relations and a form...

  • Georgette Bennett

    Episode 7

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Friday, July 1, 2022.

    This program is made possible by The Presbyterian Association of Chautauqua Religious Lectureship Fund

    Dr. Georgette Bennett is an award-winning sociologist, widely published author, popular lecturer, and former broadcast journalist. A...

  • Victoria Loorz

    Episode 8

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Monday, July 4, 2022.

    Victoria Loorz, MDiv, is a "wild church pastor," an "eco-spiritual director," and co-founder of several transformation-focused organizations centering on the integration of nature and spirituality. She feels most alive when collaborating...

  • Chief Oren Lyons

    Episode 9

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 5, 2022.

    Chief Oren Lyons is a member of the Onondaga and Seneca Nations of the Iroquois Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Faithkeeper of the Turtle Clan, Onondaga Nation, he serves on the Grand Council of Chiefs of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Conf...

  • Fred Bahnson

    Episode 10

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Wednesday, July 6, 2022.

    Fred Bahnson is an award-winning writer and the author of SOIL & SACRAMENT: A Spiritual Memoir of Food and Faith, described by Bill McKibben as “profoundly and beautifully down to earth – where we all need to spend more time on a plan...

  • Sophfronia Scott

    Episode 11

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Thursday, July 7, 2022.

    Sophfronia Scott is a novelist, essayist, and leading contemplative thinker whose work has appeared in numerous publications, for which she received a 2020 Artist Fellowship Grant from the Connecticut Office of the Arts as well as the ...

  • John Philip Newell

    Episode 12

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Friday, July 8, 2022.

    John Philip Newell is a Celtic teacher and author on spirituality who calls the modern world to reawaken to the sacredness of the Earth and every human being. Canadian by birth, and a citizen also of Scotland, he resides with his family ...

  • Rev. Adam Taylor

    Episode 13

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Monday, July 11, 2022.

    Rev. Adam Russell Taylor is president of Sojourners and author of A More Perfect Union: A New Vision for Building the Beloved Community. Follow him on Twitter @revadamtaylor. Rev. Taylor previously led the Faith Initiative at the World ...

  • Layli Miller-Muro

    Episode 14

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 12, 2022.

    Layli Miller-Muro founded and has served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Tahirih Justice Center for over 20 years. Tahirih is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting women, girls, and other survivors from human rights a...

  • Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im

    Episode 15

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Wednesday, July 13, 2022.

    Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, a native of Sudan, is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law at Emory Law, associate professor in the Emory College of Arts and Sciences, and senior fellow of the Center for the Study of Law and Religio...

  • Cornell William Brooks

    Episode 16

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Thursday, July 14, 2022.

    Cornell William Brooks is Hauser Professor of the Practice of Nonprofit Organizations and Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership and Social Justice at Harvard Kennedy School, where he leads as Director of The William Monroe Tr...

  • Kathryn A. Sikkink

    Episode 17

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Friday, July 15, 2022.

    Kathryn A. Sikkink is the Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and an affiliated faculty member at Harvard Law School and Government Department. Sikkink works on international norms and institution...

  • Marilynne Robinson

    Episode 18

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Monday, July 18, 2022.

    Marilynne Robinson is the recipient of a 2012 National Humanities Medal, awarded by President Barack Obama, for "her grace and intelligence in writing." She is the author of Gilead, winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the ...

  • llia Delio, OSF

    Episode 19

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 19, 2022.

    Ilia Delio, OSF holds the Josephine C. Connelly Chair in Christian Theology at Villanova University. She is the author of over twenty books including Re-Enchanting the Earth: Why AI Needs Religion; Making All Things New: Catholicity, C...

  • Shaul Magid

    Episode 20

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Wednesday, July 20, 2022.

    Shaul Magid is professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and rabbi of the Fire Island Synagogue in Seaview, NY. An expert in Kabbalah, Hasidism, and con...

  • Diane Schenandoah

    Episode 21

    Originally broadcast at 2 p.m. ET Thursday, July 21, 2022.

    Diane Schenandoah, an artist and a Faithkeeper of the Oneida Nation, Wolf Clan of the Six Nations Haudenosaunee Confederacy, is the Syracuse University community's first Honwadiyenawa'sek - "One who helps them." This first of its kind po...

  • Amy Edelstein

    Episode 22

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Friday, July 22, 2022.

    Amy Edelstein, author, educator, and nonprofit leader is a powerful communicator of ideas that can help us transform ourselves and the culture we live in. Her work illustrates the insight that comes from viewing all our experience in a ...

  • Sherman J. Clark

    Episode 23

    Originally broadcast at 2 p.m. ET Monday, July 25, 2022.

    Professor Sherman J. Clark graduated from the Harvard Law School and practiced with the law firm of Kirkland and Ellis before joining the faculty of the Michigan Law School. He teaches courses on torts, evidence, and legal ethics. Clark’...

  • Diana Aviv

    Episode 24

    Originally broadcast at 2:00 p.m. ET Tuesday, July 26, 2022.

    Diana Aviv is CEO of the Partnership for American Democracy. She previously served as CEO of Feeding America, the largest anti-hunger organization in the United States, from 2015-2018. For twelve years, Diana was President & CEO of Ind...