Keynote address: Conjuring Acts with Martin Luther King Jr.: A Hermeneutics of Divine Equality, Radical Socio-economic Equity, and Courageous Maladjustment, by Dr. Mitzi J. Smith, Professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary and first female graduate in New Testament from Harvard University.

Some things have changed since Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last speech, but much remains the same. In his speeches and sermons, King often draws upon the Hebrew Bible prophetic tradition to articulate the moral and ethical responsibility of human beings and nations to engender freedom, equality, peace, justice, and love in the world. King conjures Micah 6:8 where the prophet states that God requires that human beings love mercy, do justice and walk humbly with God and the Exodus tradition wherein God stands on the side of the oppressed and for freedom from oppression. King challenged us to embody and engender God’s beloved community in the world. And for his theological and rhetorical articulation of the beloved community, King sometimes conjures the New Testament Johannine tradition. Although King may draw less from the Acts of the Apostles, his hermeneutic aligns with a theological and social agenda we find in Acts and Luke. There, the burgeoning assembly of believers, like King’s beloved community, struggles to engender equality, inclusivity, elimination of poverty and justice towards the ends of the earth. King’s beloved community is committed to the common humanity of all people, the elimination of poverty, and maladjustment to oppression and evil through nonviolent resistance. King conjures Acts, but both Acts and King at times miss the mark. Where Acts and King hit and miss the mark remain prophetically relevant for our contemporary context and challenge us to become the beloved community characterized by Divine equality, radical socio-economic equity, and courageous maladjustment.

Dr. Smith's lecture will be followed by a panel discussion about the legacy of MLK's Biblical teaching today.

Panelists: Aaron Chapman (Dedicated to Christ Baptist Church); Kenneth Harris (Ecumenical Theological Seminary); Marvin McMickle (Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School); Larry Smith (New Saint Mark Baptist Church)

This event is organized by the Department of Near Eastern Studies of the University of Michigan with the support of the David Noel Freedman Lectures and the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies.