7:30 pm, Tuesday, March 17, 2015
AD 28

Bonus Convo: Annual C. Henry Smith Peace Lecture - Perry Bush, Bluffton University

Dr. Perry Bush from Bluffton University presents the annual C. Henry Smith Peace lecture: "The Professor as Peacemaker: C. Henry Smith and the Mennonite Intellectual Tradition, 1920-1948." Dr. Bush elaborates: "In this lecture, I will outline the important role played by the Mennonite historian C. Henry Smith in the development of -- and really, as representative of -- an emerging new role for Mennonites in the first part of the twentieth century: the position of Mennonite public intellectual. While several other Mennonites of Smith's day were engaged in similar activities, to a fair degree Smith pioneered this role, especially after World War I, through a long and increasingly busy public speaking career. While he continued in this role to his death in 1948, Smith's growing prominence as a Mennonite public intellectual crested in the later 1930s as he developed a following across the church, in many secular circles and even on regional radio. In this public activism he repeatedly advocated a consistent Mennonite peace position as the world turned once again to the ways of war. Secondly and finally, in this lecture I'll develop another but equally important role in Smith?s peace advocacy: as a voice for unity within the Mennonite churches in a time of deep and accelerating division. In light of the current struggles of the Mennonite Church, I'll argue, Smith's voice and role as a leading church intellectual may be increasingly relevant for us today."

Contact: Joe Liechty, email joecl@goshen.edu