Schaff Lectures 2025
David S. Schaff Lectures with Teresa L. Fry Brown
April 23, 2025 at First Presbyterian Church, Youngstown, Ohio
April 24, 2025 at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pa.
In-person and Online
Beginning in 2025, the Schaff Lectures will coincide with PTS Alumnae/i Days, and attendees to Alumnae/i Days will be invited to attend the Schaff Lectures in Pittsburgh.
About Teresa L. Fry Brown
The Rev. Dr. Teresa L. Fry Brown is the associate dean of academic affairs and Bandy Professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. Additionally, she is the 14th historiographer, the editor of the A.M.E. Review, and executive director of research and scholarship and president of the General Officers’ Council of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Fry Brown served as director of Black church studies at Candler from 2007 to 2015. She earned her doctor of philosophy in religious and theological studies from the Iliff School of Theology and the University of Denver, with an emphasis in religion and social transformation (1996). She earned her master of divinity from Iliff School of Theology (1988), master of science degree (1975), and bachelor of science degree (1973) in speech pathology and audiology from the University of Central Missouri.
Fry Brown has extensive teaching and preaching experience in national, international, academic, and ecumenical settings. A prolific author, her books include Delivering the Sermon: Voice, Body and Animation in Proclamation (2008); Can A Sister Get a Little Help: Advice and Encouragement for Black Women in Ministry (2008); God Don’t Like Ugly: African American Women Handing on Spiritual Values (2000); Weary Throats and New Song: Black Women Proclaiming God’s Word (2003) and the 2006 African American History Devotional (2006). Additionally, she has published 50 other reviews, chapters, and commentaries.
Fry Brown is a member of the American Academy of Religion (Steering Committee of Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group), Society for the Study of Black Religion, and the Academy of Homiletics (first vice president 2021, then president 2022). She was honored for her academic achievements at the Eighteenth Annual Black Religious Scholar Group Consultation at the American Academy of Religion (2015), and was honored with the Emory-Williams Distinguished Teaching Award (2017), Samuel Dewitt Proctor Beautiful Are the Feet Award (2019), and Turner Theological Seminary Lifetime Achievement Award (2021). She is an ordained itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and an associate minister at New Bethel A.M.E. Church, Lithonia, Ga.
Fry Brown’s life is governed by the words of the Prophet Isaiah “Those whose hope is in the Lord gain new strength” and Zora Neale Hurston, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”
Schedule
Coming soon! Check back later for details.
Registration
The Schaff Lecture is free and open to the public. There may be costs associated with additional programming related to the lecture.
Registration will be open soon.
About the Schaff Lectures
The Schaff Lecturers are named for David S. Schaff, who taught church history for 23 years at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and is best known as co-editor of the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia. The lectures, which are intended to be academic in nature, occur over a two- or three-day period. A unique feature of the series is that some of the presentations take place in nearby Youngstown, Ohio, in collaboration with the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.
The late Jane Booth Schaff (Mrs. Philip H. Schaff), 1894-1981, came from a family with historic ties to theological education. For 23 years, her father-in-law, Professor David S. Schaff, taught church history at Western Theological Seminary. Western is one of the antecedents of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Before beginning his teaching duties in 1903, he held two pastorates.
In her will, Mrs. Schaff provided for the completion of the endowment of the previously established David S. Schaff Lectureship at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, with an important stipulation and addition that the Schaff Lecturer(s) would deliver one address in Youngstown. This was a unique concept, bringing a world renowned lecturer to the Mahoning Valley for religious and cultural enrichment. For this reason, representatives of the finest scholarship of the theological world visit Youngstown annually to participate in this program. This educational experience is open to people of all denominations and faiths and celebrates the power of words shared to create, support, and thus nurture and strengthen community. The faculty of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary select the Schaff lecturer, rotating among nine academic disciplines in theological education.