The Minns Lectures 2022–2023

David Breeden

Three Paths, One Way:  Pentecostalism, Unitarian Universalism, and Intimations of Liberation

The Great Awakenings, the Cane Ridge Revival, Azusa Street.
Nowadays, millions in the United States and hundreds of millions in the larger world embrace charismatic movements, while liberal religious and post-Christian movements wither. Is “a great gulf fixed” between them, or might liberal traditions be missing something hidden in plain sight?

Rev. Dr. David Breeden is Senior Minister at First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis. Raised Pentecostal, he discovered humanism as an adult.

Attend in person or online. Register at no cost at www.MinnsLectures.org.

Lecture 1:  Classical Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Turn

Modernism in the twentieth century decisively split Christianity into conservative and liberal camps. A century later, is a “common faith” even recognizable?

November 11, 7:00 p.m. (EST)
First Church Boston
Respondent:  Rev. Dr. Vanessa Gomez Brake (she/her/siya)
University of Southern California

Lecture 2:  Stoicism/Epicureanism and the Way of All Flesh

The growing number of religiously unaffiliated has many religious leaders looking for ways to innovate even as ancient traditions gain in popularity.

November 18, 7:00 p.m. (EST)
King’s Chapel Parish House, Boston
Respondent: Rev. Shawn Newton
First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto

Lecture 3:  The Path of Liberation

Our planet faces extinction. Where is the hope? Did the long-ago revivals at Azusa Street, which launched the global Pentecostal wave, hold the answer all along?

June 2023
Proposed: UUA General Assembly
Respondent:  Rev. Dr. Jé Exodus Hooper (they/them)
First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis