Scholar, author presenting free lectures

MT. PLEASANT ? Iowa Wesleyan?s 2014 Annual Manning Speaker, the Rev. Renita J. Weems, will present two free lectures Feb. 27 in the Chapel Auditorium on the college?s campus in Mt. Pleasant.

Weems will present a lecture titled ?So, You Want to Be a Prophet: Jeremiah? at 11 a.m. and a lecture titled ?So, You Want to Be a Prophet: 1st and 2nd Kings? at 7 p.m.

The lectures are free and open to the public.

Weems has taught at Vanderbilt University Divinity School, where she was the first African American woman to be tenured. She is the first African American woman to earn a doctorate of philosophy in Old Testament, Princeton Theological Seminary, and she was the first African American woman to deliver the prestigious Lyman Beecher Lecture at Yale University.

Weems is featured in ?Black Stars: African American Religious Leaders,? a collection of biographies of some of the most important black religious leaders during the last 200 hundred years, including such impressive figures as Elijah Muhammad, Sojourner Truth, Howard Thurman and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Weems is an acclaimed biblical scholar and award-winning writer whose scholarly insights into modern faith, biblical texts and the role of spirituality in everyday lives make her a highly sought after writer and speaker. Her 1999 book, ?Listening for God: A Minister?s Journey through Silence and Doubt,? won the Religious Communicators Council?s 1999 Wilbur Award for ?excellence in communicating spiritual values to the secular media.?

Her writings include ?Just a Sister Away,? ?Marriage, Sex, and Violence in the Prophets,? ?Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God? and ?What Matters Most: Ten Passionate Lessons from the Song of Solomon.?

The free lectures are made possible by funding from the Clifford and Maxine Manning Annual Speaker Series.