Roger W. Heyns Lecture

Roger W. Heyns

Established at Memorial Church in 1994, the Roger W. Heyns Lecture in Religion and Society, is an annual event that features a major speaker focusing on problems and challenges of religion and community. Heyns, who was a resident of Atherton, was a member of the Memorial Church congregation from 1977 until his death in 1995.

Heyns served as chancellor at the University of California at Berkeley from 1965 to 1971. The lectureship honors Heyns on his retirement after 16 years as a board member of the James Irvine Foundation.

2014-2015 Heyns Lecture

Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising

January 15, 2015, 6:00 pm
Cemex Auditorium, Knight Management Center

This year’s lecture featured Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Archbishop of Munich and Freising who has emerged as one of the Roman Catholic Church’s most influential figures. He currently serves as the head of the German Bishops’ Conference and as President of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences in the European Union. He is a member of the Council of Cardinals, which advises Pope Francis on church governance, and was appointed head of the new Council for the Economy, designed to oversee the Vatican’s economic management. Cardinal Marx has written and spoken widely on economic questions and the contemporary relevance of Catholic Social Teaching; he is the author of Das Kapital: A Plea for Man (2008).

Past Heyns Lectures

May 23, 1996
Satan and All His Angels (How Early Christians Came to Demonize Jews, ‘Pagans’ and Heretics)
Prof. Elaine Pagels
Princeton University

October 15, 1997
Christian Conviction in a Pluralist Society
Prof. Maurice Wiles
Christ Church, Oxford

May 13, 1998
America’s New Religious Landscape: Negotiating Identities, Negotiating
Differences
Prof. Diana Eck
Harvard University

April 22, 1999
Revisiting Religious Pluralism
Prof. Bruce Lawrence
Duke University

October 13, 2004
Islam: A Short History — and Contemporary Issues
Karen Armstrong
Leo Baeck College for the Training of Rabbis
View Stanford Report article

November 4, 2005
The Heart of Nonviolence
His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
View lecture video – scroll to the bottom of the web page to view video
Read lecture transcript

April 25, 2007
Misquoting Jesus: Scribes Who Altered Scripture and Readers Who May Never Know
Prof. Bart D. Ehrman
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
View Stanford Report article

April 18, 2008
Jesus and Judaism: The Connection Matters
Prof. Amy-Jill Levine
Vanderbilt Divinity School

January 27, 2009
Acts of Faith: Interfaith Leadership in a Time of Religious Crisis
Dr. Eboo Patel, Interfaith Youth Core
View lecture video

February 22, 2010
Religion and Politics in the Obama Era
Rev. Jim Wallis, Sojourners Magazine
View lecture video

June 1, 2011
Beauty & Power, Truth & Good: 21st Century Quest
The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church
View lecture video

May 1, 2012
Anna Deavere-Smith, Actress and playwright
View Stanford Report article

October 17, 2013
The Adventure of Civility
Krista Tippett, Broadcaster and author
View lecture video