Revisiting Restoration: An Alternative Future for Disciples
with Dr. Joel A. Brown
Saturday, April 5, 2025
9:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CST
In-person at Brite Divinity School

In the context of precipitous decline among North American religious institutions, Disciples face something of an identity crisis. How do we speak about a hopeful future when our movement is shrinking? How does our mission change in an increasingly pluralistic religious landscape? This lecture will address this crisis of identity by looking to our history to discover what we might recover that could help us understand who we are in this moment as well as the future that awaits us.

Dr. Joel A. Brown is President of the Disciples of Christ Historical Society, which is located in Bethany, West Virginia. Brown is a scholar of American religious history and specializes in the study of race and religion in modern U.S. history. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and is currently finishing a book titled Saving Black Metropolis: African American Club Women and Social Christianity in Turn-of-the-Century Chicago. Brown is also working on several religious biographies of Disciples figures, including James Garfield and John Muir.

Registration opens August 1.