2020 Craddock Lecture

This event has been cancelled to help slow the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). We are truly sorry to cancel it and for the inconvenience this might cause.

 

Join us for this year’s Fred B. Craddock Lectures on Preaching, featuring Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla. All events take place April 1, 2020, on the Johnson University Tennessee campus. Contact with your questions!

Speaker: Dr. Abraham Kuruvilla

Dr. Kuruvilla is Senior Research Professor of Preaching and Pastoral Ministries at Dallas Theological Seminary. He is Indian by ethnicity, but was born in Kuwait where his father was working. He has a medical degree from the University of Kerala in India, a Ph.D. in immunology from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, and took his dermatology residency at Boston University School of Medicine. He then moved on to theological education, obtaining a Th.M. from Dallas Theological Seminary and a Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen.

These days, Dr. Kuruvilla centers his ministry around the art and science of preaching: exploring preaching through research and scholarship, explaining preaching by training the next generation of church leaders, and exemplifying preaching in regular pulpit engagements in the U.S. and elsewhere. He has served as the President of the Evangelical Homiletics Society, and in his spare time he writes preaching commentaries and other books related to preaching, all with a focus on the hermeneutics of homiletics. Most recently, he authored A Manual for Preaching: The Journey from Text To Sermon (Baker, 2019).

He has also served as interim preacher of a number of churches in Texas and in Massachusetts.

Dr. Kuruvilla is a Diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology, and he maintains an active clinical schedule seeing patients and taking care of their skin, hair, and nails!

Single by choice, he has a special interest in the theology of Christ-centered singleness and celibacy. He blogs regularly at Homiletix.com.

Schedule

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

9:00 – 9:50 a.m. Dr. Kuruvilla preaches in chapel

10:00 – 11:15 a.m. Dr. Kuruvilla lecture #1

11:45 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. Lunch in Gally Commons ($6.50 per guest)
Free luncheon presentation: Dr. Jon Weatherly, “Preaching and Teaching Philemon: Learning from Paul’s Persuasive Method”

1:10 – 2:25 p.m. Dr. Kuruvilla lecture #2

Dr. Kuruvilla will also preach in chapel on Thursday, April 2, at 9:00 a.m. Watch the livestream of all chapel services here!

Luncheon Presentation

Dr. Jon Weatherly, Vice President for Academics/Provost and Professor of New Testament: “Preaching and Teaching Philemon: Learning from Paul’s Persuasive Method”

11:45 a.m. -1:00 p.m., Gally Commons Dining Hall

$6.50 per guest

 

History of the Craddock Lectures

The Fred B. Craddock Lectures on Preaching honor one of Johnson University’s most renowned and respected alumni. Craddock’s voice has been one of the most influential in homiletics over the last fifty years. A Baylor University research study, published by Newsweek, named Craddock as one of the twelve most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. His scholarly approach to the biblical text and his folksy storytelling combined to make Craddock an exceptional model of creative, effective communication.

Craddock received his education at Johnson University, Phillips Seminary, and Vanderbilt University. He served churches in Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Georgia, and taught at Johnson University, Phillips University, and Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He held the title of Bandy Distinguished Professor of Preaching and New Testament, Emeritus, at Candler, and the Minister Emeritus of Cherry Log Christian Church. He wrote extensively in the fields of preaching and New Testament and spoke at prestigious lectureships around the world.