Scholars Discuss Chapel Dean Luke Powery’s New Book ‘Becoming Human’

In this online conversation on March 7, 2023, Duke Chapel Dean Luke A. Powery discusses his latest book, "Becoming Human: The Holy Spirit and the Rhetoric of Race," with two leading scholars in fields that are important to the book.
Dean Powery, an associate professor of homiletics at Duke Divinity School, is joined by the Rev. Dr. Willie James Jennings, associate professor of systematic theology and Africana studies at Yale University Divinity School, and Dr. Charmaine Royal, the Robert O. Keohane Professor of African and African American Studies, Biology, Global Health, and Family Medicine and Community Health at Duke University. The moderator for the conversation is Dr. Patrick Smith, director of the Program in Bioethics at Duke's Trent Center for Bioethics, Humanities & History of Medicine and also an associate research professor of theological ethics and bioethics at Duke Divinity School.
In "Becoming Human," Dean Powery contrasts a view of humanity that sees race as essential and valuing some bodies over others with a theological understanding of humanity, shaped by the biblical account of Pentecost, that sees the diversity of human bodies as one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Published by Westminster John Knox Press and winner of the 2023 Book of the Year award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, the book gets its title from the 1968 eulogy for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. given by the theologian Dr. Howard Thurman. “[Dr. King] was killed in one sense because [hu]mankind is not quite human yet,” Dr. Thurman said. “May he live because all of us in America are closer to becoming human than ever before.”
Campus co-sponsors of the event include: Center for Christianity and Scholarship, Department of African and African American Studies, Forum for Scholars and Publics, and Duke Divinity School Office of Black Church Studies.

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