"The American Council of Learned Societies' lectures in the History of Religions is a major annual event in the study of religion in this country," said Religion Department Chair Paul Courtright," and Emory is fortunate to have all five lectures. Lawrence Sullivan has an extraordinary gift for seeing the interconnections of sense experience, expression and religious meaning. He is definitely one of the bright stars in the firmament of the contemporary study of religion."
Sullivan is the author of Icanchu's Drum: An Orientation to Meaning in South American Religions (Macmillan, 1988), which won the American Council of Learned Societies' Best Book Award in History of Religions and the Association of American Publishers Best Book Award in Philosophy and Religion. He is also the president-elect of the American Academy of Religion, the principal national association for the academic study of religion, which has its administrative offices on the Emory campus. Sullivan's lectures will make extensive use of multi-media technologies in an exploration of the senses and religious meanings in the American context.
All lectures will be held in Harland Cinema, Dobbs Center, and are free and open to the public. The lecture titles and times are: Lecture I, "The Pilgrim's Chapel and the Shopper's Mall: Spaces That Shape Religious Experience," Thursday, Oct. 26, 4 p.m.; Lecture II, "Soundings: Notes on Music from Shaker Hymns to Coltrane and Mickey Hart," Thursday, Oct. 26, 8 p.m.; Lecture III, "Embodying Memory: The Rites of Easter and the Dances of Martha Graham," Friday, Oct. 27, 4 p.m.; Lecture V, "Assembling the Senses: Religious Experience and the Convergence of Meanings," Saturday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m. A reception will follow the final lecture. For further information, call the Department of Religion at 727-7596.