Minns 2022 — 2023 Series
November 11 & 18, 2022
June 2023

Three Paths, One Way: Pentecostalism, Unitarian Universalism, and Intimations of Liberation

David Breeden

The Great Awakenings, the Cane Ridge Revival, Azusa Street. Nowadays, millions in the United States and hundreds of millions in the larger world embrace charismatic movements, while liberal religious and post-Christian movements wither. Is “a great gulf fixed” between them, or might liberal traditions be missing something hidden in plain sight?

Rev. Dr. David Breeden is Senior Minister at First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis. Raised Pentecostal, he discovered humanism as an adult.

Lecture 1: Classical Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Turn
Modernism in the twentieth century decisively split Christianity into conservative and liberal camps. A century later, is a “common faith” even recognizable?
Respondent: Rev. Dr. Vanessa Gomez Brake (she/her/siya), University of Southern California
When: Friday, November 11, 2022, 7:00 pm EDT
Where: First Church Boston, 66 Marlborough St., Boston, MA

Lecture 2: Stoicism/Epicureanism and the Way of All Flesh
The growing number of religiously unaffiliated has many religious leaders looking for ways to innovate even as ancient traditions gain in popularity.
Respondent: Rev. Shawn Newton First Unitarian Congregation of Toronto
When: Friday, November 18, 2022, 7:00 pm EDT
Where: King's Chapel Parish House, 64 Beacon St., Boston, MA

Lecture 3: Faithfully Becoming: Answering the Call of the Cosmos
Our planet faces extinction. Where is the hope? Did the long-ago revivals at Azusa Street, which launched the global Pentecostal wave, hold the answer all along?
Respondents: Rev. Dr. Jé Exodus Hooper (they/them), First Unitarian Society of Minneapolis; Dr. Ursula Goodenough, Professor Emerita of Biology at Washington University in St. Louis and religious naturalist
When: June 2023
Where: Streaming at the UUA General Assembly, with Dr. Goodenough responding live