Dr. Robert Benne

Dr. Robert Benne is the Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion Emeritus and Research Associate in the Religion and Philosophy Department of Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia.  He is has taught for 58 years and is currently Professor of Christian Ethics for the online Lutheran Institute of Theology based in Brookings, SD.   In 1982 he founded the Roanoke College Center for Religion and Society, which the College named in his honor in 2012.

He was Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion and Chair of the Religion and Philosophy Department at Roanoke College for 18 years.  Before that he was Professor of Church and Society at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago for 17 years.  A native of Nebraska and a graduate of Midland University, his graduate degrees are from the University of Chicago.  He has lectured and written widely on the relation of Christianity and culture.  Two of his fourteen books are relevant to the discussion below:  The Paradoxical Vision: A Public Theology for the Twenty-first Century (Fortress Press, 1995) and Good and Bad Ways to Think about Religion and Politics (Eerdmans, 2010)

Bob and his wife, Joanna, have been married sixty-four years.  They have four children and eight grandchildren.

His lecture is entitled “Diversity, Inclusivity, and Equity:  The New Trinity that Undermines Christian Anthropology and What the Church Can Do About It”