March 20 — Speaker Dr. William Yoo
6:00-6:30 we will share appetizers (please bring finger
food to share
6:30 — Dr. William Yoo
Dr. Yoo has previously written about the
transnational histories of American Protestant world
missions in Korea and Korean
American immigrant religious
communities as well as the
histories of Presbyterianism
and Protestant theological
education in the United States.
His latest book covers the
history and legacy of slavery and
anti-Black racism in American
Presbyterianism. His current research interests
include tracing the histories of racial injustice, settler
colonialism, and slavery in the United States and
examining Indigenous, Black, and Asian American
theologies of freedom and resistance.
He is also a minister of Word and Sacrament
in the Presbyterian Church (USA) who desires
to write, teach, and preach honest narratives of
the past integrating Reformed understandings of
confession and illumination. His conviction is that
deeper engagement with history will aid us in more
faithful and effective participation in our present
ministries exhibiting God’s love, justice, grace, and
righteousness. When studying the development of
Christianity in the antebellum United States, he is
motivated to find both beautiful moments of awe-inspiring faith and ugly episodes where it is difficult
to discern the divine presence. He began teaching at
Columbia Theological Seminary in 2014.