Professor Leslie Gives DePauw University's Mendenhall Lecture

Eden professor Dr. Kristen Leslie was the 2011-2012 DePauw University Mendenhall Lecturer. DePauw’s Mendenhall Lecture is a cross-denominational, endowed lectureship created to bring nationally and internationally celebrated scholars to DePauw’s campus to address issues related to the academic dialogue in the Christian community.

Dr. Leslie joined the Eden faculty in the fall of 2010 and teaches classes on pastoral care and theology. She is the author of Three Decades of Women Writing for Their Lives in Feminist and Womanist Pastoral Theology and When Violence Is No Stranger: Pastoral Care and Counseling with Survivors of Acquaintance Rape.

Dr. Leslie’s scholarship coincides with the spirit of the lecture series, focusing on intercultural pastoral theology; womanist and feminist pastoral counseling; and pastoral theological implications of sexualized violence. In 2005, Professor Leslie co-authored the report that exposed the problem of Christian proselytizing at the Air Force Academy. Dr. Leslie's presentation, "From Pastoral Care to Conversion: Military Chaplaincy During the Last Decade of War", addressed the evangelical use of the chaplaincy as a means to convert military personnel, religious intolerance, and the need to integrate progressive clergy into military chaplaincy.