Each year, the Berkeley Palmer Lectureship examines, through current biblical theology and scholarship, issues of concern to the church and academy.

The theme for this year is A Diasporic People. Dr. Uriah Kim, President of the Graduate Theological Union and Professor of Biblical Studies, presents this year’s Berkeley Palmer Lecture, In Search of God, Identity, and Home with/in Others.

Join us as Dr. Kim reflects on his faith journey, scholarship, and diasporic experience, engaging with a third type of relationship in the Bible that reminds us that no matter how comfortable we may feel in our country of residence or strongly we identify with it, we need to pay attention to our own diasporic situation to fully understand our relation to God and to those who are different from ourselves.

Conversation with Students and Faculty, Friday, April 29, 2–3:30 pm, Graduate Theological Union (GTU) Dinner Board Room, Graduate Theological Union Library. All audiences are welcome!

Plenary Session, Saturday, April 30, 7–8:30 pm, First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley
Q & A and Reception to follow. Session will be offered in person and virtual (more details to come).

For a PDF of the flyer event to download and share with friends and family, click here.

TO REGISTER, click here.

The Berkeley Palmer Lectureship examines current biblical scholarship at the intersection of the Church and the Academy. The lectureship brings the lens of biblical scholarship to the issues of concern to the university, the seminary, and the church.

Uriah Y. Kim is the President of the GTU and John Dillenberger Professor of Biblical Studies. He earned his PhD in Biblical Studies from the GTU, and also holds an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary, a ThM from Candler School of Theology of Emory University, and a BA in philosophy from New York University. He is the author of Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2005) and Identity and Loyalty in the David Story: A Postcolonial Reading (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2008), and is co-editor of Handbook of Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics (T&T Clark, 2019).


First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley and New College Berkeley are pleased to present the 4th annual lectureship in honor of the Reverend Earl F. Palmer, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Berkeley from 1970 to 1991, and founding trustee of New College Berkeley.