Every October a nationally-known scholar, spiritual teacher, or theologian leads a weekend of spiritual discussions and explorations. While Friday evening forums and Sunday sermons are free, tickets are required for Saturday workshops. These workshops often sell out.

The next J21 scholar will be Rev. Dr. Eboni Marshall Turman. Turman earned her B.A. degree from Fordham University, her M. Div., M. Phil., and Ph.D. degrees in Social Ethics from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. Dr. Turman is a dynamic preacher, scholar, and activist whose work specializes in womanist theology and womanist aesthetics. Her scholarship often addresses the intersections of faith, race, and gender. 

Dr. Turman’s first book, Toward a Womanist Ethic of Incarnation, builds upon the work of Alice Walker, W.E.B. DuBois, and Ida B. Wells-Barnett to engage Christian history and the religious and social subjugation of black women. She is currently working on a second book that will deal with sexism, sacred witness, and morality in the black church. Beyond that, Eboni plans to write about the embodied, sacred dance of black women in their daily lives. In this work, Turman seeks to expand our understanding of the way bodies function in concert dance performances and open our imaginations to see the beauty of the sacred dance that bodies engage in each day.