Jennifer Powell McNutt 2027 Hansen Lectures
The Bible and Christian Imagination: George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, and J.R.R. Tolkien as Public Theologians
Though they are primarily known for their works of fiction, including fairy stories and detective mysteries, authors George MacDonald, Dorothy L. Sayers, and J.R.R. Tolkien brought the world of the Bible to their literary pursuits as public theologians. In various ways and through different genres, these three authors extended the reach of the Bible’s message and the public perception and understanding of the Christian faith in expansive and influential ways. Over the course of three lectures, Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt will pair the burgeoning field of Bible reception history with the public theology of MacDonald, Sayers, and Tolkien as it spans Christian traditions and reaches beyond the walls of the church. McNutt’s lectures will build upon the recent publication of Lewis scholar, Dr. Leslie Baynes and her book, Between Interpretation & Imagination: C.S. Lewis and the Bible (2025), to reflect on the interplay between the artistic contributions of the Wade authors and their reception of the biblical text. The Bible and the Christian imaginations of MacDonald, Sayers, and Tolkien come to life in their contributions respectively as literary preachers, broadcasters, and translators with an impact that continues today. The Hansen lectures will be held in the Wade Center's Bakke Auditorium (351 E. Lincoln Ave.) at 7:00pm Central, and are free and open to the public.
The lectures are recorded and uploaded to the Wade Center's YouTube channel.
The Rev. Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt, Ph.D., Fr.Hist.S. is Professor of Theology and History of Christianity at Wheaton College in the Litfin Divinity School where she holds the Franklin S. Dyrness Chair of Biblical and Theological Studies. Dr. McNutt received her Ph.D. in History from the University of St. Andrews, M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and B.A. in Religious Studies from Westmont College. She is a Fellow in the Royal Historical Society and program director of Wheaton’s M.A. programs in Theology and History of Christianity. Her scholarship and teaching explore the history of Christianity, Reformed theology, and the French Bible. Recent publications include co-editing The Oxford Handbook of the Bible and the Reformation (Oxford University Press, 2025), which received the John Tedeschi Prize for the Best Reference Book of 2025 from the Sixteenth Century Society. She is the author of The Mary We Forgot: What the Apostle to the Apostles Teaches the Church Today (Brazos Press, 2024), a 2025 ECPA Book of the Year Finalist. She co-wrote Know the Theologians (Zondervan, 2024) with Dr. David McNutt, which was the CT Book Awards Finalist in Public Theology for 2024. She is also the recipient of the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize and the Sydney E. Mead Prize by the American Society of Church History for her scholarship on Geneva’s eighteenth-century clergy. The primary focus of Dr. McNutt’s current research seeks to uncover the reception of the Bible and its interpretive force in the context of Christian history and society.
Lecture Dates and Titles
January 28, 2027 - "The Poet’s Bible: George MacDonald and the Gospel Women"
Respondent: Rev. Dr. Amy Peeler, Kenneth T. Wessner Professor of New Testament; Director of Ph.D. Program
“Imagine Macbeth in a Presbyterian Church!” wrote Mrs. Louisa MacDonald after her husband, the Scottish Poet George MacDonald (1824-1905), delivered a celebrated lecture at Princeton Theological Seminary during his American Tour (1872-1873). According to the reviews of the time, George MacDonald delivered literary lectures with the voice of a preacher and the command of a clergyman, which not only gave him access to the lecture halls of his day but the pulpits of England and America as well. What parts of Scripture formed MacDonald’s Christian imagination and how did those passages inform his work? McNutt’s lecture will explore how MacDonald’s public theology wove the poetic with the homiletic through a study of Unspoken Sermons (1867-1889) and A Hidden Life & Other Poems (1893). As MacDonald forged new literary avenues and genre through his fictional writing, he was also drawing popular attention from pulpit to pen to the hidden stories of the Gospel Women.
February 25, 2027 - "The BBC Bible: Dorothy L. Sayers and the Broadcasting of Jesus"
Respondent: Dr. Alison Caviness Gibson, Senior Lecturer of English, Director of the Writing Center and First-Year Writing
Playwright, novelist, and public theologian, Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), shared the story of Jesus Christ in her popular BBC radio drama, The Man Born to Be King, which she wrote during World War II. Over the course of its highly successful airing, from December 1941 until October 1942, Sayers fielded overly-directive messages from the BBC, “insights” and “suggestions” from Bishops to Archbishops, and the snooping of newspaper reporters trying to scandalize stories based on confidential material about the show. All the while she responded to letters of fans and listeners, who were as eager to compliment her as they were to correct her interpretation. Through these exchanges as recorded in her correspondence, Sayer’s hermeneutical, exegetical, theological, and literary priorities come to light in her effort to capture and broadcast a biblical account of Jesus to a general audience.
March 18, 2027 - "The Translator’s Bible: J.R.R. Tolkien’s Jonah and the Christian Imagination"
Respondent: Rev. Dr. John Dickson, Jean Kvamme Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies and Public Christianity
J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) is widely celebrated for the way in which his expertise as a philologist informed his fantasy literature including The Lord of the Rings. In fact, Tolkien’s skill also extended beyond the bounds of the academy and the world of fiction to the pages of The Jerusalem Bible (1966). Dr. McNutt’s lecture will explore Tolkien’s translation of the Book of Jonah and his contribution as lexicographer to enhance our understanding of how his encounter with the Bible shaped the public theology of his literary contribution. This lecture builds upon the work of Clyde S. Kilby’s Tolkien and The Silmarillion to understand Tolkien as Public Theologian of the Christian imagination.
Photographer: Douglas Gilbert