Mark A. Noll Annual Lecture in the History of Christianity

History

In 2010, Dr. Jennifer Powell McNutt (degree coordinator of the M.A. History of Christianity program since 2008) launched an annual lecture in History of Christianity at Wheaton College with the support of the Biblical and Theological Studies Department. The purpose of the lecture is to help raise the profile of the field of Christian History and bring attention to Christianity’s past as an invaluable resource for Christians in the present. Since then, the department has welcomed accomplished scholars in the discipline to share their expertise and wisdom in historical research with the campus community and beyond. In 2017, the lecture was named in honor of Professor Emeritus Dr. Mark Noll and as a way to mark the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation. 

Mark A. Noll, Professor of History Emeritus

Dr. Noll served on faculty from 1976 to 2006. He taught jointly in Wheaton’s History Department and the department of Biblical and Theological Studies. For Wheaton’s graduate programs, he offered advanced courses in American church history, the Reformation, and recent world Christianity. He studied at Wheaton College (class of 1968), the University of Iowa, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and Vanderbilt University. View his full faculty profile

"Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith"

The Litfin Divinity School at Wheaton College presents "Annual Mark A. Noll Lecture." A lecture entitled, "Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith," will be delivered by Elesha Coffman, PhD on Wednesday, November 5, 2025 at 5:00 PM in Blanchard 339.

Anthropologist and Episcopalian Margaret Mead was a complex, modern person. Although she is rarely remembered as a Christian, she embodied a distinctive twentieth-century faith marked by activism, openness, generosity, cooperation, and an unshakeable sense of the interdependence of all beings. She thought of herself as “a newer kind of person that’s only made possible in this century for the things that are happening in this century.” This lecture will explore the ways that Mead brought the resources of her Christian faith to the toughest challenges of her lifetime.

Elesha Coffman is professor of history at Baylor University. A graduate of Wheaton College and Duke University, she is author of three books (The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline, Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith, and Turning Points in American Church History) and president-elect of the American Society of Church History.