2025 Willson Lectures with Rev. Dr. Becky Copeland

Name: 2025 Willson Lectures with Rev. Dr. Becky Copeland
Start: 2025-10-09T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-10-09T20:30:00-05:00
Location: Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel

Schedule

Thu Oct 09 2025 at 01:00 pm to 08:30 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel | Oklahoma City, OK

2025 Willson Lectures at Oklahoma City University - Free and open to the public
When October 9, 2025, Chapel time from 1 to 2 p.m. Lecture: 2:30 to 3:45 p.m., and Lecture: 7 to 8:30 p.m.
Where: Bishop W. Angie Smith Chapel, Oklahoma City University - There will be live streaming for those who need to attend remotely.
Chapel Lecture at 1 p.m.: The Ambiguity of Empire (Sanctuary in W. Angie Smith Chapel)
Lecture at 2:30 p.m.: Confronting Guilt, Overcoming Shame (Watson Lounge in W. Angie Smith Chapel)
Lecture at 7 p.m.: Bad Gardeners?: Reconsidering the Agricultural Parables (Watson Lounge in W. Angie Smith Chapel)

Rev. Dr. Becky Copeland serves as Associate Professor of Theology and the Director of the Faith and Ecological Justice Program at the Boston University School of Theology, Affiliated Faculty with the Boston University Institute for Global Sustainability, and a provisional deacon with the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. Her research and teaching engage theology, ethics, and biblical studies, exploring the ways in which classical Christian texts and doctrine can be reconstructed considering what we learn about the world through environmental studies.
Dr. Copeland has published two books, numerous articles in biblical studies and theology, and received prestigious fellowships and grants to support her work. Her first two books, Created Being: Expanding Creedal Christology (Baylor, 2020) and Entangled Being: Unoriginal Sin and Wicked Problems (Baylor, 2024), use a relational lens to reconsider Christian understandings of the incarnation, sin, and repentance. Her current book project, Replanting the Uprooted: A Social-Ecological Approach to the Agricultural Parables, re-examines parables in the Synoptic Gospels in light of the concrete agricultural practices in the early Roman empire. She will be on research leave during the 2025–2026 academic year, working on this and other projects.
Dr. Copeland was named the 2023-2024 Boston University School of Theology Exemplary Teacher of the Year (awarded by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, UMC) and received the Boston University School of Theology Teaching Excellence Award (awarded by the Class of 2024). She has served in various community and church roles, including as a deacon for Wesley UMC in Worcester, and a member of the Worcester Congregations for Climate and Environmental Justice, the Methodist Higher Education Environmental and Social Responsibility Initiative, and the United Methodist Creation Care Vocations Group.
Willson Lectures
The Willson Lectures are provided by an endowment from James M. and Mavis Willson of Floydada, Texas. The lectures are directed to the interest of students in the area of religion and society.
The Willsons were outstanding members of the United Methodist Church. Their Christian vision was truly ecumenical in its outreach. Since 1953, their gift to Oklahoma City University has brought to campus speakers of international stature from the areas of religion, science, Christian theology and ethics, church history, biblical studies, and liturgical studies.