2026 Payton Lectures: Indigenous Joy and Biblical Interpretation

Indigenous Joy and Biblical Interpretation

2026 Payton Lectures

April 24 & 25, 2026

Houston, TX and online

Guests may attend in person at the Fuller Houston campus or online. Registered guests attending online will receive a Zoom link.

This event is free and open to the public.

Overview

The Bible affirms that God’s life-giving presence is woven into the lives of particular peoples and places. The Creator delights in the goodness of creation and has never left any land or nation without a witness to divine presence. Yet Euro-American Christian communities have often sidelined the histories, lands, and ceremonies of Indigenous nations—both before and after colonization.

In Indigenous Joy and Biblical Imagination: 2026 Payton Lectures, Indigenous scholars T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Danny Zacharias will explore the theological significance of Indigenous joy that responds to the Creator's generosity and presence among the First Nations of Turtle Island (North America).

Join us for the 2026 Payton Lectures as we reflect on Indigenous joy, the character of God, the formation of Christian communities today, and the importance of reading Scripture with deep attention to land and people.

The Payton Lectures are an annual lectureship that has been running at Fuller since 1948. Their purpose is to provide a series of divinity lectures by notable scholars outside the regular Fuller faculty.

Doors open at 6:00pm (CT) with registration and refreshments. The lecture begins promptly at 7:00pm (CT).

April 24, 7:00 pm (CT): “Turtle Island Hermeneutics”

The first lecture will introduce Turtle Island hermeneutics, an asset-based theology that emphasizes the goodness and beauty of creation and the ways Indigenous peoples have long experienced and expressed divine presence and blessing. Rather than beginning with deficiency or loss, this lecture will model gratitude and joy rooted in the Creator’s original blessing.

April 25, 12:30pm (CT): “Land and Christian Discipleship”

The second lecture will invite us to consider what it means to practice Christian discipleship on specific lands—to read Scripture and live with God in ways attentive to the histories, peoples, and ecologies of the places we inhabit. Through careful engagement with biblical texts and Indigenous perspectives, the lecture will offer a renewed imagination for Christian faithfulness that honors both Scripture and the lands that sustain us.

Lunch will be provided.

PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS

Dr. H. Daniel Zacharias

H. Daniel Zacharias (PhD, Highland Theological College/Aberdeen) is a Cree-Anishinaabe/Métis and Austrian man originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba (Treaty One territory), with ancestors also residing in Treaty Two, Treaty Three, and Treaty Five territories. He lives in Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) with his wife, Maria, and four children in Wolfville, NS. He is associate dean and professor of New Testament studies at Acadia Divinity College, where he has worked since 2007. He also serves as an adjunct faculty for NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community.

Dr. T. Christopher Hoklotubbe

T. Christopher Hoklotubbe (ThD, Harvard) is a proud member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He is the director of graduate studies of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, the first accredited Indigenous designed, developed, delivered, and governed theological institute. He is also assistant professor of classics at Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa). He is the author of Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire, which was awarded the Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise. He and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters and live near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

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