Montpelier ~ Dartmouth College Religion Professor Susan Ackerman will consider recent scholarship suggesting we have more to learn about the Biblical Eve in a talk at Brooks Memorial Library in Brattleboro on December 5. The talk, “All About Eve,” is part of the Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays lecture series and takes place at 7:00 p.m.
Ackerman’s lecture will consider both traditional and contemporary interpretations of the Adam and Eve story and the ways that two of the most famous women of the New Testament, Jesus' mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, were construed as "new Eves" by late antique and medieval theologians.
Ackerman is Chair of the Religion Department at Dartmouth College and holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.
The Vermont Humanities Council’s First Wednesdays Brattleboro series is held on the first Wednesday of every month from October through May, featuring speakers of national and regional renown. The diverse lecture series is also presented in Burlington at Fletcher Free Library; in Manchester at First Congregational Church (hosted by Mark Skinner Library); in Middlebury at Ilsley Public Library; in Montpelier at Kellogg-Hubbard Library; at St. Johnsbury Athenaeum; and at Goodrich Memorial Library in Newport and Stanstead College in Stanstead, Quebec (in alternating months). The program is free, accessible to people with disabilities and open to the public.
Upcoming Brattleboro talks include “No Ordinary Lives,” an exploration of the human dimensions of World War II, with award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns on January 2 (to be held at Brattleboro Museum & Art Center); “Mr. and Mrs. Prince,” about an accomplished African American couple in pre-Civil War New England, with author Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina on February 6; and “Remembering Angelica: the Life and Times of an 18th Century Artist” with author Angela Rosenthal on March 5.
The Vermont Department of Libraries is the statewide underwriter of First Wednesdays. Brooks Memorial Library is sponsored by Brattleboro Savings & Loan, Entergy-Vermont, Friends of Brooks Memorial Library, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc., and Trustees of Brooks Memorial Library.
For more information, contact Brooks Memorial Library at 802.254.5290 or contact the Vermont Humanities Council at 802.262.2626 or info@vermonthumanities.org, or visit www.vermonthumanities.org.
The Vermont Humanities Council is a private nonprofit working to bring the power and the pleasure of the humanities to all Vermonters—of every background and in every community. The Council envisions a state in which every individual learns throughout life—a state in which all its citizens read, reflect, and participate in public affairs.