The relationship between personal faith and participation in the public sphere has always been a source of tension in American life, and our current political climate has only served to amplify the importance of this relationship. In the long history of this tension, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. stands out as a profound and influential figure who sought to pursue the political implications of personal faith. Join Civil Rights scholar, Dr. Greg Thompson (Ph.D., University of Virginia), as he leads an exploration of the oft-quoted, and oft-misunderstood, religious and political work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sponsored by: Upper House, Geneva Campus Church, Lake Trails Presbyterian Church, Resurrection Presbyterian Church, Providence Presbyterian Church, RUF at UW

Greg Thompson (B.A., The University of South Carolina, MDiv., Covenant Theological Seminary, MA, Ph.D., The University of Virginia) is the Director of Research and Strategy at Clayborn Reborn, an initiative restoring the historic Clayborn Temple in Memphis, TN. Before serving at Clayborn, Greg was the Senior Pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, VA, and CEO of Thriving Cities Group, a social impact consulting firm that aligns impact investors and entrepreneurs around shared data and a shared vision for human thriving in their city. Greg also served as Executive Director of New City Commons, an education and consulting firm that equips institutional leaders for the work of nurturing thriving communities, and was an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, where he wrote his dissertation on Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American democratic imagination.