RESUME

 Gene L. Davenport

Professor Emeritus of Religion, Lambuth University (formerly Lambuth College)

Theologian in Residence, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Jackson, Tennessee, 2008 - 2015

Family: Pamela (Davenport) Graf (b. 1964)

             Deborah (Davenport) Leavitt  (b. 1970)

Education

 Sylacauga High School, 1953

Birmingham-Southern College, B.A., Psychology, Hours equivalent to major in religion, 1957

Vanderbilt Divinity School, B.D., 1960

 Vanderbilt University, Ph. D., Religion, 1968  (Dissertation topic: The Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees) Major: Old Testament; Minor: 18th Century British Methodism

 Graduate work in special education, Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), 1972

Honors, Awards, and Scholastic Memberships

            Phi Beta Kappa Scholarship, 1953

            Omicron Delta Kappa, 1956

            Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, 1957

            Eta Sigma Phi Scholastic Society, 1955-57

            Honors on Comprehensive Examinations, Vanderbilt Divinity School, 1960

            President of Student Cabinet, Vanderbilt Divinity School, 1959-60

            Omicron Phi Tau, Lambuth University, 1964 -  (Twice President)

            Billy P. Exum Outstanding Teacher Award, Lambuth University, 1989

            Luther L. Gobbel Outstanding Faculty Award  2004

Lambuth University Ranks and Positions

            Assistant Professor of Religion, 1963-68

            Associate Professor of Religion, 1968-72

            Professor of Religion, 1972 – 2008

            Chair, Department of Religion and Philosophy, 1968-82, 2001 – 2008

            Chaplain, 1987-88

Lambuth University Committee Responsibilities

            Academic Affairs Committee  (Four times Chair)

            Library Committee (Twice Chair)

            Orientation Committee (Once Chair)

            Ad Hoc Committee on Black Student Life at Lambuth (Chair)

            Advisor, Black Student Union

            Religious Life Committee (Once Chair)

            Focus Committee (Successor to Religious Emphasis Week Committee)

            Committee on Committees (Committee that restructured the organization of the

                        Faculty at Lambuth – Chair)

            Special Events Committee

            Editor and Founder, Lambuth Review

            Editorial Board, Coffeehouse Papers

            Committee on Promotion and Tenure (Twice Chair)

            Committee on Learning Accommodations (Four times Chair)

            Committee on Student Financial Aid (Four years Chair)

            Secretary of Vice-President Search Committee

            Self-Study Subcommittee on Student Life (Secretary)

            Self-Study Committee on Financial Resources (Chair)

            Self-Study Subcommittee on Curriculum (Chair)

            Faculty Council (Five terms, scattered; Three times Chair)

Steering Committee for Shoah: Symposium on the Holocaust (Co-Chair) 1987

            Steering Committee for Lambuth-B'nai Israel Center for Jewish Studies (Chair) 2002 - 2008

Courses and Areas Taught at Lambuth

            Bible: Introductory and advanced courses in Old and New Testaments;

Intertestamental Literature; Methods of Biblical Scholarship; the Bible in Dialogue with Culture and Politics

History and Theology: Christian Tradition; Contemporary Christian Thought;

Courses on the theology of Augustine, John Calvin, William Stringfellow, Jacques Ellul, Thomas Merton, Will D. Campbell; Women Theologians; Biographies of Religious Leaders; Religious Beliefs of U.S. Founding Fathers; History of Christian Worship

            Christian Education: Introduction to Christian Education; Practicum in Christian Education

Christian Ethics

            World Religions: Chinese Religions and Philosophies; Indian Religions and

                        Philosophies; Judaism; Islam; Elie Wiesel and the Holocaust; the Holocaust;

                        Religions of Africa; Classics of Eastern Thought;

            Languages: Classical Hebrew (Elementary, Intermediate, Advanced); New

                        Testament Greek (Elementary and Intermediate)

            Interdisciplinary Courses: Communes and Family Development; Religion and

Contemporary Literature; Religious and Philosophical Aspects of Western and Country Music; The Nineteenth Century (Junior Seminar); The Twentieth Century (Senior Seminar); The Ancient World (Honors Course); The Nineteenth Century (Honors Course); Faculty Summer Course on the Nineteenth Century

            Sociology Department: Racial and Cultural Minorities

Lambuth University Miscellaneous

            Initiated and wrote the description of Lambuth’s Special Major

            Initiated Practicum in Special Education at Lambuth

            Initiated Interdisciplinary major in Religion and Philosophy at Lambuth

            Initiated Lambuth-B'nai Israel Center for Jewish Studies at Lambuth

            Professional Memberships: Society of Biblical Litearature

(formerly member of American Academy of Religon)

Scholarly Activities and Publications

Invited Participant in Two-Week Graduate Summer Institute in Judaism, Vanderbilt

            University, 1970

            Member, Pseudipigrapha Seminar, Society of Biblical Literature, 1970’s and 1980’s

            Invited participant in Seminar on Pseudepigraphic Literature in the Ethiopic

                        Language, Tantur, Jerusalem, 1978

            Participant in Pseudepigraphic Seminar, Society for New Testament Studies, Paris,

                        France, 1978

            Invited Participant in Seminar on Buddhism, Vanderbilt Divinity School, 197_

            Numerous presentations for Faculty Forum at Lambuth

            Member, Enoch Seminar, International Bi-annual seminar, 2007 -

Books

What’s the Church For?  Friendship Press, 1968

The Eschatology of the Book of Jubilees, E.J. Brill, 1971

King  Jesus: Servant, Lord, Soul Brother, Graded Press, 1972

Into the Darkness: Discipleship According to the Sermon on the Mount,

            Abingdon  Press, 1988; Re-issued, Wipf and Stock, 2003

Powers and Principalities, The Pilgrim Press, 2003

Though the Mountains Shake (Wipf & Stock, in progress) 

Essays and Studies

“William Stringfellow: Pilgrim in the Valley of the Shadow,” Motive, April-May, 1971

“The ‘Anointed of the Lord’ in Psalms of Solomon 17,” Ideal Figures in Ancient

Judaism: Profiles and Paradigms, Scholars Press, 1980

            “Fifty Years on the Tumbleweed Trail: The Sons of the Pioneers,” Country Sounds,

November, 1986 (1986 Award for Best Article on Pre-1980’s   Singing Groups)

“Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technique,” Jacques Ellul Study

Forum, July 1991

            “Overture: Selling Our Identity“, Homily Service: An Ecumenical Resource for

                      Sharing the Word, Vol. 40, nos. 1-2, March 2007

            “Overture: How the New Aeion Helps Us Understand Selected Passages in Mark”,

                        Homily Service: An Ecumenical Resource for Sharing the Word, Vol. 42, no. 1,

                       30 November 2008—22 February 2009

            Reviews

            Choose Life by Robert Powell, Roundtable, February, 1959

            Deutero-Isaiah by George A. F. Knight, Christian Advocate, January, 1966

            What Present-Day Theologians Are Thinking by Daniel Day Williams, Classmate, July,

1966

            Israelite Religion by Helmer Ringren, Religion in Life, Summer, 19967

            The Word Interprets Us: Biblical Preaching in the Present Tense by Merrill R. Abbey,

Christian Advocate, February, 1968

            The Gospel Perspective on Jesus Christ by Donald T. Rowlingson, Christian Advocate,

1968

            Secularization and the Protestant Prospect by James F. Childress and David B.

 Harned, Christian Advocate, March, 1971

            History of Israelite Religion by George Fohrer, Christian Advocate, December, 1972

            Heilsverlangen und Heilsverwirklichung  by Sverre Aalen, Religious Studies Review,

                        No date (1980’s)

            Matthew by Stanley Hauerwas, Catholic Bibical Quarterly, October, 2008

            Regular Reviews for the Jackson Sun, 1982-1990

            Church School Publications

            United Methodist Church School curriculum for all ages 1959-1986

Church Activities

            Ordained Elder, Memphis Annual Conference, United Methodist Church

Chair, Southeastern Jurisdiction Youth Workshop, 1957

Chair, National Methodist Youth Fellowship Commission, 1957-59

            Director, Wesley Foundation, Middle Tennessee State University, 1957-59

            Part-time pastorates in North Alabama, Middle Tennessee, and Memphis Annual

 Conferences, 1954-1989

Director, Senior High Camps and Children and Adult Special Education Camps,

 Memphis Annual Conference, 1972-76

            Teacher at all age-levels, United Methodist Church, including Special Education

 Classes

            Committee of Southern Churchmen, Board of Directors, Chair 1963-87

            Leader, Southeastern Jurisdiction Laboratory School for Church Workers with

 Mentally Retarded Persons, Lake Junaluska, 1974, 1986

            Leader, Ecumenical Workshop on Curriculum for Developmentally Disabled Adults,

 Missouri School of Religion and United Church of Christ, Fall 1985

            Chair, Lexington District Council on Ministries, 1983-85

            Bible Study Leader, Southeastern Convocation for the Laity, United Methodist

Church, Lake Junaluska, 1986

            Bible Study Lecturer on “The Bible and the Desegregated Church”, Fall meeting of

 the General Board of Global Ministries, the United Methodist Church, 1989

Guest preacher, speaker, and leader of studies in Bible, theology, and church history

  in United Methodist, Presbyterian, Disciples of Christ, C.M.E., and Roman

Catholic churches and clusters and in the local Jewish Temple

            Bible Study at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church 2006

            Theologian in Residence, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Jackson, TN 2008-2015

            Co-Associate in Charge, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Summer, 2013-Spring, 2015

Civic Involvement

            Jackson-Madison County Association for Retarded Citizens 1975-84;

(President, 1975-79)

            Jackson-Madison County Developmental Services, Board of Directors 1977-79

            Combined Efforts for the Handicapped, Chair, Steering Committee, 1978-80

            Mayor’s Planning Committee, 1971-72

            Lane College Continuing Education Program, Advisory Committee, Co-Treasurer,

 1979-82

            Jackson Center for Enrichment and Development Volunteer, 1973-82 (Honored by

 Gene L. Davenport Annual Volunteer Award being named for me)

            Effective Advocacy for Citizens with Handicaps Volunteer, 1985-1990

            Effective Advocacy for Citizens with Handicaps, Children’s Committee Board

 Member, 1988-90

            Tennessee Holocaust Commission, Commissioner, 1988 – (Chair Belz-Lippman

 Teacher Award Committee three years; Chair, Long Range Planning

 Committee, 2001; Thirty Year Celebration Committee, 2008- ; Long-Range

 Planning Committee, 2008- )

            Coalition for Commemoration of the Holocaust (local),(Chair),

(For several years, occasional cooperative venture of Lambuth, Congregation B’nai Israel, the Jackson-Madison County Commissioner of Education and the City and County Mayors’ offices)

            Committee on Luboml Exhibit, 2001, (Joint venture of Lambuth and Congregation

 B’nai Israel) Chair

            Advisory Committee for Study Guide – article and follow-up for “Theologians Under Hitler”,

                       Vital Visons, 2006-2007

            Institutional Review Board, West Tennessee Health Care, 2007-

Miscellaneous

            Performer and composer of western music

            Speaker on the history of western and country music and on topics such as the

 themes of the music of Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer, the harmony

 arrangements of Sons of the Pioneers and on the movie presentations of the

 old west at venues such as the Western Music Association Festival and the

 Buffalo Bill History Center and Museum, Cody, Wyoming

            Weekly radio programs of western and old-time country music (104.1 WTNV,

  Jackson, 1995-2000)

            Weekly performances of western music at Old Country Store 1994 – 2000

            Editor of Sons of the Pioneers newsletter Tumbleweed Times , seven years in 1980’s

            Founding member of OK Chorale, western singing trio (Performances in West

                        Tennessee, Missouri, Middle Tennessee, Illinois, Arizona – Western Music

            Festival, Silver Dollar City, and elsewhere

Freelance writer and invited opinion columnist, the Jackson Sun, 1980’s and 1990’s

Regular columnist, the Jackson Sun, 2007 -