The annual Mahle Lecture in Progressive Christian Thought will feature Dr. George “Tink” Tinker, a theologian and American Indian scholar. His lecture “World Balance vs. Personal Salvation: An American Indian Postcolonial Perspective” will explore the worldview of American Indian peoples’ respect for the whole of creation and for all relations. Tinker also will examine how the survival of American Indian cultures and cultural values may make the difference for the survival and sustainability for the earth as people know it.

The lecture takes place on Tuesday, April 17 at 7:30 p.m. at Sundin Music Hall, located at 1531 Hewitt Avenue on Hamline’s Saint Paul campus. The event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in the Drew Parking Lot, one block east of Sundin Hall along Hewitt Avenue.

“Dr. Tinker’s visit coincides with the 150^th anniversary of the U.S.-Dakota War,” Nancy Victorin-Vangerud, Hamline University chaplain and director of the Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service, and Social Justice, said. “We look forward to having him help us examine how people of immigrant religious traditions may live justly with first nations' peoples.”

Dr. George Tinker, a member of the Osage Nation (Wazhazhe), is the Clifford Baldridge Professor of American Indian Cultures and Religious Traditions at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, Colorado. His numerous works include American Indian Liberation:  A Theology of Sovereignty; Spirit and Resistance: Political Theology and American Indian Liberation; and Missionary Conquest:  The Gospel and Native American Genocide.

Tinker also has volunteered as the director and traditional spiritual leader of Four Winds American Indian Council, which provides Denver’s urban Indian population with spiritual and social space to gather.  Tinker has also volunteered with the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. For 20 years, he has worked with the American Indian Movement of Colorado on the Leadership Council, and now on the Elders’ Council.

The Mahle lecture is made possible through the Wesley Center for Spirituality, Service and Social Justice's Mahle Endowed Fund for Progressive Christian Thought. For more information, contact the Wesley Center at 651-523-2878.