Sunday, November 3, 2019
9:45am - 10:45am
Location:
Fiedler Atrium
Join us for this Annual Lecture Series with Dr. Paul Benson.
Sundays, Nov. 3, 10 & 17
Medieval Madness: Malicious Movements in the Middle Ages
The Medieval period was an era rich in religious fanaticism! Strange and exotic groups were born that equated suffering and self-denial with holiness. Many believed they could not achieve salvation without practicing extraordinary acts of penance which included the most heinous forms of self-mortification and sadistic treatment of others! No amount of personal pain was considered too great if it led to heaven. The holy ends were justified by numerous malicious groups because God approved the concept that punishment of the body was the price for spiritual perfection!
From his beginning in 1965 as a teacher in the Freedom Schools of rural Alabama run by Tuskegee Institute to his appointment as Director of the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Institute Slavery in the American Republic at the Library of Congress in 2015, Paul Benson has dedicated his career to enriching the lives of others through education. Winner of four national teaching awards, Dr. Paul Benson is a long-time Professor of Humanities at Mountain View College in Dallas, Texas and Adjunct Professor at Dallas Baptist University.
“Paul Benson is a teacher’s teacher. He is a virtual Alexandria Library, Smithsonian, National Archives, and History Channel rolled into a remarkable spiritual/human being.” Jimmy Langkop, Langkop Seminars, June 2006
