An expert in American religion who works as an author, speaker and independent scholar, Bass adopted the title of her recent book -- Christianity for the Rest of Us -- as the theme of her lectures. Theologian Marcus Borg referred to her work as "the most important book of the decade about emerging Christianity and the renewal of mainline congregations." Barbara Brown Taylor, noted preacher and author, terms Bass "the soft-spoken prophet many of us have been waiting for." Taylor will present the 2008 Harvey Lectures at the Seminary of the Southwest next March.

Bass will talk about "Building a New Matrix for Ministry" on Tuesday, September 25, at 6:30 p.m., and conclude with an exploration of "Beyond Liberal and Conservative -- Emerging Christianity in a Post-modern World" on Wednesday morning, September 26, at 9:20 a.m. Both talks take place in the seminary's Knapp Auditorium and are open to the public without charge. Bass will also preach at the alumni/ae eucharist service at 11:15 a.m. on September 26 in Christ Chapel.

The author of six books on American religious practice, including The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church, Bass earned the Ph.D. degree in religious studies from Duke University. She was project director of a national Lilly Endowment-funded study of mainline Protestant vitality from 2002 to 2006.

Senior fellow at the Cathedral College of Washington National Cathedral, Bass is currently working on a new book -- Episcopalians in America -- slated for publication in 2008. Part of Sojourner's Progressive Religious Communicators Group, she is a regular contributor to the group's God's Politics blog.

The seminary's Alumni/ae Association stages the Blandy Lectures every fall. The lectureship honors the late Very Rev. Gray Blandy, who served as the first dean of the seminary from 1951 to 1967.