February 28, 2012 — Acclaimed author Lauren F. Winner, an assistant professor of Christian spirituality at Duke Divinity School, will discuss spiritual autobiography and her new memoir, "Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis," on April 10 at 6 p.m. in the University of Virginia's Rotunda Dome Room.

The lecture, co-sponsored by U.Va.'s Project on Lived Theology, is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, and space is limited.

Her lecture, "Writing About God," will draw on sources as diverse as slave narratives, St. Augustine and the memoirs of Frederick Buechner, who wrote four volumes of spiritual autobiography. Winner will discuss the conventions and mores of spiritual autobiography, asking questions such as: Why are we, as writers and readers, drawn to spiritual autobiography? How do we narrate our stories religiously? What are the literary pitfalls of this kind of writing?

Winner is delivering the eighth annual Capps Lecture, a public forum for Christian leaders and thinkers whose work explores the relation between faith and social responsibility.

She is the author of numerous books, including "Mudhouse Sabbath" and "A Cheerful and Comfortable Faith: Anglican Religious Practice in the Elite Households of Eighteenth-Century Virginia." Her critically acclaimed memoir, "Girl Meets God," chronicled her journey from Judaism to Christianity.

Best-selling author Philip Yancey described Winner's newest book as "an unusually painful story, told with rare honesty by an unusually gifted writer."

Winner has appeared on PBS' "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly" and has written for the New York Times Book Review, Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, Books and Culture, and Christianity Today. She has degrees from Duke, Columbia and Cambridge universities, and holds a Ph.D. in history. She has been a visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University and at the Institute of Sacred Music at Yale University.

The Capps Lecture Series is endowed by Dr. and Mrs. W. Jerry Capps through Theological Horizons.

For information, contact the Project on Lived Theology at 434-924-6743 or livedtheology@virginia.edu.

— By Brevy Cannon