Berkeley School of Theology’s Center for Truth, Racial Healing, & Restorative Justice invites you to attend the 2026 Spring Lecture, “Beyond the National Mythos: Howard Thurman and the Anatomy of a National Soul” with Rev. Dr. Aidsand Wright-Riggins,  pastor, civil and human rights leader, and denominational executive with over 40 years of community and congregational service. This lecture moves past surface-level narratives of the American story to examine Howard Thurman’s profound “soul-search” for a unified national identity. By analyzing the spiritual rift between our civic ideals and our lived exclusions, I will explore Thurman’s blueprint for transforming fragmented social spaces into a radical “Community of God.”

Rev. Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins serves as a bridge between the pulpit and the public square, drawing upon his dual vocation as a seasoned minister and the Mayor of Collegeville, Pennsylvania. This unique vantage point presses him to interpret Howard Thurman’s “National Soul” not merely as a theological abstraction, but as a lived political necessity, offering a lecture grounded in the practical grit of civic leadership and the prophetic depth of the gospel. By navigating the tensions of executive governance and pastoral care, he explores the blueprint for how “democratic space” is architected in the real-world pursuit of a Community of God.