Lehigh University is pleased to announce that Timothy Beal, Distinguished University Professor, Florence Harkness Professor of Religion, and Director of h.lab at Case Western Reserve University will deliver the University’s 2026 Baccalaureate Address. Baccalaureate, will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. in Packer Memorial Church. Reservations are not required.
Timothy Beal is a religion studies scholar whose teaching, writing and media appearances address the effects of technological innovation on the spiritual and ethical dynamics of modern life. His long-standing interest in the intersection of technology and values has led him in recent years to investigate such topics as the connections of religion and ecology and AI’s impact on higher education and the humanities.
Beal is the author of seventeen books. His acclaimed 2005 book, Roadside Religion was a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice, a Publisher’s Weekly Best Religion Books of 2005, an Amazon Top Ten Editor’s Pick for Christianity and a nominee for both the Grawemeyer Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Among recent works are When Time Is Short: Finding Our Way in the Anthropocene and The Book of Revelation: A Biography, for which he won a Public Scholar Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He is a frequent lecturer who speaks to a variety of audiences, and his essays and articles have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and Harper’s Magazine, among others. He has been featured on radio shows including NPR's All Things Considered and The Bob Edwards Show.
Rev. Lloyd Steffen, university chaplain and professor of Religion, Culture and Society said Beal is addressing contemporary questions of meaning and value prompted by technological advances.
“Professor Beal is proposing thoughtful and concerned responses to such issues as the role of AI in religion, the humanities and higher education.” Steffen added, “He is articulating a moral response to the challenges that technology is today presenting to our traditional value systems. Most importantly, he is pointing to the positive role that higher education can play—the humanities in particular—in the ongoing efforts to expand environmental awareness and assure a peaceful and justice-centered future.”
Beal has various academic initiatives, securing funding for a “Religion, Technology and Racial Justice” project, and the National Humanities Center provided support for the “Responsible AI Curriculum Design” program he led. The recipient of several teaching awards, an alumnus of the year from Emory University’s Graduate Division of Religion, and a Professor of the Year award at Case, Professor Beal received the Public Scholar Award from the National
Endowment for the Humanities in 2016.
Born in Hood River, Ore. and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Beal is a graduate of Seattle Pacific University, Columbia Theological Seminary and Emory University, where he received a Ph.D. in religion and a certificate in women’s and gender studies.
