The Nadine Beacham and Charlton F. Hall Sr. Lectureship in New Testament Studies and Early Christianity is sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. It is held each year the week before Palm Sunday. In addition to the public lecture, it includes an ecumenical clergy day, and an in-depth discussion with pastors, priests and rabbis from around the state. All events are free and followed by a question and answer session.

This year's 2009 Hall Lecture was presented by Dr. Helmut Koester, John H. Morison Research Professor of Divinity and Winn Research Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Harvard Divinity School. The title of his talk was "A Fresh Approach to Paul's Theology".