WILMINGTON — Best-selling author and prominent social activist Shane Claiborne will speak at Wilmington College Thursday, Feb. 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the McCoy Room of Kelly Center.

Claiborne, whose books include “Jesus for President” and “Jesus, Bombs and Ice Cream”, worked with Mother Teresa in Calcutta and founded The Simple Way in Philadelphia.

He heads Red-Letter Christians, a movement of persons committed to living “as if Jesus meant the things he said.” Claiborne is known as a champion for grace, which has resulted in his being jailed for his advocacy for the homeless, and he’s visited places like Iraq and Afghanistan to stand against war.

The lecture he’s giving is on his book “The Irresistible Revolution” along “with spatterings of” his latest book “Executing Grace: How the Death Penalty Killed Jesus and Why It’s Killing Us”.

His current passion is ending the death penalty in the United States.

Featured in such films as “Another World Is Possible” and “Ordinary Radicals”, Claiborne’s work has appeared in Esquire, SPIN, Christianity Today and The Wall Street Journal. He has been interviewed on networks ranging from Fox News and Al Jazeera to CNN and NPR.

Claiborne’s other books include “Red Letter Revolution”, “Common Prayer”, “Follow Me to Freedom”, “Becoming the Answer to Our Prayers”, “The Irresistible Revolution” and his newest, “Executing Grace”. His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages.

The event, which is free of charge, is co-sponsored by the Office of Campus Ministry, the Issues & Artists Series, and the college’s Religion & Philosophy Department.