The Project on Lived Theology is delighted to partner with Theological Horizons for the 2023 Scoper Lecture. On March 28, 2023, renowned attorney Bryan Stevenson will speak in conversation with UVA President Jim Ryan. The event is titled “Act Justly, Love Mercy: Exploring the Heart of Equal Justice.” Stevenson will speak from his personal experience on the spiritual sources that empower his lifelong commitment to transformative acts of just mercy.

This will be a “live only” in-person and digitally streamed event. For more information, visit the Theological Horizons event page.

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

On September 7, 2022, Duke University theologian and clinical psychiatrist Warren Kinghorn presented a talk titled Theological Reflections on the Practice of Clinical Psychiatry as part of a fall seminar taught by Professor Charles Marsh. The seminar, “Anxiety in Religious and Theological Perspective,” considered particular theological thinkers on anxiety, such as Augustine and Kierkegaard.

Professor Kinghorn’s talk discussed a spiritual approach to mental illness and the use of psychiatric medication. Kinghorn described the increase in mental illness prevalence among college-aged people, as well as “common but perhaps misleading” notions held by medical practitioners about clinical anxiety: individualist anxiety, self-symptom dualism, self-body dualism, technicism, and the mechanization of the human being. Kinghorn also explored Christian affirmations of the capabilities of the human being and offers a take on psychiatric medicine informed by Thomas Aquinas.

Listen to the lecture.

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

“The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation.”

“A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil…”

“I renew the appeal I made . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary. —Pope John Paul II Papal Mass, St. Louis, Missouri, January 27, 1999

You can find the complete release here.

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

Charles’ seminar on anxiety and religion met on the Wednesday after the tragic shootings at UVA. One of the things the class did was create a playlist of songs that carried them through the next few weeks.

Anxiety 3559 Playlist – University of Virginia

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

The arc of justice… Campaigns focusing on gun reform achieved victory in several races across the country.

Read the article here.

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

BrieAnna Frank is a reporter for USA Today who’s covered numerous mass shootings. She’s also a first-year grad student in our Religious Studies Department. Her editor asked her to write from the first person about the University of Virginia mass shootings in Charlottesville. She delivered this gem by mid-afternoon.

We know he told his friend Hans Hildebrandt that only the Catholic Center Party had half a chance of defeating Hitler. While there is no easy parallel to U.S. politics, the core convictions of the Zentrum do not seem to lend themselves to the GOP.

The Catholic Center Party adhered to a strict separation of church and state, to belief in strong government and the welfare state, and to the facilitation of nonpartisan policy.

The Catholic Center attracted aristocrats, priests, bourgeoisie, peasants, and workers. While its membership was majority Catholic, the party remained interconfessional and committed to the democratic ideals of the Weimar Constitution. When the Nazis came into power the Zentrum was forced to dissolve itself as one of the last bürgerliche parties, not, alas before signing the Enabling Act and thus proving Bonhoeffer’s argument against Hildebrandt to have been naïve.

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

In his criticism of Tim Keller, Metaxas claims that Keller errs in the manner of the German Christians, by which he means that Keller, “preaching only the gospel” (sic!) refuses God’s “clear word” for the American church to act against the prevailing regime.

Metaxas says that Keller should instead preach in the manner of the Confessing Church, and in a bold venture of faith, denounce Biden with the clarity that Barmen denounced Hitler.

Two problems. First, the German Evangelical (Lutheran) Church did not “preach only the gospel”. It preached a Christianity antithetical to historic Christian orthodoxy. Spirit serves an ethno nationalism based on common blood who proceeds from the Father and the führer.

Second, the Confessing Church did not take a political stand, never denounced Hitler, never spoke & acted in defense of the Jewish people. Barmen affirmed the Lordship of Jesus Christ hard stop. The clear and persistent preaching of the Gospel would be sufficient. It was not.

Metaxas is so confused about the Kirchenkampf and where he stands in its repercussions that it’s best to let the great Fritz Stern have the last word. “In every way Metaxas betrays a quite amazing ignorance of the German language, German history, and German theology.”

For more on Metaxas, here’s one from the archives: Eric Metaxas’s Bonhoeffer Delusions

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative, whose mission is to study the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.