Conference on Lived Theology &
Civil Courage
June 12-14, 2003
The Conference on Lived Theology and Civil Courage marked the conclusion of the first three years of the project's workgroup activities and offered an opportunity for the forty workgroup participants (a wide variety of theologians, scholars, and activists) to gather together for the first time and share the key insights and discoveries of each of the workgroups.
These were joined by guest speakers to address different concerns related to the issue of public theology. The purpose of the conference was to stimulate theological consideration of critical issues related to particular communities and lived experience on a larger social scale. In this way, the conference wishes to nurture a space in which a public voice can develop among communities of faith.
Conference Proceedings
- Welcome by Charles Marsh
- Eugene Rivers: What Christian Activists Expect Theologians to Talk About
- Panel Discussion with Lee Stuart, Russell Jeung and Mark Gornik: Towards a Theology of Organizing
- Bob Moses and Victoria Gray Adams: Civil Rights as Theological Drama (video) (transcript)
- Question & Answer Session (transcript)
- The Congregation and City Workgroup Presentation:
- Workgroup member John Kiess's reflection
- Workgroup member Jenny McBride's reflection
- Workgroup member Rev. Bruce Beard's reflection
- Stanley Hauerwas: Bonhoeffer on Truth and Politics (PDF, 187k)
- Cheryl Sanders and Ray Rivera: Spirit, Power and Social Progress
View or download The Conference on Lived Theology and Civil Courage Essay Booklet (775k), a collection of essays written by workgroup participants from 2000 to 2003.
Information on Speakers
Lee Stuart
Lee Stuart is Director of South Bronx Churches' Nehemiah Corporation, which is in its second phase of affordable housing construction. The SBC is a broad-based organization affiliated with the Industrial Areas Foundation. Since 1987 it has been a primary force in changing the social conditions in the South Bronx, NY. From 1992 to 2000 she was the Lead Organizer of the South Bronx Churches' Sponsoring Committee. Stuart was also the Founding Executive Director of SHARE-New York, a regional food assistance and community development program. She received her M.S. in Biology from San Diego State University and in 1983 she received her Ph.D. in Ecology from San Diego State University and the University of California at Davis. Stuart has three recent publications: "The Bronx Leadership Academy High School: The Challenges of Innovation" in City Schools, edited by Diane Ravitch and Joseph P. Viteritti (John Hopkins University Press, 2000); "Redefining the Public Sphere: South Bronx Churches and Education Reform" and "Come, Let Us Rebuild the Walls of Jerusalem" in Signs of Hope in the City, edited by Robert Carle and Louis Di Carlo (Judson Press, 1998).
Cheryl J. Sanders
Cheryl J. Sanders is Senior Pastor of the Third Street Church of God in Washington, D.C. since 1997, and Professor of Christian Ethics at the Howard University School of Divinity since 1984. She is the author of over 50 articles and several books, including Ministry at the Margins (InterVarsity Press, 1997); Saints in Exile: The Holiness-Pentecostal Experience in African American Religion and Culture (Oxford, 1996); Empowerment Ethics for a Liberated People (Fortress, 1995); and is the editor of Living the Intersection (Fortress, 1995). She is a graduate of the Sidwell Friends School, Swarthmore College (B.A. in Mathematics) and Harvard Divinity School (M.Div., cum laude and Th.D. in the field of Applied Theology). In 2002 she was awarded the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky.
Bob Moses
Robert P. (Bob) Moses resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife, Dr. Janet Moses, pediatrician. They have four children. Mr. Moses was born and raised in Harlem, NY, and received his B.A. from Hamilton College in 1956. In 1957, he received a Masters Degree in Philosophy from Harvard University and he taught middle school mathematics at the Horace Mann School in New York City from 1958-1961. During his young adult life, Mr. Moses was a pivotal organizer for the civil rights movement as a field secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and was director of SNCC's Mississippi Project. He also served as Co-Director of the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a group that comprised all the major civil rights organizations working in Mississippi at the time. In that capacity, he was recognized as a driving force behind the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964 and in organizing the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), which challenged the Mississippi regulars at the 1964 Democratic Convention in Atlantic City, NJ. From 1969-1976, he worked for the Ministry of Education in Tanzania, East Africa. More on Bob Moses.
Stanley Hauerwas
Dr. Stanley Martin Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at the Divinity School of Duke University. Though he is often identified as an ethicist, his work is more properly described as theology. Certainly his work involves questions many associate with ethics, but his primary intent is to show in what way theological convictions make no sense unless they are actually embodied in our lives. To that end, he was among the first to reclaim the importance of character and the virtues for the display of Christian living. He has also drawn attention to the importance of narrative for explicating the interrelation of practical reason and personal identity, and correlatively the significance of the church as the necessary context for Christian formation and moral reflection. Accordingly, his work draws on a great range of literatures--from classical, philosophical, and theological texts to contemporary political theory. He also works in medical ethics, issues of war and peace, and the care of the mentally handicapped. More on Stanley Hauerwas.
Eugene Rivers
Reverend Eugene F. Rivers, III is Pastor of the Azusa Christian Community, a Pentecostal church whose pastor is ordained within the Church of God in Christ (COGIC) and located in the Four Corners section of Dorchester, Massachusetts where he also lives with his wife, Jacqueline C. Rivers, and their children.
Rev. Rivers was born in Boston and reared in South Chicago and North Philadelphia. He was educated at Harvard University, and has worked on community development and various aspects of Christian activism for nearly thirty years, especially on behalf of the black poor. As co-chair of the National Ten Point Leadership Foundation, he is working to build new grassroots leadership in forty of the worst inner city neighborhoods in inner city America by the year 2006. He serves on the board of The Ella J. Baker House, the separate 501 (c)(3) non-profit originally created by the Azusa Christian Community, which provides street intervention, education and mentoring for hundreds of youths in Dorchester and elsewhere in Boston each year. More on Eugene Rivers.
Victoria Gray Adams
Victoria Gray Adams' personal motto is "Life shrinks or expands in direct proportion to the courage with which we live it."
In early 1964, Victoria Gray Adams was chosen as one of three national spokespeople (along with Fannie Lou Hamer and Annie Devine) for the 1965 Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). As a result of this event, the Democratic State Party began integrating its ranks, and the political landscape of the United States was changed forever. More on Victoria Adams.
Ray Rivera
Rev. Dr. Raymond Rivera has been a community activist, pastor, preacher, and community organizer for more than 35 years. Presently, he is the Founder/CEO and President of the Latino Pastoral Action Center, which serves the Highbridge community in the South Bronx through its various holistic programs such as the New Hope After School Academy, a Welfare to Work program, Greater Heights recreational program, P.R.A.I.S.E. gang intervention program, GED/ESL/SAT classes, and its charter school known as Family Life Academy. More on Ray Rivera.