Summer Internship Event with Elizabeth Rambo

Elizabeth Rambo, the 2024 PLT Summer Intern, shared reflections about her work and findings from the summer in a talk on September 26. Rambo interned part-time with D.C. nonprofits Bread for the City in the food and social services department, and with Catholic Charities of D.C. in the clinical services department. Through the PLT Summer Experience, she worked with mentor Dr. Susan Holman, professor of religion, global health and human rights at Valparaiso and Harvard Universities. Rambo’s recap talk covered both practical lessons as well as personal and theological reflections from the summer. Her experiences showed her how social determinants of health feed off of and amplify each other, how service work is vital but requires long-lasting policy to support it, and how important public health work isn’t always glamorous and exciting. 

Rambo also reflected on some of the personal takeaways she has continued to think about after the conclusion of the summer. Connecting to the concept of public health as a gift exchange, from Dr. Holman’s book Beloved, she described how there is a bounty of resources available in global health – they just have to be given and received. Learning from one another is a way to share each other’s gifts. She concluded with a reflection on how our efforts, especially in such complex, broad arenas like global health, don’t always immediately bear fruit. But she reiterated the comfort that God is working all things together for good, and that seeds are being sown even if we don’t see them grow right away.

“We have so much to give, and there are lots of people who genuinely care, and all of that is really hopeful. It also reminds me of an idea that I talked about with Dr. Holman: the idea of public health initiatives as a gift exchange. Instead of viewing patients as solely opportunities for profit, and instead of patronizing to them as helpless creatures who have nothing to offer, we can think of global health initiatives – and really any service in any realm – as chances to both give a service without expectation of anything in return, and looking for opportunities to receive, to learn something yourself from those you’re serving. We model this after the idea of grace, that we can’t repay but we can be inspired and changed by. Public health gift-giving is a two-way exchange, different people and communities walking along together, on equal footing. And this is the approach that really healthy faith-inspired service should take.”

Listen to the event 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.

Spring Seminar: Kingdom of God in America

PLT Director Charles Marsh is thrilled to teach “Kingdom of God in America” in the spring semester 2025 – the first time KOGA has been offered as an in-person class since the pandemic. The course explores the influence of theological ideas on social movements in twentieth and twenty-first century America. Our primary historical focus is the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s, but we will also spend time with the Social Gospel Movement, the Faith-Based Community Building Movement, and the new Christian Nationalism. Resources include theological books, novels, social criticism and historical documents, film and music, and guest lectures by former activists and participants. Requirements: two papers (5-7 pages in length), two exams, weekly reading summaries, and participation in discussion sections.

All interested undergraduate UVA students are invited to enroll: RELC 2850.

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.

Firmin DeBrabander on American Gun Violence

Friend of the project Firmin DeBrabander, Professor of Philosophy at the Maryland Institute College of Art and author of Do Guns Make Us Free, has written two essential articles on American gun violence that we are please to share:

If We Can’t Change American Gun Laws, We Should Change American Gun Culture

Our Epidemic of Mass Shootings Is Traumatizing a Generation and Threatening Democracy

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative that studies the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

Summer Fellowship Theological Reflection on Service

On Thursday, September 26th, Elizabeth Rambo will share stories from her summer service experience. The event will begin at 7:00 pm at The Bonhoeffer House in Charlottesville (1841 University Circle). The event is free, and the public is invited to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

The Summer Internship in Lived Theology is an immersion program designed to complement the numerous existing urban and rural service immersion programs flourishing nationally and globally by offering a unique opportunity to think and write theologically about service. Elizabeth spent her summer at the Bread for the City and Catholic Charities in Washington, DC, focussing on global health.

Read the intern blog here, and connect to the event on Facebook.

For updates about the PLT Summer Internship, click here. We also post updates online using #PLTinterns. To get these updates please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter at @LivedTheology. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

2024 Fall Lectures in Lived Theology

The Project on Lived Theology will present a series of lectures in Lived Theology as part of Professor Charles Marsh’s Theologies of Reconciliation and Resistance fall seminar.

  • Tuesday, October 8: – 3:30 – 4:45 – “Why Reinhold Niebuhr Matters”, Larry Rasmussen, Reinhold Niebuhr Emeritus Professor of Social Ethics, Union Seminary, New York

ZOOM LINK

  • Tuesday, November 12, 3:30-4:45 – “The World Can Be Different: The Theological Vision of Dorothee Soelle”, Sarah K. Pinnock, Professor of Contemporary Religious Thought, Trinity University
  • Tuesday, December 3, 3:30-4:45 – “The End of White Christian America”, Robert P. Jones, New York Times Bestselling Author and Founder and President of the Public Religion Research Institute 

All lectures will be virtual and Zoom links will be provided closer to the lecture dates.

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative that studies the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

Elizabeth Rambo Summer Internship Reflection

Today was the first Sunday in months where I woke up in my own bed, went to church with my parents, and spent most of the day doing nothing. After weeks of go-go-going, it was nice but a little odd to have such a quiet day at home. I left D.C. yesterday, having wrapped up my internships at Bread for the City on Tuesday, and at Catholic Charities on Thursday. And on Friday, I was able to conclude and reflect in a final meeting with Dr. Holman. 

At the beginning of the summer, I was worried about having a PLT internship focused on large-scale global health concepts while I worked for small-scale, local nonprofits. How was I supposed to connect readings about the WHO, low-income countries, or international movements to a DC-area food bank and clinic? 

My conversations with Dr. Holman were the helpful link between these two worlds. Or really, she helped me see how they were not really two separate worlds at all; rather, the same global health principles and the principles of our faith undergird all of public health around the globe. Seeing people as possessing innate dignity from God and having a right to good health and wellbeing doesn’t stop in D.C. or halfway across the world, it includes (and must include) everyone. 

Our conversations this summer ranged from the ways in which social determinants of health overlap, to the role of funding and finances in health, to what it means to give – selflessly, and in a way that invites a grace-full exchange of gifts and knowledge. These are concepts that do not just apply to the city in which I spent the summer. They apply to all of global health around the world, and they form a strong foundation as I enter back into my final year of school and plan for my time after graduation. 

In our meeting on Friday, Dr. Holman showed me some frameworks that are helpful when approaching or creating global health initiatives. One centers around a rights-based approach to health. All people have innate rights to dignity, wellbeing, and self-determination (among others), and health is a key part of that. 

This framework looks for four things in global health efforts: accountability, meaningful participation, non-discrimination and equity, and (international) assistance and cooperation. Having these four elements help ensure that the work being done emphasizes the dignity of all people and their right to good health. This rights-based framework is not mutually exclusive with religious faith; rather, they work together quite well. Concepts such as “participation” underline our capacity for free will, “equity” shows a commitment to being all made in the image of God, and cooperation and accountability emphasize being in community together. 

These are ideals that we can all be looking for and creating in our communities. They extend beyond more than just a narrow view of public health and include a more complete concept of flourishing. As I leave Washington and prepare for my return to Charlottesville, I will be taking these principles with me. “Global” includes us all, and a path to better global health can start with us, at home.

This is one in a series of post by Elizabeth Rambo, on her 2024 PLT summer internship experience.

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.

God’s Long Summer Becomes a Princeton Classic!

Friends of Lived Theology:

Sixty years ago today, on August 6, 1964, a political party formed by black Mississippians – the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party – convened in Jackson, Mississippi, to celebrate the successes of the Freedom Summer Project. In July, President Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the iceberg of southern segregation had been cracked. 

Today I’m pleased to announce the release of God’s Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights, as a Princeton Classic. As a white southerner and child of the southern Baptist church, Freedom Summer 1964 illumined for me a pathway from the closed doors of the segregated South to a Christianity with four sides open to the world. – to the joys of sharing in a global fellowship of reconciliation. 

A holy host of righteous women and men found themselves together, in the long, hot summer of 1964, working in common cause for a more just nation and a more capacious faith.

Among them: Ella Baker, Bob Moses, Jane Stembridge, Fannie Lou Hamer, Charles Sherrod, Joan Trumpauer Mulholland, Aaron Henry, Stokely Carmichael, Ed King, June Jordon, Cleveland Sellers, Casey Hayden, Tracy Sugarman, John Lewis, Bob Zellner, Dorothy Miller, and. Let us praise these peculiar people – as we preach the Gospel of Freedom Summer. 

Peace!
Charles

Virginia Seminar Upcoming Book Release

Congratulations to Mark Gornik, a long-time friend of the Project, for completing his memoir of Alan Tibbels. Mark’s new book, Sharing the Crust: A Communion of Saints in a Baltimore Neighborhood, will be published in October 2024 by Cascade Books.

From the publisher: “How do we make a difference in our world of great urban, ecological, and social challenges? Rooted in the Sandtown neighborhood of Baltimore, Mark Gornik tells the story of an unbreakable love through the life and witness of Allan Tibbels and a communion of saints. Sharing the Crust is about the power of small changes, “the little way,” the durability of relationships, and the hard work of peacemaking, justice, and reconciliation. It is about the meaning of companionship in this life and the life to come. A refreshingly complex story of ministry, church life, and community development, Sharing the Crust is a witness to faith, hope, and love for our times.”

The Project on Lived Theology at the University of Virginia is a research initiative that studies the social consequences of theological ideas for the sake of a more just and compassionate world.

The Barmen Declaration at 90

“I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

“Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold through the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved.” John 10:1,9

“Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death.”

“We reject the false doctrine that the Church could and should recognize as a source of its proclamation, beyond and besides this one Word of God, yet other events, powers, historic figures and truths as God’s revelation.”

So begins the Barmen Confession, the call to theological resistance, drafted by Karl Barth, and issued in 1934 by dissident Protestant ministers and theologians – the emerging Confessing Church – in opposition to the German Christian’s embrace of the “Führer Principle” and the assimilation of the German Evangelical Church to the Nazi regime. 

Since it was drafted ninety years ago the Barmen Confession, or Declaration, has served the Protestant world as an inspiring example of robust Christian conviction and courageous dissent – a ray of light in times when the church has become an appendage of the nation.

In his classic Creeds of the Churches: A Reader in Christian Doctrine from the Biblical to the Present, the scholar John H. Leith calls it “a witness, a battle cry.”

The London Times ran the full text on June 4, less than a week after the synod concluded, and translations soon followed in newspapers and church periodicals throughout western Europe and the English-speaking world. 

The Barmen Declaration was in some ways just a forthright and single-minded affirmation of the Lordship of Jesus Christ according to scripture and tradition: “ ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.’ (John 14.6). ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.… I am the door; if anyone enters by me, he will be saved.’ (John 10:1, 9).” But it was also an exercise in subversive indirection. Reflecting on John 14:6, for instance, it says, “Jesus Christ, as he is attested to us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God whom we have to hear, and whom we have to trust and obey in life and in death. We reject the false doctrine that the Church could and should recognize as a source of its proclamation, beyond and besides this one Word of God, any other events, powers, historic figures and truths as God’s revelation.”

It was bold as far as it went. If Jesus is the one Word of God and Lord of all, then every political claim to bespeak God’s purposes is illegitimate, if not idolatrous. And, yet, the statement remained evasive on the most urgent concrete issues, never once mentioning the Aryan paragraph, just as years later the Confessing Church would demur on the burning of synagogues, the deportation of Jews and other non-Aryans to the concentration camps, or the extermination of people with physical or mental disabilities. At least, this was the estimation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer skipped the conference in Barmen but signed the declaration. Still, even as he promoted the declaration to his ecumenical allies, he remained suspicious of many of his cosignatories.

In this recent exchange with award-winning filmmaker Martin Doblmeier, Charles Marsh discusses the Barmen Declaration and Bonhoeffer’s theological critique of its limits.