Check out PLT Fellow Traveler, the Scholar-Priest Initiative!

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The Scholar Priest InitiativeAmong the many contributors to our resource collection we are also gathering a number of Fellow Travelers. Fellow travelers are scholars, activists, and practitioners that embody the ideals and commitments of the Project on Lived Theology. We admire their work and are grateful to be walking alongside them in the development and dissemination of Lived Theology.

One such group of Fellow Travelers has developed the Scholar-Priest Initiative within the Episcopal Church and Anglican Church of Canada. This initiative has the mission of “welcoming theology home.” Through conferences and resources, such as “New Tracts for our Times,” the initiative equips churches, including those beyond their own denominations, to “reintegrate theology back into the life of the parish, to rekindle theological vocation and imagination.”

From www.scholarpriests.org:

The Scholar-Priest Initiative holds two things dear. First, every parish deserves good leadership. Second, theology done for the parish can once again be done in the parish. Our churches often divorce theology and the parish and both suffer as a result. In response, SPI supports, mentors, and helps fund centered, open, and effective scholar-priests and works with bishops and other leaders to connect scholar-priests with parishes that need stable and effective leadership.

For more information about this Recommended Resource, click here or visit  www.scholarpriests.org.

For more resources from our Fellow Travelers, click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #PLTfellowtravelers.

Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious

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David Dark - Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not ReligiousDavid Dark’s Forthcoming Book To Be Released in February 2016

In February 2016, Project Contributor David Dark’s newest publication, Life’s Too Short to Pretend You’re Not Religious, will be released. Writing in response to modern day whispers of the death of religion, Dark argues that religion is far more intertwined with everyday life and human experience than we realize. The fact of religion is the fact of relationship. It’s the shape our love takes, the lived witness of everything we’re up to for better or worse, because witness knows no division. Director Charles Marsh writes, “Here alone are the comedy and chaos that define the human condition and lead us gently or not into the strange new world of grace.” For more information on the publication, click here.

David Dark is an assistant professor at Belmont University in the College of Theology and Christian Ministry and also teaches at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. His publications include The Sacredness of Questioning Everything (2009) and The Gospel according to America: A Meditation on a God-blessed, Christ-haunted Idea (2005).

For more of featured writings of our PLT Contributors, click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyWrites.

Watch John M. Perkins speak on Racial Reconciliation in the Wake of the New Racism

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John M. Perkins2015 Capps Lecture featuring John M. Perkins on Racial Reconciliation Now Live

On Sunday, November 1, John M. Perkins visited the University of Virginia to deliver his lecture, “Has the Dream Become a Nightmare? Prospects for Reconciliation in the Wake of the New Racism.” He emphasized that Christians need to realize that they have been given a Biblical reconciliation in which racism has no place. Peacebuilding comes from having conversations together to understand the implications of this truth. To watch the lecture, click here.

John M. Perkins was a civil rights leader in Mississippi in the 1960s, and founded Voice of Calvary Ministries, a Christian community development ministry, with his wife Vera Mae. In 1983, Perkins established the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development, Inc., to advance the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world. His publications include Let Justice Roll Down (2012) and Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community (2010).

This lecture was co-sponsored by Theological Horizons and the Project on Lived Theology. Theological Horizons supports both Christians and seekers by advancing theological scholarship and by providing a welcoming home for engaging faith, thought and life. The Capps Lecture in Christian Theology is an annual series that brings eminent Christian thinkers to the heart of the university with public lectures that explore the relationship between faith and responsibility. For more about the Capps lecture series and to see previous presenters, click here. 

PLT event updates can be found online using #PLTevents. To browse our PLT resource collection, click here. Updates on our resources can be found online using #PLTresources. To get these updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology.

Lived Theology on Death Row: The Story of Kelly Gissendaner

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Jennifer McBride lecture on Kelly GissendanerTheology professor Jennifer M. McBride on Kelly Gissendaner, the death penalty, and the power of advocacy

On Thursday, December 3 at 5pm, Dr. Jennifer M. McBride will present a lecture entitled “Lived Theology on Death Row: The Story of Kelly Gissendaner,” at St. Paul’s Memorial Church in the fellowship hall, 1700 University Ave., Charlottesville, VA.

McBride was a theology professor and close friend of Kelly Gissendaner, who was the only woman on Georgia’s death row, until her recent execution on September 30, 2015. As a leading activist in the international #kellyonmymind campaign, McBride tells the story of advocacy for Kelly and discusses the vital role of public theology in the campaign.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology and Theological Horizons. Admission is free, and the public is invited to attend. To check out our Facebook event page, click here.

To see McBride’s piece “Georgia death row inmate finds path back to hope with ‘costly grace’ on CNN.com, click here.

Watch this short video where McBride speaks on “Forgiveness and Redemption”

Jennifer M. McBride is the Board of Regents Chair of Ethics, assistant professor of religion, and director of peace and justice studies at Wartburg College. She is a member of the second class of the Virginia Seminar, working on a project entitled Reducing Distance: Radical Discipleship through an Open Door. Her publications include The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness (2014).

Theological Horizons supports both Christians and seekers by advancing theological scholarship and by providing a welcoming home for engaging faith, thought and life.

PLT event updates can be found online using #PLTevents. To get these updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology.

Listen to Eugene McCarraher on “Reinhold Niebuhr as Christian Critic”

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Eugene Mccarraher on Reinhold NiebuhrEugene McCarraher’s lecture on Reinhold Niebuhr’s public theology now live

On Tuesday, October 13, Eugene McCarraher visited the University of Virginia to deliver his lecture “Reinhold Niebuhr as Christian Critic: Public Theology and the American Century.” He focused on the need for a radical reconstruction of the political imagination and Niebuhr’s inability to help us achieve it. To listen to the lecture, click here. To read the paper, click here.

Eugene McCarraher is associate professor of humanities and history and the associate director of the honors program at Villanova University, and a former Charles Ryskamp Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies (2005-2006). He has written for Books and Culture, Commonweal, Dissent, In These Times, The Nation, the Chicago Tribune, The Hedgehog Review, and Raritan. McCarraher’s most recent project is The Enchantments of Mammon: Capitalism as the Religion of Modernity, a historical and theological reflection on the development of capitalism, and he is the author of Christian Critics: Religion and the Impasse in Modern American Social Thought (2000).

To browse our PLT resource collection, click here. Updates on our resources can be found online using #PLTresources. To get these updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology.

Save the date! #kellyonmymind and theology as protest

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jennifer mcbride webDr. Jennifer McBride on Kelly Gissendaner, the death penalty, and the power of advocacy

Join us on Thursday, December 3rd at 5pm to hear Dr. Jennifer McBride speak on her experience as part of the #kellyonmymind movement against the execution of Kelly Gissendaner. This event is co-sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology and Theological Horizons, and will be held at St. Paul’s Memorial Church, 1700 University Ave., Charlottesville, VA.

To see McBride’s piece “Georgia death row inmate finds path back to hope with ‘costly grace’ on CNN.com, click here.

Watch this short video where McBride speaks on “Forgiveness and Redemption”

Jennifer McBride is the Board of Regents Chair of Ethics, assistant professor of religion, and director of peace and justice studies at Wartburg College. She is a member of the second class of the Virginia Seminar, working on a project entitled Reducing Distance: Radical Discipleship through an Open Door. Her publications include The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness (2014).

Theological Horizons supports both Christians and seekers by advancing theological scholarship and by providing a welcoming home for engaging faith, thought and life.

PLT event updates can be found online using #PLTevents. To get these updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Vincent Bacote and The Political Disciple – Christian Duty to Political Engagement

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Political DiscipleIn The Political Disciple: A Theology of Public Life, Vincent Bacote addresses the Christian ambivalence toward political involvement: being active agents in the public sphere is an extension of our Christian responsibility. Rather than withdrawing from these duties in response to increasing partisanship and the ensuing political discord, Christians are to remain faithful to the here and now. Bacote challenges faith communities to re-consider their level of public involvement and what it means to reflect Christ through public service. Political engagement is a necessary duty in maintaining Christian faithfulness.

In his review of The Political Disciple, Project contributor Kristopher Norris writes:

Bacote writes this book for Christians tempted to leave the public square and find alternative models of faithfulness. He argues that, instead, Christians honor God best by “remaining faithful to the task of public engagement” and suggests that we accept our mandated public responsibility. Involvement in politics is simply part of the larger question of Christian participation in secular culture.

Christians are indeed aliens and pilgrims in this world, and primarily citizens of heaven. But our witness to this “otherness” requires public action. “Though Christians have a greater allegiance to God than to any earthly nation or political figure it is proper Christian practice to be a good citizen” (51). We are “kingdom citizens” who are committed to the good of all earthly nations.

For more information on Bacote’s book, click here. To read Norris’s full review, click here.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads.

This Sunday: John M. Perkins speaks on the topic “Has the Dream Become a Nightmare? Prospects for Reconciliation in the Wake of the New Racism”

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2015 Capps Lecture John M. Perkins

What does it look like to live a life of racial reconciliation? In an age of police brutality, mass incarceration, and even conflict on Grounds, we are searching for a means of healing. This Sunday as John M. Perkins reflects on the topic “Has the Dream Become a Nightmare? Prospects for Reconciliation in the Wake of the New Racism.” Perkins brings his life experience to explore the idea of New Racism and to consider how people of faith might respond.

The lecture is this Sunday, November 1st, at 4pm in Nau Hall 101, and is co-sponsored by U.Va.’s Project on Lived Theology and Theological Horizons. The event is free and open to the public. Seating is first-come, first-served, and space is limited.

The lecture will be video recorded and posted under PLT Resources and on the new Theological Horizons website.

There will be a reception following the lecture. All are welcome.

Dr. John M. Perkins was born and raised in poverty as a sharecropper’s son in Mississippi. He fled to California after witnessing the death of his brother at the hands of a town Marshall. Though he’d vowed never to return, Perkins went back to Mississippi in 1960 to share the Gospel and work for equality, justice and economic development. His outspoken leadership on civil rights brought harassment, imprisonment and beatings.

Today, John M. Perkins is internationally known on issues of racial reconciliation, leadership and community development. Dr. Perkins and his wife, Mrs. Vera Mae Perkins, founded Voice of Calvary Ministries and the Christian Community Development Association.

Perkins’s books include Welcoming Justice: God’s Movement Toward Beloved Community, co-authored with UVa professor and PLT Director Charles Marsh, A Quiet Revolution, and Let Justice Roll Down.

Theological Horizons supports both Christians and seekers by advancing theological scholarship and by providing a welcoming home for engaging faith, thought and life.

For more PLT event details and up-to-date event listings please click here to visit the events page. We also post updates online using #PLTevents. To get these updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology.

 

On the Lived Theology Reading List: James E. Atwood and America and Its Guns: A Theological Exposé – a wake-up call for the American faith community

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James Atwood- America and its Guns: A Theological Expose

This week on the Lived Theology Reading List, we offer a review of James E. Atwood’s America and Its Guns: A Theological Exposé published in 2012 by Cascade Books. Atwood documents how Americans have been deceived into believing that the tools of violence, whether they take the form of advanced military technology or a handgun in the bedside stand, will provide security. He closes with a wake-up call to the faith community, which he says is America’s best hope to unmask the extremism of the Gun Empire.

In his review of America and Its Guns, Project Contributor Kristopher Norris states:

Atwood confesses that during his early years of activism, he misplaced his hopes and energies in the power of national and state legislatures to regulate guns while still respecting gun rights. Laws will not change, he believes, until people of faith realize how the “Gun Empire” has convinced America that only violence will achieve our security. Recognizing the inability of the political powers to adequately address the problem, he realized that gun violence was as much a spiritual issue as a political one. Understanding gun violence as a spiritual issue allows us to see that our trust in guns is nothing less than idolatry, he confesses. “Instruments which bring only death [are] incapable of providing peace” (204).

For more information on Atwood’s book, click here. To continue reading Norris’s review, click here. For access to this and other book reviews like this one, click here.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads.

 

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Soong-Chan Rah and Prophetic Lament – The Necessary Corrective to Christianity’s Future

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rr Soong-Chan Rah Prophetic LamentSoong-Chan Rah’s latest publication, Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times, has just been released. Rah writes in response to the American church’s tendency to avoid lament. But lament is a missing, essential component of Christian faith. Lament recognizes struggles and suffering, that the world is not as it ought to be. Lament challenges the status quo and cries out for justice against existing injustices. Soong-Chan Rah’s prophetic exposition of the book of Lamentations provides a biblical and theological lens for examining the church’s relationship with a suffering world.

In his review of Prophetic Lament, Project Contributor Kristopher Norris states:

Prophetic Lament suggests lament as a counter to both the triumphalistic and nihilistic narratives that pervade the American evangelical church. Rah suggests the need for a new language and skills to lament the complex social and racial issues that face American society—and the church—today, beginning with the ability to confront our own culpability in these corporate sins and failures. Rah offers not only a thorough interpretation of the often-overlooked Book of Lamentations, but draws on this text to call the American evangelical church to lament its own history of racism and sexism. As Rah concludes, “Lamentations provides a necessary corrective to the triumphalism and exceptionalism of the American evangelical church arising from an ignorance of a tainted history” (198).

For more information on Rah’s book, click here. To continue reading Norris’s review, click here.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads.