On the Lived Theology Reading List: From the Heart

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A Memoir and a Meditation on a Vital Organ

At a young age, Jeff Kosky was diagnosed with a congenital bicuspid valve defect—his heart didn’t function properly. The persistent back-and-forth between hospital visits escalated into an internal struggle between hope and anxiety. For Kosky, this instability formed a deep existential uncertainty about the philosophy of healing and what it truly means to have a heart. His memoir deepens these philosophical explorations by weaving together personal narrative and the experience of living with a chronic heart condition to ask fundamental questions about human existence: What does it mean to lose a heart?

Kosky begins by chronicling his childhood experience with his heart defect, showing how the condition shaped his identity and worldview. This journey led him to theology and philosophy, such as St. Augustine, who links one’s spiritual and physical identity to the heart. In Confessions, Augustine explores paradoxes such as the need to open and even wound the heart in order to heal the soul. Kosky expands on these ideas within the biomedical world of surgery, asking what it means to cut open the chest while trying to preserve the self. For him, the heart isn’t just functionally important, it spiritually and symbolically sustains our sense of self. A heart defect, then, imposes more than just physical limitations; it carries emotional and existential weight.

Drawing from the philosophical minds of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Marion, and Weil, Kosky ultimately invites readers to live with “heartfulness”: to be emotionally present, vulnerable, and grateful. Acknowledging and honoring the heart—both as organ and metaphor—is, he admits, an ongoing process. Nevertheless, his memoir is a beautiful reflection on the power of the body and its deep connection to our spiritual being.

Jeffrey Kosky has been a professor at Washington and Lee University since 2003. He earned his bachelor’s from William’s College and his PhD from the University of Chicago’s Divinity School. In addition to this novel, he has written “Arts of Wonder: Enchanting Secularity.

Reviews and Endorsements of this Publication include:

“Kosky has written a book unlike any other I know. In this meditation on having, losing, and regaining his heart, he sometimes wears his heart on his sleeve, sometimes scrutinizes it from a distance. He tells a philosophical story that creates a space in which you, too, can meditate on what happens to your heart for as long as it beats, until it stops.” – Lars Svendsen, author of A Philosophy of Hope

“Jeffrey L. Kosky has a congenitally hurt heart. When that hurt became acute, surgery saved him—but for how long, and to what end? He engages those questions with a blend of intimacy and unsparing introspection that recalls Augustine’s Confessions. Have you, like me, survived heart surgery? This is a book for us. And even if you haven’t, it will do your heart a world of good.” – Jack Miles, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of God: A Biography

For more information on this publication, click here:

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On the Lived Theology Reading List: Black Religion in The Madhouse

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Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake

Between the 18th and 19th centuries, a significant number of African Americans were institutionalized for a psychosis known as “religious excitement.” During this Jim Crow era, Black spirituality was often pathologized by white psychiatrists as a form of mental illness. Where a white Christian might have been praised as pious, a Black Christian would be considered delusional or deranged. Weisenfeld’s book, Black Religion in the Madhouse, explores the religious institutionalization of Black Americans and draws powerful connections to contemporary racism, particularly within mental health systems and police encounters.

Weisenfeld begins her book with a case study on Judy B., whose Black spiritual behaviors were disregarded as superstition and pathologized as “religious excitement.” Her experience reflects a larger issue in 19th-century southern psychiatry, where Black spirituality was viewed as fanatical, irrational, and dangerous. This racialized psychiatric framework, Weisenfeld argues, was used to suppress Black autonomy and characterize Black religious practitioners as mentally unfit for society.

However, the rise of Black psychiatrists and mental health activists challenged these oppressive frameworks. By reframing mental health away from racialized diagnoses, figures such as Rosa Kittrell became voices against a discipline dominated by white practitioners. Despite these efforts, the ramifications of past practices remain prevalent in contemporary culture. Today, Black individuals are disproportionately stereotyped as aggressive or unstable, which only further propels cases of police brutality.

What begins as a historical study of the spiritual institutionalization of Black Americans evolves into a powerful narrative of spiritual strength and resilience. Weisenfeld’s work not only chronicles religious medical racism but also tells the story of Black Americans’ spiritual endurance in the face of enormous challenges.

Judith Weisenfeld is an Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. In addition to her current work, she is the author of “New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration,” which explores racial entanglements of new religious movements in the early 20th-century urban north.

Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor in the Department of Religion at Princeton University and author, most recently, of New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity during the Great Migration.

Reviews and Endorsements of this publication include:

“Breaks new ground by documenting how American psychiatry institutionalized a specific form of racism―one that pathologized black religious expressions. The book’s genius is showing how these diagnostic categories evolved over time and reached beyond asylums, shaping African American experiences after the Civil War. Weisenfeld skillfully recovers and uplifts individuals from the sparse historical records of African American psychiatric cases, honoring them in powerful vignettes. This book is a game changer for our historical understandings of religion, race, and mental health.” — Kristy L. Slominski, author of Teaching Moral Sex: A History of Religion and Sex Education in the United States

“Illuminates the often-overlooked intersection of religion, race, and psychology at the birth of U.S. psychiatry. Weisenfeld tells a compelling narrative of the historical pathologization of African American religiosity and how psychiatric ideas about rationality and irrationality came to shape dominant understandings of Black religions. . . . Both a monumental achievement of historical scholarship and deeply moving. . . . Invaluable for scholars U.S. religions but deserves to be read by practicing psychotherapists as well. . .I cannot recommend this book highly enough!” — Ira Helderman, author of Prescribing the Dharma: Psychotherapists, Buddhist Traditions, and Defining Religion

For more information on this publication, 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. To sign up for the Lived Theology newsletter, click here.

“Martin Luther King, Jr – Pastor, Theologian, Christian Critic” with Rev. Dr. Nathan Walton

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On March 18, 2025, Rev. Dr. Nathan Walton joined the UVA Kingdom of God in America in to talk about the life and theological formation of Martin Luther King, Jr. This undergraduate class on religion and social movements explores the influence of theological ideas and religious commitments on social movements in America. 

Excerpt: “[King] inhabited a long tradition of theologically informed social engagement and an embodied faith embodied faith. You can see themes of social engagement in the sermons and speeches and you can see themes of embodiment and everything from physically marching and boycotting to hearing the musicality of the sermons.”

Nathan Walton is  Co-Lead Pastor at East End Fellowship in Richmond, Virginia.  He most recently served as Executive Director of Abundant Life Ministries, a community development nonprofit in Charlottesville. Nathan holds a Master of Divinity degree from Duke Divinity School and both a B.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia.

Listen to the lecture 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.

“White Too Long” with Robert P. Jones

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On December 3, 2024, Robert P. Jones joined the UVA graduate seminar Theologies of Resistance and Reconciliation by Zoom to talk about his research on the theological and historical sources of white supremacy in the United States.

Dr. Robert P. Jones is the president and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit nonpartisan organization dedicated to conducting independent research and driving conversations at the intersection of religion, culture, and politics. He is a frequent on-air guest on television shows, and his editorials and essays have been published in such places as The Atlantic, Religion News Services, Time Magazine, and other outlets. He’s frequently featured in major news media, such as CNN, MSNBC, NPR, The New York Times, and the Washington Post.

Dr. Jones is also a New York Times bestselling author. His most recent book is The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, and the Path to Shared American Future. His book The End of White Christian America won the 2019 Grawemeyer award, which is given every year to the most influential book written in religion in North America, and this is quite an extraordinary honor. His talk today is based on an earlier book called White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.

Watch the event here

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.

“The World Can Be Different: The Theological Vision of Dorothee Soelle” with Sarah K. Pinnock

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On November 19, 2024, Professor Sarah Pinnock joined the UVA graduate seminar Theologies of Resistance and Reconciliation to talk about the life and thought of Dorothee Soelle. 

Dr. Sarah Pinnock is professor of contemporary religious thought at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. Sarah was born in New Orleans in 1968-67, where her father, a Baptist theologian and influential, evangelical thinker, Clark Pinnock, taught theology. When she was her family moved back to their native Canada, first to Vancouver, and later to Toronto. 

After undergraduate and M.A. studies at MacMaster University, Sarah began doctoral studies in philosophical theology at Yale University under the tutelage of Louis Dupree. During a research year in Germany, Sarah served as Dorothee Soelle’s assistant. 

Her research on Soelle and more broadly on Christian responses to the Holocaust, culminated in her doctoral dissertation, which led in turn to her first book, Beyond Theodicy, Christian Continental Thinkers Respond to the Holocaust.

Dr. Pinnock joined the faculty at Trinity University in 2000.  Her book The Theology of Dorothee Soelle is a stellar collaboration of essays  and the basis of her presentation this afternoon.

On the shape of Soelle’s thought, Pinnock writes: “Soelle’s mysticism and christology responds to critiques in modernity. God is not the explanation for scientific unknowns, or what Bonhoeffer calls ‘the God of the gaps.’ She also rejected the image of God as the ruler of history… Soelle proposed a nontheistic christology that opens up a vision of God in which God is dependent, and our actions represent God in the world. We are each unique contributors to the work of God in the world.”

Listen to the event here

Watch 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.

Robert P. Jones on the Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity

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The Project on Lived Theology presents a lecture with Robert P. Jones, New York Times Bestselling Author and Founder and President of the Public Religion Research Institute, titled “White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity.” The lecture will take place on Tuesday, December 3, from 3:30-4:45 EST. It is a virtual presentation and can be viewed at the following link:

ZOOM LINK

The lecture is part of Professor Charles Marsh’s Theologies of Reconciliation and Resistance fall seminar. 

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.

Lecture in Lived Theology with Sarah K. Pinnock

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The Project on Lived Theology presents a lecture with Sarah K. Pinnock, Professor of Contemporary Religious Thought, Trinity University, titled “The World Can Be Different: The Theological Vision of Dorothee Soelle.” The lecture will take place on Tuesday, November 19, from 3:30-4:45 EST. It is a virtual presentation and can be viewed at the following link:

ZOOM LINK

The lecture is part of Professor Charles Marsh’s Theologies of Reconciliation and Resistance fall seminar. 

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.

“Why Reinhold Niebuhr Matters” with Larry Rasmussen

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On October 8, 2024, Dr. Larry Rasmussen joined a graduate seminar in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia called Theologies of Resistance and Reconciliation to speak to the class about the thought and life of Niebuhr. The course was rolled out twenty years as a graduate seminar on Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King. Jr. and has expanded over the years to include Reinhold Niebuhr and Dorothee Soelle. 

Dr. Larry Rasmussen is the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Rasmussen’s first book – his revised doctoral dissertation – was based on a fellowship year in Berlin in 1969 during which he conducted oral interviews wit Bonhoeffer’s students, fellow conspirators, family members, and allies in the Kirchenkampf. The landmark book, Dietrich Bonhoeffer: Reality and Resistance. Originally was published in 1972, and reissued by Westminster John Knox Press in 2005. Larry has also served as an editor and consultant to the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works Translation Project. 

Professor Rasmussen is a lay theologian of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. His current work in Christian ethics includes analysis of power, methodological issues in Bible and ethics, and reflections on technology and ecology. His volume, Earth Community, Earth Ethics (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1996), won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in Religion of 1997.  He served as a member of the Science, Ethics, and Religion Advisory Committee of the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) and was a recipient of a Henry Luce Fellowship in Theology, 1998-99, the Burnice Fjellman Award for Distinguished Christian Ministries in Higher Education, and the Joseph Sittler Award for Outstanding Leadership in Theological Education.  From 1990-2000 he served as co-moderator of the WCC unit, Justice, Peace, Creation.  He and Nyla live in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Excerpt: “Pandemics that have deep roots and institutional legs like the pandemic of racism, take a long time to eradicate. Victories come in fits and start in context after being engaged anew over and again, not least because the poisonous virus develops new variant strains. This means you should celebrate victories when you can rest up, return to the struggle with vigor, and pass the torch when you must.”

Listen to the event here

Watch 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.

2024 Fall Lectures in Lived Theology

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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
  • Tuesday, November 19 (new date!), 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 – “White Too Long”, Robert P. Jones, New York Times Bestselling Author and Founder and President of the Public Religion Research Institute 

ZOOM LINK

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 to Study Faith-Based Approaches to Health

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We are pleased to announce that the Project on Lived Theology (PLT) has awarded an Undergraduate Summer Fellowship to Elizabeth Rambo, a rising fourth year from Columbia, South Carolina, majoring in Global Public Health.

Alongside an academic and theological mentorship with Dr. Susan Holman, Elizabeth will be interning in the health outreach arm of Catholic Charities of Washington, D.C and the food department of Bread for the City. Elizabeth and Dr. Holman will focus their studies on faith-based approaches to public health.

Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington (CCADW), among other services, provides extensive physical and mental healthcare through free and low-cost dental care, general medicine, medications, and behavioral and psychiatric aid. Serving the community for nearly a century, they provide care to the entirety of Washington, D.C. as well as eastern and southern Maryland. Bread for the City gives comprehensive social services as well, to a smaller area in downtown D.C. Their food bank serves hundreds daily facing short or long-term food insecurity.

With Dr. Holman, Elizabeth will study and reflect upon the intersection of faith, human rights, and global public health. This study will complement her roles at organizations who deal extensively with the public health crises of poverty, mental health, and food insecurity. She plans to research and discuss how race and racism, public health policy, and culture have impacted the diverse D.C. community and the health issues it faces – and how faith-based organizations can begin the healing process.

At UVA, Elizabeth is on the leadership team for Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), mentors for the Young Women Leaders Program, and enjoys hiking, reading, and being with friends.

Reading List: 

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.