The Lived Theology and Power Workgroup
Meeting Highlights
- First Meeting
Charlottesville, VA
January 25-27, 2002 - Second Meeting
New York, NY
April 19-21, 2002 - Third Meeting
Montgomery, AL
September 6-8, 2002 - Fourth Meeting
Charlottesville, VA
February 14-16, 2003
Purpose
The Workgroup of Theology and Power worked together with pastors and church-based community organizers to understand and articulate the theological self-understandings of such communities, as well as the accompanying tensions and creative possibilities of power and money. The workgroup asked such questions as how (or whether) power and authentic Christian existence can coexist in particular communities? Do concentrations of power in churches and Christian communities create inevitably corrosive results?
The Workgroup on Theology and Power considered three ways in which theology and power intersect: power in the social world of Christian communities, power as related to corporate and economic structures, and power as a multi-level force. In turn, we considered three themes necessary to any adquate theological analysis of power: the cross, the mission of the church, and the principalities and powers.
Participants
- M. Shawn Copeland - Associate Professor of Theology (Marquette University); Ph.D. Systematic Theology (Boston College)
- Mark Gornik - Director of the City Seminary of New York; M.Div. (Westminster Theological Seminary)
- Russell Jeung - Assistant Professor of Sociology (Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA); Ph.D. Sociology (University of California, Berkeley)
- Eugene McCaharrer - Associate Professor of History (Villanova University); Ph.D. (Rutgers University)
- Ted M. Ownby - Associate Professor of History and Southern Studies (University of Mississippi); Ph.D. (Johns Hopkins University)
- Houston Roberson - Assistant Professor of History (University of the South); Ph.D. (University of North Carolina)
- Gerald Schlabach - Professor of Theology (University of St. Thomas); Ph.D. (Notre Dame University)
- Sondra Wheeler - Professor of Theological Ethics (Wesley Theological Seminary); Ph.D. (Yale University)
- Lauren Winner - Ph.D. candidate (Columbia University); M.Phil. (Cambridge University)
Consultants
- Ralph Luker, Ralph E. Luker, independent scholar of the Civil Rights Movement.
- Rev. Ray Rivera, Executive Director, Latino Pastoral Action Center (LPAC), NYC
- Lee Stuart, Lead Organizer, South Bronx Churches' Nehemiah Housing Project, NYC
- Richard Wills, Grad Student in Religious Studies (University of Virginia) and former Pastor of Dexter Avenue King Memorial Baptist Church (Montgomery, AL)
- Johnnie Carr, Past President of the Montgomery Improvement Association, Montgomery, AL
- Fred Gray, Attorney for the Montgomery Improvement Association during the Montgomery bus boycott
- Simon Barnes, Executive Director, Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools (FOCUS), Charlottesville, VA.