Final Presentations Conclude Summer Internships in Lived Theology

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Reflections on Summers of Service

On Tuesday, September 26, the 2017 summer interns in Lived Theology gave final presentations on their partnerships with the community, wrapping up this year’s summer internships in lived theology. This year’s cohort included Megan Helbling (Col ’18), Sarah Katherine Doyle (Col ’18), and Joseph Kreiter (Col ’17).

Megan HelblingMegan Helbling

“Intentionally incorporating others’ stories into our lives is the best way to make our theologies as comprehensive as possible of the entire Kingdom of God.”

Megan is a University of Virginia student majoring in English and religious studies. As a summer intern, she worked at The Haven, a multi-service day shelter for people experiencing homelessness in downtown Charlottesville. Read her final project here.

Sarah Katherine DoyleSarah Katherine Doyle

“Community living can be messy. But using our senses and our breath to re-engage in the present, particularly at Magdalene, means re-engaging with a community of survivors at a vast range of phases in their recovery processes. It means re-engaging with glory.” 

Sarah Katherine is a University of Virginia student majoring in English and religious studies. As a PLT summer intern, SK served women who are survivors of trafficking, addiction and prostitution at Magdalene, a residential program connected with Thistle Farms Social Enterprises in Nashville, Tennessee. Read her final project here.

Joseph KreiterJoe Kreiter

“It is my hope that I can help to improve the material stakes of underprivileged residents of the Bay Area, if even only in a small way, to lighten their load a little bit so that they, too, can find some time for rest.”

A recent University of Virginia graduate, Joe double majored in East Asian studies and English. For his PLT summer internship, he worked with Urban Adamah, a Jewish community farm in downtown Berkeley, California, which seeks to integrate Judaism, organic farming, mindfulness and social action to foster love, justice and sustainability. Read his final project here.

To read the intern blog comprised of each student’s reflections over the summer, click here.

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.

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.

Kierkegaard and the Academy: Stanley Hauerwas Delivers the 2017 Capps Lecture

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Securing Kierkegaard’s Witness for Us Today

On Thursday, October 12, Stanley Hauerwas visited the University of Virginia to deliver the 2017 Capps Lecture in Christian Theology, entitled “Christianity is Madness: Kierkegaard and the Academy.”

Attending to Kierkegaard’s attack on Christendom, Hauerwas aimed to recover why his theology should continue to challenge us today. However, since we are no longer in the robust Christendom that was Kierkegaard’s Denmark, he argues that we may have to rethink what it means to do theology grounded in true discipleship.

Discussing Kierkegaard’s disapproval of the Christendom of his day, Hauerwas says:

“What must be acknowledged, Kierkegaard argues, is from any human point of view, Christianity is and must be a form of madness. It is so because only through a consciousness of sin can one come to the one who can save. Accordingly, Christianity must display itself as madness in order that the qualitative infinite emphasis may fall upon the fact that only consciousness of sin is the way of entrance. Indeed, this is the kind of consciousness that is the exact opposite of the kind of awareness that Christendom sponsors, namely the attitude which expresses admiration for Jesus. Such a form of consciousness is a fraud and self-defeats, but is one common to Christendom. It is so because in Christendom Christ is exalted to confirm our self deceptions, the deepest deception being that we do not have to lose our lives to be a disciple of Jesus.”

This lecture was co-sponsored by Theological Horizons and the Project on Lived Theology. For more information, visit the Theological Horizons website here. Browse and listen to previous CAPPS Lectures in our resource collection here. Watch Hauerwas’s lecture here.

Stanley Hauerwas is a longtime professor at Duke University, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University School of Law. Involved in the areas of systematic theology, philosophical theology and ethics, political theory, as well as the philosophy of social science and medical ethics, his work and research interests intersect across many disciplinary lines. His recent publications include The Work of Theology (Eerdmans, 2015) and Hannah’s Child: A Theological Memoir, 2nd Ed. (Eerdmans, 2012).

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.

Bearing the Cross in the Age of Donald J. Trump: Larycia Hawkins to Deliver Guest Lecture

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On the Prophetic Guidance of Civil Rights Witnesses

On Wednesday, November 1, Larycia Hawkins will deliver a guest lecture, entitled “Bearing the Cross in the Age of Donald J. Trump: The Example of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the American Civil Rights Movement.” The lecture will begin at 3:30pm in UVA’s Gibson Hall 142. Admission to the event is free, and the public is invited to attend.

Larycia A. Hawkins is the Abd el-Kader Visiting Faculty Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. At the Institute, she is working on the Race, Faith, and Culture Project, which examines how multiracial communities of faith could impact American race relations; and the Pluralism Project, which studies changing majorities and minorities. Her recent publications include “Prophetic and Priestly: The Politics of a Black Catholic Parish” (2015) and “Jesus and Justice: The Moral Framing of the Black Agenda” (2015). Her writing, speaking, teaching, and scholarship are squarely animated by a conviction that political science should be relevant to the real world.

For more event details and up-to-date event listings please click here to visit the PLT Events page. We also post updates online using #PLTevents. To get these and other news updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Migrants and Citizens

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Migrants and Citizens: Justice and Responsibility in the Ethics of Immigration, Tisha M RajendraJustice and Responsibility in the Ethics of Immigration

In Migrants and Citizens, author Tisha Rajendra focuses on a question that is rarely asked: What ethical responsibilities do immigrants and citizens have to each other? In an attempt to answer it, Tisha Rajendra reframes the confused and often heated debate over immigration around the world, proposes a new definition of justice based on responsibility to relationships, and develops a Christian ethic to address this vexing social problem.

Reviews and endorsements of the publication include:

“A creative contribution to the urgent ethical challenges raised by migration today. Drawing on social analysis and Christian thought, Rajendra shows that treating migrants justly will require rethinking and reshaping the social, political, and economic relationships that set the context for the movement of people today. Essential reading for all concerned with ethics and migration.”—David Hollenbach, SJ, Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

“What a joy to find wisdom and reason brought to bear on this contentious issue! Using case studies to illustrate the complexities of immigration, Rajendra exposes flaws in common narratives about immigrants. In clear and compelling prose, she then presents a stellar explication and critique of dominant theories of international justice and a carefully crafted argument for what justice requires in the arena of immigration. This is a must-read book not only for those who are interested in immigration policy but also for anyone searching for an adequate theory of justice in our complex world.”—Karen Lebacqz, author of Six Theories of Justice

For more information on the publication, click here.

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.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. For more recommended resources from our fellow travelers, click here, #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Ethics in a Christian Context

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Ethics in a Christian Context, Paul L. Lehmann, Fellow TravelersFrom the Library of Theological Ethics

In Ethics in a Christian Context, author Paul Lehmann answers the central question posed time and again to Christians throughout the ages: what am I as a believer in Jesus Christ and a member of his church to do? Lehmann argues that while principles for moral action can be rules of thumb, there are no absolute moral norms beyond the general norm of love. Lehmann contends that Christians are to act in every situation in ways that are consistent with God’s humanizing purposes, but what that means changes from context to context and requires strong, faith-shaped discernment.

A 2006 essay by Associate Professor John Drury of Wesley Seminary explains why Lehmann’s view on ethics is unique:

“The uniqueness of Lehmann’s ethical thought is not that he is a contextualist who happens to be Christian, but rather that he moves from his Christian commitments to a contextual ethic. As Lehmann puts it, “It cannot be too strongly stressed that the contextual character of Christian ethics … is derived from the ethical reality and significance of the Christian koinonia. The contextual character of Christian ethics is not derived from an application to the Christian koinonia of a general theory of contextualism.”[i] In this light, one can see that Lehmann is thoroughly contextual: he takes his own context as a member of the community of Christ as his starting point.”

“He moves from theological content to methodological reflection on ethics, not the other way around. His theological reflection does not merely serve his preconceived notion of ethics; rather, he sees the ethical reality through the lens of material theological claims.”

For more information on the publication, click here. To read the complete essay by Drury, click here.

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.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. For more recommended resources from our fellow travelers, click here, #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

Charles Marsh Delivers Keynote Address at Amsterdam Conference

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Charles Marsh, Charles Marsh to Deliver 25th Annual Harry Vaughan Smith LecturesOn Common Values, Shared Visions Between Faith Communities

On July 13, Charles Marsh delivered the keynote address at the “Virtuous Character: Common Values, Shared Visions” conference in Amsterdam. Entitled “Are We Still of Any Use?”, the presentation revisited Bonhoeffer’s exploration of this question he raises in his essay, “After Ten Years.”

Engaging the themes of exemplification, righteous action, good people and aristocratic virtue, Bonhoeffer finally responds to the inquiry with a chastened “Yes”. Marsh focused on these themes and examined how they create space for generative and even inspiring interactions with the civil rights narrative– an enactment, embodiment, and exemplification of virtuous character– to inspire the interfaith dialogue and partnership so urgent in the crusade for peace and understanding between faith communities today.

“Virtuous Character: Common Values, Shared Visions” brought together 26 guests from Muslim and Christian communities to learn from one another about the practice of character virtues in Islam and Christianity. Recognizing a unique opportunity to engage both traditions in a series of conversations that builds upon identified strengths and convictions internal to each faith, the conference aimed to facilitate discourse on topics of interest to both Christians and Muslims and to support cooperative activities between the faith communities that work for the common good in our societies.

Marsh describes Bonhoeffer’s development of thought in the ruins of the Christian church and in the face of Nazism:

“This puzzling divergence— the spinelessness of the dissident church people, on the one hand, and the civil courage of the humanist conspirators on the other— inspired Bonhoeffer to ponder what he called the beautification of those who are persecuted for the sake of a just cause. Portraying a world full of depravity and menace as he had done in Discipleship or The Cost of Discipleship might seem a more accurate reflection of the Zeitgeist, but beginning in his Ethics writings a few years before his imprisonment, Bonhoeffer would move well beyond such depictions and their implied divisions between God and humankind. 

Camaraderie, generosity, humility, justice, righteous action, resistance: these illuminated a universal aspiration that in Bonhoeffer’s mind was still enabled by the intensification of the Christological particular. But as the Christological particular intensified, the universal aspiration to build bridges, to create partnerships, to see the light of God and the other and to learn the light of God, the will of God, and truth of God from the other became more expansive and alive.”

To watch the address in full, click here. Find more information on the conference on the Isaachar Fund’s website here.

Charles Marsh is the Commonwealth Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and the director of the Project on Lived Theology. His research interests include modern Christian thought, religion and civil rights, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and lived theology.

For more event details and up-to-date event listings please click here to visit the PLT Events page. We also post updates online using #PLTevents. To get these and other news updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

Stanley Hauerwas to Deliver 2017 CAPPS Lecture and Seminar Discussion

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2017 CAPPS Lecture, Christianity is Madness, Stanley Hauerwas2017 CAPPS Lecture

On Thursday, October 12, Stanley Hauerwas will deliver the 2017 CAPPS Lecture in Christian Theology, entitled “Christianity is Madness: Kierkegaard and the Academy.” Beginning at 6:00 pm in 101 Nau Hall, the event is free and open to the public, with seating available on a first come, first served basis. For those unable to attend, the event will be livestreamed on Theological Horizons’s Facebook page here.

This annual series brings eminent Christian thinkers to the heart of the University of Virginia with public lectures that explore the relationship between faith and responsibility. These events are hosted by Theological Horizons and co-sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology. For more information, visit the Theological Horizons website here. Browse and listen to previous CAPPS Lectures in our resource collection here.

Bonhoeffer and Niebuhr event, Stanley Hauerwas, Eugene McCarraherSeminar Discussion with Eugene McCarraher

On Wednesday, October 11, Stanley Hauerwas and Eugene McCarraher will lead a seminar discussion on Bonhoeffer and Niebuhr, affirming their witness for today’s world. The free event will begin at 3:30 pm in 142 Gibson Hall, and the public is invited to attend.

Stanley Hauerwas is a longtime professor at Duke University, serving as the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School with a joint appointment at the Duke University School of Law. Involved in the areas of systematic theology, philosophical theology and ethics, political theory, as well as the philosophy of social science and medical ethics, his work and research interests intersect across many disciplinary lines. His recent publications include The Work of Theology (Eerdmans, 2015) and Hannah’s Child: A Theological Memoir, 2nd Ed. (Eerdmans, 2012).

Eugene McCarraher is an associate professor of humanities and history and the associate director of the honors program at Villanova University. 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.

For more event details and up-to-date event listings please click here to visit the PLT Events page. We also post updates online using #PLTevents. To get these and other news updates, please like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @LivedTheology. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: Bonhoeffer’s Reception of Luther

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Bonhoeffer's Reception of LutherOn Bonhoeffer’s Two-Kingdoms Thinking

In Bonhoeffer’s Reception of Luther, author Michael P. DeJonge presents Bonhoeffer’s Lutheran theology of justification focused on the interpersonal presence of Christ in word, sacrament, and church.  DeJonge argues that the widespread failure to connect Bonhoeffer with the Lutheran two-kingdoms tradition has presented a serious obstacle in interpretation, and shows how this tradition informs Bonhoeffer’s reflections on war and peace, as well as his understanding of resistance to political authority. In all of this, DeJonge also argues that an appreciation of Luther’s ubiquity in Bonhoeffer’s corpus sheds light on his thinking, lends it coherence, and makes sense of otherwise difficult interpretive problems.

Reviews and endorsements of the publication include:

“Bonhoeffer’s Reception of Luther is an excellent work, worthy of close reading and engagement. It promises to open up new vistas for better and more responsible understandings of Bonhoeffer s life, work, and ongoing significance. DeJonge shows convincingly how deeply Bonhoeffer was steeped in and in critical dialogue with Luther s thought and legacy, and likewise how recognition of this reality presents great opportunity for improved engagement with Bonhoeffer himself.”—Reading Religion

“This work will be essential for anyone interested in the development of Bonhoeffer’s theology. Michael DeJonge writes with remarkable clarity about some of the more complex and contested aspects of Bonhoeffer’s thought, offering provocative new insights into Bonhoeffer’s approach to the two kingdoms, Christian pacifism, and the challenges of resistance. Without ignoring the other theological influences on Bonhoeffer’s thought, this book makes a convincing case that to understand Bonhoeffer we must examine his reading and interpretation of Luther.”—Victoria J. Barnett, General Editor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works English Edition

“In this new work, rising star Michael DeJonge executes a lucid, patient and in the end devastating critique of North American readings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theological legacy. That alone is worth the price of admission. Even better is the extraordinary retrieval he makes of Bonhoeffer’s core Lutheranism. DeJonge understands Luther better than many a Lutheran and Bonhoeffer better than any other North American interpreter. Tolle lege.”—Paul R. Hinlicky, Tise Professor of Lutheran Studies, Univerzita Komenskeho, Slovakia

For more information on the publication, click here.

Michael P. DeJonge is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of South Florida, and teaches in the areas of the history of Christian thought, theories and methods in religious studies, and modern religious thought. His research has focused on the twentieth-century German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and he sits on the board of the International Bonhoeffer Society and is a co-editor of the journal, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Yearbook.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. For more recommended resources from our fellow travelers, click here, #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

Living in Community: Perkins House Established in Charlottesville

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UVA Students Bridge the Gap Between Academia and Area Residents

The Perkins House residentsCurrent events in American social spaces, including the recent white supremacy rallies of August 11 and 12, have made loving your neighbor a difficult undertaking. Named in honor of civil rights activist John M. Perkins, The Perkins House has been established in Charlottesville’s 10th and Page neighborhood to commit to this endeavor. Its mission is to give undergraduate students the opportunity to live in a mixed-income, multi-ethnic, and inter-generational neighborhood to prepare them for a lifetime of incarnational ministry and community partnership.

This year’s residents, pictured above, include third-year students Ameenah Elam, Sarah Bland, Sade Akinbayo, Isabella Hall and Dominique DeBose. Throughout the year, they will work to build relationships with their neighbors in big and small ways, whether by opening up their home for dinners or simply helping carry groceries. Some will also partner with different nonprofit organizations working in the community.

The John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation is supporting the new initiative, which director Garrett Trent said exemplifies the civil rights leader’s Christian faith and commitment to community development, racial reconciliation and nonviolent activism. These ideals are core to The Perkins House and its goal to mobilize the next generation in Christian Community Development practices in alignment with John and Vera Mae Perkins and CCDA.

John M. Perkins racial reconciliation, Discussion on the Lived Theology of John M Perkins, American Evangelicalism and the Practices of Peace, life of john m perkins, Let Justice Roll Down“This house will be a group of young people trying to live out an authentic faith, following the great commandment of loving God and loving each other,” Perkins said. “In this world today, there is so much division and violence, and it has been my life’s effort – and that of my wife and many others – to live a life of love.”

Visit The Perkins House’s website here. To read the feature story in UVA Today, click here.

John M. Perkins is a leader and major figure of the civil rights movement of the 1960s who founded Voice of Calvary Ministries, a Christian community development ministry, with his wife, Vera Mae. In 1983, the Perkinses established the John and Vera Mae Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation, Justice and Christian Community Development.

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.

For more resources from our Fellow Travelers, click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: The Year of Small Things

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The Year of Small Things:Radical Faith for the rest of UsRadical Faith for the Rest of Us

In The Year of Small Things, authors Sarah Arthur and Erin Wasinger recount the story of Arthur’s time in a new church located in the suburbs, and the unique challenge they faced: how to translate the practices of “radical” faith into their new context. Together with their friends and fellow church members Erin and Dave Wasinger, the Arthurs embarked on a yearlong experiment to implement twelve small practices of radical faith into their life. The Year of Small Things is told with humor, theological reflection, and practical insight, and explores such practices as simplicity, hospitality, accountability, sustainability, and social justice–but, most of all, discernment.

Reviews and endorsements of the publication include:

“This is the most provocative and profound book I’ve read in a long time. I plan to buy a box and give it to my friends so they can laugh, cry, repent, and soul-search as much as I did. Deeply moving–and necessary–for the faith community.”—Joel Salatin, renegade farmer (featured on Food, Inc.) and author of The Marvelous Pigness of Pigs: Respecting and Caring for All God’s Creation 

“The Year of Small Things is the best kind of spiritual formation book: serious and funny, smart and vulnerable—and, most useful of all—practical. If you want to live the way of Jesus and struggle to know how in the midst of family busyness, financial struggle, even depression, Sarah Arthur and Erin Wasinger can be trusted to help you and your community re-imagine and engage practices of spiritual wholeness and social justice. Honestly, this is one of my favorite books this year.”—Jen Pollock Michel, author of Teach Us to Want and Keeping Place (2017)

For more information on the publication, click here.

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.

For more of “On the Lived Theology Reading List,” click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyReads. For more recommended resources from our fellow travelers, click here, #PLTfellowtravelers. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.