On the Lived Theology Reading List: Just Policing, Not War

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Just Policing, Not WarAn Alternative Response to World Violence

Churches have long discussed the proper approach to war and peace. While peace churches favor pacifism, others, such as the Catholic church, support the just war theory. In this 2007 publication, PLT contributor Gerald Schlabach reflects on recent events in world history and argues that the time has come to reconsider the Christian response to war. As a middle ground between pacifism and just war, he offers the just policing theory. If the world can address problems of violence through a police model instead of a conventional military model, there may be a role for Christians from all traditions. Including reflections from different thinkers on this just policing theory, the publication offers valuable discussions on the warfare and distress Christians struggle to navigate through in an increasingly-violent world.

In an excerpt provided by Liturgical Press, Schlabach writes:

The concept of just policing clearly places the focus on achieving justice in human society, rather than on simply reacting to war when it breaks out. It is inherently proactive. And it takes seriously the need to have a practical means to respond to injustice when it occurs, as inevitably it will in a world filled with inherited evil…

Just policing’s most hopeful potential as a concept is its ability to provide a common base on which Christians on both sides of the political spectrum can join forces. Just policing is something both liberals and conservatives can support. There will of course be vigorous debates over precisely what constitutes just policing, and how best to carry it out in specific cases, but that is as it should be. We will never have truly just policing on any level in society without the contributions of everyone involved. What is essential is that the need for policing and the need for it to be done justly both be acknowledged.

The new epoch that has opened before us is a major opportunity, one of the most important in all Christian history. Let us accept it as a gift, and move forward in humility and in strength.

To more of the excerpt, click here. Find more information on the publication here.

Gerald Schlabach is a professor in the Department of Theology and past chair of the Department of Justice and Peace Studies at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. A Roman Catholic as of Pentecost 2004, Schlabach is a Benedictine oblate, is deeply involved in the Bridgefolk movement for grassroots dialogue and unity between Mennonites and Catholics, and continues to call himself a “Mennonite Catholic.” His publications include Unlearning Protestantism: Sustaining Christian Community in an Unstable Age (2010) and Sharing Peace: Mennonites and Catholics in Conversation (2013).

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 monthly newsletter, click here.

On the Lived Theology Reading List: How the Other Half Worships

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How the Other Half Worships, Camilo José VergaraInvestigating Churches Among America’s Poorest

America is known as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, enjoying more opportunities and a higher standard of living than many. While even the U.S. is home to poor neighborhoods crippled by poverty and violence, one institution can be found across the country regardless: the church.

In How the Other Half Worships, author Camilo José Vergara explores the conditions, beliefs, and practices that shape the churches and the lives of the nation’s urban poor. A compilation of decades worth of research and field work, this publication includes more than 300 richly textured color photographs and a series of candid interviews with pastors, church officials, and congregation members. Vergara’s work stands as a stark witness to how churches are being rebuilt in the dilapidated streets of America’s cities and how religion is being reinvented by the nation’s poor.

To read more on this publication, click here.

Camilo José Vergara, a 2002 John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellow, is the author and coauthor of numerous books including The New American Ghetto, American Ruins, Silent Cities: The Evolution of the American Cemetery, and Subway Memories. His photography has been exhibited widely and acquired by institutions including the New York Public Library, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City, and the Getty Center in Los Angeles. He currently resides in Manhattan. Vergara and Charles Marsh were both Fellows at the American Academy in Berlin, in the spring of 2010.

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.

Upcoming Event: The Virginia Colloquium on Theology, Ethics, & Culture

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Virginia Colloquium on Theology, Ethics, & Culture "Religion and Media" posterOn the Connection Between Religion and Media

The Virginia Colloquium for Theology, Ethics, & Culture will take place from May 6-8, 2016 at the University of Virginia. The keynote lecture will begin at 5:30 pm on Friday, May 6 in Minor Hall. Admission to this lecture is free and the public is invited to attend.

The keynote speaker is renowned anthropologist Professor Talal Asad, whose transformative work on the genealogical mediations of religious and “secular” traditions has deeply influenced the study and practice of religion today. His research interests include the phenomenon of religion (and secularism) as an integral part of modernity, and especially in the religious revival in the Middle East. Connected with this is an interest in the links between religious and secular notions of pain and cruelty, and therefore with the modern discourse of Human Rights.

The conference theme is “Religion and Media.” Religion is often described as a “mediated” phenomenon, whether ritually, doctrinally, aesthetically, communally, politically, narratively, and/or violently. The conference will initiate a dialogue about “media,” construed not only as a “mode of transmission” but also as a process of (re-)/mediation and repair, to open new lines of investigation for theological and religious studies.

This conference is co-sponsored by the Project on Lived Theology.

For more information on the event, visit the conference website here. Visit Asad’s faculty page at the City University of New York here.

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.

Can I Get a Witness: William Stringfellow, Richard Twiss, and Howard Thurman

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Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2016/2017 Author Series

The SILT 16/17: Can I Get a Witness? author series introduces the SILT participant authors and the historical figures they will be illuminating in their narratives. This week’s featured writers are Rev. Becca Stevens, researching William Stringfellow, Soong-Chan Rah, whose figure is Richard Twiss, and Donyelle Charlotte McCray, writing on Howard Thurman.

 

Rev. becca stevens Ι Figure: william stringfellow (1928-1985)

William Stringfellow“The practice of the Christian life consists of the discernment of (the seeing and hearing), and the reliance upon (the reckless and uncalculating dependence), and the celebration (the ready and spontaneous enjoyment) of the presence of the Word of God in the common life of the world.” –Stringfellow

Born in 1928, William Stringfellow was an American social activist, human rights lawyer, and theologian. He first became involved in social activism in college by organizing a sit-in to protest segregation. After graduating from Harvard Law, Stringfellow worked as an attorney in East Harlem, representing the impoverished and the marginalized. He soon gained a reputation as a formidable critic of the social, military and economic policies of our country and as a tireless advocate for racial and social justice. As a Christian, he firmly believed that he had been committed in baptism to a life-long struggle against the “Powers and Principalities” and viewed Christianity as a call to dissent. Karl Barth recognized this and saw in Stringfellow’s writing a “theology of freedom” more concerned with proclaiming the gospel than with catering to the habits and fads of American society—a theology unwilling, as Stringfellow put it, “to interpret the Bible for the convenience of America.” Stringfellow remained active until his death in 1985.

Becca Stevens is an Episcopal priest and founder of Magdalene, a residential community of women who have survived institutional and drug abuse. She is a prolific writer, and her works include The Way of Tea and Justice: Rescuing the World’s Favorite Beverage from It’s Violent History (2014) and Letters from the Farm: A Simple Path for a Deeper Spiritual Life (2015). She was inducted into the Tennessee Women’s Hall of Fame, and she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of the South.

soong-chan rah Ι FIGURE: richard twiss (1954-2013)


Richard Twiss“How capable are we of bringing about authentic change if we don’t have voices from the margins?” –Twiss

Richard Twiss was a Native American educator and Christian minister, author, and public speaker. After graduating from high school, Twiss joined the activist American Indian Movement in its 1972 seizure of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs building in Washington, D.C. to protest the government’s breaking of treaties. The incident left the 18-year-old Twiss filled with hatred toward white people and Christianity. After moving to Hawaii and becoming a self-described beach bum struggling with drug use, he converted to Christianity in 1974 during an overdose. In 1981, Twiss moved to Vancouver with his new wife Katherine, serving as a pastor at New Discovery Community Church in Vancouver from 1982 to 1995. Together the two founded the nonprofit Wiconi International in 1997. Twiss became the organization’s president, spreading his message of reconciliation, community, and spirituality at home and abroad. In 2000, Twiss co-founded and became chairman of the North American Institute for Indigenous Theological Studies. He also taught classes in Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University and served as a board member at the Native American Youth & Family Center in Portland and the Christian Community Development Association, founded by John M. Perkins in 1989. Twiss was in Washington, D.C., for the annual National Prayer Breakfast at the time of his death in 2013.

Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. Rah is formerly the founding senior pastor of the Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic, urban ministry-focused church committed to living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. His publications include Prophetic Lament: A Call for Justice in Troubled Times (2015).

Donyelle Charlotte McCray Ι FIGURE: howard thurman (1899-1981)


Howard Thurman“The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication, they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires.” –Thurman

One of the leading religious figures of twentieth-century America, Howard Thurman was the first prominent African American pacifist whose theology of radical nonviolence influenced and shaped a generation of civil rights activists, including Martin Luther King, Jr. Born in 1899, Thurman was raised in Daytona, Florida by his formally enslaved grandmother. In 1925, he became an ordained Baptist minister. His first pastorate, at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Oberlin, Ohio, was followed by a joint appointment as professor of religion and director of religious life at Morehouse and Spelman colleges in Atlanta, Georgia. Thurman spent the spring semester of 1929 studying at Haverford College with Rufus Jones, a Quaker mystic and leader of the pacifist, interracial Fellowship of Reconciliation. In 1936, he led a “Negro Delegation of Friendship” to South Asia, where he met the Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi and broadened his theological vision. Thurman served as dean of Rankin Chapel at Howard University from 1932 to 1944, leaving his tenured position there to help establish the Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco, the first major interracial, interdenominational church in the United States. He went on to serve as dean of Marsh Chapel at Boston University from 1953 to 1965, then after this, he continued his ministry as chairman of the board and director of the Howard Thurman Educational Trust in San Francisco until his death in 1981.

Donyelle Charlotte McCray is Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Director of Multicultural Ministries, and Associate Director of the preaching program “Deep Calls to Deep” at Virginia Theological Seminary and will join Yale Divinity School this fall as the Assistant Professor of Homiletics. Her primary research interests include homiletics, spirituality, Christian mysticism, and ecclesiology. She is the recipient of the Bell-Woolfall and the James H. Costen North American Doctoral Fellowships. 

SILT 16/17: Can I Get a Witness? is a two-part SILT that will celebrate scholars, activists, laypeople, and religious leaders whose lived theologies produced and inspired social justice in the United States and will produce a single volume entitled Can I Get a Witness? Stories of Radical Christians in the U.S., 1900-2014. The first meeting will be held at the University of Virginia in June 2016; the second meeting will follow at Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus in June 2017.

For more details about the Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2016/2017: Can I Get A Witness? initiative, click here. We also post updates online using #SILT. 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: The Way of Peace

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The Way of Peace: A. J. Muste's Writings for the ChurchA. J. Muste’s Writings for the Church

A Dutch-born American clergyman and leading social activist, A.J. Muste was known for his lifelong commitments to pacifism, civil rights, war resistance, and the labor movement. Edited by Jeffrey D. Meyers, the publication is a collection of his sermons and writings detailing the Christian theology that rooted Muste’s radicalism. Faith communities will be inspired to follow Muste into the way of peace.

In the following excerpt used with the permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers, Muste writes:

“…Jesus had a vision of God as Father, of love as the central and eternal and inescapable fact of the universe. He had a way of living—in absolute obedience to the demands of love. He had a conception of humanity organized into a divine society on the basis of brotherhood, of love, not of force. He had a method for bringing about this divine society, making love triumphant, the method of non-resistance, of not using violence against violence, on the negative side, and on the positive side the method of reason, of service, of self-sacrifice. This vision of God, this way of living, this conception of society, this method, all set forth not alone in words, but in a life of unutterable beauty and heroism and power; this is the contribution of Jesus to the race. This is Christianity. This is the hope of the world.”

To read more on this 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. 

Review of Born of Conviction

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Born of Conviction: White Methodists and Mississippi's Closed Society, Joseph T. ReiffThe Alternative Witness of “the Twenty-Eight” to 1960’s Segregation

The Southern white church of the civil rights era is remembered for its intense resistance to change. Yet twenty-eight white Methodist pastors published a statement entitled “Born of Conviction” advocating an alternative witness to the segregationist party line and causing a serious rift in the public unanimity of Mississippi white resistance. Joseph T. Reiff’s Born of Conviction tells their story, examining their theologies and personal convictions, experiences before, during, and after the publication, and overall impact on the racial climate in Mississippi’s closed society.

In his review of Born of Conviction, Colin B. Chapell of the University of Memphis writes:

“This narrative moves effortlessly between an individual and institutional focus, a great strength of the book. Readers will walk away understanding the issues facing the Methodist Church in the 1960s, while simultaneously seeing how individuals fit into that larger picture. There are occasional moments when individual biographies of pastors blur the larger story, and extended vignettes may distract some readers. However, in detailing the lives of so many individuals, Reiff presents a balanced picture of the power of a principled, faith-based stand…

Born of Conviction is a nuanced, mature study that takes the faith stances of both progressives and segregationists seriously.”

For more information on Reiff’s book, click here. To read Chapell’s full review, 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 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.

Can I Get a Witness: Sr. Mary Stella Simpson

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Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2016/2017 Author Series

The SILT 16/17: Can I Get a Witness? author series introduces the SILT participant authors and the historical figures they will be illuminating in their narratives. This week’s featured writer is Therese Lysaught, whose figure is Sr. Mary Stella Simpson.

 

Therese Lysaught Ι FIGURE: Sr. Mary Stella Simpson (1910-2004)

Sr. Mary Stella Simpson“I learned more about pediatrics there [Mound Bayou] than I ever learned in school, but most of all I learned about faith. I never had to spread the Gospel to the people there – in spite of all their hardships, their faith in God was unshakeable.” –Simpson

Under the guidance of her Catholic beliefs, Sister Mary Stella Simpson revolutionized the field of maternal-infant health and promoted family-centered care. She entered the Daughters of Charity in 1936 as a labor and delivery nurse and later received training as a midwife. Concerned for family welfare, Sr. Simpson became the first health care provider in the nation to encourage fathers to be present at the birth of their child and also started child-care classes for new mothers. In 1967, at the request of the American Nurses Association, Sr. Simpson moved to Mound Bayou, Mississippi to set up a government-funded maternal-infant health program. Although the infant mortality rate was 59% when she arrived, she never lost a baby or a mother during her six years there. Sr. Simpson remained a beacon of faithfulness until her death in 2004.

Therese Lysaught is a professor and associate director at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago. Lysaught specializes in Catholic moral theology and health care ethics and consults with health care systems on issues surrounding mission, theology, and ethics. Her publications include Caritas in Communion: Theological Foundations of Catholic Health Care (2014), On Moral Medicine: Theological Perspectives on Medical Ethics (2007), and Gathered for the Journey: Moral Theology in Catholic Perspective (2007), which received third place honors in ‘Theology’ from the Catholic Press Association. .

SILT 16/17: Can I Get a Witness? is a two-part SILT that will celebrate scholars, activists, laypeople, and religious leaders whose lived theologies produced and inspired social justice in the United States and will produce a single volume entitled Can I Get a Witness? Stories of Radical Christians in the U.S., 1900-2014. The first meeting will be held at the University of Virginia in June 2016; the second meeting will follow at Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus in June 2017.

Next week’s final Can I Get A Witness? author series post will feature Rev. Becca Stevens, Soong-Chan Rah, and Donyelle Charlotte McCray, who will be presenting on William Stringfellow, Richard Twiss, and Howard Thurman, respectively. To view all news posts in this author series, please click here.

For more details about the Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2016/2017: Can I Get A Witness? initiative, click here. We also post updates online using #SILT. 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: Conceiving Parenthood

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Conceiving Parenthood book coverAmerican Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction

While reproductive techniques are more innovative than ever, controversy has become a constant in bioethical discussion. PLT Contributor Amy Laura Hall explores the origin of these ethical issues, concluding that mainline Protestantism has been largely complicit in the development of procreative technology. Analyzing photos and advertisements from popular magazines from the 1930s through the 1950s, she claims that Protestants have justified responsible procreation and fostered a culture of “carefully delineated, racially encoded domesticity.” Hall aims to inspire new conversations within communities and faith congregations to renounce this exclusivity and re-construct the meaning of family.

Oxford University’s Bernd Wannenwetsch reviews:

“Written in an engaging and brilliantly entertaining style, the book confronts us with the ideology of the familiar and familial — an ideology in which we all are easily and comfortably entrapped. Who would not want to have or be part of a ‘good family’? Working through a wealth of amazing — and embarrassing — material that demonstrates the self-idolizing of the better-offs in twentieth-century American society as it has stylized the image of the ‘right’ and ‘decent’ family, Amy Laura Hall’s analysis is still far from cold-blooded deconstructivism. Drawing on theological voices of brave dissent from the mainstream, her call for ‘reconceiving parenthood’ is ultimately a call for mercy and a witness to its transforming presence in the midst of a highly ideologized society.”

American Historical Review writes:

“A powerful work of interdisciplinary historical and cultural analysis that is informed by theological ethics. . . . An important contribution to the ongoing study of eugenics, domesticity, and the history of the family.”

PLT Contributor Christine Pohl of Asbury Theological Seminary reviews:

“There is much to be learned from Amy Laura Hall’s rich description and probing analysis of twentieth-century assumptions about responsible parents and children ‘worthy of a place.’ Her account powerfully illuminates what is theologically and humanly at stake in contemporary impulses to craft more perfect children.”

To read more on this publication, click here.

Amy Laura Hall is associate professor of Christian ethics at Duke Divinity School. An ordained elder in the United Methodist Church, she has served both urban and suburban parishes and is a member of the Rio Texas Conference. Her publications include Kierkegaard and the Treachery of Love (2002) and Conceiving Parenthood: The Protestant Spirit of Biotechnological Reproduction (2007). Hall is currently working on a long-term project on masculinity and gender anxiety in mainstream, white evangelicalism.

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 monthly newsletter, click here.

Can I Get a Witness: John Ryan and Lucy Randolph Mason

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Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2016/2017 Author Series

The SILT 16/17: Can I Get a Witness? author series introduces the SILT participant authors and the historical figures they will be illuminating in their narratives. This week’s featured writers are Heather Warren, researching John Ryan, and Susan Glisson, whose figure is Lucy Randolph Mason.

 

Heather warren Ι Figure: john ryan (1869-1945)

John Ryan“A man’s dignity is outraged when he is deprived of the opportunity to live a reasonable life, in order that some other man or men may enjoy the superfluities of life.” –Ryan

John Ryan was the foremost social justice advocate and theologian in the Catholic Church during the first half of the 20th century. An economist with a clear vision for social reform, Ryan was revered for his influential Ph.D. dissertation on minimum wage legislation and the critically important Bishop’s Program of Social Reconstruction, issued by the National Catholic War Council in the name of American Bishops in 1919 and influential to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. Some of his accomplishments include presiding as the Director of the National Catholic Welfare Council’s Social Action Department and being the first Catholic priest to provide the invocation at a presidential inauguration. Made a domestic prelate (Monsignor) by the Catholic Church in 1933, Ryan died in 1945 as the most well known and influential social action advocate in the Catholic Church.

Heather Warren is an associate professor at the University of Virginia in the Department of Religious Studies where she specializes in the history of American religious life and thought from the late-nineteenth century to the present. Her research has also carried her into the field of American religious autobiography. Her publications include Theologians of a New World Order: Rheinhold Niebuhr and the Christian Realists, 1920-1948 (1997).


susan glisson Ι FIGURE: lucy randolph mason (1882-1959)

Lucy Randolph MasonBorn the daughter of an Episcopal clergyman in 1882, Lucy Randolph Mason held strong social convictions early on and dedicated her life to the labor and civil rights movements. Following her time with the Richmond Young Women’s Christian Association from 1914-1923, she was appointed the General Secretary of the National Consumers League, the leading national advocate of fair labor standards, and worked closely with the New Deal relief and welfare agencies. Five years later Mason became the Southeast public relations representative for the Congress of Industrial Organizations, negotiating on behalf of organized labor in unwelcoming communities. For the rest of her life, she worked to build bridges between organized labor and fought against segregation to end white supremacy in the South. In 1952 Mason was honored with the Social Justice Award from the National Religion and Labor Foundation; she retired soon after and died in 1959.

Susan M. Glisson has served as the Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation’s executive director since 2002. Glisson specializes in the history of race and religion in the United States, especially in the black struggle for freedom. She has numerous publications, has been quoted widely in the media and has supported community projects throughout the state for the Institute since its inception. Susan’s first publication, “Peanut Butter Crisscrosses” appeared in the Warren Baptist Church cookbook when she was 20 years old.

 

SILT 16/17: Can I Get a Witness? is a two-part SILT that will celebrate scholars, activists, laypeople, and religious leaders whose lived theologies produced and inspired social justice in the United States and will produce a single volume entitled Can I Get a Witness? Stories of Radical Christians in the U.S., 1900-2014. The first meeting will be held at the University of Virginia in June 2016; the second meeting will follow at Loyola University Chicago’s Water Tower Campus in June 2017.

Next week’s Can I Get A Witness? author series post will feature Therese Lysaught, who will be presenting on Sr. Mary Stella Simpson. To view all news posts in this author series, please click here.

For more details about the Spring Institute for Lived Theology 2016/2017: Can I Get A Witness? initiative, click here. We also post updates online using #SILT. 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.

Marginalia Review of Books Interviews Contributor Susan Holman

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VA Sem 1- headshot Susan R. Holman- Interview with Susan Holman - Grawemeyer Award, on writing lived theologyOn the Vital Connection between Religion and Global Health

In March 2016, Marginalia Review of Books featured PLT Contributor Susan Holman to discuss Beholden: Religion, Global Health, and Human Rights, recipient of the 2016 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Holman discusses her writing process and major ideas found in Beholden, emphasizing the important implications of understanding public health, human rights, and social justice within the context of religion and culture.

In the interview, Holman reflects:

“I think we need to encourage cross-disciplinary collaboration or at least a willingness to listen and think about these connections in terms of positive synergy, because that’s what health is really about. Health is really about that synergy of many different areas in life working together well, and in that goal, it kind of goes back to the idea that most religions share a moral core to ideals about caring for the sick poor. This includes that affirmation that everyone should have food, clothing, shelter, and economic social security… So there is important circular dialogue that encourages us to think across many different aspects. Health and justice solutions are never simple.”

To listen to the complete interview, visit the Marginalia website here. For more information on Beholden: Religion, Global Health, and Human Rights, click here.

Susan R. Holman is senior writer at the Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University. As an academic writer and editor, her work explores connections between public health, nutrition, human rights, and religious responses to poverty, particularly examples from early Christianity. Her publications also include The Hungry are Dying (2001) God Knows There’s Need (2009).

For more of featured writings of our PLT Contributors, click here. To engage in the conversation on Facebook and Twitter, @LivedTheology, please use #LivedTheologyWrites. To sign up for the Lived Theology monthly newsletter, click here.