Virginia Seminar Project: Singing Church

Peter Slade currently researches justice, reconciliation and the practices of congregational singing: the ways that singing shapes–and is shaped by–the lived ecclesiologies of different congregations and communities. To read his blog, “Singing Church,” click here.

Pete teaches courses in the History of Christianity and Christian Thought at Ashland University, Ohio. He received a doctorate degree in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. Prior to studying at UVa, Slade earned an M.A. in Southern Studies from the University of Mississippi and a B.D. with Honours in Christian Ethics and Practical Theology from St. Andrews University, Scotland. He also studied community work at Ruskin College, Oxford.

Learn more about Pete by visiting his author’s page.

Virginia Seminar member Shannon Gayk, associate professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, has been appointed as a fellow at the National Humanities Center for 2014-2015.

As one of 41 fellows from 16 states, Canada, the People’s Republic of China, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom, Shannon will work on an individual research project and will have the opportunity to share ideas in seminars, lectures, and conferences at the center. For more information on the fellowship, click here.

Learn more about Shannon by visiting her author’s page here.

Central to Jennifer McBride’s teaching and research is the interaction of scholars and practitioners, a methodology that will continue to be implemented in her Virginia Seminar project: Reducing Distance: Radical Discipleship through an Open Door. This project was inspired by her time as a writing fellow during the 2010/2011 academic year. She spent that year as a full time participant-observer at the Open Door Community, an intentionally interracial, residential Christian activist and worshipping community in Atlanta, Georgia, that has been engaged in mercy and justice work on behalf of the homeless and prison populations for thirty years. Please read Open Door Community’s Newspaper Hospitality to find numerous contributions by Jenny that will be used in her forthcoming book based on this research.

Jenny’s previous work, The Church for the World: A Theology of Public Witness, draws on the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. In April, David Gushee, professor of Christian Ethics and director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, offered a reflection “on becoming a church of confession rather than judgment.” Gushee lauds Jenny’s work, The Church for the World, as “essential reading.” Gushee goes on to offer his thoughts on the church and Bonhoeffer, arguing for a humble, repentant church centering on humility, service, repentance, solidarity, and love. Read Gushee’s full article here.  Read the Project’s interview with Jenny here.

Jenny is the Board of Regents Chair of Ethics, assistant professor of religion, and Director of Peace and Justice Studies at Wartburg College, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Waverly, Iowa. Jenny serves on the board of directors of the International Bonhoeffer Society, English Language Section. She is also the co-editor of Bonhoeffer and King: Their Legacies and Import for Christian Social Thought.

To visit Jenny’s PLT author page where you can find out more about her past and current projects, along with some fun facts, click here.

Project alumna and consultant for the Virginia Seminar class of 2014, Susan R. Holman is senior writer at the Harvard Global Health Institute. She received her BS and MS degrees in nutrition, completing her dietetic internship at the Frances Stern Nutrition Center and Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She pursued further graduate work in religious studies, obtaining an MTS from Harvard Divinity School and a PhD from Brown University. She writes and speaks as an international scholar on faith-based responses to poverty, with a focus on health issues.

She is an academic writer, editor, occasional guest speaker and lecturer, and sometimes-mentor in religion, early Christianity, and social justice issues. Susan is now working on a new book (also under contract with Oxford) that is tentatively titled Just Believing: Global Health and Human Rights for People of Faith. She is also the creator and curator of two websites, Jottings and Poverty Studies, both intended to encourage ecumenical and cross-disciplinary dialogue between the academic study of religion and contemporary community service.

To visit Susan’s PLT author page where you can find out more about her past and current projects, along with some fun facts, click here.