In One in Christ, Karen J. Johnson tells the story of Catholic interracial activism through the lives of a group of women and men in Chicago who struggled with one another, their Church, and their city to try to live their Catholic faith in a new way. It started when black activists joined with a handful of white laypeople who believed in their vision of a universal church in the segregated city, and began to fight to make that vision a reality. Read More

In these days of considerable turbulence and uncertainty in the United States, we at the Project on Lived Theology have found ourselves hungering for the voices of our sisters and brothers around the globe. We invited Bishop Wolfgang Huber, a prominent German theologian and ethicist, to write a theological response to the current American political situation. In his piece, he reflects on Donald Trump as “a new focal point for the well-known phenomenon of ‘German Angst’” and finds hope in the lived witnesses of American citizens. Read More

In The Year of Our Lord 1943, Alan Jacobs explores the poems, novels, essays, reviews, and lectures of five Christian intellectuals who wrote about what the world would look like after World War 2. It had become a common thought among Christian intellectuals that the Allies were not culturally or morally prepared for their success, and a war won by technological superiority merely laid the groundwork for a post-war society governed by technocrats. Read More

On May 16th, PLT alum Nathan Walton, successfully defended his dissertation: “Blessed and Highly Favored”: The Theological Anthropology of the Prosperity Gospel. This project examines Prosperity Gospel Pentecostalism, also known as the Word of Faith movement, which is the fastest growing Christian movement in the world. Read More

In If Your Back’s Not Bent, Dorothy F. Cotton, the only woman in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s inner circle, gives her account of the hugely important Citizenship Education Program. The CEP was an adult grassroots training program for disenfranchised citizens created by the Tennessee Highlander Folk School, expanded by King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and directed by activist Dorothy Cotton. Read More

On Tuesday, October 30, Greg Thompson will deliver a guest lecture entitled “Something Is Happening in Memphis: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Last Campaign.” The lecture will begin at 3:30 pm at the Bonhoeffer House at 1841 University Circle, Charlottesville, VA. Admission to the event is free, and the public is invited to attend. Read More

Identifying the Image of God, by Dan McKanan, traces the development of a theology of nonviolence in the popular literature of antebellum social reform movements. Between 1820 and 1860, American social reformers pioneered a “politics of identification” that was deeply rooted in liberal Christian theology. Read More

On October 25 at 7:00 p.m. Charles Marsh will deliver the Justine L. Nusbaum lecture at Virginia Wesleyan University. The lecture will take place at Boyd Dining Center. Marsh will discuss the religious beliefs behind the American civil rights movement, and highlight women who enacted these convictions. Read More

Many people have attempted to use Bonhoeffer to advance or justify their own views in American politics, with secular, radical, liberal, and evangelical interpreters variously shaping the martyr’s legacy to suit their own pet agendas. In The Battle for Bonhoeffer, Stephen Haynes, a recognized Bonhoeffer expert, sets out to offer a clarifying perspective. Read More

In Welcoming Justice, authors Charles Marsh and John M. Perkins attempt to chronicle God’s vision for a more equitable and just world by reflecting on their own pasts as well as America’s past as a whole. Perkins looks back on his long ministry and identifies key themes and lessons he has learned, while Marsh highlights the legacy of Perkins’s work in our society. Read More