Online Faculty Lunch & Learn Series

Join Dr. Kenneth Miller Apr. 18 for “The Hymn Since 1982” an online faculty Lunch & Learn, which will be delivered at 12:00 p.m. (CDT). In this session, Dr. Miller will discuss some of the developments in congregational singing since the hymnal's publication. What has happened to the poetic genre of the hymn text since then, and contemplate trends with which future supplements and hymnals may have to wrestle.

This presentation will be a slice of the Pastor in Literature course offered this term at the seminary. Cather’s 1927 novel, set in New Mexico shortly after the Mexican-American war, portrays the labors of two French missionary priests. This session will focus on one scene in which the protagonist experiences a sense of sadness and futility about his ministry, and how deliverance from accidia comes to him from an unexpected quarter. The reading of the scene will bring the teaching of Ignatius Loyola on “consolation and desolation” to bear on this common form of ministerial discouragement.

Dr. David Stark’s forthcoming book, Moving Mountains: Preaching that Confronts Confederate Monuments, examines the ways these monuments (mis)construe the past and proclaim a troubling vision for the future. In this session, he will offer an analysis of the preaching strategies written into Confederate monuments, highlight best practices from case studies of monument counter-proclamations, and offer insights drawn from naming commission reports and clergy interviews about the values and leadership needed to work for change.

David Livingstone called upon the British Church to help end slavery and the slave trade in Central and East Africa, but left open the question of what would become of freed slaves. In response, freedom villages were established and provided a missionary springboard. The stories of Mbweni, Freretown, and Rabai give us a glimpse into that missiological paradigm, offering a compelling example of the Church's witness. 

This session will explore several of the remarkable women whose lives have shaped the nature of the church, as well as how the church has responded to the lives and vocations of women. We will look at the remarkable number of women named in Romans 16, and at Paul’s complex rhetoric concerning women in church. We will look at the North African prophet and martyrs Perpetua and the pregnant slave Felicity, who died in Carthage at the beginning of the third century. Next, we will explore the remarkable life and career of the Empress Pulcheria, who presided over the Council of Chalcedon. In the western church, we will examine the remarkable English abbess Hild of Whitby, instrumental in the conversion of Northumbria, and the twelfth-century religious woman Christina of Markyate. Finally, we will conclude with that most underestimated of Henry VIII’s wives, Catherine Parr, who against all odds, “survived” to shape the church in the English Reformation. 

Dr. Andrew Thompson's recent book, Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism's Colonial Legacy, addresses the problem of whiteness in the Church's environmental work. In this session, he will discuss the main arguments and proposals of the book, as well the importance and challenges of white Christians engaging responsibly with the voices of scholars of color.