Habito Elected as ATS Officer
Ruben L. F. Habito has been elected vice president and president-elect of the American Theological Society. Habito was elected vice president at the 2023 meeting, and, following ATS tradition, begins a one-year term as president-elect in April 2024. He will then become President in 2025, a position that was also held in the past by Perkins faculty members Albert Outler (elected in 1959) and Charles Wood (2012) and by SMU professor Charles Curran (1989).
Habito is Professor of World Religions and Spirituality. Founded in 1912, the American Theological Society is the oldest theological society in North America. The Society meets at least once each year; meetings have taken place in recent years at Princeton Theological Seminary. Membership is limited to 100 active members.
New Book from Jack Levison
Jack Levison’s new book, Seven Secrets of the Spirit-Filled Life: Daily Renewal, Purpose and Joy When You Partner with the Holy Spirit, releases May 9 from Baker Publishing Group. According to Baker’s promotional page, the book is “packed with biblical insights, practical strategies, focused prayers, Scripture meditations and rich reflections,” with each chapter promising to help readers “break out of the familiar, experience your own personal Pentecost, cultivate healthy habits that strengthen the Spirit-filled life and connect with the heart of the Spirit.” Read more about the book here. Copies may be purchased at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other major book retailers. Levison holds the W.J.A. Power Chair of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at Perkins.
Q&A with Hal Recinos
For National Poetry Month in April, UM News highlighted Hal Recinos in a Q&A, “Poetry helps seminary professor ‘stay awake in the gospel’ ” by Sam Hodges and Vernon Jordan. The Rev. Harold “Hal” J. Recinos is professor of church and society at Perkins and is a Renaissance man — an ordained United Methodist clergyman, scholar, activist and martial arts expert who has published 17 volumes of poetry, often drawing on his experiences growing up in a New York City barrio. The interview concludes with a Recinos poem, “The Veil,” that Jordan chose from several shared by the Hispanic Theological Initiative’s Open Plaza online platform. Read the story here.