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News November 2020 Perspective Online

Rev. Dr. Alyce McKenzie and Sister Helen Prejean

Put two women with shared passions for faith and justice in a Zoom room, and you get a fascinating conversation.  That’s what happened when the Rev. Dr. Alyce McKenzie spoke with Sister Helen Prejean on October 27, as part of the bigBANG! 2020 conference.

With the theme “Equity in Religion,” the freewheeling discussion ranged from justice in the Christian tradition to the importance of passion in activism and the need to tell compelling, human stories to change hearts and minds.

Sister Helen Prejean is known around the world for her work against the death penalty. Her book Dead Man Walking inspired an Academy Award winning movie, a play and an opera. Her latest book is the prequel: River of Fire: My Spiritual Journey, telling her own story in waking up to white privilege in the Deep South and gender inequity in the Catholic Church.

McKenzie is the George W. and Nell Ayers Le Van Professor of Preaching and Worship at Perkins.  The conversation was presented by Dodee Frost Crockett (M.T.S. ’03) and Merrill Lynch.

Passion, Prejean said, has spurred her decades of work for justice. She shared the words of St. Bonaventure (“Ask not for understanding; ask for the fire”) and described the transformative moment when she witnessed, firsthand, the execution of convicted murderer Patrick Sonnier. It left her physically ill.

“What I saw set my soul on fire, a fire that burns to this day,” she said.

McKenzie responded: “When I read your life story, I see the Holy Spirit at work.”

After Sonnier’s execution, Prejean organized marches and wrote op-eds decrying the death penalty. That led to the writing of Dead Man Walking. Without her editor, who helped shape the story, she said, the book never would’ve attracted such wide attention.

The editor convinced her to open the book with a vivid description of the crime that Sonnier committed, abducting and murdering two teens in Louisiana.  He also confronted Prejean about her avoidance of members of the victims’ families, who had publicly called for Sonnier’s execution.

“I’d never done this before, so I thought it was better to stay away,” she told the editor.

“It was cowardice, wasn’t it?” the editor replied. “Admit your mistakes. That makes your story human.”

Following his guidance, Prejean was able to bring the reader from horror for the crime itself, to horror for the execution, and then to a spirit of forgiveness.  That made the book more powerful, it became a bestseller, “and I’ve been on the road ever since, until COVID-19,” Prejean said.

McKenzie said the power of storytelling in Prejean’s books is similar to that in sermons.

“That’s a powerful preaching technique,” she said. “You can tell people about God all you want, but if you can invite them into a scene, and have them take a seat,” that’s more impactful.  At Prejean’s invitation, McKenzie shared an example of scene-setting to preach more effectively. When describing Paul’s teaching about humility in Philippians 2, for example, McKenzie brings listeners into Paul’s prison cell – describing the stench, the chains around his ankles, the noises, the constant anxiety.

Prejean said her newest book, River of Fire, is an effort to help people understand the realities of systemic racism and the poor, based on her experiences living in an African American community in the inner city. There she said, she saw “the other America.”

“I saw what it was like to live without healthcare, and I saw what the police were doing to their young men,” she said. “It was like a different world. People in the suburbs are so separated from the suffering of the poor.  When they ask, ‘Why don’t they get a job?’ or ‘Why don’t they keep their kids in school?’, it’s because they don’t understand what intergenerational poverty does to people.”

McKenzie said she hears similar concerns as director of the Perkins Center for Preaching Excellence.

“I talk to pastors who ask about how to preach about systemic racism, when their congregation doesn’t think systemic racism is a thing,” she said.

Prejean noted that pro-life advocates in the Catholic church have often focused solely on protecting the life of innocents – while believing that those who are guilty of crimes deserve to die. Through dialogue with Pope John Paul II, she was able to make progress. But she also noted she found acceptance of her ideas in United Methodist churches.  McKenzie mentioned the historic Wesleyan commitment to “social holiness” as well as the official United Methodist opposition to the death penalty.

“Methodists have welcomed me,” Prejean said. “I’ve done more talks in Methodist churches than Catholic churches.”

McKenzie ended the conversation by sharing a paraphrase of two verses from Psalm 41 she had read in a devotional earlier that morning.

“Blessed are they who have concern for the poor.
In time of trouble, the Lord will rescue them.
In their integrity God upholds them,
And sets them in God’s presence forever.”

“These verses describe you!” she told Prejean.

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News November 2020 Perspective Online

Healthcare Chaplaincy

Providing spiritual care to those who are sick or hospitalized demands a variety of specialized skills, especially given today’s multicultural environment. To prepare students who feel called in this area, Perkins School of Theology will offer Master of Divinity students the opportunity to concentrate in Healthcare Chaplaincy, beginning next semester.

“This is a unique opportunity for students to study theology and learn from seasoned chaplains and hospital administrators at the same time,” said Dr. Hugo Magallanes, director of Perkins’s Houston-Galveston Extension Program and Associate Dean for Academic Programs. “This concentration was designed to strengthen our partnership with Houston Methodist Hospital, a leading research hospital in the nation.”

Since the fall of 2018, students in the Houston-Galveston Extension Program have reported in person to Houston Methodist Hospital to attend many of their classes. The hospital provided classroom space, along with tech support and meals, for the two one-week sessions every semester. (Currently, the Houston-Galveston program is fully online, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it is expected to return to Houston Methodist when it is safe to do so.) Perkins and Houston Methodist are both affiliated with the United Methodist Church.

“As far as we know, we are the only seminary in a U.S. hospital,” said Magallanes. “It’s an incredible benefit for our students, to have access to a world-class research hospital.”

The Healthcare Chaplaincy concentration is open to all Perkins students, in Dallas as well as the Houston-Galveston program. However, Dallas students will need to travel to Houston in order to complete the concentration requirements not available in Dallas. To enroll, students must submit a “Concentration Declaration Form.” There is no required timeline to enroll as long as students will be able to accommodate 18 hours/credit in their Master of Divinity program to fulfill the requirements of this concentration.

Program leaders say the concentration responds to student interest as well as market demand for chaplains.

“We are seeing a large number of students and prospective students who are interested in chaplaincy, especially hospital chaplaincy,” said Dr. Dallas Gingles, associate director of the Houston-Galveston Extension Program. “There is also a growing demand in clinical settings for chaplains and others who are capable of serving the spiritual needs of patients and providers, as well as for those who are capable of serving on ethics boards and shaping the culture of the institution. We think that this concentration will help our students develop these skill sets.”

Perkins students have a unique opportunity given the school’s connection to Houston Methodist Hospital, according to the Rev. Dr. Charles R. Millikan, an ordained United Methodist clergyman and the hospital’s Vice President for Spiritual Care and Values Integration.

“It’s the number one hospital in Texas, and it’s among the top 20 in the U.S., an Honor Roll hospital in the same league as the Mayo Clinic, Mass General, Yale, or Mount Sinai,” he said. “This is a highly professional, academic medical center and one of the best in the country.”

In addition to the requirements of an M.Div., students in this concentration must complete 12 hours of required courses, including Level 1 Clinical Pastoral Education, Bioethics, and Health Care / Holy Care, a January term immersion course that gives students hands-on experiences at Houston Methodist Hospital. In addition, students must complete six hours (two courses) in core electives, choosing from 13 options including Disability Studies, the Bible and Theology; Patristic Anthropology and Soteriology; Ethics, Theology, and Children; Ethics, Theology, and Family; Contemporary Moral Issues; Evil, Suffering and Death in the New Testament; among others.  Students in this concentration will also be required to participate in two one-day events (one per semester), in which the students will attend a lecture sponsored by Houston Methodist Hospital, participate in a shadowing program, and share their personal reflections with seasoned hospital chaplains and administrators.

While Perkins M.Div. students can formally initiate this concentration next semester, the last portion of the concentration (the “additional requirements”) likely will be delayed until students are able to be physically present at Houston Methodist Hospital. Program leaders hope that students will be present as early as Spring 2021.

The Healthcare Chaplaincy concentration is one step toward certification as a professional chaplain, which requires a bachelor’s degree, an M.Div., and a full year in a clinical pastoral education (CPE) residency. Houston Methodist has the largest CPE program in the state of Texas, with 24 CPE residents.

Millikan adds that chaplaincy offers career opportunities at a time when employment options for M. Div. graduates are dwindling. A growing number of other institutions – hospitals as well as corporations and the military — will look to add chaplains in the coming years. Millikan noted that when he joined Houston Methodist 15 years ago, there were just 12 chaplains on staff; today there are 85.

“John Wesley said, ‘The world is my parish,’” he said. “As the church contracts, the seminary needs to look at the ‘new parish,’ because places like hospitals and the workplace offer another avenue for ministry.”

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I Am Here

Members of the Perkins community who attended the September 30 online Chapel service got a special treat: the world premiere of a new anthem, composed by a Perkins Doctor of Pastoral Music (DPM) student and performed for the first time by the DPM students.

The new anthem, “I Am Here,” was composed by the Rev. Dirk Damonte, and pre-recorded and presented at the Chapel service.

Damonte said he composed the song as a response to the “twin pandemics” of COVID-19 and the struggle for racial justice in the U.S., with inspiration from the message of peace in Colossians 3:15-17.

“This is a time when we can’t sing together, due to COVID, and when a significant part of our population can’t breathe and is struggling with that,” he said.

DPM students each contributed vocals, recorded on their cellphones. Damonte, who is Minister of Music & Worship Arts at Los Altos United Methodist Church in Los Altos, Calif., recruited members from his congregation for the instrumental track on guitar and drums, and he played the keyboard. To assemble the components, he enlisted the help of church members Kristina Sinks, who edited the video, and for the audio, Bill Hare, a Grammy-award winning sound engineer and producer (“Bill has produced groups like Pentatonix and is considered one of the best in the world for engineering acapella recordings,” said Damonte.)

“Dirk has the tech resources at his church to make a solid production,” said C. Michael Hawn, director of the Doctor of Pastoral Music Program and University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music.

Mark Stamm opened the worship service, welcoming the DPM students and noting that the DPM program was approved in 2015, with the first cohort entering in June 2016, through Hawn’s vision. The program awarded its first Doctor of Pastoral Music degree, to Kevin Turner, in May, who was part of the anthem choir. Hawn, joining from Richmond, Va., led the service of prayers, singing and scripture reading, centering on the theme of breath, along with the DPM students.

Yvette Lau (2019 cohort), a DPM student based in Hong Kong, presented a dance interpretation of Psalm 13, with music in Chinese, via video, and Darnell St. Romain (2020 cohort) from Dallas and Nicole Gray (2019 cohort) from the Houston area provided a dialogue sermon.  The service culminated with the virtual performance of the anthem by Damonte, a member of the 2017 cohort.

In composing the anthem, Damonte said, “I tried to convey the longing and the pain of this time. The verses are questions, asking if God is still here, and God’s answer is, ‘Yes, I am here.’”

“The text is particularly appropriate for our times,” said Hawn. “It speaks to the context we’re all in now.”

Excerpt from “I Am Here”
Words and Music by Dirk Damonte

When breath is choked off,
when singing brings fear,
when touch causes pain,
are You here?

When leaders don’t lead,
when death lingers near,
when the church isolates,
are You here?

Used by permission.

“Dirk uses an accessible and popular musical style, but with lyrics that have a justice orientation,” Hawn said.  Four DPM students performed brief solos, each posing a question, “Are you here?” followed by a refrain, “Oh yes, I am here! Draw near, have no fear!”

Hawn noted that there are 19 students in the DPM program, and given the situation with COVID-19, there’s no way to gather in the same physical space. Normally, each cohort meets two weeks each year in Dallas, but this year the 2020 cohort met online only in June.

“This creative project was a way to build up and continue some deepening relationships,” he said.

“Every single person in the DPM participated, from Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, and all across the U.S.,” said Damonte. “It was very moving to see every single one of us taking part and singing together.”

Click here to watch the video of “I Am Here.”

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Advent Worship

Like many other annual events, the Perkins Advent Worship service will go virtual this year. Students and faculty in the Master of Sacred Music (M.S.M.) program are working to make the annual service as meaningful as possible and take advantage of the possibilities that the online format offers. And alumni of the program are invited to contribute, too.

The service will weave a variety of voices into a liturgical tapestry that will be streamed on smu.edu/live on December 3, Thursday, at 6 p.m. The service will also be available on Perkins YouTube channel.

“We’re trying to take what is good about online worship and incorporate those elements,” said Marcell Silva Steuernagel, Assistant Professor of Church Music and Director of the Sacred Music Program. “The advantage is that we can invite people from many different places, geographically, and bring in musicians from all over the world. The online, pre-recorded format is uniquely suited to speaking to our trying and unstable times.”

The title of the service is “For The Time Being…”. Michael Hawn, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music, will deliver the homily, reflecting on the twin themes of expectation and waiting.

The liturgy will be composed of five readings that speak theologically to Advent (waiting for the Savior) and the pandemic (waiting for a return to an in-person world, for an end to injustice, and for a sense of stability.)  Two of the five readings will be non-Scriptural: a poem composed for the occasion by Dr. Hal Recinos, and a passage from W. H. Auden’s For the Time Being.

Each reading will be followed by a collect and then by a short variation on the Advent tune VENI EMMANUEL for organ, composed for the occasion by Silva Steuernagel and performed by Dr. Anderson

With the online format, organizers are able to solicit involvement from participants far and wide, “in a sort of MSM virtual reunion,” Steuernagel said. The Sacred Music program has issued a call to alumni of the MSM program, many of which are preparing Advent and Christmas services for their own congregations, for proposals for musical offerings, including the opening voluntary and four free-standing musical pieces.

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Labyrinth Walk

In these days of COVID-19, members of Perkins community have few opportunities to gather in person just for fellowship. One of the first took place on October 5, when students, faculty and staff were invited to walk the Ruben L.F. Habito Labyrinth together with its namesake, Ruben Habito, Professor of World Religions and Spirituality. The gathering was sponsored by the Office of Student Life and Community Engagement.

About a dozen people participated, wearing face masks and keeping a distance of six feet or more. The labyrinth is located outdoors between Selecman and Prothro Halls.

Habito opened the gathering with a brief message, inviting participants into a period of silence and prayer. During medieval times, he noted, labyrinths provided ameans of making a sacred pilgrimage if one could not undertake an actual journey to a holy place or to the Holy Land. Pilgrims engaged the body, the soul and the mind in the walk along the labyrinth’s path.

“The twists and turns of the labyrinth are analogous to a pilgrimage,” he said. “The center represents that place where we are in full communion with God and at our ultimate destiny.”

Participants then embarked at a slow, meditative pace toward the center of the labyrinth.

That center space, Habito said, symbolizes a place “where we can all be gathered together in God’s loving embrace. But the love of God is not just to be found in the center, at the culmination of the journey. It is there throughout the circuitous route of the entire circle, supporting you as you take each step.  You are embraced in that Divine Love with each step of your journey of life. From birth, you are already given that unconditional love, as a free gift of grace. Just as Jesus was told in Mark 1:11, when he was baptized in the Jordan – ‘You are my beloved, in whom I am well pleased’ — you are addressed with that same affirmation at every moment of your life.”

At the conclusion of the walk, participants shared how they felt affirmed and empowered by the experience of walking the labyrinth.

The Labyrinth was given in honor of Habito by Dodee Frost Crockett and William B. Crockett, Jr., and was dedicated September 11, 2009. The path is about one-third of a mile long. Labyrinths are ancient human symbols that date back at least 4,000 years. The labyrinth symbol was incorporated into the floors of the great Gothic pilgrimage cathedrals of France in the 12th and 13th centuries. The most famous extant design is in the nave floor of the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Chartres outside of Paris, which is now more than 800 years old.

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Student Spotlight: Victor Resendiz

Twenty years ago, Victor M. Resendiz visited the SMU campus in Dallas with a couple of friends after a soccer game.

“Walking around, I made a mental note: this would be a great place for me, if I ever went to college,” he said. “But at the time, college was not an option.”

Resendiz, 41, is originally from Mexico City.  In his early 20s, family expectations and finances were not aligned for him to attend college. He and his parents weren’t aware of scholarships or of bilingual resources that might have paved the way for him.  But the seed was planted.

“God granted me that thought,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was actually a prayer. It was a dream come true for me to come to SMU.”

Resendiz is now an M.A.M. student in Perkins’s Houston-Galveston Extension program, expecting to graduate in May. He’s pursuing a path toward ordination as a deacon. Attending the Houston-Galveston program has worked out well while he’s worked full-time as an associate pastor at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church, a large congregation in Houston.

“I lead a social justice ministry and a ministry that teaches contemplative spirituality,” he said. “After I finish my degree, my next goal is to attend the Certificate in Spiritual Direction program at SMU and continue my education in that area.”

Resendiz calls himself “a late bloomer,” having come to church and his calling later in life. After high school, he married and worked at a bank. But then there was a difficult divorce, and he became discontented with his corporate job. “That’s when I started to realize that higher learning needed to be part of my future,” he said. At the same time, he started to search for God and for a church that would offer a sense of peace.

He connected with Chapelwood United Methodist Church in Houston and helped start a youth ministry there. He became interested in contemplative spiritual practice, started to learn about it and practice on his own.

“I didn’t just want to sit and listen to sermons on Sunday mornings,” he said. “Something called me to furthering my studies and deepening the meaning of what I believed.”

Five years later, during a labyrinth walk, he felt the call to ministry. Memorial Drive UMC hired him and gave him free rein to start a contemplative spiritual ministry, which he has led for six years.

“I think people are hungry to experience God’s presence, rather than to just have a lot of information about God,” he said. “Overall the church has moved away from spiritual practices and toward providing information and entertainment. People’s souls are still hungry.”

Resendiz notes that Jesus’s ministry was also rooted in contemplative spiritual practice:  prayer, solitude, silence, centering prayer.

Spiritual practice shapes his own daily routine, too. He wakes up each morning to Psalms 46:10: “Be still and know that I am God.

“In that stillness, I enter God’s presence and tap into his guidance for whatever I’m going to do that day,” he said.

Resendiz connected to Perkins through his pastors at Memorial Drive UMC. Now, he looks back on his first visit to SMU, more than 20 years ago, as the first stirrings toward his intended path.

“SMU has been an incredible place to be a student and a part of,” he said. “lt has enriched my life as a person, and in my vocation. I just love being an SMU student.”

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Faculty Profile: Priscilla Pope-Levison

In many ways, the pandemic has made Priscilla Pope-Levison’s job more complicated – but she’s embracing the challenge while staying as productive as ever.

As Associate Dean for External Programs, Pope-Levison coordinates events such as the upcoming Fall Convocation and the Summit for Faith and Learning, all of which have moved online in the past year.

“I’m so proud of our team,” she said. “They are all creative people, and they’ve really had to pivot to make the online format work.”  She noted that the team has launched a new platform, Mighty Networks – similar to a closed Facebook group – that will allow participants to engage with other virtual attendees before, during and after each event.

Before the pandemic, Pope-Levison’s job involved frequent visits to United Methodist and other churches in the North Texas area.

“I think it’s important for a Perkins representative to show up at these churches and to strengthen our connections,” she said. ““I try to tour each church, join a staff meeting and get to know the pastor.” The visits in turn shape planning for external events and help boost attendance.

Pope-Levison is a co-principal investigator in the Reboot Youth Ministry Initiative, and recently learned that she will serve as co-principal investigator (along with Bart Patton) in another Lilly Endowment supported initiative, “Testimony as Community Engagement.” The project will work with 30 churches, 10 per year for three years, within a 250-mile radius of Dallas to encourage and equip people to tell stories within their church as well as the community beyond the church walls about God’s presence and activity within their lives.

In addition to her work with external programs, Pope-Levison also writes and publishes often. Over the past summer, she says, she was particularly productive, completing a chapter on feminist theology for a theological dictionary.

“Our work is still as demanding as ever, but it seemed like there was just more time to focus on some of the things I’m working on in terms of my own research,” she said.

Pope-Levison just had a new book released in October, Models of Evangelism, published by Baker Academic. The book looks at eight different models of evangelism, from biblical, historical, theological, and practical perspectives, and is the product of Pope-Levison’s two decades of teaching evangelism.

Another of Pope-Levison’s research interests is the first generation of women in the Methodist Deaconess movement, which started in the mid-1880s. The Methodist Review recently published her essay titled “Expanding the Historiography of Methodist Settlement Work,” looking at the settlement and community work of three Methodist women in Chicago in the early 20th century.

“It’s not part of my current Perkins job description in external programs, but I try to keep my academic work alive,” she said.

Research Interests

Women’s Studies, History of American Christianity, Wesleyan Studies, Contextual Theology, Evangelism, Ecumenism

Book on her Nightstand

“I’m a big reader of mysteries,” she said. Anne Perry’s two series about Victorian detectives are among her favorites.

Fantasy Dinner Party

She’d like to invite Mary E. McDowell, Iva Durham Vennard, and Lucy Rider Meyer, three women she profiled in her article in the Methodist Review.  “These women came from small towns to attend a training school in a big city,” she said. “They lived in community with other women and they went out into horrible, urban squalor to minister to the residents. I would love to meet them in person.”

Family

Her husband of 38 years, Jack Levison, has an office down the hall at Perkins; he’s also a faculty member.  “We met in graduate school and have a wonderful time together,” she said. “Every day is an adventure.” The couple has two grown children: Chloe, an SMU graduate who is working in corporate communications and pursuing an MBA at Indiana University, and son Jeremy, also an SMU graduate and a full-time videographer at Justin Boots in Ft. Worth.

Hobbies

Pope-Levison enjoys spinning – wool, angora rabbit, goat — a skill she picked up in the 1980s. She also knits and dyes her own fibers. She and Jack travel extensively, and have lived in in Scotland, Germany, and Italy.

Something About her Most People Don’t Know

Pope-Levison has played the piano since age 3 and majored in piano as an undergraduate.

Question She’d Ask at the Pearly Gates

Instead of a question, she said, “I want to meet Priscilla and Aquila!”

Personal Spiritual Practice

Pope-Levison follows a number of different spiritual practices: meditation first thing in the morning, using an app, Pray as You Go, from the British Jesuits, which is 15 minutes of music and Lectio Divina; the Ignatius Examen in the evening before bed. About eight years ago, she led a retreat on contemplative practices in Seattle, and has been meeting once a month ever since for Lectio Divina with seven of the women who participated in that retreat.

Favorite Prayer

“What’s really guiding my life right now is the Sarum Prayer,” she said. “Our church used it as the guiding prayer during Lent.  It reminds me that what I say, what I think, what I do — I want all that to be invested in the divine presence.”

The Sarum Prayer

God be in my head, and in my understanding
God be in my eyes, and in my seeing
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking
God be in my heart, and in my thinking
God be in my hands, and in my doing (Priscilla added this line)
God be at my end, and in my departing.

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AAR-SBL Annual Meetings

When the world’s largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion gathers virtually November 29 – December 10, members of the Perkins and SMU communities will be well-represented.  The 2020 Annual Meetings, hosted by the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, were originally scheduled to take place in Boston, but moved online due to COVID-19.

Organizers say the virtual format will expand access for members without funding or resources to attend an in-person meeting, including international participants, and will allow possibilities for both synchronous (live) and asynchronous (recorded) participation.

Perkins faculty and SMU Graduate Program in Religious Studies (GPRS) students are scheduled to speak, preside or serve as panelists at more than a dozen events during the gathering. They include:

Monday, November 30

S30-108
Theme: Midrash at the Nexus of Other Texts and Traditions
Monday, November 30, 2020 – 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Kelsey Spinnato, Southern Methodist University
The Character of Abram in the Book of Jubilees

A30-105
Theme: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Time (Shambhala, 2020)
Monday, November 30, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Ruben L. F. Habito, Southern Methodist University, Panelist

A30-112
Theme: 25 Years On: Re-Imagining, Expanding, Enriching Nancy Eiesland’s “The Disabled God” (Abingdon Press, 1994)
Monday, November 30, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Lisa Hancock, Southern Methodist University
Moving Beyond *The Disabled God*: Christology in Disability Theology

A30-304
Theme: Participation and Life in God
Monday, November 30, 2020 – 4:00 PM-5:00 PM
Natalia Marandiuc, Southern Methodist University, Presiding

Tuesday, December 1

S1-101
Theme: Bible and Visual Art
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 – 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Susanne Scholz, Southern Methodist University
Reading the Reference to Lot’s Wife as an “Unknown Women’s Monument”: A Study of Yehuda Levy-Aldema’s Artworks on Gen. 19:26

P1-303
Theme: Contemplative Practices and Religious Experiences: Buddhist-Christian Perspectives
Tuesday, December 1, 2020 – 4:00 PM-6:30 PM
Ruben L. F. Habito, Southern Methodist University, Presiding
Wednesday, December 2

S2-114/A2-109
Theme: Joint Session with AAR Evangelical Group – “The Intersection of Bible
and the United States 2020 Politics”
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 – 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM
Marie Purcell, Southern Methodist University
A Battle between Good and Evil: Ethnographic Reflections on the Election from First Baptist Dallas

A2-112
Theme: Women with 2020 Vision: Boston and the 100th Anniversary of Women’s Suffrage
Wednesday, December 2, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Southern Methodist University, Presiding

Thursday, December 3

A3-107
Theme: The Business of Asceticism during the Long 1st Millennium CE
Thursday, December 3, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Johan Elverskog, Southern Methodist University
No-Self, Money, and Status

A3-109
Theme: Accountability at the Intersections of Theology and Ethnography
Thursday, December 3, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Marie Purcell, Southern Methodist University
“But You Love Jesus, Right?”: Ethnographic Accountability Across Polarized Worldviews

A3-110
Theme: Drag, Ballroom, Celibacy, and BDSM: LGBTQ Religious Histories, Rituals, and Public Performances
Thursday, December 3, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Meghan Beddingfield, Southern Methodist University
Ritualistic Rupture: Transgression, BDSM Piercing Practices, and a Sense of Community

A3-111
Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit and Religions in the Latina/o Americas Unit
Business Meeting
Thursday, December 3, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Ángel Gallardo, Southern Methodist University, Presiding

Monday, December 7

S7-105
Theme: Human Violence in the Hebrew Bible, Early Jewish Writings, and the New Testament
Monday, December 7, 2020 – 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Susanne Scholz, Southern Methodist University
Exploring Interpretations of Biblical Rape Texts with the Inter(con)text of the Public Discourse on the Coronavirus Pandemic

P7-205
Theme: Ethnic Chinese Biblical Studies in the Context of COVID-19
Monday, December 7, 2020 –1:00 PM to 2:30 PM
Sze-kar Wan, Southern Methodist University, Panelist

A7-208
Theme: Kierkegaard, the Problem of Patriarchy, and Related Social Ills, Part 1
Monday, December 7, 2020 –1:45 PM to 3:15 PM
Natalia Marandiuc, Southern Methodist University
Can Queer Feminism Save Kierkegaard from Charges of Patriarchy?

Tuesday, December 8

M1-03
Theme: Puzzles in Science-Engaged Theology (New Visions in Theological Anthropology)
Tuesday, December 8, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Natalia Marandiuc, Southern Methodist University, Panelist

Wednesday, December 9

S9-110
Theme: Review of Matthew Thiessen, Jesus and the Forces of Death: The Gospels’ Portrayal of Ritual Impurity within First-Century Judaism (Baker 2020)
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 – 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Abraham Smith, Perkins School of Theology Southern Methodist University, Presiding

S9-112
Theme: Women in the Biblical Legal Codes
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 – 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Kelsey Spinnato, Southern Methodist University
Ruth and the Interpretation of Biblical Law

Wildcard Session
Theme: Making Sense of/from the 2020 US Election
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 – 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Ángel Gallardo, Southern Methodist University, Panelist

S9-201
Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 –1:00-3:00 PM
April Hoelke Simpson, Southern Methodist University
The Gods and (Dis)Honor: The Relationship between Divinely Caused Suffering and Honor in Metamorphoses, Callirhoe, and Mark

A9-312
Theme: Women Making Religion: Identity, and Transnational Activism
Wednesday, December 9, 2020 – 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Tamara Lewis, Southern Methodist University, Presiding

Categories
News November 2020 Perspective Online

Bolin Family Scholarship Evening

By John Martin, Perkins Director of Development

We invite you to save the date for February 16, 2021. David Brooks of the New York Times will return to Perkins School of Theology with his thoughts from this momentous year and the Perkins community can join the virtual discussion!

On February 16, 2021 at 7 p.m., the Bolin Family Scholarship Evening featuring David Brooks will take place. Brooks delivered a captivating speech at last year’s event and has agreed to update us with his thinking.

This year’s presentation will be virtual and will benefit Perkins School of Theology’s Scholarship Fund. Normally this event is a luncheon held on the SMU campus, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic we will not gather in-person this year.  A positive benefit, however, is that every dollar of each donation will be channeled to the Scholarship Fund and will be tax deductible.  No portion of donations will be used to fund the event.

Although we are not meeting together for a meal, “table” sponsorships are still available. All proceeds from the event will support students and their education at Perkins.

In addition, a generous donor has offered to match all new table sponsorships and any increase in sponsorship level.  All donations, including the match, will go toward Perkins scholarships.

This year’s sponsorship levels:

Platinum Sponsorship – $10,000 Donation

  • Unlimited attendees, including sponsor
  • Recognition on Event Website and in Virtual Program (if desired)
  • Includes a follow-up Q&A session with David Brooks for the sponsor and one other person!

Gold Sponsorship – $5,000 Donation

  • Up to 20 attendees, including sponsor
  • Recognition on Event Website and in Virtual Program (if desired)

Silver Sponsorship – $3,000 Donation

  • Up to 15 attendees, including sponsor
  • Recognition on Event Website and in Virtual Program (if desired)

Bronze Sponsorship – $1,750 Donation

  • Up to 12 attendees, including sponsor
  • Recognition on Event Website and in Virtual Program (if desired)

Individual donations of $175 per attendee will be available soon. Visit our website here for more information. Contact Lee Henry (lhhenry@smu.edu) for more information about any of the above.

Categories
News November 2020 Perspective Online

Interfaith Podcast – November 2020

Launched in early October, the second season of Robert Hunt’s Interfaith Encounters Podcast is well underway. This season’s focus is religious freedom, with interviews tackling topics such as restrictions on church ministries, exclusion of LGBTQ persons, attacks against synagogues and mosques, and the individual right to pray in school.

“The interviewees have diverse approaches, but the common theme is, ‘What is religious freedom and how is it put into practice?’” said Hunt, who is Director of Global Theological Education at Perkins. “It’s a complicated question.”

Upcoming programs in November and December include:

  • November 3:  Eboo Patel, Founder and President of the Interfaith Youth Corp
  • November 10:  Sharon Grant, Faculty of The Religious Freedom Center of the Freedom Forum Institute, Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity at Hood Theological Seminary
  • November 17:  Rick Halperin – Director of the Southern Methodist University Human Rights Program
  • November 24: Qudsia Mirza, lawyer, author, Professor of Law at Birkbeck University of London
  • December 1: Steve Long, University Professor of Ethics at the McGuire Center for Ethics at Southern Methodist University
  • December 8:  Joel Schweitzer, AJC Regional Director
  • December 15: Marci Hamilton, constitutional lawyer and author of God vs. the Gavel. 

Interviews released in October included Brian Grim – CEO of the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation; Kelly Shackelford – CEO and Lead Counsel for First Liberty Institute; the Rev. Rachel Baughman, pastor of Oaklawn United Methodist Church, and Rachel Bresner of the Anti-Defamation League and Jean and Jerry Moore Southwest Civil Rights Counsel.

Issues in the news, such as the Masterpiece Cake case and the debate over whether medical procedures such as birth control and abortion should be covered by health insurance, have spurred interest in religious freedom, Hunt said.

“The focus in the U.S. on religious freedom typically relates to the First Amendment and the federal government,” said Hunt. “But for many people, there’s a feeling that the main attack on their religious freedom comes from other religions in the U.S. It’s the idea that says, ‘For me to be religious in my way, you cannot be religious in your way.’ Or, ‘For me to be religious in my way, it is necessary for me to attack the dignity of your religion.’”

He added that many cases of suppression of religious freedom occur not at the state or federal level, but more likely at the local government level or through the actions and behaviors of city officials.

Listeners can find the podcasts at https://interfaith-encounters.simplecast.com and on other podcast platforms including Apple, Google and Spotify.  Each podcast runs about 20 minutes.

Hunt launched the podcast earlier this year, with the focus of the first season’s interviews centered on COVID-19 and faith communities.  He spoke with local leaders of the Islamic, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist traditions about how their communities are coping and how the teachings of their traditions inform their response.

“It’s only when we understand what we are each going through that we can be mutually supportive and find ways to work together for society,” Hunt said.