Teaching, Religion, Politics

Forgetfulness as a Political Act

Stephen G. Ray, Jr.
Neal A. and Ila F. Fisher Professor of Theology
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

In my last blog, I reflected on my regret about the way that my classroom had become politicized in an election season in ways that I came to regret. Unexpectedly, I find myself once Read more →

Confronting “Alternative Facts” in a Post-Modern Classroom: Educating Planetary Citizens

Whitney A. Bauman
Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Florida International University

If you are like me, the weeks since the inauguration of the 45th president of the United States have been filled with shock, horror, disbelief, sadness and fear. These feelings come not only from the executive orders and policies... Read more →

Up-Tick of Non-sequitur Speech

Nancy Lynne Westfield
Associate Professor of Religious Education
Drew Theological School & Graduate Division of Religion

The shift in the pattern is subtle, and I might be hypersensitive given the national spectacle of alternative facts and fake news, but I think conversations riddled with non-sequitur speech are on the rise Read more →

Idea-feelings - Like tiny moss on stones. Oh yes oh yes!

Cláudio Carvalhaes
Associate Professor
Union Theological Seminary - New York City

Idea-feelings - Like tiny moss on stones. Oh yes oh yes! In a poem entitled The World’s Feeling,[1] the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade has a line that says: “I have only two hands and all the feelings Read more →

Politics and Values

Stephen G. Ray Jr.
Neal A. and Ila F. Fisher Professor of Theology
Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

Perhaps one of the most painful memories I have of my early years in teaching was election night 2004. The pain comes from my too late realization that in my advocacy for a progressive Read more →

Toward a Liberative Pedegogy

Miguel A. De La Torre
Professor of Social Ethics and Latino/a Studies
Iliff School of Theology

Since the start of the twentieth century, Christian religion scholars from the dominant culture - specifically ethicists – shifted their focus on how to live the Christian life via praxis toward the nature of Read more →

Response: Choreographing Wobble

John Sarrouf
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Essential Partners

I help people have difficult conversations for a living. I facilitate dialogues–usually in communities deeply divided over issues that touch on people’s values and worldviews. I have spent much of the last three years working with professors as their classrooms increasingly fit Read more →

Conflict, Conversation, and Wobble in RS Classrooms (or the good things that can happen when cycling metaphors meet difficult conversations)

Jill DeTemple
Associate Professor
Southern Methodist University

I am a cyclist. I ride a hybrid commuter bike to work most days and have a road bike that has taken me up mountain passes and on to country roads outside of Dallas where views of fields and livestock replace the asphalt Read more →

For Latinas, Sanctuary Spaces are Not Enough!

Neomi DeAnda
Assistant Professor
University of Dayton

In 2015, the Department of Education reported that 1 in 5 women in the US is Latina. By 2060, this number is projected to be about 1 in 3 women. As a Latina, I was surprised by these numbers because I did not Read more →

Meaning Matters? Distorted Words Confuse Public Discourse

Nancy Lynne Westfield
Associate Professor of Religious Education
Drew Theological School

Have you noticed? The lexicon of the American mainstream media has shifted. Before the campaign season, the news only sparingly discussed notions of race. Any allusion to race was vague and superficial. Reporting of race was primarily reserved for Read more →