Quaker Higher Education QHE a Publication of the Friends Association for Higher Education

Quaker Higher Education QHE A Publication of the Friends Association for Higher Education

Volume 9: Issue 2 November, 2015

What is the careful work that we as testimony of integrity and truth-telling, educators, artists and scholars must do to to the secular task of investigating crime. foster “Aha!” moments and perspective From Earlham College, Kelly Burk, shifts for our students, publics, and Director of Religious Life, and Trish colleagues? How do we draw on the Eckert, Director of the Newlin Quaker grace of language in poetry, theatre, and Center, carefully outline the steps and song, as well as the tools of consensus, resources that they and their students forensics, and Biblical exegesis to take have found useful when speaking one’s on tough conversations, realities and truth, listening to others’ truth, and truths? The six essays and works of this moving forward in (very) difficult Fall 2016 issue of Quaker Higher conversations. Education help us address these queries. Stephen Pothoff, associate professor of Bill Jolliff, poet and professor of English religion and philosophy at Wilmington at George Fox University, shares with us College, walks us carefully through the his keynote address to 2015 June’s confounding Markan account of Jesus FAHE conferees. He provides cursing the fig tree. His Biblical and guideposts for enjoying and growing historical “forensics” reveal how Jesus from contemporary poetry that offer was speaking truth to imperial Rome. delight, identification, transcendence, and epiphany. Finally, we present The Healing Blues Project, a multimedia engagement with Darlene R. Graves, Professor of Digital homelessness, co-created by Ted Media and Communication Arts at Efremoff, assistant professor of Digital Liberty University, takes us beyond the Photography and Video Art at Central Friends’ historical aversion to the “lively Connecticut State University. arts” by immersing the development of performances in Quaker process and Submissions: QHE is published twice a queries. She urges us to adapt the power year, in the spring and the fall. Articles of performance and theatre in other submitted for possible publication settings and disciplines and to confront should be sent as Word documents to: the contemporary reliance on violence in either [email protected] or to film, television and theatre. [email protected]. Since QHE is not wed to any particular referencing format, Guilford College associate professor of you may use the professional style of biology Bryan W. Brendly describes your choice. If you would like to discuss how the tools of forensic anthropology an idea that you have for an article, our help his students bring the Friends telephone numbers are: 336-316-2162 (DS) and 860-832-2616 (AEA).

FAHE ANNUAL CONFERENCE June 16-19, 2016

Mark your calendars now for June 16-19, 2016. FAHE will meet at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birgmingham, UK, to consider Educating for Action. The call for papers with queries and conference registration is available at the FAHE web site and at this site. Deadline for proposal submissions is November 30, 2015.

The Quaker Poet in Community

William Jolliff George Fox University

“It is difficult / to get the news from today Quaker poets must rethink, and poems,” wrote the poet William Carlos possibly re-invent, the role of their work Williams sixty years ago, “yet men die in our communities: as Quaker poets, as miserably every day / for lack / of what champions in plain coats of the is found there.” His point, I believe, is frivolous, where and how do we serve? that poetry matters; that it is not frivolous. Thankfully poetry does maintain a few niches in our culture. With no intention I take comfort in his words, since of being comprehensive, I offer you historically Quakers have not been three that I think recommend themselves champions of the frivolous. We try to do to consideration by Friends. things that matter. But how does a Quaker poet today do good and Friendly Niche #1: Let's start with self-discovery: service in the place where he or she is the examined life. Such helping folks as situated—situated in both the inner and teachers, spiritual directors, and outer sense, the spiritual and physical? counselors continue to direct their More simply, what is the role of the students or clients to write out their Quaker poet in community? feelings in poetry. Contemporary free verse, with its apparent lack of any A look at our Quaker history is less necessary craft, lends itself to such helpful than one would like: I’m sure it exploration, and sometimes the results never occurred to the poet John are good. They perform a helpful and Greenleaf Whittier that his poems might necessary function for the growth of not matter, any more than it would have individuals; but generally these "poems" occurred to the political lobbyist find that their best or only audience is an Whittier or the journeyman journalist audience of one or two. So how might a Whittier. After all, he used his verse to Quaker poet minister in such community sway popular thought. settings?

That’s a concept impossible to suggest Very well, I believe. As teachers who now, given poetry’s lack of any popular help students find a voice for dreams and presence. Poetry today inhabits a much fears, as spiritual directors who help diminished cultural position. The directees look closely at their own souls, functions once performed by poetry in as counselors who help clients make mainstream culture are fulfilled by other sense of their past, their present, and arts and media—by popular songs, their full potential, a Quaker poet may novels, op-ed pieces, movies, talk radio, readily find opportunity for ministry. television, and the ubiquitous Netflix. The Quaker teacher, spiritual director, or counselor skilled in the techniques of Since the avenue of poetry as a broadly poetic discovery can be a Friendly circulating popular medium is gone, paraclete who helps self-discovery

happen. The actual poetic craft in such mean that the art doesn't bear cultural contexts comes to the fore as we teach significance. the invention skills, the exploratory methods, the powers of figurative Niche #3: A third community that can be comparison, the surprising recognitions served by the Quaker poet is the remnant in narrative form, even the places of of a popular audience. When poetry is non-judgmental expression—any and all published by Christian Century or techniques that open the way for Friends Journal, the editors are banking everyday miracles. on the fact that just as some of us go occasionally to a gallery or hear a Niche #2: At the opposite end of the symphony, some of us occasionally read spectrum stands the persistent place of poetry. The remnant may be few, but poetry in the rarified air of high art. that doesn't mean the ministry shouldn't When poetry ceased to be a popular be offered to such a community. What form, it became the stuff of specialists, the poet must keep in mind for ministry and its techniques changed utterly. As a in this community, however, is that result, what may seem to the uninitiated readers must be able to access and enjoy like the craftless expression of free verse what the work offers. The poem must be is often, in fact, following complex something more craft-rich than therapy; principles that could never have been and, simultaneously, it must be more conceived by Whittier or, for that matter, accessible than what is offered by the Shakespeare. The inevitable result is that most craft-intensive high art. high art poetry is now the stuff of universities, devotees with carefully As I think about the potential role for the developed tastes, and other poets. Much Quaker poet in these communities, I’m of such work is difficult, even off- struck by the strangeness of our puttingly so; simultaneously, the more particular art form in this particular time. easily accessible and gratifying aspects Is contemporary free verse a craftless of poetic craft have fallen away. That mode of freewriting for self-discovery? isn't bad and it isn't good. It simply is. Or is it an extremely complex and subtle, and occasionally inaccessible, art form? How does the Quaker poet find a way to Or may it be a way of bringing some contribute to, to serve in, that high art aesthetic bliss or deep insight to a more milieu? The most obvious answer is or less general population? Considering difficult but clear: if serious poetry is such a quandary, I’m struck by that same your gift and passion, you do your art, question every free-verse poet has and you earn your status in that fielded from some well meaning student community. The Quaker poet can and or reader or listener: should play a role in that world, practicing her craft with excellence and What makes that stuff you do poetry? rigor, just as a Quaker painter or composer practices her craft among her It’s a legitimate question. fellow experts. Even with professional success, of course, the community If free verse apparently fulfills no easily served will be small; but that doesn't defined standard of craft—no rhyme, no regular meter, no prescriptive form—

what makes any offered page of poetry. Even when it doesn’t seem like language a poem? it.

Here’s my current answer, dogmatic as it Now I'll become still more prescriptive. may appear. As it happens, I think my In addition to the delight factor, a poem answer comes from a place where my must allow the reader to experience one Quakerism and my craft converge. So let of these three qualities: identification, me offer my own quirky, but much transcendence, and epiphany. And yes, obsessed upon, standards. these qualities often overlap and ultimately become a little hazy. Delight. To begin, a poem must call special attention to itself as language, Identification. This quality is, I think, and the attention paid must reward the the one that happens most frequently in a reader with delight in that language. If good contemporary poem. By meaning is all that I gather from having identification, I mean that the poem must read a particular chunk of language, it’s make the reader feel something in not a poem. common with the experience of the implied speaker. I think of this as the If that sounds dogmatic, it may be saved ain’t-that-just-the-way-it-is factor. At from the most horrific narrowness by their best, poems can communicate this fact: language may delight in myriad something true and meaningful about ways, ways that are very traditional (like your own experience of life as lived. rhyme, meter, and figures of speech), Maybe you identify with the anger, or contemporary (like the position of the the joy, or the lousy tricks experience words on the page, line breaks that play plays on a person. against syntax, intentional ambiguity, or the subtle musicality of vowels), or Sometimes the lightning strike of radically innovative (like those I’ve not identification in a poem may simply be, thought of yet). If a chunk of language “Yes, I feel the same way when the sky says, “Look at me! I give you delight by looks like that in the morning.” Or, my own, uh, something-or-other,” then “Yes, I feel the same way when I run that chunk of language has met the most across my grandma’s high school essential demand of poetry. photographs.” Or “Yes, I feel that same isolated, lost-in-the-world way when my But a poem must be more than craft that cell phone dies in the airport.” The leads to delight. Poetry is, in the intensity of the emotion, the importance broadest possible sense, spiritual. On of the predicament, the weightiness of some deep level, you all know: there are the topic—those things don’t necessarily phenomena we cannot analyze matter. What matters is the “I feel the empirically, but which have been same way. . . .” part. That means that the important to humans of many cultures poem has struck upon something true and many ages and which, right now, about the broader human condition, you share, to one degree or another, with often in an unprecedented way. And everyone you know and don’t know. because the feeling takes us outside Such phenomena are spiritual, and they ourselves and situates us deeper in a are the very stuff of much of the best

common humanity, it’s what I consider a tradition, an epiphany is the appearance spiritual experience. of God (in one form or another). Some poems are accounts of epiphanies, and if Transcendence. Transcendence can be the poem does its job well, readers not an intimidating term, but needn’t be. In only understand the account presented its most basic definition, to transcend but have an insinuation of the epiphany means this: to cross a boundary. itself. One needn’t hold particular—or, Sometimes a poem may be rambling on indeed, any—religious views to about something perfectly mundane— appreciate the poem as a piece of art that cooking squash, waiting for a traffic relates an experience the speaker light to change, fishing without catching perceives as an appearance of God. But I fish, etc. But by the time you get to the suspect that poems with the quality of end of the poem, and often right at the epiphany are most easily enjoyed by end of the poem (maybe on the third people who themselves have some belief reading), you realize that there’s an in the possibility of divine encounter. abundance of significance, a spiritual significance, in that mundane event. It may seem that epiphany poems would be extraordinarily rare. And if the only A boundary has been crossed: you poems we could classify as epiphany thought you were just tasting a delightful were those relating the first-person stew of language apparently about experiences of wrestling with angels, waiting on a traffic light, but somewhere such would be the case. But that’s not you began to sense that you, along with quite what I’m suggesting. Think of the poem’s speaker, were struggling Ralph Waldo Emerson suddenly feeling against the very nature of the human at one with the universe while stepping relationship with the disheveled reality in a mud puddle on Harvard Square, of place or time . . . or something like Walt Whitman seeing the mysteries of that. Often you feel the transcendence the universe displayed in a spear of first, before you verbalize it. And in fact, summer grass, or Mary Oliver hearing a nothing says that as a writer or reader perfect prayer in a flock of terns. These you ever have to verbalize it at all--or things fall under my category of even fully make sense of it. You know epiphany—a deep-felt experience of the that something is there, that the poem Divine in the commonplace. has significance that crosses a boundary from the mundane matters of the flesh to In summary then, these are three ways I the extraordinary matters of the spirit. believe that the Quaker who ministers You’ve been processing particulars, but through poetry can serve her experiencing universals—something communities: more deeply, more meaningfully human, than waiting to turn off the burner or try (1) She can, if her gifts allow, use the another artificial bait or punch the powers of poetry to teach people new accelerator pedal. and expedient ways of wisdom-nurturing self-exploration and healthy self- Epiphany. In literary criticism an expression; “epiphany” is a moment of sudden understanding. But in the Christian

(2) She can, if her gifts allow, take her nothing frivolous about our work— place in the "high art" world of serious despite the fact that it doesn’t give poetry and do so with a Quaker anyone the news. For some of us, it's sensibility that bears weight in even a calling. intellectual culture; and

(3) She can, if her gifts allow, speak to a popular audience with good, gratifying, Works Cited accessible poems. Williams, William Carlos. “Asphodel, Through creative work that offers That Greeny Flower.” poets.org. delight and that faithfully offers the Academy of American Poets. Internet. experience of identification, August 27, 2015. transcendence, or epiphany, the Quaker poet can minister to a community or communities. We will never have * * * * * * * * * Whittier’s broad audience, but there's

Performance of Faith and Practice

Darlene R. Graves Liberty University

This article looks at current Quaker arts took on a tinge of immorality. The contributions to the theatre as a striking appreciation of artistic products on contrast to early Quaker rejections of the purely aesthetic grounds, unrelated to theatre. The Quaker experience with the any serious content, led to the belief that arts—and theatre specifically—can be art was frivolous, and the practice of the viewed as “a turning of seasons” from a arts, other than for specific religious three-century-long winter of brittle purposes such as journal writing, schism to a contemporary spring of occupied time and energy that should be budding promise, bearing significant devoted to other causes” (128). artistic fruit. With mindful applications, theatre has the potential to connect Quakers were serious and forthright students and university departments particularly in their early rejection of across the campus and curriculum, as theatre. Robert Barclay roundly well as provide communication bridges condemned the theatre in his influential from the institution to surrounding Apology for the True Christian Divinity, neighborhoods. first published in English in 1678, when he asserted: “These games, sports, After outlining the Quaker antagonism plays, dancing, comedys, etc. … were toward theatre and then presenting the invented to pass away the precious time, occurrences which led to healing the rift and divert the mind from the witness of between Friends and the arts, I will God in the heart. . . they do naturally explore some attributes of Quaker faith tend to draw men from God's fear, to and practice which actually inspire and make them forget heaven, death, and support a style of creative drama. judgment, to foster lust, vanity, and Finally, I propose that these same wantonness” (343). practices may guide traditional theatre production toward developing a more That this general antagonistic attitude satisfying artistic process and product as toward the theatre continued among the well as inform educators and group Society of Friends for at least two more leaders working in any community centuries is evident in the comment process. made by Henry Ward Beecher, as published in an 1857 edition of The In her article Art and Integration, Friend: “If you would pervert the Katherine Lesses noted that at the taste—go to the theatre. If you would beginnings of the Quaker movement in imbibe false views—go to the theatre. If the 17th century there were many you would efface as speedily as possible reasons for a suspicious attitude towards all qualms of conscience—go to the art, since usually “works of art were theatre” (Found in Eddington, 14). financed by established political and religious institutions and used to Even in the early blush of the twentieth legitimize them. In this connection, the century, it was evident that Quakers still

held a certain contempt for the theatre artist, lectured in 1960 on The Creative and its conceded power to draw pure Imagination and prodded the Society’s minds toward vice and vanity. This concern about the arts with the notion attitude is reflected in the following that “if we have faith in the unity of God quotation found in the 1908 Principles of and Truth, we should have the courage Quakerism drawn up by the Friends in to follow where Truth leads” (27). Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Almost two decades later, in 1978, J. Delaware: Ormerod Greenwood presented a Swarthmore Lecture published as Signs Friends believe that Christians should not go of Life, in which he also argued that to see theatrical performances, first, because denying the range of experience found in acting is essentially demoralizing to the actors...Secondly, Friends are opposed to the arts involved a denial of part of theatre-going because of its effect on those oneself. Moving forward, Laurence who go…Add to this the unwholesome Lerner's 1984 Swarthmore Lecture, The artificial mental excitement produced by Two Cinnas, postulated that the artist is a watching plays, and the questionable kind of prophet. Thus, a wide swath of associations into which play-going leads, and it becomes sufficiently evident that the acceptance was made in a rather short practice is adverse to spiritual growth. (194- span of time, considering the previous 195) sluggish history of rejection. During that same period, Pleasaunce Holtom also Historically, however, early Friends heralded an opening to this sense of were eventually open to some social fresh illumination by calling other adjustments to the arts in general. In the Quakers to “regard art not as an escape first part of the twentieth century, from reality, but as a manifestation of Friends began to reflect on other changes the Holy Spirit, whose power can shape in the surrounding British and American our lives . . . as an instrument in our cultures, which led, subsequently, to a search for Truth” (1). relaxation of Quaker rejection of music as an initial step. In addition, Quakers Decidedly, threaded through the remarks eventually developed and supported their of these Quaker scholars and artists is an own liberal arts and Bible colleges in emerging pattern borne of interweaving America. It appears the institutions of art's potential transcendent nature into higher learning thus provided centers for the fabric of Friends’ belief and intellectual and cultural debate, which discipline. It seems Quakers could now ultimately relaxed the fierce Quaker recognize the arts, and particularly opposition to the arts as a whole and drama, for its potential as a channeled encouraged a glance in that direction expression of their faith, rather than as a with an altered eye. deviant deflector from fellowship with God. It is with this perspective I propose A broader intellectual dialogue within a mindful application of Quaker faith the Society of Friends, which eventually and practice for the use of the arts and sparked a focused concern on the theatre in the integration of faith and potential redemption of the arts, began learning across the curriculum and with a series of “Swarthmore Lectures” toward purposeful healing in our delivered in England. Kenneth C. communities. Barnes, a respected Quaker scientist and

As a drama director, university educator good stewardship and worth the effort and member of the Religious Society of for the cast? Friends, I have reflected on how an integration of Quaker principles While presenting many of the key naturally affected my consciously- Quaker concerns for spiritual life in the defined behavior and attitude throughout following section, I concurrently note the process of dramatic exploration and how these cast a certain guidance and performance. After having directed illumination upon the motivations and more than 50 theatre productions and actions of the Friendly director, actor, facilitated 15 touring theatre troupes, I and designer if they are mindful of using noted how my faith and practice were them. I also assert the practices are integral to the artistic collaborative relevant to many other contexts outside process. My ensembles created dramatic theatre venues such as mission, business, vignettes to speak to issues of faith, and educational group projects and can social awareness, peace-making and become a positive template to work for a community healing. We called ourselves more effective and healthy community Inter-Mission-Thinkable Theatre and process. functioned first out of George Fox University. The performances emerged Many of the Quaker disciplines focus on out of deep discussion and reflection on a style of worship that celebrates current interpersonal and social concerns waiting, looking inward, receiving and then transformed into short inspiration and responding to provocative pieces. Avoiding spontaneous insight. These attributes are didacticism the pieces capitalized on characteristic of Creative Drama visual imagery and presentational productions, ensemble improvisations, theatricality with minimal verbiage. and role-playing exercises, which Since truth can be more gently slipped depend primarily upon group interaction. into a laughing mouth with an open However, most of the Quaker principles mind, many of the pieces were dipped in are also founded in a basic respect for tasteful humor. Others were performed the individuality of each member of the in profound silence and went gently into group, echo the notion that there is “that rugged territory cloaked in metaphor and of God in every man,” and should have a analogy, which produced perceptual direct impact on any theatre production, shifts and a form of “aha” awareness in class exercise or group meeting the viewers. involving Friends. I find them completely central to my own “theatre of Additionally, in the more traditional the classroom” as an educator as well as productions with published scripts I during my roles as workshop and asked whether each would be an seminar facilitator, so I suggest they be opportunity for reflection and connection used in multiple contexts and not limited to spiritual truths for both the cast and to the theatrical process. the audience. Furthermore, if the play never saw the celebration of a final In the following annotated list, I offer staged performance would the extended the parallels I notice between Quaker process of creating it still have been practice and the dramatic (and educational) process. For the sake of

focus, the guidelines at the beginning of to call from the young and from the old, each section are taken from the Faith and from the unlearned and from the wise, from the poor and from the rich, from the women Practice of New England Yearly as well as from men. (106). Meeting of Friends (Book of Discipline) which was adopted in 1985. These In the Quaker-driven theatre (or disciplines are typical of most yearly ministry), there should be no celebration meetings of Friends throughout the of “star” performers or servility to world. directors or perceived prima donnas. Likewise, there should be equal When we gather together in worship let us remember that there is committed to each of recognition of technical personnel and us, as disciples of Christ, a share in the other usually labeled “subservient” priesthood. We should help one another, positions. whether in silence or through spoken prayer or words of ministry (105). True ministry comes from life. . . the cooperative team work of the entire The Quaker director likewise maintains assembly . . . tend to heighten the spiritual an expectation in the performance quality of the person who rises in that kind of atmosphere to speak. But that group ensemble that all individuals are equal. situation, important as it is, will not work the While individual talent and personality miracle of producing a message for the hour vary, each has an equal position in in a person who is sterile and has nothing to community and, likewise, in ministry. say. Even the miracle of feeding the Therefore, each member supports the multitude in Galilee needed at least a nucleus of loaves and fishes to start with others. (107).

If the call comes, there should be no quenching of the spirit; the sense of our own The Quaker performers/students must unworthiness must not exempt us from this accept the personal responsibility of service, nor the fear of being unable to find preparing their hearts, minds, the right words (105). A gathered meeting imaginations and bodies for the is no place for the enhancement of private performance/classroom, as well as prior reputations, but for self-effacing pliancy and obedience to the whispers of the Leader to all the rehearsals and meetings. While (108). each may spontaneously draw upon the reserve of creative imagination in The friendly director encourages the creating an ensemble piece, he or she inspiration and input of each performer, cannot expect to draw deeply from a recognizing that great insight may come reservoir which is running dry from lack through the seemingly least of of input from observation, applied performers and that—when it does come imagination, study or prayer. and is revealed through inspired performance—it is a gift from above to One never brings anything to meeting with the certainty of giving it there, but one tries be received and celebrated, but not to be not to come empty (108). lauded or revered as more worthy than that from others. Each Quaker performer recognizes responsibility as an active member of a In the earliest period of the Christian Church His Spirit was, agreeable to ancient community, one that requires the prophecy, poured upon servants and upon conscientious preparation and handmaidens; and we believe He continues participation of each distinct part of the

whole. Each concentrates on the back. Furthermore, no production was intention of the ensemble and therefore ever late or diminished. makes a concerted effort to locate materials, gather information and ponder I have enjoyed producing dozens of such the universal truths of the piece the “friendly” productions, and examples of group is constructing. a few may stimulate some insights. A production of Archibald McLeish’s Friends should promote high standards of “J.B”—a contemporary theatrical quality and moral influence in all forms of rendition of Job—brought campus entertainment. . . . Friends seek to live in the world, to be a part of it, and to be a leaven to Psychology and Counseling departments its standards of daily conduct and custom together to provide a post-production (145). open forum with the cast and community discussing the concerns of This discipline has direct and pointed personal suffering. Another production implications for the process and product brought the journals of Quaker martyr of theatre. Therefore, the selection Mary Dyer and others to life in an process in the preparation for original readers theatre called “Hanging performance and the motivation for all Like a Flag on Boston Common.” who are involved in producing the event Communication, Literature, Music and is carefully considered. The apparent Art departments collaborated to produce needs and concerns expressed in the and present a public performance of community of participants as well as the Civil War letters, music and art in a anticipated community of spectators is a Southern community. matter of meditation for insight. The intention for each Quaker director and I also encourage the readers to actor is for the receiver to be moved by investigate the work of the British the presentation, rather than for the Quaker Theatre Company, The performer to garner the glory—and for Leaveners, in their ongoing application the performer to be changed by the of the theatre process with young people process rather than be prostituted for the addressing such social concerns as product. peace, tolerance, bullying, and cross cultural communication. Finally, as with Of course, all of these concerns gave me Friends of old, I maintain that a good pause and set me to a time of centering measure of reticence should still be and waiting on the Spirit both during the expected of a society that sees itself selection of the script, the casting of the called to address issues of cultural actors, the engaging of the production darkness with purposeful light. When it team, and the presentation to the comes to addressing the wholesale abuse audience, as well as during a time of and violence seen in a considerable post-production reflection with the cast. amount of contemporary films and While my process was personally theatre, Quakers can stand against such, satisfying, others might find it taking a mindful and active role to cumbersome and time-consuming. Yet I produce theatre which brings light into perceived it as worthy foundation- the darkness and which clearly reflects building which had a significant pay the Quaker principles of “community” throughout the entire process of its

preparation, while speaking to the specific needs of the community in the Holtom, Pleasaunce. "Young Makers." purpose of its presentation. Quaker Monthly. 55-1 (1976): 1-4.

List of Works Consulted Lerner, Laurence. The Two Cinnas: Quakerism, Revolution and Poetry. Barclay, Robert. An Apology for the Swarthmore Lecture, 1984. London: True Christian Divinity. . . . 13th ed. Quaker Home Service, 1984. Manchester, England: William Irwin, 1869. First Published in English in Lesses, Katherine. "Art and 1678. Integration." The Friends' Quarterly. 21 (1979): 128-137. Barnes, Kenneth C. The Creative Imagination . Swarthmore Lecture, Leavenings: A Termly Newsletter of the 1960. London: George Allen & Unwin, Leaveners -- The Quaker Performing 1960. Arts Project. London: Leaveners Arts Base, Spring, 1991. Barish, Jonas. The Anti-theatrical Prejudice. Berkeley, CA: U of Nicholson, Frederick J. Quakers and the California, 1981. Arts: A Survey of Attitudes of British Friends to the Creative Arts from the Coren, Pamela. "Quakers and the Arts-- Seventeenth to the Twentieth Century. Again." Quaker Monthly. 67-7 (1988): London: Friends Home Service 150-151. Committee, 1968.

Eddington, Paul. "Actor and Friend." Principles of Quakerism: A Collection Quaker Monthly. 59-1 (1980): 14-16. of Essays. Issued by the representatives Faith and Practice of New England of the Religious Society of Friends for Yearly Meeting of Friends (Book of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Discipline). N. p.: New England Yearly Philadelphia, 1908. www.leaveners.org, Meeting of Friends, 1985. 2015

Greenwood, J. Ormerod. Signs of Life: Art and Religious Experience . Swarthmore Lecture, 1978. London: * * * * * * * * * * Quaker Home Service, 1978.

Teaching Forensic Anthropology at a Quaker School: Connect or Disconnect?

Bryan W. Brendly Guilford College

In my years of teaching in the biology skeleton with the understanding of department at Guilford College, I forensic science that culminates in a routinely get asked the question, “What final project in which the students are are you doing teaching about crime responsible for excavating a mock scenes at a Quaker school? Isn’t clandestine grave. Quakerism the religion of pacifism?” The question is a startling one to me Humans have always looked to bones to since I would, of course, much rather answer questions about life and death of live in a peaceful society than in a other civilizations and of events in the violent society. However, there is simply past. In more recent times, those with no way to deny that our country and our expertise in the study of bone have world is a violent one. Some ascribe turned their skills towards human such events to sin, to evil, to remains in order to assist law psychological trauma, or to difficulties enforcement in bringing justice to the in the formative years. Such discussions guilty. In the past a clandestine grave are beyond the scope of my paper here. would be of little use to the police, but The simple fact is that crimes are now forensic anthropologists can committed. People kill, steal, rape, essentially rebuild a body and answer assault, and burn. The Quaker questions that are written in bone – commitment to justice is the driving questions about life and death. force behind all of the forensic classes Questions about method of death, time that I teach at Guilford College. The of death, age at time of death, ancestry, college also specifically lists “justice” as sex, and stature of the deceased. one of its core values. As one can well imagine, I walk a very Since 2000, Guilford College has offered interesting line between theory and a major in Forensic Biology that is practice in the classroom and in the housed within the Biology Department. laboratory. On one hand I discuss While I regularly teach classes like individual bones and how to assess introductory biology, I also teach classes ancestry, sex, stature and age. On the that are geared specifically towards other, I discuss how to interpret trauma Forensic Biology majors. One of these to bone, pre-death and post-death classes is entitled Forensic Anthropology indicators, and how to learn about a and currently serves as the capstone crime from pollen, insects, soil, and class for the major. In order to take this diatoms! class, a student must have completed multiple lower-level courses including One of the major themes that I weave two semesters of Human Anatomy and into my classes is that professional Physiology. Forensic Anthropology forensic scientists cannot prevent the combines the study of the human crime from happening. Our quest as

scientists is not to “put” anyone in jail. Innovative, student-centered learning: Granted, some of my students may The very nature of this course illustrates pursue careers in law enforcement, law, this principle. I treat the course as the or another position in the criminal justice place where you make a major step field, but I continually teach that we toward lifelong learning. That involves have to operate in a sphere independent being able to integrate your Guilford of the prosecution and the defense. All education, both in the class specifics and we can do is to report on what we the general concepts represented by discover when excavating a clandestine these academic principles, with other grave or when studying marks on knowledge and skills that you must individual bones. acquire on their own. I expect you to make a considerable effort in Unfortunately, television shows have understanding new and unfamiliar shown the forensic scientist as someone material and applying it to the subject of who works intimately with (perhaps the course, a subject in which you should even for) the police, the FBI or have considerable interest. You will whomever. Often the scientist ends up in have to apply concepts from your other running gun battles, performing high forensic biology courses to this course speed chases, or even questioning the on a weekly basis. My expectation is suspect in an interrogation room! This is that you will be have to do this kind of not an accurate picture of the job of a integration many times in your life after forensic anthropologist. Students are Guilford, and I believe that this course trained to let the evidence speak and to provides an ideal place for you to start. report, not a story, but only the facts. Activities such as the “dig” and the Forensic biology students very often Sherlock Bones will allow you to work bring me their initial draft of their mock as a “real” forensic anthropologist. clandestine grave report and attempt to Challenge to engage in creative and weave a fascinating tale of fiction into critical thinking: You are encouraged to their conclusion. I remind them that all both evaluate the readings from the they can do is to report on what they find perspective of all the disciplines you and that their report is not an exercise in have been exposed to in your Guilford creative writing. education and to place yourself into a position where you can at least consider While it is relatively easy to teach how other disciplines perform this students the names of bones and the evaluation. Critical thinking is the processes by which one maintains hallmark of a crime scene evaluation. control of a grave, it is more difficult to When you discover and process a teach about the Quaker concepts that clandestine grave, you will have to speak overarch the course. To move students for the victim. You will have to discern from fact-driven knowledge to concept- what happened at that grave. You will driven thinking, I begin each semester display your critical thinking in class with an overview of the Five Academic discussions and in your papers. Principles that are developed anew for every class at Guilford College. Mine Cultural and global perspectives: are listed here: Forensic anthropologists work all over the world investigating human rights violations. Genocide has occurred, and

is still occurring, all over the world. We Cultural and global perspectives are will place some emphasis on how reinforced in many ways. Some classes I forensic anthropologists speak for the am able to invite a guest speaker from victims, provide closure for families, and one of the United Nations recovery call governments to be accountable for teams who excavates mass graves in their actions. Iraq. The students are able to discuss the horrors hidden under the desert sands Values and the ethical dimension of knowledge: The forensic anthropologist and to taste the acrid smells of will have to deal with, by necessity, decomposition. In the event that the gruesome specimens and sites. Most speaker cannot come to Guilford people will feel natural revulsion and College, the class watches and discusses will want to “put the bad guy in jail.” It a film on the Guatemalian forensic is important to let the bones speak, and anthropologist Fredy Peccerelli who for the anthropologist to only relay what founded the Fundación de Antropología Forense de Guatemala in 1997. The they can learn from the bones. Bias has no place in the courtroom. Ethics in Foundation has excavated over 1400 forensic biology classes cannot be graves and recovered the remains of over stressed enough! We are placing a 6500 victims of a violent government tremendous value on human life and are genocide campaign. My students usually taking our job very seriously. empathize with Peccerelli, who, after all Sometimes the bones are the only clues of this work, has only seen three of his that remain to solve a murder. cases go to trial. This lone man has built a force for dignity, community, and Focus on practical application— justice in a country that has suffered vocation and service to the larger many years of civil unrest and violence. community: I think what we have already covered in the previous four Clea Koff is another forensic principles show that this class is anthropologist who has transformed the completely centered around problem field. Koff has assisted the United solving. Forensic anthropologist are of Nations in the excavation and the great service to the world, responding to recovery of bodies from mass graves in disasters such as the Indian Ocean Africa and in Europe. Her story, told in Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina. In the book The Bone Woman, takes the addition, scientists with skills in reader on an incredible journey of the anthropology provide invaluable aid to pursuit of justice for victims of law enforcement officers at federal, genocide. Why do I take the time to state, and local levels. Each and every discuss Clea Koff in class? I am driven crime scene is a problem waiting to be to teach my students more than just how solved … by you! to excavate; they have to know why they At first, the students hear these concepts excavate. Koff has worked in Rwanda, as instructor “babble” and quickly Bosnia, and Croatia to catalogue those realize that this material won’t “be on savagely killed by hate-fueled radicals. the test.” However, as I continue to My students need to feel the passion that reinforce the last three Principles, they drives people like Clea Koff in order to slowly understand that the forensic fully appreciate the field of forensic sciences do not exist in a vacuum. anthropology. Guilford College fulfills a

unique niche in the field of forensic mock grave recovery they essentially science; we teach both the science and hired her on the spot. why we learn the science. Another student, to whom I’ll refer as I believe that one can be an outstanding Clara, was completely and utterly sold forensic scientist without a moral and on forensic science. Due to the fact that ethical compass. But my intuition tells her mother was a convicted drug dealer, me that person will not last long in the it was difficult to get interviews in the field. Certainly there may be exceptions, forensic community. She and her but, given the chance, I will make time husband had a wager that he’d have to every semester to discuss ethical Quaker buy her a watch if she received over 100 ideas with my classes. Students at rejection letters. Once she hit 133 Guilford College, while they might not rejection letters, she landed a job. And a become Quakers personally, will still be new watch by that point! She has exposed to a moral compass that will received nothing but accolades within help them in understanding their passion her department and was recently for truth. Quaker principles can guide promoted to forensic supervisor of the how forensic scientists pursue the truth city’s forensic unit. Both of these behind crimes. students have been back to share their powerful experiences with current In conclusion, I’d like to share two brief Guilford College students. stories about some of my graduates. Betty (not her real name) was from As I look back over the last twelve years Massachusetts and returned home after at Guilford College, I am pleased that so graduation. A few months later she many of our graduates are carrying called me to tell me that she was hired strong ethical foundations into the by the Office of the Chief Medical forensic community. They have been Examiner in Boston. She was excited to taught how to strive for truth. They are share that once she told the interview making a difference. panel about her experience with the

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Empowering Students to Speak Their Truth

Kelly Burk & Trish Eckert Earlham College

Can you remember the first time you Last semester, Earlham students from spoke your own truth? Where were you Nepal contacted the Office of Religious and who else was present? How did Life for support in organizing a you know you needed to speak up? candlelight vigil to honor the victims of What did you say? Most importantly, the tragic earthquake that had occurred what made it possible for you to feel earlier in the week. The vigil was well empowered to speak your truth? attended. Later that afternoon, several African American students approached We realize that the word, “truth” is a faculty member asking why no such loaded with meaning, and this entire vigil had been planned honoring the article could be solely about what is African Americans experiencing meant by the word, “truth”. However, violence at the hands of police officers as campus ministers who have the across the country. A second vigil was honor of spending every day interacting planned for the week and again, was with and guiding students at Earlham well attended. College, we chose to focus this article on the programming and interactive There are many requests for consensus tools we use to guide and support training on campus, especially from our students to be self-aware and reflective student groups that strive to use as they pursue being positive agents of consensus within their governance change. practices. The Newlin Quaker Center staff was responding to requests as What does it look like for students to quickly as possible, but it became speak their truth? Last year, student apparent that we could not keep up with government leaders at Earlham asked the need for training. Quaker Fellows that the two of us facilitate a forum for Scholarship participants saw a need to students on the topic of the tension provide other students with more between athletes and non-athletes on training in consensus, and requested campus. For the first hour of a ninety- support to develop a workshop that they minute forum with approximately 100 presented to the rest of the student students in attendance, the sharing body. seemed tentative and vague. It wasn’t until the last thirty minutes that a What made it possible for the students student felt safe enough to name the to feel empowered to speak their truth? conflict about which the forum was At Earlham we utilize several tools, taking place. The conversation which when implemented consistently, suddenly went deep and poignant and create a climate for students to take for the next twenty minutes, we knew initiative and practice leadership skills. that we were on holy ground. Such tools include structure, playfulness, relationship building, and leadership development.

Providing structure is an important first books in their collection (as a fund step toward empowering students. raiser) and only utilize digital versions Designating a physical space that is of texts. The students developed an comfortable to students, establishing a elaborate plot that included humorous clear time frame, providing skilled anecdotes, and this was highly effective facilitation and pursuing agreed upon during the workshop when those goals and outcomes all contribute. The learning about consensus could explore earlier example of the student forum such an offbeat scenario. between athletes and non-athletes illustrates our use of structure. The Building intentional interpersonal forum took place in a room of the relationships is another important tool students’ choosing. It was a familiar that engenders a culture of trust where space located in the student union. students can practice articulating their There was a clear time frame for the perspectives. When African American gathering. We provided facilitation at students on our campus approached a the students’ request and met with the colleague to ask about honoring African leaders of student government several Americans who were experiencing times beforehand to articulate the goal violence nationwide, that request was for the forum as well as the overall rooted in relationship. The students format. Careful behind-the-scenes perceived this faculty member as planning contributed to a climate where approachable and caring and thus took students engaged in authentic dialogue the risk of revealing their true feelings. about a difficult topic. An important facet of building relationships in a higher education Humor and playfulness are helpful tools setting is recognizing the when exploring complex concepts and developmental stages of young adults. are an important part of group Young adults are developing a greater formation. Playfulness keeps things in complexity of thinking, integrating perspective and allows students to cognitive and emotional ways of being, relax, making them feel more and engaging in relationships based on comfortable and welcoming a wider shared values and mutuality. Supportive range of emotions. As described responses to these developments previously, when Quaker Fellows include modeling authentic participants recognized the need to relationships, supporting students in teach others on campus about articulating needs, and challenging consensus, they were excited and students to problem solve and discern anxious. It was important to help the approaches that will address complex Quaker Fellows explore the most concerns. effective approach for presenting the complex practice of consensus while And finally, leadership development also making it engaging and relevant. plays a pivotal role in empowering The Quaker Fellows developed a role- students to speak their truth. As faculty play that enabled workshop participants and staff, we strive to model healthy to practice consensus by pretending that leadership behaviors and ways of the issue up for discussion was whether communicating that engender Earlham’s library should sell all of the vulnerability, openness, presence, not

jumping to solutions, ensuring that The Office of Religious Life “assists everyone is heard and determining a students by providing guidance in pace that is comfortable for all contemplative inquiry, opportunities for participants. When the students from interfaith dialogue, sponsoring Nepal named their desire for a celebratory communal events, and candlelight vigil to honor the victims of supporting a host of opportunities the tragic earthquake, we met with the which enable students to put their most students on multiple occasions to guide cherished beliefs into daily practice.”3 them in their planning and provide Programs of the Office of Religious resources, but the vigil itself was led Life include: College Meeting for entirely by students. Equipping students Worship, Christmas Candlelight to take on leadership roles requires Service, Religious Emphasis Week, more effort in the short term, but is at Muslim Prayer, Jewish Shabbat the core of educating emerging leaders. Dinners, Buddhist Meditation, interfaith service projects as well as supporting Earlham College aims to develop ten religious life groups and four “morally sensitive leaders” who “have a religiously themed houses. concern for the world in which we live and for improving human society.”1 In Earlham College’s mission states that this context, the Newlin Quaker Center “A basic faith of Friends is that all truth and the Office of Religious Life is God’s truth; thus Earlham collaborate with teaching faculty as emphasizes: pursuit of truth, wherever well as with other departments and that pursuit leads; lack of coercion, divisions, such as Earlham’s Center for letting the evidence lead that search, Integrated Learning, Office of respect for the consciences of others; Residence Life, and Student openness to new truth and therefore the Government. willingness to search; veracity, rigorous integrity in dealing with the facts; and The Newlin Quaker Center connects the application of what is known to college to other Quaker institutions and improving our world.”4 organizations, nurtures the Quaker ethos on campus, and facilitates the While we at Earlham aim to empower Quaker Fellows Scholarship program. students to speak their own truth, in The Quaker Fellows Scholarship practice we sometimes wonder if program is “designed for young adults maybe we do that too well. It is one who are serious about sharing in a thing to learn to speak your own truth, community, living a life grounded in but one also needs to learn to make the Spirit, and being leaders at Earlham room for others to speak their truth. and beyond.”2 Quaker Fellows emphasizes community building, Recently, African American students spiritual formation, and leadership held a community convocation panel to development. articulate their perspectives on racial

3 Quote from webpage: A Model of Religious 1 Both quotes are sections from our mission Life statement 4 Quote comes from webpage: Earlham’s 2 This quote comes from our webpage mission statement

inequalities in the United States. When in this regard are evolving and asked how white allies could be imperfect but each time we learn about supportive, the students voiced the the meaningful impact an Earlham importance of having allies first listen graduate makes in the world, the more to those who are suffering, rather than convinced we are that graduating trying to speak truth for another. students who feel empowered to speak their truth has the potential to change Student groups at Earlham often initiate the world. student forums because they find this As professionals working with students format enables students to both speak in higher education, we offer the and listen while exploring difficult following queries: topics. Staff from the Newlin Quaker Center and the Office of Religious Life,  Is it important to empower students to when invited to facilitate these student- speak their truth? planned discussions, begin each  How are you and your campus supporting students to speak their gathering by establishing truth? communication guidelines that all  What are some topics that are participants affirm: specifically hard to speak truth about on your campus?  I agree to listen respectfully and  Are there populations on your campus sincerely try to understand others for whom it is particularly hard to  I agree to take turns speaking and not speak their truth? interrupting others  I agree to ask questions for the purposes of gaining clarity and understanding without blaming or attacking others  I agree to speak for myself and not assume that I can speak for others

In addition to addressing References communication guidelines, we remind students that speaking your truth is only “Four Agreements for Courageous the first step. We have found Singleton Conversations”, Adapted from Glenn E. and Linton’s “4 Agreements for Singleton and Curtis C. Linton Courageous Conversations” especially Courageous Conversations about Race: helpful: A Field Guide for Achieving Equity in Schools (2006) 1. Speak Your Truth 2. Stay Engaged 3. Lean into Discomfort Earlham’s mission statement: 4. Expect and Accept a Lack of Closure http://www.earlham.edu/about/mission-

beliefs/mission-statement/ The ability to engage in and lead courageous conversations is one Newlin Quaker Center approach Earlham College takes toward http://www.earlham.edu/newlin-quaker- developing those “morally sensitive center/ leaders” mentioned earlier. Our efforts

Quaker Fellows Office of Religious Life http://www.earlham.edu/newlin-quaker- http://www.earlham.edu/religious-life/ center/quaker-fellows/

A Model of Religious Life Religious Life at Earlham College http://www.earlham.edu/policies-and- http://www.earlham.edu/policies-and- handbooks/general/a-model-of- handbooks/general/religious-life-at- religious-life/ earlham-college/

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Figs, Pigs, and Imperial Rome: Jesus and the Barren Fig Tree in Mark 11

Stephen Potthoff Wilmington College

The long-troublesome account of Jesus assault on an innocent fig tree hardly models cursing the fruitless fig tree in Mark’s the forgiveness he emphasizes at the end of gospel directly follows the story of Jesus’ Mark’s account. Indeed, Jesus’ outburst final entry into Jerusalem. While Mark seems more at home in the Infancy Gospel splits the story into two parts to frame the of Thomas, where Jesus as a boy does not well-known account of Jesus’ demonstration limit his withering capabilities to trees, against the money changers in the Temple, inflicting them on an unfortunate playmate Matthew locates the same story as a single as well (Inf. Thom. 3.2). Marcus Borg and narrative unit after the Temple incident, John Crossan have recently argued that the while Luke omits the story entirely. As “obvious contradiction between the two Mark recounts the story: aspects of the incident is Mark’s way of warning us to take the event symbolically On the following day, when they came from rather than historically” (2006: 35). Bethany, he was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see whether perhaps he would find anything on it. When he came to Whatever the historical kernel of the story it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the might be, however, it is easy to understand season for figs. He said to it, “May no one ever why many interpreters have chosen to focus eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples on the more symbolic or figurative heard it….In the morning as they passed by, they dimension of the story. In the Hebrew saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. Then Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! Bible, living, fruitful fig trees often signify The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” Jesus God’s blessing, while withered or barren fig answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly I tell trees signify God’s judgment. Deuteronomy you, if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up 8.8 lists fig trees among the many and and thrown into the sea,’ and if you do not doubt abundant resources of the Promised Land; in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you. So I tell the prophet Micah, echoing I Kings’ (4:25) you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that description of the security and prosperity you have received it, and it will be yours. Israel enjoyed under King Solomon, Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you promises, quoting the words of his older have anything against anyone; so that your contemporary Isaiah, that God will bring a Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mk 11.12-14; 20-25). new era of peace out of the ruins of Jerusalem and its Temple: Mark’s story of Jesus withering the fruitless they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and fig tree poses a host of serious problems. their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not Why would Jesus curse a fig tree for bearing lift up sword against nation; neither shall they no fruit when it was not even the season for learn war any more; but they shall all sit under figs? In turn, even if this story serves to their own vines and under their own fig trees, demonstrate Jesus’ power and the power of and no one shall make them afraid… (Micah faith in prayer, his seemingly capricious 4.3-4, quoting Isaiah 2.3-4).

Exemplifying the theme of God’s judgment, than Israel as a whole. In their book The Hosea warns unfaithful Israel: “I will lay Last Week, Marcus Borg and John Crossan waste her vines and her fig trees, of which interpret the fig tree as a “cipher” for the she said, ‘These are my pay, which my Temple: Jesus’ demonstration in the lovers have given me.’” (2.12) Similarly, Temple symbolically shuts down— Jeremiah writes: “When I wanted to gather destroys—the Temple for its lack of fruit in them, says the Lord, there are no grapes on the same way his curse destroys the fruitless the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the fig tree (2006: 35-36). The fruitlessness of leaves are withered, and what I gave them the Temple lies not in its system of animal has passed away from them.” (8.13) sacrifice or even the institution of the Rabbinic sources also include legends about priesthood per se, but rather in its neglect of trees uprooting themselves or bearing fruit social justice, and its intimate ties with the out of season when prompted by spiritually foreign domination system imposed by powerful rabbis (Telford 187-189). imperial Rome. In decrying the Temple as a “den of robbers,” Jesus is quoting the In the Christian scriptures, fig trees are also prophet Jeremiah (7.7), who five centuries associated with God’s blessing and earlier, following an already well- judgment. Luke, who presents Jesus in a established prophetic tradition which strongly prophetic mold, records the parable demanded justice and mercy over sacrifices, of the barren fig tree (13.6-9) which Jesus had denounced Temple authorities and recounts as part of his prophetic call to aristocrats for exploiting the people and repentance repeated throughout the Gospel. taking refuge in God’s house (Borg and In this parable, some version of which might Crossan 2006: 44). have served as the basis for Mark 11, the gardener urges his employer to allow a fig Starting in 6 CE, Temple authorities became tree, barren for the previous three years, one responsible for collecting taxes to pay the more year before chopping it down (Marcus annual tribute to Rome (Borg and Crossan 2009: 784-785). In the Little Apocalypse of 2006: 18). The high priest himself was Mark 13 and parallels, Jesus urges his subordinate to the Roman provincial audience to heed the lesson of the fig tree: governor such as Pontius Pilate, and Herod In the same way that tender springtime the Great had installed a golden eagle on the leaves presage the coming of summer, so the gates of the Court of the Gentiles as a travails of the present age signify that the “symbol of Rome and its supreme divinity, eschatological Son of Man is “at the very Jupiter Optimus Maximus…” According to gates.” (Mk 13.28-29) As in the Hebrew Josephus, the unfortunate young men who Bible, fig trees, then, are associated with attempted to rid the Temple of such eschatological judgment, but also with the contamination were summarily executed by promise of a new era in which God’s reign the Romans (Borg and Crossan 2006: 43). will be restored. Some two centuries earlier, outrage over a similar “abomination that desolates” (Dan. The close association of Jesus’ withering the 12.11; 11.31; Mk 13.14)—the contaminating fig tree with his demonstration in the statue of Zeus that the Seleucid emperor Temple suggests, however, that his action Antiochus IV Epiphanes erected in the and the story about it constitute a critique Temple—had sparked the Maccabean revolt. focused primarily on the Temple itself rather Notably, when the emperor Caligula sought 24

in 40-41 CE to erect a statue of himself as anti-Roman sentiment (as in the case of Zeus in the Temple, this particular Caligula), but also anti-Seleucid sentiment desecrating sacrilege by the Roman Empire since Antiochus IV had erected an altar to was thwarted through direct, nonviolent Zeus in the Temple two centuries earlier. resistance: Thousands of unarmed men, women and children offered up their lives, While previous interpreters have elucidated and refused to plant crops that year, rather the biblical symbolism of fig trees and the than see the Temple defiled in this way anti-Roman dimension of Jesus’ Temple (Borg and Crossan 2006: 42; Ehrman 2004: demonstration, anti-imperial sentiments in 242). Similar nonviolent direct action in the Mark’s gospel and beyond suggest another form of sit-ins at the governor’s residence at dimension of meaning in the story of Jesus Caesarea in 26 CE had forced the newly- cursing the fig tree which might have been appointed Pontius Pilate to remove the at play for Mark and many in his audience. Roman standards he had ordered erected In his Life of Romulus (3.1-4.2), the first around the city of Jerusalem by cover of century historian Plutarch (c. 46-120CE) night (Ehrman 2004: 242). recounts the most well-attested version of the foundation myth of Rome. The tale Given the outrage many felt against the begins with Amulius and Numitor, two Temple’s complicity in the system of brothers (recalling Jacob and Esau) in the foreign political and religious domination by royal lineage of Aeneas in competition for the Roman Empire, it is not surprising to the throne. Amulius wins out over his find anti-Roman sentiments reflected in brother through his superior wit and gains early Christian sources. While the the kingdom, but fearing future rivals from Revelation of John, with its fairly his brother’s line, he forces Numitor’s transparent characterization of Rome as the daughter Ilea/Rhea/Silvia to become a whore of Babylon (17.9), might be the most Vestal virgin. Violating her vow of dramatic example, Mark’s tale of the perpetual virginity, Rhea Silvia becomes Gerasene demoniac (Mk 5.1-20, with pregnant with twin boys, but is saved from parallels in Mt 8.28-34 and Lk 8.26-39), execution through the intercession of exemplifies anti-Roman sentiment in an Amulius’s daughter Antho. When king exorcism story containing intriguing Amulius sees the superhuman size and parallels with the story of Jesus’ cursing the beauty of the newborn Romulus and Remus, hapless fig tree. Encountering a violently- he orders his servant Faustulus to cast them possessed man living among the tombs, in the river. Placing the infants in a trough, Jesus forces the possessing spirits to identify Faustulus goes to the river but finds it themselves as “Legion,” the designation for swollen and overflowing, and simply leaves a division of five-thousand soldiers in the the trough on the river bank, where it is Roman army, subsequently casting them swept up by the waters. As Plutarch into an unfortunate herd of swine which continues: careen headlong off a cliff to their deaths in the Sea of Galilee. Given that pigs were Now there was a wild fig-tree hard by, which unclean animals according to kosher they called Ruminalis, either from Romulus,…or best of all, from the suckling of the babes regulations (Lev. 11.7) but the preferred there.…Here, then, the babes lay, and the she- sacrificial animal offered to Zeus, the wolf of story here gave them suck, and a Gerasene demoniac story reflects not merely woodpecker came to help in feeding them and to 25

watch over them. Now these creatures are members of Mark’s audience, then, Jesus’ considered sacred to Mars, and the woodpecker cursing of the fig tree embodies a challenge is held in especial veneration and honour by the Latins, and this was the chief reason why the to imperial Rome at its very roots: Jesus, mother was believed when she declared that the peaceful prophet messiah who dies “a Mars was the father of her babes. And yet it is ransom for many” (Mk 10.45) proclaiming said that she was deceived into doing this, and God’s imperial rule, is more powerful than was really deflowered by Amulius himself, who Rome, its emperors, its armies, and came to her in armour and ravished her. (Life of Romulus 4.1-2) ultimately, Mars himself, who had protected—or even fathered—the city’s In light of the close association between the founders. fig tree and Mars, Jesus’ withering of the fig tree in Mark 11 thus represents not merely Whether in his conquest over the possessing his victory over the Roman Empire, but over Roman Legion or withering of the barren fig its original patron god as well. To anyone tree, though, Jesus also symbolically indicts, familiar with Plutarch’s account, Jesus’ condemns, and destroys the premier tool of action would have recalled his earlier the Roman Empire and its original patron victory over the spiritual Roman Legion god: warfare and violence. Read in a literal possessing the Gerasene demoniac. In both sense, stories of Jesus withering trees and accounts, Jesus is seen not only to reject drowning swine, while entertaining, appear Roman imperial power, but to conquer it. morally ambiguous and problematic at best, Moreover, from a narrative and literary not least of all because such violent actions standpoint, Jesus’ withering of the fig tree violate central teachings Jesus himself serves to frame his demonstration in the delivers in the Sermon on the Mount. In the Temple, but also dramatizes in symbolic Beatitudes, Jesus proclaims: “Blessed are terms the challenge to Roman imperial the peacemakers, for they will be called authority and ideology embodied in his children of God” (Mt 5.9). In the Antitheses dramatic, nonviolent entry into Jerusalem (Mt 5.38-41), Jesus rejects the lex talionis, the previous day. Arriving at the time of the the law of revenge. Instead of loving your spring Passover festival, Jesus, as Borg and neighbor and hating your enemies, Jesus Crossan observe, organizes a brilliantly- commands his audience to “Love your choreographed counterdemonstration to the enemies and pray for those who persecute virtually simultaneous arrival across town of you…” (Mt 5.43). In his triumphal entry Pontius Pilate, the Roman provincial into Jerusalem riding on a donkey and in his governor, who every year processed with his Temple demonstration, Jesus puts such military entourage into the city to maintain prophetic teachings into practice, order and demonstrate Roman imperial embodying the justice and peace of God’s power and theology (Borg and Crossan imperial rule as a radical alternative to the 2006: 2-5). Following Zechariah’s divinely-sanctioned imperial war machine of prophecy, Jesus, on the other hand, intends Pilate, Caesar Augustus, and Tiberius. to arrive in Jerusalem not in a battle chariot Notably, the two primary examples of as a conquering warrior messiah in the effective resistance to Roman imperial Davidic sense, but as a peaceful messiah assaults on the Temple both owed their who will “cut off the war horse from success to the nonviolent tactics the Jerusalem…and command peace to the Temple’s defenders practiced. Though it nations…” (Zech. 9.10). At least to Gentile required—and still requires—many to 26

witness with their very lives, realizing the blood of the witnesses to Jesus” (Rev. 17.5- justice and peace of the divine empire Jesus 6). At the same time, to those who proclaimed has transformed nations and challenged claims about Jesus’ divine empires. parentage, early Christians could cite—and perhaps also identify with—the story of Read in light of the Romulus and Remus Rhea Silvia, mother of Romulus and Remus, story, however, Jesus’ withering of the fig and pawn in the dangerous game of royal tree serves to challenge the power and politics. legitimacy of the Roman Empire in at least one other way as well. Plutarch openly In conclusion, taken literally, Mark’s story discusses doubts about the divine parentage of Jesus cursing the fig tree has posed of Rome’s founding twins, suggesting that serious questions from the very beginning. king Amulius himself may have fathered the Even in the Hebrew Bible, fig trees carry a twins through rape. Expanding on the symbolic meaning, in their fruitfulness question of the twins’ ambiguous paternity, signifying God’s blessing and provision, in Plutarch adds the curious note that the Latin their lack of fruit God’s judgment against word “lupa” designates not only a she-wolf, social injustice among the social and but also a loose woman. Acca Larentia, the religious elite. Reading Mark’s story wife of Faustulus, the twins’ foster father, symbolically in light of Rome’s foundation was considered such a woman, and yet “in myth highlights the extent to which Jesus’ the month of April the priest of Mars pours final entry into Jerusalem, and his libations in her honour, and the festival is subsequent demonstration in the Temple, called Larentalia.” (Life of Romulus 4.3) targeted the divinely-sanctioned military Rome’s complex foundation myth thus power, theology, and legitimacy of imperial presents Rhea Silvia as the chaste virgin and Rome. Proclaiming an alternate basileia not victim of royal (sexual) violence on the one of this world, Jesus rejected the violence that hand; and Acca Larentia on the other hand continues to be the tool of empires in the as the maternal, nurturing lupa/loose world today, instead striving to realize the woman/prostitute who raised the abandoned sweet fruits of justice and peace promised twins under the fig tree. In this context, the by Isaiah, Micah, Zechariah, and other fig tree itself takes on a maternal dimension: prophets before him. Like the she-wolf, the fig tree nurtures and protects Rome’s future founders. While the fig tree might embody maternal protection Bibliography and care, however, the woodpecker and the she-wolf of Mars recall the violence and Borg, M., and J.D. Crossan. The Last Week: bloodshed that lie at the very foundation of A Day-by-Day Account of Jesus’ Final Week the imperial domination system. Early in Jerusalem. San Francisco: Harper followers of Jesus in Mark’s community, Collins, 2006. living in the immediate aftermath of the Neronian persecutions, therefore might well Bruce, F.F. The New Testament Documents: have applauded the Revelation of John’s Are They Reliable? 6th Ed. Grand Rapids, description of Rome as the “mother of MI: Eerdmans/Intervarsity Press, 1981. whores and earth’s abominations” who is “drunk with the blood of the saints and the 27

Ehrman, B. The New Testament: A Plutarch. The Life of Romulus. In Historical Introduction to the Early Plutarch’s Lives. Trans. B. Perrin. (Loeb Christian Writings. 3rd Ed. New York: Classical Library). Cambridge: Harvard UP, Oxford UP, 2004. 1967.

Hageneder, F. The Heritage of Trees: Telford, W.R. The Barren Temple and the History, Culture and Symbolism. Withered Tree. Sheffield: JSOT Press, Edinburgh: Floris Books, 2001. 1980.

Marcus, J. Mark 8-16: A New Translation Wink, W. Engaging the Powers: with Introduction and Commentary. Anchor Discernment and Resistance in a World of Yale Bible, Vol. 27A. New Haven: Yale Domination. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, UP, 2009. 1992.

Tabor, J.D. The Jesus Dynasty: The Hidden History of Jesus, His Royal Family, and the Birth Of Christianity. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006.

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Artist’s Portrait: Ted Efremoff and The Healing Blues

Ted Efremoff is an artist and assistant people who are experiencing need such as professor of Digital Photo, Video and New homelessness, income inequality, PTSD or Media at Central Connecticut State abuse, to tell a story of their challenges to University. He is Russian/American, grew participating blues musicians. The healing up in the Soviet Union, and emigrated to the process of talking about and memorializing US at age 16. In his artist statement he one’s struggle in living music permeates this writes: project as it has permeated the blues since the beginning of the genre. “I am interested in the kind of literal and metaphoric travel through space and time I partnered with renowned jazz and blues that storytelling allows us to experience. musician, music professor Dr. Dave Fox, The stories I tell focus on the creative who produced the CD. The 15 songs relate solutions people find in living their daily the stories and struggles of the homeless lives. My suspicion is that human creativity population of Greensboro NC, and sales and is not attached solely to the handle of art, but donations raised funds for the Interactive to ordinary activities that intersect every Resource Center (a day center for the aspect of our lives. homeless). Local professional musicians donated their performances to the project. Spurred by my personal interest in social The homeless storytellers received a share of justice, I envision collaborative activity as a the royalties and an honorarium as cultural social instrument that builds critical producers for the CD.” relationships between people. While the process of creating for (and with) others is a The project has been featured in The Blues challenge, it provides stimulus for discovery Magazine, Free Speech TV and many other and discourse. To facilitate dialogue, I begin media outlets. DJ’s are playing songs from by creating situations, spaces, or events that The Healing Blues CD domestically and then engage people to question their internationally. relationship to the status quo.” Efremoff is currently directing a He initiated The Healing Blues project in documentary video about the project. Dave 2014 while he was teaching at Greensboro Fox has started recording The Healing Blues College in Greensboro, North Carolina. Volume II CD that will feature spoken word Efremoff explains: recordings of homeless storytellers along with several musical genres. “The Healing Blues is a social-practice art project that began as a response to an To learn more about the project, get invitation to exhibit art in a downtown involved in The Healing Blues Community, storefront to promote the annual blues music get updates, and watch videos go to: festival in Greensboro NC. I conceived the project in which homeless storytellers and https://www.facebook.com/The-Healing- musicians collaborated to create The BLUES-630231080382299/timeline/ Healing Blues album. The project invites