VOLUME 29, NUMBER 1 SUMMER 2012 The SPie

Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Graduate Department of Religion, and Oberlin Graduate School of Theology El Nacimiento del Mesías 2010 by José Ignacio Fletes Cruz León, Nicaragua (born 1952, Managua, Nicaragua) oil on canvas 20” x 16” courtesy of Zacharey Austin Carmichael, BA’10, MA’12 from the exhibition The Religion, Art, and Politics of Solentiname: Reminiscences and Visions commissioned for Vanderbilt University Divinity School The SPie Volume 29 • Number 1 • Summer 2012

The Spire is published by Vanderbilt University Divinity School in cooperation with the Office of Development and Alumni/ae Relations. Let - ters to the editor are welcomed, and alumni/ae Features of the Divinity School, the Graduate School’s Department of Religion, and the Oberlin Grad - uate School of Theology are encouraged to sub - mit news of their personal and professional 10 accomplishments to: A Hermeneutic of Hope The Spire Dominican priest Gustavo Gutiérrez reflects upon the fortieth John Frederick Oberlin Quadrangle anniversary of the liberation theology movement and how we become Office 115 “neighbors” through our gifts of faith, hope, and love. 411 21st Avenue, South Nashville, Tennessee 37240-1121 by e-mail: [email protected] 16 ______Art and Articulation James Hudnut-Beumler, Justin Owings, a student in the master of theological studies degree program, discusses the ways Dean and the Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Cornel West and Gustavo Gutiérrez encourage us to “observe love in the margins.” Professor of American Religious History

Victor Judge, BS’77, MS’79, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs 22 and Editor The Exodus from God to God Katrina Stone, who has completed her first year of studies Zacharey Austin Carmichael, BA’10, MA’12, for the master of divinity degree, examines the “theological Editorial Assistant abuse” that may ensue from the power of images.

Kitty Norton Jones, MDiv’98, Executive Director of Development and Alumni/ae Relations 24

Meagan Burton-Krieger, Far From the Maddening Ministerial Rush Assistant Director of Development Alumna Jane Herring offers creative strategies for pastors and Alumni/ae Relations to remain “spiritually alive.”

Jenni Ohnstad, Designer and Assistant Art Director On the cover: In commemoration of the fortieth anniversary of the Theology of Liberation, Vanderbilt University Divinity ______School commissioned eleven oil paintings by Nicaraguan artist José Ignacio Fletes Cruz. A member of the community of primi - tivistic painters in Solentiname, Fletes Cruz sought refuge in Vanderbilt University is committed to the principles Costa Rica during the Nicaraguan Revolution of 1978-79 but of equal opportunity and affirmative action. returned to his homeland where he paints the flora and fauna of the countryside. El Arca de Noé is among the paintings from the Divinity School’s exhibition, The Religion, Art, and Politics “Vanderbilt” and the Vanderbilt logo are registered of Solentiname: Reminiscences and Visions, and is reprinted, l

e courtesy of the editor. a trademarks and service marks of Vanderbilt University. h c i

m Left: Nicaraguan artist José Ignacio Fletes Cruz and Latin Amer - r a

c ican theologian, Sister Ivone Gebara of Brazil, shown with their

y

© 2012 Vanderbilt University e hosts, Professor Fernando Segovia and Professor Elena Olaza - r

a gasti-Segovia, attended the Divinity School’s program on the h c

a Misa Campesina Nicaragüense, the Nicaraguan Peasant Mass, Z as part of the School’s commemoration of the fortieth anniver - sary of liberation theology.

Summer 2012 1 In Memoriam

Verna Anne Poarch Myers, MDV1 (May 6, 1947 — December 8, 2011)

“Somewhere the flower of farewell is blooming.

Endlessly it yields its pollen, which we breath.

Even in the breeze of this beginning hour

we breathe farewell.”

—Rainer Maria Rilke

2 THE SPIRE From the Dean

On Friday, May 11, 2012, seventy-seven graduates from the Divinity School became the newest members of our alumni/ae community after receiving the following charge from the dean.

Pouring Yourself into Ministry

By JAMES HUDNUT-BEUMLER, PH.D. DEAN AND THE ANNE POTTER WiLSON DiSTiNGUiSHED PROFESSOR OF AMERiCAN RELiGiOUS HiSTORy

f fifty-one or eighty-four credit hours, or nurse who does not nurse patients, thousands of real hours of study, or mil - no one benefits from a minister who Ilions of words of reading have qualified does not minister to people. The you for nothing else, they will have made value of your degree comes from reading the popular theology on bumper pouring yourself out for others. stickers painful for the rest of your lives. The great difference between Some are not so bad. The one that says ministry and being a doctor or a COEXiST where the letters are made with nurse is that only a little of our work the symbols of the world’s major religions— comes to us when we are ready and that is pretty good. Some are more obvious: waiting in a building with a big “God is not a Republican; God is not a cross on the side. People talk about Democrat.”—a simple, but worthy reminder having doctor’s appointments; they in this election year. do not talk about having minister’s l l

Others are sophomoric while trying too appointments. This is a problem and e s s u

hard to be clever: “God is dead,” Nietzsche. a great opportunity. r

n h

“Nietzsche is dead,” God. So real ministry does not fit on a o J The one that is under my skin today is the bumper sticker, and it rarely signs in one that says: “Try to look busy. God's at the front desk and shows its insurance body, and you became, in no uncertain watching.” —as if we can fool God, as if the card. But it is real, and we, your teachers, terms, a minister worthy of the name. great cosmic game is all about rewards for watch with joy as our students and gradu - Also this year, i became aware that a looking good rather than genuinely being ates become ministers, in the deep sense of Divinity School alumna, who later enrolled in good. Just once i would like to be behind a minister as verb. Here are two glimpses of the Graduate School, has reemerged as the car where the bumper has a sticker saying: such ministry. voice in Tennessee organizing the interfaith “Be still and know that i am God” and have One of you receiving your degree today religious community on behalf of undocu - some confidence that the driver does not experienced ministry up close and personal mented immigrants and their human rights think that the sticker refers to himself. when you visited an aged parishioner in a in this state. This young woman did not This is, of course, to start by way of nursing home, and you poured yourself out become the Bible professor she set out to digression to acknowledge that the essential for another person. The parishioner was a become; she became something harder, per - question of graduation from the Divinity ninety-four-year-old man, who is remem - haps better, she became a prophet after the school is: How will life be different because bered as somewhat of a difficult figure in the examples of Moses and Deborah, a fighting of your experience here? Some of you may be church, even in his better days. All the senior voice leading a people who wanted to do slower than others to claim for yourselves minister could say was how much the something in their hearts but needed a the word “minister,” but whether you are parishioner and the facility smelled. leader to make it happen. being graduated into a church that likes to On the day a long put-off visit occurred, And you? When have you been, and use the term in a special clerical sense, or the senior minister was overcome by the when will you be ministers? God alone may whether you will teach, or lead, or serve in odor, plugged her nose, and spoke in a loud know, but God will be watching, of that we another sense, i urge you to keep the verb voice from across the room. And you? you may be assured. minister close to your identity the rest of smelled what everyone else smelled, but you i, therefore, charge you: Go and minister, your lives, especially if you are part of one of walked across the room and touched the arm each in your own way as your gifts and the those traditions that says that people like of your brother, another child of God, and needs of others give you opportunity. Place you cannot be a minister. left your hand there all the time you talked. your confidence and purposes larger than Minister is a verb just like nurse, doctor, you do not know why you did that. But there yourself, yes even in God’s purposes. Be of and engineer. This is a strong clue that the is a time to touch and a time to refrain from good courage. Uphold the weak. Seek the usefulness of any minister, as in the person, touching, and on that day in the midst of the truth with humility. Teach others what you is a restorative, constructive, or transforma - facility no one wants to occupy, you reached have found to be wise. Continue to learn all tive action. Just as no one gets better from a out to the boy and to the man inside the frail the days of your lives. Amen.

Summer 2012 3 quAroaund th r Angle

Founder’s Medalist 2012 l l e s s u r

n h o J

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s o t o h p Left: Dean James Hudnut-Beumler and Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos congratulate Kyle Brent Thompson Lambelet upon receiving the Founder’s Medal for the Divinity School during Commencement 2012. Right: During the Act of Worship and Celebration for Commencement 2012, Dean Hudnut-Beumler recognized Kyle as the ninety-third Founder’s Medalist in the history of the Divinity School.

yle Brent Thompson Lambelet, Christian communities. in Atlanta, Georgia, founding member of Organized and United MTS’12, became the ninety-third he served as a volunteer for the Open Door for Respect at Vanderbilt (OUR Vanderbilt), a KFounder’s Medalist in the history of Community where the residents modeled community union for promoting economic Vanderbilt University Divinity School dur - their ministries in the Catholic Worker tradi - justice for our University’s employees. ing Commencement 2012. Endowed by the tion. in Greensboro, North Carolina, he Kyle, his wife, Nicole; their three-year-old University’s founder, Commodore Cornelius entered the Beloved Community Center daughter, Garren; and newly-born daughter, Vanderbilt, the Founder’s Medals have been where he worked for the liberation of indi - Naomi, whom they welcomed to the Lam - awarded since 1877 and are presented to the viduals on the margins: the homeless, the belet family on May 26, will depart in August degree candidates earning first honors for imprisoned, people of color, and victims of for South Bend, indiana, where Kyle will scholarship within the ten schools compris - police brutality. begin his doctoral studies at the University of ing the University. Kyle was graduated from For his academic promise and for his Notre Dame. He plans to pursue a program Vanderbilt Divinity School having main - active commitment to issues of social justice of studies in moral theology and Christian tained a perfect grade point average on the and ministry, Kyle was awarded a Carpenter ethics, and in international peace studies at University’s scale. Scholarship when he matriculated at the the Kroc institute. He aspires to enter the Upon earning his baccalaureate in Biblical Divinity School in 2009. He served as one of Academy as a professor of ethics, but what - studies from Azusa Pacific University in Cal - the leaders in the Economic Empowerment ever direction his vocation takes, Kyle says, ifornia, Kyle responded to a call to promote Coalition, a student organization that edu - “i will endeavor always to imagine a better social justice and to advance political change cates and advocates for workers’ rights and world through the eyes of my children.” by working as a community organizer and economic justice at Vanderbilt University by becoming a resident in two intentional and in Middle Tennessee. Kyle also was a

4 THE SPIRE Commencement Honors 2012

The Founder’s Medal for first honors in the The Nella May Overby Memorial Award for The Student Government Association Service Divinity School’s Class of 2012 honors in field education Awards presented to the student and member of Kyle Brent Thompson Lambelet Jane Myers Herring the administration, faculty, or staff for significant contributions to the Divinity School community The Academic Achievement Award and The William A. Newcomb Prize for exemplifying Andrew Lawrence Shepherd Banner Bearer the idea of minister as theologian and for receiving Amy Elizabeth Steele, Ph.D., Angela Marie Flanagan honors on one’s master of divinity degree project the assistant dean for student life Cameron Scott Barr, for “Covenantal The Umphrey Lee Dean’s Award for exemplifying Ecumenism: An Ecclesiology for the Certificates earned in the Carpenter Program in the mission and vision of the Divinity School United Church of Christ” Religion, Gender, and Sexuality Seth Dillon Terrell Kristin Renee Kelley The Chalice Press Book Award for academic dis - Jennifer Marsh Simon The Florence Conwell Prize for accomplishments tinction by students representing the Christian in preaching Church, Disciples of Christ, and the Disciples Certificates earned in the Kelly Miller Smith Robert Kendrick Newton Jr. Divinity House Institute on Black Church Studies Eliezer Rolon Edward Charles Andercheck The Saint James Academy Award for composing Andrew Lawrence Shepherd Michael Dorwin Broadnax Sr. the outstanding sermon Damien Claudy Durr Melanie Chanté Jones The Luke-Acts Prize for composing the most Melanie Chanté Jones significant paper on an aspect of Luke-Acts Robert L. Moore The W. Kendrick Grobel Award for Luke Davis Townsend Catina Le’juan Parrish accomplishments in Biblical studies Anthony James Sandusky James Christian McCain The Bishop Holland Nimmons McTyeire LaShante yvette Walker Award for exemplifying the Wesleyan ideals The J.D. Owen Prize for accomplishments in the of Christian servant leadership Certificates earned in the Center for Latin study of the New Testament Candice Michelle Fisher American Studies Angela Marie Flanagan Whitney Stone Mitchell Angela Marie Flanagan

The Elliott F. Shepard Prize for accomplishments The Bettye R. Ford Graduate Student Service Certificates earned in Religion in the Arts and in church history Award for significant contributions to Vanderbilt Contemporary Culture James Greenawalt Squibb iii University’s Graduate Department of Religion Jennifer Marsh Simon Carolyn Jane Davis Sharon Thompsonowak The Wilbur F. Tillett Prize for accomplishments in the study of theology William Douglas Levanway l l e s s u r n h o J y b s o t o h p Ann Hsiao-En Wong, MTS’12, was among the Degree candidates from the Divinity School stand during the commencement exercises on Alumni Lawn graduates charged by the dean to remember that as Chancellor Nicholas Zeppos confers their academic titles upon them. Twenty-six candidates earned the “the value of a degree from the Divinity School master of theological studies degree while fifty-one graduates received the master of divinity degree. comes from pouring yourself out for others.” Summer 2012 5 An Embodiment of the Aesthetic and the Political a i v o g e s - i t s a g a Z a l o a n e l e y b s o t o h p Students from the Divinity School and the Graduate Department of Religion who served as English readers for the poet and priest Ernesto Cardenal included Luis Menéndez-Antuña, doctoral student in New Testament; Jane Myers Herring, MDiv’12; Bridgett Green, doctoral student in New Testament; Angela Flanagan, MDiv’12; Elizabeth Coyle, MTS’11; Fernando F. Segovia, the Oberlin Graduate Pro - fessor of New Testament; Jin Young Choi, doctoral student in New Testament; Tara Lentz, MDiv’11; Zacharey Carmichael, BA’10, MA’12, MDiv3. Seated with Father Cardenal (center) are Victor Judge, assistant dean for academic affairs; and James Hudnut-Beumler, dean of the Divinity School. While visiting the Divinity School, Father Ernesto Cardenal went to the site of the child - o conclude the University’s commem - tion in 1979, Cardenal served as Minister of hood home of William Walker who was among a oration of the fortieth anniversary of Culture, and by establishing poetry work - group of men in the 1840s and 1850s known as Liberation Theology, Nicaraguan shops throughout Nicaragua, he inspired the T “filibusters,” people who invaded or aided in a priest, poet, and sculptor Ernesto Cardenal people to claim the revolutionary power in revolution in another country to gain money and presented a reading from his latest volume, language. power. When Cardenal was twenty-five years The Origin of Species and Other Poems. “Literature by itself, literature as litera - old, he composed the poem, “With Walker in Awarded the 2012 Queen Sofia ibero Ameri - ture, is worth nothing,” states Cardenal. “As Nicaragua,” based upon the history of the Fili - can Poetry Prize and nominated twice for the all else in the universe, literature must be at buster War of 1855-57 and the central figure, Nobel Prize in Literature, Father Cardenal is the service of humanity; consequently, William Walker of Nashville. Known as the acknowledged as one of the foremost repre - poetry, too, must also be political—not polit - Grey-eyed Man of Destiny, Walker invaded sentatives of Latin American letters. ical propaganda, but political poetry. Poetry Nicaragua, made English the official language, When introducing the poet to the audi - can render a service: to build a country, to and legalized slavery with the intention of ence in Benton Chapel, Professor Fernando create a new human being, and to change attaching Central America to the Slave States. Segovia described Cardenal as “the classic society. i have tried, above all, to write Walker is well remembered in Nicaragua where embodiment of the aesthetic and the political, poetry that can be understood.” the schoolchildren read about his intervention the cultural and the social, the discursive and The eighty-seven-year-old cleric and and his quest for power. In Cardenal’s poem on the material, that has guided the best tradi - artist also believes poetry has the power to Walker, the speaker describes the filibuster as tion of intellectual life in Latin America.” heal. Each Tuesday at the La Mascota Pedi - having “grey eyes, without pupils, fixed like a A leader in the movement for human dig - atric Hospital in Managua, Cardenal con - blind man’s, but which expanded and flashed like nity and social justice, Cardenal was ducts a weekly poetry laboratory for gunpowder in combat, and his skin faintly freck - engaged in the struggle against the dictator - children with cancer, and with support from led, his paleness, his clergyman’s ways, his voice, ship of the Somoza dynasty from the 1950s to UNiCEF publishes the children’s poems. colorless like his eyes, cold and sharp, in a mouth the 1970s. Upon the triumph of the revolu - without lips.”

6 ruce Morrill, S.J., (center) has completed his first academic year as the Edward A. BMalloy Professor of Catholic Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. He succeeded Professor Emeritus J. Patout Burns Jr. (right) who held the professorship from 1999 until his retirement in 2011. Morrill was introduced to friends of the Divinity School during a fall reception hosted by Dean James Hudnut-Beumler (left). Morrill’s theological scholarship addresses the area of liturgy and sacraments and draws upon interdisciplinary resources from sys - tematic and historical theology, ritual stud - ies, cultural anthropology, and Biblical

studies. Another primary interest he a K s o

researches is political theologies as they K

e s s

investigate the problems of human suffering e J in social contexts. Morrill’s scholarly pursuits have intersected in his books Anamnesis as and Sacrament was published by Paulist from Emory University. Morrill also has the Dangerous Memory: Political and Liturgical The - Press. in this book, he examines the questions distinction of being the only Jesuit priest cur - ology in Dialogue and Divine Worship and of power as exercised in the rituals of the rently residing in Tennessee. Human Healing: Liturgical Theology at the Mar - church, especially the Eucharist. The Malloy professorship is named for gins of Life and Death, both published by Prior to his appointment to the Malloy Father Edward A. Malloy, PhD’75, president, Liturgical Press. professorship, Morrill served as a professor emeritus, of the University of Notre Dame, At the conclusion of the spring semester, of theology at Boston College. A member of and one of the first two Catholic priests to Morrill’s book Encountering Christ in the the New England Province of the Society of earn a doctorate from Vanderbilt. Eucharist: The Paschal Mystery in People, Word, Jesus, he earned the doctorate of philosophy

Night falls on Bishop’s Common, the gravesites of Methodist Bishops William McKendree, Joshua Soule, and Holland Nimmons McTyeire, who is buried alongside his wife, Amelia Townsend McTyeire. Landon Garland, the University’s first chancellor, is buried also in the plot near the Divinity School. As Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, McTyeire secured funding in 1873 from Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt to establish a Methodist university “of the highest order that would offer liter - ary, scientific, theological, and professional studies.” Vanderbilt University was then founded as a Southern institution with the intention to reunite a country that had become fractured by the Civil War. Bishop McTyeire would serve as the first president of

n Vanderbilt University’s Board of Trust, and e e r

g he declared the Biblical department to be a

e v e

t Schola Prophetarum, a School of the Prophets. s

Summer 2012 7 The Elegant Cry of Commitment

By Fernando F. Segovia, Ph.d. The Oberlin Graduate Professor of New Testament

Editor’s Note: During Vanderbilt University’s he task of introduction entrusted to — Sustained pivotal involvement in the me is one to be cherished deeply, and church Catholic roman as well as the year-long commemoration of the fortieth anniver - Tso i do indeed, but it is by no means church catholic universal, from the years of an easy one. how, i ask myself, does one the Second vatican Council through the sary of Liberation Theology, the Reverend Profes - introduce the figure and role of gustavo present, with the recently concluded cele - gutiérrez? bration of the five-hundredth anniversary sor Doctor Gustavo Gutiérrez, a member of the The tradition of celebratory introductions of the presence of the order of Preachers in Order of Preachers and such as this one calls for a pointed and gen - the new World, which took place during erous review of the speaker’s life experience, october 2010 in the dominican republic. educational trajectory, academic achieve - the holder of the John — a distinguished philosophical and theo - ments, and professional distinctions. how logical education at the Catholic Universi - Cardinal O’Hara Chair can anyone possibly convey the achieve - ty of Leuven and the University of Lyons, ments of Father gutiérrez in any one of these respectively, and the founder of the San in the department of the - areas, let alone all four? This would mean Bartolomé de Las Casas institute in beginning in the 1940s with his early years as ology at the University rimac, Lima. a student of medicine at the national Univer - of Notre Dame, served as sity of San Carlos in Lima and his involve - — an untold number of key publications ment in the then-prominent movement of and lectures, of which The Theology of the keynote lecturer. We are pleased to publish for Catholic action. This would also entail con - Liberation: Perspectives —published in 1971 cluding with the summer of 2010 itself, with —stands as an undisputed classic. our readers a transcription of Father Gutiérrez’ the conferral upon him of the honorary — a host of honors, including more than degree of Magister Sacrae Theologiae, or Mas - twenty honorary doctoral degrees and the lecture, sponsored by the University’s Center for ter of Sacred Theology, on the part of his own 2003 award in Communications and order of Preachers, an ancient university humanities given by the Príncipe de Latin American Studies, as well as the introduc - degree bestowed on such dominican lumi - asturias Foundation, headed by the heir naries as albert the great and Thomas tion by Fernando F. Segovia, the Oberlin Gradu - to the throne of Spain. aquinas and reserved today for theologians ate Professor of New Testament. deemed eminent in the promotion of theo - rather than attempting to do so in greater logical studies through doctrinal reflection detail, let me offer instead a personal vision and research as well as publications of excep - of the life and work of gustavo gutiérrez. tional value. in between, moreover, it would For me, Father gutiérrez represents an mean summarizing an ecclesial and academ - imperative marker of the religious and theo - ic life of truly heroic proportions: logical production of Christianity since that fateful decade of the 1960s. his name and his labor signify in exemplary fashion a turning era in church and theology as well as in soci -

8 THE SPIRE ety and culture. This was an era that began theology on the non-Western world and thus tion and charity, conviction and commitment. with two events that took place within days opens the way for contextual theologies of all To this effect, let me quote the final paragraph of one another in January of 1959: on the one sorts—from Latin america and the of an autobiographical piece, “Theological hand, the triumph of the Cuban revolution, Caribbean, from africa and the Middle east Task and ecclesial reflection,” written in 2000: with all of its consequences for Latin ameri - as well as from asia and the Pacific, and What we have just said above is a con - ca in particular and for the Third World in from minority formations within the West. sequence of a realization already general, still very much unfolding; on the With and after Liberation, not only does the brought to mind: the peoples of Latin other hand, the call of John XXiii for a new face of theology change but also its voice, america are, for the most part, poor ecumenical council, the Second vatican making the theological enterprise perforce a and believing at the same time. at the Council, with all of its ramifications for the global endeavor. very heart of a situation that excludes Catholic Church in particular and for the a critical thinker, lastly, given the fact that and ill-treats them, and from which Christian church in general, still very much he has never stopped revisiting, deepening, they seek to liberate themselves, the unfolding as well. Since then, throughout the and recasting his original insights. anyone poor believe in the god of Life. as our intervening fifty years, Father gutiérrez has who moves from his early study of 1968 friends victor (now deceased) and been the voice of a visionary, foundational, “notes for a Theology of Liberation,” where irene Chere, townspeople from villa el and critical thinker. the term “liberation” appears for the first Salvador, said to John Paul ii during Theological Studies a visionary thinker, first of all, because he time ( 31 [1970] 243-61); his visit of 1985 to our country, speak - brought into the optic of theological reflec - through his reflection of 1988 on “expanding ing in the name of all the poor of Perú, A Theology of Liberation, tion and construction a number of compo - the view,” ( Fifteenth a million of whom were in attendance: nents that have become constitutive of theol - anniversary edition [Maryknoll: orbis “With our hearts broken by grief, we ogy since then: a relentless foregrounding of Books, 1988), marking the twentieth anniver - see that our wives bear children while the other in society and culture, of the poor sary of Liberation Theology; to his study of ill with tuberculosis, that our children and the oppressed, as human beings worthy 2003 on “The Theology of Liberation: Per - die, that our children grow up weak of dignity and life; a view of theology as an spectives and Tasks” (Fernando F. Segovia, and without a future,” and then added, Toward a New Heaven and A New Earth: act of reflection on practice in the light of the ed., “but, despite all this, we believe in the Essays in Honor of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza Word of god and thus of theology as a pro - god of Life.” This is a context, or even foundly contextual exercise, materially as [Maryknoll: orbis Books] 287-299) where he better a vital reality, that a reflection on well as discursively, yet of universal reach argues that the historical juncture that gave faith cannot elude. To the contrary, and impact; and the vision and proclamation rise to Liberation has by no means disap - such reflection must find nourishment of a reign of god that offers liberation and peared but rather become even more in it. Unceasingly. redemption, fullness of life, to all, but above entrenched—anyone, i repeat, who moves all to those in captivity, the marginalized and through these works realizes that this is a Such nourishment gustavo gutiérrez has the forgotten. mind ever self-critical, ever shifting, and been imbibing and imparting, unceasingly, a foundational thinker, secondly, insofar ever radical. for over forty years. That has been his quin - as his voice, as part of its visionary role, all of this, i should add, with a unique tessential cry—elegant and humble, erudite helps to pry open the dominance of Western combination of elegance and humility, erudi - and loving, full of conviction and totally committed.

Summer 2012 9 n a o W d l a n o R

A HERMENEUTIC OF By gUSTavo gUTiérrez, o.P. Hope

10 THE SPIRE orty years ago, we began speaking poor while other persons are rich.” the Bible, the poor are not only the economic in Latin america about liberation We can ask the poor to be humble, to poor, but persons considered inferior, the theology and how important it was accept their fate, and to be helped by the rich Samaritans, for example, in the time of Jesus. for us “to live liberation,” to be in people whose “duty” is to be generous with solidarity with the poor. reflection the poor; however, it remains difficult for Protesting Cultural Death Fis very important also; for the first time in humanity, not only for the rich and for the Poverty is more than a social fact. in an ulti - centuries we have theological reflections churches, to understand that poverty is the mate analysis, poverty means death—death coming from countries outside of europe result of “our hands.” our hands have made early and unjust— physical death through and north america. We have today, theolo - poverty, and poverty has causes—social sickness and through hunger, but also cultur - gies coming from africa and asia—reflec - structures and mental categories; for exam - al death. The anthropologists like to say cul - tions on the human condition from minori - ple, the superiority of Western civilization in ture is life. When we despise a culture, we ties in the rich countries. Behind these reflec - relation to other areas of humanity or male are killing the persons belonging to this cul - tions we have movements. We have realities. superiority over women. i am not speaking ture. Bartolomé de las Casas and the domini - We have a people committed. We have peo - about a past fact—finished or overcome. The can missionaries in the sixteenth century ple killed for their commitments. recent movement of liberation theology protested this cultural death of the indige - in the academic milieu, we were accus - identified these causes of poverty and initiat - nous people of Central america. The natives tomed to theology coming from europe, and ed a solidarity with the poor. The question were dying before their time, and this hap - maybe for you younger students of theology, that emerged was not “how do we help the pens today—in africa and in haiti people it is not unusual for you today to speak about poor?” but “how do we fight the causes of are dying from sicknesses already overcome theologians from different areas of the world poverty?” by humanity because they have no money. or from different social groups in rich coun - The French philosopher, Paul-Michel you only have to remember the continual tries, but this was not the case when i was a Foucault, remarked some years before liber - struggle of the South africans to receive student of theology in the middle of the ation theology, “We are not really with the treatment for hiv-aidS. People are dying twentieth century. While the theologies before their time—this is poverty. and from outside europe and north ameri - from our perspective in liberation theol - ca are referred to by the curious expres - My theology is a love letter to the God of ogy, we resist addressing poverty only sion “contextual theologies,” any theol - as a social fact, as a social difference, or ogy is contextual. our ideas are not my faith, the church, and to my people. as economic progress. From this histor - original, but we believe even today we ical movement, we learned how to do are confronting important challenges of theology by reflecting on our social con - the Christian life, not only in Latin america, poor, if we are not against poverty.” are we texts and social aims, and i believe we need but in the world, and our reflections involve really committed to the poor if we are only to recuperate this process of theology. two processes. critical of the causes of poverty? We must be The other process is more ecclesial. in the more than critical; we much fight against the middle of the twentieth century, the Second The Absent Become Present causes of poverty. Today it is not enough to vatican Council deliberated on the question The first process comes from human history, say this person is very generous with the of poverty. Pope John XXiii encouraged the from the daily lives of people. in the middle poor, but to ask what is the position of this council to recognize that the Church is “the of the twentieth century, and in Latin amer - person against poverty, against the struc - Church of the poor.” We often repeat the ica at the end of the 1950s and the beginning tures of today. expression, “the Church of the poor,” but the of the 1960s, we had a new presence—the another factor which has changed our expression has a limited context. We must poor sectors. The poor people of our popula - understanding of poverty is the realization desire a Church of everyone, where no one is tion were more present than before, and this of the complexity of poverty. Poverty has one excluded, especially the poor—what we call was a significant challenge not only for the - very clear, important, economic aspect, but it the Christian community. This point, howev - ology but for politics and for the democratic is not the only aspect; poverty is more formi - er, was not so present in the formal docu - nations. The “absent people” became pres - dable. in liberation theology, we speak about ments of the council but was more present in ent, more and more, but when i say absent, i the poor as the insignificant person: insignif - the corridors of the council. i cannot justify mean they were not physically absent from icant socially, but not insignificant in front of this omission, but i can understand the rea - history, but they were not relevant. The poor god before Whom no one is insignificant. sons for the omission because the most were more and more present; consequently, a and a person could be insignificant for sev - important persons in the council—bishops new consciousness about poverty emerged. eral reasons: for economic reasons, or for the and theologians—came from rich countries For a long time, humanity has seen pover - color of a person’s skin, or because these per - where poverty is treated as an abstract social ty as a fact and as a fate. This idea, prevalent sons are not fluent in the dominant language question. Poverty is a human question, a in the greek milieu, is ever present among of a country, or because they are women. For Christian question—because poverty is the poor of today who say, “it is a pity, but i these reasons, and many others, persons are death; it is inhuman; it is anti-evangelical. was born poor.” judged insignificant. When we speak about Theologians, among them my friends, We are then only one logical step away the preferential option for the poor, we take will say, “i know you are very concerned from saying, “it is the Will of god you are into account these complexities of poverty. in with poverty because you are Peruvian.”

Summer 2012 11 i reply, “no my friend, i am concerned ity—we inhibit our abilities to reflect theo - Christ, and in the kingdom, according to because i am Christian.” logically. as a source of theology, we must Scripture, the least are first and must be Theologies come from the challenges of live into the daily lives of others. first—the forgotten persons must be recalled. historical events; modernity is a historical although Christ instructs his disciples, in Two decades ago, a very humble biblical event that was not immediately recognized the gospel of Matthew, to go into the world scholar and friend from France, was visiting by the church. you know the name of a great and make disciples of all nations, we do not countries in Latin america—Chile, Bolivia, man, dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran theolo - have any instructions for going into the Peru—and at one moment, he told me, “you gian and martyr. Bonhoeffer questions our ability to speak of god in the modern world because it seems for many contemporary A theology of liberation means a theology of salvation; if poverty is people that we do not need to speak about god. i labor in Bonhoeffer’s question. an unjust reality, an anti-evangelical reality in which the ultimate in my parish, i was preaching a more hypothetical, theoretical, and familiar mes - analysis is death, then liberation is the word that is against this sage—god loves you. Whether we are reality; to liberate is to give life. speaking about the gospel or a parable, the final answer always is, “god loves you.” We have no other message, and we change it world to do theology. i have never found know, i understand one point; it is impossi - very little because we want the people to these words in the Bible, and i have read the ble to speak about the kingdom of god with - come back next week. Bible many times. My intention here is not to out speaking about the poor.” one day while preaching from my theo - say that all theology is irrelevant—that is not i replied, “My friend, i admire your retical hypothesis, a person from my com - the question—theology is very relevant, but humility and your discovery, but you have munity said, “you know, you are a great we must locate its place exactly. Theology is been dealing with the Bible for more than humorist because you speak about the love a human effort, coming from grace, and forty years, and this message was not clear to of god, and you are living in our neighbor - involves our going forth to communicate this you before now?” hood; you know our lives—we have no grace—our receiving the gift of the kingdom in theology, there also is a question of lib - work; we have no food; and you say, ‘not and our communicating the kingdom—this eration, and we take the word liberation for only does god love you, but you are the first is theology. Theology is not a religion of two reasons. The hebrew and greek words for god.’” physics; theology is a reflection of life. To fol - in Scripture, translated as salvation and We must try always to be serious in our low Jesus is a practice; in praxis, you are fol - redemption, may be translated also as libera - preaching, and i have no doubt how god lowing Jesus, not only affirming we need to tion. Liberation was a very important word loves all of us—i have no doubt— but this is follow Jesus, but following him. This is a in civil society in Latin america. Several peo - not the question. The question is: What is my spirituality; this is following Jesus Christ— ple were speaking about liberation, move - commitment to this affirmation of the love of theology comes from our following. ments of liberation, and i think it is the duty god? i ask myself how can i say to the poor one of my teachers, Marie-dominique of contemporary theology to take the lan - person, “god loves you.” This is the question Chenu, a French dominican, wrote a book guage of civil society and to define the word in the beginning of the reflection of what we about this question of theology. he affirms, from a theological perspective. Liberation is call liberation theology. “if we want to understand a theology, we salvation. a theology of liberation means a i am absolutely convinced this question is must go to the spirituality which is behind theology of salvation; if poverty is an unjust greater than our capacity to answer. i do not the theology.” if we want to understand reality, an anti-evangelical reality in which pretend liberation theology has the complete Thomas aquinas, we must go to dominic, the ultimate analysis is death, then liberation answer to the question; liberation theology is the founder of the dominicans. if we want to is the word that is against this reality; to lib - a serious attempt to be coherent in preaching understand Bonaventure, we must go to erate is to give life. god’s love. Francis. discovering this approach during my first year of theological studies has led Three Dimensions of Liberation Living Into the Lives of Others me to understand that the soul of theology is We then speak of three dimensions of libera - Liberation theology began from a need to spirituality and that theology is oriented tion; social liberation from unjust structures, define theological reflection: the practice of toward the proclamation of the gospel. We personal liberation from prejudices, and interpreting the Word of god and proclaim - affirm this approach very strongly in libera - spiritual liberation from sin—because in a ing god’s Kingdom in a language not of tion theology and are criticized for having “a theological analysis, the root of injustice is heavenly origin but of human. Theology is utilitarian view about theology.” We say, sin. Sin is to break our communion with god marked by historical moments captured by “no, theology is useful because the meaning and to break our communion with other per - human language to help Christian communi - of theology is to help a Christian community sons. With sociological methods, you cannot ties proclaim the evangelical message. We announce the gospel.” here is the place of arrive at this understanding of sin; however, must use language appropriate to the prob - theology, located between spirituality and a a theological analysis certainly leads to such lems of the moment, and if we neglect the proclamation of the kingdom. The Kingdom an understanding. We speak about one liber - history of our people—the history of human - of god is the center of the message of Jesus ation in three dimensions.

12 THE SPIRE andReW HoWson bor— my is the possessive of i, the first per - son. in other words, who around me is my neighbor? But Jesus also asks a question: “Which of these three [the Levite, the Priest, the Samaritan] proved to be a neighbor to the [wounded] man?” you see the shift? Sponta - neously, we think the Samaritan was the neighbor, but this is not the lesson of the parable because strictly speaking we “have” no neighbors. When we approach other per - sons, we are meeting neighbors; we are con - verting a person to neighbor, and i become, myself, the neighbor of this person. now which of these three is the neighbor? The most important neighbor in the parable is the wounded man because we know noth - ing about his identity, only that a wounded man has become impoverished. We do not know if he is a Jew; we do not know if he is

s a Samaritan; we do not know. The other per - n a v

e sons have identities; we know about their e v e social functions and responsibilities. The t s priest and the dimension is a geometric expression. This Levite have re- podium from which i speak has three dimen - Liberation theology tries to offer a hermeneutic of hope. sponsibilities in sions, but it is only one podium. When the temple; the attempting to answer the question of god’s Theology is one reflection, trying to find in different Samaritan is rep - love for the poor, we identify different resentative of a aspects of liberation. For example, one aspect moments in history, the reasons to hope. people despised is acknowledging that the condition of the by the Jewish poor is not the will of god. in my parish, i face of Jesus in the faces of the indigenous people, and the innkeeper had at least one fought for years against the view, expressed people, and he saw the face of Jesus in the house for receiving people. even the robbers mostly by women: “We are born to suffer.” if faces of the african slaves. none of his con - have an identifiable function, to rob. they are born to suffer, suffering is their des - temporaries in Spain made this claim. i think The wounded man is really an anony - tiny. no one is born to suffer, but to be happy. Las Casas had evangelical intuition. he was mous person. The question is: how do we Blessed are the poor in spirit; happy are the not seeing in the faces of the indigenous peo - approach the wounded man as neighbor and poor in spirit. and i must recognize a mod - ple the faces of non-Christians; he saw the convert ourselves into neighbors? The para - est success in my fight because women, the faces of the poor according to the gospel. as a ble has no further reference on how to gain poor women of my parish in Lima where i missionary, Las Casas’ evangelical intuition eternal life or to enter the kingdom, so i served for twenty-five years, received this was not only to baptize them, but to see them believe the greater lesson is that we are destiny from their mothers. it is not enough as “the first” just as we should see the poor as called to approach persons, foremost, to say to the poor person that god has not “the first” in our colonial society. and anoth - because they are in need. When we speak determined your condition of poverty; er Christian, Felipe guaman Poma de ayala, a about solidarity with the poor, we are speak - poverty is a human construction; we have sixteenth-century Peruvian, composed a letter ing about our relationships with neighbors. made these conditions. of three volumes to the king of Spain in which The poor are persons, and they are many; the i would like to recall two main texts from guaman Poma described the ill treatment of poor are human persons, and among human the gospels that are important in liberation the Peruvians, his native people, by the Span - persons we have very good people and very theology. in Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus speaks ish. By also citing Matthew 25, guaman Poma bad people. We cannot idealize the poor. of the last judgment and says if we give food criticizes the Spaniards when he writes, “you to the least of our siblings, we give food to speak about the gospel, but you do not prac - The Serious Reasons to Hope him.” This is a very bold affirmation of the tice the gospel.” Liberation theology tries to offer a hermeneu - gospel writer. in the first testament we have another text important to our under - tic of hope. Theology is one reflection, trying several affirmations close to this, but certainly standing of liberation comes from the gospel to find in different moments in history, the this text of Matthew is very relevant because of Luke, the narrative of the Samaritan. We reasons to hope. When i speak of hope, i am Jesus is identified as the least. in the face of have two questions in the beginning of the not speaking about easy optimism or illusion, the poor, we must discover the face of Jesus parable: “What must i do to inherit eternal but serious reasons to hope. in the first epis - Christ. Bartolomé de las Casas discovered the life?” and “Who is my neighbor?” My neigh - tle by Peter, we are reminded that we must be

14 THE SPIRE ready to give reasons for our hope. Theology ence—a tension, not a contradiction. Tension must be these reasons. is dynamic and is the meaning of preferen - despite the oppressive political situation tial. The word “option” in Spanish differs in el Savador, Óscar romero insisted, “When from its english counterpart by meaning “to i preach, i am always preaching hope— make a decision.” option is a substantive hope.” it is important to discern in historical word whereas the word optional functions events what we refuse and what we accept, objectively, and we have the custom of say - and it is important to discern the signs of the ing that there always exists a “non-optional times. it seems to me, we have today in the option.” Faith is an example of a free option global world, a tendency to eliminate hope because we live freely as human persons. from the social poor persons and the poor The preferential option for the poor may belonging to poor sectors. Today, people are be interpreted as our living and working with speaking, for example, “We are living in a the poor, but this interpretation is not com - postmodern world.” Personally, i am not so plete. The preferential option for the poor has sure, but maybe it is one manner to be mod - three dimensions: to be committed to the ern, but postmodern, post-industrial, post- poor in the practice of one’s faith and spiritu - capitalist, and postcolonial—people today ality; to read human history from the per - love to be “post.” The consequences are very spectives of the poor, or as Walter Benjamin clear. To say to the poor that their efforts to suggests, to read human history against the become agents of their destiny belongs to the oppressive grain; and to hear the gospel as past is against hope. hope does not exist in a the announcement of the just kingdom. moment; we must create hope. hope is a gift, i have been asked many times in my life, a grace, and when we receive a gift, it is not “if you were to write a book on liberation for us; it is for our neighbor. To welcome the theology today, would your approach be the grace of hope is to create resources in history. same as in 1971?” i initially said, “no, no.” Theology must be nothing more than a con - Then people would ask me, “do you not tribution to say to the poor person, “your agree with your book?” i replied, “no, no. i conditions could change, perhaps not tomor - would have written the book in the same row, but it is possible.” We must react against way.” People responded, “good, then your the idea that the poor are destined to live in theology has not needed to change.” an endless state of poverty by uniting with But today i have a different answer to the them as friends to criticize and to help question. When a polite journalist recently change their present circumstances. asked the question, i asked him, “My friend, When we speak about the preferential are you married?” he was very surprised option for the poor, we are speaking about because he could not understand the rela - the “real poor”—those who are materially tionship between marriage and liberation poor; the preferential option is not an option theology. he answered, “yes, i am married.” for the poor in spirit. in the gospel of and i asked, “how many years have you Matthew, the poor in spirit are the saints, the been married?” he shrugged, “i don’t know, good disciples; however, the preferential twenty years.” i asked him, “are you able to option is not an option for the saints. The write a love letter to your wife in the same option is for the real poor who live ceaseless - words from the time when you were her ly in dehumanizing conditions. fiancé?” he said, “no.” “Well, this is my We cannot understand the word “prefer - case, my friend.” ential” if we do not take into account the uni - Such is my situation. For me to do theolo - versality of the love of god. By employing gy is to write a love letter to the god of my the word preferential, we are reminded not faith, the church, and to my people; my the - only to recall god’s love for the poor fore - ology is a love letter. i cannot phrase the let - most but to recall god’s love for all humani - ter in the same way, but the love is the same. ty. Preference does not exclude anyone; pref - erence is only to say that the poor are first— that the love of god is universal and prefer - ential at the same time. if we say, “We only love the poor,” or “all persons are equal,” we do not understand the Christian mes - sage. We must have the courage to confront the tension between universality and prefer -

Summer 2012 15 Art and Articulation Observing Love in the Margins

By JUSTIN TrAVIS OWINGS, MTS1

ature observes the highest diversity Among the elective courses in theological studies offered during the 2011 fall semester was the and activity occurring in the space between two biological communi - class “Suffering, Politics, and Liberation” taught by Bruce Morrill, S.J. Twenty-six students N ties: between fungi and plant, human and plant, or as Wendell Berry describes, joined Professor Morrill, the Edward A. Malloy Professor of Catholic Studies, in exploring polit - between field and forest—the space of mar - gins. Bernard Cooke, in his experienced- ical and liberation theologies from Europe, South America, and North America. With narrative based pneumatol ogy, Power and the Spirit of being a fundamental category of such contextual theological work, the course entailed reading God, righ tly situates our creativity within nature and therefore situates our words and both systematic and biographical texts. Class sessions were largely discussion-oriented while symbols within nature, a nature that seems to preface the marginal spaces. The way formal written work during the semester challenged students to integrate the theological and humans articulate and observe nature with words and symbols stemming from experi - biographical material. ence contextualizes human-to-human love (or oppression) and God-to-human love. The For the final paper, Professor Morrill invited the students to select three models of power in difference between correct and incorrect articulation and observation is the difference Bernard Cooke’s Power and the Spirit of God that both personally spoke to them and could between human words and God’s work— correct when placed where God is working. serve to integrate critical insights they had garnered from the entire semester’s readings. Cooke’s skeletal sketching among nature, creativity, symbol, and the Spirit of God’s cre - For our readers, we include the course bibliography, followed by two particularly successful, ative love invites an exploration of his, Cornel West’s, and Gustavo Gutiérrez’ art and artic - distinctive final essays. ulation of observing love in the margins. The attempt is to be articulate. Concision Dorothee Soelle, Suffering (Fortress Press, 1975). matters, and the connections between the I, Rigoberta Menchu, ed. Elizabeth Burgos-Debray, 2nd ed. (Verso, 2009). parts of art, observation, marginality, word, Spirit, love and ritual—creative in form— Essential Writings: Gustavo Gutiérrez, ed. James Nickoloff (Orbis Books, 1996). also matter. As the themes have connections, James Brockman, Romero: A Life (Orbis Books, 1989). they interact with one other to inspire sub - Bernard Cooke, Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an Experience-Based Pneumatology (Oxford University Press, tleties in and of themselves. My goal of artic - 2004). ulation, then, comes with failures: I do not James Cone, Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a Nightmare (Orbis Books, 1991). contain the themes or the connections, but I Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity (Westminster John Knox, am contained. 1982/2002). Central to the art and articulation of love is correct observation of and within nature.

16 THE SPIRE Observation implies looking and seeing observation from the social margins. But bol. Gutiérrez says, “Much of what we now deeply but also implies an active praxis. To more importantly, he draws from the poor criticize in modern society is due to the fact observe is to move—a directed intentional land-working Peruvians. The art of those that we Christians did not know how to be thrust towards attendance, towards service, who work land, especially in Peru, is the cre - critical and involved in its construction, atten - towards care. Articulation, from the Latin ation of culture—land and humanity are the tive to what is valid in its demands, and able meaning “small connecting part,” connects canvas; work is the tool; culture is the goal, to share our own message.” For Gutiérrez, the observations—movement. Art is observa - never finished. problem is one of articulation when Christian tion. Observation is art. West and Gutiérrez are observers holding words are not shared, or correctly observed, Observation occurs in marginal spaces. a thematically similar gaze, cast in the or worse, possibly suppressed. Diversity, activity, and creativity occupy this modernity of the human project, but utiliz - Unfortunately, oppression, as an inde - marginal space. Cooke argues, “It would be ing different cameras. pendent, self-acting symbol within the world a mistake in studying the cul - has historically been articulated— ture-changing power of new oppression has mastered lan - ideas [read: observations] to “Go with your love to the fields.” guage. The world has become by overlook the role played by oppression. Oppression has most the arts.” —Wendell Berry readily been, and continues to be, West draws on black artists the human’s dominant art. “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front,” within the four identified tra - Christians, when resisting oppres - from The Country of Marriage, 1973 ditions of the Afro-American sion, were not attentive to the con - responses to racism—excep - necting parts and did not articu - tionalist, assimilationist, marginalist, and Importantly, West rejects, though charita - late the meaning or hold the power of words. humanist—to chronicle exactly these cul - bly, the marginalist response by claiming, Cooke states simply, “They who master lan - ture-changing observations. Specifically, the “The Afro-American marginalist tradition guage have a considerable power to master marginalist tradition, dealing primarily with promotes a self-image of both confinement human life.” In our case, oppression is the acceptance or rejection of and within and creativity, restriction and revolt” and “they.” Afro-American culture and resonating “does not provide acute observations on But history is not in want of a clear and deeply from a shifted rural identity to an political struggle.” West does concede the viable alternative to oppression. West’s main urban identity, posits individuals who are marginalist tradition “is important because it task is to “articulate an Afro-American phi - marginal to Afro-American culture and who grapples with the personal torment endemic losophy predicated on the notion that black do not desire assimilation into the American to modernity.” The rejection by West is ulti - voices—mediated through European lan - mainstream. The marginalist artist creates mately due to the marginalist “individualis - guages and American realities—had signifi - “out of no illusions about the self” by “a tic, alienated, searching for home” mode of cant insight for the human quest for wisdom rebellious act of imagination.” The tradition being, which for the sake of argument West and the struggle for freedom.” In other “serves as an impetus to creativity.” must reject to maintain democracy as the words, West articulates an alternative obser - And Gutiérrez agrees, though in a less favored “mode of being.” vation from the margins. formally artistic understanding. His name The art is of words. Word, as Cooke notes, The art comes from the marginal spaces. alone evokes the culture-changing power of is an element of the broader category of sym - Articulation is the inspiring muse. The muse

Summer 2012 17 comes from the margins, from outside the ing of oppression: “The exploited and mar - produced the Christian Scriptures possessed human person, from the Spirit. “Word never ginalized are today becoming increasingly a developed theology of love as power, a the - functions apart from Spirit,” says Cooke. conscious of living in a foreign land that is ology that focused on God’s Spirit and that Spirit observes in marginal space to create hostile to them, a land of death, a land that was expressed in servanthood.” Observation word and art. has no concern for their most legitimate is service. West’s prophetic project is centered on interests and serves only as a tool for their ritual observance is the combined human Afro-American art. He is observing the his - oppressors, a land that is alien to their hopes and God articulation of Spirit, of divine com - torical prophetic articulations of black artists and is owned by those who seek to terrorize munication. ritual is the Spirit’s art—the and making them attentive to embodied them.” He concedes, “efforts to change the sacrament of observation. Cooke notes the love. He says, “The black prophetic Christian situation can come only from the ‘outside’.” recent development of friendship—that is tradition...exemplifies a courage to hope in Oppression impoverishes to death. love—as a sacrament, advancing the “insight the face of undeniably desperate circum - Even in his articulation of oppression is that genuine love between humans is the most basic symbol of the presence of a loving The art comes from the marginal spaces. Articulation is the inspiring God in human life.” Indeed, we must go into the fields at the muse. The muse comes from the margins, from outside the human spatial edges of our cities where the art of hearts freely communicates—changing, and person, from the Spirit. free to change—free, and embodied—always alive, always dying. stances rooted in a love that refuses to lose the articulation of his love: “Christian poverty, When we are appropriately situated, like contact with the humanity of others or one’s an expression of love, is solidarity with the Gutiérrez and West, we go where they go: to self. And the black musical tradition—from poor and is a protest against poverty. ” the margins observing love there and in our the spirituals and blues to jazz and hip- Gutiérrez can articulate the oppression of his being. Appropriately situated humans hop—embodies a desire for freedom and a neighbors because he is in love. Liberation become neighbors, spatially and spiritual - search for joy in the face of death-dealing gifts life. “Poverty is an act of love and liber - ly—in and at the margins and openly present forces in America.” A characteristic of West’s ation.” He is art. He is in love. to nature—contained. The marginal ditch writing is his deep drawing from history, West and Gutiérrez observe the margins. between road and field is occupied by the always from the margins. They have made neighbor of the margins. Samaritan, by us, neighbors to humans, bio - To read West, though, I had to “zoom They have made art. They have “accepted logical communities, and God. West and out.” For the twenty-fifth anniversary (2002) the gift of the Lord’s presence.” Love is the Gutiérrez articulate to us where the margins edition of Prophesy Deliverance (original, free gift of God’s presence. God is articulated are: where God observes, inspires, and loves. 1976), he offered a reflective and revealing in this love. West’s hope is “grounded in Observation occurs in the margins. preface. West’s preface is by an older, mature Christian love.” Love is the Spirit articulat - Words, a tool of nature, are used to articulate self. By the time of this preface, he has had ing the margins. referring to Jesus, Cooke those observations and are inspired by and time to observe further, articulate, and prac - connects Spirit, love, acts, experience, the ritually practiced by God’s creative, artistic tice his message. He has developed into the marginalized and sacrament: “It seems Spirit of Love. Spirit of the message he addresses briefly in undeniable that in his public ministry, he felt the text; the medium has become the mes - himself empowered by God’s Spirit, empow - The essayist earned his baccalaureate in business sage, his art. He is writing, and more impor - ered to act lovingly as he did. His parables administration with an emphasis in entrepreneur - tantly, he is being the funk, the jazz, and the reflect his awareness that the healing and ship from Belmont University and currently serves hip-hop. He is existing as art. He is in love. saving power, God’s Spirit, to which he bore as an urban grower for The Nashville Food Project. I understand Gutiérrez’ art in a less tradi - witness in word and deed was that of love, tional way than West’s. It is still the observa - unconditional divine love. Furthermore, his tion and articulation from the margins, compassion and concern for those he Works Cited inspired by God and results in love—embod - encountered, especially for the marginalized, ied art. Gutiérrez meticulously labors over were the sacrament in which he experienced Cooke, Bernard. Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an Experience-based Pneumatology. New york: Oxford, 2004. words, especially “preferential,” “option,” his Abba’s love for those people.” By includ - and “poor,” contextualized by the reality of ing “servanthood,” Cooke places power in Gutiérrez, Gustavo. Essential Writings, James B. Nickoloff, Ed. New york: Orbis, 1996. land—of fields, forests, mountains, valleys, this love articulated by the Spirit in the mar - Cornel West, Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American humans, animals and work. He is claiming gins: “What seems clear is that Jesus’ imme - Revolutionary Christianity Westminster John Knox, meaning for his art. He articulates the mean - diate disciples and the first generations that 1982/2002.

18 THE SPIRE The Exodus from God to God Hell, Fear, and the Power of Images

By KATrINA ANNA STONE, BA’11, MDV2

I enter into a large, open space that is flanked to was really “saved.” I know that the book before was not sure what it entailed to mean the words I the right by a somewhat hidden and vaguely dis - me contains all of the names of the saved. The ter - was repeating, but I tried very hard to do so. cernible golden double-door gate. The open space rible anxiety surfaces within my own immense When I opened my eyes, I felt different; I had been is awash and nearly dazzling with a brilliant uncertainty as to whether I really am saved. changed; I had been saved. This feeling faded after shade of white. It appears that aside from the gate Initially, as I wait, I feel fairly assured that my a couple of days, leaving me with the gaping on the right, the area is surrounded by an name is in the book. They will find it. I recall how question of whether or not I had really been saved. unknowable region, a depth, perhaps a great I fervently prayed the special prayer the preachers Perhaps the words did not take. I thought I need - abyss. I have the sense that there are many people, called “The Sinner’s Prayer” over and over ed to say the words again. And then I said them perhaps multitudes, standing around. A conspic - again. I had encountered the images of hell— the again and again. The repetition of this prayer uous podium is standing in the center of the eternal agony of separation from God and the tor - continued for months and extended into years, room, holding a very large, golden book. Even ment wherein even one drop of water would be each time, hoping it would save me, as I remained more conspicuous and still central, though far - denied the sufferer immersed in the flames— fre - mired in the terror of condemnation hinged upon ther behind this podium, is a large golden throne. quently in the preaching during my visits to my uncertainty. I cannot see the face of the being who is sitting on grandparents’ Baptist church. I explicitly remem - The interval passes, and a voice announces to the throne—it appears to be an anonymous ruler. ber being taught this prayer one muggy summer me that my name is not found in the book. A sick - I feel no awe, connection, or love for this being— evening during Bible School at a Baptist church ening dread pervades me, and I beg them to look only terror, domination, and threat. Upon enter - that I visited with one of my friends when I was again. There must have been a mistake. I know it ing the room, two figures, which appear some - in elementary school. The pastor bent down before is there. They look again, and no, I am informed what human, though not exactly—they seem to us in the classroom where we were all sitting and that my name is not in the book. A loud voice pro - be angels—lead me into the center of this space, said that if we really wanted to be saved from hell, nounces the final judgment, saying: “Depart and stand me in front of the great book that every - where our current sinful state destined us after from me, I never knew you.” I am going to hell. I one present knows as the Lamb’s Book of Life. death, we should repeat the words he would pray. feel nauseated and frantic, confused, desperately My name is called out, and these beings begin I earnestly repeated the words after him, which wondering what it was that I did or believed leafing through the pages of the book, and once involved acknowledging that I was a sinner with - wrongly and what it was that I should have done locating a page, search more closely on that page. out hope on my own, admitting that although I or believed instead, wondering if I was con - As I wait, I know I am at the gates of heaven and did not deserve it, I accepted the gift that Jesus demned by God all along, a hopeless case, reject - hell. I know that I have died and am now at that gave by dying on the Cross in my place, and ask - ed at creation. crucial moment of judgment, the result of which ing Jesus to save me. The pastor said that we real - has already been determined by whether or not I ly had to mean these words we were speaking. I

Summer 2012 19 he dream ends, but the effects remain results in an act of “power over” others ence with suffering, often understood as with me. I begin this essay on a con - through the negative motivational force of fear. occurring after death in hell. Vivid fear- Tfessional note by sharing a dream that The alternative that I argue for in this paper instilling images of hell as a place of eternal I experienced when I was around the age of is a positive motivational force, or as Cooke torment for the disobedient exemplify this ten. I include this autobiographical narrative describes it, an erotic force. This erotic force effort to manipulate images according to for two main reasons: first, I want to elabo - is an attraction to that which is desirable and efforts at domination. Popular images of hell rate to the reader the context from which I finds its culmination in relationships abound and involve explicit imageries of am writing this essay; second, this dream grounded in love. hellfire, everlasting torment, suffering serves as an attestation to the immense Cooke’s theory prompts me to consider amidst terrifying loneliness, scenes of stand - power of images—a power so strong that it the fundamental significance of the opposi - ing before an angry, judging God; however, becomes rooted within the depths of the psy - tion of retributive justice and gratuitous love. even more fundamental than these explicit che, even reappearing in the form of dreams. This opposition can be traced to the core of images is the pervasively imagined ideology In his Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an various imagistic and ideological expres - underlying these images of punishment as Experience-Based Pneumatology, Bernard sions, including hell, that function to exert retributive justice. There are many expres - Cooke elaborates upon the power of images dominating control over others. A model of sions of Christianity that do not draw upon to influence thoughts and actions. Our sense punitive acts grounded in retributive justice such explicit images of hell but share the of reality is constructed through images in an has no place for the freedom and empower - same view of dominating power and under - ongoing process of ordering and making ment that love requires. The best that can be lying images of God. meaning out of sensory experiences. Insofar hoped for in such a framework is an obedi - My own formative experience within as ideological narratives are the threads com - ence that is forged out of terror and domina - Christianity has been a mixture of predomi - prising the fabric of our constructed realities, tion. It is only within a framework based nantly conservative, Evangelical reformed, these narratives are themselves meta-prod - upon a fundamental gratuitousness, func - and Calvinist Christianity, interspersed with ucts of the imagining process. As a an evangelical, largely conservative creative act, imagining is the neces - Images—as well as those who construct them— Baptist expression of Christianity sary means by which humans tran - that pervaded the cultural con - scend themselves towards a larger hold a dual power both to control and dominate sciousness of the rural southern reality and sense of meaning. This is Appalachia region in which I was particularly pertinent to the way as well as to heal and liberate. reared. Similar to Dorothee Soelle’s that humans image God and the Calvinist background, my context larger narratives that sustain a sense has shown me that more nuanced of ultimate meaning. Given the immense tioning as a positive motivational force versions of the same manipulative fire and power of images over human life, this power towards the good, that authentic love is pos - brimstone ideas often reside beneath sophis - is very easily abused to exercise a dominat - sible. This is because love, at its core, requires ticated theological language—instead of a ing control over others. The abuse of the a radical freedom and openness that does discourse of vivid imagery about hell, a dis - power of images is intricately linked to the not seek to control the other but rather loves course is often proclaimed of the righteous - power held by fear. Through the creation of the other enough to let the other freely ness, holiness, justice, sovereignty, and, most images laden with fear, images are manipu - respond to love’s invitation. importantly, wrath of God. As Soelle empha - lated by the powerful in order to control and The shift from a framework of retributive sizes, there is an intractable sadism present dominate others. justice to one of gratuitous love gestures within the claims of those “who make the Images—as well as those who construct toward a redefinition of what could be wrath of God their essential motif.” In all of them—hold a dual power both to control meant by power, love, and redemption. these modes of discourse, God is imaged as and dominate as well as to heal and liberate. redemption is the liberation of the human an omnipotent, dominant, removed, and The power of images that is used in the con - person—and of all creation—through the inevitably male ruler who can exact punish - trol and domination of others is nearly free response elicited by the attractive power ment on those who do not conform to the always linked to a threat that draws upon of authentic relationship and love. In the accepted standards of belief and behavior. the power of fear. The notion of an omnipo - end, what becomes necessary is a salvation Whether explicit imagery of hell is used or tent God who punishes sinners in hell is, I from fear for authenticity and love. whether this imagery is subsumed under a argue, an example of such a theologically more dominant imagery of God’s attributes abusive use of the power of images and fear. Hell and Theological Sadism of power and wrath, both perspectives fun - Cooke understands power primarily as “the damentally assume an ideology of retributive The interrelatedness of the power of images ability to achieve a particular goal.” The justice rather than a vision founded in the and the power of fear come to a particularly motivational force involved with individuals gratuitous love and radical freedom of God. poignant manifestation in the rhetoric found in this task can be either negative or positive. In his article, “To Hell with Hell,” pastor within versions of Christianity that proclaim The dominating use of images for control Kevin Deyoung, for example, speaks for an all-powerful God who punishes disobedi -

20 THE SPIRE many Christian leaders when he says “we namely: God is omnipotent and sovereign; doctrine of retribution” by recognizing that need the doctrine of eternal punishment. God is just and acts with clear intent according “God’s love, like all true love, operates in a Time and time again in the New Testament to a particular reasoning; and following these world not of cause and effect but of freedom we find that understanding divine justice is two premises, “all suffering is punishment for and gratuitousness.” This is a radical way of essential to our sanctification.” He continues sin.” Whether or not Deyoung and the others relating to others that does not calculate by delineating seven reasons why “we need would be comfortable saying that “all suffer - rewards and benefits. The other is sought not the doctrine of the wrath of God.” Aside ing is punishment for sin,” the fact is that such because of what she can do for me, but rather from citing this wrath as essential for our a radical conclusion is where a theology because of who she is. Cooke extends this ability to forgive, live a holy life, understand inevitably leads if it is founded upon a God understanding by drawing upon a concep - mercy, and show compassion towards oth - imaged as sovereign, omnipotent, and pos - tion of I-Thou relationality, within which ers, his fourth reason is particularly telling sessing a justice that is dependent upon wrath there is “no other goal than the union itself.” and is worth a more extensive quotation: in order to attain satisfaction. By situating God’s gratuitousness as the fun - damental reality, justice is not abandoned We need God’s wrath in order to live but is rather able to take on entirely new holy lives. Paul warns us that God can - Retributive Justice versus dimensions within a relational encounter for not be mocked. We will reap what we Gratuitousness its own sake. Asserting as primary God’s jus - sow. We are spurred on to live a life of The notion of fear as an essential negative tice, holiness, and sovereignty results in a purity and good deeds by the promised motivation for loving God and neighbor is fundamental contradiction within which the reward for obedience and the promised assumed throughout the passage previously love and mercy of God are at odds with curse for disobedience. If we live to cited. Buttressing this view, the framework God’s justice. resolving this contradiction please the flesh, we will reap destruc - of retributive justice is the assumed founda - results in various understandings of God’s tion from God. But if we live to please tion of reality, demanding a specific view of wrath and in a theology founded upon a the Spirit, we will reap eternal life God, humanity, and the death of Jesus as basic notion of punishment that finds expres - (Galatians 6:6-7). Sometimes ministers atonement for sin. Gustavo Gutiérrez refers sion in penal atonement theory and ultimate - balk at the thought of motivating peo - to the retributive justice framework as a ly hell—the just punishment that never ends. ple with the threat of eternal punish - “give to me and I will give to you” mentali - If all of this is assumed, then it becomes legit - ment. But wasn’t this Jesus’ approach ty. This closely corresponds to what Soelle, imate to, as Deyoung writes, “to scare the when he says, “Do not be afraid of drawing upon Meister Eckhart, describes as hell out of people.” those who kill the body but cannot kill the “business spirit.” Essentially, a world - But is this act of scaring individuals the soul. rather, be afraid of the One view of retributive justice hinges upon the towards God really encouraging an authentic who can destroy both soul and body in assumption of reward and punishment. encounter with the God of life and freedom? hell” (Matthew 10:28)? Sometimes we Along with this, a very specific understand - Is it really offering redemption? Or is this need literally to scare the hell out of people. ing of justice is applied, wherein if God does method of motivating through fear not rather Deyoung is writing in response to a recent not punish the sinner for the offenses com - a way of enslaving the consciousness of indi - challenge to the idea of eternal hell as pun - mitted against God, then God is considered viduals into forms of psychological and spir - ishment within the evangelical community. unjust. God must fit within the rules of the itual bondage? Far from redemptive, is not Pastor rob Bell’s book, Love Wins: A Book preconceived framework. Such is a very this motivation of fear and eternal punish - about Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person common way of exerting control by coercing, ment instead an abusive, even traumatizing, Who Has Ever Lived, has generated a remark - enticing, and scaring others to make them do act of domination? Along with Gutiérrez, able number of strong and angry responses, what one wants. Aside from the narrowness Soelle, and Cooke, I argue that there is some - including Deyoung’s article. Even more of this perspective, it requires one to be so thing fundamentally lacking in a perspective importantly, Deyoung does not speak mere - consumed by rewards and punishments that that cannot see beyond “the fence” of punish - ly for himself but represents a widespread one is forced to miss completely the ment, fear, and retributive justice. view that particularly finds a home within encounter with God and neighbor for their A number of factors make the perspective conservative reformed expressions of own sakes. What gets lost is the radical gra - of retributive justice intractably entrenched Christianity. tuitousness that resides at the center of the in historic and contemporary consciousness. This particular article is posted on the Christian faith. Foremost among these is the factor of power. Gospel Coalition website, and as such, pre - Gutiérrez has elaborated on the distinc - Soelle describes historically what she refers sumably represents the views of the many tion between retributive justice and gratu - to as mystical theology that has continually well-educated pastors and scholars who take itousness through his interpretation of the come into conflict with traditional theology’s part in the project. This is not simply fire and Book of Job’s inquiry into suffering. By emphasis upon the necessity of reward and brimstone preaching but is an intricate theo - asserting Job’s innocence, Gutiérrez claims punishment by positing a foundational logical system founded upon the central tenets the book challenges a retributive ideology. “unconditional love for reality.” Mystics and of what Soelle refers to as sadistic theology, Job’s encounter with God overthrows “the prophets have continually found themselves

Summer 2012 21 in tension with contemporary powers . One kind of positive-thinking pop-psychology. Shifting to a reality in which gratuitous - can read this ongoing tension between the The claim is that this view downplays the ness is the fundamental grounding factor lines of the entire Christian tradition. The many passages that speak of God’s justice, requires that terms which operate within the Bible and the Christian tradition contain wrath, and hell, and that a privileging of retributive justice mentality—especially many voices and perspectives that continual - God’s gratuitous love is not biblical. power and love—be re-conceptualized. ly challenge one another. All too often, the However, the central narratives of the Jewish Power and love are connected. Only a weak mystical-prophetic voices are silenced, for and Christian Scriptures—namely the exo - and inadequately conceptualized notion of such voices typically do not belong to those dus of the oppressed from Egypt and the love could assert that love is weak. Love is, in fact, the most powerful reality. Humans It is the powerful who have created a God in their own image and are relational beings, and inherent to rela - tionality is a propensity to form attachments, as such, have much to lose with any challenges to the dominant, implying love through the seeking of the desirable. It is through the love of the infant constructed imagery. and the mother that humans come into maturity; it is through love that we exist. It is in power. However, ironically, it is because of exodus of humanity from death and alien - an attestation to the influence of the rhetoric the power within the voices of the powerless ation through the life, death, and resurrec - of patriarchal power as force and might that that these voices must be silenced. Their tion of Jesus—are founded upon events that love is often considered weak and unimpor - silent power poses an unbearable threat to are freely initiated by God and burst the con - tant. Indeed, within a system of retribution, those controlling the existing structures of fines of a narrow reward and punishment power is inevitably understood as a means power. If allowed to speak, these voices mentality. Indeed, it is as if these events are of force and might. The powerful rule by would demand changes rupturing the sys - God’s manner of saying that reality does not means of exerting a negative motivational tems of dominance. work according to the rules of retribution. force upon subjects, coercing these subjects It is the powerful who have created a God These events are revelation that God’s to attain the ends set forth by the powerful. in their own image and as such, have much “freely given, unmerited love is the founda - Love is then rooted in fear and threat; as to lose with any challenges to the dominant, tion of the world.” such, it is considered weak. On the contrary, constructed imagery. Anyone who would It is within the foundational presence of if power is re-conceptualized not as power challenge the dominant view can be silenced these events—of gratuitous love and free - over, but as power with, then power func - by any number of means, including the dis - dom—that God’s justice and wrath can be tions by means of the good that it contains. A crediting act of labeling one as a heretic—a more adequately understood. As Cooke indi - positive motivational force, understood as phenomenon that has forcibly resurfaced cates, at times within the Scriptures God’s desire, operates by means of attraction. again in the wake of rob Bell’s challenges to wrath is present, but such wrath is corrective dominant imagery of an authoritarian God rather than vindictive. Vindictive wrath The Liberation of Images and hell as a place of eternal punishment. serves no purpose—it only plunges one Cooke attempts to re-envision the power of Often, such silencing is built into the very deeper into an absurd cycle of violence and God using the metaphor of the Spirit as structure of the system. Through the power hatred. I am not arguing that a notion of hell divine embrace. This embrace empowers by of fear, constructed images of hell and of a be disregarded altogether—only hell as pun - first affirming the value and worth of the punishing God serve to silence many ques - ishment; however, it is such an understand - embraced and in so doing, sharing with the tions that individuals might otherwise pose ing of hell, as retributive punishment, that is embraced God’s out-pouring love as an invi - towards the systems being coercively forced often identified as the only possible under - tation to ever greater levels of freedom. In upon them. However, the fear of disobeying standing, resulting in what is regarded as a such an understanding, love is not rooted in God by believing wrongly or by challenging “doctrine of hell.” rather, I argue that hell, a threat of punishment but is a concern for authority, and thus being punished, is just as heaven, is a metaphor through which that which is the end of its desire—the I- enough to keep many people trapped within we attempt to name and express our experi - Thou relationship. As Cooke describes, the the system—perhaps most tragically those ences. Indeed, hell, better than any other fear that is operative in this understanding of who so dogmatically proclaim these very word, describes the agonies and suffering of love is not a fear of punishment, but rather a doctrines. many people on this earth. If it has any fear of losing the good which it desires. An additional factor maintaining the meaning at all, just as heaven, hell is a refer - Within a perspective of fundamental gra - entrenchment of the retributive justice men - ent that is first and foremost indicative of tuitousness, God is fundamentally imaged as tality is the claim that a view of gratuitous - present realities that may extend into an a lover that loves the world into being. The ness operates according to a selective read - imagined future. Within this discourse, the image of God as lover, in being founded ing of the biblical texts offering an inade - essential point is that God’s gratuitous love within a radical gratuitousness, deconstructs quate notion of God grounded in weak ideas remains the foundational element of our oppressive images of God and reality. In the of love and acceptance, often reduced to a relational existence. midst of this deconstruction, a space opens

22 THE SPIRE up wherein we are free to re-imagine new emerge, often in unconscious ways. Works Cited ways of conceiving God that empower and As I have written this essay, the thought liberate, rather than further enslave. This is has repeatedly entered my mind that per - Bell, rob. Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Has Ever Lived. New york: redemption offered by the gospel. The haps I am wrong; perhaps I am dishonoring HarperOne, 2011. gospel is about liberation and healing; the the holiness of God; perhaps in writing these Cooke, Bernard. Power and the Spirit of God: Toward an gospel is about being freed to live fully and very words, I am incurring wrath by promot - Experience-based Pneumatology. New york: Oxford, 2004. creatively. The Spirit of God does not domi - ing an untruth about the nature of God. This Deyoung, Kevin. “To Hell with Hell.” The Gospel nate by force, but calls all to freedom. Such is the power of the cycle. In these times, I Coalition. 26 Feb. 2011 liberation demands an exodus from all dom - continue to do what I have done since I first http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/kevindeyoung/2011/02/26/t inating uses of power. This liberation gives broke free from the cycle—with Job, I do not o-hell-with-hell/. Accessed on December 10, 2011. humans the chance to experience God in believe in the God who punishes with fear Gutiérrez, Gustavo. Essential Writings, James B. new ways and to enter ever deeper into rela - and domination, the God for whom suffering Nickoloff, Ed. New york: Orbis, 1996. tionship with God. is always a result of sin. If this means a void Soelle, Dorothee. Suffering, Everett r. Kalin, trans. The circuitous nature of the constructed of agnosticism, then I wait within the void, Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1975. system of fear-images has kept the dominat - listening for the invitation of the God beyond ed paralyzed by forbidding questioning of God, the God who will lead an exodus from the very system it has created. Ending this the land of fear and bondage. I wait and trust essay with the confessional note upon which that my “advocate before God will be God”. I began, I can attest to the power of the cir - The Spirit of freedom breaks this cycle of cuitous system through which fear is used to bondage by empowering us to trust, to love, keep one from challenging precisely this and to create new images of God that attest very fear. It is argued that to question is to to the liberating and empowering Spirit of disobey God in deed, and even more power - love. The good news is that the Spirit is call - fully, in thought and belief, thus incurring ing all to freedom, working in silent, hidden the righteous wrath on those whose sinful - and profound ways—even within the void of

The Spirit of freedom breaks this cycle of bondage by empowering us to trust, to love, and to create new images of God that attest to the liberating and empowering Spirit of love. ness a holy God cannot tolerate. I can attest atheism, the space between God and God. that I have been told by some in positions of Within the embrace, in the midst of our religious power that if I do not accept their bondage, we are empowered to cry unto God particular views of Scripture that I am, in to save us from God. The story of truth, not accepting God. Christianity is the story of liberation—that This can be extended to any number of God hears the cry of the oppressed and loves dogmatic points. Some religious leaders will unto freedom. argue that if particular images of the atone - ment as penal substitution or of God as an The essayist was graduated from Vanderbilt omnipotent, sovereign, and wrathful ruler University’s College of Arts and Science where are challenged and rejected, then so, too, are she earned the baccalaureate, magna cum laude, the questioners by God. It takes a momentous in religious studies and philosophy. act of faith—through grace—to break out of the cycle. For that reason, many people do not. The power of this rhetoric and these punitive images, especially if they have been one’s only form of exposure to Christianity, is immense. Even more, once one has taken the leap, one remains haunted by the shadow of these dominating voices. As a traumatic trace, the terrifying images reside deep with - in the consciousness and repetitively re-

Summer 2012 23 Far From the MADDENING MINISTERIA L Rush

By Jane Myers Herring, MDiv’12

Sister Macrina Wiederkehr, author and Benedictine monastic of Saint Scholastica Monastery, writes in to behave in either rewarding or punishing ways—as if ministry comes from and is a Tree Full of angels: seeing the Holy in the Ordinary, “Under the guise of ministering to others I about the minister. as one cleric in the writ - ers’ group remarked, “The church is just set had become alienated from myself.” She describes her “maddening ministerial rush” and declares that the up to reward unhealthy behavior, and it is hard to stay centered on god when you ‘per - hectic pace and lack of respect for her own personal needs for healthy living are a “violence” and “irrev - form’ and are ‘lifted up’ by compliments. erence” to herself. The problem is that what goes up must come down. and even if it takes a long time to s i read sister Macrina’s testimony to a and laity to experience in-depth spiritual come down, it’s lonely. There aren’t many group of pastors, the room is sudden - practices. The academy for spiritual Forma - people who understand the peculiar situa - Aly full of nodding heads, and i hear tion provides the setting for a disciplined, tion in which clergy find themselves.” the sighs that bespeak exhaustion. ecumenical, and inclusive Christian commu - Writing for these “companions” meant “When you can lovingly be present to nity where participants gather for forty days writing for the sake of joy alone, not for the yourself, your presence to others takes on a over the course of two years to study the spir - purpose of publication or presentation. The deeper quality also,” Wiederkehr suggests. itual traditions of the church. Because writing took the forms of story, poetry, essay, More and more, the church—across denomi - research has shown that the program has disjointed journal entries, collections of nations—recognizes the need for clergy been extremely helpful to clergy seeking to phrases, and conversations with god and renewal, renewal which deepens the quality renew and transform their ministries, this with the Bible. This group shared a particular of life for pastors and for congregations. program became the model for a similar ini - love of writing and experimented with ways Long hours, combined with difficulty of tiative designed specifically for pastors. of using words as a spiritual practice in a drawing boundaries between work life and Funded by a grant from the Lilly endow - rhythm of silence, prayer, writing, and dis - personal life, are two recurring stressors on ment, Companions in Ministry helps pastors cussion. What we experienced was more than the lives of pastors. These stressors can cause discover strategies for transforming a congre - writing; what we experienced was renewal. pastors to become alienated from themselves gation from “functional” to “formational.” One of the primary “side-effects” of the and the passion for god that first brought as part of my work with Upper room renewal experienced at Companions in Min - them into the work of ministry. Mahan Mar - Ministries, i worked with pastors represent - istry was spiritual friendship. ecumenical shall siler, Ba’56, who was ordained in 1957 ing the second generation of the Compan - friendships were fostered and encouraged. and who has supported clergy renewal since ions in Ministry program. They met quarter - an episcopal priest and a Methodist pastor 1998, observes, “We have bet our vocational ly at the Oblate renewal Center in san anto - may not be able to talk polity in the same lan - lives on a reality we cannot see or measure nio, Texas, with the intention of exploring guage, but they can speak more freely of fail - or control. When i step back, i find this risk writing as a spiritual discipline and as a ures and frustrations with their ministries astounding.” means of renewing their spiritual lives and because they are not invested in the same no doubt, this great risk and the risk the the lives of their ministries. The challenges church politics. eric, a pastor and writer, entire church faces as the bride of Christ in a these “writing pastors” faced were the same describes how the friends in the writing largely postmodern world add to the particu - as those confronted by pastors of the pro - group do not depend on the outward roles of lar stresses and strains of a pastor’s vocation. gram’s first generation—depression, exhaus - “pastor” to understand one another – that nashville’s Upper room Ministries, tion, addiction, and spiritual emptiness. The part is understood already. “We can be where vanderbilt Divinity school students core challenge, however, was living and friends who value who we are, without may be assigned for their field education working in the truth that ministry comes requiring anything from one another.” practica, has developed a program for clergy from god while serving churches that tend eric’s communion with writers who

24 THE SPIRE ology which is the real work of the pastor and the church. Many pastors cite the years of study in seminaries and divinity schools among the happiest days of their lives. some come from Bible backgrounds and have known since early in life they wanted further study in Biblical texts and theology, history, and the classical and Biblical languages. some entered graduate programs on a hunch and found that the education was an unex - pected joy. Once out in the world and in the churches, pastors—however they first expe - rienced the calling—must incarnate that the - ology and help others to incarnate their the - ology. This is no easy task. The abstract truths that work so beautifully for our intel - “value both what you do as a writer and who and writing practices. lect do not always bear up under the messi - you are as a person” means that life-giving But what happens when the retreat comes ness of pastoral experiences. Living, leading, friendships emerge among “friends who do to an end and it is time to go home? as one and working in the ambiguities of life not require anything from you, which is a rare of the “companion guides,” Mahan siler require the ability to hope. Hope seems to yet liberating feeling.” eric’s words on friend - believes that pastors who are abundantly require both the resilience to face failure ship, on being accepted and valued, on being and soulfully alive share certain traits: they faithfully as well as the optimism that the seen and understood, describe the healing maintain a daily practice—physical, emo - way will be made clear. Pastors need roots that can occur in spiritual friendships. tional, or contemplative—and they have a and wings: the rootedness of training and Because pastors understand the demands of “soul friend” who listens and shares in the reason, the wings of faith and spiritual nour - their role, they can hold for one another a joys and sorrows of ministry. Trevor Hudson, ishment. This is not always part of what the space in which the pastor can step out of that an author, activist, and pastor from south church encourages for its pastors, and so role and “go deep” to find renewal and com - africa, says, “almost at no stage through my pastors must find their own ways of staying fort in reconnecting with the truth of ministry pastoral ministry of thirty-five years have i spiritually alive by taking up their own spir - rather than the politics of the church. not been accompanied by a listening pres - itual practices and finding that listener who These spiritual friendships seem to occur ence. My first pastoral supervisor used to say can share in a spiritual friendship. spontaneously when people come together to me, ‘We do not learn from experience; we for a shared spiritual practice, be it writing or only learn when we reflect on experience.’ To During the 2012 commencement exercises at any other practice done in a manner to nour - have someone with whom i can reflect con - Vanderbilt University Divinity School, the essay - ish the soul. in the Companions in Ministry stantly on my life and work has often led to ist received the Nella May Overby Memorial program, some clergy meet for daily physi - transforming insights and fresh ministry- Award in field education for her service to the cal exercise done with the intention of com - directions. as pastors, we need all the help Veterans’ Administration Hospital, to the Acade - ing home to god within. Others meet to we can get in helping each other in this work my for Spiritual Formation with the United practice lectio divina while others give them - of reflection. it lies at the heart of what Methodist Board of Discipleship, and to the con - selves to silence. The writers’ group con - ‘doing theology’ as pastors is all about.” gregation of Harpeth Presbyterian Church. vened to write and share written meditations Perhaps it is, after all, this “doing” of the -

Summer 2012 25 Locked Out

For tens of years i have been trying to get back in, without even knowing i had been locked out. When the door opened, i didn’t realize it had been shut. The doorway, an unheard whisper. Joy and sorrow became easier. i had locked myself out of the well. The bucket lowered with no way to raise it. a threadbare rope still attached. i suppose it was the hoisting mechanism that shut down, a good thing at the time.

But good things can have shadows and sludge. They can be warm like sirens. evaporation threatened the well. Minor attempts to raise the bucket failed. Journals started, abandoned, pots pinched, then left unfired. i didn’t know i had locked myself out.

One day in the car, not long after stretching the muscles of written word, i found myself singing songs i had been singing forever, but to the wrong person. i had been singing to her, singing to him, when suddenly and to my astonishment i began singing to myself, and in that moment of movement the gears cleared, the bucket accessible to and from the well.

The lowering and raising can still present challenges, halting, jerking, slipping. But with a firm hand, and a safe space i can usually at least get my lips wet.

—Nancy Smith The poet, a retired teacher of children with special needs, lives and writes in the hills of western Massachusetts.

26 THE SPIRE
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Alumni/ae Class Notes

Alexander W. Delk, BD’43, who served the in Hunterstown, Pennsylvania, where he Church in Mount Morris, new york. she Tennessee Conference of The United served as pastor for twelve years. also serves as the director of Zion House, Methodist Church from 1943-1952 and who the first transitional residence in new york retired from the illinois Public schools as an S. John Roth IV, MA’87, PhD’94, was elect - for homeless female veterans. educator and administrator, teaches public ed to a six-year term as bishop of the Cen - speaking at Cleveland state Community tral and southern illinois synod of the Benjamin Miller-Coleman, MTS’06, and College, in Cleveland, Tennessee. evangelical Lutheran Church in america. Valerie Miller-Coleman, MDiv’07, wel - comed their first child, a daughter named Joseph Fred Cloud, BA’44, BDiv’47, Carol Orsborn, MTS’97, PhD’02, has been Lucinda Jane, on august 25, 2010. Benjamin DMin’90, received the Lifetime achieve - named executive director of CoroFaith, an is the assistant attorney general for the state ment award for Human rights from the institution providing individualized spiritu - of Kansas, and valerie has been ordained by national association of Human rights al continuity for the long-term care and the United Churches of Christ and directs Workers during their annual conference in aging-in-place communities. interfaith Hospitality network which serves aurora, Colorado. families experiencing homelessness in Deanna A. Thompson PhD’98, professor of Lawrence, Kansas. James E. Magaw, BD’58, is the coauthor of religion at Hamline University in saint Paul, A Slice from the Apple, a compilation of Minnesota, is the author of Hoping for More: Jim Metzger, PhD’06, is the author of Dim, poems from eight colleagues in The apple Having Cancer, Talking Faith, and Accepting a novel addressing issues of homophobia, valley Poets. Grace, published by Cascade Books. The racial bigotry, secularism, and Biblical book has been described as providing “a authority. He is currently pursuing a master James D. Clark, BD’59, MDiv’73, was hon - systematic theology enriched by living with of arts degree in english at east Carolina ored by Homewood Cumberland Presbyte - cancer.” University. rian Church with the distinction of pastor emeritus. He has served Homewood congre - Brant Pitre, MTS’99, professor of sacred Stephen Harrison Baldwin Jr., MDiv’07, gation for twenty-four years and has been a scripture at notre Dame seminary in new pastor of ronceverte Presbyterian Church, minister for fifty-seven years. Orleans, Louisiana, is the author of Jesus and has been elected moderator of the Presby - the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist: Unlocking the tery of West virginia and is the youngest Jerry L. Harber, MDiv’69, DMin’75, has Secrets of the Last Supper, published by ran - person to serve in this role. He also was been named the first theologian in residence dom House. elected in May 2012 as a representative for of saint Mary’s episcopal Cathedral in the greenbrier County Board of education. Memphis, Tennessee. He has been assigned Flora Wilson Bridges, PhD’99, is the senior the task of developing an area wide Chris - pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Jewly Hight, MTS’08, is the author of Right tian formation program that will offer class - Brooklyn, new york. she also has been by Her Roots: Americana Women and Their es throughout the academic year. inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Songs, published by Baylor University Press. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College. The book explores the contributions to amer - Richard Alan Bunch, MDiv’70, DD’71, is With her new appointment, she seeks to icana music by artists Lucinda Williams, Julie the author of Collected Poems 1965 –2011, a address “compassion deficit syndrome”—a Miller, victoria Williams, Michelle shocked, volume representing forty-five years of his term she has developed to address the roots Mary gauthier, ruthie Foster, elizabeth career as a poet. of violence, hatred, and intolerance toward Cook, and abigail Washburn. those who are marginalized and vulnerable Rex D. Edwards, DMin’74, is the author of in society. Chad Michael Cunningham, MTS’10, and An Adventure Into Discovery, a collection of Cynthia Carol savrda, were married on his experiences from his research at histori - Loretta Lambert, MTS’03, was honored as June 2, 2012, at saint Michael the archangel cal Biblical sites. one of new Orleans’ “40 Under 40” for her Catholic Church in auburn, alabama. leadership in animal welfare in 2010. she Lawrence Balleine, MDiv’75, is the author served as a first responder for the Louisiana Justin James Reilly, MTS’10, is the regional of Road to Renewal: A Lenten Journey Down society for the Prevention of Cruelty to ani - coordinator for the Office of Justice and Peace U.S. 41, a spiritual pilgrimage from the Lake mals in the immediate aftermath of Hurri - in the Catholic Diocese of richmond’s superior shoreline in Michigan’s Upper cane Katrina. western vicariate. He is responsible for the Peninsula to the atlantic Ocean coast in prison ministries and for managing a grant Miami Beach. Kelly Lane Ayer, MDiv’04, was ordained from Catholic Charities for assisting families on July 16, 2011, to the priesthood in the whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Donald L. Mitchell, DMin’86, has retired episcopal Church and has been appointed the effects of the recent tornados in virginia. from great Conewago Presbyterian Church priest-in-charge at saint John’s episcopal

Summer 2012 27 Thomas Brown Richardson, MTS’10, and William Crawford Davis, BDiv’49, on July Eric L. David, MDiv’74, on February 19, Hillary ann Hamblen were married on June 3, 2011, at the age of 84. He served many 2011, at the age of 69. after serving as assis - 25, 2011, in Benton Chapel. attending the churches throughout northern alabama and tant to the pastor at second new saint Paul ceremony were Wei-erh Chen, MTS’10, and retired from the First United Methodist Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., he Sarah Elizabeth Grove, MTS’10. Church in Florence, alabama. founded the victory Baptist Fellowship in Prince george’s County. Abdul Rahman Chao, MTS’11, serves as Martin Given Frame, MDiv’55, on July 5, resident scholar and director of adult educa - 2010, at the age of 84 after a long battle with Kenneth Ray Street, MDiv’75, on Decem - tion at the islamic Center of Tennessee. Parkinson’s disease. a veteran of World War ber 31, 2010. He served as a minister of the ii, he served various appointments in the Tennessee Conference of the United Lindsay Little, MDiv’11, and Dawson gray United Methodist Church including minis - Methodist Church and the north alabama were married on May 28, 2011, in Maryville, ter, district superintendent of the Beckley Conference for more than thirty-nine years. Tennessee. District, and member and secretary of the Bishop’s Cabinet. He also was elected J. Thomas Rousseau, DMin’78, on april 5, Robert Edward McFadden, MTS’11, has founding president of the Charleston Police 2011, at the age of 78. as a member of the completed his first year of doctoral studies Department’s neighborhood Watch Coordi - 1978 national religion in american Life in classical literature and patristics at the nating Committee and served as volunteer Committee, he was chosen as one of the 100 University of notre Dame where he has chaplain at Thomas Memorial Hospital. Outstanding Ministers in america. He organized a reading group on the canon of served on the board of the Family services Flannery O’Connor. He recently traveled to Billy Gene Wright, BD’59, on July 2, 2011, association and was the president of the Milan, italy, to conduct research at the Bib - at the age of 83. a Korean War veteran, he Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for lioteca ambrosiana on saint augustine. served as a United Methodist minister for Mississippi. more than fifty years. Evan David Johnson, MTS2, and Laura eve Keith Clark, MDiv’80, on March 9, 2012, at Wallace were married during an outdoor Robert N. Story, BD’60, on June 21, 2011, at the age of 57. Ordained in the Christian wedding at sunset on June 2, 2012, with the the age of 78. He was an activist in the civil Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1981, he Reverend Becca Stevens, MDiv’90, serving rights movement in the 1960s and lead stu - served as administrative assistant to the as celebrant. dent organized work camps at Jarvis Col - dean of academic affairs at allen College, lege in Texas. He also served as a minister was chaplain for iowa Hospice, as well as a for the Christian Church (Disciples of pastor to several congregations. Christ) for more than fifty years. Obituaries Joseph Truman Brown Jr., DMin’86, on Gabe Lewis Campbell, BD’61, on February May 12, 2011. Ordained as a Baptist minis - Oliver Tweedy Foster, BA’41 , BD’43, on 1, 2012, at the age of 78. He served as a pas - ter, he served the Baptist sunday school February 1, 2012, at the age of 98. He served tor and taught at Chicago Theological semi - Board for twenty years and was an as a pastor for the Christian Church (Disci - nary. ordained chaplain for Baptist Hospital. ples of Christ) in alabama, Missouri, ari - zona, and California. Clyde B. Babb, BD’66, on august 27, 2011, Martin Cavert McDaniel, MA’86, PhD’89, at the age of 83. He served as a United on July 16, 2011, at the age of 55. reverend George William Wilcher, MDiv’45, on May Methodist minister for thirty-one years and McDaniel was ordained as a minister in the 12, 2011, at the age of 95. as a retired United also taught in elementary education. Presbyterian Church and served congrega - Methodist Minister, he was honored by the tions in nashville and iowa. He also taught West Ohio Conference United Methodist Robert L. Ingram, BDiv’68, DMin’72, at the religion courses at the University of nebras - Church with the Harry Denman award for age of 74 due to complications related to ka in Omaha for more than a decade. outstanding service in the field of evangel - alzheimer’s disease. after serving in the ism throughout his forty-eight-year career. United states air Force and pursuing aca - demic studies, he served as pastor for twen - Frederick Burr Clifford, BD’46, on January ty-eight years to various churches in the 6, 2011, at the age of 96. after teaching at United states. He founded and operated adrian College, he continued his academic ingram insurance agency, incorporated, career at southwestern University in and rollout express, incorporated. georgetown, Texas, where he served as pro - fessor of humanities and as dean of the col - lege of arts and sciences.

28 THE SPIRE La Santa Cena 2011 by José Ignacio Fletes Cruz León, Nicaragua (born 1952, Managua, Nicaragua) oil on canvas 20” x 16” courtesy of the editor from the exhibition The Religion, Art, and Politics of Solentiname: Reminiscences and Visions commissioned for Vanderbilt University Divinity School Vanderbilt University Divinity School 115 John Frederick Oberlin Divinity Quadrangle 411 21st Avenue, South Nashville, TN 37240-1121

As the South’s only university-based interdenominational institution You may pledge your gift online by using the secure gift form at of theological education, Vanderbilt Divinity School has prepared www.vanderbilt.edu/thevanderbiltfund, generations of servant leaders. Your generosity allows us to by calling 615/322-4205, or by corresponding with us at continue a tradition that began 136 years ago. The Vanderbilt Fund Office PMB 407727 2301 Vanderbilt Place linoleum block print courtesy of Christopher Michael Sikkema, MTS’12 Nashville, Tennessee 37240-7727