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CIRCA News from the University of Chicago Divinity School

A CARDINAL MOMENT OF “COGNITIVE DISSONANCE” IN MY EDUCATION— an experience in which a settled truth was demonstrably rendered to be a faulty assumption—was the occasion when I learned from a social scientist of considerable standing that his survey research proved that humans lie more often, and more egregiously, about money than they do about sex. (I was much younger when I learned this.) Recent events have more than once recalled that lesson.

Why do we invest so much of our sense of Our world is not Tillich’s, and this is em- value in finance, given the cost to such fun- phatically not a call for a return to a world damental human values as telling the truth? that no longer exists. But I am persuaded So far as I can see, no social institution that the human thirst for value always risks is immune to this tendency. To avoid any Letter cooptation by false . As we feel this implied pointing of the finger, I can do no thirst, perhaps especially as we perceive the better than to quote my cherished colleague, need to slake it endlessly, the of the former Divinity School Dean Clark Gilpin, Marketplace beckons and we are prone to who once remarked that if the University from the answer. Recent events suggest that even the of Chicago is the intellectual Garden of Eden, most ingenious acts of cannot sus- money is its serpent. Our international ma- tain this particular idolatry, or provide what laise is not merely a function of Wall Street; Dean human living and flourishing most needs. it imbues, albeit less systematically, Main It is interesting to note that Tillich had an Street. The all-consuming thirst for profit unlikely predecessor in the father of modern has been aided and abetted by the idea that economics, Adam Smith. Perhaps a cultural in profit resides what is truly of value—that moment of cognitive dissonance is reflected if we make a profit, we will have what we in the fact, not widely acknowledged, that truly want. Such is the logic that the bigger before Smith composed An Enquiry into the the profit, the more of what we want will Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations we have. I see no better explanation for the (1776) he penned what is arguably his great- byzantine paths of speculation that we engi- est work, The Theory of the Moral Sentiments neered and that failed to deliver their promised (1759). In this earlier essay, Smith developed value. No less a financial luminary than Alan a psychology of sympathy that would regu- Greenspan experienced his own cognitive late the human tendency to self-interest by dissonance in this regard, as honorably ex- cultivating regard for others. In this context, pressed in his congressional testimony that Smith first invoked his famous idea of the noted his surprise at the market’s failure to “invisible hand,” his formulation for the correct itself. greater good that was engendered by common Theologian Paul Tillich wrote acutely acts of enlightened self-interest. Smith is about such instances of dissonance, most tren- regarded as the father of modern economics chantly in two short books, The Courage to for the Wealth of Nations and its theories Be and The Dynamics of . Tillich stipu- Tillich stipulated that about market efficiency and labor. But none lated that human life is characterized by of that made sense, at least to Smith, apart the hypothesis of an “ultimate concern,” a human life is characterized by from his ideas about how human persons value beyond all other values that orients all ought to live and be with others in the world. of human life. Tillich identified multiple the hypothesis of an “ultimate Smith’s thought finally contrasts with such hypotheses in human history. He also Tillich’s: Smith believed that to serve Mam- observed that any hypothesis that did not concern,” a value beyond all mon was to serve ; while Tillich would at stipulate an object that was truly transcen- a minimum reverse the order of precedence. dent doomed to despair those who placed other values that orients all For our part in this new century, both thinkers their faith in it. For Tillich, money was an of human life. remind us of the untenability of any theory enduring example of a doomed ultimate con- of value that does not take recourse to some cern. In contrast, Tillich argued that stipulation that transcends the material. Only in God afforded transcendence and, in turn, then can the common weal serve justice and genuine hope. constant reflection and even revision. The peace, and ensure that moments of cognitive My presentation of Tillich’s thought nec- most reliable road to the desperation of a dissonance are the province of youth and essarily telescopes its complexity, but on one failed ultimate concern—which Tillich did naivete. ❑ point I must elaborate. Tillich regarded faith not hesitate to describe as idolatry—was to Richard A. Rosengarten, Dean as consisting in trust, and as a matter of formulate one’s concern as beyond scrutiny.

WINTER 2009 | NUMBER 31 Ellwood Named Alumnus of the Year

he Board of Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union has named Robert Ellwood the Divinity School’s Alumnus of T the Year for 2009. Ellwood was a professor of world reli- gions at the University of Southern California for thirty years, from 1967 until his retirement in 1997. He served as Chairman of the Department there, and received the USC Faculty Lifetime Achievement Award and Distinguished Emeritus Award in 2002.

He served as Chairman of the Religion Depart ducing Japanese Religion) to books of religious ment there, and received the USC Faculty history (The Fifties Spiritual Marketplace, The Lifetime Achievement Award and Distin- Sixties Spiritual Awakening, Cycles of Faith, guished Emeritus Award in 2002. and Islands of the Dawn, among others) to The author of The Politics of : A Study inspirational books written from a theosoph- of C. G. Jung, Mircea Eliade, and Joseph Camp- ical perspective. Chicago Divinity School. He received his bell, Ellwood has written over twenty-five Born in Normal, Illinois, in 1933, Ellwood Ph.D. in History of at Chicago in books, ranging from textbooks in religious was educated at the University of Colorado, 1967. He has also served as an Episcopal studies (including Many Peoples, Many , Berkeley Divinity School at Yale in New priest and a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. a popular world religion textbook, and Intro- Haven, Connecticut, and the University of Ellwood now lives in Ojai, California, and has two grown children: Richard, a teacher at Besant Hill School in Ojai, and Fay Ellen, a graduate student at the Claremont Graduate University in California. The Alumnus of the Year award recognizes outstanding achievement by graduates of the Divinity School, and has been awarded annually since 1947. Past recipients include Peter , Rebecca Chopp, R. Scott Appleby, and William LaFleur.

Ellwood will deliver his Alumnus of the Year address, “The Mythology of Evil,” on Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 4:00 p.m. in Swift Lecture Hall. A reception will follow. Please watch our website for details.

Jean-Luc Marion Elected to Académie française

n Thursday, Nov. 6, Jean-Luc Marion, Professor of the and , was elected to succeed the former Cardinal of Paris as a member of the ultra elite Académie française, known in Oas “Les Immortels.” Perhaps best known internationally as the on the first ballot, fills a space that only be- official authority on the , came available after former member and the Académie française, founded in 1635 by Cardinal of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger, died Cardinal Richelieu, is a living Hall of Fame in August 2007. of French thinkers. Because the official seal Marion, who also teaches at the Sorbonne, of the Académie française bears the motto: has authored a diverse range of work that has “to immortality,” and because members are greatly influenced modern philosophy and elected for life, the forty members are known theology. He is among the best-known living as “les immortels.” Marion, who was elected philosophers in France and is widely regarded as one of the leading Catholic thinkers of modern times. “This splendid recognition of Jean-Luc Marion accentuates his brilliant contributions to our understanding of Des- cartes,” said Dean Richard Rosengarten. “In doing so, it highlights the remarkable range of his scholarship, which includes foundational work in both the history of philosophy and numerous politicians, lawyers, scientists, his- in the newly developing and very promising torians, philosophers, senior Roman Catholic field of the interface of philosophy and clergymen, five French heads of state and theology.” numerous writers, including , Members of the Académie have included Victor Hugo and Voltaire. ❑

2CIRCA Faculty News and Notes

(1984–1992), Claremont Graduate School and served as Head of the Department of Social Science at Beit Berl College in Israel (1985–1996). Dr. Zelniker has served as Special Adviser to Prime Minister Shimon Peres (1982–1990) and as Chairman of the Israeli Center for Foreign Policy Options (1984-1991). Between 1984 and 1995 Dr. Zelniker founded and directed a nationwide, South African project for anti-apartheid local government and civic leadership training program for Black leaders. This Project was adopted by the Palestinian Political Prisoners’ Association on the West Bank and Gaza and was successfully carried out by Dr. Zelniker and later the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute from 1995 to 2001. Visiting Faculty He has published Cooperation Between Development and Communications Manager Israel and Egypt: Positions and Trends; The for the Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhance- 2003 2006 Azzan Yadin is Associate Professor of the Superpowers and the Horn of Africa; Genera- ment. She lived overseas from to , History of Jewish Studies. An assistant pro- tions, Locations, Identities: Contemporary first as a Foreign Service Officer in the fessor in the the Department of Jewish Studies Perspectives on Society and Culture in Israel Dominican Republic and then as a private at Rutgers University, Professor Yadin’s research (edited with H. Herzog and T. Kohavi, in citizen in Nicaragua. She previously held focuses on early rabbinic legal interpretation Hebrew); and The Exception and The State programmatic and administrative positions (midrash halakhah), particularly the relation- of Emergency (forthcoming). at the NEA Foundation for the Improvement ship between midrash and non-interpretive He received his B.A. from the Hebrew of Education, Education Development legal traditions in Tannaitic literature. His University of Jerusalem and his Ph.D. from Center, UNESCO, Harvard–MIT Health first book, Scripture as Logos: Rabbi Ishmael the University of California, Los Angeles. Sciences and Technology Division, and the and the Origins of Midrash (University of World Bank. Pennsylvania Press, 2004) explores the Rabbi Development Staff Addition Her responsibilities at the Divinity School Ishmael hermeneutic within the religious will include overseeing the Annual Fund and landscape of Second Temple and post-Temple Sarah LaBarre joined the Divinity School the Visiting Committee, as well as identify- literature. The result is a series of connections staff as Assistant Director of Development ing new vehicles for engaging alumni in the between these rabbinic texts and Wisdom on September 29, 2008. life of the School on a regular basis. literature, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the A native of Urbana, Illinois and self-iden- Church Fathers, leading to a rethinking of tified “faculty brat,” Sarah earned a B.A. in New Faculty Title the origins of rabbinic midrash. In addition French at Carleton College, and an M.S. in to his work in rabbinics, Professor Yadin has Foundations of Education at Florida State This year a Divinity School faculty member written on the cultural and intellectual con- University. Her studies paved the way to an received a new title. Kristine A. Culp is text of Jewish literature and translated a number eclectic set of work experiences both in the now Dean of Disciples Divinity House and of books into Hebrew. He received his Ph.D. U.S. and abroad: most recently, Sarah served Associate Professor of Theology in the from the University of California, Berkeley, as Operations Manager and subsequently Divinity School. and the Graduate Theological Union.

Shimshon Zelniker is Visiting Professor of Israel Studies. The retired Director of the Van Smith Delivers SBL Address Leer Jerusalem Institute, where he served in that role from 1997 until 2007, Dr. Zelniker On November 22, 2008, Jonathan Z. Smith, teaches political science; his research work the Robert O. Anderson Distinguished Service focuses on civil society formation and demo- Professor of the Humanities, delivered the presi- cracy in the Third World and in Israel; on dential address, entitled “Religion and the Bible,” Liberation theories and violence, and on at the Society of Biblical Literature’s annual meet- aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict. He taught ing in Boston. Professor Smith was elected by at the University of California, Los Angeles the members of the SBL and served as president in 2008 and as vice president in 2007. His presi- dential address will be published in the upcoming SBL journal. An audio file will also be available on the SBL website in January. Previous SBL presidents with Divinity School affiliations have included Hans Dieter Betz, the Shailer Mathews Professor Emeritus of New Testament in the Divinity School; Norman Perrin; and William Rainey Harper. Professor Smith is a historian of religion whose research has focused on such wide-ranging subjects as theory, Hellenistic religions, nineteenth-century Maori cults, and the notorious events of Jonestown, Guyana. His works include Map Is Not Territory; Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown; To Take Place: Toward Theory in Ritual, and Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity. ❑

WINTER 2009 | 3 Winter and Spring Events

Fifth Annual Ministry Conference From the Ends of the Earth: and the 21st Century

Friday and Saturday, May 1–2 10:00 a.m.–5 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall Christianity is no longer a religion dominated by the West. It is estimated that by 2050, at least four-fifths of the world’s Christians will be of non-European descent. The implications of such statistics require focused attention as we move into the 21st century. With this conference we hope to address issues that arise from contemporary transformations in Christianity. How is the coincidence of the post-colony with the failures of nationalism For calendar updates, please consult the Divinity School’s website at http:// influencing new forms of Christian leader- divinity.uchicago.edu. Access the most up-to-date events information, sign up ship? How, in turn, do developing practices for our events listserve (“At the Divinity School”), and get current news. Please of Christian organization demand and resist new approaches to cooperation and unity? 7 see p. for detailed information on upcoming Marty Center conferences. Finally, how do these things influence and even produce new self-understandings for EVENTS WINTER AND SPRING QUARTERS INCLUDE Christians in America? While building on important efforts of social Border Crossing Series scientists and missiologists, the conference will approach these topics with specifically ow in its second of three years, the January 23, 2009 ministerial and ecclesiological lenses. This Border Crossing Project continues Resisting Mission: conference seeks to help deepen understand- Nits work of connecting ministry and Redefining Engagement ing of certain realities and potential futures doctoral students around discussions of voca- of being Christian around the world for tion. Three public conferences will explore Keynote address by Lamin Sanneh ministers, students and lay-persons as well D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity the intersections and divergences of and Professor of History, Yale Divinity School as professional academics and to equip the and teachers’ intellectual interests and pro- same with resources for engaging the issues fessional pursuits. Tuesday, February 3, noon of the conference further. See http://divinity.uchicago.edu/events/lilly/ Lunch Discussion http://divinity.uchicago.edu/martycenter/ 2009 for more information. Lunch discussion of pedagogy and vocation conferences/ministry/ministry .shtml with Lucy Pick, Director of Undergraduate Studies and Senior Lecturer in the History Wednesday Community Luncheons of Christianity. Every Wednesday when school is in session Tuesday, March 3, noon Noon–1:30 p.m., Swift Common Room Lunch Discussion Lunches in Winter and Spring quarters will Lunch discussion of pedagogy and vocation include Dean’s Fora with Professors Martin with Joseph Blosser, doctoral student in Riesebrodt and Curtis J. Evans; Dr. Carole ethics and member of the teaching team for Ober on her work studying the genetics of “Arts of Ministry: Preaching.” the , Melvin Butler on music and Pentacostalism in Haiti, and many more. Alumnus of the Year Lecture and Reception Please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/ Thursday, April 30 A public lecture by Robert Ellwood, Ph.D. 1967, the Divinity School’s wednesdays.shtml for upcoming dates and Alumnus of the Year for 2009, with a reception to follow. See page 2 for more information. speaker information.

“On A Secular Age”— A Public Lecture by Charles Taylor

Friday, February 13, 2009 4:30 – 6:00 p.m., Third Floor Lecture Hall Author and philosopher Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Philosophy at McGill University, will give a lecture titled “On a Secular Age.” Taylor has taught in numerous institutions, including Stanford, Yale, and Oxford University; his research focuses, in particular, on modernity, pluralism, multiculturalism, the question of identity, and . He is the author of over twenty books, including Hegel (1975), The Malaise of Modernity (1991), and A Secular Age (2007). In 2007 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for progress toward research or discoveries about spiritual realities.

CHAIR: Kristine A. Culp, Dean of Disciples Divinity House and Associate Professor of Theology

RESPONDENTS: Paul Mendes-Flohr, Professor of Modern Jewish Thought and William Schweiker, Director of the Martin Marty Center and Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics

4CIRCA Ministry Program Update

The occasion of conference planning offered Collaborations and participants new insights about the way they Conferences Yield Conversation conceived and conducted their own practice, and new appreciation of the possibilities and constraints of other vocations—recognitions hroughout the past year, conferences sponsored by the that were reiterated some months later by speakers and audience members alike during Divinity School’s Border Crossing project have attracted the fall conference itself. Likewise, the upcoming Winter 2009 wide audiences and funded energetic conversations across dis- Border Crossing conference, “Resisting T Mission: Redefining Engagement” was born ciplines and professions. Clergy, chaplains and counselors; university out of a series of conversations between div- inity school staff members, a local Lutheran and seminary professors; seminarians and Divinity School students pastor with many years of missions experience in Africa, two M.Div./Ph.D. students with from a variety of areas of study have gathered around the podium significant missions experience of their own, and a third student whose scholarly interests in the lecture hall and around tables in the paths that have become increasingly isolated include missions movements in Asia. The common room to share views from their from one another in the specialized climate gathered group represented significant exper- unique perspectives on topics of common of contemporary higher education. ience and deep scholarly interest in missions interest, such as “Advocacy in the Pulpit and The project anticipates that the under- movements as well as real concern for their the Classroom,” “Music in the American standings and practices of professors and impact on both church and culture. Their ,” “Creator and Creation ministers alike will be enhanced, strength- collaboration culminates in the January 23rd in the City,” and “Authority and Intimacy: ened, and clarified by conversation and col- event, which will bring together global voices The formation of whole persons for the laboration with one another; indeed, this church and the .” outcome is already manifest in the lively and Funded by the Lilly Endowment, the probative conversations that ensue as the “... opportunities for Border Crossing project offers a variety of conference planning process gets underway venues for Chicago’s M.Div. and Ph.D. stu- for each event. Border Crossing conferences constructive collaboration and dents to engage one another as they prepare are planned by small teams of students, faculty conversation will abound. ” for ministry and teaching —- bringing back and ministry practitioners who are convened into conversation interests and vocational for the discrete purpose of working together

Keynote address Scholars, clergy, Exploring the role Franklin I. Gamwell musicians, and others Shailer Mathews Distinguished Service of international Professor of Religious Ethics, the Philosophy reflect on the place of of Religion, and Theology music in religious lives mission in the context and communities. of globalization With responses by a panel of professors Featuring keynote Keynote address and pastors, and a addresses by Lamin Sanneh case study reflection Edith Blumhofer D. Willis James Professor of Missions and discussion. and World Christianity and Professor of (Wheaton College) History at the Yale Divinity School and Philip Bohlman Wednesday, (University of Chicago) Friday, Jan 23, 2009 September 19, 2007 plus panels looking 10am – 4pm 9:30am – 3:00pm at music practices. The University The University Friday, Jan 25, 2008 of Chicago of Chicago 9:30am – 3:30pm Divinity School Divinity School Swift Hall

The University of Chicago Divinity School MUSIC in the American Advocacy religious experience Resisting INDIVIDUALS AND COMMUNITIES in the pulpit and Mission in the classroom Redefining Engagement

http://divinity.uchicago.edu/programs/mission.shtml

For more information, visit our Web site http://divinity.uchicago.edu. The conference is free and open to the public. Lunch will be provided with advance registration. Email questions and reservations to For more information, visit our website. The conference is open to the public and includes lunch for all For more information, see divinity.uchicago.edu/events/lilly/music.shtml. The conference is free and open to the Cynthia Gano Lindner at [email protected]. Swift Lecture Hall, Third Floor, 1025 E. 58th St., who pre-register at lillyconference@ gmail.com. Swift Hall, 1025 East 58th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 773- public. Lunch is provided with advance registration. To register, write [email protected]. This event is Chicago, Illinois 773-702-8230. This event is cosponsored by the Lilly Endowment Inc. 702-3308. The conference is sponsored by the Border Crossing Project, an initiative at the Divinity sponsored by the Border Crossing Project, an initiative at the Divinity School focusing on the relationship of the School focusing on the relationship of the vocations of teaching and ministry. The project is supported “Border Crossing: Collaborative Theological Reflection for Ministry," funded by a generous gift from the Lilly Endowment, will offer a three-year cycle of professions of teaching and ministry. The project is supported by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc. conferences, consultations, teaching partnerships and reflection groups, all exploring the relationship between the professions of teaching and ministry.

to create a conference experience that invites and advocates for mission for a re-evaluation conversation across disciplines. For example, of this critical religious practice. After a key- “Conferences are planned the planning team for the Autumn 2008 note by scholar of global Christianity Lamin by small teams of students, conference included a Divinity School Sanneh, scholars and practitioners of mission faculty member in the History of Religions, will reflect on mission’s constructive practice faculty and ministry a campus pastor, two M.Div. graduates— and resistance. Seminary students, anthro- practitioners who are convened both in Ph.D. programs—one of whom is pologists of religion, theologians, and clergy an assistant pastor at a large urban congre- will all be challenged by the discussion; for the discrete purpose of gation, and a third Ph.D. student who came opportunities for constructive collaboration working together to create through our M.A. program. When the group and conversation will abound. ❑ gathered initially, they introduced themselves a conference experience that by describing their own vocations, and set- For more information on Border invites conversation across tled together on a topic equally challenging Crossing conferences and links to to the groups represented around the table conference podcasts, visit our webpage disciplines.” —the dynamics of professorial and minis- at http://divinity.uchicago.edu. terial authority in a culture of faux intimacy.

WINTER 2009 | 5 An Interview with Curtis J. Evans

What I concluded was that religion was the signal quality or feature of black life that urtis J. Evans is Assistant Professor of the History of was fastened on by interpreters as a means Christianity. He began his appointment in Autumn of 2007. of assessing and speaking about the place of blacks in American culture. Although slav- In this interview Evans discusses his recent and upcoming ery, segregation, and the harshness of racial oppression for blacks in the United States go C a long way in explaining the way that black projects and reflects on teaching in Swift Hall. A Dean’s Forum will churches have functioned as social institutions be held on Prof. Evans’s book on May 13, 2009. Check our website and as spaces of identity and meaning, I also suggest in my book that “black religion” for details. for interpreters was about more than actual churches. It was also about the “uses” of one group’s religious and social experience as a way of mediating another group’s (or indi- vidual’s) spiritual experience. In a rather cruel irony, the religious experiences of black Americans, borne of years of suffering and oppression, were often invoked by whites as a softening element that would supply a missing dimension to an otherwise arid and spiritually desiccated culture. Not only that, but this conception of black “religion” required as its opposite capacious intellect, which had the effect of reinforcing a cultural image of blacks as contentedly super-religious and lacking in intelligence.

CIRCA: Do you have any new projects you can share with readers?

CE: I am looking at the origins of “Race Relations” Sundays, which were held annu- ally on the second Sunday of February, begin- ning in 1923. RRS were founded under the auspices of the Federal Council of Churches

CIRCA: Can you provide a summary of issue? What were the political and your recent book? social implications of these debates? I realize, as my early advisor CE: My book, The Burden of Black Religion, David D. Hall noted, discovering is a critical analysis of the history of inter- the “origins” of ideas or historical pretations and cultural images of African antecedents of particular debates American religion. Although I begin the book can be a much disputed and never with debates about Christianizing slaves and ending process, so it may seem odd what effect Christianity might have on slaves, that I begin my book with Anglican the book’s real beginning (and end) is the in the 1740s trying 1940s. I worked backward as a way of trying to assess how Christianity would to answer a specific question: why were social affect black slaves. What could this scientists, particularly African American socio- possibly have to do with the 1940s? logists, in the 1940s attempting to undermine I believe that I had isolated the first what they regarded as a persisting notion that crucial debate about the meaning black Americans were naturally religious? and function of religion to slaves in When I was researching this material, I began the American colonies that would asking questions that any historian would: have long-term significances about what did it mean to say that blacks were the place of blacks in the nation. “naturally religious” [read the book to find Concentrated attention on slave the answer!]? Why was this topic a salient capacities raised a host of complex questions about blacks in America and religion acquired a particular “... religion was the signal significance as slaves began con- verting to Christianity. Also, I tried quality or feature of black life to achieve a breadth of analysis that would and part of the rationale was to demonstrate not arbitrarily exclude any genre or signifi- the sufficiency of Christianity in solving the that was fastened on cant arena of inquiry that related to black race problem in the United States. I am in religion. In other words, I wanted to aim the early stages of this project, having done by interpreters as a means for an almost comprehensive historical quite extensive research in the rich archives of assessing and speaking reflection on how whites and blacks imag- of the Presbyterian Historical Society. I will ined and interpreted black religion from need to supplement this with research in the about the place of blacks the years of slavery to the 1940s. I was inter- records of local churches and conducting ested in what had come before and how interviews with persons who were involved in American culture.” history was impinging on that moment of in the National Council of Churches in the transition in the 1940s. Continued on page 12

6CIRCA Student Life Report — Islamic Studies Club

Coursework in modern and politics and in Qur’an, Sufi poetry, and related literary expressions have become a growing part of the regular curriculum.

(AMSS) conference, “Crossing Boundaries: Mobilizing Faith, Diversity and Dialogue,” hosted by the Harvard Divinity School. Sirry’s work won the award for the best graduate student paper. Omer Mozaffar, a student in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations department, was the discussant for Sirry’s presentation. The final meeting of the quarter was an informal conversation between Ph.D. students and Professor Sells regarding exam prepara- tion and reading lists: a well-received chance 2008 2009 to discuss study strategies, requirements, and he fall quarter of the – academic year witnessed an exchange reading lists in a casual context. exciting new development in the Divinity School’s Islamic T Studies area: the creation of the student-run, DSA-funded Islamic Studies Club.

With its decisions to hire Malika Zeghal as Associate Professor in the Anthropology and and Michael Sells as John Henry Barrows Professor, the Divinity School was able, for the first time in its his- tory, to establish an area of study devoted to Islam. Coursework in modern Islam and politics (Zeghal) and in Qur’an, Sufi poetry, and related literary expressions (Sells) have become part of the regular curriculum and the cohort of Divinity Ph.D. students, and The club plans to continue Qur’an meet- students from other programs wishing to ings and paper presentations next quarter, study Islam, is growing annually. The Divinity as well as to introduce new types of events, School’s longstanding connections with col- including discussions of works in progress leagues, especially in Near Eastern Languages or even conversations over tea and snacks in and Civilizations but also in such departments students’ homes. In addition a musha`ira is as History and Anthropology, has only been in the works—a dinner and performance augmented by this development, and enables focused on poetry and music from the Islamic students to pursue both textual and ethno- world in all languages. graphic research in the tradition. Questions about the Islamic Studies The Islamic Studies Club was started by the Ph.D. students who attend the meetings Club can be directed to Lauren Osborne ❑ a group of students at the initiative of Ph.D. on a regular basis are in the second and ([email protected]). student Hilmi Okur. Professors Zeghal and third years of the doctoral program—and — Lauren Osborne, Sells have worked to suggest activities and preparing for exams—so the scriptural Ph.D. student, Islamic Studies organize events, and have kindly tolerated reading sessions have helped in preparation stashing the club’s snack foods in their respec- for Professor Sells’ Qur’an exam, providing tive offices on many occasions. Most of the background or insight into other approaches The Divinity Students Association students involved are in the Islamic Studies to the text that may not be covered in classes. (DSA) is an organization run by and for area; however, there are also students from Texts are read in Arabic but discussed in University of Chicago Divinity School the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion English, so students of all levels of language students. The organization attempts to area, History of , and the department ability are welcome and do attend. contribute to many spheres of life in the of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. The Club has organized one paper pre- Divinity School: academic, professional, During the past Fall Quarter the club sentation so far: Mun’im Sirry, a second-year and social. met several times for informal readings, Ph.D. student in the Islamic Studies area This article continues our series about presentations, and conversations. A few of presented “‘Compete with One Another in Divinity School student life. these meetings were focused on reading Good Works’: Exegesis on Qur’anic Verse passages of the Qur’an together, translating, 5:48 and Contemporary Muslim Discourses To learn more about the DSA and its and discussing any issues of theology, trans- on .” This paper had many activities, please visit http:// lation, popular practice or belief, or inter- recently been presented at the Association of divinity.uchicago.edu/students/students- pretation that may arise therein. Most of Muslim Social Scientists of North America assoc.shtml

WINTER 2009 | 7 The Martin Marty Center builds on a long-standing Marty conviction of the Divinity School that the best and most innovative scholarship in religion emerges from Center sustained dialogue with the world outside the academy. In all of its projects, the Center aims to serve as a robust circulatory system News and that strengthens, deepens, and extends scholarly inquiry by moving it through the deliberating bodies of the students, faculty, and Events public. — William Schweiker, Director of the Marty Center Upcoming 2009 Conferences

Culturing , Theologizing Cultures: Overtures toward Interdisciplinary Theories and Theologies of Culture Wednesday and Thursday, April 22–23, 2009 — Swift Hall

The 2009 D.R. Sharpe Lectures

Additional cosponsors include the William Henry Hoover Lectures at the Disciples Divinity House, the Divinity Students Association, and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory

Christian theology, especially theologies of culture, currently confronts an interdisciplinary and intercultural reconfiguration. Many contemporary theologians acknowledge the need to take into consideration the various ways in which culture has implicitly, if not always explicitly, engaged with theology. Furthermore, recent trends in theology demon- strate a growing appreciation for interdisci- Deconstructing Dialogue: does dialogue take place and why; political plinary approaches that readily embrace the New Perspectives on Religious motivations—when does dialogue occur methodologies of other increasingly special- Encounters: Ancient, Medieval and for what purpose; methods and vehicles of dialogue and strategies of representation; ized fields, such as critical and cultural and Modern studies in the humanities and the social inter-religious vs. inner-religious dialogue, or even the internal dialogue of religious con- sciences. January 22–23, 2010 — Swift Hall Moreover, increased attention on and verts; dialogue in fiction and fact, including participation by previously underappreciated Religious dialogue is seen as a crucial feature the literary genre of dialogue; and the ethno- perspectives from the once “Third” and of the modern religious experience. Closely graphy of interfaith communication, its “Fourth” worlds of colonized and indigenous related to liberalism, ecumenism, ideals of politics and aesthetics. peoples respectively have both challenged and tolerance and mutual understanding, it seems to contributed corrections to various disciplinary be a product of the Enlightenment. Or is it? methodologies, including those in theology. This conference will initiate a critical, mul- These recent trends suggest a decisive move tidisciplinary approach to the phenomenon for a comparative, interdisciplinary approach of religious dialogue, and will problematize to the perennial reflection upon ideas of the the Enlightenment origins and meanings of religious in, through, and before cultures. “dialogue.” Starting with questions of origins and development—what is dialogue, how Please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/ has it been defined and conceived, by whom martycenter/conferences/culture/ for more and in what context—the conference will information, including the examine the genealogy of modern ideas and conference program. practices of religious dialogue in comparison to pre-modern traditions to provide a broader framework for studying how ideas are discussed and debated across time and geographical or cultural divisions. We will explore such themes as the definitions of dialogue vs. its lived practice; geographies of dialogue, that is, sacred spaces and counter-spaces, where

8CIRCA Senior Research Fellow Symposia

and I hope to argue that a more cosmopolitan understanding of democratic citizenship and he Senior Fellow Symposia allow a Senior Fellow to present democratic values is much more consistent her or his work in a public forum to members of the seminar, with Christianity than a nationalistic position that elevates the rights of citizens over non- the entire Divinity School community and members of the citizens, while still claiming that core demo- cratic rights are inalienable to human beings T generally. One obvious legal issue raised by University and interested persons. this work is the legal status of undocumented migrants. Some other legal and policy issues On February 26, Vincent Rougeau will pre- I would like to consider are the regulation sent “Religious Citizens, Pluralist Democracy, of global economic activity, the protection and Legal Cosmopolitanism.” On April 16, Taylor: “I am looking at the of the global environment, and the status Sarah MacFarland Taylor will present—title emergence of , , of religious communities as recognizable TBA—and Clemens Six presented “India groups within multicultural democracies. within ‘Multiple Modernities’: What Role for and specifically directed Whose Religion?” this past November. All toward climate crisis.” symposia are Thursdays from 4:00–6:00 p.m. Sarah McFarland Taylor in the Common Room. arah McFarland Taylor’s projects are Here we have excerpted their answers to the idea about the past. My specific project starts tentatively titled “Eternally Green: question “What do you hope to accomplish with the idea of “multiple modernities”— American Religion and the Ecology this year as a Martin Marty Center Senior a recently discussed interpretation of global S of Death” and “Religious Responses to Fellow, and how does the MMC look as a modernity as in fact a variety of significantly Global Climate Change.” Taylor is currently place to do your work?” differing modernities. What seems to distin- Associate Professor guish these modernities from each other at Northwestern For the complete answers—and more infor- is among other factors religion. With the mation on the MMC Fellowship programs University’s Depart- example of India and its conflicting history ment of Religion, —please visit us online at http://divinity. with (colonial and post-colonial) modernity uchicago.edu/martycenter. where she also I examine the suitability of the multiple teaches in the modernities approach in relation to selected American Studies Clemens Six Indian concepts of modernity. The reason why program and the this seems an urgent issue in historiography Environmental lemens Six’s project is titled “Multi- is that in order to seriously go beyond Euro- Policy and Culture ple Modernities: What Role For centrism it is necessary to bring non-Western program. She pub- Whose Religion?” Six is an Assistant C theories (of history and modernity) into lished Green Sisters: Professor at the University of Bern, Switzer- global history. A Spiritual Ecology with Harvard University land, and a recent Ph.D. in South Asian Press in 2007 and has two book projects Economic and Social History from the currently underway. University of Vienna. He recently authored Vincent Rougeau Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. Politik und Taylor: I am interested in why Americans of Religion im modernen Indien. incent Rougeau is Associate Professor and Director of the Center on Law various religious backgrounds are increasingly making very specific “ecologically minded” Six: Global (or and Government at Notre Dame Law V directives about how their bodies are to be world) history is School; he recently completed a book with handled and disposed of upon their death. a comparatively entitled Christians Furthermore, what might insight into this young historio- in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship movement tell us more broadly about Ameri- graphical discipline in the New World Order. can sensibilities toward nature and how these concentrating on sensibilities change over time? The bulk of the interrelated and Rougeau: I hope to use my time at the Marty my work during the fellowship year centers interconnected Center to begin work on a book that explores on this project. histories of various the role of religious believers as citizens in I am also conducting some interviews in regions, civilizations pluralist democracies. Specifically, I want to the Chicago area for a portion of a larger and continents by concentrating on different consider the growing body of work in cosmo- project on “Religious Responses to Global modes of interaction such as exchange and politan political philosophy and the emerg- Climate Change.” I am looking at the emer- transfer of rather concrete objects like goods ing idea of liberal multiculturalism as a means gence (within diverse religious and ethnic through trade as well as abstracts such as of proposing a different way for American communities) of prayers, meditations, and ideas. In order to analyze issues of regional Christians in particular to think about their rituals specifically directed toward climate or even global scope, global history has so roles as citizens and their relationship to the crisis. I am curious about how the specter of far developed various theoretical approaches. nation-state. If core values of liberal democ- global climate change is shaping One major attempt of global history in its racy—like the equality of esteem for all and religious practice and what religious theoretical work is to overcome Eurocentric human beings—are truly universal, claims “innovations” in this area might reveal about interpretations of history and thereby create that the American constitution and the rights contemporary understandings of environmen- a more profound, somewhat “more realistic” it confers are unique or tal problems and the interactions between “exceptional” religious communities and the culture of American environmentalism. I am especially Rougeau: “I hope to use my time become increas- ingly incoherent. interested in investigating how newly created at the Marty Center to begin work The universalist “prayerwork” and ritual performance in response to global climate change do or do on a book that explores the role of claims of cosmo- politanism res- not (as the case may be) get coupled with religious believers as citizens in onate strongly direct political action. ❑ with many sim- pluralist democracies.” ilar claims in Christianity,

WINTER 2009 | 9 Martin Marty Center’s Sightings

Ph.D. candidate in Religion and Literature at the Divinity School. Though Sightings hopes to illustrate, through the wide range of topics covered, that “religion and public life” extends far beyond the realm of politics, and that other- wise-overlooked topics can engender fruitful explorations of religion in public life—recent columns have dealt with religion’s place in popular culture (from movies to music to sports stars); science and religion; the appoint- ment of a “pope of Voodoo” and the death of key figures in and Islam; internet end-times indicators; and new developments in Jewish dietary practices—Sightings could not reasonably fail to address the election. When Sightings does address a widely covered topic, it aims to do so by focusing on details or angles that have not been addressed elsewhere. Harriss’s essay exemplifies this mis- sion: Commentary on the election—even, more specifically, commentary on religion ith a new interface that makes subscribing simpler and in the election—may have been everywhere in these past several months, but Harriss quicker, the number of Sightings readers continues to brings to bear his expertise in both American religious history and literary criticism, pro- grow, and so does the pool of commentators who, along ducing a thoughtful piece that explores the W “religion and politics” issue from a different with Martin Marty, contribute their observations and insights on religion angle. Please enjoy “E Pluribus Obama.” ❑ in the public sphere. — Kristen Tobey, Editor

This year, the Marty Center’s Junior Disser- ween religion and public life, and we look For information on subscribing tation Fellows will each contribute a column forward to what are sure to be insightful or contributing, visit to Sightings. These scholars, in the advanced and thought-provoking contributions. The http://divinity.uchicago.edu/ stages of their doctoral work, are uniquely piece reprinted, “E Pluribus Obama,” comes martycenter/publications/sightings/. situated to comment on the intersections bet- from Junior Fellow M. Cooper Harriss, a

Religion and Culture Web Forum

he Martin Marty Center’s Religion piece, “Sketch of a Phenomenological December’s Web Forum featured part of and Culture Web Forum returned Concept of ,” relies upon the idea biochemist and molecular biologist Stephen T from its summer hiatus with an explo- of gift-giving and the relationships involved Meredith’s ongoing exploration of theology ration of “Secularism, Religious Renaissance, in such an exchange, which Marion applies in literature. His essay “The Reification of and Social Conflict in Asia” by University of to the Biblical account of Abraham’s incom- Evil and The Failure of Theodicy: The Devil California, San Diego’s Richard Madsen, an plete but still effective sacrifice of Isaac. in Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov” essay that pushed the possibilities of apply- not only asks theological questions about ing the Western framework of “secularism” as the content of the work of literature, but a political, social, and cultural phenomenon also about the function such a text might to Asian countries. play in the distinctly human struggle to In October University of Chicago anthro- make rational sense of our suffering. pologist Danilyn Rutherford offered a reading Each month’s essay is complemented by of the “active belief” upon which anthropo- responses from scholars whose own approach logical work is predicated, drawing on her intersects in interesting and useful ways with fieldwork among Biak exiles from New those of the piece. Recent commentators Guinea, her readings of Locke and Hume, include Slavoj Zizek, Malika Zeghal, Susan and her analysis of the notion of secular McReynolds Oddo, and Prasenjit Duara. belief expressed on National Public Radio In 2009, The Religion and Culture Web in her essay, “The Enchantments of Secular Forum will feature explorations of the polit- Belief.” ical function of humor, the history of black The Divinity School’s own Jean-Luc , and the role of new media Marion probed the concept of sacrifice via within Lubavitcher Judaism. ❑ philosophical discourse in November. His — Spencer Dew, Editor

To be notified of new content monthly, subscribe to our mailing list at https://listhost.uchicago.edu/mailman/ listinfo/rcwf. As always, the Religion and Culture Web Forum welcomes submissions of working projects probing the intersection of “religion” and “culture.” All inquiries and submissions should be directed to the Forum’s editor, Spencer Dew, at [email protected].

10 C I R C A Sightings: E Pluribus Obama

earliest phases of his presidency? Is “change” 6 skin deep or does it extend further? Might n the November th New York Times, photographer Matt Mendel- we also read a return to a centripetal orien- sohn describes a restlessness that overcame him on election night, tation of American national identity, a new validation of a civil religion lost for nearly leading him to drive across the Potomac to the Lincoln Memorial two generations? Should we even aspire for a sense of “one” over the pluralistic diversity of I “the many,” given the very real hegemonic in Washington, DC, “expecting to find a crowd and some news.” potential that such a homogenous orientation raises? These are questions to bear in mind, and questions to which we shall, no doubt, return. But in the hopeful interim, we might remember Ralph Ellison, another antecedent of the president-elect. In a recent article for The New Republic, David Samuels remarks on the evident influence Ellison’s Invisible Man (1952) exerts on Obama’s autobiography Dreams from My Father (1995) and, thereby, “as a major influence on his personal evolu- tion.” I would argue that another portion of Ellison’s work resonates with Obama’s

Instead he found roughly twenty-five people huddled around a transistor radio, a crowd so relatively small and quiet that they were unmolested by camera crews who, like Men- delsohn, expected numbers and bombast more in keeping with the throng in Grant Park, Chicago, not quite forty-score miles away. Mendelsohn’s instincts upon the election of our first president of color resound for evi- dent reasons (Lincoln as “Great Emancipator” and the Memorial’s steps as the location of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech). They also respond to signals manu- candidacy—especially with his centripetal factured by Obama’s campaign, ranging understanding of American civil religion: the second novel that Ellison wrote from 1952 until his death in 1994 and never completed, though excerpts were published as Juneteenth “Should we even aspire for in 1999. In Juneteenth we find Adam Sun- a sense of ‘one’ over the pluralistic raider, a race-baiting white New England through the experience of the American senator, engaged in deathbed conversations diversity of ‘the many,’ given the people.” That Bellah’s definition coincided with Reverend Hickman, an African Ameri- with discernible fractures in a singular Amer- can preacher. The reader learns that Sun- very real hegemonic potential ican mythology is significant. Commentators raider was once known as “Bliss,” a child of that such a homogenous including our own Martin Marty have noted ambiguous racial origins who, though he that the past four decades have witnessed a could pass for white, was adopted by Hick- orientation raises?” shift from “the one” to “the many” in national man, raised and loved by his congregants, discourse. Marty’s formulation in the third and trained in the homiletical arts of the volume of Modern American Religion marks black church. Indeed, Sunraider’s hateful from the announcement of his candidacy at a movement from “centripetal” to “centrifu- “white” eloquence was fostered by Bliss’s the site of Lincoln’s “House Divided” speech, gal,” from a strong, centrally unified national “black” rhetorical apprenticeship—evincing to his invocation of the man and his words identity to one thrust away from a center, Ellison’s profound understanding of the irony last Tuesday night. But to ascribe this rhetoric multivalent. Within this context, “American- of American history. simply to matters of race overlooks a broader ness” has become a competitive hermeneutic, At a pivotal moment in the novel’s dis- religious move that the President-elect and recently evident in the debates surrounding jointed chronology, Hickman stands at the his handlers appear to understand, and which the nature of patriotism and the responsibil- Lincoln Memorial, considering “some cord surely has contributed to their success. ities of liberty and citizenship. Continued on page 15 Abraham Lincoln is the patron saint of Similarly, Abraham Lincoln finds himself the American civil religion, a category that created, like Albert Schweitzer said of , M. Cooper Harriss, a junior fellow in Robert Bellah codified in 1967 as “a genuine by “each individual…in accordance with his the Martin Marty Center, is a Ph.D. apprehension of universal and transcendent own character.” Consequently, how should candidate in Religion and Literature religious reality as seen in or…as revealed we read the Obama candidacy and these at the Divinity School.

WINTER 2009 | 11 Gifts to the Divinity SchoolM 2007‒2008

he Dean, the faculty, and the students in the Divinity School extend their sincere thanks to all who support the work of the School. The following alumni, friends, and organizations generously contributed cash gifts during the 2007–2008 fiscal year (July 1, 2007 through June 30, 2008). Please note that the publication of this year’s giving list, normally in the autumn issue of Circa, was T delayed due to the transition to a new university-wide alumni and development database. The Dean’s Circle Shirley Jackson Case Fellows Eri B. Hulbert Fellows Lincoln Financial Group Foundation $25,000+ $5,000 –$9,999 $1,000 –$2,499 David W. Maher Mr. and Mrs. Robert Newberry Robert L. Berner, Jr. and Mary Lou Brous and Ronald R. Barlow McCreary Sheila R. Berner Thomas R. Brous George Bermingham and Bernard McGinn Patrick and Anna Cudahy Fund The Chicago Community Foundation Martha Bermingham Moody’s Foundation Richard D. Cudahy and Janet Cudahy Jane B. Colman and Stephen S. Bowen Eleanor K. Nicholson Margaret C. Fallers John C. Colman Catherine Brekus North Shore Baptist Church Joan Feitler and Robert Feitler Shawn M. Donnelley Lisa A. Cavallari Keiren Maris O’Kelly The Ford Foundation Emily Huggins Fine Chapin-May Foundation of Illinois Wayne Parman Lear Family Foundation Richard P. Strubel and Jun Ki Chung William C. Pate Lyn Lear and Norman Lear Ella D. Strubel Norman Wilfred Clairmont and Emery A. Percell The Lilly Endowment, Inc. Kathleen Clairmont Paul C. Pribbenow and The Louisville Institute Allan Cox Abigail Crampton Pribbenow The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Robert W. Crowe and James T. Rhind and Marjorie Lindsay Reed Shailer Mathews Fellows Elizabeth R. Crowe Laura Campbell Rhind William R. Schoedel and $2,500 –$4,999 Porter G. Dawson Erroll F. Rhodes and Grace Schoedel Nina Donnelley and Martha Stowell Rhodes Smart Family Foundation, Inc. Accenture Foundation James R. Donnelley Richard Alan Rosengarten Barbara Kirchick Urbut and Dr. and Mrs. Robert Wells Carton Mrs. Kingman Douglass, Jr. Charlotte H. Scott Michael William Urbut The Donnelley Foundation Alexandra C. Earle Hoken S. Seki Victoria Dorgan William Trent Foley and Susan Marie Simonaitis W. Clark Gilpin Pamela S. Kelley Estate of Emaroy June Smith Ernest Cadman Colwell Fellows John B. Hillman James L. Foorman David John Smith $10,000 –$24,999 Richard F. Kaufman and Arthur B. Francis and Frederick H. Stitt Sylvia Kaufman Arlene Francis Lynn Straus Anonymous Scott R. Martin Carlson Gerdau David Jon Van Houten and The Field Foundation of Illinois, Inc. Martin E. Marty and Harriet Marty Donald A. Gillies Kim Marie Olthoff Allen Kensky Daniel R. Murray Joan B. Gottschall Joan W. Ward Oliver Nicklin Linda Lee Nelson Harry L. Green Nuveen Benevolent Trust Alexander E. Sharp II Larry L. Greenfield John S. Nuveen Richard W. Shepro Jeanne M. Heffernan Robert K. Parsons and C. Richard Johnson Victoria J. Herget Matthew Kapstein Robert G. Schloerb and Patricia E. Kauffman Mary Wegner Schloerb Wesley A. Kort and Jeanne M. Sullivan Phyllis Hoekstra Kort Anne Wedemeyer Mary Jean Kraybill

12 C I R C A Midway Club W. Mark Miller-McLemore Alan Coleman Embree Cynthia G. Lindner Thomas V. Stockdale $500 –$999 and Bonnie Jean Carl Duane Evans Lois Gehr Livezey Walter M. Stuhr, Jr. Miller-McLemore Russell L. Fate J. Bruce Long Janet Inez Summers Tom Berg and Frank D. Minton John P. Ferre Kevin James Madigan and John D. Sykes, Jr. Maureen Kane Berg Janet Moore Nancie L. Fimbel Stephanie Ann Paulsell Dennis Edward Tamburello John I. Cadwallader and Donald William Musser Julian J. Frazin and Anthony M. Mallerdino Albert M. Tannler Patricia S. Cadwallader Scott D. Nielsen Rhona S. Frazin Mrs. John H. Martin Laura Jean Torgerson Lisa G. Sowle Cahill North Shore Warren Gary Frisina David Raymond Mason Donald H. Treese Edwin Thomas Callahan III Congregation Israel Sally Jacobson Frostic D. David Maxfield George Samuel Treynor Tim Child Schubert M. Ogden Satoko Fujiwara John E. McCaw Jeffrey Alan Trumbower Church of Rebecca Ruth Pallmeyer and Bartlett Gage Gerald Patrick McKenny John R. Van Eenwyk The Incarnation Episcopal Dan McAdams Eugene Vincent Gallagher Catherine McNally-Allen and David Garrett Vellenga Thomas J. D'Alesandro IV David B. Parke Paul Gangsei William Henry Allen Roderick J. Wagner William Joseph De Allaume John H. Patton Heidi Marlene Gehman William Everett Middleton Jimmy N. Walker Stephen Curtis Duvall Michael B. Raschko Boyd Gibson and Barbra Anne Hardy Welton Warkentin Richard M. Franklin John W. Reed Jean Gillies David H. Miley Katherine Warn Chester Gillis Susan Anne Ross and Roger Gilmore Mark Charles Modak-Truran George A. Weckman Joanna F. Goodin and William Peter George G. Wayne Glick James R. Monroe, Jr. J. Stafford Weeks Mark A. Goodin Winifred Eleanor Scott Janice E. Gordon-Barnes William Moremen and Wellington Management Robert M. Grant John David Serkland Donald E. Gowan Grace E. Moremen Company Henry O. Hardy G. Ralph Strohl Thomas G. Green Ronney Bassel Mourad Jay Douglas Wexler Ted W. Harrison Robert Alan Super Gerald J. Gregg Kenneth R. Muse David G. White Robert A. Helman and Kathryn Tanner John E. Groh Richard Fleming Nance Janet W. Helman Edgar A. Towne Alvar W. Gustafson* Susan Nash UBS Matching Gift Fund Robert Donel Haak Gordon L. Nelson Swift Hall Club Bryan Victor Hillis 1 99 IBM Corporation Peter Higbie Van Ness Roger D. Haight Randolph Arthur Nelson $ –$ Susan B. W. Johnson Donald Robert Weisbaker Laurel E. Hallman Douglas R. W. Norell Kent Douglas Kirby Ralph C. Wood, Jr. and Charles H. Hambrick Kelly Morse Nowicki Cherie Weitzner Acierno Matthew Richard Lawrence Suzanne C. Wood Gary L. Harbaugh Sueo Oshima LeRoy H. Aden Lynn P. McClure Nancy A. Hardesty Robert J. Parker, Jr. and Gregory Dean Alles Margaret Mary Mitchell J. Albert Harrill Sarah Elizabeth Taylor Robert Eugene Alvis Century Club Roger Dean Hatch and E. Spencer Parsons Maria Anita Antonaccio Peter J. Paris 100 249 Samuel C. Pearson, Jr. and $ –$ Joyce A. Baugh Edwin D. Peterman Homer Ulysses Ashby, Jr. Mary Alice Clay Pearson John Allen Helgeland Janelle Lynne Peters and Patricia R. Ashby Everett L. Perry Charles J. Adams Stewart W. Herman III Edward Albert Phillips, Jr. William Baird Paul Louis Raczynski Ross Ehme Aden David H. Hesla Joseph W. Pickle, Jr. Barber Frank E. Reynolds Phyllis D. Airhart T. Patrick Hill Edward H. Piper John D. Barbour Victoria Ries Catherine L. Albanese Alfred J. Hiltebeitel Barbara Pitkin and Wayne E. Barr Darryl Dejuan Roberts Larry J. Alderink Stephen A. Hirby Brent William Sockness Mark A. Bayert Diane M. Ruggiero and Philip A. Anderson, Jr. John C. Holt Thomas H. Quigley, Jr. and Francisco Joseph Benzoni Jim Guy Barbara A. Andrews Anita Marie Houck H. Jane Quigley William Joseph Berger Aileen Schloerb and Daniel Anderson Arnold John Bunn Houck and Jill Raitt Marvin L. Bergman John Schloerb Pierre Fisher Auger and Ina Hamilton Houck John S. Reist, Jr. Steven Ira Berlin Waldemar Schmeichel Jill Fisher Auger Dorothea Hoy Charles Mark Rich Amy Lynne Bertschausen and David P. Schmidt and Philip R. Bane Wilbur K. Huck Kenneth F. Ripple Roger Bertschausen Norma Schmidt George William Barnard Henry Idema III Elliott Ross-Bryant and C. Howell Bischoff Douglas E. Sturm and David Bawden Charles S. Jacobs Lynn Ross-Bryant Tatiana A. Bissell Margie A. Sturm Russell J. Becker Robert W. Jais Doug Rothschild and Philip Lee Blackwell Mary-Morag Sutherland Catherine M. Bell* William C. James Clare K. Rothschild Donald G. Bloesch Leonard L. Thompson Lisa Sari Bellows Charles L. Johnson and Stephen C. Rowe William Clyde Brown Mark G. and William A. Bingham Edith K. Johnson Lindell L. Sawyers Stanley E. Brush Jeffica L. Toulouse Clyde A. Black Diane Jonte-Pace Marilee K. Scaff Margaret K. Burkey Judith Van Herik and Curtis Bochanyin Barbara Bakke Kaiser David A. Schattschneider Arthur A. Callaham and James Culang, Jr. Paul Shailer Bosley and Masahiro Kano Gregory Schneider Erica Moore Callaham Clark M. Williamson Mary Mortimer Bosley Teruo Kawata Craig Alan Schroeder David Wesley Carpenter Iver F. Yeager Larry D. Bouchard Werner H. Kelber Alison Marie Scott Geoffrey White Castello III Mary M. Boyvey Robert H. Keller, Jr. Stanley Franklin Sears Dennis Angelo Castillo Hilary M. Bradbury Hugh J. Kennedy, Jr. James Hubert Shackelford J. Harley Chapman, Jr. Scholars Club James M. Brandt Peter C. Chemery and 250 499 Steven David Kepnes Emily E. Siler $ –$ Walter L. Brenneman, Jr. and G. Richard Kern Brent A. Smith Amy Elizabeth Hungerford Mary Brenneman Michael C. Kotzin Ted J. Solomon Gerald Christianson Abbott Laboratories Fund Brian Michael Britt William R. LaFleur Terry E. Sparkes David Ashton Clairmont and Richard P. Baepler Jesse M. Brown James N. Lapsley, Jr. Bob Speaks, Jr. Michelle Pinard William Black C. Conrad Browne James Welborn Lewis John Richard Spencer Robert J. Clark William O. Breedlove Don S. Browning and Ernest Maurice Limbo Michael Starenko Joseph A. Comber Herbert Bronstein Carol L. Browning David L. Lindberg Christoph Stauder James T. Connelly Frank Burch Brown Preston Mercer Browning, Jr. Erika Ann Linden Wilson W. Steinbrecher Steven Dale Cooley Kristine Ann Culp John M. Buchanan Judith A. Demetriou Donald Paul Burgo Paul Brooks Duff Hugh W. Burtner Charles R. Feldstein Michael C. Busk Gifts in Memoriam Matching Gifts Gifts in Honor of Freddie Mac Foundation Harold E. Butz William Robert Gallagher Individuals Charles T. Buzek The Divinity School offers The following companies Stanislaus Grabarek Thomas Anthony Byrnes special thanks for gifts that and foundations generously David Paul Grandstrand The Divinity School offers Kathleen Anne Cahalan honored the memory of matched gifts made to the Karen R. Guberman special thanks for gifts that Juan Eduardo Campo individuals during the Divinity School during the Barry Danzero Guiduli honored individuals during Rolf H. Charlston 2007–2008 year. 2007–2008 academic year. 2007 2008 Norman F. Gustaveson and Christopher Chou and the – year. Nancy Gustaveson Shu-Pen Chou In memory of Anne Carr Abbott Laboratories Fund George P. Guthrie In honor of Martin Marty’s John R. Christopherson Catherine Brekus Accenture Foundation Joshua D. Heikkila Brian P. Clarke 80th birthday Donald Paul Burgo The Field Foundation Susan Elaine Hill John B. Cobb, Jr. Donald Paul Burgo of Illinois, Inc. Katherine Elizabeth Donn M. Coddington In memory of John H. Martin Jung Ki Chung Hines-Shah and Freddie Mac Foundation Lee A. Crawford Mrs. John H. Martin Allan Cox Jayesh S. Hines-Shah Keith A. Davis IBM Corporation Emily Huggins Fine J. Keith Keeling Robert D. Denham In memory of Elsa Marty Lincoln Financial Group Carolyn C. Kinsley Deborah Ann Derylak Wilson W. Steinbrecher Foundation Julian J. Frazin and Hans-Josef Klauck Cora K. Dice Rhona S. Frazin In memory of Donald Wenstrom Moody’s Foundation Leo Dennis Lefebure Jeffrey Edward Doane Patricia E. Kauffman Armin H. Limper and Dimis T. Dowse Emily E. Siler UBS Matching Gift Fund Shirley Limper George A. Drake USG Foundation, Inc. In memory of Kenneth Reed Wood Jeanne W. Loomer John L. Dreibelbis and Wellington Management Kenneth F. Ripple William Madges Patricia A. Dreibelbis Company Peter J. Mehl Otis C. Edwards, Jr. William James Meyer Robert S. Ellwood, Jr.

* Deceased WINTER 2009 | 13 Gifts to the Divinity SchoolM

David Lyle Herndon Paul S. Hiyama Gael A. Hodgkins Abigail Christine Zang Hoffman Karina Martin Hogan Edward Joseph Holland Charles W. Hollenbeck, Jr. Ronald Everett Hopkins William G. Horton Wesley V. Hromatko Lee Patricia Hull Moses Shane Lloyd Isaac Natalia Ocokoljich Jackson Timothy Anker Jensen Channing R. Jeschke George A. Johnson Montgomery Allen Johnson Thomas E. Johnsrud William H. Jones Barbara Jurgensen Richard K. Kaeske Jane Louise Kanarek Maynard L. Kaufman Kristen Kingfield Kearns Issa J. Khalil Warren R. Copeland Cornelius J. Dyck Linda R. Galyon Philip A. Gronbach Phillip D. Kimble Brian Henry Covell Leland E. Elhard John E. Gaus and Jessica Gaus L. Eugene Groves Fred L. Kirschenmann Leilani Salvo Crane James G. Emerson, Jr. Robert A. Gessert Janet Varner Gunn Anant Kishore Larrimore C. Crockett W. Douglas Ensminger Gerald W. Gillette James S. Hamre Lloyd Ralph Kittlaus William R. Crockett H. Joan Evans Barbara Nelson Gingerich and Amy Lignitz Harken Donald S. Klinefelter Steve J. Crump Ian Stroud Evison James Nelson Gingerich Patricia Ann David William Kling Martin A. Davis Steven Feldman Beth Glazier-McDonald Harrington-Wydell Emily Joyce Magdelyn Knox Alan S. De Courcy Daniel Rush Finn Dale C. Goldsmith Mary E. Paulson Harrington Robert Emil Koenig Frederick Mathewson Denny John H. Fish Larry Gottschalk Robert Warren Harris Paul Kollman Otto Dreydoppel, Jr. Donald A. Fox Stephen Ray Graham John W. Hawk, Jr. Maurine E. Kornfeld John Thomas Dungan and Robert E. Frederick James Green Bud Heckman Philip Daniel Krey Jennifer Gonder Jesse Maria Kristine Freeman Fred A. Grissom David M. Held Charles V. La Fontaine

The Chicago Initiative

he Chicago Initiative, a university-wide capital campaign, Among the significant consequences of the campaign for the Divinity School were the concluded on June 30, 2008 with an overall total for the Uni- T addition of $6.6 million to the general endow- versity of $2.3 billion. The Divinity School’s campaign result was a ment and the creation of the following new endowments: total of $13,155,742 — 82% of the original goal of $16 million. ■ Chave Dissertation Endowment ■ John and Jessica Gaus Endowment ■ Langdon Gilkey Scholarship ■ Dorothy Grant Maclear Professorship ■ James Fulton Maclear Scholarship ■ Marty Center Dissertation Seminar Endowment ■ Benjamin Mays Scholarship ■ Nathan and Charlotte Scott Dissertation Endowment ■ Victoria Waters Fellowship Endowment

In addition, within the timeframe of the campaign (1999–2008), there were significant additions to several existing endowments:

■ Jerald Brauer Fund

■ Martin Marty Center Endowment

■ Rolland Schloerb Ministry Fellowship

Many of our most steadfast donors took advantage of the campaign to make “stretch” gifts well exceeding their regular annual contributions. We deeply appreciate these gifts that demonstrate our supporters’ belief in the current work of the School, as well as a commitment to its long-term wellbeing.

14 C I R C A GM

Julia Anne Lamm Walter W. Noffke Chris R. Schlauch Robert J. Villwock Charles Alan Wilson E. Thomas Lawson William James O’Brien John J. Schmitt Nelvin L. Vos Stewart Lance Winger Blaise Levai William D. Obalil Laurel J. Sedgwick Myles H. Walburn Jennifer Marie Witek Laura S. Lieber and Stephen Michael Okey Ronald Eugene Selleck John Christian Waldmeir David E. Witheridge* Norman Weiner Linda E. Olds Richard E. Sherrell Jerald C. Walker Lawrence E. Witmer Laurel A. Lindemann Stephen Paul Ott Allen William Singleton Walter T. Walmsley Ariana Kateryna Jeffrey H. Lindgren Jon Fredric Pahl Michael Bart Skerker Jerry Dean Weber, Jr. Wolynec-Werner Ausrele J. Liulevicius Alfred W. Painter Jeffrey Stephen Slovak Norman Albert Wells and Lois F. Yatzeck Hubert G. Locke William E. Palmer and Joseph Brooks Smith Kathy Casselman Wells Edward A. Yonan Jerome H. Long Marjorie D. Palmer Lon A. Speer III Richard W. Werner Daniel J. Zehnal Loren Diller Lybarger Nicholas A. Patricca Marguerite Louise Spencer Samuel Paul Whalen Leland H. Mahood Stephen Ray Pearson Robert Allen Stanley Paul F. Wilczak * Deceased Franklin M. Mangrum Paul Daniel Perreten Richard E. Starkey Thomas Carl Willadsen Meggan Hannah Manlove David Lind Perry Arvel Meryl Steece Guy V. Martin Anthony Richard Picarello, Jr. William C. Stooksbury Armand H. Matheny Louis M. Pratt Jonathan Nelson Strom Antommaria Craig Russell Prentiss John S. Strong Mark Christopher Mattes Elena G. Procario-Foley Mary J. Sturm Jane Elizabeth McBride and Arthur Marvin Pry Rex J. Styzens Jennifer Lea Nagel Arthur E. Puotinen Frank E. Sugeno* Park McGinty Richard G. Rautio Charles H. Swift, Jr. Sarah Lewis McKnight Jack V. Reeve David C. Taylor Stuart D. McLean Edwin G. Remaly Helen Theodoropoulos Esther M. Menn Richard Rice Paul Joseph Thiboutot Douglas B. Menuez Rosalind J. Richards Laird A. Thomason Jeffrey F. Meyer Janilyn M. Richardson Barkley Stuart Thompson Lester V. Meyer Mac Linscott Ricketts Curtis L. Thompson Dale Miller, Jr. Jennifer L. Rike J. Mark Thompson Marie-Celine Miranda Leslie Karen Ritter Jenkins James Jonathan Thompson Maurice J. Montgomery Vernon K. Robbins Robert H. Tucker Robert Glenwood Moore III Carl B. Robinson Kerry Merle Tupper William H. Moore Kyle Marie Roggenbuck H. Tucker Upshaw Donna K. Morrison-Reed and Edgar P. Roosa Nicole Urbach Mark D. Morrison-Reed Clark N. Ross USG Foundation, Inc. Daniel Thomas Moser Glen Saha Jay Palmer Van Santen Joseph B. Mow Sarah Bowen Savant and Michael J. Vanderweele Herbert J. Murray, Jr. John-Paul Savant Alan Jordan Verskin and Franke J. Neumann, Jr. Anthony F. Scheurich Sara Gita Verskin

Curtis Interview Continued from page 6

1950s and 1960s. I suppose that I am espe- is not always pleasant to discuss issues such as CE: The comparison is hard to make because cially interested in RRS because they were racist images of blacks or religious defenses of I have not taught here long enough and I primarily about churches wrestling with slavery, but I cannot imagine a better place taught undergraduates and graduate students what was rightly perceived as a blot on their than the classroom with highly motivated, at FSU, but I am only working with graduate Christian witness. It is both tragic and inspir- bright, and conscientious students. The students this semester. So much has happened ing when one gets a glimpse of what was going questions that they ask and the unique per- since FSU: a year’s research leave, my first on behind the scenes as the RRS leaders return spectives that they bring are some of the book, my father’s death in February, and again and again to their foundational Christian reasons that teaching is such a deeply reward- living in a much colder climate. Teaching precepts on Christian brotherhood and unity ing experience. As we wrestle with how his- has been one of the few sources of continuity in the face of massive divisions on the ground torians explain causation or the concrete between my time at FSU and my time here. because of the seemingly intractable problem details of attempts to Christianize slaves, I It has eased my transition. ❑ of race. appreciate that our students recognize the nuances and complexities of history and CIRCA: Tell us about what you are teaching rightly eschew one-dimensional simplistic “...we wrestle with how at the Divinity School. analyses of the role of religion in modern society and history. historians explain causation or CE: I am teaching two courses for this the concrete details of attempts (Autumn 2008) semester, Christianity and CIRCA: Please offer a reflection on the tran- Slavery in America and Religion in Modern sition from teaching at Florida State University to Christianize slaves ...” America from the Civil War to the 1920s. It to teaching at the University of Chicago.

Obama Continued from page 11 of kinship stronger and deeper than blood, we rejoice in this remarkable moment, yet hate or heartbreak.” His admiration for not blind ourselves in tragic self-satisfaction Lincoln conflates with Bliss’s betrayal. Yet, to the challenges and complexities of what ironically, it is the racist Sunraider, speaking lies ahead. ❑ on the Senate floor, who invokes the one References: and the many: “[H]istory has put to us three fatal questions, has written them across our Read Matt Mendlesohn in The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/opinion/ sky in accents of accusation…How can the 06mendelsohn.html many be as one? How can the future deny the Read David Samuels, on Obama and Invisible Past? And How can the light deny the dark?” Man, in The New Republic: http://www.tnr. Now that the remarkable feat that many com/politics/story.html?id=5c263e1d-d75d-4af9- believed they would not live to see is accom- a1d7-5cb761500092 plished, these questions, which invoke the Read Robert Bellah on American civil religion: mystery of American faith, should occupy http://www.robertbellah.com/articles_5.htm our concern, and the new president’s. May

WINTER 2009 | 15 Scenes from the Divinity School

On November 11th photographer Steve Kagan captured a range of activities in Swift Hall, including a meeting of Professor Jeffrey Stackert’s Introduction to Hebrew Bible class, students making use of the new study lounge on the fourth floor, the busy DSA coffeeshop—where God drinks coffee—an afternoon meeting of the Islamic Studies Club (for more information on that, see page 7), and Dean of Students Terri Owens in one of her many meetings with students.

Circa Images © Cover: Svlumagraphica. Pg 2: Marion, Steve Kagan; Académie française, Vin Brun. Pg 3: Yadin, Zelniker, and LaBarre, Steve Kagan. Pg 4: Calendar, Dusk; Church, DC Hancock; Taylor, courtesy of McGill University. Pg 6: Hands, Norman Mauskopf; Evans, Steve Kagan. Pg 7: Scenes from the Islamic Studies Club, Steve Kagan. Pg 8: Streetscene, Anita Romero; Lettering, Mario Savoia. Pg 9: Rougeau, Steve Kagan. Pg 10: City Church, Studali; Painting, Rembrandt. Pg 11: Obama, Shutterstock. Pg 12: Students, Steve Kagan. Pg 14: Book, Steve Kagan; Archway, Jennifer Quijano Sax. Pg 15: Obama, Shutterstock. Pg 16: Scenes from the Divinity School, Steve Kagan.

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