DIVINITY DUKE UNIVERSITY | Fall 2016

RENEWING LIFE How the Church Can Thrive in Unexpected Ways

PREPARING LEADERS SEEING GOD IN PRISON TODAY FOR THE By Louis Threatt and Kaye B. Ward CHURCH OF TOMORROW THE ART OF TENTMAKING: CHRISTIANS AND COMMUNITY ORGANIZING By Elaine A. Heath FALL 2016 | A By Luke Bretherton LES TODD PHOTOGRAPHY Brandon Hudson T’06, D’13 and Maranatha Wall D’13 Wall Brandon Hudson T’06, D’13 and Maranatha 919-660-3456. To give online, see divinity.duke.edu/give For more information on how you can participate in empowering the next generation for

JOIN US TODAY! ministry through the Divinity Annual Fund, call

believe Duke has shaped us in profound ways and believe it can profoundly shape generations to come. We encourage encourage We come. to shape generations profoundly it can and believe ways has shaped us in profound Duke believe so in the institution investing intentionally by School Divinity at Duke work in God's participate alumni to our fellow continue.” that it may resources. resources. “We Annual Fund. the Divinity to giving financially by in transformation participate also and Maranatha Brandon empowerment for black and Latino youth. And he met his wife, Maranatha, through their study community group. group. community their study through Maranatha, his wife, And he met black and Latino youth. for empowerment neighborhood in Durham. In this ministry, Hope in the Walltown Urban for director as executive serves Brandon Today and education economic, spiritual, people through young empower to helps now training and practical his theological way to deepen connections with people and the place of Durham, N.C. He found all that, and more. Through his M.Div. his M.Div. Through and more. all that, He found Durham, N.C. of with people and the place deepen connections to way God of and revelation in the experience imagination rooted a theological he developed certificate, studies and prison him a vision of gave and Houston in Baltimore experiences education His field among the poor and marginalized. When Brandon Hudson decided to attend Duke Divinity School, he was looking for rigorous theological formation and a formation theological rigorous looking for he was School, Divinity Duke attend decided to Hudson Brandon When through Divinity Annual Fundthrough Divinity TRANSFORMATION EMPOWERMENT ANDEMPOWERMENT Participate in DIVINITY FEATURES 4 FALL 2016 22 Volume 16, Number 1 PREPARING LEADERS SEEING GOD IN PRISON TODAY FOR THE CHURCH Two perspectives on the OF TOMORROW theology of incarceration and PUBLISHER In order to thrive, church the ways that God breaks Elaine A. Heath leaders must embrace mission, through prison walls Dean and Professor of Missional community, and a focus on and Pastoral Theology By Louis Threatt and Kaye B. Ward loving their neighbors By Elaine A. Heath EDITOR Heather Moffitt 26 Associate Director of Communications BECOMING A PLACE OF 10 Produced by the Office of Communications, SAFETY AND SUPPORT: THE RADICAL POLITICS Duke Divinity School DOMESTIC VIOLENCE OF FELLOWSHIP Audrey Ward, Executive Director AND THE CHURCH

Proofreading by Derek Keefe Christian hospitality offers the Churches and pastoral leaders hope of transformation through have a responsibility to recognize Design by B Design Studio, LLC seemingly simple acts such as www.bdesign-studio.com the problem of domestic violence eating together and learn how to respond Copyright © 2016 Duke Divinity School By Norman Wirzba By Dina Helderman All rights reserved.

DIVINITY magazine publishes a Fall and Spring issue each year. The magazine 14 DEPARTMENTS represents the engagement of Duke WE ARE ONE IN THE SPIRIT... Divinity School with important topics OR ARE WE? 3 The Editor’s Perspective and invites friends, supporters, alumni, A personal story of church, and others in our community to participate 30 Programs & Events: in the story of what is happening here. sexual and gender diversity, Focus on Theology and the search for a sense of beyond Traditional Walls We’d like to hear from you! belonging to a community For comments or feedback on DIVINITY magazine, please write: By Janie Long 34 Faculty & Staff Notes

Editor, DIVINITY magazine 37 Class Notes Duke Divinity School Box 90970 18 Durham, NC 27708-0970 THE ART OF TENTMAKING 38 Deaths Or email: [email protected] Christians can love their Reflections Please include a daytime phone number neighbors through community 40 and an email address. Letters to the editor organizing to transform Meditation may be edited for clarity or length. secular spaces in ways that 41 nurture everyone

By Luke Bretherton ON THE COVER: A flower blooms through an ancient stone wall in St. Andrews, Scotland. Photo by Michelle Van Tine, www.michellevantinephotography.com

WWW.DIVINITY.DUKE.EDU/MAGAZINE FALL 2016 | 1 CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

ELAINE A. HEATH is the dean NORMAN WIRZBA is professor JANIE LONG is the associate LUKE BRETHERTON is and professor of missional of theology, ecology, and dean and vice provost in professor of theological ethics and pastoral theology at Duke agrarian studies at Duke the Office of Undergraduate and senior fellow of the Kenan Divinity School. Her research Divinity School. His research Education at Duke University. Institute for Ethics at Duke focuses on evangelism and interests include theology, University. She is the former University. He has worked with spirituality, evangelism and philosophy, ecology, and director of the Center for a variety of faith-based NGOs, gender, new monasticism, agrarian and environmental Sexual and Gender Diversity at mission agencies, and churches and emergence in church and studies, especially the recovery Duke and holds an affiliated around the world, particularly theological education. She is of the doctrine of creation and faculty position in women’s in Central and Eastern Europe. the co-founder of Missional a restatement of humanity in studies and sexuality studies. His recent research focused Wisdom Foundation, which terms of its creaturely life. He She is a faculty affiliate in on the intersections of provides opportunities for serves as the general editor a Bass Connections project Christianity, radical democracy, clergy and laity to learn how for the book series Culture through Duke Global Health globalization, responses to live in intentional, missional of the Land: A Series in New and a licensed family to poverty, and patterns of communities in diverse social Agrarianism, and his most therapist. She earned her interfaith relations, published in contexts. Her most recent recent book is The Way of Ph.D. from Virginia Tech and Resurrecting Democracy: Faith, book is God Unbound: Wisdom Love: Recovering the Heart of her M.R.E. degree from Duke Citizenship and the Politics of from Galatians for the Anxious Christianity (HarperOne). Divinity School. a Common Life (Cambridge Church (Upper Room). University Press).

DINA HELDERMAN is LOUIS THREATT is the senior KAYE B. WARD retired from DAVE ODOM is the executive the director of the events pastor of Messiah Community the State of North Carolina director of Leadership management department Christian Church (Disciples and now works with the Education at Duke Divinity. at Duke Divinity School. She of Christ) in Winston-Salem, Interfaith Prison Ministry Previously he served as founder earned her M.Div. degree from N.C., and director of Project for Women in Raleigh, N.C. and president of the Center the McAfee School of Theology TURN, part of the School for While incarcerated at the for Congregational Health at Mercer University in 2000, Conversion based in Durham, honor grade unit of the North in Winston-Salem, N.C., and and she worked for the Durham N.C. His passion is to serve Carolina Correctional Center adjunct professor at Wake Crisis Response Center serving God and empower others, for Women in Raleigh, she Forest Divinity School. He survivors of domestic and especially those who are took six Duke Divinity School has also had a leadership sexual violence. She continues pushed to the margins of life classes, and she is now role in the Cooperative to facilitate training for pastors by race, economic status, or enrolled at the University Baptist Fellowship. He has and community leaders on how incarceration. He earned his of Mount Olive to train as a published numerous articles on to respond to domestic and M.Div. degree with a prison prison chaplain. She has been congregations, leadership, and sexual violence. studies certificate from Duke recommended for licensure as healthy institutions for Faith & Divinity School in 2011. a minister in the Original Free Leadership, available at www. Will Baptist Church. faithandleadership.com.

2 | DIVINITY THE EDITOR’S PERSPECTIVE

Renewal that Transcends Barriers

IF YOU’VE READ anything about contemporary trends for The theme of renewal has permeated the work of our the North American church, you’ve seen dire predictions, new dean, Elaine A. Heath. Her scholarship and ministry alarming statistics, and grim warnings. The current narrative has been intent on discovering and unleashing the ways that could be summed up in one word: decline. Denominations the people of faith can draw on the traditions of the church are likely to be feuding and certain to be shrinking. Churches in order to participate in the fresh ways that God’s Spirit are graying, with the average age of membership rising each is working today. Dean Heath brings years of vital experi- year. Seminaries and divinity schools face increasing costs ence, from leading groups through a process of spiritual and decreasing enrollments. Millennials increasingly identify renewal to launching the Missional Wisdom Foundation to as “nones”—having no formal religious identification. teaching in churches and seminaries. She offers scriptural This narrative of decline is supported by top scholarship, insight, theological perspective, and practical wisdom to the such as the excellent research by our own Mark Chaves, endeavor of renewal for the church. professor of sociology, religious The question for us as a divinity school studies, and divinity, which examines is how we will participate in this work the National Congregations Study. May we be willing to offer of God. How will we train leaders for Across the spectrum of religious the church to participate in this work? congregations, the consistent thread the gifts of community How will we use our resources here at emerges: contraction, shrinking, and God’s love that will Duke Divinity School to promote prayer decline. The force of these trends and hospitality and community? We transform lives and restore might be felt most acutely in mainline explore those questions in this issue of Protestant denominations, but it the mission of the church. DIVINITY, beginning with an article also affects Roman Catholic and by Dean Heath describing essential evangelical/Pentecostal churches. elements for preparing the leaders of And the problem goes beyond distressing data: many in tomorrow’s churches and communities. the church feel under existential threat. They’ve adopted This issue also features articles by our faculty members the defensive posture of people under emotional and Luke Bretherton and Norman Wirzba as well as several psychological strain. They sense the ship (as they know it) is personal accounts of experiencing God in unexpected ways going down and wonder whether all that’s left is to rearrange and nontraditional places. Gifts of community and trans- the deck chairs. formation sometimes happen within the walls of the church As we survey these trends, we believe this is an exciting and sometimes surprise us inside the walls of a prison. moment to be at Duke Divinity School. No, we have not Finally, an article on domestic violence and the church by been exempt from the difficulties of funding and enrollment. Dina Helderman, our events management director, reminds Yes, we are aware of the challenging congregational land- us that the work of participating in God’s healing requires scape confronting our students. Ours is neither a mindless us to see the suffering in our midst and to support those optimism nor a naïve faith. Our mission is to prepare future who are hurting and often ignored or marginalized. leaders for the church, training them as people of faith to We hope that this issue inspires your ongoing journey address the challenges confronting our world. Few places of reflection and renews your sense of mission. May we be are better equipped than Duke Divinity School to form willing to offer the gifts of community and God’s love that ministers who will make a difference in the world, who will will transform lives and restore the mission of the church. lead the church through these tumultuous waters, and who will embody faith, hope, and love. By HEATHER MOFFITT, editor of DIVINITY magazine and associate director of communications at Duke Divinity School

FALL 2016 | 3 4 | DIVINITY PREPARING LEADERS Today FOR THE CHURCH OF Tomorrow BY ELAINE A. HEATH

bout a decade ago, I began ministry differently from anything they to notice a trend in the had experienced, but they had few local seminary classes I taught. models from which to learn. Every semester, I would Soon I found myself in the middle encounter students who of what has become a national trend Alonged to learn how to lead the church in theological education: young adults beyond the walls of the church. Some sensing a call to ministry and coming to wanted to work with people living in seminary but feeling ambivalent toward poverty, so they were interested in traditional ministry. They could more bi-vocational ordained ministry. Some easily tell me what they were not called were uncertain about ordination, seeing to do than what they were called to do. it as a potential hindrance to ministry I could have chalked up their uncertain- beyond the traditional programs of the ties to immaturity, or not actually having church. Others were drawn toward a a call, or having a bad attitude—but group that the Pew Research Center these were often the most gifted and now calls “the nones”—the growing grounded students. mass of mostly young adults who have The other story I heard repeatedly no particular religious affiliation. My was that these students felt pressure students knew they would have to do from denominational leaders to save

FALL 2016 | 5 failing institutional systems within the church as a consumer activity. Humility, Dallas, Texas, with a handful of these church. But they felt no such urgency compassion, and a rejection of any form students. We launched a residential themselves. Instead, they wanted to be of exploitive, manipulative evangelism new monastic community for women out in the world where people suffer characterize missional practice. in a mixed income, predominantly and greatly need the presence of the When I began to hear students Latino/a neighborhood. And with a church. Again and again they asked express their need and desire to learn racially and theologically diverse team me, “Dr. Heath, will I have to leave the how to be missional church leaders, I of students, I launched a multicultural, church to answer the call?” knew I had to respond, because their missional house church called New need had everything to do with the Day that soon became involved in MISSIONAL VOCATION “why” of theological education. They refugee resettlement work. Leadership expert Simon Sinek tells needed real-world opportunities to Both of these initiatives quickly us that the “why” of an organization test and clarify their call. And those provided rich learning opportunities. should always lead the “what” and the experiences needed to be part of We offered ministry in two neighbor- “how.” The central task of theological their theological education. Through hoods grappling with systemic education, the “why,” is to equip listening to students, I heard God’s injustice. Students learned to organize people to lead the church to fulfill its call to create new learning contexts their lives around a fivefold Wesleyan missional vocation. By “missional” beyond the classroom but connected to rule of life based on spiritual and vocation I mean the church’s call to what we learned within the classroom. justice practices of prayer, presence, be the “sent out” body of Christ in the Three critical questions from that time gifts, service, and witness. They also world. (Missio means “sent out.”) The continue to guide my work: learned how to start and lead small church must embody and enflesh the • What kind of leaders does the church faith communities anchored in the healing, reconciling, and forgiving love of tomorrow need so that it can fulfill local church and how to practice deep of Christ among its neighbors, so that its missional vocation? hospitality in their own neighborhood. proclamation of the gospel is grounded • What kind of learning experiences Within a year a new student, Larry in missional practice. can best prepare leaders for the Duggins, who had been a successful In missional churches, the people church of tomorrow? banker prior to coming to seminary, outside the building significantly shape • How can we best provide those joined us. These experimental commu- what goes on inside the building, experiences for our students? nities connected precisely with Larry’s such that the ethos of the church call to offer leadership development to expresses the love of Jesus for those NEW COMMUNITIES young adults in emerging expressions neighbors. Loving neighbors well, Because of my students’ questions, my of church. Larry soon became directly regardless of their religious affiliation research took a new direction. In addi- involved with me in mentoring young (or lack thereof), is a core value for tion to focusing my research on culture adults and resourcing and leading the the missional church. The posture of shifts and various emerging streams in initiatives in other ways. missional Christianity contrasts sharply the church, I began two experimental, As word spread about our experi- with colonizing forms of the church or multicultural faith communities in ment with new communities as part of

6 | DIVINITY Just a tiny degree of openness allows God to work with us—like dandelion seeds. They blow on the wind, fall into every crack in the asphalt—and before you know it a parking lot is in full bloom.

—from God Unbound by Elaine A. Heath

my students’ education, pastors began local shape but also includes multiple only must we adapt to changing needs to contact me from across and beyond forms of emergence Christianity that for graduate programs in theology, but Texas. I began to receive invitations provide learning labs as well as vibrant we must increase and substantially to teach and speak at regional and ministries. All of these are connected improve continuing education for then national gatherings of clergy, lay to local churches, nonprofits, and other clergy and laity. Emerging church leaders, and leaders from multiple Christian institutions. leaders need to learn how to be agile denominations. As national interest leaders who can lead their congrega- grew, Larry and I gathered a team LOOKING AT THE FUTURE tions to be nimble, to be willing to and formed the nonprofit Missional Driven by economic and numeric experiment in order to find the best Wisdom Foundation (MWF) to decline, the church is increasingly ways to reach people in their context. administer the growing network of eager to learn how to be fruitful in the Another challenge for theological communities and other initiatives 21st century. The majority of people education is to make it affordable as they developed. I was receiving I encounter across the nation and and accessible for all who are called more invitations than I could accept around the world know that the church to ministry. Consider the burden of to teach, preach, lead continuing needs to change in order to fulfill its student loan debt, with the average education events, and deliver vocation in the future. But they are United Methodist seminary student keynote addresses to UMC Annual not sure how to make the change. A graduating with a student loan debt of Conferences across the nation. sea change is under way in how the $49,303. That amount of indebtedness Today, MWF includes a network of church relates to its neighbors and straightjackets graduates who typically several multicultural new monastic how it understands its own vocation. go to low-paying, entry-level ministry and missional faith communities, Congregations need leaders who are positions. Student loan debt can also including a residential community for trained to guide the church through funnel graduates into appointments persons with and without disabilities, this time of radical culture shift. in established churches that provide a a small social enterprise operated and As Dan Aleshire, executive director salary for traditional forms of ministry managed by East African refugees, of the Association of Theological but where innovative, missional two co-working businesses that Schools (ATS), has stated, the impact leadership may not be welcome. For repurposed mostly unused space of the sea change on theological graduates whose call is to develop in two church buildings, a training education will be profound. The great missional ministry, this kind of situa- program to equip laity and clergy to majority of mainline seminaries will tion can generate a vocational crisis. launch and lead new faith communi- experience hardship over the coming In the future we will face an ties, a coach-training program, summer decade because of the struggle to increasing enrollment challenge, partly immersions in vocational discernment adapt to culture shifts. for financial reasons, partly because for college students, and several Adaptation will require us to of the shrinking traditional church, pilgrimage experiences. MWF now has provide both classical and new forms and partly due to the need for more four regional hubs across the United of theological education, some of options beyond the M.Div. degree States, each of which has a unique which we have yet to imagine. Not to equip leaders for nontraditional

FALL 2016 | 7 Church, do you realize we are on the cusp of a new Great Awakening? And it looks like spiritual dandelion explosion as far as the eye can see.

—from God Unbound by Elaine A. Heath

ministries. Although 40 percent of we and the rest of creation can flourish. we are long past a time when we can ATS-accredited institutions—including Paradoxically, the greatest challenge look the other way or dismiss climate Duke—have grown in enrollment the to theological schools at top-ranked change as a political agenda. We past few years, the trend across all research universities such as Duke can no longer act as if salvation has ATS-accredited schools is a decline in is—to use the language of Jesus—to nothing to do with this life and this M.Div. enrollment. become like little children among our world. We have to act now to heal our It is tempting during times of deep neighbors. That is, we need to be open, common home, and it will require all change such as the culture shift in curious, teachable, agile, and humble of us working together across religious, which we find ourselves to allow in the middle of our anxiety-producing political, and ideological lines and anxiety about institutional survival to culture shifts. Indeed, if we make across disciplines. We need leaders drive decisions. It is easy to lose sight the mistake of seeing the challenge who can help us do that. of the “why” of theological education of financial stress and enrollment Third, poverty does not have to and, out of fear, stifle the creativity and trends as episodic problems rather be inevitable for large numbers of experimentation necessary to adapt than indicators of culture shift, we people. Poverty is caused by human successfully to our new environment. could miss our opportunity to lead greed and the abuse of power. It is We must continually remember that theological education into a vibrant a complex problem that affects all we are here to equip leaders who and effective future. of us, and it will require all of us can help the church of tomorrow to If we listen to our neighbors as to working together across divisions and fulfill its missional vocation. The core the kind of Christian leaders the world disciplines to heal the root causes. Our practice that will help us to guide needs, this is what we will hear. neighbors are telling us that we have theological education through the First, the escalating violence a responsibility to nurture Christian culture shifts is to remember the “why” that marks our society is becoming leaders who will help us collectively of theological education. intolerable. This includes all aspects change unjust systems that create and of war, gun violence, terrorism, perpetuate poverty. FOCUS ON NEIGHBORS domestic violence, sexual violence, Fourth, our neighbors are suffering To help us remember our purpose, racial violence, and hate crimes. Our from all the institutionalized hate that we should reflect on the question that neighbors cannot bear any more marks our world—racism, sexism, George Bullard, a strategic leadership violence done in the name of religion. classism, homophobia, Islamaphobia, consultant, asks in his recent blog post We must prepare leaders who can xenophobia, and more. Their suffering about disruptive theological education: help congregations and institutions reveals that bias and hate fuel violence. “Who is our client?” Our client is not bring an end to violence. We must It will require all of us working together ourselves but the world beyond the prepare leaders who can help all of to move from hate to hospitality and divinity school, beyond the university, us move toward Isaiah’s vision of the from fear to wonder in order to build and beyond the church—the world for peaceable kingdom. a world in which diversity is cause for which we are preparing leaders who will Second, we are driving our planet celebration. We need leaders in the need to guide us into a future in which toward catastrophic destruction, and church who can help us do that.

8 | DIVINITY In short, our neighbors are asking about whom Jesus said in Matthew intercessor and follower of Jesus. My us to nurture leaders who will guide 25:40, “Just as you did it to one of the academic work and pastoral work, us to a future in which we become least of these ... you did it to me.” This along with my history of transforming the answer to Jesus’ prayer: Your will was a turning point in my movement grace, have brought me to this position be done on earth as it is in heaven. toward shalom and in my theological of leadership in one of the top divinity For as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran development. I experienced the schools in the world.Words cannot pastor, theologian, and martyr of the astounding truth that Jesus had been convey the wonder and the sense of Third Reich, taught, the church is only with me and in me during the violence. deep responsibility I feel toward God the church to the extent that it is the I saw that he is with and in all who are as I assume the role of dean of Duke church for others. It is our responsi- vulnerable, small, disempowered, and Divinity School. bility and sacred call in theological at the mercy of others. Learning from I am certain that God has called me education to nurture leaders who lead Mother Teresa, I have come to see that here at this time because of the need the church to be the church for others. Christ thirsts in our neighbors who to prepare leaders today for the church This is the orientation from which thirst. Christ suffers when we suffer. of tomorrow: the church that must heal I endeavor to lead in the church, in My theological focus emerges the wounds of colonialism masked as academia, and elsewhere throughout from my own experience of God’s mission; the church that must learn my professional and personal life. call, God’s mercy toward me, God’s anew what it means to bear the gospel healing of much sorrow in my life, and in an increasingly violent world. I am A PERSONAL CALL TO VOCATION God’s reconciling love in my family. confident that as we seek the wisdom As I consider the “why” of my own All my family members have come to and direction of God, we will indeed vocation, I know that God’s call to faith, including my father before he fulfill our calling to prepare missional equip leaders for a missional church died. At age 95, my mother is a strong leaders for God’s church. has emerged from the context of my own journey. Throughout most of my childhood, my family lived in poverty. Because of the aftermath of my father’s service in World War II, our family suffered alongside him as he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder. Our home was not a safe place, despite my mother’s hard work to keep us clothed and fed. We moved numerous times, living mostly in the Pacific Northwest, Montana, and Alaska. Along the way, Christian neighbors welcomed my siblings and me to eat with their families, play games, or go to Sunday school. These dear people were the face of Christ to me. I don’t know where I would be without them. I learned in their homes what it means to be a community for our neighbors. Later in life, when I was working through some of the trauma of my childhood, I realized one day that I had been one of “the least of these”

FALL 2016 | 9 10 | DIVINITY The RADICAL POLITICS of FELLOWSHIP

BY NORMAN WIRZBA

he day of Pentecost illustrated that when the Holy Spirit descends upon people, radical things happen. Suddenly people discovered themselves to be speaking clearly and intelligently in Tlanguages they had not previously known. The book of Acts records that people “from every nation under heaven” (2:5) were present in Jerusalem and heard Galileans—folks from a region not especially renowned for cosmopolitan culture—speaking in the diverse languages of their native lands. This was a powerful sign that God wants nothing to stand between people sharing life with each other. If you can’t speak the language of the people you are with, fellowship and friendship can’t go very far. But God didn’t just give these people new languages to speak. God also gave them new table manners. Near the end of the same chapter, we are told, almost as an aside, that these early converts “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). Their practice of coming together to eat was no small thing; as a time-honored tradition says, the best way to keep different ethnicities, races, genders, sexual orientations, classes, and political orientations (the list goes on and on!) apart is to prevent them from eating with each other. When people eat together, a space opens in which friendship becomes possible.

FALL 2016 | 11 EATING TOGETHER AND language of hospitality. God “makes talk, and think pretty much like you. CHRISTIAN HOSPITALITY room” for what is other than God, and How will you ever know what life is like The Holy Spirit is not content with then God nurtures and empowers this for people deemed scary and “other”? surface alterations, merely changing other into the fullness of its life. That is More importantly, how will you be able a few of our opinions and thoughts. what love does: it seeks the good and to help them in their need? We should Instead, the Spirit of God enters into the flourishing of the beloved. And ask whether some of America’s painful us through our mouths, transforming God does all of this as one intimately, and violent past would have worked our speaking and our eating, and yet noncoercively, involved in the out differently if people, Christians then goes viscerally and deeply into struggles and opportunities that each especially, had been in the habit of our hearts and guts so that our whole person faces. When Christians practice eating with the people they didn’t know manner of behaving is made new. It is hospitable fellowship with others, or considered suspicious. the powerful wind that reanimates our what they are doing is participating Consider the early days of the movement through the world. Think in, extending, and witnessing to the civil rights movement. When the of it: when eating together under practical love of God still at work in Greensboro Four entered the the Lordship of Christ, these early the world. Woolworth store, purchased a few Christians shared their possessions school supplies, and then asked to be with each other, gave what they had THE RADICAL ACT OF EATING TOGETHER served at the food counter, they dared to those who were in need, were glad Today’s divided America suggests that to challenge the edifice of Jim Crow and generous with each other, and we have a long way to go if we want to laws and tradition. White storeowners had the goodwill of all the people. practice the hospitable love that is the were quite happy to take the money “There was not a needy person among foundation of life together. Longtime of black folks—so long as it did not them” (4:34). No doubt, “great grace observers of political life have noted require whites to eat with blacks. was upon them all” (4:33). People that politicians make less time to eat Eating together crossed a line that few witnessed their fellowship in amaze- and socialize with peers from across people dared to cross, because to do ment and awe. the aisle. In our suburbs and on main so was, especially if you were black, to Eating together is a big deal, for streets, ordinary citizens self-segregate put your life at risk. when people eat with one another, as well by living in neighborhoods and Many years later, Franklin McCain, the ignorance, suspicion, and fear that sticking with people that make them one of the Greensboro Four, gave compel us to segregate people into the feel safe and comfortable. Though an interview in which he recalled categories of Jew/Gentile, white/black, saturated with information and data of being anxious about their attempt safe/dangerous, rich/poor, suburbanite/ every kind, our views of the world and to be served at the food counter. farmer, documented/undocumented, of others have narrowed and hard- He wondered if he would be killed friend/foe, and acceptable/unacceptable ened, because we prefer to access the or jailed for his actions. He also begin to fade away. Sitting around news and media outlets that only ever remembered noticing a little old white tables, sharing food and stories, confirm the viewpoints we already lady sitting at the counter, eyeing him listening, and entering into the lives hold. This is a world in which people and his friends. Did she mean them of one another, the feared “other” are rarely in a position to do the ill? When she finished her doughnut can gradually become known and political and economic work of helping and coffee, she got up, walked behind appreciated as a fellow human traveler, each other or building a shared world them, and placed her hands on their entitled to the same respect and care together, because they hardly know shoulders. What she said surprised that God promises to all. each other. him: “Boys, I am so proud of you. I Welcoming others to our tables Christian churches often don’t do only regret that you didn’t do this 10 is not just a nice idea. It goes to the much better than the culture around years ago.” heart of our faith as people who them. Depending on the size of your Looking back on those words, worship a hospitable God. When church and the style in which you McCain said he learned a very John of Damascus, one of the most conduct worship, it is possible that you important lesson that day: “Don’t you revered theologians in the early will rarely have to sit down with anyone ever, ever stereotype anybody in this church, searched for a way to describe unlike yourself. You may have even life until you at least experience them the work by which God creates and picked your church based on its demo- and have the opportunity to talk to sustains the world, he opted for the graphic: the folks gathered there look, them. I’m even more cognizant of

12 | DIVINITY healing and transformation in the community. Overcoming one’s fear, suspicion, and bias is extremely difficult and risky work. It takes patience and wise leadership, not to mention a spirit of mercy and a resolute commitment to justice, to turn hatred into a desire to heal. It takes serious work and much time to remake institutions and economies that have been built on the premises of exclusion and violation.

CHURCHES, FOOD, AND HEALING Would it not be a good thing if churches were to take a leading role in WHEN CHRISTIANS practice hospitable fellowship with others, fostering the kind of food fellowship that brings shared understanding and what they are doing is participating in, extending, and witness- mutual healing to our divided land? ing to the practical love of God still at work in the world. Congregations are certainly well positioned. They have the inspiration of a hospitable God, who welcomes and nurtures everyone so that together they can realize the fullness of their lives. that today—situations like that—and exist and that trust between people They have the example of Jesus, who I’m always open to people who speak needed to be built. They decided that ministered to and ate with outcasts and differently, who look differently, and white, black, and Hispanic residents those at the margins, and who offered who come from different places.” We, from the community needed to share a himself as the “bread of life” (John 6) along with McCain, are left to wonder meal together. Some of those gathered that both feeds and transforms us so what might have happened throughout reported that they had never eaten that we can nurture a hungry world. the nation if whites and blacks had with the people they feared or reviled. And they have the power of the Holy been eating together at lunch counters But sharing food and conversation Spirit, who, as on the day of Pentecost, and dining rooms all the years before. was a good way to begin to bridge rushes in to break down the barriers the divides and heal the hatred that is that keep people apart and then knits EATING TOGETHER, LEARNING TOGETHER destroying communities in this country. them into a community of glad and Eating together is still a lesson we As one attendee noted: “It makes me generous hearts. need to learn. Though we do not have feel good about the community. It And churches have buildings and signs at restaurants that say “Whites makes me feel good about Black Lives kitchens and yards. Too much of the Only” or “American Citizens Only” or Matter. It just makes me feel good work of the church is happening “Undocumented Folks Go In Back,” inside. Period.” behind walls and closed doors. What fear, suspicion, and separation still Some might dismiss a cookout like if congregations took their fellowship dominate our life together. To eat with this as a useless, perhaps even cynical, outside and modeled what acceptance “the other” is still a radical act. When gesture by police to “buy off” blacks. and hospitality actually look like? it happens, people are again amazed. Some of those who attended, and likely What if they hosted community It happened earlier this year in many more who did not (including leaders and welcomed community Wichita, Kan., when a Black Lives a Black Lives Matter chapter in members of all kinds and said: “We Matter (BLM) event expanded into Washington, D.C.), thought so. Only are here to offer space and help and a cookout with police officers. When time will tell if this initial effort by food. We are ready to listen and serve the BLM organizers met with police some in Wichita to come to mutual in whatever way we can. Help us to be chief Gordon Ramsay, they agreed understanding and make a commitment a help.” That would be a wonderful, that lines of communication didn’t to mutual help will lead to greater God-glorifying thing.

FALL 2016 | 13 WE ARE ONE IN THE SPIRIT... or are we? A PERSONAL STORY OF CHURCH, SEXUAL AND GENDER DIVERSITY, AND BELONGING

BY JANIE LONG

was a kid who was different. It was the early 1970s, and I lived in a small town in western North Carolina. I didn’t fit the gender identity I was supposed to have until the fourth grade, when my teacher forced me into playing with the girls at recess instead of playing ball with the boys (because I was getting too red in the face) and made me sit like a lady in class. IThat was the beginning of several years of strict gender indoctrination and sometimes brutal policing by my peers, my teachers, and to some extent my parents. But giving in on the outside did not change how I felt on the inside, and I knew on the inside that I was different. I was not allowed to be who I was because girls were not supposed to act like boys. I knew also that I liked girls a lot, but I had no clue what sexual orientation meant, and I had no role models around to inform me. My gender identity was forced into a box, and my sexual orientation was simply nowhere to be found. I chose to act like everyone else because I did not know any different.

14 | DIVINITY I attended the First United to fire and brimstone. Instead, he would have us studying the Bible and Methodist Church, and in my junior spoke of service and treating others memorizing verses. Instead, he hired year I was the president of the United respectfully and with love, especially a young woman fresh out of college Methodist Youth Fellowship. My those different from us. The sermon I who had us listening to Jesus Christ church was one of the largest in town, remember best focused on acceptance Superstar and talking about what faith second only to the Baptists, and we of others, and he integrated the plot in action would mean, what loving one had all been saved by Billy Graham of the film Close Encounters of the another meant, and what we could four years earlier when he came to our Third Kind into the sermon. I had do to make change happen locally. I town as part of one of his crusades. never heard a minister refer to popular remember singing often, “We are one Church was all about getting saved and culture in a sermon, and he had my full in the Spirit ... and they’ll know we are repenting of your sins. There wasn’t attention. Christians by our love, by our love, much talk of living a faithful life. He had the idea that the young they will know we are Christians by Nothing else had really challenged people needed a director of Christian our love.” our church until we received a new education. I feel sure the Pastor For the first time I wanted to go to minister the summer before my junior Parish Relations Committee thought church, not just on Sunday but every year. He was a quiet man, not prone we would be hiring someone who day. It was a place where we could

FALL 2016 | 15 HOW DO WE BECOME THAT WELCOMING PLACE THAT IS LIFE-SUSTAINING RATHER THAN LIFE-DRAINING? IF WE CANNOT CREATE THAT ENVIRONMENT IN THE SPACES WHERE WE TRAIN OUR FUTURE LEADERS, HOW WILL WE EVER CREATE THOSE SPACES IN LOCAL FAITH COMMUNITIES? make things happen, where we could Christian education in a midsized to the United Methodist Women to take action—and take action we did. Methodist church and quickly learned quit sending money overseas to “save” We formed an interfaith City Youth that members were much more people who already had their own faith Council with representatives from the concerned that I fix their marriages beliefs and to spend it instead on the black churches and the white churches and families than that I spend time homeless who slept outside our doors (we had no integrated churches in working for social justice. It was now on the street were often not warmly our town in that day), and we came the late 1970s, and divorce was on the received. I eventually decided to leave together to talk about what we could rise. Rebelling against authority was ministry to pursue a degree in marriage do to address racism in our community. the new norm. Couples and families and family therapy so that I would be We took on two major projects that were struggling and looking to the prepared to help those couples and year, both focused on bringing blacks church for help. families who had been seeking my help and whites together. One was a tutoring After three years, I decided to go during all those years. I would make a program involving early elementary to divinity school to prepare myself positive difference in people’s lives in students and high schoolers that for ministry and to find out if I could a different way and one that did not paired black teens with white children really be in the church in a way that come into conflict with my values. I no and white teens with black children. kept me focused on addressing issues longer felt welcome in a place that had Another was a campaign to open our of injustice. What better place to been my solace during important years town’s first interracial pool. The city attend than Duke Divinity School, of my life, and I no longer could sing, council did not think we could get the where in the 1960s professors had “We are one in the Spirit.” 500 signatures they required for our helped lead campus protests in While getting my Ph.D., I was asked petition, but we joined together—black support of black staff members. I took to teach the undergraduate course in and white—and walked door-to-door. courses such as “Liberation Theology” human sexuality because I had led That experience solidified for me that with Professor Herzog, “The Social sexuality weekends in the church for one could work through the church and Gospel” with Professor Newsome, and junior-high students and their parents. with other churches for social justice. “The Pastor as Spiritual Guide” with As I taught the class, I learned more I decided that year that I too would Professor Westerhoff. I was still asking about sexual orientation and how it prepare myself to enter the ministry in questions and not certain I wanted to was different from gender identity. order to help people put their beliefs even be in ministry because I wasn’t I began to meet with students who into action for social change in which in agreement with some of the United came to my office to talk about all were included and valued. Methodist doctrine. their identity. My own eyes began to I decided to study religion in college I did end up serving in two churches open, and in helping them to accept and began learning about Barth, after seminary. Both were larger themselves, I also helped myself. They Bonhoeffer, Tillich, and Whitehead, churches with multiple ministers, were depressed and fearful and angry and I started to question what I and I focused mainly on counseling at the faith communities who taught believed as I never had before. My and education, not on preaching and them and their parents that they were senior honors thesis was focused on leading worship. I was able to keep an abomination. the use of Kohlberg’s theory of moral my own inner struggles with church to I taught marriage and family therapy development within the church to myself. But I did preach occasionally on several university campuses around create a community based on justice, and often assisted in baptism. My the country, and everywhere I went, care, and respect. Upon graduation, Lenten meditation about turning young people were suffering. Some I accepted a positon as director of swords into plowshares and my plea had been banned from their homes

16 | DIVINITY and their places of worship. Some had spiritual core has been ripped out of are, if research focused on support attempted suicide. Many had been you?” They had grown up in a faith and understanding is not valued, if we very active in their faith communities community and wanted to serve, they continue to treat some members of our and were seen as leaders—until they wanted to remain faithful, they wanted faith community as inferior, how will revealed this aspect of who they were. to be accepted in their spiritual homes. we ever be one in the Spirit? Many churches were failing to live And yet many would not be welcome I am thankful for the journey I have out that song: “They will know we are if they lived openly. Some went on to traveled and the people along the way Christians by our love.” find more welcome spiritual homes, who have helped me become who I And then the day came when I some left behind the idea of ministry, am today. I’m still friends with the returned to Duke as the director and some left faith communities daughter of my high-school minister, of what was then called the LGBT altogether. Alas, they were depressed, and the young woman who came Center (now the Center for Sexual fearful, and angry. They also found the to work in my church and inspired and Gender Diversity). I reached out place where they had come to study to me, and with dear classmates from to students, faculty, and staff across often be a hostile environment. I am seminary. I carry as a part of me campus, including Duke Divinity happy to say that new leadership will those lessons and insights I gained School. I found seminarians who were foster an environment that reflects the during college and seminary from the living in mortal fear that some of their great strides made by Duke University professors who challenged me. Many faculty, fellow students, and Boards of at large over the past 10 years. members of the faith communities I Ministry/Ordination would find out How do we all create that welcoming served also molded me, and I remain who they were. place that is life-sustaining rather than close to some of them today as well. I’ll never forget the Divinity student life-draining? If we cannot create that While I did not find my community who said, “Can you imagine suddenly environment in the spaces where we within the church, I did find commu- losing not only your family but your train our future leaders, how will we nity among its people. I hope one church family, to no longer be able ever create those spaces in local faith day all young people in their faith to go where you’ve always found communities? If faculty and staff do communities can truly sing, “We are solace, to feel as though your entire not feel free to openly be who they one in the Spirit.”

FALL 2016 | 17 MURIEL FREGA/GETTY IMAGES

18 | DIVINITY THE ART of Tentmaking HOW CHRISTIANS CAN LOVE THEIR NEIGHBORS THROUGH COMMUNITY ORGANIZING

BY LUKE BRETHERTON

n an unusually hot autumn evening, I sat with religious symbols, language and 250 others in Brixton Town Hall for an assembly practices were not tucked away into a private sphere. But neither was the organized by South London Citizens. South London space dominated by religious discourse Citizens is a chapter of Citizens UK, a broad-based of one kind of another. Religious community organizing coalition made up of churches, voices did speak “religiously” by mosques, synagogues, Gurdwaras, trade unions, reading a text from Nehemiah in what Oschools, universities, residents associations, and other civil society was a public, overtly political assembly. organizations. Its banners and literature proclaim that it “reweaves Explicitly religious ways of speaking civil society” and that it is “building powerful communities to work and acting together were present, but these were only one among a number together for the common good.” of points of reference. The relationship between the As part of the opening of the event, main administrative center, which is religious groups and the innovative a bishop from the Pentecostal New based in South London. At the end forms of democratic citizenship that Testament Church of God and a of the assembly, the lead organizer South London Citizens represents Muslim leader from a local mosque of Citizens UK, Neil Jameson, gave a is not new. In American and British read aloud a passage from Nehemiah reflection on the Nehemiah 5 passage history, forms of popular, local 5. This was followed by presentations that had been read earlier. He noted self-organization and common action on and votes about whether the that what we had just participated emerged within the anti-slavery and coalition would work on certain in echoed Nehemiah 5, where an abolitionist movements, the Chartists, issues. We discussed a campaign assembly held those in power account- the suffragists, and the temperance for a living wage, a call for a cap on able and called on the rich to pay movement—all of which were aligned usurious interest rates, and regulation back what they had extorted from the and had a symbiotic relationship on pay-day loans and other forms of people. This was not politics as usual. with popular forms of religious belief exploitative lending. At one point, and practice. In Britain, whether it two representatives from the U.K. CHANGING SECULAR SPACE was Methodism or working-class

MURIEL FREGA/GETTY IMAGES Border Agency were garlanded and The assembly represented a very Catholicism, popular forms of applauded for their cooperation with different staging of the relationship religiosity were a key social force South London Citizens in improving between religion and politics than is generating the practices and common conditions for asylum seekers at the generally experienced today. Explicitly values vital for grassroots activism.

FALL 2016 | 19 The convergence between popular piety and democratic citizenship I witnessed that night in Brixton runs counter to how the relationship between religion and politics is often portrayed today. Yet it is not unusual or exceptional. We live in an age in which belief and unbelief mix in numerous ways to form varied expressions The South London neighborhood of Peckham is bound together by a strong multicultural and diverse of what secular means and how population and its dedication to the way its citizens live together as a community. This was evident religion in public is experienced. in an unprecedented event on July 9: a free lunch, including various child-oriented activities, at the Internationally, what secularity Center Venture Playground. The event was organized by the recently founded Peckham Citizens, an alliance of local churches, schools, and charities that have worked together as part of a yearlong looks like in India is different campaign to make the park clean and safe. from the form it takes in France or Argentina or Nigeria. How secu- larity is experienced in the United States in, for example, hospitals, is or washed away. But in reality the moments are not new. By drawing different from how it is experienced in contemporary context is more like on Augustine’s conception of the the military or prisons or universities. a hot tub or Jacuzzi, with everything saeculum as that time after Christ’s With increasing globalization and bubbling up from everywhere. So resurrection and before Christ’s changes in religious demography, whether you are Richard Dawkins return, secularity can be understood the place of religion in the public or Franklin Graham, there’s a sense as an ambiguous time, a field of wheat sphere is being reconfigured. Today that the world isn’t going your way. and tares, neither wholly profane nor the relationship between religious Everyone feels as if their way of doing sacred. The church, on its pilgrimage, groups, the state, and the market is things is contested and under threat. seeks to bear faithful witness within undetermined and ambiguous. At Calling this secularism is a misnomer. the ambiguous, undetermined time the same time, those from many The defining feature of our context of the saeculum. Within the saeculum different religious traditions, as well as is plurality. Everyone has to confront or time of secularity, Christians and contemporary “nones” or nonreligious the fact that his or her way of life or non-Christians are capable of good actors, are encountering each other worldview is not necessarily normal and evil, pride and humility, and there in new and deeper ways within these or normative for the public sphere. is often a hazy boundary between shared spaces. This may, in some contexts, lead to what is church and what is nonchurch. Political elites, the media, and many relativism, but not necessarily. We see On this account the church should in the church still assume what I call myriad responses around the world. neither be for nor against what is a showerhead model of secularity. secular. The public sphere should, The flow is steady and moving in A FAITHFULLY SECULAR LIFE normatively, be “faithfully secular.” In the same direction, and the bath we In place of mistaken notions of secu- a faithfully secular public sphere theo-

stand in will gradually fill up with larization, Christians need a histori- logical beliefs and ecclesial practices PHOTO COURTESY OF CITIZENS UK a religionless form of secularity. A cally attuned concept of secularity are interwoven with other patterns consequence of the bath filling up that can encompass the interaction of of belief and practice in order to with this kind of secularity is that multiple forms of belief and unbelief. constitute a genuinely plural common theology and the church is displaced Theologically understood, these life. This common life emerges

20 | DIVINITY WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY LEARN HOW TO BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR AND HOW TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR. NEIGHBOR LOVE IS ALWAYS A WORK IN PROGRESS, NEVER A WORK OF PROGRESS.

through the interaction of particular where cherished beliefs and practices temples—authoritative traditions and overlapping forms of association, are upheld, and the common life all of interpretation and practice— and the ad hoc integration of their residents of an area inescapably share. and houses—local, contextually alert different visions of the good. This was Some respond to this tension with places of worship and formation exactly the kind of space I witnessed at gated communities, “white flight,” and (such as a congregation). the South London Citizens assembly. de facto segregation. Others respond Tentmaking practices like It was neither a simplistically secular with community organizing and other community organizing are a way that event nor a straightforwardly religious ways of building a common life. Christians can cultivate neighborliness. one; rather, it was faithfully secular Politics as practiced by Citizens UK Being a neighbor is not a condition or and aimed to model and to generate a is a way to pay attention to others state of being or a pre-assigned role. common life. and step beyond one’s own limited It is a vocation. We discover who is perspective. This allows new ways of our neighbor within contingent and COMMUNITY ORGANIZING understanding oneself in relationship contextual relationships that require AS NEIGHBOR LOVE to others to emerge. us to listen to who is in front of us. This How is the church to navigate this Community organizing might be requires being attentive to the conflicts pluralistic, faithfully secular context? thought of as a form of tentmaking, in and differences between “us” and One way to frame this question, which a place is created for hospitality “them.” Unlike such things as family, particularly as it pertains to religious to be given and received between class, ethnicity, or gender, I cannot groups involved in broad-based multiple traditions. Some issues predetermine who is my neighbor. community organizing, is as a tension heard in the tent can be collectively Neighbors have neither assigned social between the duties and responsibilities acted upon and some cannot. But the identities (e.g., father, sister, etc.) nor of being a member of a community encounter with others and their stories institutionally constructed roles (e.g., of faith and those that come with informs the sense of what it is like to doctor, IT officer, etc.). On occasion, membership in a community of fate. live on this mutual ground, to dwell the call of the neighbor supersedes In a multifaith, multicultural, morally together in a shared space. We hear prior commitments and loyalties— diverse context, you do not choose others’ interests and concerns in the whether professional, religious, social, who lives next door or who lives in the context of ongoing relationship and or political—and we can encounter a next block or neighborhood. You find the recognition that everyone in the neighbor in any one of our roles. yourself living among neighbors who tent occupies mutual (not neutral) We have to constantly learn how to may be very different from you. They ground. In this way, community be a good neighbor and how to love may speak a different language, have organizing helps foster the sense that our neighbor. Neighbor love is always different eating habits, or look at the in each other’s welfare we find our a work in progress, never a work of world very differently. But like it or own (Jeremiah 29:7). progress. Encountering fellow citizens not, you share the same fate as them. Understood as a tent, forms of through such practices as community If the electricity is cut off, everyone participatory democratic politics such organizing can be a vital part of loses power. If the sea rises, everyone as community organizing are mobile, the curriculum of neighborliness, is flooded. provisional spaces where faithful particularly in the highly charged and Living in an area shaped by global witness is lived in conversation with polarized political climate of the day. population flows and diverse patterns other faiths and those of no faith. Moreover, we should never forget of life presents challenges to religious But we don’t go camping all the that the quickening presence of the and nonreligious constituencies time. Tentlike spaces, such as those Holy Spirit may be encountered in alike. Not least is the profound sense created by community organizing, the tent as well as in the temple or of disjuncture between group life, thrive best in relationship with the congregation.

FALL 2016 | 21 SEEING GOD IN PRISON Two Perspectives on How God Breaks through Prison Walls

A THEOLOGY OF INCARCERATION

BY LOUIS THREATT

efore my ordination Since then, my involvement in all U.S. prisoners in 2008, even though and installation as prison ministry has increased and my African Americans and Hispanics made senior pastor at Messiah understanding has been deepened. This up approximately one quarter of the Community Christian movement in my life reaffirmed two adult population. In addition, we must BChurch (Disciples of things. First, I can expect to find God be mindful that most of these brothers Christ) in Winston-Salem, N.C., some on the margins. Second, good theology and sisters behind bars will eventually of the first hands laid on me were is essential to healthy relationships return to society. One study on re-entry those of my incarcerated brothers at with those that are incarcerated. trends reveals that a full 95 percent of the Federal Correctional Complex prisoners will make the transition from in Butner, N.C. When they heard SEEING GOD IN PRISON incarceration to our communities. about my next steps in ministry, many According to research from the U.S. I have seen without a doubt that brothers of different races, ages, and Department of Justice, over two million God is present in the prison, certainly prison-security levels surrounded people are housed in our nation’s as much as if not more so than in the me during a worship service in the federal and state prisons and local jails. church. This may surprise some, but medical-unit chapel, stretched out Another 4.7 million individuals are whenever people are hurting, isolated, their hands, and prayed for me. In this currently on probation or parole. Given confused, broken, abandoned, and in moment, these blessed hands that were that millions of people are incarcerated need, we would be naïve to think God laid on me further introduced me to or in some stage of moving through our is not present there. Scripture tells us love that reaches beyond our faults criminal-justice system, eventually we that these are the places where God and issues. This love of God reaches are bound to know someone who has seems to do his best work: with the beyond labels and biases. By God’s been in prison. This is especially true unexpected, the unlikely, the unchosen grace, through the Holy Spirit, I was for African Americans, who together or marginalized. “The Lord is a strong- commissioned into ministry. with Hispanics made up 58 percent of hold for the oppressed, a stronghold in FRANKLIN GOLDEN

22 | DIVINITY way, recognizing that ministry is not restricted to the prison. It also requires us to reach out to all who are affected by incarceration. Why do people get involved in this type of ministry? Some get involved because it is personal; they might know someone in prison or may themselves have been incarcerated. Others are involved because it is A THEOLOGY OF scriptural; they seek to obey texts such as Matthew 25:26, Luke 4:18, or even Isaiah 40:28–29. But whatever brings us to this ministry, we ought to INCARCERATION have a relationship with these brother and sister that affirms their dignity and worth. People in prison are not a project or an assignment. They are children of God. We can be confident that God is already doing a great work behind The Rev. Louis Threatt is the director of Project TURN (Transform, Unlock, ReNew) at the prison walls. When we have this faith, School for Conversion in Durham, N.C. mission becomes true ministry. It is less about our efforts and more times of trouble” (Psalm 9:9). brothers in these spaces, it instigates a about how we can live together; less Engagement with Scripture behind direct confrontation with the powers about ministering to and more about the prison walls transforms our that be, both powers in this world and ministry among; less about what we understanding of how God works and powers within us. Only by naming and have done and more about what God renews our mind and outlook on life. exposing these powers can we learn has done. Anytime we read the text amid oppres- to do theology well. (We do well to Jesus calls us into prison, but not sion and damaged identity, anytime we remember that Paul was a theologian primarily to help others or even to find ourselves surrounded by locked before he was a servant of Christ. help ourselves. Jesus calls us into steel doors and jangling keys, barbed Theology abstracted from seeing Jesus prison to have a closer relationship wire fences and cold cell rooms with will never save us.) with him. Anytime we engage in no windows or privacy, anytime we are ministry, it is about relationship with surrounded by death and injustice, our THEOLOGY SHAPED BY PRISON God and one another. We desperately eyes will be opened to new viewpoints Theology that is embedded in need the Spirit of the Lord—the Holy on things we might not otherwise see. prison ministry has to be relational. Spirit—to help us preach, proclaim, On the margins, we will see God in It requires us to view those who serve, and live within those spaces in new ways. are incarcerated as brothers and between the neat categories of good In his book The Word on the Street, sisters rather adhere to an “us versus and bad. Prison, I have found, is an Duke Divinity School professor them” or hierarchical model that ideal space to get to know the true and Charles Campbell says that reading privileges ministers over prisoners. living God. Scripture in these contexts “not Prison ministry cannot be fully only unmasks reality but is an act effective if it is attempted as a linear, of resistance.” In other words, when one-directional project. It must be Scripture is opened with sisters and understood in a multifaceted, holistic FRANKLIN GOLDEN

FALL 2016 | 23 SEEING GOD IN PRISON Two Perspectives on How God Breaks through Prison Walls

LIVING THEOLOGY: INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE PRISON

BY KAYE B. WARD

he goal of Christian uncle were Free Will Baptist ministers, I broke from my relationship with theology is to better and we lived with them for part of my God when my heart strayed, and I understand God as childhood. This was during a time when embezzled from my employer. I looked revealed to us in the many preachers preached a “hell, fire, for acceptance outside of God. Like a Bible. My entire percep- and brimstone” doctrine. They preached child separated from her mother in a Ttion and understanding of God was that the God of the Bible was a God department store, I let go of God’s hand changed dramatically by participating of wrath and vengeance who poured in search of something else. For that and in the prison ministries offered to me out that vengeance on people. I was for breaking the law, I paid the price while I was incarcerated at the North afraid of that God. It was not out of the of 44 months of incarceration. It was a Carolina Correctional Institute for ordinary to hear someone say, “Well, horrible experience, being separated Women in Raleigh, N.C. I took Duke that’s what he gets for doing so-and- from everyone and everything I loved. Divinity School courses and learned so!” when something bad happened. But as horrible as it was, it was one with the help of my professor Lauren I had the feeling that I had to do of the best things that could have Winner, our chaplain, Sarah Jobe everything right, and if I sinned, God happened to my Christian theology and D’06, and Alice Noell of the JobStart would punish me by causing something to me. I experienced many epiphanies, program sponsored by Interfaith bad to happen to me. If I worked hard and I would like to share some of my Prison Ministries for Women, where I enough, I, and those I loved, would be most important ones. am now employed. On the day that I safe from anything bad. Today I know went to prison, I was stripped naked that this is not true; it is a false belief GOD IS A GOD OF LOVE except for one thing—my Bible. Once always lurking in the background of It was hard for me to understand the God was all I had, I learned that God this view of a wrathful God. I was like awesomeness of God’s grace—that, was all I needed. the apostles on the road to Emmaus: no matter what, God loved me and I had a distorted view of God as I I walked beside God for years, but I had a plan for my life. The wonderful grew up. Both my grandfather and my never really knew who he was. truth is that God does love us with an FRANKLIN GOLDEN

24 | DIVINITY But God gave me hope that greater things were to come. My favorite verse was Jeremiah 29:11, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”

GOD IS A GOD OF PURPOSE We all need people in our lives who raise our standards, remind us of our LIVING THEOLOGY: essential purpose, and challenge us to become the best version of ourselves. INSIDE AND OUTSIDE THE PRISON This happened to me in my JobStart classes, a 16-week program that prepares incarcerated women for life outside prison. I learned that our pain has a purpose. Our problems, struggles, heartaches, and hassles cooperate toward one end—the glory of God. Our faith in the face of suffering Kaye Ward is now enrolled in a bachelor's degree program at the University of Mount Olive. cranks up the volume of God’s song. God does not exist to make a big deal out of us; we exist to make a big deal everlasting love, but he also desires our does not go home for the night after out of God. When our deepest desire devotion and love in return. The will of the day is done. He does not take is not the things of God, or a favor God is wrapped up in our relationship vacations or time off or sick days. He from God, but God himself, we cross to a loving God who has only the very is never too busy for me—so how a threshold; we focus less on ourselves best in mind for each of us. God loves could I be too busy for him? God has and more on God. me the same today as yesterday and promised to never leave us. It may The Catholic women from Sacred tomorrow. Love is so important to God appear that we have left him, but we Heart who served as religious volun- that Jesus says in Matthew 22:36–40 are never really out of God’s sight, just teers in prison helped me to under- that love is the greatest commandment. out of God’s will. stand that the measure of greatness is If we lived by this commandment, what not position, power, or prestige; it is a beautiful world this would be. God GOD IS A GOD OF HOPE service. I am a work in progress, and wants us to love one another so that Our hope comes from God. We can new to this service thing. I feel called the world may believe in the reality of conquer anything through Christ, but to Christian ministry but unworthy of this amazing, gracious, everlasting love. change has to come from within. When this calling. I love God with my whole I was in prison, I came to appreciate heart, and I know that he will mold me GOD IS A FRIEND the real things in life—my relationship into the woman that he wants me to This attribute of God was the most with God, my family, and my friends. be. A strong woman knows her past, important to me as an inmate. God We can live without new cars and big understands her present, and moves went to prison with me and was there houses and designer clothes, but we forward to her future. Today I am with me 24/7 as my friend. Jesus cannot live a life of true joy without celebrating that I have someone in commands us to love as he loves God and the gift of our family and my life who’s worth living and dying (John 13:34; 15:12; 17:23), and he says friends. It is so tempting when you are for—a God of love, hope, and purpose in John 15:14, “You are my friends if in prison to give up hope. It is tempting who has dared to be my friend. you do what I command you.” God to define yourself by your sentence. FRANKLIN GOLDEN

FALL 2016 | 25 BECOMING A PLACE OF Safety and Support DOMESTIC VIOLENCE and the CHURCH BY DINA HELDERMAN | ART BY SHERRILL KEEFE

26 | DIVINITY BECOMING A PLACE OF Safety and Support n North Carolina nothing of these women, but I had alone, 53 people already written a story about them. died in 2015 as a That’s what the uneducated do. result of domestic Over time, I listened to their violence. Thirty- voices telling their stories. Each nine women, six woman had a history of violence children, and eight at home, most often beginning men murdered. in childhood. They were not the Fifty-three children violent ones; they had been the of God ranging from five months to recipients of violence. Each came I70 years old. An additional 16 lives to be addicted to drugs as way of were lost because the perpetrators surviving the trauma and abuse committed suicide. they had experienced. They were The list of 53 names, compiled surviving however they could. Many by the North Carolina Coalition had escaped one violent relation- Against Domestic Violence, is a ship only to be held hostage in the chilling reminder that too often next. Born into systems that were we have believed that domestic already broken, drugs became a violence is a family issue, not a coping mechanism for dealing with public one. We’ve asserted that family dysfunction. For many, what it’s not a problem in our churches. they were born into offered them Seminarians can complete years little chance to be anything other of study without exploring their than who they became as adults. misconceptions about intimate As I got to know these women partner violence, their theological and their children who lived with and moral convictions about abuse, them, I learned to love them and and their responsibility to break their children. In their children’s silence and speak truth. eyes, I saw their mothers’ lost innocence. This began my journey WHY DOESN’T SHE LEAVE? into the truth and consequences of When I left seminary, I believed domestic violence. that, if the abuse was that bad, a In my work at the Durham woman would leave. I became a Crisis Response Center and in caseworker at a small nonprofit that co-facilitating groups at the North served as an alternative to prison Carolina Correctional Institution for nonviolent women who were for Women in Raleigh, I have addicted to drugs and in trouble continued to listen to those who with the law. I assumed that the have been covered in shame and women mandated to this program secrecy by society. I have learned had been foolish enough to use that victims of intimate partner drugs and were bad parents. I knew violence come in all shapes and

FALL 2016 | 27 sizes. They are believers and nonbe- whispered words of a survivor. They It surprises many to learn that victims lievers. They live in mansions and they have quoted, “Wives, be obedient to are at their greatest risk of physical live in their cars. They are white; they your husbands,” rather than protecting attack and homicide at the time when are black. They are straight; they are the vulnerable and afraid. Pastors they choose to leave the relationship. gay. They are me. They are you. And have protested to me, “We don’t have It’s little wonder why it takes a the abusers? I have learned that they domestic violence in our church.” To survivor an average of seven attempts are doctors, lawyers, police officers, which I respond: if you never speak to leave an abusive relationship. Not pastors, elders, husbands, boyfriends, of it from the pulpit, you choose not only can we place the victim and the girlfriends, brothers, sisters. They are in to see it in your church. If you never children in greater danger, but we can our families. They cannot be typecast preach about the Scripture that speaks also put our families and ourselves by their looks in order to maintain of violence against women, women will in the line of fire. Without specific perceptions of safety. They are me. never share their stories of violence training on how to respond most They are you. with you. You do not see what you safely to intimate partner violence, choose to ignore, and what you ignore, we can create risk and vulnerability CHURCHES AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE you silently support. for ourselves and our churches. Sadly, churches traditionally have Those of us in helping professions Seminaries must make training in erred on the side of the powerful in desire to come alongside and support how to respond, care for, and work cases of intimate partner violence. those in pain and fear. But in the alongside local communities a priority. They have relied on an interpreta- case of intimate partner violence, our Otherwise, church leaders who do try tion of Scripture—often out of greatest intentions can exacerbate a to support victims are often left to context—rather than trusting the dangerous situation into a lethal one. guess at the best ways to help.

RECOMMENDED RESOURCES FOR LEARNING MORE ABOUT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Dina Helderman recommends a variety ORGANIZATIONS is forgiveness, and what is its role in of resources to support church leaders Become familiar with the resources domestic abuse situations? Fortune in understanding and responding to and support offered by local shelters explores both the theological and domestic violence. To contact her and agencies in your area. The North practical aspects, with an emphasis on about workshops and training, email Carolina Coalition Against Domestic pastoral care. www.faithtrustinstitute.org/ [email protected] or call Violence provides a wealth of informa- resources/articles/Forgiveness.pdf (919) 613-5329. tion, including articles about domestic violence, a directory of service providers “What a Faith Community Can Do to in each county, and a list of training Respond to Domestic Violence” events and webinars. www.nccadv.org This list of practical steps can help move congregations toward meaningful support ARTICLES and ministry to those who have suffered The FaithTrust Institute website from domestic and sexual violence. provides numerous helpful articles www.faithtrustinstitute.org/resources/articles/ and other resources. What-Faith-Community-Can-Do%202014.pdf

“Forgiveness: The Last Step” “What Religious Leaders Can By Marie M. Fortune Do to Respond to Domestic and This article helps to address a challenge Sexual Violence” frequently encountered in ministry With 15 concrete examples of actions with domestic-violence survivors. What that clergy and church leaders can take, FRANKLIN GOLDEN

28 | DIVINITY THEOLOGY IN PRACTICE: programs to provide victims with a Why don’t we, as a church, in our RESPONDING TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE well-rounded support system to keep sacred places declare these behaviors After years of ministry with survivors them safe, both while in the relation- incompatible with the love of God of domestic violence, I am asking ship and when they choose to leave and provide ways in the church for the that you—you and your lay leaders the relationship. continued support of both parties? and your clergy colleagues—receive Speak the truth about family Why do we instead blame the victim, training. Receive theological training. violence from the pulpit. Teach our asking “why doesn’t she just leave?” Learn to wrestle with difficult ques- teenagers how to have respect and Too often, we assume we would leave. tions about forgiveness and account- healthy dating relationships. Remove Too often, we assume that we wouldn’t ability. Learn to answer the plea of a secrecy. Let it be clear that violence be with an abuser in the first place. child wondering why God could allow has no part in how God directs us to We tell ourselves these lies in order this to happen to her family. be family. No one can respond to this to have a false sense of protection In addition, receive training from violence alone. It takes a communal and to limit our compassion for your local crisis center. Learn about effort, and that must include churches. those in pain. Now is the time to their resources. Learn which agencies Let’s return to my original belief: stop telling false stories. Now is the provide classes to abusers. Learn from Why doesn’t she just leave? I now time to proclaim the truth—especially them how your church community can know to change the question: Why in church. support these local resources. Bring doesn’t the abuser stop? Why don’t Let us tell the truth, the whole story their staff into your church to speak we, as a community, provide adequate no matter how ugly or ungodly it may to your people. Clergy must reach out resources and safety for the survivors appear. There, in the truth, we will find and work alongside other community and accountability for the abusers? our Healer, and we will be healed.

this list provides guidance on how to BOOKS her and for other survivors. It is helpful for address the issues of domestic and Keeping the Faith: Guidance for those who have suffered from abuse as sexual violence in ways that will make a Christian Women Facing Abuse well as for pastors, counselors, thera- difference in their communities. By Marie M. Fortune pists, and others who minister to them. www.faithtrustinstitute.org/resources/articles/ This practical guide addresses What-Religious-Leaders-Can-Do.pdf issues of faith for women who Domestic Violence: have suffered from domestic What Every Pastor Needs to Know “When the Abuser Is Among Us: abuse and offers important By Al Miles One Church’s Response to a Perpetrator” tools for counselors and others Often, pastoral caregivers By Carol J. Adams who support them. have the same misconcep- No congregation wants to think that tions about domestic violence a perpetrator of domestic or sexual We Were the Least of These: Reading the as does the uninformed violence could be its midst. This is wishful Bible with Survivors of Sexual Abuse public. This book addresses thinking, however. This helpful case study By Elaine A. Heath the issues related to inadequate pastoral describes how churches can respond As a theologian and survivor response to this pervasive problem and either positively or negatively when it’s of abuse, Duke Divinity describes what clergy members can do to revealed that someone in the church has School dean Elaine Heath provide healing, support, and care. been a sexual or domestic abuser. handles this sensitive topic www.faithtrustinstitute.org/resources/articles/ with compassion and grace, When-the-Abuser-Is-Among-Us.pdf offering a close reading of several biblical passages that have brought healing for

FALL 2016 | 29 PROGRAMS & EVENTS Focus on Theology beyond Traditional Walls

Christian Forum for Reconciliation in Northeast Asia Fifty-five scholars, practitioners, clergy, and denominational pastor and Korean-American participant from Los Angeles, said leaders from China, Hong Kong, Japan, North Korea, South she was moved by Dean Davis’ plenary teaching, which helped Korea, and the United States gathered in Hong Kong May her see that “lament is a spiritual practice that does not come 23–28 for the third annual Christian forum for Reconciliation in naturally. [Her] insights gave us a framework to lament the pain Northeast Asia, sponsored by the Duke Divinity School Center and despair we see in Northeast Asia and provided a guideline to for Reconciliation in partnership with the Mennonite Central trust that the one we cry out to hears and transforms us.” PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CENTER FOR RECONCILIATION Committee. Seven Duke Divinity School participants included The forum is part of a wider Northeast Asia Reconciliation Interim Dean Ellen Davis, Professor Xi Lian, Associate Dean Dan Initiative focused on nourishing Christian leadership, theology, Struble, and four students: Cory O’Neal, Jaron Cheung, Caitlin mission, and collaboration to pursue God’s peace throughout

Tremper, and Aaron Griffith. The focus of the 2016 gathering Northeast Asia. For more information, see the forum website at JARED LAZARUS/DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY was “The Lament that Leads to Hope.” The Rev. Sue Park-Hur, a www.neareconciliation.com. DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

30 | DIVINITY Convocation & Pastors’ School Focuses on “Who Needs Theology?: Inside and Outside the Church”

The 2016 Convocation and Pastors’ School Florida Conference of the UMC; and Ellen was held Oct. 10–11 at Duke Divinity Davis, Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished School to explore the following questions: Professor of Bible and Practical Theology What difference does theology make for at Duke Divinity School. Panelists and the church, the university, and society seminar leaders with backgrounds in at large? How can critical theological medicine, business, science, art, youth thinking make a practical difference in ministry, and community organizing also our local communities? What if we don’t participated, and Duke Divinity School share common beliefs? Featured speakers alumni and initiatives hosted numerous included Duke Divinity School Dean receptions. Convocation & Pastors’ Elaine Heath; Norman Wirzba, professor School is an annual event held at Duke of theology, ecology, and agrarian Divinity School and is supported by studies at Duke Divinity School; Brian the North Carolina and Western North Combs, founder and pastor of Haywood Street Congregation Carolina Conferences of the UMC, The Duke Endowment, and in Asheville, N.C.; Kenneth Carter Jr., resident bishop of the the Parish Ministry Fund.

Divinity School Faculty Contribute to Duke Task Force Report

Three members of the Divinity School faculty served on the Duke University Task Force on Bias and Hate Issues: Edgardo Colón- Emeric, assistant professor of Christian theology; Luke Powery, dean of Duke University Chapel and associate professor of homi- letics; and Abdullah Antepli, chief representative of Muslim affairs and adjunct faculty. The task force was charged by President Richard Brodhead with a broad review of Duke’s policies, prac- tices, and culture as they pertain to bias and hate in the Duke student experience. After months of research and meeting with students, staff, and faculty across Duke, they presented their report earlier this year. Their recommendations will guide the university in ensuring that the Duke community lives up to its values of inclusion and respect for all of its members. The task force website (https://spotlight.duke.edu/taskforce/) will be regu- larly updated so that the full picture of this important work—from

JARED LAZARUS/DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY the inception of the task force through the implementation of recommendations—is visible in a single place. “We encourage you to learn more and participate in this conversation so that we can move together toward creating the university we all want,” said President Brodhead. DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

FALL 2016 | 31 PROGRAMS & EVENTS Focus on Theology beyond Traditional Walls

Not Your Average Graduation Project TURN provides graduate-level theological education to students in an unusual format: classes include both incarcer- ated students and graduate students at Duke Divinity School. Project TURN’s goal is to create spaces where incarcerated and non-incarcerated students can learn with and from each other, breaking down stereotypes on both sides. Some of Barbara’s favorite classes included “The History and Practice of Prayer,” “Poetic Imagination,” and “Domestic Violence and the Bible.” Sarah Jobe D’06 is chaplain at the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women (NCCIW) and one of Barbara’s teachers. “Barbara sets an example for other women as they begin their studies, bringing a depth of insight into class discussions and helping to create an environment of inquisitive learning at our facility.” At the certificate presentation, several of Barbara’s past Project TURN teachers joined her onstage as Interim Dean Ellen Davis presented the award, and the entire audience of faculty, staff, and graduating Divinity School students recognized her achievement with a standing ovation. Barbara Stager was presented with a Certificate of Achievement Project TURN is a partnership between Duke Divinity School, in Theological Education from Duke Divinity School during the N.C. Department of Public Safety, and the School for Closing Convocation, an award recognizing the nine classes she Conversion. Representatives from each of these institutions has taken over the past four and a half years through Duke’s were present to celebrate the occasion, including Warden Project TURN program. She is only the second student to receive Kenneth Royster of NCCIW and Chaplain Betty Brown, director this certificate, and only the second incarcerated student to of chaplaincy services for the N.C. Department of Public Safety. be recognized by Duke University for her academic achieve- To read more about Barbara and Project TURN, see ments. Unlike most other programs offered inside of prisons, www.schoolforconversion.org/not-your-average-graduation/.

Reimagining Health Summer Gathering Commissioned Painting Installed

Duke Divinity School welcomed congregational teams from Riven Tree, by Bruce Herman, the Reimagining Health Collaborative July 13–16 for the Lothlórien Distinguised Reimagining Health Summer Gathering. Representatives from Chair in Fine Arts at Gordon the eight participating congregations have been working for the College in Wenham, Mass., last year to develop new programs and projects related to health and the Duke Initiatives in and health care. An additional 60 people from four states, Theology and the Arts spring including North Carolina, participated in sessions focused on 2016 artist-in-residence, efforts to envision and implement new responses to mental was created at Duke Divinity health and mental illness. Guest speaker Brandon Appelhans School. The painting is based represented the organization My Quiet Cave, which provides on the resurrection of Jesus PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID BLANKENBERG resources, connection, and workshops to individuals living with and hangs in the York Room. depression or bipolar disorder. “We need to create a safe space To learn more about Herman where people are trusted and where the terms don’t have to be and Riven Tree, see http:// explained,” he said. “When that’s there, there’s a chance for divinity.duke.edu/news/ people to rest.” Reimagining Health Collaborative is an initiative divinity-school-installs- DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY of Theology, Medicine & Culture at Duke Divinity School. commissioned-painting.

32 | DIVINITY Students Say Pastoral Formation Shaped by Israel Tour Meredith Riedel, assistant professor of the history of Christianity, in that heat and in that desert with no water for more than a day and Beth Sheppard, director of Divinity Library and associate I would be complaining and perhaps angry with God, too. The professor of the practice of theological bibliography, led a group harsh conditions that the Israelites experienced as explained of Divinity School students on a trip to Israel. It was the main in Exodus came to light and life for me. I realize that we need to learning experience for the course “War in the Land of Shalom.” have more grace when telling those stories. I have heard many This course was co-taught by Professors Riedel and Sheppard pastors read and sermonize about them in such a negative light. and cross-listed as both a New Testament and church history But when you are there, when you see the harsh conditions for course. Students read Josephus’ account of the first-century yourself, I think you will think differently about it all. My preaching Jewish War, studied selected episodes of Crusader history, and and teaching of the word will forever be changed by my journey visited sites associated with both of these areas of history, as well to Israel.” Another student noted: “I know this trip has changed as many biblical sites. me. I will look back at this trip as perhaps the most formative and The itinerary included Jaffa, Caesarea Maritima, Acre/Akko, instructive experience in my time in seminary. To see how the Haifa, Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee, Montfort Castle, Zippori, land has been changed and built upon by war and its strategic Belvoir Castle, Magdala, the Golan Heights, Gamla, the Valley considerations is impressive. To sense that the society that is of Tears/Valley of Death, Nimrod Castle, Capernaum, the Dead built there today feels the presence of the threat of war is some- Sea, Masada, Qumran, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem. When trav- thing that we back home do not have to experience in our little eling through the Judean desert toward Masada, one student bubble. And I think it’s because of that that there is a richness described how the trip was a formative experience: “I could really and an appreciation of life that we also lack.” To read more about understand the complaining of the Israelites. I think if I was out the trip and see photos, visit www.caitlinmcalhany.wordpress.com. PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID BLANKENBERG

FALL 2016 | 33 FACULTY & STAFF NOTES

JEREMY BEGBIE delivered the with a pounamu taonga (greenstone a Faithful Christian Life,” with Keith Northcutt Lecture, “Desiring God in treasure, a traditional honor in New Meador, and “What Does Any of This Worship: A Musical Perspective on Zealand) by the bishop of Waikato and Have to Do with Being a Physician? a Contemporary Theme,” at Baylor Taranaki. He also gave several other Kierkegaardian Irony and the Practice University (Waco, Texas) on April lectures: “Prison Ministry: Do’s and of Medicine.” He gave the Mekhjian 7, and a performance lecture titled Don’ts,” for “The Feast,” a discipleship Lecture on Medical Ethics at The Ohio “Encountering the Trinity in Music” gathering of the Anglican Diocese State University on Sept. 15. as part of the Pusey House Trinity of Waikato and Taranaki/Te Hahi Conference (Oxford, U.K.) on June Mihinare ki Aotearoa, ki Niu Tireni ki ELLEN DAVIS delivered lectures 29. He presented “Being Known and Nga Moutere o Te Moana Nui a Kiwa, for “The Biblical Short Story: Not Knowing: Trinity, Music, and Newbigin” (Hamilton, N.Z.), May 17; “Covenant as Simple as It Seems,” an event at for the Newbigin Summer Institute or Contract in the Interpretation of St. the Episcopal Church of the Good (Cambridge, U.K.) July 13–14, and Paul,” at The College of St John the Shepherd (Lexington, Ky.) on May May 29 he preached at Sidney Sussex Evangelist/Hoani Tapu te Kaikauwhau 20, and at the Christian Forum for College (Cambridge, U.K.). He invited i te Rongopai, (Auckland, N.Z.), May Reconciliation in Northeast Asia professional instrumentalists to Duke 18; “Who Will Be Resurrected?” at (Hong Kong), May 23–26. She was for an evening of “Theology and the University of Otago (Dunedin, the facilitator of the Center for Improvisation,” an Aug. 31 event in N.Z.), May 23; and “Apocalyptic Reconciliation’s Summer Institute which he also performed that was part Epistemology: The Sine Qua Non program, June 6–10, and the plenary of a two-day series of Theology and the of Pauline Epistemology,” for the speaker at the Society for the Study of Arts events organized in conjunction Department of Theology and Religion, Christian Ethics Annual Conference with Opening Convocation. University of Otago (Dunedin, N.Z.), (Cambridge, U.K.), Sept. 8–13. May 24. He was named a National LUKE BRETHERTON published Humanities Center Fellow for 2016–17. CRAIG DYKSTRA received the General “Democracy, Society and Truth: Assembly Award for Excellence An Exploration of Catholic Social STEPHEN CHAPMAN published the in Theological Education at the Teaching,” in the Scottish Journal Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew June meeting of the General Assembly of Theology (69.3, 2016), and Bible/Old Testament, co-edited with of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). “Blasphemy,” in New Dictionary of Marvin Sweeney. He is on leave this The award is given biennially “to honor Theology: Historical and Systematic, year to complete a writing project on a person who has made an outstanding 2nd ed., edited by Martin Davie the theology of the book of Joshua. lifetime contribution to theological (InterVarsity Press). He presented education in and for the Presbyterian plenary papers at several events: the MARK CHAVES and Alison J. Eagle Church (U.S.A.).” Annual Society of Vineyard Scholars published “Congregations and Social Conference (Raleigh, N.C.), April Services: An Update from the Third SUSAN EASTMAN presented “It’s 21–23; the conference “Everyday Wave of the National Congregations Personal: Paul and Neuroscience on Ethics: A Future for Moral Theology?” Study” online in Religions (7.55) on Personal Action and the Intersubjective (University of Oxford), May 26–27; and May 19. He published “The Price of Self” for the Duke Institute for Brain “The Future of Theology,” a consulta- the Calling: Evidence from the Current Sciences Neurohumanities Research tion at Yale Divinity School, June 9–10. Population Survey,” with Cyrus Group on Sept. 9. At the Faraday Schleifer, in Journal for the Scientific Institute for Science and Religion DOUGLAS CAMPBELL delivered Study of Religion (55, 2016). at the University of Cambridge, the Bishop Selwyn Lecture, “Sex, she participated in a workshop on Gender, and Marriage: Paul’s Advice FARR CURLIN co-edited the April artificial intelligence, robotics, and for the Modern Church,” at Holy 2016 issue of Christian Bioethics, the human and presented “Artificial Trinity Cathedral (Auckland, N.Z.) which included two of his essays: Intelligence, Robotics, and Pauline on May 19, where he was presented “Setting Medicine in the Context of Anthropology” for an interdisciplinary

34 | DIVINITY short course on “Reality, Robotics, Critical Companion, edited by the Historical Society of the United and Religion: Human Identity in an John Barton (Princeton University Methodist Church, May 23–26. He was Age of Machines” held Sept. 15–18. Press). She received an honorable named to the editorial board of New She gave the Lund Lectures in New mention from the 2016 SBL David Room Books, a new publishing imprint Testament at North Park Theological Noel Freedman Award for Hebrew of the General Board of Higher Seminary (Chicago), Sept. 28–29, Bible Scholarship for her essay Education and Ministry. and presented a paper, “Paul and the “Afterlives and Otherworlds in Person: Perspectives from Cognitive the Tales of Daniel.” LESTER RUTH published “Dear, Jesus?” Science and Philosophy,” for the North in Worship Leader (25.2, 2016). Park Symposium on the Theological RICHARD LISCHER retired on June Interpretation of Scripture, Sept. 30, after 37 years of teaching at Duke BETH SHEPPARD published “The 29–Oct. 1. She published “Grace and Divinity School. At the event to mark Fourth Gospel, Romanization, Transformation,” a review of Paul and the occasion, “A Vocation to Preach,” and the Role of Women,” in An the Gift by John M.G. Barclay, online in he was presented with a Festschrift, Introduction to Empire in the New Marginalia Review of Books on May 9. Preaching Gospel, edited by CHARLES Testament, edited by Adam Winn CAMPBELL, Jennifer Copeland, Clayton (Society of Biblical Literature). MARY MCCLINTOCK FULKERSON Schmit, and Mary Hinkle Shore. published “Ethnography in Theology: ROSS WAGNER, with ISMAEL RUIZ- A Work in Progress,” in Lived DAVID MARSHALL co-edited, with MILLAN, taught the course “Filipenses Theology: New Perspectives on Lucinda Mosher, Sin, Forgiveness, and y la Forma de Discipulado Cristiano” Method, Style, and Pedagogy, edited Reconciliation: Christian and Muslim for the Methodist Course of Study in by Charles Marsh, Peter Slade, and Perspectives (Georgetown University Ahuachapán, El Salvador, April 17–21. Sarah Azaransky (Oxford University Press). Working with Georgetown He delivered the 2016 New Testament Press), and “Reformation and Bodily University’s Berkley Center, he facili- Lectures on the topic “Faith, Hope, Proprieties: Disrupting Rituals tated the 15th annual meeting of the and Law: From LXX Isaiah to the of Hospitality,” in Always Being Building Bridges Seminar for Muslim Letters of Paul” at Trinity Evangelical Reformed: Challenges and Prospects and Christian scholars, held in May in Divinity School (Deerfield, Ill.) on for the Future of Reformed Theology, Washington, D.C., and Warrenton, Va., April 27. The lectures were “‘My edited by David H. Jensen (Pickwick on the theme “Monotheism and Its People, in Whose Heart Is My Law’ Publications). She presented the Complexities.” (LXX Isa. 51:7): Trust in God and paper “Colorblind Faith, Hope, and Fidelity to the Law in the Septuagint Love: The Effect of Implicit Bias” at RUSSELL RICHEY co-led the Summer Version of Isaiah” and “‘The Telos of “Faith, Hope, and Love: Challenges & Wesley Seminar at Duke’s Center for the Law Is Christ’ (Rom. 10:4): The Opportunities Today,” a conference at Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition. In Role of Septuagint Isaiah in Shaping Claremont Graduate University, June he was named to another four- Paul’s Understanding of the Law.” April 15–16. She moderated a panel year term on the UMC’s Committee and church discussion on race at New on Faith and Order, and he drafted its LACEYE WARNER served as a Creation UMC (Durham, N.C.) on study “United Methodist Doctrine and workshop leader on “John Wesley May 21. Teaching on the Nature, Mission, and and Evangelism” for World Methodist Faithfulness of the Church: A Resource Council (Houston, Texas) on Sept. 1, JENNIE GRILLO published “Is Patristic Paper from the UMC Committee on as a panelist for Duke Endowment’s Exegesis Good for Old Testament Faith and Order.” His book Methodism “UM Convocation on the Rural Scholarship? Jerome and Gregory of in the American Forest (Oxford Church” (Hilton Head, S.C.) on Aug. Nyssa on Ecclesiastes,” in Perspectives University Press) was judged the 10, and as an instructor on “Women on Israelite Wisdom, edited by John outstanding book on United Methodist and Evangelism” for the Advanced Jarick (Bloomsbury), and “Wisdom history or a related subject published Summer Course of Study at Duke Literature,” in The Hebrew Bible: A during 2015 at the conference of Divinity School, July 4–15. She

FALL 2016 | 35 FACULTY & STAFF NOTES

also gave numerous talks at UMC the Festival of Homiletics (Atlanta, the Dean’s Advisory Council of Yale events: “Baptism and Covenant,” Ga.) in May, lectured on “The Future Divinity School. Texas Youth Academy, Southwestern of Preaching” at the Carey Baptist University, June 28; “Resurrecting College Seminar for Pastors and BRITTANY WILSON published “Hearing the Word: Evangelism,” South Church Leaders (Auckland, N.Z.) in the Word and Seeing the Light: Voice Georgia Annual Conference, June July, and taught the course “Theology and Vision in Acts,” in the Journal for 9; “Spreading Scriptural Holiness: of Preaching” for Fuller Theological the Study of the New Testament (38.4, Reclaiming Wesleyan Evangelism,” Seminary’s learning center in 2016). She received a Wabash Center Evangelical Fellowship, North Atlanta in August. He also preached Fellowship for her project “Bodies Texas Annual Conference, June 6; and conducted workshops at First Matter” and attended a workshop “Spreading Scriptural Holiness: Then Presbyterian Church (Hamilton, Ont.) for pre-tenure faculty in theological and Now,” Southeast District Clergy in May, spoke to Michigan District schools held in Crawfordsville, Ind. She Retreat, Texas Annual Conference, Nazarene pastors (Detroit, Mich.), was honored at an awards ceremony May 2–4; and “Lead Like a Girl,” talked on the church and racism at the and colloquium in Heidelberg, Clergywomen’s Retreat, North Texas Sojourners Summit for Justice Leaders Germany, as a recipient of the Manfred Annual Conference, April 11–12. She (Washington, D.C.), and preached at the Lautenschläger Award for Theological was an elected clergy delegate from national leadership conference for the Promise for her book Unmanly Men: the Texas Annual Conference to both Church of the Resurrection (Leawood, Refigurations of Masculinity in Luke- the General Conference (May) and Kan.) in Sept. In service to the Acts (Oxford University Press). She the Southcentral Jurisdictional UMC, he participated in the General participated in an invited panel discus- Conference (July). Conference (Portland, Ore.) in May sion of Unmanly Men at the British and the Southeastern Jurisdictional New Testament Society in Chester, WILL WILLIMON published “Why meeting in July, conducted a seminar on England. She is on research leave for Leaders Are a Pain,” in The Christian “Preaching on the Anniversary of 9/11” the 2016–2017 academic year to work Century (Feb. 6), and “The Preaching of for the North Carolina Conference, on her current project on embodiment Karl Barth,” in A Legacy of Religious and led a reflection on “Seasons of in the book of Acts thanks to a grant Educators (Liberty University Ministry” for pastors of that conference from the Louisville Institute. Press). He was a featured preacher at on Sept. 15. He is currently serving on

NEW BOOK FROM DUKE DIVINITY SCHOOL DEAN ELAINE A. HEATH

HOW CAN THE CHURCH stay in step with the Spirit during a time Today Christianity is undergoing a cultural shift just as chal- of unprecedented change? The apostle Paul led the Galatians lenging as the situation confronting Paul and the Galatians. through a As many churches decline, congregations and pastors feel God Unbound: massive cultural uncertain and anxious about how to continue their mission Wisdom from shift in which of making disciples of Jesus Christ. Galatians for the they had to Anxious Church radically expand Elaine Heath extends an invitation to broaden our view of God by By Elaine A. Heath their ideas of moving beyond the walls of buildings and programs to become a Upper Room Books, 2016 who God is, more diverse church than we have ever imagined. While deeply 108 pages, Paperback who they were, honoring tradition, she calls the church to boldly follow the Holy $9.99 and God's Spirit's leadership into the future. Heath offers practical advice mission for and hope for how the church can move through anxiety to coura- the church. He was able to lead them through this time of great geous, culturally sensitive, and Spirit-led engagement in our rapidly change because of his encounter with the risen Christ on the changing world. Each chapter of the book has reflection questions Damascus road, an experience in which his view of God was for small-group discussion, which enables the book to be used completely upended. for leadership development over several weeks or months.

36 | DIVINITY CLASS NOTES

s s volunteers at this year’s United Methodist 60 90 General Conference in Portland, Ore. She ROBERT E. LEVERENZ D’62 has JO ELLA HOLMAN D’94 graduated with has also been traveling to Eisenhower published There Is Nothing New Under a D.Min. with distinction from Louisville Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon the Sun (Wipf and Stock). The book Presbyterian Theological Seminary. A in Augusta, Ga., to work with veterans draws on the theme of Ecclesiastes 1:9 minister of the Presbyterian Church dealing with post-traumatic stress to capture the progress and absence (U.S.A.), she currently serves as a mission disorder. They create prayer beads and of change in modern history. Robert is coworker to the Caribbean and is based discuss prayer as a healing tool. She a United Methodist minister and social in the Dominican Republic. writes and teaches full-time about prayer, worker living in Portland, Ore., with his spiritual formation, and the use of prayer wife, Melanie. DAVID E. BRANNOCK D’95 has tools and is working on her third book. published Fulfill Your Created Purpose, s which focuses on guiding the choices REGINA HENDERSON D’97 presented 70 high-school graduates make after they the lecture “A Christian Response to to JIM R. BAILES D’74 serves as president, leave home. He and his family reside in Religious Extremism: A North American with TROY FORRESTER D’06 serving as Greeneville, Tenn., where he serves as Perspective” at the 2016 Christ at the vice president, of Disciple Bible Study a full-time writer and speaker. Checkpoint Conference in Bethlehem, Outreach Ministries of Tennessee (in the West Bank, Palestine. She serves as the Holston, Tenn., and Memphis Annual KRISTEN G. VINCENT D’96 worked with associate general secretary for justice & Conferences of the UMC). The aim The Upper Room to make prayer beads relationships at Global Ministries of the of Disciple Bible Study Outreach is to for all delegates, bishops, staff, and United Methodist Church in New York City. develop and strengthen Bible study ministries in local churches and in outreach settings (especially prisons) that will transform lives, make disciples, and empower Christians for outreach ministry. MICHAEL SLUDER D’86 and TIM BEST D’14 are board members. 80s PAUL DOUGLAS JOHNSEN D’83 completed a D.Min. in Biblical Preaching at Luther Theological Seminary in St. Paul, Minn., in May 2016. His thesis was “Exploring the Effectiveness of June 5-9, 2017

Field-Preaching Evangelism in the Grounded in a distinctively Christian vision and framework United Methodist Church.” He is of reconciliation, the Summer Institute for Reconciliation pastor of First UMC in Hartford, Wis. offers in-depth teaching, prayer and worship in an intensive five-day format which is richly practical, contextual and theological. Come expand your theological imagination, MICHAEL PASQUARELLO III D’83 is grapple with real life problems, and be renewed to continue now the Lloyd J. Ogilvie Professor of a journey of faithfulness within a broader community.

Preaching at Fuller Theological Seminary • Tuition cost: $500 (includes most meals) in Pasadena, Calif., having taught at • Scholarships available Asbury Theological Seminary for 14 years. • Online registration opens in September 2016 He has also served as a UMC pastor for 18 years. CENTER FOR RECONCILIATION

FALL 2016 | 37 CLASS NOTES

She lives in Hackensack, N.J. and is an Mission Society, he is a speaker, author, with mental illness. The article mentions elder in the North Carolina Conference. and strategic consultant. his ministry to the family throughout this journey. He is the pastor of Gobin UMC in JULIUS L. MCCARTER D’97 has JEFFERY O. RAINWATER D’02 was Greencastle, Ind. published The Fire and the Rose: named district superintendent of the A Christian Evangelical Universalism. Wyoming District of the Rocky Mountain SILAS M. MORGAN D’08 earned a Ph.D. The book is part spiritual autobiography Conference. He and his wife, LAURA in theology from Loyola University Chicago. and part theology that explores the RAINWATER D’02, live in Cheyenne, His dissertation focuses on the function of question of who will be saved. He is a Wyo., where Laura is the pastor of ideology critique in political theology and minister, educator, and writer residing Grace UMC. was defended with distinction. He lives in in Loudon, Tenn. Minneapolis, Minn. JOHN E. ANDERSON D’06 is now s assistant professor of religious studies GOT NEWS? STAY IN TOUCH! 00 at Presentation College in Aberdeen, S.D. You can email [email protected] ROMAL TUNE D’00 has been named or visit divinity.duke.edu/update senior advisor to the president of The BRYAN W. LANGDOC D’07 was to submit class notes or update Mission Society, which is based near mentioned in the March 2016 issue of your information. Atlanta, Ga. The focus of this new role will Esquire magazine. The article tells the be to help guide The Mission Society to story of two parents in his parish commu- become a fully diverse and inclusive orga- nity and their journey to find the necessary nization. In addition to his work with The resources to help their sons, who struggle

DEATHS

ARTHUR M. CARLTON D’44 died April and as vice president of Wesleyan College Harmon Smith. He was an ardent advo- 28, 2016. A United Methodist minister in in Macon, Ga. In retirement, he served cate for civil rights and fair housing and the Alabama/West Florida Conference, as pastor to Presbyterian churches and an ordained United Methodist minister. he served parishes in Ramer, Columbia, the Seven Lakes Chapel, an ecumenical He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Dothan, Mt. Vernon, Hurtsboro, Opp, congregation in the Sandhills region of Helen Davis Hodges, two sons, three Atmore, Demopolis, and the Selma N.C. His wife of 61 years, Nancy Wilder grandchildren, seven great-grandchildren, District. He was later selected as district Welch, two daughters, a son, five grand- and four great-great-grandchildren. superintendent of the Selma District. In children, and three great-grandchildren his retirement, he and his wife, Mabel survive him. ROBERT CHRISTOPHER BARRETT D’01 Caley Kelley, spent 25 years providing died Feb. 24, 2016. A fourth genera- staff and leadership for Blue Lake Camps LOUIS W. HODGES D’57, G’60 of tion United Methodist minister, he spent for intellectually and physically challenged Lexington, Va., died Feb. 8, 2016. He was most of his life in his native South adults. He is survived by eight children, the Knight Foundation Professor Emeritus Carolina, where he served as a United many grandchildren and great-grandchil- of Journalism Ethics at Washington and Methodist pastor to churches in Manning, dren, and a special friend. Lee University, where he served on the Blacksburg, Charleston, and Spartanburg. faculty for 43 years. He held fellow- During his nearly four-year battle with DONALD J. WELCH D’55 of Spartanburg, ships at Duke University, the University lymphoma, he inspired hundreds of S.C., died Jan. 22, 2016. Ordained in the of Virginia, the Hastings Center, and the people through writing about his experi- Kentucky Conference, he served in parish Poynter Institute for Media Studies and ence and sharing the lessons of faith ministry for several years. He worked in had a Fulbright professorship teaching at learned from his illness. Survivors include higher education at Duke Divinity School Osmani University in Hyderabad, India. his parents, his wife, ELISE ERICKSON and Wofford College and served as presi- Among many publications, he co-authored BARRETT D’04, three children, his dent of the Scarritt Graduate School for The Christian and His Decisions: An mother- and father-in-law, a sister, three Sacred Music and Religious Education Introduction to Christian Ethics with brothers-in-law, and two sisters-in-law.

38 | DIVINITY FALL 2016 | 39 REFLECTIONS

Economics and the Future of Congregations BY DAVE ODOM

THE PASTOR of a new church in an economically chal- members. The fees for this work supported the pastor lenged community recently shared with me a quandary. and his family. Because he sensed that the demand for His community is achieving its mission, which includes his services would wane over time, he was also working bringing together young adult and homeless members. on a Ph.D. to make him more marketable as a consultant But the church is not able to sustain itself. He was hoping in the future. I might help him find a meaningful part-time job. One economic model for these ministries depends on I have heard many stories about committed people a leader who can develop different sources of revenue making a difference in their community in ways that are to support the leader’s work. This approach puts a lot of not economically sustainable. They have created places stress on the leader. Another model treats such churches where the abused and the privileged worship side by as mission outposts, dependent on a larger organization side, where all people are welcomed as members of a for support. Both models do work, but each has difficulties community. Yet many of the congregations are struggling being replicated and scaled. to pay their own bills. They don’t have full-time pay or Instead of starting communities that require extensive appropriate benefits for the staff. They borrow buildings leadership, space, and more, what if we focused on that are barely suitable for ministry. Many congregations the work that needs to be done? The economic model dream of being places of radical welcome but find that would focus on the mission rather than the creation vision unsustainable with the tithes and offerings of those of yet another congregation that would need to be who participate in the community. They are trapped by the self-supporting. The efforts that prove to be effective and American view of sustainability—to be self-supporting. sustainable over time would be models that others could Twenty years ago, Harvard Business School professor replicate in places where the work is needed. Clayton Christensen proposed a theory called disruptive In such cases, the pastor would not be looking for innovation. He began by studying how new products can part-time work. The pastor and others would begin by disrupt established products by entering the market in considering what needs to be done in a community. Do a place no one would expect. Initially, the new products people need housing? Do those trafficked into slavery were often cheap, low-quality, and sold to customers who and prostitution need to be freed? Do children need to were not buying the older, established products. But when be educated? Donors would be attracted to projects that an innovation is successful, its economic model begins to change lives. Microindustries might be started to create win over the customers that the industry does care about. needed products and jobs. A community would likely form Churches tend to be the opposite. Their outreach is that has many of the attributes of a congregation but with prized as a sign of faithfulness and hope, but not much a different type of work at the center. thought is given to the economics. In fact, church leaders Those of us who care about the future of congregations often assume that the money will come if the ministry must have a sustained conversation about economics. is faithful. We need to look at the ministries we most admire and More than 10 years ago, I asked a pastor in the work in partnership with them to explore their sustain- emergent church movement about the economic model ability. As we find great ideas that are succeeding, we need that supported his ministry. He said that his congregation to share the news with others, spreading a new way of did not and could not contribute enough money to pay thinking about how to accomplish our missions. all their bills and the salary of a person in midlife with LES TODD/DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY family responsibilities. He wrote books and consulted —-The original version of this article was published July 26, 2016, in with established congregations about how to reach new Faith & Leadership, www.faithandleadership.com.

40 | DIVINITY MEDITATION

Bless these crosses, O God, and all those who will hold them close to their hearts. Deepen them and us in your wisdom, May all our desires be shaped by your desires for us. Enfold us in your heart, strengthen us in courage, and keep our eyes ever on your cross. Amen.

—A prayer of blessing and commissioning for graduates of Duke Divinity School during the Senior Cross Service in April 2016. LES TODD/DUKE PHOTOGRAPHY

FALL 2016 | A Nonprofit Org U.S. Postage PAID Durham, NC Permit No. 60

DIVINITY MAGAZINE Duke Divinity School • Box 90966 • Durham, North Carolina 27708-0966 www.divinity.duke.edu

fpo

Giving forward A PLANNED GIFT could allow you to make a bigger gift than you thought possible. Make a difference for Duke Divinity School while planning for your future.

> Designate Duke Divinity School as a beneficiary of a retirement plan > Include Duke Divinity School in your will > Establish a gift that pays you an income for life > Give appreciated assets such as stock or real estate

As we settled into retirement, Christa and I decided we could “give forward” and, in our small way, help to make the financial Contact Wes Brown D’76, burden of Divinity School less stressful for students. Through Associate Dean for charitable gift annuities, which provide income for our lifetimes, Leadership Giving we have established The J. Stanley and Christa Langenwalter EMAIL: [email protected] Brown Scholarship Fund which, after we are gone, will provide financial assistance for Divinity students over generations to come. WEB: https://dukeforward.duke.edu/ ways-to-give/gift-planning J. STANLEY BROWN D’89 Charitable gift annuity to support student financial aid PHONE: (919) 660-3479 at Duke Divinity School