VOLUME 21, NUMBER 2 SPRING 2000 TheSPie

Vanderbilt University Divinity School and Oberlin Graduate School of Theology

A Sharing of Tradition Saint Barbara, ca. 1500 Anonymous Stained glass in leaded frame Flemish 9-1/2” x 9-1/2” Vanderbilt Art Association Acquisition Fund Purchase 1985.012 Photograph courtesy of The Lynn Cradick, University Publications and Design SPie Volume 21 • Number 2 • Spring 2000 Features 9 “Dean of America’s Black Preachers” Named Distinguished Alumnus The alumni/ae association selects Gardner C. Taylor as the Divinity School’s distinguished alumnus for 2000. 13 A New Vision of the Abundant Life: The Eschatological Banquet Sallie McFague proposes a new theology for planetary living.

The Spire is published biannually by Vander- bilt University Divinity School in cooperation with the Office of Alumni Publications from 16 editorial and business offices at 301 University Plaza, 112 21st Avenue South, Nashville, TN An Un-retiring Life 37203. (Telephone: 615/322-3981) The editor David Buttrick reflects upon his life as a homiletician. welcomes correspondence from all readers. Please send your comments about the publica- tion or your alumni/ae news to: The Spire 18 The Office of Alumni Publications Vanderbilt University Garage Minister Box 7703, Station B Alumna Pam Fickenscher offers an alternative church experience for Generation X. Mark your calendar today for these events at Nashville, TN 37235 by e-mail: [email protected] Vanderbilt University Divinity School by facsimile: 615/343-8547 19 Address corrections may be sent to: The Office of Gift Records Out of Africa Friday, September 1 Tuesday, September 12 Thursday, October 12 at 7:00 p.m. Vanderbilt University Students report from South Africa 201 Alumni Hall on their field education experiences. FALL CONVOCATION THE INSTALLATION OF JACK M. SASSON & Friday, October 13 at 10:00 a.m. Nashville, TN 37240 4:00 p.m. in Benton Chapel The first Mary Jane Werthan Professor of THE COLE LECTURES Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible at Readers are encouraged to visit the Keynote address delivered by the “Jesus Today: The Legacy of Albert Schweitzer” Vanderbilt University Alumni Web site at: Vanderbilt University Divinity School Reverend Doctor Gardner C. Taylor, “The Battle Over Jesus Today” www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/ BD’40, Recipient of the 2000 Sarratt Theatre, 6:00 p.m. Delivered by Marcus Borg Distinguished Alumnus Award 22 Following Professor Sasson’s address, guests are The Distinguished Professor in Religion and H. Jackson Forstman, Acting Dean Following the convocation, the Divinity invited to a cocktail supper in the new Sarratt Culture and Hundere Endowed Chair in The Charles G. Finney Professor of Theology and A Sharing of Tradition School will host a picnic for students, Courtyard . Religious Studies at Oregon State University Dean of the Divinity School, emeritus The Divinity School celebrates the endowment of faculty, staff, alumni/ae, and convocation two chairs in Jewish and Catholic studies. Acquisitions from the Mary and Harry Victor Judge, BS’77, MS’79, Editor guests. Zimmerman Judaica Collection of the Donna DeVore Pritchett, Art Director Divinity Library will be on display in the of University Publications and Design Sarratt Lobby. Christian Holihan, Contributing Designer On the front cover: Vanderbilt University Divinity School celebrated the 1999-2000 academic year with the initial faculty appointments to the Mary Jane Werthan Chair in Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible and to Cathy Snyder, Director of Alumni/ae the Edward A. Malloy Chair in Catholic Studies. The relationships between these two religious traditions and Development are suggested by the image of the unrolled scroll across the chairs in the acrylic painting by Nashville Anthony J. Spence, E’80, Director of illustrator Natalie Cox Jaynes. A graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Alumni Publications Jaynes was among four artists whose paintings were exhibited recently at the Divinity School.

On the back cover: Nashville artist Kurt M. Lightner’s india ink and sandpaper etchings of the symbols Vanderbilt University is committed to the principles of the four evangelists are based upon the details of the pulpit in Benton Chapel. Lightner was gradu- of equal opportunity and affirmative action. ated from Wheaton College in Illinois where he earned a baccalaureate in studio art.

Spring 2000 3 quadrAngleAround th

serves as the Robert W. Woodruff Professor Hudnut-Beumler Appointed to Deanship Preserving Memory of the Arts at Emory University in Atlanta. American religious the University has strong programs in the arts degree and the doctorate of philosophy. Holocaust Survivor Recounts Life as “Triple Target” “When political leaders are assured of no historian James Hud- professions, a first-rate arts and science fac- Before his tenure at Columbia Theological consequences for their actions, a culture of nut-Beumler becomes ulty, and a willingness to ask questions about Seminary, he served as program associate of During the 22nd annual Holocaust Lecture before his liberation by the Russian army. impunity arises, and humanity is aban- the 15th dean of Van- how we should live and how we use received the religion division of the Lilly Endowment. Series at Vanderbilt University, Gad Beck, “Maybe I had the luck to survive, but to doned—a human becomes ‘the distanced derbilt University traditions to project a future.” His current research and teaching inter- author of An Underground Life: The Memoirs of survive and to know that six million people, other,’” Soyinka informed the Nashville Divinity School on University Provost Thomas G. Burish ests focus on ethics and philanthropy, church a Gay Jew in Nazi Berlin, discussed his experi- of your own, from your family have died— audience. “We cannot ignore the distressing August 1. characterizes the new dean as one who has and state relations, the theological analysis of ences as a Holocaust survivor and partici- my heart is not free,” says Beck. operations of injustice because irreparable The former dean of uncompromising academic values and a ded- culture, and the social aspects of Christian pant in the Nazi anti-resistance. The former Vanderbilt’s lecture series on the Holo- harm may occur by the time the voices of faculty, executive vice ication to achievement at the highest levels. history in the United States. Hudnut-Beum- director of the Jewish Adult Education Cen- caust, held annually in October, is good are raised in opposition. We must president, and profes- “Dr. Hudnut-Beumler brings to the deanship ler is the author of Generous Saints: Congrega- ter in Berlin, Beck described himself as a the longest-sustained series presented on the remember the lawyer’s question to Jesus sor of religion and great energy, an incisive intellect, and a tions Rethinking Ethics and Money, published “triple target” of Nazi persecution—a Jew, a subject on a university campus in the United Christ, ‘Who is my neighbor?’ and we must ask ourselves, ‘What neighborliness have I culture at Columbia Theological Seminary in strong commitment to the advancement of in 1999 by the Alban Institute, and Looking for Holocaust survivor Gad cultivated with the distanced other?’” Atlanta, Georgia, Hudnut-Beumler (pro- theological education,” Burish says. “His God in the Suburbs: The Religion of the American Beck discussed his book, While visiting Vanderbilt, Soyinka also nounced BOYM-ler) succeeds Joseph C. longstanding interests in social justice and Dream and Its Critics, 1945-1965 by Rutgers An Underground Life: met with students at the University’s Black Hough Jr., professor of Christian ethics and community ministry will promote these University Press. the Memoirs of a Gay Cultural Center named in memory of Joseph dean, emeritus, who assumed the presidency highly valued traditions at Vanderbilt Divin- The newly appointed dean holds mem- Jew in Nazi Berlin, A. Johnson, BD’54, PhD’58, the first African of Union Theological Seminary in New York. ity School.” bership in the American Academy of Reli- with students from the American admitted to the University. John- “Vanderbilt is the ideal place for the kind An ordained minister in the Presbyterian gion, American Society of Church History, Divinity School during son (1914-79) became the 34th bishop of the of education in which I’m interested,” says Church (USA), Hudnut-Beumler was gradu- Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, his visit to Vanderbilt Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and a Hudnut-Beumler. “I think it is very impor- ated cum laude with a baccalaureate in his- and Society for the Scientific Study of Reli- University for the 22nd member of the Vanderbilt University Board tant in an increasingly diverse and connected tory from The College of Wooster before gion. He and his wife, Heidi, also a Presby- annual Holocaust Lec- of Trust. world for theological education to take place earning a master of divinity degree in church terian minister, have a daughter, Julia, eight; ture Series. in a diverse and plural setting like the mod- history from Union Theological Seminary. and a son, Adam, five. An interview with the ern university. Vanderbilt is one of the places From 1984 to 1989 he studied at Princeton dean will appear in the fall issue of The Spire. best equipped to meet that challenge because University where he received the master of PEYTON HOGE

Gee Assumes Chancellorship in August DAVID CRENSHAW gay man, and a resister—when he met with States. The 1999-2000 series was titled Making

In a unanimous election by the Vanderbilt Board of Trust, E. Gor- PEYTON HOGE don Gee, former president of Brown University, has been Divinity School students at a reception in and Evoking Memory and explored the ways appointed the seventh chancellor of Vanderbilt University. He suc- Tillett Lounge sponsored by GABLE, the the Holocaust is memorialized collectively ceeds Chancellor Joe B. Wyatt who retires in July after 18 years as Divinity School/Graduate Department of and individually. the University’s chief executive. Religion’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisex- “Gordon Gee is the ideal leader for Vanderbilt University,” says ual Concerns. Board of Trust Chairman Martha R. Ingram. “He embodies the val- Born in 1923 as the son of an Austrian The Distanced Other ues that are so important for a great university and for the Univer- Jewish father and German Christian mother, sity in particular: excellence in scholarship, a passionate concern Beck was known as a mischling, the name the Soyinka Examines Question of Kinship for every individual, a commitment to partnership with the com- Nazis bestowed upon individuals with Political exile and Nobel laureate Wole munity, and the courage to make difficult decisions. Equally “mixed Jewish blood.” His family became Soyinka delivered the keynote address, Cul- important, he has a great passion for our educational mission and stateless because ture, Politics, and the Burden of Kinship, for the a keen sense of Vanderbilt’s traditions.” only non-Jewish ninth annual conference of the Association of A native of Vernal, Utah, Gee was graduated from the Univer- Austrians were Black Cultural Centers hosted by the Bishop sity of Utah in 1968 with a baccalaureate in history. He earned a offered German cit- Joseph Johnson Cultural Center of Vanderbilt doctorate of jurisprudence and a doctorate in education from izenship. Although University. Columbia University before serving as a judicial clerk for the Chancellor-elect Gordon Gee and his wife, Constance, were introduced Beck and his family Despite being censored, banned, and United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit. Prior to his this spring to the University community. He assumes his role as the sev- were protected by imprisoned by successive military regimes, appointment at Brown, Gee served as president of West Virginia enth chancellor of Vanderbilt on August 1. their Christian rela- Soyinka became the first Black African to be University, the University of Colorado, and The Ohio State Uni- tives, he eventually awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in versity. richer opportunities for learning, for discovery, and for service.” went underground 1986. The Nigerian playwright, poet, novel- “There is no other university in the country that already does so The chancellor-elect is married to Constance Bumgarner Gee, and worked with Following his address at the ninth annual confer- ist, critic, and dissident fled his country in many things so well, yet has almost limitless possibilities and a assistant professor of public policy and education at Brown and Zionist organiza- ence of the Association of Black Cultural Centers, 1994 after learning that military authorities solid foundation on which to build for the future,” said Gee when former director of the Arts Policy and Administration Program at tions dedicated to Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka of Nigeria signs a were planning to arrest him for his criticism describing Vanderbilt in his introductory speech to the University Ohio State. She will hold a faculty appointment at Peabody Col- protecting Jews in book for conference participant Terry Duffy, of the government. Living in exile in Europe community. “Vanderbilt is blessed with rich traditions and even lege as an associate professor of art education policy. hiding. Arrested by the Gestapo in February administrative assistant at the ABCC national 1945, Beck was incarcerated in a Berlin prison and the United States since 1994, he currently headquarters in Galesburg, Illinois.

4 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 5 Beloved Woman and Warrior Harbaugh Appointed Admissions Director Folklorist Interprets Apocryphal Heroine’s Life Lyn Hartridge Harbaugh, the new director of the reasons I elected to admissions and student services at Vander- enroll at VUDS,” says The story of a beautiful, devout Jewish widow political and spiritual rebirth to the people of bilt University Divinity School, always imag- Harbaugh, who also is who, in defense of God and country, capti- Bethulia, and she tells us we can accomplish ined that Massachusetts would be the setting preparing for ordination vates and decapitates the Assyrian general our heart’s desire, live with passion, and for her education. in the Unitarian Univer- Holofernes was narrated by internationally achieve the impossible.” A third-generation alumna of Smith Col- salist Church. Of the three acclaimed raconteuse Diane Wolkstein when Wolkstein is recognized for her ability to lege, she became acquainted with VUDS dur- designations for ministers she performed “The Story of Judith, Woman make stories accessible to her audiences by ing her sophomore year in Northampton in her denomination— Warrior.” interweaving modern scholarship with the while studying religion and biblical litera- parish minister, religious Presented in All Faith Chapel, Wolkstein’s ancient traditions of oral literature. The ture. Encouraged by her professors to accept education minister, or interpretation of the life of this heroine from author of 21 books of folklore, she currently an invitation from Walter Harrelson and community minister—she the Apocrypha is inspired by the dissertation teaches mythology at New York University travel to Nashville for a conference spon- has chosen to fulfill the and subsequent book, Artistry and Faith in the and storytelling techniques at the Bank Street sored by the Lilly Foundation on exploring requirements for the com- Book of Judith, by alumna Toni Craven, College of Education. vocations in ministry, Harbaugh only knew munity minister track. PhD’80, professor of Hebrew Bible at Brite The Carpenter Program in Religion, Gen- that the Divinity School was where Sallie “Among the voca- Divinity School of Texas Christian University der, and Sexuality, the Chaplain’s Office, the McFague, a Smith alumna and author of one tional interests I pursued in Forth Worth. Wolkstein also acknowledges Women’s Center, Judaic Studies, and of her textbooks, Models of God, had been during my graduate the scholarship of Amy-Jill Levine, the Car- Women’s Studies sponsored her performance teaching since 1970. studies is the subject of PEYTON HOGE penter Professor of New Testament Studies at Vanderbilt. Divinity School students Paul Two years after participating in the con- addiction and spiritual- Lyn Hartridge Harbaugh, a candidate for the master of divinity degree and director of the Carpenter Program in Reli- Griffith and Otis Thornton served as percus- ference, Harbaugh returned in 1995 to the ity, and as a community in December 2000, serves as director of admissions and student services gion, Gender and Sexuality, as contributing to sionists for “The Story of Judith, Woman War- Divinity School as the Harold Stirling Van- minister, I can continue for the Divinity School. her understanding of Judith’s character. rior.” derbilt Scholar, the recipient of the Smith Col- working with people “Beloved by her community and respected lege Alumnae Graduate Scholarship, and a who are in recovery,” she says. “I’m inter- Harbaugh currently works with the congre- Celebrated folklorist and storyteller Diane Wolk- by the elders, Judith is a pious, heroic, imagi- matriculant for the master of divinity degree ested in learning how people make spiritual gation and the larger community in the areas stein performed “The Story of Judith, Woman War- native figure who confronts overwhelming which she completes in December 2000. connections within a secular society while of faith development, addiction treatment, rior” in All Faith Chapel as part of the Carpenter odds and prevails in rescuing her people from “The reception I received at Vanderbilt, the they reevaluate their lives and begin voca- and prevention education. Her ordination is destruction,” says Wolkstein. “Judith gives Program’s public events for the academic year. PEYTON HOGE favorable observations of the Divinity School tional searches.” planned for 2002. from students and alumni/ae, and a curricu- As a community minister intern at First lum based on the minister as theologian were Unitarian Universalist Church of Nashville,

Support Vanderbilt University Divinity School’s Unmasking Patriarchal Images of God German Feminist Theologian Presents Colloquium

Biblical scholar Erhard Gerstenberger of Ger- in his exegetical and historical research. many explored “Gender and Sexuality: Fem- During his address at the Divinity School, inist Perspectives on the Hebrew Bible” Gerstenberger acknowledged the scholarship during a colloquium sponsored by the Grad- of Sallie McFague, the E. Rhodes and Leona Annual Fund 2000 uate Department of Religion and Carpenter B. Carpenter Professor of Theology emerita Program in Religion, Gender and Sexuality. at Vanderbilt, for helping “to unmask the A retired professor at the University of patriarchal images of God.” Marburg, Gerstenberger became Help us continue our commitment to tomorrow’s students attuned to feminist issues early in his academic career and remains one of The Carpenter by sending your gift today in the business reply PEYTON HOGE the few male scholars in Germany Program in During his recent visit to America for lectures in who actively promotes feminist the- envelope enclosed in this issue of The Spire. Boston and Nashville, German theologian Erhard ology through lecturing and publish- Religion, Gender, Gerstenberger returned to the Divinity School ing. While living in Brazil and and presented a colloquium on feminist perspec- teaching at the Lutheran Seminary in and Sexuality of the tives on the Hebrew Bible. His lecture was part of São Leopoldo, he also committed Or you may pledge your gift on-line by using the secure gift form at: the Carpenter Program’s forum titled “Opening himself to liberation theology and Vanderbilt University began addressing Third World issues http://www.vanderbilt.edu/alumni/giving.html the Conversation.” Divinity School

6 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 7 Distinguished“Dean of America’s Black Preachers” Named

Former United States Senator The Art of Negotiation George Mitchell of Maine answers Former Senate Majority Leader George questions for Vanderbilt students Mitchell related his experiences as chairman April Hingst and Maureen Bick- Alumnus of the peace negotiations in Northern Ireland ford following his lecture on the during a lecture cosponsored by the Cal peace negotiations in Northern Turner Program in Moral Leadership and the Ireland. Mitchell’s winter visit to Responding to the Call Law School. Vanderbilt was cosponsored by the Born in 1918 as the son of the minister of While delivering “The Lawyer as Peace- Law School and the Cal Turner Mount Zion Baptist Church in Baton Rouge, maker,” Mitchell stated that the greatest chal- Program in Moral Leadership Louisiana, Taylor recoiled from the idea of fol- lenge in negotiating peace is convincing whose mission is fostering under- lowing his father to the pulpit. He aspired, political leaders and the populace that com- standing of moral behavior, ethical instead, to attend law school and become a promise is necessary. practices, and individual responsi- criminal lawyer. His boyhood friends, aware “One of the most difficult issues I faced bility in the professions of min- that no African American ever had been when I arrived in Northern Ireland was a istry, business, law, and medicine. admitted to the Louisiana Bar, discouraged political culture in which everyone believed RICK MUSACCHIO their peer from his jurisprudential ambition and acted as though any hint of compromise experiences with the Protestant Unionists sion—by creating a them and an us in every and asked him, “Where are you going to prac- was a sign a weakness and demonstrated a and Catholic Republicans are applicable in society by attempting to exploit differences. tice law, in the middle of the Mississippi lack of conviction—and was in fact a sellout most societies. The lack of opportunity, the lack of hope, the River?” to the enemy.” “Unfortunately, what passes for politics in absence of any chance to have a stake in a When a 19-year-old Taylor left the South to The judge, lawmaker, and statesman also most democratic societies, including our society is the fuel for conflict and instability matriculate at the University of Michigan explained that the lessons gleaned from his own, represents attempts to gain by divi- everywhere.” Law School, he could not foresee that his edu- cational plans would change before he arrived in Ann Arbor. Driving at night on a Louisiana back road, Taylor tried to avoid hit- Lady Prophet & Mother of Biblical Criticism ting the car that swerved into his path, but the collision resulted in the deaths of two white Associate Professor Renita J. Weems deliv- The 26th scholar to be invited to deliver men. The only witnesses to that fateful event ered “Writing a Woman’s Life: Huldah, the the annual Antoinette Brown Lecture, Weems in 1937 were also white, but they reported the Lady Prophet” for the 2000 Antoinette has been a member of the Divinity School truth about the accident. Brown Lecture in March. Based upon faculty since 1987. Recognized by Ebony “That fearful automobile accident touched her research of the seventh-century magazine in 1998 as the fourth best STEVEN HALIN me at the very center of my being,” remem- B.C.E. Hebrew prophet from 2 African American female preacher in he alumni/ae association of Vander- “giving scriptural principles personality.” bers Taylor, “and through that experience I Kings and 2 Chronicles, Weems the nation, Weems also received the bilt University Divinity School has “Reverend Taylor knows that words are heard the Lord’s call to the ministry. I was sur- presented Huldah as the “founder 1999 Wilbur Award from the Religion named the Reverend Doctor Gard- fragile, fleeting, and ultimately weak,” says prised by God’s grace, and I felt an enormous and mother of biblical criticism” and Communicators Council for her book T ner C. Taylor, Oberlin BD’40, the dis- L. Susan Bond, MA’94, PhD’96, assistant pro- relief and a great embarrassment in telling “the patron of women theologians.” Listening for God: A Minister’s Journey tinguished alumnus for 2000. fessor of homiletics at Vanderbilt University everyone I felt called to the ministry. To be Weems, whose interest in this prophet’s Through Silence and Doubt. She is currently Pastor emeritus of Concord Baptist Divinity School and author of the disserta- honest, I felt that embarrassment for several role in biblical history developed dur- working on a manuscript for Fortress Press Church of Christ in Brooklyn, New York, ing her graduate studies at Princeton on suffering and evil in the Hebrew Bible, Taylor has been acknowledged by Time mag- Theological Seminary, suggests the first and she will address the conference for “One must get out of life and into the Bible, but also there are azine as “the dean of America’s black exegesis is conducted when Huldah is Feminist Exegesis and Hermeneutics of preachers” and by Christian Century maga- consulted about the authenticity of the Liberation in Ascona, Switzerland, times when one must get out of the Bible and into life.” zine as “the poet laureate of American book of the law discovered by the high during July. Protestantism.” He joins James M. Lawson, — the Reverend Doctor Gardner C. Taylor, Oberlin BD’40 priest Hilkiah. Named in honor of Oberlin alumna D’71, and Fred Craddock, PhD’64, as distin- Vanderbilt University Divinity School Distinguished Alumnus 2000 Antoinette Brown Blackwell, the first Renita J. Weems, associate professor of Hebrew guished alumni/ae of the Divinity School. woman ordained to the Christian min- The committee for the 2000 Bible “Reverend Taylor was chosen from a tion To Hear the Angels’ Wings: Apocalyptic years. I did not start off with any great confi- istry in the United States, the lecture- Antoinette Brown Lecture large number of outstanding alumni/ae for Language and the Formation of Moral Commu- dence or sense of appreciation and awe about ship was funded originally by established a permanent endowment for the chose the thistle as a symbol his exceptionally courageous ministry as nity with Reference to the Sermons of Gardner C. being a preacher. I wasn’t sure the ministry benefactor Sylvia Sanders Kelley, lecture series. Sponsors for the 2000 lecture for Huldah, the “Lady preacher, teacher, pastor, and prophet to the Taylor. “His ability to turn a phrase, work a was worthwhile for a young, healthy, BA’54, of Atlanta for the purpose included the Office of Women’s Concerns, Prophet.” Tradition- church and society,” says James L. Smalley, metaphor, and hold a vision aloft in the palm thoughtful man.” of bringing distinguished women the Office of Black Seminarians, Vanderbilt ally regarded as a BD’67, pastor of First United Church, UCC, of his hand works deeply, not so much on the theologians to Vanderbilt where Lectures Committee, the Margaret Cuning- weed, the thistle is in Nashville and president of the alumni/ae emotions as on the imagination. He speaks Five Decades in the Pulpit they could address the Univer- gim Women’s Center, Vanderbilt University now cultivated in gar- association. “He is a pastor to pastors and a aloud the unspeakable and imagines the One year after earning his degree from the sity community on the concerns Women’s Studies Program, the Carpenter dens and spreads its prophet to prophets.” unimaginable by putting flesh on dry bones, Oberlin Graduate School of Theology, Taylor facing women in ministry. In Program in Religion, Gender, and Sexuality, seeds in a manner that Known for the eloquence, passion, and and through language—like the British was called from his student pastorate in Ohio 1996, Sanders, alumni/ae, and and Vanderbilt University Speakers Commit- suggests a connection with astounding vocabulary he brings to the pul- writer T. S. Eliot—Taylor leads ‘a raid on the to Beulah Baptist Church in New Orleans, friends of the Divinity School tee. both heaven and earth. pit, Taylor describes his role as preacher as inarticulate’ when preaching.” and then from 1943 to 1947, he served his

8 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 9 The Value of a Good Name

s Samuel Houston Howard knocks Although he decided to write The Rise of The Experiential Wisdom know the rules of homiletics, but they can sense when a preacher has the oaken tabletop three times the Phoenix to illustrate how religious princi- prepared. A friend of mine tells of overhearing a lady inform a pastor with his right hand, he recites the ples are relevant to success in business, the of Gardner C. Taylor after the second night of a week-long series of meetings that she would first verse of the 22nd chapter of book also will serve as a forum for Howard STEVEN HALIN not be back anymore because she didn’t think much of the pastor’s AProverbs: “A good name is to be chosen to expound upon his more practical “rules of On the importance of context: preaching. The pastor said, “Well, you don’t even know what good rather than the great riches of the world.” life”—such as the 25 percent rule—whereby I don’t think preachers should flit about preaching is.” She replied, “I may not know what it is, but I know what The triad of staccato blows resonating from one goes to work an hour earlier and stays an the Scriptures looking for favorite it ain’t.” the conference table accent the phrases good hour later without expecting compensation. notions; they’re liable to become Johnny- name, to be chosen, and great riches. And another practical feature of The Rise of On the power of words: one-notes. When taking a text, be careful Growing up in Lawton, Oklahoma, the Phoenix will be the manuscript’s length; Words must make definite suggestions, not only in their definition but of the context lest the text becomes the Howard repeatedly heard his mother quot- Howard intends for his readers to finish his also in their sound. There are words that caress, words that lash and cut, pretext for saying something you want to ing this passage from the Hebrew Bible first book in one sitting. words that lift, and words that have a glow in them. Words are the cur- say. All of the moods, experiences, and thoughts of the human mind are before he knew the words were scriptural. The mythological phoenix from Egyptian rency in which the preacher deals; we must be very careful not to deal contained in the Scriptures; the preacher does not have to make the Her admonition serves today as the epigraph antiquity is an appropriate attribute for with them loosely, because if they are debased or devalued, there’s no Scriptures relevant—they already are. The preacher only has to com- for a chapter in the spiritual autobiography health-care veteran Howard who at the age

other currency in which to deal. A preacher should not worship at the PEYTON HOGE municate the relevance that is native to the theme. The Bible is full of Howard is writing titled The Rise of the of 60 is beginning a new career as chief exec- altar of words, but he or she must have due regard and reverence for life-and-blood people; it’s frightfully honest. I’m also more and more Phoenix, a book that was inspired by a recent utive officer of Be Smart Kids Inc., an educa- Sam Howard, CEO of Be Smart Kids Inc. and language. One Sunday when I was preaching I said, “That is him,” and convinced the Bible has a life of its own; it addresses itself to us in dif- visit to the Baptist church in Lawton where tion firm that develops curricula for chair of Vanderbilt University Divinity School’s I knew immediately it was grammatically wrong, but I was too far into ferent ways at different times. Sometimes you’ll read a passage of Scrip- he was baptized. introducing preschool children to learning donor society the flight to try to do anything with it, so it had to stand. I hate to do that, ture 100 times and it’s absolutely barren, it’s silent. Then you read it the Upon returning to his childhood house of through computer technology. As the but I remember the story of a very popular preacher reputed to have a 101st time, and suddenly it talks to you, tugs at you for attention. worship, Howard experienced a “private phoenix ascends from the ashes and mounts Church, a program dedicated to perpetuat- Ph.D. One night he made a grammatical error and a critic in the con- revival.” As the congregation sang the cho- the sky, Howard also believes he is rising to ing the legacy of the first African American On dreading Sunday morning: gregation just hollered out, “Ph.Ds don’t say that!” Without missing a rus to one of his favorite hymns, “On Christ a new mission that can benefit future gener- to be appointed an assistant dean at the For preachers who feel that every time they look over their shoulder beat, the preacher said, “It will be corrected before it gets to heaven,” Divinity School and at the University. Smith Sunday is coming, I recommend they go back to the Scriptures. They and went right on preaching. also was pastor to the congregation at the should try to pick up the sights and sounds and smells of the Scriptures On his counsel to young preachers: First Baptist Church Capitol Hill where and try to enter the situation of that text. What kind of street does this When God puts pressure on your life to do this work, always realize Howard and his family were members. text live on? Is it a shabby street, or is it neat and tidy? What are the this—the Lord does not misfire. With all the doubts and uncertainties “I respected Reverend Kelly Miller Smith sounds? Are they cheerful, or are they melancholic? What people live I’ve had—and I very rarely preach and feel satisfied with what I’ve not only for his work in the civil rights move- around it? Are they people you’d want to be around? When one goes done—I’m thankful more and more every day that the Lord made me a ment, but I remain indebted to him for his back into the Scriptures to live in them and feel the pressure of God on preacher. I remember early in my ministry reading what the poet influence on my spiritual growth,” says human life, some deliverance in preaching will come. William Wordsworth asked, “What will you do when your ministry Howard, who became a deacon under Smith’s guidance. “I’m proud to be part of On the role of a congregation: fades into the light of common day?” Well, my preaching has long since the fundraising efforts of a school that was Once I get into the sermon, I try to get very close to the congregation. faded into that light, but whenever I come down from that pulpit so important to Reverend Smith—a school that Any movement on their part bothers me greatly because I have to feel weary that I never want to preach again, the Lord finds some way to was involved in the genesis of civil rights in they are right there with me. What I am delivering is not an abstract lec- revive me and usually makes my next ministry opportunity one of my Nashville and that always has contributed to ture but a communication about a life-and-death matter. There’s an most exciting ones. the social progress of this country by educat- invisible, mysterious interplay that goes on between pastor and people, Excerpted from “The Sweet Torture of Sunday Morning: An Interview with Gardner ing men and women for the ministry.” and I can feel whether I’m getting to the people or not. People may not C. Taylor,” Leadership, Summer 1981, with permission of the publisher The new chair of Schola Prophetarum

PEYTON HOGE earned his baccalaureate from Oklahoma In 1875, Methodist Bishop Holland N. McTyeire pronounced the Vanderbilt University theological com- State University and was graduated from father’s former church in Baton Rogue. “One must get out of life and into the Bible, cil of Churches. munity Schola Prophetarum, “School of Prophets.” The Latin text was carved in the stone lintel above Stanford University with a master of arts But when he was 30 years old and but also there are times when one must get out A close friend of the late Reverend Doctor the door to the entrance of Old Wesley Hall. This architectural fragment now resides in the courtyard of degree. Howard is the former chair of the accepted an invitation to preach the sermon of the Bible and into life.” Martin Luther King Jr., Taylor was involved in the Divinity School, and the lintel’s inscription serves as the name for the School’s donor society. Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and a for the centennial celebration at Brooklyn’s Taylor has taught homiletics at Colgate a struggle over civil rights within the National former trustee of Fisk University. He and his Concord Baptist Church of Christ, he would Rochester Divinity School, Harvard Divinity Baptist Convention. He and King left the con- the solid rock I stand, All other ground is ations. wife, Karan, a Nashville realtor, attend Lake deliver the first homily to a congregation to School, and Union Theological Seminary, and vention in 1960 and formed the Progressive sinking sand,” Howard’s attention suddenly “If our work at Be Smart Kids can encour- Providence Missionary Baptist Church. Their whom he would minister for 42 years. During in 1976, he was invited to deliver the esteemed National Baptist Convention whose succes- was arrested by the verb stand, and he began age children to develop a thirst for knowl- daughter, Anica, an alumna of Spelman Col- his pastorate, membership at Concord Baptist Lyman Beecher Lectures in Preaching at Yale sive generations of Progressive Baptists con- to contemplate the role of religion for those edge, then America undoubtedly will be a lege and Duke University, is president and Church grew from 5,000 to 14,000 congre- Divinity School. He has presided at confer- tinue to work for full voter registration, equal “standing” in the corporate world. better country,” he says. CEO of an Internet company, Chris- gants. Taylor also established a senior citizens’ ences of the Baptist World Alliance on five education opportunities, affirmative action “I am a strong advocate of the free enter- In addition to his work as an entrepreneur tianSeeds.com. The Howards’ son, Samuel home, a Christian grade school, a nursing continents, served on the New York City against all forms of racism and bigotry, free- prise system,” says Howard, “however, free and author, Howard serves as chair of Schola “Buddy” II, MBA’97, serves on the board of home, and a $1 million endowment for eco- Board of Education, became the first African dom of religion from governmental authority, enterprise always needs the ethics that are Prophetarum, the Divinity School’s donor directors for the alumni association of the nomic development—and earned the reputa- American to serve as vice president of the and the realization of universal human rights. advocated by institutions like Vanderbilt society whose funds are designated for Owen Graduate School of Management at tion as one of the seven most outstanding New York City Urban League, and was the Taylor will visit the University for the 2000 University Divinity School—ethics that scholarships. He became acquainted with Vanderbilt. preachers in America. Listening to a litany of first African American Baptist minister to be Fall Convocation and receive the distin- emphasize the value of a good name instead VUDS in 1985 as one of the contributors to his accomplishments, he modestly responds, elected president of the New York City Coun- guished alumnus award on September 1. of great riches.” the Kelly Miller Smith Institute on the Black

10 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 11 “This is a school where students are free to ask critical questions about their faith, their ministry, and the world. Questions are not only encouraged here—they are Entering the expected…I feel I have a particular voice A New Vision of the Abundant Life: among the other voices, and all the voices do not have to be in harmony for us to Eclectic Discourse establish a discourse.” The Eschatological Banquet —Leonard Hummel

n the sotto voce one expects from a pas- South, so in moving down here, I feel as if I when he decided to pursue a doctorate in pas- After teaching for three decades at the toral counselor, Leonard Hummel have come to a familiar region,” he says. toral psychology from Boston University. Divinity School, McFague shares the same admits he defies the traditional profile of “During my interviews at the Divinity School, “From my studies in philosophy and theol- passion for teaching as her late mentor, and a Lutheran. when the senior faculty members shared sto- ogy, I am able to bring to the discipline of pas- she cannot remember a time when she didn’t IHe doesn’t hail from the upper Midwest, ries about the institution’s southern heritage toral care an awareness of the larger, meta enjoy being in the classroom. “In kinder- nor does his family’s genealogy document and discussed the critical questions with questions—such as those Plato asked about garten, I became the teacher’s helper—that that he descended from a long line of Luther- which the School has grappled, I was able to the tripartite soul or the medieval philoso- was my first TA position,” she laughs, “and I ans. And his ordination as a minister in the tell them that I had ‘some Southern Baptist’ in phers’ arguments about grace and nature.” never wanted to leave school. Every Septem- Evangelical Lutheran my background, but I ber, I sharpened my pencils and looked for- Church in America also remain close to my The Challenge of the Familiar ward to returning to the classroom, and I’ve occurred 15 years after Jewish heritage through As a member of the VUDS faculty, Hummel never regretted staying. Teaching is not work he entered Yale Divinity my father’s relatives.” teaches courses in religion and coping, pas- whereby you receive immediate gratification, School—from where he toral care for addictions and mental disorders, but as the chemistry develops between the was graduated with the A Speculative Bent health and salvation, and practical and histor- first meeting and the last session, and the stu- master of divinity degree But the Divinity School’s ical theology. He currently is not assigned to a dents begin to think for themselves, an event and with a graduate genuine respect for ques- local congregation; however, he serves as occurs that involves more than the exchange degree in sacred theol- tions—not Vanderbilt’s advisor to Lutheran students attending the of information.” ogy. geographical setting—is Divinity School. “My church takes very seri- “I am a Lutheran by the characteristic that ously the role of pastors in the formation and A Theology for Planetary Living birth but also by acci- ultimately attracted guidance of persons during their theological As she prepares to leave VUDS, McFague dent,” laughs Hummel, Hummel to the Univer- training, and my charge from the national remains confident about the School’s strong the newly appointed sity. “This is a school office is to be a teacher at Vanderbilt. I feel I academic standing, and she hopes the stu- assistant professor of where students are free to have a particular voice here among the other dents and ministers educated here will con- pastoral theology and ask critical questions voices, and all the voices do not have to be in tinue to find a public voice. “Government counseling for Vander- about their faith, their harmony for us to establish a discourse— and society would like for us to think that bilt Divinity School. “My ministry, and the world. eclectic voices speaking at the same time is religion is a personal matter, but I believe the- mother was reared a Questions are not only both exciting and necessary for a university.” ology should be part of the public conversa- Southern Baptist, but encouraged here—they Among Hummel’s scholarly interests is tion and that theologians should be public DAVID CRENSHAW my late father was Jew- Leonard Hummel, assistant professor of are expected—and the investigating how religion is both a denomi- advocates; regretfully, the only religionists ish, and the Protestant pastoral theology and counseling questions and issues national and cultural factor in coping with who are speaking out these days are those church nearest my fam- which the church has human suffering. Outside the classroom, he is adhering to the far right, and while I do not ily’s residence in Baltimore was Lutheran.” needed to examine continue to be asked at the continuing the historical and theological agree with their positions, I share their view Although he may not complement the pro- Divinity School, particularly questions about research he began for his dissertation on con- that religion is a public matter.” file of the Midwestern Lutheran, Hummel the role of women within the church as well solation in the Lutheran tradition with the To ensure her part in the public conversa- contends that he and the faith are compatible. as the concern for overcoming homophobia.” intention of developing a manuscript for pub- tion, McFague is completing the first draft of “The central precept that one is ‘set right with In the three decades since he began his for- lication. But in his roles as academician, coun- her seventh book, a Christian theology for God’ purely as an act of God’s grace—not by mal studies, he has earned degrees in the dis- selor, and minister, Hummel says the planetary living, in which she argues that the what one says or does—always has been a ciplines of philosophy, theology, and pastoral recurring challenge for him is realizing how misplaced radical individualism and con- consolation for me.” psychology. “I was brought up with a specu- familiar everything is. sumerism of our culture threatens the welfare Moving to Nashville in 1999 with his wife, lative bent; consequently, I have developed a “It is a challenge for me to remain aware of In the Woods of the planet. “We are living on this planet as Elizabeth Sponheim, marked the second jour- perennial interest in the questions that abide the differences in life, but as I experience these by Asher Brown Durand if the earth were a hotel,” contends McFague. ney Hummel made to the South. During his with philosophers—questions about the soul, differences, whether as teacher or pastor, I 1855 “After using the clean towels and sheets and oil on canvas initial visit to the city in the ‘80s, Richard Ful- the polis, and grace,” says Hummel, who always discover how ultimately familiar piling them in the middle of the room for the ton was mayor; the Sounds were welcomed studied philosophy as an undergraduate at human needs are, so the challenge for me is to housekeeping staff, we then drive down the home after winning the league pennant; and Haverford College. be less surprised.” lthough the spring semester marks “I’m not retiring completely,” says street to another hotel. But if we regard the Vanderbilt alumnus and senatorial candidate Enrolling at Yale Divinity School, he origi- Since living in Nashville, Hummel has dis- the final term that Sallie McFague McFague. “My mother had a part-time pay- planet as a home,” an image she prefers for Al Gore Jr. was shaking voters’ hands at the nally intended to study systematic theology covered Percy Warner Park as a place where will occupy Office 223 as the E. ing job until she died at the age of 95, and if describing the earth, “we will share the Williamson County Fair. but found himself more interested in the he can enjoy one of his avocations, walking, Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter she were alive, she would consider me a resources, clean up after ourselves, and make The transition 14 years later from Dorch- implications the philosophers’ and theolo- although in his first year at the Divinity AProfessor of Theology, her retirement from youngster, so I can’t retire. My mentor at necessary repairs so another generation may ester, Massachusetts, to a house on 18th gians’ questions had for individuals outside School, most of his walking is confined to the Vanderbilt University Divinity School is not Smith College, Virginia Corwin, chair of the inhabit the house.” Avenue, South, an area Hummel laughingly the Academy. After his residency in clinical one and one-half miles distance from Wedge- an indication of the conclusion of her voca- religion department and a Yale graduate, Directed toward first world, middle-class describes as “Gene TeSelle land,” proved pastoral education, he served as chaplain at wood to Vanderbilt. An avid reader, he also tion as an educator. During the summer, she once told me that she would pay to teach if an Christians such as herself, McFague’s forth- rather easeful for him and Sponheim, cur- Fairview Riverside Medical Center in Min- confesses to purchasing more books than he will emigrate to Canada where she will teach institution didn’t pay her salary, and when coming book will explore the reasons why the rently a Vanderbilt doctoral student in Amer- neapolis where he worked with adolescents should. Quoting the 19th-century American part-time at the Vancouver School of Theol- she died at 95, she was blind and required a sustainability of the planet is contingent upon ican history. in chemical dependency units and patients cleric Henry Ward Beecher, Hummel asks in a ogy in British Columbia, edit the manuscript wheelchair, but she was preparing to teach a the just distribution of our resources and how “My mother’s family is from Virginia, and suffering from depression. quiet tone, “Why is it that human nature is of her next book, and devote time to her avo- liberation view of the Gospel of Luke to the the increasing gap between the wealthy and I have always been fascinated with questions Hummel’s speculative bent and his inter- never so weak as it is in a bookstore?” cation—hiking in the parks of the Western elderly residents in the apartment building the poor in the world is not conducive to per- about the social history of the American est in counseling merged more intensely Canadian province. where she lived.” sonal happiness or planetary well being.

12 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 13 “Economics becomes a religious matter, especially when our understanding of human happiness is interwoven with Adam Smith’s view of the individual as an insatiable consumer.”

“One of the most critical changes that needs to after people are provided with such basics of “fragments of responsible, inclusive of all forms of life, and ate thesis on the concept of time in William traditions. Today our commitments against occur for us is a new understanding of the life as employment, relationships, edu- nature” while acknowledges the interdependence of all life. Faulkner’s novels and her dissertation on lit- racism, sexism, homophobia, and anti-Semi- abundant life. Christ’s statement, ‘I came that cation for one’s children, and medical picking blueber- “Ecological theology is the oldest of the erature in the Christian life foreshadowed a tism and our commitments to diversity, reli- you may have life, and have life abundantly’ coverage, that more money does- ries or rowing by various contexts in which theology can be predominant current that characterizes her gious pluralism, and environmentalism are is not synonymous with abundant consumer n’t make one happy, and it cer- herself on the lake. But discussed, yet this is the context that has been research in theology—language in religion. discussed in nine paragraphs. As dean, I goods, but the notion that life can be signifi- tainly doesn’t make us good. If this sense of freedom she neglected for the last 200 years in Protes- “All religious language is necessarily examined other divinity schools’ catalogues cant and meaningful without a high con- we truly love nature, we have to experienced as a child tantism when the scientific disciplines took metaphorical because no one has seen God,” and discovered many of them did not sumer lifestyle is not an idea people are question our lifestyle of con- within the natural world over the natural world and religion retreated contends McFague. “I’ve always appreciated include commitments, and they still do not. considering today.” sumerism economics and begin would develop eventually inwardly,” she says. “The cosmological con- Paul Ricouer’s argument that concepts with- But from the faculty’s discussions over the In her manifesto to North American mid- to live differently by adopting into a more profound aware- text, which claims that the Redeemer is also out images are sterile, and images without past 30 years, these paragraphs have been dle-class Christians, McFague acknowledges new house rules of just distri- ness of the Divine. When she the Creator and encourages one to consider concepts are blind. Just as poets have to use adopted—some were added painfully and the instrumental roles played by the Protes- bution so that everyone, all life was 14 years old and hiking in the the sacramentalism in nature, can be traced to metaphors to express what they cannot were not without controversy—but these tant Reformation and Vatican II in bringing forms, gets a share.” White Mountains of New Hamp- the Hebrew scriptures that refer to the impor- always understand about life and love, loss commitments to the unheard voices were not the importance of the human individual to McFague’s ecological shire, McFague says she “came alive to tance of our care for creation. As I tell my stu- and grief, the same principle pertains to reli- added to our catalogue for the mere sake of the attention of Christians; however, the con- model suggests to Christians the presence of God through nature;” dents at the beginning of the course, gion; unfortunately, many people forget this public relations.” temporary version of this model—the indi- that the way to picture God’s however, the death of her father in the sub- ecological theology is not a contemporary, and think ‘Father’ is God’s name.” Two critical challenges McFague believes vidualistic market in which each person has presence is the eschatological sequent autumn resulted in the closing of the New Age fun religion.” During her studies at Yale, McFague also the nation’s divinity schools of this decade the right to all one can secure—is bankrupt banquet to which all are family’s cabin and also marked a momentary heard for the first time the name of Vander- will have to confront are a regressive attitude and devastating the planet while making invited—all people and all lapse in her passion for hiking. Metaphors and Scripture bilt University Divinity School. She demon- toward affirmative action policies and the other people poor. other creatures. A theology for Twenty-five years ago, McFague returned The foundation for her life’s work as a the- strated her support for the School in declining membership within mainline “The model of the human being as indi- planetary living invites one to to the hiking trails after she experienced what ologian was established during McFague’s 1960—ten years before her denominations. “It is a dif- vidual, derived from the Protestant Reforma- enter a relationship where one she acknowledges as a conversion in her undergraduate years at Smith College where academic appointment to ficult time for ministers to tion and the Enlightenment, is deeply participates in and with nature—a relation- scholarship. Upon reading an essay written in 1977 she was awarded an honorary doc- Vanderbilt—by participat- be prophetic because of engrained in American culture,” she explains. ship where one regards nature sacramentally by Gordon Kaufman during his presidency torate. While pursuing her baccalaureate in ing in Yale’s sympathy the dwindling prospects in “It is the assumption of our Bill of Rights and and rejects unequivocally the premise that of the American Academy of Religion, English, she also studied religion with pro- march for VUDS student the mainline churches,” Constitution, symbolized by the phrase ‘life, humankind should subdue and have domin- McFague was affected by Kaufman’s ques- fessors who were graduates of Yale, the uni- and civil rights activist she observes. “One of the liberty, and pursuit of happiness,’ goals that ion over creation. tion: Should theology be done as usual in view versity where she would earn her graduate James Lawson. “When we issues facing divinity are oriented to the rights and desires of indi- of the ecological and nuclear crisis facing the degrees. “I was impressed with the teachers learned about the Lawson schools is whether they viduals. American Christianity also has been The Trail to the Divine world? in the religion department at Smith,” says Affair, we carried signs and can produce scholars, min- focused on individual well-being, either as As McFague explains the importance for an “I took with utter seriousness Kaufman’s McFague. “I found them interesting and marched around the Yale isters, preachers, and salvation of believers or comfort to the dis- ecological reformation, one is reminded of a proposal that the relationship between God’s deeper than others; they were persons of Divinity Quadrangle on the prophets who can rock the tressed. This model of human life supports passage from her book Super, Natural Chris- power and human beings’ power needs to integrity who were committed to the issues hill and down to the main boat while the ship is sink- the growth of deep-seated assumptions about tians: How We Should Love Nature where she become unified and interdependent and that in which they believed.” campus to support VUDS,” ing; the mainline denomi- who we are and what we can do: we are a col- states, “…being present to some fragment of we had to reconstruct our major symbols of Matriculating at Yale, she elected to begin she remembers. “Although nations often find the

graduate studies in theology instead of Eng- Vanderbilt may be located courtesy of The Chronicle of Higher Education discourse on issues of “All religious language is necessarily metaphorical because no one has seen God.” —Sallie McFague lish; however, literature would remain a con- in an environment that is social justice and diversity stant companion in her scholarship. “Unlike less rhetorical than the uncomfortable, yet the lection of individuals who have the right to nature reminds us of the basis of a Christian the tradition—God, Christ, and the human most theologians, my ancillary discipline is Northeast on certain issues, HARRY REDL; church needs assistance in improve our own lives in whatever ways we nature spirituality: growing in sensitivity being. Reading Kaufman’s essay was a not philosophy but literature,” she explains. the Divinity School always Sallie McFague, former dean of such issues as the ordina- can. We see ourselves as basically separate toward it. This growth will hopefully issue in moment of conversion for me,” she explains. Having written her undergraduate thesis at has been at the forefront of Vanderbilt Divinity School and the tion of women, gays, and from other people while acknowledging the all sorts of actions: the energy we put into “I changed the direction of my research and Smith on the treatment of the fall of man by protests against injustice E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter lesbians and the recogni- right of others also to improve themselves to fighting city hall for a neighborhood park, the began reading in cosmology, ecology, and the 17th-century English cleric and poet John and has served as a leader Professor of Theology, emerita tion of same-sex couples. the best of their abilities.” time we give to elect city officials who will evolutionary biology—disciplines in which I Donne, McFague arrived at Yale Divinity for social issues, and I am Disney now recognizes What began centuries ago as a reformation make our city one of the success stories, the had no background,” says McFague, admit- School and discovered that the literary very proud to have become involved in this same-sex couples while the church disap- to free the human individual religiously and money we contribute to preserve wilderness ting that she never took a course in science if dimension was absent from the teaching of school’s history.” pointingly drags its feet, and it is not good politically, McFague argues, has resulted in an areas for wild animals, the protest march we she could possibly avoid the subject. scripture. “During the late ‘50s and early In 1975, the year commemorating the Uni- news if Disney is out there in front of the individualistic model of human life joined by join to help disempower multinational envi- Since the summer days she spent as a ‘60s, plenty of attention was being paid to versity’s centennial, McFague made history church.” late 20th-century market forces. The key con- ronmental destruction in third-world coun- child on the Cape and as a teenager on the secondary or conceptual language, but there not only at Vanderbilt’s Divinity School but Reflecting upon her life as a theological sequences of this model include a change in tries, and even the birdbath that we trails of the White Mountains—days when was little emphasis on primary language,” for all theological schools on the continent educator at the Divinity School, McFague the climate from the effects of global warm- remember to fill every day.” she was a “natural environmentalist,” a refer- states McFague, “and while the historical when she was installed as the first woman says she will miss the students, but she ing, an increasing gap between the rich and The genesis of McFague’s interest in the ence to her belief in a child’s innate interest in and philosophical traditions were popular in dean of a North American divinity school. hopes that through teaching and writing she the poor, the extinction of certain species, and theology of nature developed during the the natural world—McFague has emerged as teaching scripture, the fact that scripture And of the fourteen deans’ black and white has influenced the way people think about the rapid decline in natural resources. childhood summers she spent on the Cape— a leading proponent of the cosmological involves narrative, poetry, drama, imagery, portraits that hang today in Tillett Lounge, the importance of metaphor in religious lan- “Economics becomes a religious matter,” in a one-room cabin without electricity or run- approach to theology. She responded to Kauf- and metaphor was neglected.” McFague, who served as dean until 1979, is guage as well as about themselves and their says McFague, “especially when our under- ning water that her father constructed during man’s question by writing Models of God: The- Although McFague’s interest in the the only woman represented. “When I began roles in the greater scheme of the world. “It standing of human happiness is interwoven the Depression for $400. “I remember feeling ology for an Ecological, Nuclear Age in which metaphorical properties of religious lan- teaching at the Divinity School, there was isn’t enough to know the world,” she states, with Adam Smith’s view of the individual as free during our trips to the cabin,” says she advances the need for a new sensibility of guage preceded the formal advent of literary one paragraph in the catalogue about our “you have to become an active transformer an insatiable consumer. Studies reveal that McFague, who became acquainted with the the world—a sensibility that is holistic, criticism in the study of scripture, her gradu- commitment to the Hebraic and Christian and try to change the world.” 14 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 15 The Grace of David Buttrick An Un-retiring Life BY ROBERT HOWARD, VU DOCTORAL CANDIDATE

“In the absence of theology, said, ‘Sure.’ The next morning I called my sinner but hating the sin,’ and he concluded I met David Buttrick in February 1988 wife and told her I was in the middle of a the letter by saying this position speaks for all when he lectured at Texas Christian Uni- people read the Bible through field near pig farmers and that we were mov- Presbyterians.” versity. I found the breadth of his scholar- ing.” Buttrick pauses. “Well, it didn’t speak for ship astonishing, the bold clarity of his political commitments, and In his first two years at Saint Meinrad, me, so I left the church.” ideas breathtaking. After the lecture I Buttrick spent $8 thousand on books of In the reformed tradition, he contends, a asked to speak with him about Vander- this is the great tragedy in Catholic theology for his personal library. minister preaches the gospel, performs the bilt’s doctoral program in homiletics. He “Teaching at Saint Meinrad was a good expe- sacraments, and exercises the discipline of made time for me and gave nothing but the church—the absence of rience because they did not have a precon- the church in concert with the church’s lead- encouragement to this homiletic theological minds and an ceived idea of what preaching should be, and ership—discipline understood as mar- wannabee while listening carefully to my we produced some amazing preachers shalling the troops. Buttrick argues there is dreams. absence of courage.” there,” he says. nothing about gays and lesbians that pre- As we conversed, word came that my Although he held the title of Marten Pro- vents them from fulfilling these three theo- wife, Marilyn, had been taken to an emer- —David Buttrick fessor of Homiletics, Buttrick requested his logical tasks, so he decided he could no gency room after slipping on the ice out- appointment not be announced because he longer be a Presbyterian. side our motel room and cutting her was the only Protestant holding a chair. “The “Industrial workers brought the church eyebrow. He telephoned us at home a few from New York and bawled me out because donor who endowed the professorship was into this country, and now the church has days later to check on how she was. For he was recommending me for all these posi- an eccentric man who lived 15 years too late become so rich it can afford to be conserva- me, that initial meeting characterizes tions. I couldn’t go to Princeton,” continues to be a real robber baron, but I knew he had tive. In the absence of theology, people read David Buttrick: impeccable scholarship, Buttrick, “because I would have made their stamina because he was a fan of the Chicago the Bible through political commitments, and clarity of thought, and the heart of a pas- conservative jowls shake, so my wife and I Cubs,” explains Buttrick. “One day he this is the great tragedy in the church—the tor. decided to move to Pittsburgh.” arrived on campus, unannounced, and absence of theological minds and an absence Since overcoming my terror at study- unrolled a painting that depicted a congrega- of courage.” ing under one of the world’s leading The First Retirement tion listening to a homily while Jesus sat fast Buttrick attributes any courage he has to homileticians, I’ve come to adopt this In the 14 years of his tenure at Pittsburgh The- asleep in the front pew. Holding the picture, the influence of his father who came to Amer- combination as a goal for my own teach-

CLARK THOMAS ological Seminary, Buttrick advanced from he told the administration at Saint Meinrad, ica as a British Congregationalist and became ing. Lectures will inevitably be sprinkled instructor to the William Oliver Campbell ‘Do something!’ as he gave them $1.5 million. the first president of the Federal Council of with anecdotes, personal or of acquain- efore David Buttrick accepted a fac- “The church was almost defunct, and dur- Professorate of Homiletics and chair of the To combat the image of Jesus sleeping Churches as well as a professor at Harvard tances, which illuminate the subject ulty appointment in 1982 to Vander- ing the second year of my ministry, a member department of church and ministry. When an during a sermon, a chair in homiletics was University and Vanderbilt’s Divinity School. under consideration. From telling us of bilt University’s Divinity School, he approached me and remarked, ‘You won’t be administrative decision threatened the liveli- created. Later, when the benefactor walked “He never lost his ecumenical perspective,” yesterday’s shopping trip to a Target had “retired twice” in his vocation as here long; preachers don’t stay at this church.’ hoods of all the African American personnel into Buttrick’s office, he pointed to the pro- remembers Buttrick. “He was a careful tech- store to demonstrate how humans organ- aB homiletician—once over a racial issue, and I told him to pick a number, and he chose at the institution, Buttrick protested the per- fessor and remarked, “I just wanted to see nician who showed no sympathy for anyone ize the flood of perceptions into a mean- later over a civil rights issue in the gay and seven, so I stayed another seven years.” sonnel decision to the president who conde- what I bought.” who didn’t want to continue studying as a ingful narrative, to the silent patient in a lesbian community. As he approaches the eve During the nine years of Buttrick’s min- scendingly asked him, “What’s the matter, preacher. As a pacifist during World War II, mental hospital who repeatedly painted of his retirement from the Divinity School as istry, membership in the First Presbyterian son? Can’t you live with it?” The Second Retirement he stayed in trouble endlessly, but he had stark, bare branches of a tree during art the Drucilla Moore Buffington Professor of Church of Fredonia grew from 35 to 700 in a “I went home and decided, hell no, I can’t On an afternoon seven years ago, Buttrick courage and was not afraid to tackle social therapy and then pointed to the tree and Homiletics and Liturgics, Buttrick reminisces building that seated only 540 people. “We live with it and resigned the next morning,” had concluded a class at Vanderbilt Divinity and political issues in the pulpit.” herself until one day a tiny green leaf about his previous retirements and recounts became an alternative church of camp follow- says Buttrick in a tone probably as indignant School when two students walked him to his If Buttrick’s departure from Vanderbilt fol- appeared, Buttrick’s stories have given the circumstances that led to the decisive ers,” laughs Buttrick, “and the presbytery as when he confronted the seminary presi- office where they proceeded to ask their pro- lows the pattern of his previous retirements, insight coupled with a laugh—or a lump moments when he could no longer remain became pretty angry when I didn’t turn them dent. “I gave myself four months to leave fessor if he believed they were called to the one can expect the 73-year-old professor to in the throat. affiliated with a particular seminary or with all into Presbyterians.” Pittsburgh—the same amount of time that ministry in the Presbyterian church. Buttrick un-retire and continue his work as one of the He brings incredibly broad reading the denomination for which he originally The skills Buttrick had developed earlier was given to the service staff before they were responded to their question in the affirma- world’s foremost scholars on the aims and into the classroom, synthesizing concepts became a minister. while earning his baccalaureate in English unemployed. Those were the months my wife tive. methods of preaching. “I had no intention of and movements some of us were just Ordained by the Presbytery of New York from Haverford College were applied during refers to as my ‘period of creative insecurity.’” When the students disclosed to Buttrick becoming a homiletician; I never thought proud to be able to pronounce. He listens City in 1951 after he was graduated from the interim between his parish and first fac- A telephone call from Saint Meinrad that they were gay, he responded, “So, you’ll about joining a church until after college,” he to comments and responds to questions Union Theological Seminary, Buttrick was ulty appointment. As editor for the Presbyter- School of Theology in southern Indiana, how- be excellent ministers, too.” admits. “I had received a fellowship to Yale with an attention that opens up the stu- called immediately to five churches. Because ian Board of Christian Education, he wrote ever, would dispel any uncertainty about But- Their next question—how could one for graduate studies in English, but I showed dents to the possibility that they, too, just the members of the First Presbyterian Church the preliminary draft for the Presbyterian trick’s professional career and prevent him remain a Presbyterian considering the up at Union 24 hours before they were open- might be able to carry away this weight of in Fredonia, New York, had not heard of But- prayer book. But one afternoon, he received from remaining in retirement. “I had never church’s position against the ordination of ing for the semester and asked if I merely thought and make it their own. Under- trick’s father, George, one of the most cele- invitations to join the faculties of Princeton heard of Saint Meinrad, which proves how gays and lesbians—consequently became a could sit in classes for a year. That’s when neath the disagreements, Buttrick shows brated preachers of the 20th century, he Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh Theological isolated I was, and I initially turned them catalyst for Buttrick’s retirement from the Paul Tillich and Paul Scherer got hold of me.” a profound respect and deep caring for accepted their invitation and became minister Seminary, and Amherst College. down because I had reservations about teach- presbytery and his reception into the min- With the publication this spring of his 16th each student. Frantic telephone calls from to the 35 congregants living in the snow belt “I hadn’t asked to be considered for a sem- ing in a Catholic school. But 10 days later they istry of the United Church of Christ. book, Speaking Parables: A Homiletic Guide, any of us students are always met with west of Buffalo. inary appointment. I had declined already an called again and asked me to come for an “Two weeks after that conversation with Buttrick already is contemplating the next easy grace, and the inevitable comment, offer from Lancaster Seminary and turned interview on the feast day of their patron. I my students, the president of Princeton Sem- phase of his life. “My brain is still functional,” “Don’t worry about it.” This is no idle them down a second time before Paul Scherer, learned quickly that Catholics have grand inary wrote a letter about the church’s stand he proclaims confidently, “so I may go else- dismissal. He lives the free, glad divine Above: David Buttrick, the Drucilla Moore Buffing- my teacher from Union who was determined parties, and in the middle of their celebration, against the gay and lesbian community; he where and teach and write another book.” grace he preaches in the classroom. ton Professor of Homiletics and Liturgics, emeritus I would become a homiletician, drove down they asked, ‘You’re coming, aren’t you?’ and I used that unctuous language of ‘loving the

16 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 17 Out of

Garage Minister Witnessing the Legacy of Apartheid An Alternative for Generation X Africa

BY MARTIN BRADY

here’s a timeworn adage: “Seek and canoeing and sailing; we offer “The air in Africa is more significant in Center, a Friends agency. And McCoy con- do we become reconciled to the truth and live ye shall find.” For Pam Fickenscher, Bible study classes; and I’m cur- ducts life skill sessions for youth at the Joint together as different individuals?’” MDiv’94, the search took her from rently doing a lot of premarital the landscape than in Europe, it is filled Enrichment Project in Johannesburg. T A new lens California to Minnesota. What she counseling.” Because Bethlehem with loomings and mirages, and is in a Before beginning their field education found is Spirit Garage: The Church with a Lutheran Church, the sponsor of assignments for the spring semester, these The students readily admit that their experi- Really Big Door, a unique ministry operating Spirit Garage, provides only a way the real stage of activities. In the students were members of a delegation from ences in the field of modern South Africa com- since October 1997 from the auditorium of modest third-floor office, out- the Divinity School that traveled to South prise the frame through which they now view Jefferson Elementary School in the Uptown reach activities are conducted in heat of the midday the air oscillates and Africa in January to study race relations and the world. “The effects of the issues ending in section of Minneapolis. coffeehouses or in private homes. vibrates like the string of a violin, lifts the legacy of apartheid. Led by Director of the suffix ‘ism’ that we have studied in an aca- “Spirit Garage reflects the natural direc- Dedicated to making a differ- Field Education Viki Matson and Associate demic context—exclusivism, classism, and tion of this neighborhood,” says Fickenscher. ence in the community, the con- up long layers of grass-land and with Dean Mark Justad, the group also included racism—became undeniably real for us in Krista Hughes, Alex Jackson, Shannon South Africa,” says Krista Hughes. “Although “Uptown is where young people new to the gregation contributes 30 percent thorn-trees and hills on it, and creates Twin Cities tend to move. Most of them of each Sunday offering to agen- Sellers-Harty, Rob Teitelbaum, Andrew the country’s constitution invites a future would be identified as members of Genera- cies that serve the homeless, run- vast silvery expanses of water in the dry Thompson, Marilyn Thornton-Tribble, Lisa removed from the patriarchal inequality that tion X, a group the wider church often over- aways, and the sick. Members at Hammonds Frierson, and Jill Sawoski. governed the past, economic apartheid still looks. It’s hard getting them involved in Spirit Garage also participate in grass…You wake up in the morning and “While meeting with representatives from exists in South Africa where the correlation traditional church services, so we’re trying Habitat for Humanity as well as think: Here I am, where I ought to be.” different agencies involved in race relations, between race and socioeconomic status that something different.” paint apartments for AIDS we noticed the recurring use of theological we see in America is magnified dramatically. patients. language in the dialogues. The words of our And there are those in South Africa, as in If members of Spirit Garage are represen- — “From an Immigrant’s Notebook” faith—truth, forgiveness, and reconciliation— America, who dismiss the poor by saying, tative of other Generation Xers, only 35 per- in Out of Africa, 1937 A fortuitous encounter are used in discussions of justice,” explains ‘But they choose to live this way.’” cent have had any involvement in an by Isak Dinesen (1885-1962) institutional church, and 45 percent of them A minister in the Evangelical Matson. “Although South Africa now has a “Every social problem we encounter in the have experienced a family trauma—either Lutheran Church of America, remarkably progressive constitution, the United States exists here but to a much greater parents separating or divorcing or being Fickenscher is the daughter of a country is healing gradually through the lan- degree,” agrees Gilvin. “Each day I am con- reared by a single parent—according to a sur- pastor in the Lutheran Church guage and actions of faith. People are asking, fronted with stories of life in the ‘informal set- vey conducted on young adults in North Car- Missouri Synod, a traditional ERIC MILLER/SAINT PAUL PIONEER PRESS ‘Now that we know the truth of the past, how tlements’ or squatters’ camps where there is olina and California by Duke University denomination that does not allow Pam Fickenscher, lower right, distributes Communion during mily Hardman, Brandon Gilvin, and Divinity School and the University of Califor- women to be ordained. While a Sunday service at Spirit Garage: The Church With the Matthew McCoy perceive the air of nia at Santa Barbara. While 80 percent believe majoring in German at Valparaiso Really Big Door, a congregation supported by Bethlehem Africa quite differently from the in God, a majority thinks the congregations University, she made a fort- Lutheran Church of Minneapolis. When church leaders at E description penned 63 years ago by where they have worshiped lack vitality. uitous connection. “Betty DeBerg Bethlehem realized traditional religion was in danger of losing Isak Dinesen in Out of Africa. (MDiv’80, MA’87, PhD’88) taught an entire generation, they called Fickenscher to establish a Variation on tradition When these three students from Vanderbilt theology there, and she previ- congregation of young people. To enliven the services with music that would ously had been admissions coun- University Divinity School awaken each appeal to her congregation of 100, Fickenscher selor at Vanderbilt Divinity morning, they do not observe the indistinct enlisted help from guitarist John Kerns who School—so you could say she was a good In January, Fickenscher celebrated her first loomings and illusory mirages recorded in the recruited other musicians to join the effort. recruiter.” anniversary of her marriage to William Danish writer’s autobiography. From their “John’s electric guitar is very different from After she was graduated from Valparaiso, Schroeer, an environmental policy consultant field education assignments in South Africa, conventional church instruments,” she says. Fickenscher worked in Washington, D.C., who studies transportation issues. “Bill was they witness the realistic drama of a populace “The music at Spirit Garage could be catego- with the Lutheran Volunteer Corps, an expe- reared a Mennonite, and he favors more tra- recovering from the oppressive grip of rized as alternative rock—taking old words rience that exposed her to a range of inner-city ditional liturgies,” she explains, “but he cer- apartheid. and setting them to new melodies. We’ve challenges, particularly with the Capitol Area tainly understands what we’re trying to But Hardman, Gilvin, and McCoy are done adaptations of traditional Lutheran Food Bank. Earning her graduate degree at accomplish at Spirit Garage.” more than mere observers of South Africa’s hymns, and we even set the Prayer of Saint Vanderbilt University Divinity School, she As The Church with the Really Big Door emergence as a modern democracy. As the Francis to a tune by Stevie Ray Vaughn.” then completed denominational requirements enters its third year, Fickenscher is optimistic first Vanderbilt matriculants chosen to com- Fickenscher believes the casual tone cre- and seminary studies in Berkeley, California, about the ministry’s future. “We’re offering plete their field education requirements under ated by the music makes the religious experi- and Jersey City, New Jersey, before her ordi- this congregation opportunities they cannot the auspices of the Divinity School’s grant ence at Spirit Garage more accessible for the nation in August 1997. find elsewhere in the Uptown neighborhood. from the Henry R. Luce Foundation, the stu- worshippers. Although the services involve “Vanderbilt was the right place at the right As we continue to reach out and expand the dent theologians may be considered minor the traditional practices of scripture reading time for me,” says Fickenscher. “The Univer- ministry, we have to remain sensitive and participants in the country’s political history. and the distribution of Communion, sermons sity was instrumental in building confidence flexible; as times change, we’ll adapt.” At Saint Philomena’s Children’s Home in at Spirit Garage are rather “conversational” as in my leadership skills. Joretta Marshall To learn more about Spirit Garage, visit the Durban, Hardman works with Catholic nuns As part of Vanderbilt University Divinity School’s initiative in global education funded by the Henry Fickenscher discusses a theme from the New (MA’89, PhD’92), my pastoral care professor, ministry’s Web site at www.spiritgarage.org. as a caregiver for children and adolescents R. Luce Foundation, thirteen representatives from the School traveled to South Africa in January to Testament. had a significant influence on my view of the who range in age from three to seventeen study race relations and the legacy of apartheid. The wagon in the background is part of the Voortrekker Martin Brady, a freelance writer in Nashville, is a former sen- years. In Capetown’s Eros School for differ- Monument in Pretoria that commemorates the founders of the former South Africa Republic and the This successful combination of traditional practical side of ministry because my work ior editor for Booklist published by the American Library Asso- elements with contemporary interests extends involves looking at the culture of the world ciation in Chicago. A graduate of The Catholic University of ently-abled students, Gilvin implements the Boers’ battle against the Zulu. “Visiting this memorial that has served as an icon for Afrikaners was a America, he has published articles and book reviews in the to other areas of ministry at Spirit Garage. my people live in and helping them make life skills curriculum designed by the peace slightly uncomfortable experience,” says student Krista Hughes. “The circle of wagons at the entrance Chicago Sun Times, the Nashville Scene, and Northwest- to the monument reminded me of the memorials to defeated Native Americans.” “We have summer retreats that include sense of the Gospel.” ern magazine. education department of the Quaker Peace

18 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 19 “The effects of the issues ending in the suffix ‘ism’ that we have studied in an academic context— exclusivism, classism, and racism—became undeniably real for us in South Africa. Although the country’s constitution invites a future removed from the patriarchal inequality that governed the “Visiting the ‘informal housing’ or squatters’ past, economic apartheid still exists in South Africa where the correlation between race and camps gave me a new perspective on poverty when I saw the marked contrast between the socioeconomic status that we see in America is magnified dramatically. And there are those in ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots,’” says Marilyn South Africa, as in America, who dismiss the poor by saying, ‘But they choose to live this way.’” Thornton-Tribble, MDiv2. —Krista Hughes, MDiv2

ical history of South Africa but continues to serve as a case study of a religious conversion. One evening after Thompson and the Reflections on the Absurdity of Colors other members of the Divinity School delega- —from the field education journal of Brandon Gilvin, MDiv2 tion had finished supper, Seremane discussed his life as a South African activist and political I continue to learn about the absurd racial prisoner and his subsequent conversion to categories of South Africa during Christianity. “What began as a narrative of apartheid: whites, coloreds, and Africans. Joe’s life during apartheid resulted in a quiet The whites, of course the most privileged, no electricity, and I read documented reports During the years of struggle for freedom, testimony of his faith,” remembers Thomp- included people of British descent and from victims whose human rights were the South Africans who would have been of son, “yet his story serves as a foil for every the Afrikaners of Dutch ancestry who abused during apartheid and wonder why high school or college age postponed their notion I previously held about faith.” “Parts of South Africa are diverse and wonderful speak a dialect of Afrikaans that devel- President Mbeki doesn’t support financial education to fight for political reforms under For his involvement in the Pan African while other aspects are disheartening and immo- oped among the settlers and spread to reparations for them. Children become the motto, “Liberation Now, Education Congress, Seremane was imprisoned without bilizing,” says Matthew McCoy, MTS1 (left). many other ethnic groups in South orphaned as a result of AIDS, which threatens Later;” consequently, there is a lost generation “As an African born in America, I am learning Africa. to deplete the adult work population by 15 of uneducated youth. that strong feelings against injustice and inequal- The “coloreds” were people of multi- percent this year, so any story I tell about “Whenever you hear references to the ity must be tempered with patience, yet my toler- racial backgrounds, the offsprings of growing up on a farm in Kentucky and being youth of South Africa, you discover that the ance for rhetoric is becoming increasingly low.” African and white settlers. Sometimes the My landlord also mentioned that he troubled by the subtle and not-so-subtle youth consists of men and women who are 30 Asians of Malaysian and Indian back- finds it very troublesome that South racism seems contrived in comparison to years old, which is the beginning of middle standing, unshackled, at the door to his home grounds, who arrived in South Africa as Africa has spent so much energy trying to these conditions.” age by American standards,” explains McCoy. and told by the police escorts that he was free. slaves and laborers were placed in this promote indigenous leaders to positions “Remnants of apartheid are apparent not “Although the country is free, there is a gen- But before his wife embraced and kissed him group, but more often, Asians comprised of power. He refers to Peter the Great as a only in the economic disparity but also in the eration whose only education consists of upon his return, she insisted that the family their own group. Though not as despised reformer who consulted the elite from segregation that occurs within the education knowing how to survive on the streets, and offer a prayer of gratitude and told her hus- as blacks, “coloreds” were also segre- outside his country to help Russia’s system,” writes Hardman from Saint Philom- were it not for enrichment programs that offer band that his survival and release after two gated into townships and carried less sta- advancement. First of all, if I remember ena’s Children’s Home in Durban. “Social training in life skills and provide employment years of incarceration could only be explained tus than their white counterparts. They Professor Sharfman’s modern Russian workers do not place white children in opportunities, this generation would be lost as an answer to the prayers of her faith com- were also taught that they were better history class at Hiram, doesn’t Peter have orphanages with black children, nor do white further.” munity. than those of singularly African ancestry. a fairly dubious reputation in Russia for children attend school with black children.” For Marilyn Thornton-Tribble, the sessions Seremane continues to be an advocate for The most abused and most despised his admiration of Western European cul- in conflict resolution she observed during her South Africans, but as a convert to Christian- group under the old regime, however, ture? Secondly, such advice seems to be visit to Pollsmoor Prison influence the way Joe Seremane, a member of the democratic party ity, he condemns violence as a means to create were the people of African descent, sought everywhere, especially in terms of she responds to her work as minister of edu- in South Africa’s Parliament and former politi- change. As he explained to the Vanderbilt stu- including the Xhosa and Zulu. marketing the country to tourists. I also cation at Hobson United Methodist Church in cal prisoner, made an indelible impression on the dents, “Faith is a more subversive strategy My landlord is among those described don’t think the way to make up for years Nashville. “Whenever a disagreement devel- Divinity School students when he narrated the than violence.” as “colored” and was employed as a of abusing indigenous people is to con- ops among people during a church meeting story of his imprisonment and subsequent reli- “We all agreed that Joe Seremane’s testi- physics teacher, however, he was tinue to make them sit on the sidelines and they become unduly critical, I think gious conversion. Andrew Thompson, MDiv2, mony would be the inspiration for sermons “retrenched” recently as a result of the while they watch elite foreigners run their immediately of the mediation process prac- (right) describes Seremane’s life story as “a foil” we might deliver one day,” says Thompson. adoption nationwide of a new outcome- country. This becomes a form of neo-colo- ticed in Pollsmoor where 56 men from rival for every notion he previously had about faith. “He is an example of the reality of God in the based educational curriculum. Now he is nialism, and God knows, McDonalds and gangs volunteer to serve their terms in a room life of an individual.” a struggling freelance writer, or as he Disney have their hands full with that where beds are stacked four high and where formal charges for 28 months. Detained in Should Thompson and his peers decide says, “following his dream.” already. (By the way, for all you pulp fic- the guards don’t carry guns or nightsticks,” solitary confinement, he was tortured so fre- one day, like Isak Dinesen, to write their auto- He blames South Africa’s contempo- tion fans, a quarter pounder with cheese is says Thornton-Tribble, who describes her quently that he had to detach himself psycho- biographies, it is probable that chapters will rary problems on what he considers an still a quarter pounder with cheese in experience at the prison as the most “authen- logically during the torture so that the “blows be devoted to their experiences in South extreme form of Affirmative Action that South Africa, but French fries are called tic” moment of her trip. “Here they study felt like feathers.” And he astounded his tor- Africa and their roles as witnesses of has filled the seats of power with unqual- chips, as in jolly ole England.) strategies for developing the skills that can turers who once confided to him, “We don’t apartheid’s legacy. Perhaps they will recall ified people simply because they are It’s evident from my landlord’s words allow them to respond to conflicts in a mode understand why you don’t have hatred in how the language of faith was employed in black. As a “good liberal,” he agrees that that the racial divisions between blacks of peacefulness—skills that are especially your eyes.” the country’s healing and the parts that differ- Affirmative Action is necessary as repara- and coloreds still bear significant ideolog- important for us as future religious leaders.” Although Seremane’s wife and children ent religious agencies played in the develop- tion for years of inequality, but he thinks ical weight in the post-apartheid years. were Christian, he often had ridiculed what ment of a democratic government. And the policy has been enforced too much. Not that I consider him to have the defin- The presence of “something other” he considered the hypocrisy of organized reli- should their experiences become the subjects He cited the example of the South African itive view, nor am I claiming to be a social But when Andrew Thompson is asked to gion. But on the night the guards escorted of future sermons and lectures or inspire them national soccer team that recently lost in theorist, but I think he is fairly representa- “While implementing an arts and crafts program recount the experience that made the most him from his cell and placed him in the back to become advocates for those whose voices the African Nations Cup. The coach, who tive of the middle class that is emerging in for the children at Saint Philomena’s, I’ve been indelible impression upon him, he responds seat of a car, Seremane heard an inner voice, a are suppressed, perhaps they will write of is black and whose appointment has been South Africa as idealism becomes passé. able to develop trusting relationships with the without reservation by pronouncing the forceful presence he described for the Divinity South Africa in the words of Dinesen, “There questioned from the beginning, is taking Meanwhile, I remain engaged in the children and to learn about South Africa through name, “Joe Seremane.” Thompson’s chance School students as “something other” that we were, where we ought to have been.” a lot of the heat, evidently for not listen- questions. As they say in Cape Town, their innocence,” writes Emily Hardman, MTS1, encounter with Seremane, a member of Par- told him he was not going to die. ing to assistant coaches’ advice. cheers. who is fulfilling her field education requirement liament’s democratic party, became not only Believing that he was being driven to his this semester in Durban. the lens through which he examined the polit- execution, Seremane, however, found himself

20 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 21 ADivinity ShaSchool Celebrates Endowments ofing Two Professorships ofTadition

In the Academy, the chair represents the seat To celebrate the appoint- of professorial authority. Benefactors of Van- ment of Jack M. Sasson derbilt University Divinity School have as the first Mary Jane demonstrated once again their commitment Werthan Professor of to the School’s ecumenical vision by ensur- Jewish Studies and ing that authorities on the Jewish and Hebrew Bible at Vander- Catholic faiths will be among those partici- mother had family connections in North bilt University Divinity pating in a critical and open examination of “Nothing in my life had America, and the family received permission School, a reception was the Hebraic and Christian traditions. from the American government to settle in hosted by alumni Jerald Through the generosity of Albert and prepared me for being Brooklyn. “My family shares in the familiar, Doochin, BA’52, and Mary Jane Lowenheim Werthan, BA’29, ageless story of immigrants settling in a new Dianne Shofner MA’35, the first woman to serve on the Van- admits nation where they are not fluent in the lan- in a divinity school,” Doochin, MLAS’97 derbilt University Board of Trust, the Divin- guage,” says Sasson who attended high (left). Shown with the ity School’s ecumenism has been advanced Jack Sasson as he reflects upon his first year school in Brooklyn before matriculating at Doochins are Diane and further by the endowment of the Mary Jane Brooklyn College where he developed an Jack Sasson and Vander- Werthan Professorship of Jewish Studies and interest in the history and literature of the as the Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jew- bilt University Board of Hebrew Bible. Jack M. Sasson, who accepted ancient world. Trust life trustee Mary the appointment to the Werthan Chair, has As an immigrant, Sasson’s knowledge of ish Studies and Hebrew Bible. “I never went Jane Lowenheim completed his first year at the Divinity American geography outside the state of Werthan, BA’29, School and will be installed formally on Sep- New York was limited to Washington, D.C., MA’35, seated with her tember 12. to yeshiva, nor have I taught in a university and Chicago, yet one of his history profes- husband, Albert. The The 1999–2000 academic term also sors, Mary Frances Giles, who lectured with Werthans established the marked the initial year for the Edward A. that is confessionally-oriented, but my new a heavy southern accent, was always refer- endowment for the chair Malloy Professorship in Catholic Studies. ring to the southern university from which to ensure permanently Augustinian scholar J. Patout Burns Jr. was colleagues at Vanderbilt have been very she was graduated. “For all I knew, she had the presence of a profes- installed in February as the first professor to gone to college in Zanzibar,” laughs Sasson. sor of Jewish studies on occupy this chair that was endowed by the But ironically, the alma mater of the memo- receptive, and I have discovered the Divinity the faculty. support of 19 patrons and alumni/ae. Pri- rable professor who spoke in an equally mary funding for the Malloy Chair, named in School students are not university-channeled memorable accent was the University of PEYTON HOGE honor of the current president of the Univer- North Carolina at Chapel Hill where Sasson sity of Notre Dame, was provided through would begin his teaching career after earning city state of Mari by examining letters dating ars will study early Christian rituals in their the secondary level, I tell them such work is graduate students of a uniform type—each the bequest of Anne Potter Wilson and the his doctorate in Mediterranean studies from from 1800–1750 B.C.E. that were written on physical context. a young person’s game and physically William K. Warren Foundation of Tulsa, Brandeis University. For 33 years, he served clay tablets in the ancient Semitic language “Because we have the floor plans of the exhausting, but I encourage them to acquire Oklahoma. Significant contributions also one is rich in experiences, and I’m glad to be on the faculty of UNC and in 1991 was of Mesopotamia known as Akkadian or early Christian monuments, we are able to teaching experience in high school because were received from the late Monroe Carell named the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor Assyro-Babylonian. “These letters were dis- reconstruct the rituals on the actual footprint they will learn how to handle a 50-minute Sr.; University trustee Monroe J. Carell Jr., a part of their questing.” of Religious Studies. covered 90 years ago in Syria by French of the buildings and to explore the relation- period without using notes.” BE’59; Joel Cheek; the late University trustee As an Assyriologist and the newly archeologists and provide an incredible win- ships among architectural appointments, After he was graduated from high school Sam Fleming, BA’28; Dr. Denis and Ann Sasson’s own quest to the classroom appointed Werthan Professor, Sasson hopes dow to the world of Mari,” contends Sasson. physical space, and the literature that docu- in New Iberia, where his family still owns the O’Day; William and Carolyn O’Neil Jr.; began after his family immigrated to New to open the world of the ancient Hebrews to “I take delight in reading the letters as pieces ments the rituals,” says Burns, whose state’s largest plantation for processing sugar Charles S. and Mary Nichols; Kent Kyger, York from Lebanon in 1955. Born in the Syr- students whose backgrounds have not of literature because when people compose research has been funded with a grant from cane, Burns entered the Jesuit order and MD’58, and Patricia Kyger, BS’59; University ian city of Aleppo, one of the oldest, continu- exposed them to an examination of biblical letters they leave traces of their hopes and the National Endowment for the Humani- began his seminary studies. At Spring Hill trustee William M. Hannon and Jane Han- ously lived-in cities of the world, he was five texts from a non-New Testament perspec- their hurts. What I hope to accomplish in my ties. College in Mobile, Alabama, he earned a bac- non; Sydney F. Keeble Jr., BA’49, JD’51, and years old when his family moved in 1946 to tive. “The Werthan Chair reinforces the book is to make connections to a world that Perhaps the foundation for this calaureate and a master’s degree in philoso- Shelia Broderick Keeble; and the late Univer- Beirut where the larger Christian community bridge between Judaic studies and other reli- no longer exists by employing these letters.” Louisianan’s interest in studying the exact- phy. During his undergraduate years, Burns sity trustee Charles W. Geny, BA’36. and French influence proposed less threats of gious traditions explored within the curric- Sasson’s new colleague, J. Patout Burns ness of physical properties in early Christian became interested in Silver Age Scholasti- In this issue of The Spire, Professors Sas- displacement for post-war Jews. “We moved ula of the Divinity School and the Jr., also is interested in making connections monuments could be traced to his first teach- cism—Roman Catholic thought after the son and Burns discuss their backgrounds to Lebanon expecting to find a more hos- University,” says Sasson. to the past through his research on the burial ing appointment as a high school mathemat- Council of Trent—the period in church his- and the ways the Werthan and Malloy Chairs pitable place to live as Jews,” explains Sas- The author of over 170 articles and practices and baptismal rituals of Christian- ics instructor in Shreveport. Burns’ tory where there is an attempt to recover can support the mission of Vanderbilt’s son, “but when the United Nations began reviews, he has served as president of the ity in Roman North Africa. Having com- undergraduate minor in mathematics not medieval inquiry in a new context. From 1964 Divinity School. deliberations for establishing a state of Israel, American Oriental Society and the Society pleted his manuscript on the episcopate of only qualified him to teach the subject but to 1974, he received a master of divinity the Arab world began taking out its frustra- for Biblical Literature. For his next research Cyprian, the third-century Bishop of also supports his research in church history. degree from Regis College in Toronto, a mas- tions on Jewish communities.” project, Sasson has been commissioned to Carthage, the new Malloy Professor is plan- ”I look back on those two years of teaching ter’s degree in theology from Saint Michael’s Whereas many Jews from Syria, Iraq, and write a commentary on the Book of Judges ning to return to North Africa in August high school math as the time I learned how to College in Toronto, and a doctorate of philos- Lebanon left for South America or the mer- for the Anchor Bible Series. He also is con- where he and a team of archeologists, teach,” says Burns, “and whenever students ophy from Yale University. cantile cities in Italy and England, Sasson’s ducting an epistolary study on the ancient inscription scholars, and biblical text schol- tell me they are thinking about teaching on Upon resigning from the priesthood,

22 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 23 “The university divinity schools have internalized religious diversity and dialogue in an explicitly secular setting. As the divinity faculty of Vanderbilt University, we are part of the secular order but the secular order turned toward the church, listening and speaking.” —J. Patout Burns Jr.

During the spring semester, J. Patout Peter and Moses in parallel roles and bearing turies, many letters and gospels claimed to just this sort of institution–at Yale, or Chicago, Burns Jr. (second from left) was installed In Appreciation of the same facial features. By the time Christian- speak in the names of apostles, but the faithful or Union, or here at Vanderbilt–can attest. The as the first Edward A. Malloy Professor Christian Polyphony ity became the preferred religion of the recognized only some; these were finally richness of these independent university of Catholic Studies at Vanderbilt Uni- Empire, the system of ecclesiastical provinces received as witnesses to Jesus. The canon of divinity schools derives, I believe, from versity Divinity School. Among those The following excerpt is from the address delivered with metropolitan bishops and the great patri- the New Testament seems to have been deter- their participation in a research university attending Burns’ installation were the by J. Patout Burns Jr. on the occasion of his instal- archal sees already had emerged. mined by widespread usage among the and from their ecumenical and interfaith con- Most Reverend Edward U. Kmiec, D.D., lation as the first Edward A. Malloy Professor of Even in the ancient church, where preach- churches and only subsequently confirmed by stitutions and constituencies. Some church- tenth Bishop of the Diocese of Nashville, Catholic Studies at Vanderbilt University Divinity ing was generally restricted to bishops, the conciliar decree. During the iconoclast contro- sponsored seminaries have joined together to and alumni Patricia Miller Kyger, School on February 17, 2000, in Benton Chapel. laity shared a teaching role. Justin Martyr and versy, emperors and bishops worked to sup- share resources–Boston Theological Institute, BS’59, and Kent Kyger, MD’58. Dr. and Tertullian laid the foundations of Christian press the use of images in Christian worship, Toronto School of Theology, Chicago Cluster Mrs. Kyger were among the contributors theology; Origen’s stature as a Christian but the monks and the faithful steadfastly of Theological Schools, Graduate Theological who funded the chair in Catholic studies o establish a chair and to endow the teacher was recognized widely before he was, resisted their decisions, which were subse- Union–but the university divinity schools named in honor of alumnus Edward A. scholarships and programs which irregularly, ordained a presbyter. In most quently reversed. have internalized religious diversity and dia- (Monk) Malloy, PhD’75, president of the Tsupport it is to make a significant churches, the catechists were ranked among The Christian Church, and particularly the logue in an explicitly secular setting. University of Notre Dame and one of the step beyond inviting a series of the laity. The ministry which flourished in the Roman Catholic tradition within it, has tradi- As an integral part of a secular university, first two Catholic priests to earn a doc- Catholics to join the faculty, beyond offering tens of thousands of religious sisters and tionally institutionalized religious and teach- Vanderbilt’s Divinity School does not claim to

PEYTON HOGE torate from Vanderbilt. admission to Catholic graduate and profes- brothers, which continues in parochial and be a part of the teaching office of any Christian sional students. To endow a chair for a certain Sunday schools, has been part of the church’s church; we do not speak in the name or with Burns was appointed professor of religion at As the Malloy Professor, Burns also will field of study, such as the Carpenter chairs in teaching office from earliest times. the authority of Christ or Peter, in any of their the University of Florida and in 1990 was participate in a two-year agreement begin- feminist and gender studies, the chairs in Monks provided guidance to one another many institutional forms. Though individu- named the Thomas and Alberta White Pro- ning this fall to teach courses within the Col- Methodist, Jewish and Catholic studies, or the and to married Christians. Although Antony ally the faculty and students we may be within fessor in Christian Thought at Washington lege of Arts and Science. “There is a Institute on the Black Church is to shape the of Egypt spent a major portion of his life as a a church, as a body and institution, we stand University in Saint Louis. “What I appreci- significant number of Catholics represented character of the school by institutionalizing a hermit isolated in as vast a desert as he could outside the churches. ated at the University of Florida and Wash- in the undergraduate student body, and the permanent commitment to a particular kind of manage, his teaching on the Christian life was As the divinity faculty of Vanderbilt Uni- ington University was that the religion Malloy Professorship will allow for specific scholarly investigation and teaching, much as carried by letters and in a long discourse on versity, we are part of the secular order but the departments were not limited to the study of courses on Catholic studies to be available to we might to New Testament or Christian the- the ascetic life included in his biography— secular order turned toward the church, listen- Christianity—the history and traditions of them,” he says. ”This new chair in the Divin- ology or ethics. Vanderbilt’s Divinity School itself disseminated by the most prominent ing and speaking. We seek to speak to and on other religions were invited to the curricula. ity School provides another voice and brings has determined that henceforth, it will have a bishop of his day, Athanasius of Alexandria. behalf of the churches and thus to assist their What I was missing, however, was the more a different set of resources for the training of Roman Catholic voice in its scholarly discus- The sage advice of his successors was pre- own teaching offices. We search for common intensive study of Christianity associated ministers and biblical scholars.” sions, its research seminars, its instructional served carefully in collections which we know ground not only among the churches but with a divinity program and a graduate To learn more about Burns’ research with the lectures, its faculty deliberations and deci- as “The Sayings of the Fathers.” In the follow- between the churches and the secular order. school. Vanderbilt is an attractive place for a interdisciplinary working group on Devotion and sions. By soliciting scholarship funds, it ing generations, Pachomius, Basil, and Bene- Detail of the apostles on the shoulders of the We discern wisdom preserved in one tradition scholar who wants to teach in a private insti- Dissent: The Practice of Christianity in Roman attempts to insure that its student body dict organized this experiential wisdom into prophets from the north side of the Princes’ to make it more generally available. In this we tution that is not aligned with a particular Africa, visit their web site at http://divinity. always will include women and men prepar- rules of life and established monasteries where Portal, Bamberg Cathedral, Germany, ca.1230 are a distinctly American institution, reflecting church communion but has, nevertheless, a library.vanderbilt.edu/burns/chroma/ ing for Catholic ministry and teaching. a practical teaching on Christian life was the complex distinction and interaction strong interest in the study of divinity and Institutionalization of the teaching function developed and dispensed. In our own day, ing authority but has consistently divided that between secular and religious which charac- religion both in the College of Arts and Sci- is something that Catholics know. Some of the Theresa of Avila and Catherine of Siena have office among many collaborating and compet- terizes our national culture. ence and the Divinity School.” structures of religious authority which are been recognized formally as Teachers of the ing structures. Teaching has always been poly- Vanderbilt University Divinity School has characteristic of the Roman Catholic commun- Church for their writings on prayer. phonic rather than monovocal; the church has decided that this mission of teaching and ion were already well established even before When guilds of scholars organized them- risked cacophony but generally avoided learning requires that certain voices be institu- the Christian movement achieved legitimacy selves as universities independent of the dreary, deadening repetition. tionalized within it. Its complex relation to the Guests attending the in the Roman Empire. Not only had the bishop monastic and cathedral schools, they devel- In contemporary America, the religiously Methodist Church is reaffirmed in the Cal reception in Tillett emerged as the authoritative teacher in the oped yet another institution in which the affiliated universities, colleges, and seminars Turner Chancellor’s Chair in Wesleyan Stud- Lounge following the local congregations, but structures had been medieval Christian church recognized a teach- continue their traditional contribution to the ies. At the same time, the school reached out to installation of J. Patout developed through which the network of bish- ing authority. The entrance of new orders of church’s teaching office. The university divin- traditions which traditionally were underrep- Burns Jr. included Patri- ops set policy and enforced discipline. The friars, the preaching monks, into the universi- ity schools, however, speak in a new and quite resented at Vanderbilt in establishing the Mary cia Wilson, Deacon Jim teaching office which Matthew’s Gospel ties strengthened their financial independence different voice. Many of America’s best pri- Jane Werthan Professorship in Jewish Studies McKenzie, assistant assigned to Peter, making him the chief rabbi and planted the seeds of our modern special- vate research universities grew out of church- and Hebrew Bible and the Edward A. Malloy chaplain to the Univer- of the Christian community, was claimed by ized chairs by capturing and passing along sponsored seminaries; when they slipped free Professorship in Catholic Studies. It commits sity’s Catholic Commu- local bishops by the end of the second century. master’s positions from one Franciscan or of religious control, some–such as Vanderbilt itself to attend to that new voice and to speak nity; Dr. James P. In the third century, the college of bishops was Dominican to another. University–steadfastly retained and devel- with it—to speak not only to its established Wilson, associate profes- legitimated as the successor to the Twelve To these four institutionalized forms of oped their divinity schools. While other pro- partners, the churches of the Western Refor- sor of medicine and Apostles whom Jesus is portrayed as charging teaching authority must be added a very dif- fessional schools–law, medicine, business– mation and the secular university, but the director of the adult pri- with collective responsibility for guiding the ferent one: the role of the hearer, the recipient. migrated to universities, the divinity schools Roman Catholic Church as well. I suggest that mary care center at Van- church. Contemporaneously, the Petrine office The assent and dissent of the faithful have themselves often founded and nourished the Vanderbilt ‘s polyphonic method of teaching derbilt University as leader of the entire episcopacy already was been an integral part of the church’s teaching universities which they call home. These have and learning is traditionally Christian and Medical Center; and being appropriated by bishops of Rome. office and authority, as Cardinal Newman become remarkable institutions, as most of my profoundly catholic. Frances Anne Varallo.

PEYTON HOGE Fourth century Christian funerary art depicts demonstrated. In the first and second cen- colleagues on this faculty who were trained in

24 THE SPIRE Spring 2000 25 leanins Hill in Philadelphia. She also is a consultant to practice in psychotherapy and he pursues an a scholar and is thoroughly involved in the the Center of Theological Inquiry Pastor-The- acting career. life of Millsaps.” Ray is the author of Deceiving Obituaries ologian Project in Princeton, New Jersey, and the Devil and currently is working on her sec- Paul J. Acker, Oberlin BD’45, on June 22, Randy Smith, BA’84, MDiv’88, former assis- a member of the Committee on Preparation ond book, tentatively titled Christic Imagina- 1999. tant director of development for Vanderbilt for Ministry of the Philadelphia Presbytery. tion: An Ethic of Incarnation and Ingenuity. She University Divinity School, has been Glenn F. Lockard, Oberlin BD’45, a and her spouse, Raymond Scott Clothier, Jerry Allen Smith, MDiv’78, has been appointed director of major gifts and regional Methodist minister who served churches in MDiv’92, reside in Jackson, Mississippi. appointed senior minister of the Memorial development for the University. Ohio for more than 50 years, on April 4, 1999. United Methodist Church in Elizabethtown, Julian H. Wright Jr., MDiv’92, JD’92, has Jonathan David Brumberg-Kraus, MA’86, Jay Elma Broyles, BD’47, a member of the Kentucky. He and his wife, Carol, recently been made a partner with the law firm of PhD’91, is an assistant professor of religion at Martin Methodist College Board of Trustees celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary on Robinson Bradshaw & Hinson in Charlotte, Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts. and retired United Methodist minister who November 22, 1999. North Carolina, where he practices civil litiga- He resides in Providence, Rhode Island, with served as pastor for 47 years in churches tion and works with appointed death penalty Brooks R. Faulkner, DMin’79, is a certified his wife, Maia, and their two children, Zoe, 9; throughout Middle Tennessee, on November post convictions. He also serves as clerk of trainer for Compassion Fatigue, a Federal and Max, 5. 6, 1999. session for Seigle Avenue Presbyterian Bureau of Investigation training program Robin Mattison, MA’86, PhD’95, associate Church. Wright and his wife, Amy, are the Alexander Campbell Meakin, Oberlin sponsored by the Traumatology Institute of professor of New Testament and Greek at the parents of Elizabeth, 6; Cora, 4; and Hugh, 1. BD’52, a member of the Wooster College Florida State University. The program pro- Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadel- Board of Trustees and retired senior pastor of vides support to caregivers in random vio- Tracy Lynne Gorrell, BS’93, MTS’95, is pur- phia, delivered “The Patter(n) of Beautiful Parma South Presbyterian Church in Ohio, on lence settings such as Columbine, Colorado; suing a master’s degree in public health at the Feet: New Testament Models for Mission” as June 2, 1999. Pearl, Mississippi; Fort Worth, Texas; and University of California in Los Angeles and part of LTSP’s lecture series exploring the the- Jonesboro, Arkansas. has been promoted to administrative coordi- James Floyd Taylor Jr., BD’56, a retired min- Divinity School alumni/ae attending the 1999 West Virginia Annual Conference of the United ological concept of “mission” in the new cen- nator of the nutrition center at Cedars-Sinai ister of the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Church at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon included Virgil H. Ware, George Odle, DMin’79, former pastor of Sul- tury. Fernando F. Segovia, professor or New Medical Center. United Methodist Church, on June 26, 1999. BD’50; Sara Facemyer Lamb, MDiv’97; Jane Ellen Nickell, MDiv’00; Linda M. Muhly, MDiv’92; phur Springs United Methodist Church in Testament and early Christianity, also was Matthew W. Alexander, MTS’92, JD’92; Angela Gay Kinkead, MDiv’97; Harold T. Elmore, BD’55; Jonesborough, Tennessee, has been appointed among the theologians who lectured at the Jonathan Craig Stewart, MTS’93, married Julia Tucker Bohannon, BD’57, an elemen- and James R. Denney, MDiv’62. field representative in the office of Finance seminary. Renee R. Levay on September 11, 1999. They tary school educator and past state president and Field Service for the United Methodist Perry Stanton Miller, MDiv’87, serves as pas- reside in Nashville where he is an attorney in of the Alabama League of Women Voters, on Loyd A. Bates, BA’50, BD’53, is president and Churchmen, an organization of Christian General Board of Global Ministries in New tor of Asbury Memorial United Methodist the litigation department of Bass Berry & August 25, 1999; survivors include her hus- owner of Universal Systems with headquar- Socialists from 1934 to 1960. York. He will be responsible for directing cap- Church in Asheville, North Carolina. He and Simms. band, the Reverend Kenneth L. Bohannon, ters in Brentwood, Tennessee, and a branch ital giving development efforts with local BD’56 of Northport, Alabama. Donald W. Kutz, BD’68, serves as pastor at his wife, the Reverend Karen F. Miller, are the Lanny Cole Lawler, DMin’96, and Joy Ann office in Fairfax, Virginia. The company mar- churches and colleges. the First Christian Church of Laguna Woods, parents of Elizabeth, 12. Kraft-Lawler, MDiv’87, adopted a son, Thomas F. Martin, BA’64, D’78, a former kets identification systems, access control sys- California. Saxon Cayce Scarborough, MDiv’79, has Patrick Austin, on July 4, 1999. The Lawlers member of the Commodore football team and tems, and inkless fingerprint systems David Penchansky, PhD’88, associate profes- been appointed minister of music for the First reside in Chattanooga where Lanny has pastor of the Hanover Avenue Christian worldwide. He is married to Wanda Carter James Frederick Barber, MDiv’69, DMin’71, sor of theology at the University of Saint United Methodist Church in Gastonia, North begun his new pastorate at First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, in Richmond, Vir- Bates, BA’49, and they have three sons, has been called as rector of Trinity Episcopal Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota, announces Carolina. He and his wife, Patricia, are the Church–Disciples of Christ. Joy has taken ginia, on December 4, 1999. including Marc Bates, BE’79. Church in Fort Worth, Texas. He recently the publication of What Rough Beast: Images of parents of a daughter, Lauren, 10. family leave from the Tennessee Conference served as chairman of the committee to elect God in the Hebrew Bible by Westminster John Raymond Jeffrey Council, MDiv’70, director William N. Harrison, BD’58, MA’62, of the United Methodist Church. the tenth bishop of Western New York. Mary M. Brady, MA’80, serves as an associate Knox Press. of pastoral services and chaplain for the Mid- announces the publication of his fifth novel, pastor at the First United Methodist Church David Robinson-Slemp, MTS’97, has dle Tennessee Mental Health Institute, on The Blood Latitudes, by MacMurray and Beck Michael D. Thiel, MDiv’69, DMin’73, is Charlotte Joy Martin, MA’90, PhD’94, assis- in Champaign, Illinois. accepted the position of development associ- August 11, 1999. Publishers. Set against the backdrop of tribal serving in his ninth year of ministry with the tant professor of religious studies at Mount ate for First Nations Development Institute, conflict in Africa, the book concerns a foreign First Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, in Glenn E. Boyd, MDiv’81, is a candidate for Mercy College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Deryl Garland Watson, DMin’76, of Jackson, the country’s largest research and develop- correspondent’s search for his son. Harrison, Estherville, Iowa. the doctorate of ministry at Houston Gradu- proudly announces that she finally has quit Tennessee, director of missions for the Harde- ment organization devoted to Native Ameri- professor of English, emeritus, at the Univer- ate School of Theology, a seminary of the smoking and has a new addiction—running. man County Baptist Association, on Novem- Paul Lewis Redditt, MA’71, PhD’72, chair- can economic development. Located in sity of Arkansas in Fayetteville, is best known Friends Church. He also maintains a private ber 3, 1998. man of the religion department at George- Kelly Diane Turney, MDiv’91, has been Fredericksburg, Virginia, the institute works for his historical novel titled Burton and Speke, practice as a pastoral counselor. town College in Kentucky, announces the ordained an elder in the North Georgia Con- with tribes and Native communities to William A. Dansby, D’78, retired pastor the basis for the 1989 movie Mountains of the publication of a commentary on the book of John Greely Corry, DMin’81, pastor of Pat- ference of the United Methodist Church. help create self-reliant, Native-controlled of the Gay-Lea Christian Church, Disciples of Moon. Daniel in the New Century Bible Commen- terson Memorial United Methodist Church, Darby Kathleen Ray, MA’92, PhD’96, is the economies. A privately funded organization, Christ, in Nashville, Tennessee, on June 25, tary Series. James E. Magaw, Oberlin BD’58, has retired has been appointed chaplain and chair of the first recipient of the Millsaps College Out- First Nations also has instituted an interna- 1999. form the ministry and is writing monthly Steve Monhollen, MDiv’72, DMin’73, chap- ethics committee at Metropolitan Nashville standing Young Faculty Award for teaching tional program that promotes land rights edu- book reviews for the General Board of Global lain at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, General Hospital. He also serves as director of excellence and scholarly promise by an cation in South Africa and Australia. Ministries of the United Methodist Church. counseling services and professor of biomed- Missouri, was among 30 United States and untenured faculty member. An assistant pro- Tanya Becker, MDiv’98, continues her work ical ethics at Meharry Medical College and is Dallas Blanchard, BD’60, retired in August Israeli scholars and educators who planned fessor of religious studies who has taught at as program associate for Earth Ministry, an president of the Interdenominational Min- 1999 from the University of West Florida in International Interfaith 2000, a Holocaust edu- Millsaps for four years, Ray is described by ecumenical, nonprofit agency that fosters care istries Fellowship. Pensacola where he was professor and chair cation program for 250 American college stu- Richard Smith, vice president and dean of the for the environment by local congregations. of the department of sociology and anthro- dents to travel to Poland and Israel. Leslie Rawlings, BS’84, MTS’90, married college, as “an outstanding teacher who cares pology. As professor emeritus, he is continu- Cynthia Ann Jarvis, MDiv’74, serves as min- Victor Slezak on August 4, 1999. They reside deeply for her students but also demands ing his research on the Fellowship of Southern ister for the Presbyterian Church of Chestnut in New York City where she has a private much from them; she shows great promise as

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