On June 1 and 2, 2012, nine Drew graduates returned to campus for a Wabash Center-sponsored gathering—not a conference, not a workshop, but a chance to talk.  The primary aim of the gathering was to discover what challenges graduates who hold teaching positions face, how well we are preparing them, and what we could do better.  That aim was certainly met: the five participating Drew faculty members learned even more than we anticipated about our graduates’ teaching roles and contexts, many of which are very different from our own—undergraduate classrooms, heavy teaching loads, lack of institutional support for scholarship, complex institutional politics.  (OK, not entirely different!)

But the aim was also exceeded.  In the end, all of us left the gathering feeling inspired and nurtured by the collegial exchange and committed to finding ways to continue it.  We also discovered much about the particular ties that bind us.  Although not all of the graduates knew each other before the gathering, their sense of Drew as a pedagogical and intellectual context was a shared one, and it was one that the Drew faculty members present also shared, from a first-year Assistant Professor to a twenty-one-year veteran.  As one of the two attending Wabash representatives noted, it is clear that Drew’s community lives out its scholarly commitments to interdisciplinarity and to the engagement of difference on multiple fronts; this carries over into our graduates’ teaching, their leadership in discussions of diversity, and their ability to analyze cultural dynamics of power in their classrooms and institutional settings.—Virginia Burrus, GDR Chair and Professor of Early Christianity

A list of the visiting alumni/ae participants:

Carol Cook-Moore, Assistant Professor of Worship & Preaching, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington DC (2009, Liturgical Studies)

Scott Elliott, Assistant Professor of Religion, Adrian College, Michigan (2009, Biblical Studies)

David Evans, Assistant Professor of History, Mission, Intercultural and Interfaith Studies, Eastern Mennonite Seminary, Virginia (2011, Historical Studies)

Krista Hughes, Assistant Professor of Theological Studies, Hanover College, Indiana (2009, Theology & Philosophy)

Michael Humphreys, Assistant Professor of Leadership Studies, Bethune-Cookman University, Florida (2006, Religion &Society)

Anna Mercedes, Assistant Professor of Theology, College of St. Benedict/St. Johns University, Minnesota (2009, Theology & Philosophy)

Hae Jung Park, Assistant Professor of Worship, Methodist Theological University, Korea (2004, Liturgical Studies)

Charles Rix, Assistant Professor of Old Testament, Oklahoma Christian University (Biblical Studies, 2011)

Eric Thurman, Assistant Professor of Religion, Sewanee/ The University of the South, Tennessee (2010, Biblical Studies)

A longtime friend and collaborator with Corrington, Neville presented a new theory of religion from a three-volume work on philosophical theology on which he is currently working. After noting that the writings of Justus Buchler and Charles Sanders Peirce have shaped both Corrington’s work and his own, Neville delivered his address and then invited audience members to consider whether his position merited the “honor of being called a kind of ecstatic naturalism.”

The congress culminated with “An Evening of Artistic Naturalism,” where four artists displayed their work alongside some of Corrington’s writings on the significance of art in ecstatic naturalism. Theological School students Renee Blanchard and Dawrell Rich orchestrated a luxuriant narrative to accompany the music, video, photography, and painting. Of particular interest was Rich’s oratorical interpretation of Corrington’s writings, to which Corrington responded, “I felt this sense of broadening and deepening, encompassing more…. It was more capacious, it had deeper resonances.”

CLA Art Professor Michael Peglau presented his painting “Grand Wash,” which depicted a view of the enormous red-rock cliffs located in Arizona’s Grand Wash Cliffs Wilderness. An avid reader of Corrington’s work, Peglau said he finds points of connection between his work and ecstatic naturalism. Corrington said of Peglau’s art, “To paint the way he does is answering the gifting of nature naturing. His response is a natural piety.”

Drew sophomore Rachel Schachter presented an original song titled “October,” and Milburn High School junior Jake Oleson presented an original piece, a video montage called “The Moving Photograph: The Reservation.” The evening’s presentations were rounded-out by photographer Jim Devito’s photos “Gateway Lake,” “Pastry Tree,” and “Foot of a Monarch.”

Reflecting on the success of the congress, Corrington noted his excitement at the work  being done by Drew’s graduate students, adding that “ecstatic naturalism is being well-served.”

Plans are already underway for next year’s congress, which will focus on art, aesthetics, and ecstatic naturalism. The planners aim to weave art throughout the whole congress, in the papers and presentations as well as through the works of art themselves. We look forward to those fruitful interweavings.—Theresa Ellis, PhD student in Religion and Society

Collier-Thomas began by emphasizing that many of the African American churchwomen who formed the interdenominational National Association of Colored Women (NACW) in 1896 were former slaves.  Denied access to leadership positions within their respective churches, Baptist, Methodist, and Pentecostal women formed this organization as a vehicle to address sexism within the church and racial discrimination within their individual communities.  By the 1920s, the organization was represented at the local and state levels and eventually joined forces with predominately white groups such as the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union, and the Federal Council of Churches Women’s Committee on Race Relations.  Membership in these groups allowed black women to gain a broader platform to advance their calls for social equality and racial justice.

Inspired by their Christian faith, many of the women from the NACW helped to found and spearhead influential political, social, and religious bodies such as the NAACP, the National Urban League, and Christian Women United, as Collier-Thomas explained .  She also discussed at length the role that the Women’s Political Council, a group of black Baptist women, played in organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955, the event that marked the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement.

In discussing the achievements and legacy of the NACW and other black women’s organizations, Collier-Thomas pointed out that their successes were marked by struggle.  Not only were these women discriminated against on the basis of their sex and race, but many were also uneducated. As a result of their activism, they faced physical brutality, placed the safety of their families in jeopardy, risked abandonment by their husbands, lost their jobs, and endured countless other obstacles.

Collier-Thomas also highlighted Drew University’s role in African American religious history, noting the example of Rev. Florence Spearing Randolph, an A.M.E. preacher and graduate of Drew, who founded the State Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs in 1915 in New Jersey. Collier-Thomas pointed out that much of the material in her book on black Methodist women’s organizations came from The Methodist Archives, housed on Drew’s campus. She stressed that there is still much to be written about such organizations and the women who founded and joined them, and she encouraged students in search of fresh research topics to visit the wealth of information that surrounds them in the Archives.

The Nelle K. Morton Lecture is dedicated to Drew’s early feminist educator and theologian Nelle K. Morton. The lecture highlights women’s issues in society, theology, and religious communities.—Tejai Beulah, PhD student in Historical Studies

One of the most stimulating aspects of the Center’s activities this year was the sponsorship of a series of panel discussions.  We would particularly encourage you to take a look at this account of the spring panel on “Global Christianities and Religious Pluralism” (including a video clip of Dr. Ariarajah’s provocative presentation!).  While you are there, do explore some of the other resources on the site, including the fascinating histories of some of Drew’s international alumni/ae.  We welcome your responses and suggestions for the site!

Finally, we remain grateful for the generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation that supports our work.

–Professor Virginia Burrus and Dean Jeffrey Kuan, Co-Directors ofCCGC

I am pleased to greet you with this second issue of our e-Newsletter!  As I indicated last time, we hope that this publication will provide a vehicle for sharing news several times a year about the exciting things that are happening in the broader community of Drew’s Graduate Division of Religion–not least the lives and careers of our alumni and alumnae.  Do send us your news, as well as suggestions for possible featured articles.

It is hard to believe that I have already finished my third year as Chair of the GDR, with just two more to go.  This year was particularly eventful.  Having welcomed two new faculty members—Elias Ortega-Aponte and Kate Ott —we were deeply saddened by the loss of Ada Maria Isasi-Díaz, Emerita Professor of Christian Ethics, who died rather suddenly this spring.  In almost the same moment, we said good-bye to our departing University President Bob Weisbuch and welcomed Interim President Vivian Bull–whom some of you might know as the spouse of Robert Bull, my predecessor as Professor of Early Church History at Drew.  In the more usual ebb and flow of academic life, we prepared ourselves to welcome a new class of entering students even as we marked the departure of our graduates.   And in the midst of such transitions, we read and wrote and thought and debated, in seminars and colloquia and conferences and special lectures, enjoying the extraordinarily rich and engaged intellectual community that is Drew.

One of the most exciting events for me this year was a Wabash Center sponsored gathering of a group of nine GDR alumni and alumnae who met June 1-2 on Drew’s campus, together with five Drew faculty members and two Wabash representatives, to talk to us about their experiences as teachers.  The discussion was not only extremely enlightening; it was also deeply inspiring; and we all left with a desire to continue the conversation, broadening it to include current students as well as the larger community of former students and Drew faculty members.  This fall, we hope to establish a Moodle site for the sharing of teaching resources and discussions, among other more ambitious plans.  Stay tuned!

Finally, I would like to share another moment of pleasurable Drew connecting.  A few weeks ago I attended an interdisciplinary conference in Denmark; unusually, I was not familiar with any of the other participants prior to the conference.  One of the first people I met and found particularly engaging was Hebrew Bible scholar Louis Stulman, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the University of Findlay in Ohio—and a Drew alumnus, as it happens!  I look forward to more such encounters with the diasporic community of Drew’s GDR, both encounters that are planned and ones that are unexpected….

All best wishes,

Virginia Burrus
Professor of Early Christianity
Chair of the Graduate Division of Religion
vburrus@drew.edu

Several of our Doctoral Fellows have been working on a series of brief essays celebrating the history of international students at Drew’s Theological and Graduate Schools.  Please have a look at these on our website, and let us know if you are aware of individuals whom we might want to add to the collection!  On the website, you will also find a report of an exciting panel featuring two of our Fellows—Boadi and Kim—as well as faculty members Chris Boesel and Kenneth Ngwa, discussing the complex character of “Global Christianities” and the intellectual and practical challenges thereby presented.  In addition, you will find transcripts of the lectures delivered at the 2011 Tipple Vosburgh Lectures entitled “The Global Bible: Why People and Place Matter,” as well as video-taped interviewers of the lecturers.  And more resources will be posted in the coming months, so do become a regular visitor to the site!

In the meantime, we look forward this spring to hosting a Visiting Faculty Fellow, Dr. Po-Ho Huang, who is Dean of the School of Liberal Education, Professor in the Department of Theology, and Dean of the Programme for Theology and Cultures in Asia at Chang Jung Christian University in Tainan City, Taiwan.

We remain grateful for the generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation that supports our work.—Professor Virginia Burrus and Dean Jeffrey Kuan, Co-Directors of CCGC

Charles Rix (Ph.D. 2011) is Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible at Oklahoma Christian University. He has held this position since Fall 2011.

Eric Thurman (Ph.D. 2010) is Assistant Professor at Sewanee: The University of the South, where he has taught since 2007. A member of the Religion Department, his courses include introductions to the New and Old Testaments as well as upper-level courses on Gender and Sex in the New Testament and God and Empire: Biblical Texts and Colonial Contexts. He serves on a number of university committees, including the Steering Committee of the Women’s Studies program. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he has presented papers at regional and annual SBL meetings, where he also serves on the steering committees of the Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narratives and Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman World sections. Currently, he is finishing up his first book, Novel Men: Masculinity and Empire in Mark’s Gospel and Ancient Fiction (Sheffield Phoenix Press).

Scott Elliot (Ph.D. 2009) is Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Adrian College. Elliot recently published his first book, Reconfiguring Mark’s Jesus: Narrative Criticism after Poststructuralism (Sheffield Phoenix Press), as well as a journal article, “‘Thanks, but no Thanks’: Tact, Persuasion, and the Negotiation of Power in Paul’s Letter to Philemon.” He has also edited a collection of essays with Matthew S. Waggoner, Readings in the Theory of Religion: Map, Text, Body (Equinox Publishing).

Anna Mercedes (Ph.D. 2009) is Assistant Professor of Theology and Gender at the College of Saint Benedict/St. John’s University. She celebrates the publication of her first book, Power For:  Feminism and Christ’s Self-Giving (T&T Clark). At the San Francisco AAR/SBL, she presented on a panel for Lutheran Women in Theological and Religious Studies. Anna is also eager to start work on her next monograph project, extending her kenotic Christology into a political theology engaging theologies of sin, gender theory, and the writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Anna serves on the founding board of a food and art co-op that opened last summer. In June, she and partner Rick Bohannon, as well as daughter Sylva, welcomed baby Norah to the family.

David Morris (Ph.D. 2009) is currently the editorial director of Guideposts Books, located in midtown Manhattan. Dr. Morris leads a team that acquires devotional and general inspirational content for one of the country’s long-standing religious publishing companies.

Neal Presa (Ph.D. 2009) edited the book, That They May All Be One: Celebrating the World Communion of Reformed Churches (Westminster/John Knox Press). In 2010, this volume was presented at the Uniting General Council of the World Communion of Reformed Churches. Presa’s doctoral dissertation, Here I am Lord, Send Me: Ritual Analysis for a Theology of Presbyteral Ordination in the Reformed Tradition, is under contract with Wipf and Stock, with expected publication in 2012. On September 27, the Presbytery of Elizabeth endorsed Presa as the first candidate to stand for moderator of the 220^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The assembly will be held June 30-July 7, 2012 in Pittsburgh. Presa is teaching elder/pastor of Middlesex Presbyterian Church, a multi-cultural congregation in Middlesex, NJ. He serves on the adjunct faculties of Somerset Christian College and New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Michael Humphreys (Ph.D. 2006) was promoted to associate professor of Leadership Studies at Bethune-Cookman University (BCU) and granted tenure. Humphreys was also appointed department chair for the Department of Leadership Studies in the School of Graduate and Professional Studies at BCU; he proposed and received approval for two program initiatives at BCU—an undergraduate minor in environmental justice and a graduate area of emphasis on environmental justice within the Masters of Science in Transformative Leadership program. In October 2011, Humphreys presented a paper entitled “The Struggle to Know Our Place: Doing Justice to Humans and Non-Human Others” (publication forthcoming) at the Philosophy Born of Struggle conference, Michigan State University.

David Tripold (Ph.D. 2006) is Chair of the Music Department at Monmouth University. In 2011, he was selected as the Distinguished Teacher of the Year.

Sergius Halvorsen (Ph.D. 2002) is Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Rhetoric at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Halvorsen teaches Homiletics and Christian Education and is in the process of developing electives in his area of expertise. He serves as Director of Field Education, overseeing training programs in prison, hospital, and parish ministry. Halvorsen is also preparing a proposal for a new D.Min. program at St Vladimir’s.

This year is Otto’s third on the executive council of the AAR board, having served as vice president, president-elect, and now as president. “This gives you an idea what can be done – and to see other colleagues working through the presidency,” he explains. Otto’s year-long term as president will conclude when he introduces the final plenary speaker of the November 2012 meeting. Excited about what he might accomplish this year, he adds, “These days the AAR is very much a team effort, with very few individual decision makers. And that includes the president.”

What the president can and must do is chose the theme for the annual meeting that culminates the presidential year, and plan four plenary sessions. “The theme is little more than an informal magnet, not mandatory for program units, but it affirms the importance of a certain topic.” Otto’s theme for Chicago 2012 will be Migrants’ Religions Under Imperial Duress. On Saturday night, Otto will deliver the presidential address. Ivone Gebara will speak Saturday afternoon on knowing God and knowing the human, at the crossroads of epistemology and theology. On Sunday there will be a panel of sociologists and anthropologists, and on Monday, Harvey Cox will deliver the Lifetime of Learning address. We wish Otto much success this year.

A world-traveling lecturer, a prolific author, and a polyglot teacher, Otto’s work focuses, first and foremost, on the interrelation of religious traditions (the Christian churches in particular) and the yearnings for liberation among the economically, racially, culturally, and/or sexually oppressed peoples (Latin American and U.S. Latinas/os in the first place). He is deeply interested, too, in wider issues of peace, social and ecological justice, epistemologies, and sexualities. He is a life-enjoying person with a weakness (among many others) for listening and dancing to folk music traditions from around the world — jazz, salsa, bluegrass, klezmer, blues, tango, zydeco, celtic and country music among these — preferably while chatting, drinking and eating among good friends!

He is co-founder with Dr. Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz of both Drew’s Hispanic D. Min. Program (1997- ) and the Hispanic Institute of Theology (1997- ).  Since 2006 he is also national director of the Hispanic Summer Program in religion & theology — an independent, ecumenical, itinerant educational program striving since 1998 to enhance the education of U.S. Latina/o seminarians from all the Christian churches.

Otto has two M.A.s and a PhD, all three magna cum laude, from the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium. He has written five books and over 100 articles published in a dozen languages in five continents. He has taught and/or lectured in five languages in a number of academic, religious and socio-political institutions of over 20 countries on both sides of the Atlantic.

He is associate editor of the Journal of World Christianity, Cristianismo y Sociedad, Concilium,  SIC, Liaisons Internationales, Pasos, Maiêutica, and the Journal of Hispanic/Latino Theology — and, fior many years, was, too, on the editorial board of Social Compass, the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, and the Journal of Contemporary Religion.  Among his many publications is Mapas para la Fiesta. Atlanta, GA: AETH (Asociación para la Educación Teológica Hispana), 1998 [3rd revised, enlarged and updated edition in Spanish].