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Volume 1, Issue 4 - March 2010
Looking at the Words from Starched Khaki
Trousers, or How I Learned to Read.
by Victor Judge
Vanderbilt Divinity School Monday Forum, February 8,
2010
Among the privileges of my vocation at the Divinity School is
that as registrar I become acquainted with each of you as you
fulfill the requirements for your degree, or should I serve as your
teacher in class, I bear witness to your gifts in interpreting the
writings of literary theologians whose themes incarnate the
commitments of the School, or as editor of The Spire, I
document the contributions you make to the world as
alumni/ae of the University.
(Read more Looking at the Words from
Starched Khaki Trousers - Click here)
Expanding the Conversation About What it Means to
Care for Those Who Suffer:
A Look at Barbara J. McClure’s New Book
God’s call to us is to be pastoral and prophetic.
Pastoral practitioners have the opportunity and responsibility to
participate in the life of God toward the greatest moral purpose:
the flourishing of one and all, and co-creation of the kin-dom of
God through accompaniment, insight and engagement, work that will
begin to change the world even as we change ourselves.
—Barbara J. McClure, Moving Beyond Individualism, p.
269
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology, Barbara J. McClure has
written a new book entitled Moving Beyond Individualism in
Pastoral Care and Counseling: Reflections on Theory, Theology, and
Practice. Released in November, McClure’s book grew out
of her experiences training and working as a pastoral theologian
and counselor. By writing the book, she aims to expand the
conversation about what it means to care for those who suffer by
bridging the gap between social theory, psychology, theological
perspectives, and caring practices.
(Continue reading Expanding the
Conversation - Click here)
Sense of Sight: A Creative Approach to Theological
Thinking
by David Perkins, Administrative Director, Program in
Religion, Arts, and Contemporary Culture
Sense of Sight
featured over 60 photographic works created by the students, staff,
and faculty of the Divinity School and Graduate Department of
Religion of Vanderbilt University. The exhibition was
produced and sponsored by Religion in the Arts and Contemporary
Culture, a program funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.
Photographers were asked to submit images in three
categories: sacred space, images of God, and people at worship.
The end result was an exhibition that blurred the lines
between categories and brought to the foreground a creative
approach to theological thinking that reflects well on the
Vanderbilt Divinity community. The subject matter ranged from
the exotic to the everyday. It reflected playfulness and
thoughtfulness and showed a wide range of world experience.
Unexpectedly, the exhibition revealed a level of photographic
talent previously unknown. We consider this exhibition to be
an important form of community discourse. It made a
significant contribution to our sense of who we are. The
images on display played a communicative and educational role for
the viewer and reflexively for the photographers.
(See selected images from the Sense of
Sight exhibition - Click here)
When Gary Reyes, MDiv’98, and Faith Kalman Reyes left Nashville to return to Santa Fe, New Mexico, with their daughters, Rebekah and Madeline, they were not sure they were ready to leave behind the good friends they had made during Gary’s time in Divinity School. But eleven years later, they are still in touch with those friends; the girls are now young women in college, and Gary has moved into a new role. Formerly associate pastor at United Church of Santa Fe (UCC) where he was honored by the congregation with a Habitat House named for him, Gary has begun working in the human resources division of Southwest Airlines. He laughs when he recounts that every time someone discovers he is a minister or has studied religion, they are eager to talk with him. He is looked to for help in reviewing or creating policies that promote a more just and humane workplace. Faith continues in her law practice at the Simons Firm.
Student Profile
- Lori Collins
What led you to choose Vanderbilt Divinity
School?
The answer to this question is emerging as I engage in the
process. Mostly, the idea of going to divinity school would not let
let go of me. I have a master’s degree in education from
Peabody and work with the leadership development staff at the Owen
Graduate School of Management, so there was no question that
Vanderbilt was the school I wanted to attend.
(Read more about Lori Collins -
Click here)
Student Profile – Laura Rossbert
What led you to choose Vanderbilt Divinity
School?
I chose VDS because I wanted a program that would tie together
gender and sexuality with theology while giving me the foundation I
needed for ordination in the United Methodist church. The
Carpenter Program at VDS allows me to be with other students who
are interested in exploring the intersections of these subjects
while getting a solid academic degree. I was also looking for
a place where I could put my theology into practice on a daily
basis. The other schools I was looking at were in more
progressive towns, and having spent time in these areas, I was
really excited to be in a place where I would have to have
difficult conversations with people I disagreed with and have to
wrestle with what it is like to follow John Wesley's words,
“though we may not think alike, can we not love
alike?”
(Read more about Laura Rossbert -
Click here)
Vanderbilt
Divinity School
in the News
Anthony Fatta, master of divinity student
at Vanderbilt
Divinity School, is guest blogger for Washington Post, On
Faith:
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/eboo_patel/2010/03/vanderbilt_divinity_students_h.html
Podcast from Stacey Floyd-Thomas, associate
professor of ethics and society, who spoke at a community breakfast
on March 12, 2009, at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Interspersed with
her students’ dramatic readings from Ntozake
Shange’s For Colored Girls
Who Have
Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, Floyd-Thomas
talks about the value of black women’s fiction in asserting
theological and moral dimensions to the lives of black women and
undermining the dominant society’s impositions upon
them.
http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/news/audio/2009/03/16/audio-stacey-floyd-thomas-and-students-at-community-breakfast.75494
Vanderbilt Divinity School Upcoming
Events
Relevant Religion Series
Religion, War, and Reconciliation
March 23, 30, and April 6, 2010
7:00 p.m. — 8:30 p.m.
Trinity Presbyterian Church
Speaker: C. Melissa Snarr, assistant professor of ethics and
society, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
Antoinette Brown Lecture
Texts We Love to Hate: Dealing with the Hard Places in
Tradition
March 25, 2010
7:00 p.m.
Vanderbilt University Divinity School, Benton Chapel
Speaker: Judith Plaskow, professor of religious studies,
Manhattan College
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