Cultivating Ideas Faculty Webinar Series

Rev. Dr. Sarah Allen. God has gifted each age and life-stage with a particular vocation. In this conversation, we’ll explore ways to create intentionally intergenerational worship services that honor the unique gifts and vocations of people of all generations in your congregation. Drawing from recent research in faith formation, human development and vocation, you’ll leave with practical ideas for your ministries.

Rev. Patricia Bonilla. This webinar will highlight the ministry and scholarship of Latinas and how they are imaging and implementing new possibilities for faith formation and theological education. The presentation will engage decolonizing pedagogies, including intergenerational, peer-learning, and accompaniment mentorship practices. 

Rev. Dr. Crystal Silva-McCormick. This webinar will feature a discussion and dialogue about the concept of property and property ownership.  These concepts are fundamental to the "American dream" and to U.S. cultural values. In this webinar, the history of these concepts and their relationship to racism and violence against Black bodies will be discussed. Questions that the webinar will reflect on include: "How has the concept of property ownership affected the Christian witness?" "Is the concept of property ownership contrary to the gospel?"

Rev. Dr. Charles Christian. Too often, we approach diversity from political, social, academic, or even business perspectives. In short, diversity is seen as a problem to be solved. However, what if we approached diversity from a theological perspective—an ethical one? In this webinar, we will examine the ethical dimensions of diversity, why it is not a problem to be solved but a song to be sung, and how this framework will change how we see and love our local and global neighbors.

Dr. Gregory Cuéllar. Lamentations maps a psychosocial condition of suffering generated by the grotesque violence of empire. Through poetry, Lamentations catalogues a collection of violent scenes in which the Neo-Babylonian Empire humiliated, tortured, raped, and killed as part of its conquest of Jerusalem. From a postcolonial perspective, these scenes reveal a pathology of empire that in its basic form recurs in multiple contexts across human history. How might a postcolonial interpretation of the trauma in Lamentations reveal strategies for healing that are pertinent to contemporary readers affected by the violence of empire-building strategies?