“Recognizing a Saint: The Politics of Identity within the Canonization of Kateri Tekakwitha,” by Erin Routon
In 2006, a young boy in Washington State named Jake Finkbonner was playing basketball when he hit his face on the rim. As a result of that injury, Jake caught a flesh-eating bacteria that nearly took his life. Because of Jake’s Native American ancestry, his family’s Roman Catholic priest informed them of a particularly relevant [...]
Buddha Jayanti at Buddhist Vesak: Time of Spiritual Recollection, Celebration, Penance, and Renewal
Introduction Every year in the late spring, Buddhists all over the world celebrate Vesak, i.e., the birth, death, and enlightenment of Siddhārtha Gautama, who came to be known as Śākyamuni Buddha, the sage of the Śākya clan. It is a time of fasting and penance, intensive prayer and celebration, and renewal and fortification of one’s [...]
The Veil of the American Church
W.E.B Du Bois writes in The Souls of Black Folk, “So woefully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of ‘swift’ and ‘slow’ in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science…Why has civilization flourished in Europe, and flickered, flamed, and died [...]
![By böhringer friedrich (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons](http://www.stateofformation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/StMartin_Inside6-145x115.jpg)
Open Letter to Seema Jilani: A Small Step Toward Taking Responsibility for White Privilege
Now, not all undergraduate students are receptive to hearing about white privilege, but for those who are, their experience is not unlike the experience of the pilgrims in the Christian story of Pentecost… On that day in Jerusalem when “each one heard them speaking in the native language of each,” and had no choice to but to recognize themselves in “the other” and listen to them speak.
Theological Matrix: Worldviews Exposed
Welcome… What is “the matrix?” The matrix is the space that we as humans develop culturally. We are all human social beings, we are born into community, a world that exists beyond us, yet we influence it as we choose. The matrix is inescapable. To exist in isolation biologically the human would die off. To [...]
Keith Ward on Interfaith Dialogue and Disagreement
Wm. Curtis Holtzen and Roberto Sirvent have done a great service for those searching for a succinct compilation of theologian-philosopher Keith Ward’s voluminous work. In By Faith and Reason: The Essential Keith Ward, we now have a text which displays the depth and breadth of Ward’s momentous thinking. The compilation is appropriately arranged into five parts, each of which offer relevant [...]
Mining our Political Past for Spiritual Sustenance
A few weeks ago, I completed my final assignment from my third semester of rabbinical school (which ended in January). I’m not one to put things off like that, but this was a special assignment. It involved sitting in a Brooklyn apartment with close to twenty young Jews (and maybe a couple non-Jews?) studying the [...]
Doxa-cum-Praxis: Paradoxical Interfaith.
Quakers are an interesting bunch in that our religious practice is precisely that: practice. Surrounding this word, minds like de Certeau1 and Jackson2 are summoned. Perhaps no greater, however, comes to the forefront than the [in]famous Pierre Bourdieu. Known most contentiously for his theory of habitus (which he spent the bulk of his life defending), [...]
“Political Theology or Theological Politics: Paradox at the Heart of Democracy,” by Shane Akerman
Several paradoxes are intrinsic to the democratic project. This essay will confront what Bonnie Honig refers to as the paradox of politics (or, the paradox of democratic legitimation).[1] Honig asks the Rousseauean question of which comes first: good people (who make good law) or a good law (that defines good people)? In other words, where [...]
Christian Feminist Spirituality for Healing, Part 3
This is my last post in a series of three dealing with sexual abuse and Christian spirituality. I wrote these as a way to process some of what I’ve been noticing as I work with women in the Church who have experienced sexual violence and abuse. There is something about the traditional messages of the Church [...]
Contributing Scholars
Nicolas CableHello! My name is Nicolas Cable and this fall I will enter my second year of he Master of Divinity program at Chicago Theological Seminary. I am a Unitarian Universalist, interfaith leader, and socially engaged citizen. I seek ordination as a congregational ministry and hope my ministry can be a progressive light of justice and peace in the world.
Edward AndersonGraduate of Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. Currently studying Inter-religious studies at Claremont Lincoln University/ Claremont School of Theology. Interested in Christian mysticism, philosophy, political science, pluralism, pop-culture and post-colonialism.