Four Bad Arguments for the Soul
When a priest decides there is no soul, the fan mail is not always fun to read. Luckily I’ve had plenty of practice. For two years I mused about whether the state of neuroscience is far enough along to suggest that there truly is no such thing as a soul. And in such musings, with wise [...]
Faith, Sex and Religious Liberty
Bill Keller’s Sunday New York Times column, “The Conscience of a Corporation,” gets to the heart of the current fuss between Hobby Lobby and the Obama Care provision that employers of 50 people and above insure contraception. Recently, the Obama administration made allowances for religiously affiliated non-profit organizations to not cover contraception – yielding to [...]
James Baldwin and the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing
The 16th Street Baptist Church sits in the middle of downtown Birmingham, Alabama. During the heart of the Civil Rights movement, when Birmingham was known across the nation as “Bombingham,” marchers and protesters would assemble at the 16th Street Baptist Church, then walk across the street to Kelly Ingram Park, where they demonstrated against segregated [...]
What’s the Big Deal About Interfaith Marriage?
I attended the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Melbourne, Australia. I was amazed by the preponderance of sacred fashion statements (the hats!), the number of New Age practitioners from the North American West Coast, and the ubiquity of the phrase “interfaith dialogue.” As former chair of the Union Theological Seminary Interfaith Caucus, a [...]
How Paul Tillich Helped Me Matter
I recently received an email from the fine editorial staff at State of Formation informing me that I am officially a lapsed contributor and my posting account might be deleted. This is very true. I have lapsed in my public reflections about all things religious. When I ask myself why I lapsed, my answers are [...]
Teaching Heschel and King
“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” – quote used by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I don’t often write about classes I take at rabbinical school. But every so often I am touched enough by some experience to share it publicly. This fall I studied the work of [...]
To Work the Earth of My Heart: Memorizing the Sermon on the Mount
I just returned from my last final of the semester. It was…unconventional, to say the least. Instead of sitting in a wood-paneled classroom for three hours getting intimate with a blue book, I spent the last weekend sitting on a couch by a fireplace at a Mennonite retreat center in Michigan. This was my final. [...]
Taking the Spirit out of Spirituality
Recently I have been reflecting on a series of internal discussions that I have been part of within a Muslim email group. A lot of the argument has centered about the practice of halal certification for products and foods. Whilst a lot of debate revolved around the actual process of how certification can be carried [...]
After Newtown, a Divine Name for Right Now
The tragic events of last week occurred while Jews were reading a section of the story of Joseph and his brothers which is bursting with bereavement. As I read it through the lens of midrash, this ancient story not only echoes our pain, but may also offer us some hope and guidance. The part of [...]
Giving Thanks to the Voice of My Awakening
Before meeting Heather, I was a solitary creature, even virtually homeless at one time. I was rarely sociable, preferring the catacombs of my own imagination, the distractions of drugs and alcohol, or the quiet expanse of a local swamp or river as company to the rush and drama of human companions. Yet interactions with others, [...]
Contributing Scholars
Eric HendryPhD in Christian Systematic Theology (Duquesne, 2011). Wrote his doctoral dissertation on Contemporary Ecumenical Pneumatology or the study of the person, gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit, across all the major Christian church denominations. Taught in a Catholic seminary for eleven years, and was the first layman appointed to the role of "Director of Formation" - a post that previously had been canonically reserved for ordained clergy - the first such appointment in a Catholic seminary anywhere in the world. Besides his primary teaching interests in systematic theology, he designed a mandatory year-long course in Judeo-Christian spiritual traditions, and has a particular teaching interest in the formative companioning of the Carmelites Juan de la Cruz and Teresa de Avila. Memberships held in the CTS, AAR and CTSA.
Kit EvansArgrow "Kit" Evans is a Master of Divinity graduate from the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, CA. She is a woman who is passionate about God, serving others, and nonviolence. Born in the small town of Mebane, North Carolina, education and working for peace became a positive outlet for her at an extremely young age.
Ms. Evans passion for nonviolence and peace stems from her serving with the National Association of Students Against Violence Everywhere and Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service. She now uses her education, teachings on nonviolence, travels, personal experiences, dance, and spirituality as a trainer, advocate, and speaker. Kit currently resides in Orlando, Florida.
Chris StedmanChris Stedman is the former Managing Director of State of Formation at the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue. He is also the Interfaith and Community Service Fellow for the Humanist Chaplaincy at Harvard, a columnist for the Huffington Post and Washington Post On Faith, and is currently writing a book on religious-nonreligious engagement.