Green Lectionary Podcast on John 12:20-35
A conversation with Ellen Davis, Debra Rienstra, Derrick Weston, and Wilson Dickinson. We talk about disentangling John’s Christ from dualism, empire, and redemptive violence, with the seeds of new creation that can inspire us to look upon creaturely life and death in honest and hopeful ways.
The Green Lectionary Podcast - "Facing Death" (John 12:20-33) | Free Listening on Podbean App
Religion and Justice Podcast on The South Social Gospel and Alternative Memory
The Religion and Justice Podcast with the Wendland-Cook Program at Vanderbilt on “Alternative Memory". It's part of a series on "The Unexplored Legacy of the Social Gospel Movement in the South: The Vanderbilt Tradition." We discuss the theological underpinnings of the Southern Social Gospel, alternative memories within the environmental movement, and the lasting impact of this powerful movement on justice initiatives.
Green Lectionary Podcast - Isaiah 51:1-12
The Green Lectionary Podcast on Isaiah 58:1-12 and the Sabbath Spirituality of Lent, which calls us to consider the relationship of justice, labor, creation, and communal spirituality with Wilson Dickinson, Derrick Weston, and Katy Steinberger.
Green Lectionary Podcast Ep. 7 on Mark 1:1-8
An episode of the Green Lectionary Podcast on Mark 1:1-8 from the second week of advent with Wilson Dickinson,. Mark Biddle of Sophia Seminary, Karyn Bigelow, co-executive director of Creation Justice Ministries, and, host, Derrick Weston.
Christ Seminar Fall 2023 Colloquium - The Diasporic Body of Jesus - Christine Pae
The Fall Colloquium was on Keun-joo Christine Pae's new book A Transpacific Imagination of Theology, Ethics, and Activism, specifically the book's chapter on "The Diasporic Body of Jesus." Claudio Carvalhaes, Rita Nakashima Brock, and John Boopalan served as respondents. You can see the session here:
2023 12 04 Christ Seminar: The Diasporic Body of Jesus (vimeo.com)
Green Lectionary Podcast Ep. 5 "Water in the Wilderness"
This episode looks at a passage for the final week of the season of creation Exodus 17:1-7. Our guests are Wilson Dickinson, author of the recently released Singing the Psalms with My Son: Praying and Parenting for a Healed Planet, Debra Rienstra, author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, and Rev. Katy Cuthill Steinberg, pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Daytona Beach and co author of Wholly Leading: Thoughts, Meditations, and Practices for Whole Self Leading.
You can learn more about this and other programs of Creation Justice Ministries at www.creationjustice.org
Bible Search and Rescue Podcast: Psalms for the Generations: Lament Held Together with Abiding Hope
Check out Episode 12 of the Bible Search and Rescue Podcast
Podcasts — Bible Search & Rescue (biblesr.org)
We talk about the place of bible and culture in the US, efforts to recover radical and prophetic Christian traditions, and some recent projects (like an upcoming class I am teaching with Westar on Food Justice, the Christ Seminar, and my recent book, Singing the Psalms with My Son: Praying and Parenting for a Healed Planet).
Parenting for a Healed Planet: A Conversation with Wilson Dickinson and Laura Alery
Recording of event with Creation Justice Ministries:
CJM Summer Reads: An Author talk with Wilson Dickson and Laura Alary - YouTube
Join authors Wilson Dickinson and Laura Alary in a thought-provoking webinar as they engage in a captivating conversation about their books and the power of parenting, storytelling, and children's books in transforming a world grappling with the climate crisis. In "Parenting for a Healed Planet: A Conversation with Wilson Dickinson and Laura Alary” these two inspiring authors delve into the themes of their works, Singing the Psalms with My Son: Praying and Parenting for a Healed Planet and The Dot We Call Home.
Through their unique perspectives, Dickinson and Alary explore how parenting and children's literature can become transformative forces in addressing the urgent challenges we face. They discuss the role of storytelling in cultivating empathy, inspiring action, and fostering a deeper connection with creation.
This webinar is a must-attend event for parents, educators, and anyone passionate about nurturing a generation of change-makers. Through engaging dialogue and thought-provoking discussions, Dickinson and Alary will inspire you to harness the power of parenting and children's books to create a brighter, more sustainable world. Join them on this journey of exploration, reflection, and action.
On Home One Future Launch Event October 4
Join us on October 4th 7:00-8:00 pm ET for the launch of the One Home One Future is a multifaith campaign, which seeks to strengthen the vitality, relevance, and community connection across generations in local congregations nationwide.
It is a coalition effort of American faith denominations and organizations working for visible and collective climate action by faith leaders. The campaign will educate, activate, and empower clergy, congregants, youth, and all spiritual people in meaningful and just solutions locally, regionally, and nationally in ways that are accessible, positive, and empowering.
Registration: Webinar Registration - Zoom
Website: Creation Care | One Home One Future
Webinar - Cultivating Food Justice 2/25/23
Webinar: Cultivating Food Justice in Our Churches: Building Power and Sustaining Joy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TViyA8psKBo
Description: Feeding the hungry is at the heart of the call for those who follow Jesus Christ. Virtually every church engages in some kind of feeding ministry. While many of these hunger programs were set up to help people in crisis, it does not take long to realize that hunger is not an exceptional space in our food systems. It is baked into our current structures. The approach of food justice seeks to understand issues related to food in systemic terms, and to respond by cultivating collective power and nurturing alternatives.
In this webinar we will explore the ways that various ministries related to food can be transformed. We will begin by learning from the systemic approach of food justice, which helps us work for wider-scale change, while finding ways to sustain our work and root it in joy. We will, then, explore how this approach parallels the practices of Christ that sought to feed people by organizing farmers and fishers and cultivating life-giving communities. Finally, we will explore three mapping exercises that look for connections between food ministries, examine power dynamics, and name the assets and gifts that are hiding in plain sight in our communities.
In our brief time together, we will seek to discern where the rich soil of community is in your context so that you can start sowing seeds of justice that can be nurtured over the long-term for larger change.
Praying and Parenting as Openings for Transformation Webinar
This is a webinar done with Disciples of Christ Ministry Across Generations on “Praying and Parenting as Openings for Transformation” on my forthcoming book, Singing the Psalms with My Son: Praying and Parenting for a Healed Planet.”
Christ Seminar Meeting - Christologies of the People: Embodiment and Proclamation
You can find a recording of the Christ Seminar’s meeting on “Christologies of the People: Embodiment and Proclamation” here.
The Christ Seminar is a collaborative of theologians, biblical scholars, activists, artists, and ministers engaging Christologies of the People.
We reckon with the possible futures of “Christ” in the face of climate change, structures of white supremacy, distortions presented by Christian nationalism, legacies of colonialism, violence against women and children, and economic oppression.
At this session, members of the seminar will explore two central questions:
How do recent trends in the diversity of embodiment shape or augment the human relationship to Christ? Where/how/for what purpose is Christ being proclaimed today?
Presenters:
Dr. Simon Aihiokhai is an associate professor of systematic theology at the University of Portland. Dr. Aihiokhai has worked extensively with communities at the margins in Nigeria and in the United States of America. As a product of multiple contexts, he is intentional at creating spaces for multiple perspectives in his research and teaching. His research focuses on religion, race, and identity constructions; African approaches to ethics; African philosophies, cultures, and theologies; religion and violence; comparative theology; themes in systematic theology; and interfaith studies. Among his many published works, is a recent monograph, Fostering Interreligious Encounters in Pluralist Societies. Hospitality and Friendship (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019).
Maria Teresa (MT) Davila is Chair of the Religious and Theologies Studies Department and Associate Professor of Practice at Merrimack College. She teaches, mentors, preaches, and writes in the areas of public theology, migrant and racial justice, the use of force, and social justice from the lens of the preferential option for the poor. MT is a Roman Catholic laywoman, known globally for her work in Catholic theological ethics. Together with Agnes Brazal she is co-editor of Living With(out) Borders: Theological Ethics and People on the Move (Orbis Books, 2016), a collection of international scholars reflecting ethically on the experience of migrations and the movements of people. She is a regular contributor to Theology en la Plaza, the first Latin@ column at a national Catholic newspaper. Her work has also appeared on Syndicate, and Political Theology Today.
Jacob J. Erickson is Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics in the School of Religion, Theology, and Peace Studies at Trinity College Dublin and Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning for the School. In his writing, Erickson meditates on the complex relationships of earth and divinity, decolonial environmental ethics and queer theory, classical Christian theologies and contemporary constructive theopoetics. He is currently working on an extended project on the intersections of global warming and theology called A Theopoetics of the Earth: Divinity in the Anthropocene and finishing up a book on climate grief and theopoetics forthcoming with Fortress Press. His vital work in queer ecotheology appears in Meaningful Flesh: Reflections on Religion and Nature for a Queer Planet (punctum, 2018).
Kayko Driedger Hesslein is the William Hordern Associate Professor of Theology at the Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon. Her book, Dual Citizenship: Two-Natures Christologies and the Jewish Jesus, proposes a way in which the particularity of Jesus connects with his universal relationality as Christ. She is particularly interested in the embodiments of people on the margins and where Christ is found there.
Raj Nadella is the Samuel A. Cartledge Associate Professor of New Testament at Columbia Theological Seminary. His research interests include postcolonial biblical interpretation, migration and New Testament perspectives on economic justice. He is the author of Dialogue Not Dogma: Many Voices in the Gospel of Luke (Bloomsbury, 2011), co-editor of Christianity and the Law of Migration (Routledge, 2021) and co-author of Postcolonialism and the Bible (Bloomsbury, forthcoming in 2023). Nadella is actively involved in the academy and the Church on issues such as race, economic justice and immigration.
Who is the "Christ" of the Christ Seminar? Event Jan 11 7-8 pm ET
The Christ Seminar held its inaugural event this past November eliciting great enthusiasm from those who participated.
It also left a number of people asking, "Who is the 'Christ' of the Christ Seminar?"
This is a conversation with Christ Seminar scholars Rita Nakashima Brock, Wilson Dickinson, and James Perkinson who will explore this question and more with Westar Academy Dean Celene Lillie.
Rita Nakashima Brock, Ph.D., is Senior Vice President and Director of the Shay Moral Injury Center at Volunteers of America. A professor of religion, women’s studies, and Asian American studies for 18 years, she was Director of the Fellowship Program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University from 1997-2001 and a fellow at the Harvard Divinity School Center for Values in Public Life from 2001-2002. She is the first Asian American woman to earn a doctorate in philosophy of religion and theology and an award-winning author. Her publications include Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power (1988) and the co-authored books, Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury After War (2012), Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire (2008), Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering and the Search for What Saves Us (2001), and Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States (1996).
Wilson Dickinson, Ph.D., is a scholar, minister, and community organizer whose work takes place at the intersection of philosophical theology, sustainability, social justice, and spiritual practice. He teaches theology and is the Director of the Doctor of Ministry and Continuing Education Programs at Lexington Theological Seminary. He is the author of https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319978420, and https://www.amazon.com/Green-Good-News-Christs-Sustainable/dp/1532681836. He is also director of https://greengoodnews.org/, an organization that is rooted in a number of food justice ministries and which educates, cultivates, and organizes Christian communities to follow the ways of justice, joy, and simplicity. He holds a PhD from Syracuse University, an MDiv from Vanderbilt Divinity School, and is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).
Jim Perkinson, Ph.D., is a long-time activist and educator from inner city Detroit, where he has a history of involvement in various community development initiatives and low-income housing projects. He holds a PhD in theology from the University of Chicago, with a secondary focus on history of religions, is the author of White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity and Shamanism, Racism, and Hip-Hop Culture: Essays on White Supremacy and Black Subversion, and has written extensively in both academic and popular journals on questions of race, class and colonialism in connection with religion and urban culture. He is in demand as a speaker on a wide variety of topics related to his interests and a recognized artist on the spoken-word poetry scene in the inner city. Jim is interested in using a broad array of interdisciplinary tools to investigate the way socio-economic position, racial presupposition, and gender perspective already inform our values and orientation to life long before we begin to grapple with questions of identity, ministry or spirituality.
Celene Lillie received her Ph.D. at Union Theological Seminary and is an adjunct professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and the University of Oklahoma. She is the author of The Rape of Eve: The Transformation of Roman Ideology in Three Early Christian Retellings of Genesis, the director of translations for A New New Testament, and a co-author of The Thunder Perfect Mind: A New Translation and Introduction. She has been an active scholar at Westar Institute since 2015. Celene is the `Dean of the Westar Academy.
Christ Seminar Inaugural Meeting
Click here .for a recording of the Christ Seminar’s Inaugural Public Meeting
The Christ Seminar is a collaborative of theologians, biblical scholars, activists, artists, and ministers engaging Christologies of the People.
We reckon with the possible futures of “Christ” in the face of climate change, structures of white supremacy, distortions presented by Christian nationalism, legacies of colonialism, violence against women and children, and economic oppression.
At this inaugural session, members of the seminar explored some central questions:
What is Christ up against? What are we up against? And in what ways can the ministry of Jesus be understood today as “activism,” and what becomes possible when we claim it in that way?
SPEAKERS
Rita Nakashima Brock, Rel. M., M.A., Ph.D., has been Senior Vice President and Director of the Shay Moral Injury Center at Volunteers of America since 2017. An award-winning author, her first book was Journeys by Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power1988). She is co-author of Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us2001), and Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire (2008).
Sigríður Guðmarsdóttir is Associate Professor of Practical Theology and Chair of Institute of Theology at the University of Iceland. She is also Full Professor at the Centre of Mission and Global Studies at VID Specialized University, Norway. Sigríður is the author of Tillich and the Abyss: Foundations, Feminism and Theology of Praxis (2016) and several articles in books and journals. She coedited Trading Justice for Peace: Reframing Reconciliation in TRC processes in South Africa, Canada and Nordic Countries (2021).
Pamela Lightsey is the Vice President for Academic Affairs at Meadville Lombard Theological School and Associate Professor of Constructive Theology. Her several publications include Our Lives Matter: A Womanist Queer Theology (2015), Transforming Service: Reflections of Student Services Professionals in Theological Education (edited with Shonda R. Jones, 2020), and “Blinking Red: The Escalation of a Militarized Police Force and Its Challenges to Black Communities” in Feminist Praxis Against U.S. Militarism (2019).
Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology, Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies, and the Founding Director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt University. His most recent books include Theology in the Capitalocene: Ecology, Identity, Class, and Solidarity (2022), Jesus vs. Caesar: For People Tired of Serving the Wrong God (2018), and No Religion but Social Religion: Liberating Wesleyan Theology (2018).
Green Lectionary Podcast Pilot Episode - Maundy Thursday 2022 Passages
Check out this pilot episode of the Green Lectionary Podcast, reading scripture through the lens of environmental justice, hosted by Derrick Weston. This episode is on the Maundy Thursday texts. In the first half Leah Jacobs Schade and myself chew on Exodus 12:1-14 and John 13:1-17, 31-35. In the second half Avery Davis Lamb and Garrett Andrew feast on Psalm 116 and I Corinthians 11:23-26.
A Grass Roots Screening of the Short Doc "A Wilderness Like Eden" and Roundtable Discussion.
This is a recording of a screening of the first episode of a short documentary series, “A Wilderness Like Eden: Stories from the Christian Food Movement,” I have been a part of developing. It is followed by a roundtable with Derrick Weston and Nurya Love Parish, Stephanie Moon, and Heather McColl (the latter two are LTS DMin Grads!).
Homebrewed Christianity Episode: Wilson Dickinson and Leah Schade: Faith During an Ecological Collapse
Conversation with myself, Leah Schade, and Tripp Fuller on approaching climate change as an intersectional issue, and sustaining the work of climate, food, and social justice in the face of multiple crises for the long haul. Listen here.
Webcast: Let's Talk Climate - Raising Resilient Children Amidst Climate Change - Wilson Dickinson and Sarah Spengeman
ecoAmerica’s Let’s Talk Climate webcast, Raising Resilient Children Amidst Climate Change, featuring a conversation with Wilson Dickinson, Director, The Green Good News, and Sarah Spengeman, Board Member, Interfaith Power and Light, and Host of Hot Mamas, the Podcast.
How can we raise resilient, hopeful children when our climate is in crisis? Hear perspectives and guidance from faith leaders, health leaders and parents on how our homes and communities can be spaces of peace that support creativity and wonder through play and time in the natural world. Learn how our villages of care must nurture the roots of our future grassroots leaders.
Podcast: Roundtable on Capitalism, Christianity, and the Ecological Crisis
Ep7: Capitalism Interrupted [Roundtable] — Interrupted (westarinterrupted.com)
This episode features a roundtable discussion of Westar scholars and practitioners discussing religion and capitalism that was organized by the Westar Think Tank. They each introduce themselves in the episode, but links about each of the contributors are below. This panel includes members of the Westar Institute's Christianity Seminar, God Seminar, Christ Seminar, and Praxis Forum. Also, you'll find time markers of where each of the speakers begin their opening remarks below.
Here are the contributors:
Cláudio Carvalhaes
T. Wilson Dickinson
Elli Elliott
Collin Glavac
Julia Khan
Nina Livesey
Hollis Phelps
Jeffrey W. Robbins
And here's how to find their remarks:
Intro: 00:50
Hollis Phelps: 02:18
Julia Khan: 06:18
Collin Glavac: 11:46
Nina Livesey: 14:43
Wilson Dickinson: 17:39
Cláudio Carvalhaes: 23:06
Jeff Robbins: 27:18
Elli Elliott: 32:57
Roundtable conversation: 38:00