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.