News

Skyler French, “Redeeming Redemption: Christ, Horrors, and Spiritual Care.”  Sunday, April 12, 7 p.m., St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, 515 S. Wheaton Avenue, Wheaton, IL. (church service at 5 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m., followed by the presentation.) 

The project analyzes the relationship between the Christian sufferer and their confessional community in the sufferer’s redemptive meaning-making process.

Delaney Wallace, “The Life of the Southern Evangelical Mind: A Phenomenological Case Study.” Monday, April 20th, Disciples Divinity House, 1156 E. 57th St., 6 pm dinner (rsvp requested), 7 p.m. presentation, Disciples Divinity House Common Room

This project explores portrayals of Southern evangelicalism as “anti-intellectual” and asks what these depictions might teach us. Using a comparative ethical framework, it seeks to understand how knowledge is (or is not) produced outside the academy.

Theophilus Donoghue, “Religious Pluralism Radicalized: The Value of Hypothetical Syncretism.”  Wednesday, April 22, 6 p.m., Bond Chapel

Can every major religion’s metaphysical beliefs be simultaneously true? Every tradition, every soteriology, all at once? In this presentation, we will explore how affirming these questions for the sake of interfaith dialogue can engender religious harmony and eliminate intractable points of contention.

Apryl Brown, Sunday, April 26, 10 a.m., Woodlawn AME Church, 6456 S. Evans, Chicago.

Mike Hernandez Padilla, “Sacred Afterlives: Religion, Architecture, and Civic Life at the Epiphany Center for the Arts.” Thursday, April 30, 6:30 p.m., 201 S Ashland Ave, Chicago, IL 60607 

Step inside one of Chicago’s most remarkable transformations: the historic Church of the Epiphany reborn as the Epiphany Center for the Arts. This presentation explores how a former sacred space became a vibrant hub for music, art, and community—and what it reveals about the future of historic churches in our cities. 

Xander King, “Grassroots and Grasstops Environmentalism: How Green Teams, Denominations, and Non-Profits form an organizing ecosystem.” Thursday, May 7, 5:30 p.m. Faith in Place, 5416 S. Cornell Ave, fourth floor.

Scattered throughout Chicago's congregations are environmentally minded groups called Green Teams that address a wide array of environmental issues to help Chicago live up to its motto, "city in a garden." You are invited to join the conversation about how these Green Teams interact with the 40-year history of environmental literature at the denominational level, and the work of non-profits like Faith in Place, which support Green Teams with educational content, connections to funding, and coaching within an ecosystem of organizing.

Sam Rose, “A Theology of Silliness.” Saturday. May 9, 4:30 p.m., Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Performance Penthouse, 9th floor.

A Theology of Silliness attempts to describe the component parts of what makes something silly and argues for silliness' usefulness in somatic recovery from trauma using a spiritual care informed lens. We will also have balloon animals!

Jea Ramiro, “The Visible Ink: Graphic Novel & Drawing Agency into the Spectacle of Violence.”  Saturday, May 9, 6:00 p.m., Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Performance Penthouse,9th floor. RSVP only, (jramiro@uchicago.edu). 

When violent images are the public pedagogy where can our socio-ethical imagination be re-discovered?

Delaney Beh, “The Courage to Be Church: Renewing Liberal Protestant Discipleship in an Age of Uncertainty.” Monday, May 11, Disciples Divinity  House, 1156 E. 57th Street, 6 p.m. dinner (rsvp requested), 7 p.m. presentation, DDH Common Room.

As mainline Protestant membership continues to decline, many congregations have resigned themselves to an inevitable death. This project argues, however, that there are theological and practical tools within the liberal Protestant tradition to confront its own precarity with hope rather than fear, inviting churches to consider the power of faithful discipleship amid an uncertain future

Alexandra Ferri, “Ritualizing the Ancestors: Gender and Lineage Traditions in American Zen,” Thursday, May 14, 10 a.m., Osaka Japanese Garden 

This thesis explores the creation and ritualization of the Women Ancestors list in American Zen communities. It explores how Zen in the United States reflects an emergent spiritual culture that adapts inherited traditions to new ethical and institutional priorities.

Anna Zeisel, “On Longing, Absence, and the Uses of Traditional Prayer in Contemporary Jewish Life.” Thursday, May 21, 4:30 p.m., Disciples Divinity House, 1156 E. 57th Street.     

Join Anna for a conversation about Jewish American generational shifts, inheritance, and the unexpected return of traditional prayer among young American Jews — with a brief ritual practice to close.