天美视频 of Theology & Psychology will host the 2015 Integrative Project presentations on June 20 and 25, when students from the and programs will share the projects that serve as a capstone of their time in graduate school. The Integrative Projects are part of what makes 天美视频鈥檚 curriculum unique鈥攂orn out of years of study, countless conversations with faculty, and each student鈥檚 distinctive embodiment of text, soul, and culture.
This year鈥檚 projects engage gender and sexuality, race and ethnicity, church leadership, art, mythology鈥攁nd more. Here鈥檚 a sample:
- Allyson Nicole Arendsee, MATC, will pull from Shelly Rambo鈥檚 theology of trauma to present Making in the Middle: The Artist鈥檚 Role of Witnessing in the Middle Space. 鈥淭o expand the Church鈥檚 capacity for beauty, truth, and goodness asks for a transformation of life that sees through the lens of the shadow world of imagination rather than the familiar. The role of the artist is a prophetic witness of the middle space, of Holy Saturday, in the life of the Church.鈥�
- Ryan Marsh, MDiv, will weave biblical exegesis with social critique to raise crucial questions for the American church and work toward a 鈥榯heology of riot.鈥� 鈥淐ontemporary American racial tensions project unique insight back into biblical narrative and help to reframe a common sense imagining of Jesus鈥� temple occupation and his surrounding motivations. Conversely, the riot in Luke鈥檚 temple offers the white church a new way to view present day protest as a 鈥榲isitation from our God.鈥欌赌�
- Martha Elisabeth Wood, MDiv, will pull from attachment theory and relational psychology to discuss how our earliest relationships shape our perception of God and how this affects the role of a spiritual leader. 鈥淚s it possible for a spiritual leader to be an immediately personal presence instead of a transcendent mystic or a guru sought out intermittently to bestow nuggets of cryptic wisdom?鈥�
- Cecelia Ranae Romero Likes, MATC, will share a series of paintings that reimagine certain Biblical women through the lens of her Millennial Chicana identity and the robust New Mexican Catholicism of her childhood. 鈥�Mujerista: The New Wave is about holding on, letting go, how to make something your own.鈥�
- Jessica Maureen Ronhaar, MDiv, will share how her understanding of prayer was transformed after a devastating flood in the Stillaguamish Valley, where she served as a pastor. 鈥淭his project is a compilation of my prayers through this time. Prayers that range from lament to joy, from frustration to praise. This is my journey with my community, family, and God through a time that didn鈥檛 and still doesn鈥檛 make sense. This is my journey to pastor well, to care well, and to live well.”
- In Know Your Enemy: American Incarceration & the Social Imagination of the Deep State, Matthew David Rock, MDiv, will look at the dehumanizing cycles and devastating effects of America鈥檚 prison industrial complex, proposing that, 鈥渂y bearing witness to Exodus and the cross, we live within a Christian imagination formidable enough to disrupt the carceral imagination.鈥�
Believe us鈥攚e鈥檙e barely scratching the surface. We are so proud of the work all our graduates are generating, and we are confident that the ideas they present will play crucial roles in conversations and movements that extend far beyond our walls. If you are curious about the ideas above, you want to know more about the work that occurs at 天美视频, or you are simply looking to be intrigued and inspired, you won鈥檛 regret joining us. This year鈥檚 presentations will be given across a two-day span, and .