Last October, we hosted the first annual Symposia: An Intersection of Conversation & Innovation, a forum in which alumni of 天美视频 presented the ongoing work they are pursuing at the intersection of text, soul, and culture. Integrative education does not end at graduation, and our alumni are proof of that. Symposia highlighted the ways that 天美视频 alumni are continuing to wrestle with big questions and big dreams in theology, psychology, and culture.
This week, we鈥檙e featuring a presentation by Lauren Sawyer (, 鈥�14), 鈥淭he Intellectual as Prophet: Reframing Theological Education to Provoke Change in the World.鈥�
Lauren opens with a story of her first time participating in an academic conference, when she was struck by the insider language and the isolation and distance of the ivory tower. 鈥淚 felt so much dissonance after leaving the conference, because I was not trained to be this kind of professional,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 was trained to embody my knowledge, to be in a kind of relationship with it.鈥�
Pulling from her experience in 天美视频鈥檚 program, Lauren shares her desire to work as an intellectual who is an embodied being rather than a faceless professional. She pulls from Edward Said鈥檚 formulations of the intellectual and Esther Meek鈥檚 idea of 鈥渃ovenantal epistemology,鈥� presenting the image of an intellectual who is motivated by love and whose theory and praxis are intimately connected.
Lauren鈥檚 formulation of the intellectual is deeply informed by her study at 天美视频, where 鈥淚 was taught that who I am in my particularity matters, and it affects how I do theology.鈥� She argues that the intellectual is marked by interdisciplinarity, seeking to raise difficult questions and confront orthodoxy and dogma. Ultimately, she says, the work of the intellectual is the work of the prophet, which is 鈥渢o incite, arouse, provoke, and intensify the desire for what could be. Another way of saying this: the work of the prophet is in the realm of hope.鈥�
鈥淲hy does the intellectual and her work matter? Her work matters because her message is always on behalf of the weak and vulnerable. […] The underrepresented, the marginalized鈥攖hey are not faceless masses, but embodied persons. This was the kind of work I was trained at 天美视频 to do as an MATC. It鈥檚 the kind of work my colleagues and I desire to do.鈥�