What were a few of your early influences in life?
Dr. Rah: I have seen how the gospel can connect across cultures, and that comes from my experience of growing up in Seoul until six years old and then moving to the United States. There was privilege in that original cultural context; then we moved to a rough neighborhood in Baltimore. It was third black, a third white, and a third recent immigrants. We were all common in that we were poor, but we divided along racial lines. There was a question of why we couldn鈥檛 get along. Part of my desire to see different cultures live together came from early on. I later realized I wouldn鈥檛 find the answer in the Church either.

How did you experience other culture groups growing up?
Dr. Rah: As recent immigrants, we don鈥檛 have a long history with African Americans or whites. Even when we said 鈥淎merican churches,鈥� we meant 鈥渨hite churches.鈥� We had a hard time seeing value in our own culture and therefore couldn鈥檛 see it in others. I later realized parallels and a similar sense of culture in African American churches.

How have we missed the opportunity to share oppressive stories?
Dr. Rah: Lament provides a positive mediating narrative. It brings us together across the boundaries. If I can enter into lament alongside someone with a different background, we find a sense of equality. My own journey has been about sitting at the feet of African American, Latino, and Native American mentors, to see how our narratives overlap. When I write about lament, I write about Han theology, which is very similar to the spirituality of the blues. The inability to share narratives is to our detriment.

What鈥檚 the consequence of the absence of lament?
Dr. Rah: I remember learning three chords and being limited by them. I think we don鈥檛 sing enough in the minor key and too often end on a happy progression of chords. In the absence of lament, we lose our understanding of justice. Three fifths of Lamentations deals with a funeral. We don鈥檛 know how to deal with real tragedy and look for quick solutions.

How are we depriving ourselves by always trying to end on a happy note?
Dr. Rah: Things can be better that way, but not transformed, because there was no death for transformation. Most of us don鈥檛 know how to end on the minor key of Lamentations. Even for our villains, we want a happy ending.

How do you see this happening in our culture?
Dr. Rah: For years, we鈥檝e said the American dream is to work your way up and then help others repeat the process. In doing so, we鈥檝e created a mythology that is not attainable for everybody. The racialized piece is that we had a president who did that, and there was a vitriolic response. Many had unfulfilled dreams and saw a non-white achieving the American dream. So now there鈥檚 the idea that we need to go back to a time when 鈥淚 had better access to that dream.鈥�

How do you turn loss into something for the future?
Dr. Rah: In Lamentations, the exiles are thinking they鈥檒l go back to Jerusalem. They actually had to look towards a new reality. The people needed a reality check. It鈥檚 a tough sell to tell the majority population that things will never be the same again. Maybe the missing step has been that we鈥檙e missing lament 鈥� acknowledging the reality.

How do we let white supremacy die in all of us?
Dr. Rah: Lament offers the possibility that we might not get the exact resolution hoped for. What makes Lamentations redemptive is Jesus, not because Jerusalem is restored to its once great status, but Jesus shows up in that temple, which does outshine Solomon鈥檚 temple.

So this is really about a love story?
Dr. Rah: As a Christian, I still believe it鈥檚 the Church that holds hope. It won鈥檛 be success as defined by the American empire, but we鈥檒l have places where the kingdom narrative will win. The American Church has prostituted itself so much to the American empire that we don鈥檛 recognize success outside of that, and we have to lament that. We have to recognize the narrative is that the kingdom of God means a romantic ending for all.

What hope can you offer in this conversation?
Dr. Rah: If we can get there, there can be a communal element to lament, which can be unifying. The problem is that most of our western narrative is around triumph. We also have to understand suffering and death. If we can return to communal lament, we鈥檒l get a richer theology that has been long neglected.

Highlights and Takeaways

• What the perception of Korean-Americans has often been by African Americans
• How people of color understand other cultures through the eyes of white Americans
• Why, with quick and easy answers, we don鈥檛 know how to deal with tragedy
• How happy endings have been fed to millennials, who now want to save the world, but quickly
• Why we bond more intimately in our weakness than around the victory

About Dr. Soong-Chan Rah

Reverend Dr. Soong-Chan Rah is the Milton B. Engebretson Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. He has authored several books, including The Next Evangelicalism, Many Colors, and Prophetic Lament.

Prior to joining North Park, Dr. Rah was the founding Senior Pastor of Cambridge Community Fellowship Church (CCFC), a multi-ethnic church living out the values of racial reconciliation and social justice in the urban context. He has served on the board of Sojourners and the Christian Community Development Association and currently serves on the board of World Vision and Evangelicals 4 Justice.

With extensive experience in cross-cultural speaking, Dr. Rah has been a main stage speaker at many events, including the Congress on Urban Ministry, the CCDA National Conference, the Justice Conference, Verge, and Catalyst.

A lover of learning, he received his B.A. from Columbia University, his M.Div. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, his Th.M. from Harvard University, his D.Min. from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and his Th.D. from Duke University.

He lives with his wife, Sue, and their two children, Annah and Elijah, in Chicago.

About text.soul.culture

Hosted and curated by Dr. J. Derek McNeil, Academic Dean, text.soul.culture is guided by a commitment to understanding narrative, wrestling with intersections, resisting reactivity, and fostering radical hospitality. Every other week, Derek is joined by faculty members, alumni, visiting thought leaders, and other conversation partners to explore what it means to foster wisdom and imagination for a world in need of complex thinkers and healers.

The post A Richer Theology through Communal Lament with Dr. Soong-Chan Rah appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

How did you become interested in teaching?
Ron: I started in urban ministry, working with kids on the street. Two weeks in, I was talking to kids who were incarcerated. Later, I started educating our people about psychosocial dynamics of these kids. The story of my love for teaching goes all the way back to seeing a book of bedtime Bible stories and my first thought being to preach to other eight year olds.

So you experienced affirmation of who you were?
Ron: I believe we鈥檙e called by community, and I experienced that in multiple points in life. But call doesn鈥檛 mean comfort. In some ways, I鈥檓 always learning because I鈥檓 fearful I don鈥檛 know enough. This results in a certain amount of anxiety.

What were other early-formation events that stand out?
Ron: My dad died when I was three, and my mother鈥檚 storytelling and social justice work was instrumental in shaping me. I understand my mother as a good, flawed human who gave me everything she could. I was able to let go of the record of wrongs. She taught me to defend those who didn鈥檛 have others around them.

How would you describe your first book?
Ron: After writing my dissertation, I was committed to never writing a book. That was until a woman from a small publishing house said, 鈥淵ou have a book in you. Would you write a book about how to work with street kids?鈥� I said, 鈥淣o, but I鈥檒l write about how those kids shaped me theologically.鈥� So The Least of These became a memoir. It was their resilience that was the catalyst for me to continue in education.

How about your second book?
Ron: In Closer to the Edge, I talked about what I had seen in my mother, whose ideology was very risk-averse. I wanted to write not on the what but the why and how of justice. Narrative and story shaped the book like my first, but it鈥檚 different because it鈥檚 widening the lens.

What are you learning about now?
Ron: I鈥檓 learning more about words like 鈥渨hite privilege鈥� and 鈥渨hite fragility鈥� and how we have a hard time getting to the seeds that produce that fruit. That鈥檚 what I鈥檓 curious about. It also becomes hard for me to say, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know.鈥� The crux of the work is unlearning, and it requires being in proximity with others who can help.

What are your dreams for 天美视频?
Ron: My first dream is that the MATC program continues informing all the degree programs. I would hope all our students understand that working toward credibility in theology and culture is important. My other dream is for students to be able to work locally and think globally. Finally, my dream is that we produce social agents who want to be a therapeutic presence in world 鈥� knowing they are flawed but still wanting to make a difference. In the words of Dr. Cornel West, I want them 鈥渢o be great鈥� 鈥� in how they view humanity and the world around them.

About Dr. Ron Ruthruff
Dr. Ron Ruthruff has served homeless and street involved youth and their families for the past thirty years. He has provided case management services, designed programs, and educated the community on the issues that impact this vulnerable population. Ron鈥檚 education is an eclectic blend of social work, counseling, and theological studies. Ron holds a B.A. from Western Washington University, an M.S. from Pepperdine University, and a Doctorate of Ministry in Complex Urban Settings from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in Boston. Closer to home, Ron is on a regular preaching schedule at several local churches. Ron lives in the Rainier Valley, a multicultural neighborhood in the south end of Seattle with his wife, Linda, whom he has served with for the last 26 years. His two adult sons, Ben and Clayton, live close by.

About text.soul.culture
Hosted and curated by Dr. J. Derek McNeil, Academic Dean, text.soul.culture is guided by a commitment to understanding narrative, wrestling with intersections, resisting reactivity, and fostering radical hospitality. Every other week, Derek is joined by faculty members, alumni, visiting thought leaders, and other conversation partners to explore what it means to foster wisdom and imagination for a world in need of complex thinkers and healers.

The post The Why and How of Justice with Dr. Ron Ruthruff appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

The Dialogue

What about your story has shaped your love for the earth?
Steven: I was fortunate to grow up with woods behind our house and have fond memories of wandering through them. Year round, I would spend time outside and gained a tactile sense of which trees were which, though I couldn鈥檛 name them. With both parents on an academic schedule, we would spend 2-3 weeks each summer tent camping or vacationing in a pop-top trailer. The summer before senior year, I became a camp counselor at a camp that focused on canoeing and backpacking. I realized I could do that for the rest of my life. Later, in 1980, I started Wilderness Adventures, which ran during the summers.

What do you mean by ecological homelessness?
Steven: I began to pick up on different kinds of homelessness. I remember one philosopher saying, 鈥淲e鈥檙e feeling homeless in our homeland because of global warming.鈥� To feel at home is to have an affiliation with a place, to know what is going on, to feel safe, and be at rest. Many are not feeling safe or connected in the environment, and we are losing a sense of what the environment around us is like.

What have been the main ecological degradations and improvements?
Steven: Global climate change has been huge because it affects so many issues. There is also the rapid loss of biodiversity; three species a day going extinct is not sustainable. Water quality and quantity are low in many areas. Thankfully, we are seeing some positives. Air quality has improved in a number of places. There have been opportunities to make changes, as with the Paris Accord. However, if we just keep going with business as usual, we will have serious problem within a couple of decades. And, in some ways, the future is happening now.

What are the images of hope that you have seen?
Steven: The Montreal Protocol is one that is well known. But I believe local efforts are most important. For example, our community raised $15 million to clean up the mess of local watershed. There are also educational changes. Now, some preschools are environmentally-oriented, and there is an emphasis on project-based learning in middle schools.

Highlights and Takeaways

• Why time in the wilderness can be directly connected to the joy of relating with others
• How Scripture addresses ecology in many ways
• Where positive trends in the environment are coming from: not top-down influences but percolating up from the bottom (entrepreneurs and other locals in the environment)

Stanley Grenz Lecture Series
*This year, we are pleased to welcome Reverend Dr. Soong-Chan Rah as our keynote speaker for the Stanley Grenz Lecture Series. Dr. Rah will open the series on Tuesday morning, November 6 with a lecture entitled 鈥淭he Necessity of Lament in a Broken World鈥� and close in the evening with a dialogue engaging 鈥淲hite Supremacy, Racialized Trauma, and the Need for a Redemptive Mediating Narrative.鈥� We invite you to join us for this annual, free event honoring the legacy of Dr. Stanley Grenz and our ongoing commitment to the intersection of theology and culture. .

About Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger
Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger is a professor and prolific author in the realms of theology, ecology, and environmental studies. He serves as Professor of Religion, Director of the Environmental Studies program, and Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning at Hope College in Michigan. He has written more than 100 articles, essays, and reviews, and his book publications include The Greening of Theology, For the Beauty of the Earth, and Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement.

About text.soul.culture
Hosted and curated by Dr. J. Derek McNeil, Academic Dean, text.soul.culture is guided by a commitment to understanding narrative, wrestling with intersections, resisting reactivity, and fostering radical hospitality. Every other week, Derek is joined by faculty members, alumni, visiting thought leaders, and other conversation partners to explore what it means to foster wisdom and imagination for a world in need of complex thinkers and healers.

The post Ecological Homelessness and Degradation with Dr. Steven Bouma-Prediger appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

The Dialogue

How did theology choose you?

Chelle: I had a strange entry into theology. I started in biblical studies and thought systematic theology was boring. It wasn鈥檛 until a professor reminded me that I was a violinist that I started to become curious about Christianity and the arts. In asking what it meant to be a violinist and a Christian, I found a new entryway into trinitarian theology. Soon enough, the questions posed within systematic theology became alive to me. Theological phrases like 鈥渦nity in diversity鈥� took on new life when I played the Bach Fugue, for example.

How has music played a role in shaping your integrative instincts?

Chelle: Music creates a space to theologize or philosophize about things that shouldn鈥檛 seemingly fit together. When you create music and song with others, you don鈥檛 know the whole. You simply know you are creating something far beyond what you could create on your own. The more voices are themselves and bring their own strength, the more everyone can sing. Of course, it鈥檚 threatening to have all of the colors coming together. But integration is not about fitting pieces together in a preconceived way; instead, it creates something unexpected, a sound you have never heard.

What is the dance between theology and psychology for you?

Chelle: I think we have a great opportunity to bring the two fields together here, but the work can be difficult. Even the same terminology doesn鈥檛 always mean the same thing between the two fields. At 天美视频, theological language is actually a minority language, so I have been challenged to connect it to the psychological landscape. Take the word 鈥渟in,鈥� for example. In psychology, there is no category for sin, but psychologists talk about brokenness in many ways. Integration between the two fields requires a much deeper understanding of what it means to be human. Sin must be considered beyond a single individual experience; it must be approached in a much more comprehensive way.

What has been your experience around dissonance in your work here?

Chelle: A colleague once told me that you should leave an institution when you grow tired of students鈥� questions. That has yet to happen to me here. I remember one student鈥檚 question in particular. She asked: What does the doctrine of the resurrection of the body do for women and children I鈥檓 going to work with who have been trafficked? My immediate thought was that this doctrine could do a lot for this group of people, but I was challenged to struggle in the place of dissonance between what is to come and what is now for a group of people who might see a theological concept much differently than I do. The artist Makoto Fujimura talks about borrowing our humanity from the future and living it now. All of us, and all of the people with which we work, live with some level of internal dissonance鈥攕eeing who we are called to be and recognizing who we are in the moment. What I have found is that it鈥檚 right there in the dissonance that the Holy Spirit plays. It鈥檚 right there that God meets us. Yes, it requires work, but within dissonance we find ourselves and we find God. Ultimately, dissonance continues as we move outside of ourselves to the world.

What do you hope for your students as you invite them into this journey?

Chelle: My hope for students is that they don鈥檛 get stuck as they deal with dissonance. Oftentimes, students get stuck on one thing they don鈥檛 agree with and throw out the rest as invalid. Again, integration is a lot of work, and we ask a lot of our students. Our assignments can be extremely disruptive to students鈥� lives, but if they are brave enough to stay in the churn, they will often arrive at the best theological questions. I have to also remember that we can鈥檛 be brave all the time; if a student is not able to be brave one day, I can still hold hope for them for another day.

What do you hope for the school to become in light of who you hope to become?

Chelle: Though I sometimes think I would like all my students to just agree with me, the real dream is for students to continue to have suspicion. The real dream is to continue to have the capacity to bring in different voices and not just listen to our favorite ones. We should constantly be asking: Who do we need to invite in? This dream costs a lot: we might be wrong; we might need to ask different questions; we might have to set down assumptions. We already live out this dream as a school, and the approach has challenged me. Rather than taking me further away from my convictions, I have come to know God more deeply鈥攊n both my spiritual life and theologically. I鈥檓 reminded of Jeremy Begbie鈥檚 example about tradition. He said that we often see tradition as our orchard with all the right bounds around it. However, a healthy orchard is one that has deep roots. The more rooted we are, the more we can take down our walls, invite others in, and still remain rooted to our identity. We can still hold to the reality that God will continue to be God; we simply might need to ask different questions. We are invited to relationship, and He always brings us back to life.

Highlights and Takeaways

• What integration requires: a listening for not only what we like but all the possibilities
• Why students might often feel wobbly at 天美视频 as they are asked to do parallel processing
• How our 鈥渕ost important questions鈥� might need to change as we get to the real work of integration
• When students who are stuck with bigger questions are actually stuck with personal questions
• Why the dream of 天美视频 to never stop asking questions and to always ask who should be invited to the conversation is a difficult one to maintain
• 鈥淭his is a movement rather than a prescription, which can be frightening and a different type of Christian experience.鈥�

About Dr. Chelle Stearns

Dr. Stearns has a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from University of St. Andrews in Scotland, a master鈥檚 degree in Christian Studies from Regent College and an undergraduate degree in music from Pacific Lutheran University. Her academic work has focused on the interaction between theology and music, and she loves to talk about the Christian imagination. She is also passionate about trinitarian theology. As one student recently remarked, 鈥淵ou really do dig this trinitarian stuff, huh?鈥� Read more about Chelle and her work .

About text.soul.culture

Hosted and curated by Dr. J. Derek McNeil, Academic Dean, text.soul.culture is guided by a commitment to understanding narrative, wrestling with intersections, resisting reactivity, and fostering radical hospitality. Every other week, Derek is joined by faculty members, alumni, visiting thought leaders, and other conversation partners to explore what it means to foster wisdom and imagination for a world in need of complex thinkers and healers.

The post Integration and Dissonance with Dr. Chelle Stearns appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

The Dialogue聽

What shaped you for the work you do?

Pamela: I have been an environmentalist since high school and have always been drawn to social systems. Much of my work focused on the layout of cities for sociological reasons. Leaders I respected were making direct connections to social systems.

What is the Soul for the Next Economy?

Pamela: The Soul of the Next Economy forum began as work with businesses that drive a triple bottom line. People from all parts of the system come together to ask critical questions, such as, How can businesses benefit all life on the planet and pivot away from a sole focus on GDP? Everybody I knew that was leading in this area was coming from a deep sacred narrative, and none of our sacred narratives measure wealth by GDP alone.

What is your dream for the Church?

Pamela: My dream is that the Church would understand the fullness of shalom, which is embedded in Christ鈥檚 teachings. I also hope to see the systems thinking that is so beautifully displayed in the margins of the Church move to the center, to replace the hierarchical structures that currently sit in the spotlight.

What鈥檚 is it like teaching at 天美视频?

Pamela: Every class is different and requires adaptive leaders. I am always challenged to use systems thinking within the classroom. Highlights for me are when students say they can鈥檛 stop thinking in systems or when I have helped give them language for what they already believed. My work in the world now is in the deeper questions that are posed to 天美视频 students.

Highlights and Takeaways

• What it means to move from transactions to transformation
• Why businesses must be held accountable at every step of the work they do 鈥� not only the final step of potential philanthropy
• How Christian environmentalists have historically been rejected by the Church and environmentalist groups
• What triple bottom line thinking is
• Why shalom is more than just a lack of conflict
• 鈥淭here is no environmental injustice that is not also a social injustice.鈥�

About Pamela Wilhelms

Pamela Wilhelms is a social architect, organizational consultant and executive coach. She is the founder of Wilhelms Consulting Group and the Soul of the Next Economy forum. Pamela has designed award winning multi-year leadership academies and taught in graduate programs for many universities, including Harvard, Georgetown, Yale, the University of California and Stanford.

About text.soul.culture

Hosted and curated by Dr. J. Derek McNeil, Academic Dean, text.soul.culture is guided by a commitment to understanding narrative, wrestling with intersections, resisting reactivity, and fostering radical hospitality. Every other week, Derek is joined by faculty members, alumni, visiting thought leaders, and other conversation partners to explore what it means to foster wisdom and imagination for a world in need of complex thinkers and healers.

The post Living Systems with Pamela Wilhelms appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

Forrest: My mission is to help people to become learners first. And not just to be humble as they enter a situation, but to be active learners. […] My hope is that my students will be catalysts for change, not imposers of change.

Derek: What does your work reading culture tell us about where the church is heading?

Forrest: Church has to reflect place. Church has to reflect the people who make the church. Parish Collective does a great job of living that truth. […] Church has a lot to do with the spirit of a place, the story of a place, the future of a place. It鈥檚 holistic. […] I teach students to think about the ways they will listen to the spirit of a place.

Derek: I appreciate the interest in the people, the respect for the place, and the uniqueness of what God might be doing there. We have to have those three things.

About Dr. Forrest Inslee

Forrest Inslee earned an MA and PhD from Northwestern University in communication/ethnography, and an MCS in cross cultural theological education from Regent College. He spent six years working among the urban poor in Chicago, and later lived for four years in Istanbul supporting community development and leadership training for the emerging churches there. His primary teaching interests lie in intercultural studies, Native American issues, environmental justice, and social entrepreneurship.

罢补办别补飞补测蝉听

天美视频 has the privilege of collaborating with Dr. Forrest Inslee this fall in an experiential course called Reading Culture. Reading Culture will be a contextual learning experience offering students/learners an ethnographic frame and qualitative methods to help them understand and interpret cultures in context. Ethnographic approaches help us understand the deep structures of cultural context relationally 鈥� offering guidelines for engaging with communities, for appreciative inquiry, and direct observations. The course will be held at St. Luke鈥檚 in Ballard where students/learners will engage the neighborhood in research projects toward St. Luke鈥檚 mission to mend socioeconomic divides.

Reading Culture is available for enrollment for current 天美视频 students, alumni, or individuals seeking Non-Degree or Community Audit learning opportunities. Email admissions@theseattleschool.edu for additional information and visit our course schedule for details.

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Dr. Hollins shares how she entered substantive conversations around race and difference for the first time when she was a graduate student, even though she had grown up in a home of complex and different identities. Before entering those conversations more fully, Dr. Hollins says she would try try to minimize her awareness of race and its impact, like saying 鈥渢hank you鈥� when someone said they didn鈥檛 think of her as black. That season of education and conversation started her own work around identity and how she navigates the systems and cultures around her, and it inspired her to help spark that journey in others.

鈥淚t was freeing, and I wanted everyone else to be free too.鈥�

Multicultural Perspectives is rooted in the belief that our individual stories matter, and that we can only work toward dismantling the systemic effects of racism once we are willing to wrestle with our own experiences, family dynamics, and historical messages about identity and difference. 鈥淚 tell students on the first day of class, we鈥檙e gonna make this all about you so that you know this isn鈥檛 about you,鈥� says Dr. Hollins. 鈥淎s long as it鈥檚 about you, you鈥檙e gonna wallow in the shame and guilt and stay there.鈥�

But that introspection is not the end goal. Dr. Hollins and Dr. McNeil talk about the 鈥渟tuckness鈥� of many diversity programs, when students are left wallowing in shame or anger without moving toward the meaningful dialogue that sparks change. The internal insight required by Dr. Hollins鈥檚 class is only the beginning, and students are then sent out to educate themselves about the realities of the system and the histories that formed it. Self-awareness and a deep willingness to keep learning are both necessary to risk the kind of action that leads to meaningful change.

Dr. McNeil also asks Dr. Hollins about the hope that keeps her coming back, and about her embodied, participatory, and invitational teaching style, and Dr. Hollins admits that it sometimes means there is conflict and tension in the class, and that she consistently has to check in with herself so she can remain in the conversation.

Dr. McNeil: 鈥淭hese students come to love you, actually, and you care and love them. That鈥檚 a different type of teaching. No one ever modeled that for me in academy. I think we made it the life of the mind, not the life of the being, the wholeness of people.鈥�

Dr. Hollins: 鈥淥h my goodness, I love teaching here. I love going deep with students in a short period of time, not letting them come up for air. […] I get giddy and excited that I get to be a part of someone else鈥檚 journey.鈥�

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Stephanie: 鈥淭he more I know about human being, the more my faith actually grows.鈥�

As they discuss the unique integrative focus of 天美视频, Stephanie shares how much of what she had seen of 鈥淏iblical counseling,鈥� or other efforts to integrate faith and psychology, were not very compelling nor psychologically sound. It has to be about more than just slapping a Bible verse on a problem, she says. Instead, particularly in the work of integrative education, Stephanie聽introduces the concept of wholeness as a goal she strives for: wholeness in her life, her practice, her teaching, and her students.

Derek: 鈥淭he way you talk about integration is more whole than just superficial. It gets into the depth of the character, it gets into the depth of conflict, or the drama, and a chance to see more deeply into people鈥檚 stories and narrative than just simply the band-aid or the quick fix.鈥�

Stephanie: 鈥淭o some degree, we鈥檙e all in this work because of our particular woundedness and the desire to work with that and help others work with that. And I think that is part of wholeness. How do we include and embody that and our ongoing vulnerability?鈥�

Derek: 鈥淲holeness is a qualitatively different attempt than just sticking things together. The sense of wanting wholeness as an integrative goal for life, not just in terms of my thinking or disciplines, feels like a deeply rich venture.鈥�

The post Wholeness and Integration with Dr. Stephanie Neill appeared first on 天美视频 of Theology & Psychology.

Dr. Parker shares about her background before coming to 天美视频, including an experience鈥攈aving the Bible twisted and used against her鈥攖hat allows her to relate with students who come into her classroom with resistance or fear about engaging Biblical texts, inviting them to 鈥渞eimagine what interpretation of this text looks like without us hurting one another?鈥�

鈥淭he Spirit allows transformation to occur in the reading and the doing and the engaging of the text.鈥�

This conversation touches on Dr. Parker鈥檚 framework for reading and teaching the Bible (鈥渃ontext, text, context鈥�); the work of integration; embodied reading, teaching, and storytelling; the movement of the Spirit; and the pastoral aspects of Dr. Parker鈥檚 role at 天美视频, as she sits with students who are struggling, disagreeing, and asking hard questions about what they are learning in class.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 have all the answers,鈥� says Dr. Parker, 鈥渂ut I can sit with folks in all of our wonderings about what鈥檚 going on in our world, what鈥檚 going on in the text, what鈥檚 going on in our school.鈥�

Dr. Parker was also recently featured on the聽笔补耻濒肠补蝉迟听from Kurt Willems at Theology Curator, sharing more about her background and her engagement of biblical texts, particularly the writing of Paul.

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Derek and Jimmy talk about the need for holistic learning that guides transformation, sharpens the lens through which we view the world, and drives us to action. It is a conversation that demands both the vision to see what is broken and the imagination to see how it could be different鈥攙ision and imagination rooted in a desire for righteousness and justice.

It鈥檚 hard to get a new imagination without shifting out of an old set of ideas.

In that desire for justice, Jimmy calls on us bridge the divide between spiritual and secular work, and to erase the false dichotomy between social justice and Christian faith. The modern evangelical church often forces split loyalties between those two postures, which leads to fragmentation and cripples the movement of the kingdom of God. 鈥淏ecause we have only believed half the truth,鈥� says Jimmy, 鈥渨e have been deceived by the lie.鈥�

This conversation confronts us with the difference between charity and justice, between knowledge and wisdom, and between horizontal and vertical righteousness. As Derek names at the end of this episode, it is an invitation to step into both the priestly and prophetic identities of the people of God.

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