What are you Reading? Part 3

In anticipation of summertime reading, we recently asked our faculty to tell us what they have been reading and the answers may surprise you! Throughout March and April we will be sharing their book recommendations on the seminary's blog.

This week's entry comes from Angela Cowser, Assistant Professor, The Sociology of Religion, and Director, The Center for the Church and the Black Experience (CBE)

Dr. Angela Cowser
Assistant Professor, The Sociology of Religion and Director, The Center for the Church and the Black Experience (CBE)

The book I’ve just finished reading is entitled How the Church Fails Businesspeople (and what can be done about it) by John C. Knapp.  Dr. Knapp is a former president of a corporate communication consulting firm and serves currently as University Professor and founding director of the Frances Marlin Mann Center for Ethics and Leadership at Samford University.

The Problem

In this book, Knapp argues that the church has [through omission] largely failed Christians who struggle daily to live out their faith commitments in the workplace.  After interviewing 230 people nationwide [corporate CEOs and elected officials, barbers and bookkeepers, Catholics and Protestants, male and female] about how they experience work and church, two conclusions emerged:

• Those interviewed had little difficulty recalling ethical challenges encountered in their work lives
• An overwhelming majority of respondents reported that the church had done little or nothing to equip them for faithful living at work.

Knapp argues that church priorities in the US and other Western countries emphasize private faith and shy away from ministries that equip congregants for a robust public faith.  To wit, crucial questions about vocation and money are met, in many churches, with indifference, confusion, or even hostility [Knapp, 2012, xiii].  Believers confront a workplace moral terrain defined mostly by law and economics rather than theology, which leaves people to grapple with an uninspired ethical pragmatism that asks not what is pleasing to God but rather what will make financial gain possible.

The ways in which we dichotomize occupations into sacred and secular means that in congregations, people are presented with a hierarchy of occupations, with clergy and missionaries at the top, social workers, nurses and others in the helping professions in the middle, and the majority of Christians [everybody else] at the bottom.  While the callings of clergy folk are celebrated by the church, postal workers and salespersons’ callings, for example, are not.  Knapp argues that this theology elevates an  ecclesiastical elite while subtly devaluing the rest of the body [Knapp, 27].  Further, theological education typically does not equip students with a perspective on business and economics which in turn means that most pastors fail to more intentionally connect the dots between theology and the public lives of their members [Knapp, 38].

Because of the church’s implicit hierarchy of occupations, Christians are seldom encouraged to think of “secular” work as truly important to God.  And yet, the Reformers remind us that God places great value on work, not necessarily because it yields individual wealth or happiness, but because work (should) nourish life and prevent suffering [2 Thess. 3: 10-11]. For Calvin, work is not merely a means to survival but is a service to God in the ongoing process of creating and ordering the world.

Some Answers

The practical application of Micah 6:8 can powerfully shape individual workplace practice.  To do justice in the workplace, Christians should be challenged “to ask questions about the human impact of their actions as workers, managers, consumers, and owners on their fellows” [Camenisch in Knapp, 103].  To love kindness means to emulate God by intervening on behalf of another, by loving kindness, by raising uncomfortable questions, and by embodying a workplace ethic that is generous, patient, and compassionate.  A humble spirit seeks wisdom and admits shortcomings, welcoming constructive input from others.

Many successful lay-led workplace ministries, born out of frustration with the church and its failure to respond to obvious need, have been created.  For example, Christian-based companies [e.g., Interstate Batteries, Allied Systems Holding, Covenant Transport], BAM-business as mission companies, workplace chaplains, and pastors meeting parishioners at their workplaces to learn more about their daily lives, are examples of a new movement forward.

Knapp ends his book with a powerful story.  In Topeka, Kansas, the Rev. Charles Sheldon [Central Congregational Church] preached a series of sermons that were published in 1896 as a novel [In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?].  What Pastor Sheldon and his congregation did was undertake a 1-year experiment to apply Christ’s teachings to everything they did, especially at work. Sheldon devoted 12 weeks to “practical sociological studies”, spending a week with a homeless person looking for work, attending classes at the community college, visiting the homes of African-Americans, living with railroad workers, and accompanying doctors on their rounds, among many other activities.  Sheldon emerged from his experiences “less inclined to judge men [sic] harshly or hastily.  I find myself constantly putting myself in the other man’s place, and the effect is to quicken my sensitiveness to the man’s actual needs” [Knapp, 148].  Sheldon learned valuable things and conveyed a sincere interest in his parishoners’ whole lives.  His preaching, teaching, and outreach changed, and his congregation grew.

But wait.  The impact of those 12 weeks of learning and accompaniment yielded greatly beyond anything Sheldon could even ask or imagine.  Upon learning that black children were behind their white peers in academic achievement, Sheldon established the first African American kindergarten west of the Mississippi in order to provide early childhood care and better education.  One graduate, Elisha Scott, went on to law school. Scott’s son, Charles Sheldon Scott, became a lawyer, who in 1954, was one of many attorneys who successfully argued the Brown vs. Board of Education case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Knapp ends by arguing that the faith community should foster discernment to understand our situations, to seek God’s will, and to take the best action; promote discourse about the difficult issues of work life; exert influence to bring about positive change on behalf of people harmed or neglected by the system; offer encouragement to beleaguered workers; and be an example of justice, love and humility so that the church itself models responsible workplace and financial practices.

Knapp's excellent scholarship has inspired me to draft a course outline on Radical Discipleship, perhaps create a team-taught course with a Kellogg School of Management professor, and help organize a wide-ranging Christian Vocations Fair here at Garrett-Evangelical.

What are you Reading? Part 2

In anticipation of summertime reading, we recently asked our faculty to tell us what they have been reading and the answers may surprise you! Throughout March and April we will be sharing their book recommendations on the seminary's blog.

This week's entry comes from Dwight Judy, Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation, and Brent Waters, Stead Professor of Social Ethics and Director of the Stead Center of Ethics and Values.

Dr. Dwight Judy
Professor Emeritus of Spiritual Formation

In the midst of the present interest in Abraham Lincoln and the fine book Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, I recommend Gore Vidal’s, Lincoln: A Novel. I read Vidal’s Lincoln before slogging through Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I think that Vidal’s “novel” holds up well in comparison with the painstaking documentation of Team of Rivals. I found Team of Rivals rather ponderous, as Goodwin weaves concurrent biographies of the key players of the time. If you’re looking for just one book, I recommend Gore Vidal’s for ease of reading about this very fascinating and important period of our nation’s history.

Dr. Brent Waters

Stead Professor of Social Ethics

Director of the Stead Center for Ethics and Values

Lenin, Stalin, and Hitler: The Age of Social Catastrophe, by Robert Gellately. The subtitle says it all.

The Inklings, by Humphrey Carpenter. It recounts the informal club consisting of C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams and circle of Oxford friends that met, most often in the Eagle and Child (aka Bird and Baby) to discuss a range of literary, philosophical, and religious themes. Rough drafts of The Chronicles of Narnia and the Rings trilogy were circulated and discussed by this group.

The Green Knight, by Iris Murdoch. Her next to last novel that winds together rich religious symbolism in a suspenseful and humorous manner. As usual, an insightful inquiry into the roles of good and evil, love and hate, friendship and betrayal, in the shadowy existence called human life.

What are you Reading? Part 1

In anticipation of summertime reading we recently asked our faculty to tell us what they have been reading and the answers may surprise you! Throughout March and April we will be sharing their book recommendations on the seminary's blog.

Our first entry comes from two of Garrett-Evangelical's newest faculty, Timothy Eberhart, Visiting Assistant Professor of Moral and Public Theology, and Karla Kincannon, Director of Field Education and VFCL.
 

Happy reading!

Dr. Tim Eberhart

Visiting Assistnat Professor of Moral and Public Theology and Director of the Course of Study

I am currently reading Frederick L. Kirschenmann's Cultivating An Ecological Conscience: Essays from a Farmer Philosopher.  Although not as well known as Wendell Berry or Wes Jackson, Kirschenmann is one of the most important agro-ecological voices in the growing movement today to transform the ways we produce and consume our "daily bread."  What makes Kirschenmann such an interesting figure is that he began his career in the early 1970's as director of the Consortium for Higher Education in Religious Studies in Dayton, Ohio after earning a Ph.D. in historical theology from the University of Chicago.  After hearing one of his students from Nebraska describe a calling to provide a "ministry to the soil" through non-conventional farming practices, Kirschenmann decided to return with his family to his father's North Dakota farmstead to figure out how to farm sustainably on the prairie.  Cultivating An Ecological Conscience is a collection of essays representing the accumulated knowledge of Kirschenmann's four decades as a minister with and to the soil.

In the introductory essay, "Theological Reflections while Castrating Calves," Kirschenmann recounts a Sunday morning years ago when his wife asked him where he saw God in their farm.  "I pointed to some Canadian thistles in a fence line," he writes, "and to the calves surrounding us and said, 'in every thistle in our fields and every calf humping another calf in our pasture.'"  He goes on to provide a theological account of the incarnation which affirms, not a pantheistic collapse of God and creation, but the truth that "the divine always meets us in the flesh -- all flesh - all relationships" and "not just our relationship with humans or relationships we don't like" (p. 17).  In an age of climate change, resource depletion, and mounting evidence that our present industrial food economy is not working for rural communities or rural landscapes, Kirschenmann's practical theological wisdom on food, community, and farming is desperately needed.  If you live in the Upper Midwest...actually, if you eat, you should read this book.

Rev. Karla Kincannon

Director of Field Education and Vocational Formation & Church Leadership; artist-in-residence

The top book on my stack of reading is The Moral Imagination: The Art and Soul of Peacebuilding by John Paul Lederach. Lederach discusses four needed disciplines for peacebuilding: the centrality of relationships; the practice of paradoxical curiosity; providing a space for creativity; and the willingness to risk. Each discipline is essential to developing the moral imagination necessary for breaking the cycle of violence and building peace. Each discipline needs to be practiced in order to cultivate the moral imagination.

The first discipline is the facility of seeing the importance of all relationships, including relationship with the enemy. The ability to see ourselves in relationship to the enemy is the first step toward embracing God’s shalom and following the command of Jesus to love the enemy (Luke 6: 27-36). Imagining ourselves in relationship with the enemy means we understand that we do not exist in isolation. All of life is interdependent. Finding our place in the web of relationships that includes our enemy requires we develop the virtue of humility.

The second discipline for conflict transformation is the aptitude for seeing life’s complexities. This requires we move away from dualistic thinking into a paradoxical curiosity. This kind of curiosity gives us the ability to approach social realities with continuous inquiry, suspending our judgment toward what at first seems contradictory. Paradoxical curiosity takes us beyond face value into the ambiguity and complexity of the systems that hold communal life together. It opens the door to unexpected opportunities for peace because it looks beyond the biases, arguments, and narrow definitions of reality, to what is possible.

The third discipline for peacebuilding is creativity. Creativity transcends what is known and takes us into the unknown; it makes something new from what already exists. Artists know that new life is always possible. They give birth to possibility, teaching us the future is not a captive of the past. In conflict transformation the creative act moves from potential to actuality: it makes enemies into friends and violence into peace.

The final discipline for peacebuilding is a willingness to risk. Peacebuilding requires that we step into the unknown with no promise of success. Risk-taking requires faith and trust in the God who is both mystery and love.

This book is my top choice on the subject of peacebuilding.