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American Catholics, and anyone else taking seriously the role of religion and faith in American society, are now processing an intense level of disillusionment, frustration, and anger. Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro’s 884-page grand jury report on the sexual abuse of more than 1,000 youth by as many as 300 Catholic clergy is so troubling that it is difficult to find appropriate words to describe it. Good Lord! What is the proper response to something so horrendous that it seems like a cross between Mafia corruption case and a reality television show? What is a Catholic to think and do? A Christian? A person of any faith? Any person of good will? Is there a way for a leader in the Catholic community or anywhere else to meaningfully respond to three decades of embarrassing situations and promises of action that have proven woefully inadequate?
Sep 1, 2018
Read More about Can the Catholic Church Overcome Its Sex Abuse Scandals?
We are pleased to announce the introduction of a new 54-credit academic degree program. The Master of Arts (M.A.) is a flexible program that will allow students to explore theology, spirituality or religious studies in specialized and more individualized courses of study. The degree offers the option of a focus in spiritual direction, general theological studies, or spirituality. Other focus areas will become available in the future.
Aug 31, 2018
The youngest child of Korean immigrant parents, Rev. Dr. Mark Chung Hearn is a bridge-building minister and theologian. At an early age, he witnessed his own parents helping immigrant families and sojourners establish their lives in the United States. Though his parents would have called what they did simply “ministry and care for their fellow countryperson,” Dr. Hearn calls this social justice work and living one’s faith socially. As a United Methodist in the Wesleyan tradition, this faith in action is the integration of his commitment to personal and social holiness.
Aug 31, 2018
Dr. Christie Eppler, Professor and Master of Arts in Couples and Family Therapy (MACFT) program director, traveled to Switzerland to visit Chateau de Bossey. Dr. Eppler was invited to give a brief MACFT overview to the institute's current students, many of whom are priests, lay ministers, and leaders from various faith traditions and cultural locations. The students were kind and generous listeners - they appeared truly excited about spiritually integrated couples and family therapy.
Aug 31, 2018
The Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs is pleased to announce its 2018-2019 thematic working groups. These practitioners will collaborate in the Center’s work to strengthen the capacity of faith-based organizations (FBOs) to respond to pressing social problems. The groups will engage in collective problem-solving around homelessness and the housing crisis, and are organized around three types of intervention where FBOs have played a particularly important role – encampments, tiny houses, and emergency shelter and permanent housing.
Aug 30, 2018
Read More about Center Announces Thematic Working Groups: Problem-Solving Begins this Fall
The 2018 School of Theology and Ministry summer class students shared their reflections and emotions in the first few weeks of the program. They all entered the class with different faiths and beliefs but soon found that they all had shared values that created a sense of belonging. All of the students commented on how they instantly felt a connection with the program and their professors and peers. Doctor of Ministry cohort student, Terrance Taylor said, “these are my people.”
Aug 29, 2018
Dean Mark Markuly is attending the American Jewish Committee (AJC) delegation this week. AJC is the leading global Jewish advocacy organization. With 33 offices worldwide, plus partnerships with 35 international Jewish community organizations, AJC is making an impact on the issues that matter most. The challenges facing the Jewish people are great, they demand a response from an organization with global reach and influence. Mark will be sharing some of the highlights this week from Israel.
Aug 6, 2018
Read More about Making a History Rather than Becoming a Pawn of It
Periodically, someone asks me what I do for a living. When I tell them I’m the Dean of a School of Theology and Ministry, more than a few take a reflex step backwards, as if they are standing too close to an infectious organism. A smaller number respond with the smirk of encountering a quaint novelty in an antique shop, wondering perhaps how such anachronistic things could still interest anyone. Perhaps most people, however, change the subject, pretend I didn’t answer their question or they didn’t ask it, or nod awkwardly and walk away. As a former journalist who learned to peer deeply and honestly into the dark side of life, I understand their reactions.
Jul 31, 2018
Read More about Why I’m a Person of Faith Despite … Well … People of Faith
Born and raised in the borderlands of Mexico–U.S., Leticia learned to navigate and inhabit the in-betweenness of colliding worlds at an early age and that became a theme of her academic work. She grew up with a love of horseback riding, Mozart, and classical guitar, and she also grew up in a Mexican Baptist home, which means she started reading and memorizing the Bible at the age of five.
Jul 31, 2018
Read More about Faculty Profile: Leticia Guardiola-Sáenz, Ph.D.
The School of Theology and Ministry has lost one of its “spiritual and inspirational architects”: Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen. He died at age 96, having lived an extraordinarily rich and impactful life as a Catholic priest, chemist, college president, bishop, and archbishop. He belonged to a generation that is so far removed from the lives of most students at the School of Theology and Ministry that few are probably aware of his legacy, which became big news in the 1980s throughout the United States and even across the globe. Seattle University will host a two-hour symposium on the life of the archbishop, followed by a memorial service, October 10, 2018. The remembrance gathering will occur on the eve of the opening of the Second Vatican Council on Oct 11, 1962.
Jul 31, 2018
Beginning in October 2018, the Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs will convene three thematic working groups designed to provide faith-based practitioners space to develop the collective capacity to problem-solve around how to more effectively address homelessness and related social problems.
Jul 30, 2018
Former Secretary of State and U.S. Senator John Kerry will appear on the campus of Seattle University on the evening of Monday, Sept. 17, 2018. Kerry will speak about his memoir, Every Day is Extra, reflections on his long life in public service, and including his discovery of faith later in his life. Watch the Social Media pages of the School of Theology and Ministry for announcements about tickets. They will be first come, first serve and are expected to sell out quickly.
Jul 30, 2018
The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy recently published an article written by our Faculty, Program Director and Professor for the Couples and Family Therapy Program Christie Eppler titled “The Resilient Couples and Family Therapist.”
Jul 30, 2018
The Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr. Rizwan Rizwi, Executive Director of Muslim Housing Services, as Practitioner-in-Residence for the 2018 – 2019 academic year.
Jul 23, 2018
Most of us in the United States live in a bubble of comfortable ideas, concepts, and familiar faces and experiences. In and of itself, this is no great insight. Sociologists refer to people’s pattern of seeking out similarities in mates, friends, peer groups, professions, and neighborhoods, as “homophily,” the tendency to cluster around beliefs, values, attitudes, political preferences or socio-economic status. This tendency is particularly true in the United States. As Derek Thompson describes the social networks of our nation’s 326 million people: “America is bubbles, all the way down.”
Jun 30, 2018
Read More about From the Dean: The “Bubbles” Giving Us “Fake News”
For twenty years, Mark Lloyd Taylor has made his professional home at the School of Theology and Ministry. He has taught over a dozen different courses in the areas of systematic (or: “patternistic”) theology and worship. Mark enjoys journeying alongside students as they integrate their theological standpoints, ministerial identities, and spiritual practices. This happens, especially, in MDiv Synthesis and the DMin program where he co-teaches the project seminars with Dr. Sharon Henderson Callahan and chairs or has chaired six doctoral projects.
Jun 30, 2018
Missy Trull is a recent graduate from our Master of Divinity – Chaplaincy Program. She recently shared her reflective speech at the Disciples of Christ NW Regional Assembly on her experience at the Bossey Ecumenical Institute in Switzerland.
Jun 29, 2018
Read More about Missy Trull - Bossey Presentation at the Disciples of Christ NW Regional Assembly
The Center’s Puget Sound Interfaith Network for Public Theology concluded its pilot year with a meeting on June 13th. The gathering focused on taking stock and consulting on the next iteration of the Center’s engagement with local FBOs working on homelessness and related social issues.
Jun 27, 2018
The Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs invites applications for its new Practitioner-in-Residence program. Seasoned executives from local faith-based organizations working in the area of homelessness and related social issues are encouraged to apply.
Jun 26, 2018
Read More about Center Launches its Practitioner-in-Residence Program: Invitation for Applications
On Saturday, June 17, a momentous academic year came to a close as more than 1,800 students walked across the stage during Seattle University’s 99th commencement ceremonies.
Jun 18, 2018
The Royal Wedding between Prince Henry and American actress, Meghan Markle, is over. The pageantry is completed; the ladies’ hats returned to their boxes, and the horses from the drawn carriages secure in their stables. Unexpectedly, it appears the deepest post-wedding memory for the globe is less the afterglow of a happy couple holding hands and more the sermon of an African-American minister who took many by surprise with a barn-storming message about the power of love.
May 31, 2018
Read More about From the Dean: Rocking the Royals With the Power of Love
Christie Eppler is the program director and professor in Couples and Family Therapy. Dr. Eppler’s teaching, scholarship, and service contribute to the growing field of multifaith, resiliency-based, spiritually integrated therapy. Her passion is to work with future therapists who desire to integrate life’s ultimate mysteries with the practice of couples and family therapy.
May 31, 2018
Read More about Faculty Profile: Christie Eppler, Ph.D., LMFT
Theological higher education is in a sea of change. Among other aspects, this change includes a move towards bi-vocation, distance learning, and public theology. Is there a way to educate students that is true to formation while also with consideration of different needs in our contemporary times?
May 31, 2018
Read More about Piloting the Digital World for Theological Education
This academic year, the Center rolled out a series of courses around faith-based responses to homelessness and the affordable housing crisis. Taught by Center Director Dr. Manuel Mejido, with support from Center Community Engagement Manager, Rev. Maggie Breen, the courses draw on on-going research by Center scholars and the work of the Puget Sound Interfaith Network for Public Theology. The registration deadline for the summer course is Monday, July 2nd. Space is limited.
May 29, 2018
“Words are a pretext. It is the inner bond that draws one person to another, not words,” said Rumi, the famous 13th century Persian Islamic scholar and poet. This is sage wisdom, as A World of Languages (2015) map is useful, but it is not identical with the terrain of the lives of people living in the bonds of community around the world.
May 21, 2018
It will take decades to understand the impact our 24/7 bingeing on polarized thinking and talking is having on us. In the past few weeks, however, we can see at least one outcome – our institutions are losing the ability to tolerate someone who tries to change the subject from our right-left, conservative-liberal, red-blue noxious conversation. This is particularly true for people possessing the kind of character that has been shaped by religious values, worldviews, and ideas.
May 1, 2018
Read More about From the Dean: Sacrificing Character So We Can Keep Fighting
The Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs hosted its second Symposium on Homelessness on April 25-27, 2018, bringing together Center scholars, executive leadership from local faith-based organizations, and members of the wider Seattle University community.
May 1, 2018
Dr. Michael Reid Trice serves as the Associate Dean for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue and is Associate Professor of Constructive Theology and Theological Ethics. Since 2016, he also serves as Secretary for the Parliament of the World’s Religions. Michael is a leader on the Interfaith and Faith and Order commissions of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA and serves or has served on several boards, including Church World Service. Michael enjoys developing proficiencies in creating and teaching traditional, online synchronous and blended courses in public theology, and publishes regularly in online journals and missives, including Martin Marty’s Sightings at the University of Chicago.
Apr 30, 2018
Read More about Faculty Profile: Rev. Michael Reid Trice, Ph.D
Congratulations to four graduating students MDiv, Marci Scott-Weis, MATL, Annika Mertz, MAPS, Teddi Callahan, and MACFT, Nils Ringo. These students went beyond the program's high norms of community service and academic excellence. The awardees are determined by faculty vote. They were awarded on April 26th at the 10th Annual Dean's Dinner.
Apr 30, 2018
Read More about Student Awards at the 10th Annual Dean’s Dinner
Last week, the Christian tradition in western cultures celebrated Holy Week, culminating in the celebration of Easter. (The Orthodox tradition will celebrate on April 8.) Holy Week for Christians reflects on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and although Christmas gets more cultural attendant, Holy Week and Easter are really the pinnacle of Christian annual celebrations.
Mar 29, 2018