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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
Sometimes an artist captures the spirit of a time in such a unique way that the object of the art form sticks with you long after you have viewed it. For many people, such is the case with a rather bizarre movie, The Shape of Water, which received 13 Academy Award nominations and won four this year, including best picture.
Mar 26, 2018
Read More about From the Dean: Can a Person Fall in Love with a Fish?
Global traveler, professor, and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program, Sharon Henderson Callahan, educates our future leaders with theological insights for an increasingly diverse world.
Mar 26, 2018
Read More about Faculty Profile: Sharon Henderson Callahan, Ed.D.
The Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs’ Puget Sound Network gathered on March 14th along with the Center team, Graduate Student Affiliates, and four key community partners as part of its continued work around how faith-based organizations (FBOs) can more effectively respond to pressing social problems, like homelessness and the affordable housing crisis.
Mar 26, 2018
Read More about Center’s Network Considers Faith-Based Community Economic Development Initiatives
In A HIGHER LOYALTY and during this SOLD OUT event, Comey will explore what good, ethical leadership looks like and how it drives sound decisions. Using examples from some of the highest-stakes situations in the past two decades of American government, Comey will share yet-unheard anecdotes from his long and distinguished career.
Mar 26, 2018
Lidia Bastianich, author of thirteen beloved cookbooks and the Emmy award-winning host of public television’s Lidia’s Kitchen will be in conversation with food writer Molly Wizenberg of Orangette about her career and her new book My American Dream, followed by a moderated Q&A session and book signing.
Mar 26, 2018
Read More about A Conversation with Lidia Bastianich, Friday, April 13, Seattle First Baptist Church
Center scholars will be presenting their research projects at Seattle University during the Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs’ second Symposium on Homelessness and the affordable housing crisis on April 25-27, 2018.
Mar 19, 2018
On February 23rd, the Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs was pleased to welcome Center scholar Dr. Sathianathan - "Sathi" - Clarke for a lunch conversation at Seattle University, with Graduate Student Affiliates, Puget Sound Network members, community partners and the Center team.
Feb 28, 2018
Read More about A Conversation with Center Scholar Dr. Sathianathan Clarke
Master of Divinity - Chaplaincy student, Missy Trull shares her experiences in a series of reflections after spending an intensive semester of study at the Ecumenical Institute of Bossey in Switzerland.
Feb 27, 2018
Read More about Visiting Swiss Parishes - Ecumenism and Culture
The mothers and fathers who lost sons and daughters at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, are experiencing the most difficult and unnatural thing we do as humans - walk our children to the grave.
Feb 27, 2018
Read More about From the Dean: Killing Our Children and Our Future
Author, entrepreneur, thought coach, and multi-media personality, Dr. Edward Donalson, III is a visionary with a dynamic message of empowerment. Traveling nationally as a guest lecturer, workshop clinician, and preacher since 1996, he has a record of accomplishment in ministry excellence with integrity.
Feb 26, 2018
Read More about Faculty Profile: Rev. Dr. Edward Donalson III
Join a group of local practitioners and Seattle University graduate students for this course offered by the Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs, and together, survey key faith-based initiatives to address homelessness and the affordable housing crisis in the Puget Sound region and other urban centers across the country.
Feb 20, 2018
On Sunday, January 21, a faculty member and associate dean from the Seattle University's School of Theology and Ministry was ordained on this Jesuit campus. Ordinations are not a particularly rare occasion for students attending a school of theology and ministry since many of the students are preparing for some form of professional ministerial leadership. And yet, Dr. Michael Reid Trice was ordained to the ministry of Word and Sacrament within the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America (ELCA), with a call to a Catholic, Jesuit university context; and so even as the call is shared throughout the world, this particular call is rare.
Jan 31, 2018
Read More about Striking Against the Culture's Divisiveness: A Healing Step 500 Years in the Making
Dr. Erica Martin, Instructor of Hebrew Scriptures at the School of Theology and Ministry, will be teaching a four-week class entitled "The Egyptian Episode: Slavery and Liberation in Torah and History" at Temple Beth El in Tacoma.
Jan 31, 2018
Read Dr. Mark Markuly’s reflection on the troubling nature of our times, and the extent of our erosion in our trust in each other.
Jan 29, 2018
Read More about From the Dean: The Battle for America's Soul