Ashland Religion News

One Class Can Change Your Life

2013-05-01T12:11:00.000-07:00

Graduating religion senior Hali Brook is leaving Ashland and going to Thailand to train with the organization Remember Nhu. After six months in Thailand she will start work with the charity in Bolivia caring for children at risk of human trafficking.

Hali first developed an interest in Remember Nhu when Carl Ralston, the founder of the Akron-based charity, came and spoke in Dr. Dickson's class, REL214 Christian Formation.

Hali explains what she is doing and why in this video:

You will be able to follow Hali's work through her blog.

Senior Wisdom

2013-04-30T09:28:00.002-07:00

Religion Department seniors offer these words of wisdom to ‘those left behind.’

Joe Antus

Joe Antus: "Take the time to invest in people. even if it’s just sitting and listening to them for a while."

Hali Brook

Hali Brook: "Stop thinking about your classes, homework, and papers as assignments and tasks to check off on your to-do list. Instead, start thinking about them as tools and knowledge to help you understand the world, others, and yourself."

Jacob Ewing

Jacob Ewing: "Read more books. Even if you think you don't have enough time, try to fill the short 10-minute breaks in your day with good literature. There are a lot of things worthy of reading that don't require a ton of time. See Brian Doyle, for example."

Mary Johnson

Mary Johnson: "Use this time to grow spiritually as well as academically."

Annie Kathleen Miller

Annie Kathleen Miller: "Pray more, complain less, remember God and seek truth."

James Robinson

James Robinson: "Study read and listen with an open mind! Be open!"

Majors Present Papers at CAS Symposium

2013-04-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

Mackenzie Lake at the podium

Religion Majors Mackenzie Lake and James Robinson both presented papers at the Undergraduate Research and Creativity Activity Symposium at Ashland University on April 10.

Mackenzie Lake’s paper “The Protestant Church Under a Socialist Regime,” came from research conducted in Germany as part of a study abroad program. James Robinson conducted his research a little closer to home for his paper “The Role of the Church in a Segregated Society: A Case Study of Shelby, Ohio.”

Both Mackenzie and James's research was for their major theses.

James Robinson with his thesis advisor Dr. Slade

Fall 2013 - Religion Classes

2013-04-01T11:25:00.001-07:00

Choosing courses in Religion for you minor, major, or general improvement and education?

Check out what's on offer in the Fall:

REL 208 Exploring Christian Theology (10:50-12:05 TTh) Dr. Hovey
An introduction to central doctrines of the Christian faith that is both respectful of classic
theological traditions and open to the new voices and emphases of recent theologies. A required course for religion majors and one of the best ways for religion minors to fulfill their Christian thought requirement.

REL 230 History of Early Christianity (11-11:50 MWF) Dr. Aune
Focuses on selected literature and historical events in the development of Christianity from the 2nd to the 5th century. One central question will guide our inquiry: how did orthodox Christianity overcome various challenges to become the dominant religious tradition in the West? Meets Core credit for Historical Reasoning.

REL 301A Foundations for Biblical Study: NT Greek (1:40TTh) Dr. Walther
In this course you will be provided with an exposure to New Testament Greek so as understand and apply basic translation skills with the help of dictionaries and other lexical aids. Highly recommended for those in the pre-seminary program but valuable for anyone wanting to do serious Biblical studies in the original language.

REL 307 World Religious Traditions East and West (3:05-4:20 TTh Dr. Aune)
An advanced inquiry into selected topics within Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism with a special focus on primary texts such as the Mishnah, Qur’an, Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana and selected Buddhist Scriptures. The theme for this fall will be peace and justice issues.

REL 311 Youth Ministry (12:15-1:30 TTh) Dr. Swope
A study of contemporary U.S. American youth and youth culture as they relate to the church and to para-church organizations. Students will be exposed to youth programs, leadership styles and organizational designs. Emphasis is on the practical aspects of planning, administration and implementing of youth ministries within and related to the church.

REL 341 World Christianity, Culture and Mission (3:00-4:15 MW) Dr. Dickson
Explore the emerging field of World Christianity through the lens of Christian mission and culture theory. How do Christians in the two-thirds world understand and contextualize their faith? How has traditional western mission shaped them? How have post-colonial contexts challenged them? Experience cross-cultural phenomena. This is a GPS course.

From Jim Crow to Black Power

2013-03-07T14:32:00.000-08:00

Rev Harold Walker, a retired Presbyterian minister, shared stories and insights from his life in ministry with students in REL 340 Religion and Civil Rights.

Dr. Slade conducted an oral history with Walker as part of the class. "Rev Walker has such a wealth experience and wisdom," Slade said. "He shared with us stories that shone a light on what it meant to grow up in the South before the civil rights movement and desegregation. He also experienced the racism and injustice in the urban North and had remarkable tales of working with violent gangs in Chicago."

Born in Birmingham, AL, in 1929, Walker served as an assistant minister in Starkville MS from 1949-51. He then moved to Chicago where he worked as a campus minister at the University of Chicago and at First Presbyterian Church where he was involved in the founding of The Woodlawn Organization .

Students taking REL340 conduct their own oral history interviews as part of the class.

AU Religion Grad gets MDiv. at Duke

2012-11-06T13:47:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Drew Tucker ('09) on his M.Div (Magna Cum Laude) from Duke Divinity School.

He is currently working as the Lutheran campus minister at Duke University. He will complete his Lutheran theological training at Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary and will be eligible for call and ordination in Spring 2014.

Interview with Dr. Hovey about his new book "Unexpected Jesus"

2012-10-03T09:20:00.000-07:00

Unexpected Jesus: The Gospel as Surprise has just been published by Cascade Books. Click here to order a copy.

Dr. Craig Hovey says that his new book offers a theology of hope, waiting, and promise from the perspective of the resurrection of Jesus. It asks what kind of knowing is most appropriate if the God Christians worship is a living God and the Christian gospel is a surprise. "It took a lot of time for this book to come together," Hovey says. "There's a lot in it that simply required a great deal of thinking that couldn't be hurried. I can't wait to use it in my Christology class in the Spring."

1. You say in your introduction that, for Christians, knowing God is fundamentally different from knowing other things. How so?

As Christians, we always need to be on our guard against idolatry. We can certainly make an idol out of God if our knowing him is limiting and controlling. It’s obvious that knowing God is more like knowing a person than knowing a piece of information. And when you know a person, they can surprise you. If you are too surprised by what someone does, you might think you never really knew this person to begin with. Or they might be acting out of character, acting differently from how they usually act. And while we only know what a person is like by what they’ve done, so long as they’re alive, they’re free to act in ways that enlarge our sense of what they’re like. Especially because of the resurrection of Christ, we know that God is a living God. We never “have” God, nor is God at our disposal. We’re are at his disposal!

2. How are Christian virtues surprising and unexpected?

They come to us indirectly. Let’s say you wanted to become more humble. That’s a very hard thing to do, especially because it will mean you’ve now got to spend a lot of time thinking about yourself and what you’re going to do in order to become more humble. In the end, though, that’s just about the last thing a humble person does. So we need to be surprised by virtues like humility. There’s a long Christian tradition, going back to Thomas Aquinas, of speaking about certain virtues as being “infused” by God. These virtues are the “theological” ones: faith, hope, and love. The Catholic Catechism has a wonderful line in which someone about to be baptized, or the godparents, are asked “What do you ask of God’s Church?” And the response is: “Faith!” I think that’s beautiful. People are not only baptized on the basis of their faith. They are also baptized in order to be in a position to receive faith from God through their brothers and sisters.

3. What kinds of things make Jesus surprising, keeping him unknown and unexpected to us?

The best answer is simply the resurrection. If Jesus really is risen, then his life now is in the present-tense. This means he is free. I don’t think that Thomas, the disciple, represents doubt that someone can rise from the dead. I think of him voicing a much more troubling kind of doubt: we fear that God is still on the move. After all, didn’t we want him dead? It’s traditional for the congregation to join the crowds in the Good Friday readings, shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!” If we’re honest, we’d rather take comfort in knowing that God can be kept down, kept at bay, contained, easily known in the same ways that we know facts. “He is risen!” is extremely frightening. I’ve thought a lot about this topic, inspired by the extraordinary work of Robert Jenson. If people aren’t reading Jenson, they really ought to.

4. What do you mean when you say “Jesus is most fully himself when he speaks to us out of his hiddenness”?

I mean that this is when we’re most likely to get the real Jesus rather than a projection of ourselves. We really do require the element of surprise to awaken us from our idolizing. For example, asking “What would Jesus do?” is obviously a great question. But I worry that sometimes it can be asked in a very dubious way, as a religious cover for what is the most reasonable thing to do. That’s what it means to use God’s name in vain. Of course, Moses hid himself from God on Sinai, but only from his face. As Gregory of Nyssa said of Moses, it is right that he got to see God’s back—that’s what any disciple sees. The disciple sees the back.

5. Do you see our culture as being too concerned with knowledge and skeptical of mystery? If so, how?

Yes. We are heirs of many kinds of rationalism, of ways to control our world and each other as much as possible. Science and technology are some ways that we attempt to render life predictable. It’s true that there is also a kind of spiritualism in our culture that seems to embrace mystery. I admit I’m deeply skeptical of it. It strikes me as a form of religious commercialism that is mostly embraced by the wealthy. Poor people do not have the luxury of worrying about how to arrange the furniture in their homes according to Feng shui.

6. How can Christians know and trust God personally without tailoring him to our own ideas?

It’s very difficult. But if knowing God is like knowing another person, we literally need to struggle to know God through our encounters with others. Christians should have confidence that Jesus will be found within the church because the church is the body of Christ. And people in church are going to surprise us! But we also look for him outside of the church as we come to terms with the fact that the church cannot contain him.

Let me also say, though, that there is a reverse danger. I think it’s a mistake to overemphasize God’s otherness, especially if that language leads us to imagine God being pushed away from us. Augustine talked about God being closer to us than we are to ourselves. He is not hidden far away, but impossibly close. If we can wrap our minds around that, we’re much less likely to mistake God for our own best selves.

7. Doesn’t the Bible tell us explicitly who God is and what his plans are?

Not exactly. For example, Christians and Jews have typically recognized that God is doing something very interesting in giving his name to Moses in Exodus 3:14. It’s usually translated something like “I will be who I will be.” Now that’s not exactly telling us who God is with any precision! Notice that God is not simply making a promise. God literally is the promise that he makes. God will also be its fulfillment. So there’s certainly some knowledge that’s being communicated here, but it seems to me that it’s much more: it’s invitation to the kind of faith that trusts and hopes when the only thing that is certain is God’s promise.

News From Graduates: Cody Miller & Mike Hanck '08

2012-02-06T09:18:00.000-08:00

Cody: Upon graduating from AU in 2008 with a major in Religion and a minor in Spanish, I continued on to complete a Bachelor of Science degree from Ohio State University in 2009. As I began exploring and praying about various career opportunities around the country, I noticed that my interest in joining the Armed Forces was growing.

In November of 2010, I was approved for the United States Army’s highly competitive Officer Candidate School. The prestigious and highly coveted opportunity was one that I was honored to accept. I enlisted and began a journey that has been full of challenging and yet rewarding experiences.

Two weeks ago I relocated to Fort Sill, Oklahoma where I will spend the next 6 months at the Army’s Basic Officer Leadership Course in Field Artillery.

It is a privilege to serve our country. I believe America continues to be the Shining City on a Hill, and a beacon of hope to the rest of the world. Regardless of what tomorrow may bring, I know that God will have our best interests in mind. I believe Jesus may have said it most clearly in Matthew 28:20, ‘surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’

Mike: After obtaining my BA in Religion at Ashland University, I found myself in the midst of great opportunity. Using what I had learned from my undergraduate studies, I applied to Trinity Lutheran Seminary and was accepted. I also found myself involved with and useful to a variety of ministries at an inner city church in Columbus, Ohio. The following year, after applying for a year-long leave of absence from seminary, I was employed at a homeless shelter in Tacoma, Washington.

While there, I found myself working side-by-side with Catholic Workers, Buddhist monks, and priests who broke into army bases to protest nuclear weapons. Currently, I am back in Columbus at seminary, completing my second year of graduate studies. Next year, I hope to live and work with developmentally-disabled adults in either Oklahoma or Florida. The year after that, I will go on internship, serving as a minister to a congregation. Finally, three years from now, I will complete my studies at seminary. I have, since my time of studying religion at Ashland University, been on a long and wondrous pilgrimage, seeking liberation for the oppressed and reconciliation for those who have been estranged. Recognizing that my undergraduate studies contributed greatly to my sense of self, I remain very grateful for all of the valuable things that I was able to learn at Ashland University, the place where I was empowered to share and live out the Gospel with others.”

Seeing Clearly: AU alumna reviews Bearing True Witness

2012-01-17T05:50:00.000-08:00

“Having seen Christ, his disciples do not consequently look at nothing else; but as witnesses, they are positively entreated to look at everything else in a new way.”

— Craig Hovey, Bearing True Witness: Truthfulness in Christian Practice

Just in time to ring in the New Year! Everyone should go out and get a copy of Craig Hovey’s latest book, Bearing TrueWitness: Truthfulness in Christian Practice. It is a challenge and a call to all believers of the Christian faith. How are we living as God intends for us to live? How are we truthful? Are we truthful? How do we bear the message of the Gospel? Hovey’s responses to these questions challenge the reader to begin to see our lives as Christian witnesses in a new way.

A Christian witness is much like a witness as we know it in a legal sense; we tell what we see, and we share what we experience. This interpretation of witness poses a great risk to modern Christianity in that it implicitly acknowledges that no matter how great our communication skills may be, there will always be people who reject and may even show animosity toward the Gospel. Being a truthful witness is risky because we accept that we will be faced with adversity; it is a challenge because we nevertheless are compelled to do it.

On the other hand, it would be too easy to simply construct a false testimony, something pleasing to the ear to draw in the masses, since that which is a deliberate falsehood, according to Hovey, is typically crafted to be more appealing. We naturally want people to believe us whether we tell the truth or not. As he writes, what is most pleasing to us may be smooth, when what is true and real is rough or difficult to believe. We choose to deceive ourselves; we desire to hear smooth things when it is rough things that are really there under the surface. Even when the ice melts, the ground underneath it is hard and rocky. The truth of the Gospel is not always as smooth as we often wish for it to be.

Our way of seeing clearly as witnesses has been obscured over time. In some of the most provocative sections of the book, Hovey is critical of the way in which the Enlightenment has attempted to overcome the contingency of that which is beyond their control by assuming that we can at some point gain mastery over it. When we attempt to see and understand objectively, we limit ourselves. All of a sudden, that which is unconquerable by the enlightened mind falls outside the field of vision because we refuse to accept that there is something that we cannot eventually master or control. If God is contingent, then in order to see God, we have to re-broaden our vision. We must not allow our vision to be clouded by arrogance and vanity. We must relearn to see clearly.

Christians have a difficult task as witnesses. How does one convey truth, or testify to what they have seen or experienced, if we cannot extend our finger and point to God? As Hovey writes, Christianity is able to identify God through events, by what God does. Likewise, he argues that it is “impossible to identify God apart from God’s story, and stories need storytellers, whose role is that of witness”. We are the storytellers. We do not convince and persuade. We share, and we learn and experience with the people to whom we tell our stories.

In the end, what Hovey has done is reintroduced the idea of truth telling in Christian practice in such a way that all believers will begin to interpret and experience everything with regard to more uniquely constructed ideas of truth and falsehood.

Certainly this is a broad overview of Hovey’s book. It is also heavy in Nietzsche and Foucault, in true Hovey style. Fear not! For readers like me, who are so woefully undereducated in the philosophies of thinkers such as these, Hovey weaves them into this book so skillfully that any references rarely overwhelm or are difficult to understand. So, Craig Hovey, I thank you for that.

I believe that this book is refreshing and hopeful in so many ways. It certainly inspired me to change how I see my interactions with others, and to see the beauty in an unpredictable world and a God who will not be mastered. If you let it, this book will help you to see everything in a new way. I hope those who read Bearing True Witness will come away with an equally renewed outlook.

* * *

My name is Christina Erikson, and I am a 2010 graduate of Ashland University with a B.A. in Spanish and Religion. After taking a year off working in the most Clerks-esque convenience store/gas station imaginable (be nice to gas station attendants, they put up with a lot), I started working at YBM ECC-Gangdong, a private academy in Seoul, Korea, as an English language instructor for children from 6-14 years of age. It’s challenging but rewarding work, and I am constantly surprised and entertained by the ridiculous things my kids do and write about every day. When I come back to the States, I will be attending graduate school to get my Ph.D. in Spanish, specializing in religious influences in Latin American literature and culture.

Dr. Hovey publishes a collection of readings in political theology

2011-11-28T12:59:00.001-08:00

An Eerdmans Reader in Contemporary Political Theology is hot off the press!

The book gathers some of the most significant and influential writings in political theology from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Given that Christianity's center of gravity is undeniably shifting to the global South, this volume uniquely integrates key voices from Africa, Asia, and Latin America with central texts from Europe and North America on such major subjects as church and state, gender and race, and Christendom and postcolonialism.

"We're really excited about this book," says Hovey. "These readings show an astounding breadth of ideas coming from Christians around the world, many of whom simply don't share our American anxiety about church and state, which has tended to restrict Christianity's importance to the private sphere of individual spirituality. I think readers will be amazed by the alternatives that are out there."

Carefully selected, thematically arranged, and expertly introduced, these forty-nine essential readings constitute an ideal primary-source introduction to contemporary political theology — a profoundly relevant resource for globally engaged citizens, students, and scholars.

"Political Theology is something of a loose term and our hope with this project has been to give it some clearer contours," Hovey says. "I think students will love it. I can't wait to use it in the classroom." And they won't have to wait too long. Hovey is using this book in REL301 Church, State and Society next semester.

Read William Cavanaugh's blog post about the book.

If you're going to San Francisco . . .

2011-11-15T12:56:00.000-08:00

The religion professors are heading out to San Francisco this week for the annual meetings of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society for Biblical Literature (SBL). Ashland's Religion Department is well represented:

Dr. Sue Dickson is presenting two papers. One at the AAR: Muslim–Christian Dialogue: Using Technology to Connect Students Internationally and Interreligiously; and one at the SBL: The Job Project: Interactions between the Book of Job and Displaced Communities and Their Neighbors in South America. Dr. Craig Hovey is presiding over a wild card session, The Hermeneutics of Tradition; Dr. Peter Slade's paper is, Why Should the Charismatics Have All the Good Music?: The Unintended Consequence for Evangelicals of the Rise of Contemporary Worship.
So if you are going to San Francisco why not check them out!

The Abstracts

The Job Project: Interactions between the Book of Job and Displaced Communities and Their Neighbors in South America

The Job Project in Barranquilla, Colombia ‘bridges the divide between practical/classical disciplines; embodies collaboration between biblical interpreters and pastoral theologians; exposes the multivalent tensions and possibilities in interactions between biblical and human texts;’ and is itself a ‘forum for integrating cognitive, practical and normative aspects of pastoral practice.’ The Job Project asks, ‘How will displaced persons in Colombia, South America and their neighbors interpret Job and what impact will that interpretation have on their lived experience? The paper describes the different interpretive centers and margins of three communities of faith in Barranquilla (the Camelot Refugee Community, the Corporacion Universitaria Reformada and La Iglesia Presbiteriana) which are embedded in Colombia’s post-colonial struggles and violence. The contemporary issues emerging from this multi-layered context are several: e.g. government corruption, displacement, violence, the business of illegal drugs (and all that goes with it), poverty. The paper illustrates how interpretation takes place in these three, unique and inter-related settings; explores the interactions between the biblical text, the human texts and the specific contexts; and asks practical, pastoral and missional questions of the text, the academy and the communities of faith. It documents a collaboration between ordinary biblical interpreters, pastoral theologians, biblical scholars and religion students and uses a particular interpretive frame—the lived experience of displaced persons living in Camp Camelot and their neighbors—through which to read the Book of Job.

Muslim–Christian Dialogue: Using Technology to Connect Students Internationally and Interreligiously

This presentation explores the challenges, dangers and benefits of using SKYPE (or a SKYPE equivalent technology) to connect Muslim and Christian students in a classroom context. In the fall of 2010, an interdisciplinary seminar at Ashland University connected Middle Eastern, U.S. American and European undergraduates for weekly, group discussions online. The groups included Christians, Muslims, agnostics and atheists. The U.S. American students met weekly to process and analyze these discussions. Using this course as a springboard, the paper examines issues of cross-cultural and inter-religious communication, administrative questions, technological glitches, student preparedness, handling conflicts, how to organize, plan, and teach such a course (including potential pitfalls). It explores the risks and advantages uncovered during this particular experience of using this type of technology as a pedagogical tool. The final product of the course, a video news story developed from Al Jazeera footage by the students, generated passionate, informative, and surprising outcomes.

The Hermeneutics of Tradition

A religious tradition’s development requires ongoing study as our appreciation for historical context and complexity increases. The hermeneutics of tradition seminar shall address the dynamics of assimilating difference through text and culture as we navigate the shifting boundaries of interpretation that capture the self-understanding of religious groups. Our particular focus is upon Christianity and its varied embodiments in the traditions of Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Methodist, and Lutheran polities. As a diverse ecumenical group of North American, European, and Australian scholars of Christianity, we shall increase understanding of how tradition and self-understanding intertwine in a developmental context. We thus aim to present our work in order to engage in dialogue with a wider scholarly community as we attend together to the shapes, discourse, and practices of religious traditions so that such shared insight can become a part of our collectively published research.

Why Should the Charismatics Have All the Good Music?: The Unintended Consequence for Evangelicals of the Rise of Contemporary Worship

This paper traces the development of the Contemporary Christian Worship movement from its origins in the charismatic Calvary Chapel and Vineyard to its current hegemony in non-charismatic evangelical churches. The telos of the praise and worship in its original charismatic context is, as participants understand it, to create in the worshipper an emotional openness to the Spirit which leads to charismatic manifestations (tongues, prophecy, healing etc.).The recent massive popularity of this charismatic/Pentecostal worship music in evangelical churches driven by the musical preferences of the boomer generation and its anxiety over the dwindling number of “young” people taking their places in the pews, fundamentally changes the function of the music: the telos of the music changes (the unexpected consequence of the title).The end of worship is no longer emotional openness to spirit possession, now it is simply the emotion of “worship.” This in turn fundamentally changes evangelical worship.

The Religion Department heading West.

Upper Level Religion Courses for the Spring

2011-11-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

REL 240 Jewish Religious Traditions (3:05-5:40, Tues)

Dr. Yossi Zylberberg

Are you interested in learning more about the various forms of Judaism in contemporary society? And what are the major issues and concerns facing Jewish communities in the world today? This course, taught by a visiting professor with many years of experience as a Rabbi and teacher of Judaic studies, deals with a question that is central to all forms of Judaism: how do written and oral traditions combine to create the fabric of contemporary Jewish life? Students will become familiar with selected Rabbinic writings and methods of Jewish Biblical interpretation as well as distinctive Jewish religious practices and observances. Meets Core credit for Humanities; no prerequisites.

REL 214 Christian Formation (9:25-10:40 TTh)

Dr. Sue Dickson

What does it mean to be Christian? How does one become Christian and how do we keep growing in faithfulness? What does it mean to ‘make disciples of all nations’ and ‘teach
them to obey everything that Jesus has commanded’? This course explores these and other questions. Christian formation through Christian religious education, corporate worship, devotional practices, service, and church membership are all topics of exploration. This course is designed for those who wish to grow in their own understanding of faithfulness and to become more faithful participants in the life of the church—whether professional or volunteer, lay or ordained. It is part of the Practical Theology concentration of the Religion Major and an elective for other majors. No prerequisites but basic knowledge of the Bible and Christian theology and commitment to the Christian faith is expected.

REL 301C Church, State, and Society (10:50-12:15 TTh)

Dr. Craig Hovey

Ever wondered what role Christianity ought to play beyond one's individual faith? How should the church engage with other cultures, powers, rulers, and ideas? What is the political significance of the church by its mere existence? If you find these questions stimulating, then this course in Christian political theology is for you. Political theology is increasingly recognized as a crucial domain within the broader discipline of Christian ethics. Topics this semester will include the political use of the Bible, especially in non-western contexts; the relation between church and the wider culture; feminist and black Christian political thought; and some exciting theologies coming out of Japan, Africa, Latin America, and India. You will read some of the great theologians and Christian ethicists from the western canon (Barth, Bonhoeffer, Niebuhr, Hauerwas, Yoder) as well as emerging, important voices from the global South. Fits within the ethics and theology concentration of the Religion major; no prerequisites.

REL 305 Advanced New Testament (12:15-1:30 TTh)

Dr. David Aune

How much do you know about the context and content of the later literature in the New Testament (Hebrews, the letters of James, Peter, John, Jude and the Book of Revelation)? What are the key teachings and themes included in these Scriptures? What do they tell us about the challenges and struggles of early Christian communities in the decades after Jesus’ death and resurrection? And what are the exegetical skills needed for responsible interpretation of these seemingly difficult texts? This course will provide an in-depth study of the later NT writings by considering both their social and historical settings and their textual relationship to the letters of Paul and the early gospel traditions. Meets a requirement for the Biblical Studies area within the Religion major; REL 106 (Exploring the Bible) is a prerequisite.

REL 340 Religion and Civil Rights in America (1:40-2:55 TTh)

Dr. Peter Slade

This course examines the involvement and non-involvement of churches and people of faith in the movement for civil rights in the United States. Contextualized in the history of America’s racialized society, both African American and white religious responsibilities for, and responses to, social injustice are examined through the reading of autobiographies, primary documents and secondary sources. No prerequisites; meets Core credit for Humanities and fits within the Christian History concentration for Religion majors.

REL 404 Seminar in Christian Theology (1:40-2:55 TTh)

Dr. Craig Hovey

From the profoundly renewed political self-awareness and self-confidence of fundamentalisms of many kinds, to the perceived inadequacies of secularizing moves enacted on entire nations (such as Turkey), to challenges from notable academics, Pope Benedict XVI, and others for Europe to find an identity visà-vis its Christian past, to many of the political assumptions long taken for granted in the Christian West now facing resistance within Islam in ways that are at times acute, to the well-attested shift of Christianity’s center of gravity to the global South, the opening decades of the twenty-first century present a pivotal opportunity to bring greater depth and clarity to topics that are likely to be with us for some time. This seminar will specifically investigate and interrogate some closely interrelated themes in contemporary Christian theology: the place of religion in secular societies, the meaning and history of the secular as a concept, the roles of faith and reason especially in public, and the particular challenges posed by "the new atheism" that religion is harmful to culture. This is one of the required theology seminars for Religion majors and both REL 106 (Exploring the Bible) and REL 208 (Exploring Christian Theology) are prerequisites.

Visiting Scholar shares her research into AIDS and Pentecostalism in SA.

2011-10-26T14:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday, October 24, Dr. Katherine Attanasi gave the department's Religion & Society Annual Lecture. This year we were able to tie in with the College of Arts & Science's Symposium against global indifference. Dr. Attanasi is an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at Regent University (PhD. Vanderbilt University, MTh., M Ed., Harvard) where she teaches Christian Ethics. She recently completed work on a co-edited volume with Amos Yong entitled Pentecostalism and Prosperity: The Socio-economics of the Global Charismatic Movement (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, forthcoming).

In her lecture, South African Pentecostalism and the Gendered Politics of HIV Prevention, Attanasi shared findings and conclusions from her doctoral research.

Dr. Attanasi also met with religion students over meals and in the classroom. Religion major Corey Smith said, "I was very grateful for the opportunity to speak with someone in the middle of a larger research project that would have meaningful impact on a community. Dr. Attanassi's lecture and discussion time was extremely helpful both in raising our awareness of her particular field of research in gender issues within the Pentecostal church in South Africa as well as encouraging and equipping us to think critically and creatively in our own areas of interest."

If you missed the lecture you are not too late, you can watch it on the university's media site.

The Religion & Society Annual Lectures started in 2009. Past lectures were:

John Kiess (Loyola), "When War is Our Daily Bread: Congo, Theology, and the Ethics of Contemporary Conflict."

Elizabeth Philips (Cambridge), "Christian Zionism, Violence, and Peace in the Middle East."

News from our Graduates: Polly Hitchcock '10

2011-10-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Polly Hitchcock graduated in December 2011. Here is what she has been up to:

Since graduating from Ashland 10 months ago, I have been in 3 countries and 4 states. I spent the past 9 months working for Global Assistance Partners, a non-profit working with local church leaders to bring discipleship and in-depth training to their people in both Kenya and the Ukraine. We also serve orphans and widows with humanitarian aid and support for education in Kenya. I worked as a Director of Operations, communicating with and advising in the 2 countries, evaluating on the ground work and researching finance and organization policies.

I love to travel and love working in the church, so it was a fulfilling time. This summer I decided to go ahead and get back to school, and last week I started my MA in theology back in Ashland, at the seminary! I'm looking forward to more knowledge and growth, in order to continue to build up the body of Christ through teaching in the local church.

International peacemaker comes to class

2011-10-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

Mrs. Neerja R. Prasad of Nagpur, India visited Dr. Sue Dickson's REL341 'World Christianity and Mission' class on Thursday, Oct 4, 2011. Mrs. Prasad serves as the Secretary of the Synodical Women's Fellowship for Christian Service in the Church of North India, and is traveling throughout the United States for the month of October as an International Peacemaker with the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Mrs. Prasad, a Christian activist in many areas of social justice including human trafficking, poverty and gender justice also met with students over lunch in Convo. Mrs. Prasad is a third generation Christian. Her grandfather had been a successful and well-known manufacturer in the South of India. When he converted to Christianity, his community boycotted his products and he and his family were outcast. He migrated with his family to the north where he took a new, Christian surname. Because of his Christian surname, his new community accused him of being a traitor to his country by adopting a foreign religion. The family migrated again, this time to Nagpur where Mrs. Prasad was raised. Mrs. Prasad, has been instrumental in rescuing young women from forced labor and sexual exploitation, in founding orphanages for the children of Christians murdered in the Red Corridor, and in establishing interreligious neighborhood communities to promote understanding, peace, and social justice. .

News from our Graduates: Rachel Poorman '11

2011-09-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

Rachel Poorman graduated from AU with a double major, Religion and Sports Science, in May of 2011. She began classes in the Master of Divinity program at Princeton Theological Seminary in New Jersey this fall. Here’s what Rachel has to say about that:

I am doing really well. I love being here in Princeton and am almost finished with my first week of classes. Everything is always a little crazy at first with tons of new books and readings, but I think soon enough I will be settled in and ready to go! I can feel that God has great things in store for me here...and I'm extremely excited as I begin this new journey! The administrators, faculty, and students here at Princeton Theological Seminary have been warm and welcoming. As I begin this new and amazing journey I am continually aware of God's active presence and comfort in my life. Although many of my thoughts consist of questions without answers concerning God's purpose in bringing me here to study and grow, I've come to appreciate the unknown, and gained peace through the patience I've learned to practice while discerning God's call in my life. I have started the application process for an international field education experience next summer, and I believe I will continue to be blown away by God's work in my life throughout this first year at Princeton.

Dr. Hovey's two new books

2011-06-02T08:05:00.000-07:00

Dr. Craig Hovey has two books out for the summer! In July, Eerdmans is publishing his book Bearing True Witness: Truthfulness in Christian Practice, Eerdmans, 2011

If proclaiming the gospel is at root a matter of telling the truth about the way things are, then Christian witnesses are paradigmatic truth-tellers. In Bearing True Witness Craig Hovey engages modern theology, philosophy, and ethics — including the work of Nietzsche, Foucault, and MacIntyre — to consider how Christians see, recognize, embrace, and bear witness to the truth of Jesus Christ.

If you are going to the beach before you can get your hands on Bearing True Witness, then not to worry because Hovey contributed the chapter “Christian Ethics as Good News,” in Imaginative Apologetics: Theology, Philosophy and the Catholic Tradition, ed. Andrew Davison, SCM Press, 2011. This volume hit the book stands last month (in England).

Imaginative Apologetics draws on much that is most vibrant in contemporary theology to develop Christian apologetics for the present day. The contributors are leaders in their fields. They represent a confident approach to theology, grounded in a deep respect for the theological tradition of the Church. They display a perceptive interest in philosophy, and unlike many works of apologetics their interest is in the philosophy of the present day, not only that of previous centuries.

Religion Banquet - honors society inductees

2011-04-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

The annual religion department banquet for religion majors and minors included the induction of the first members of the Alpha Kappa Delta chapter of Theta Alpha Kappa (National Honor Society for Religious Studies and Theology).

The new ThAKers: (L to R) Keenan Parker, Paul Lattimer, Michael Good, Dr. David Aune, MacKenzie Lake, Rachel Poorman, Stephanie Rickel, Cory Smith.

Student wins best undergraduate essay from the Midwest American Academy of Religion

2011-04-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Religion senior, Stephanie Rickel, attended the Midwest American Academy of Religion (MAAR) annual meeting in Rock Island, Ill. April 1-3.

Stephanie presented her paper "Liturgy, Time, and Secularism's Imitation"as part of a session devoted to undergraduate research for which she won the conference award for best undergraduate essay.

The American Academy of Religion is the most important professional organization for the study Religion in the United States. There are regional meetings that take place throughout the year in addition to the big, nation-wide annual meeting in the Fall. "Winning this award [best undergraduate essay] is a testament to Stephanie's skill as a young theologian, careful thinker, and sophisticated writer," said Dr. Craig Hovey, her thesis advisor. "Stephanie has worked hard for over a year on a set of theological topics that led her to interact with the work of some of the most important living Christian theologians. She is particularly gifted at explaining difficult ideas and showing why they matter."

Stephanie’s paper was a condensed version of her religion major thesis of the same title. To read her prize winning thesis click here

Profs Present Papers at Conference

2011-04-08T09:24:00.000-07:00

The religion department was well represented at the Midwest American Academy of Religion (MAAR) annual meeting in Rock Island, Ill.

Rev. Dr. Sue Dickson presented a paper titled “'Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Using Technology to Connect Students Internationally and Inter-religiously” The paper explored the use of SKYPE or SKYPE equivalent technology to connect students from across the globe. It reviewed some of the research done in the past sixty years on the impact that technology and the media have had- and could have- on individuals and society; described the Soliya Connect Program, as one way to use media in a socially responsible way in the classroom; and evaluated the fall 2010 AU Honors Interdisciplinary Seminar which participated in the Soliya Connect Program to link students across national and religious boundaries.

Dr. Craig Hovey presented a paper titled "Is There a Christian Ethic for Emperors?" His paper was part of a panel responding to Peter Leithart's book, Defending Constantine, to which Leithart, in turn, responded. The essay is forthcoming in the Mennonite Quarterly Review.

Ramadan Road Trip Program to be Held on Campus

2011-04-08T07:22:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, April 12, at 7 p.m. in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center Auditorium, Ashland University will host a unique program that will highlight the adventure of Aman Ali (better known for his comedic appearances on CNN, HBO, ABC News, and NPR) and Bassam Tariq as they traveled to 30 mosques in 30 states within 30 days.

Immediately following the presentation, a discussion with Ali will follow in the Eagles’ Landing of the Hawkins-Conard Student Center. This event is free and open to the public.

Last year, New Yorkers Aman Ali and Bassam Tariq’s Twitter experiment of spending the holy Muslim month of Ramadan at a different New York City mosque each night blossomed into a multimedia blogging project that garnered attention from tens of thousands worldwide, http://30mosques.com.

“This 30 states trip was hands down one of the most rewarding – and insane – ideas that we’ve ever tackled in our entire lives,” Ali said. “But what kept us motivated is all the support we received from our readers, who were a good mix of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Oh, and having plenty of underwear and an iPod with hours of tunes on it helped us get through the trip too.”

CNN ranked it as one of the top stories of 2010. During Ramadan 2010, Islam’s holy month of fasting and reflection, Ali and Tariq took a road trip across America, stopping each evening to break their fasts at a different mosque in a different state. The two drove over 13,000 miles during the trip and blogged about it daily on their site, www.30mosques.com. During the trip they prayed inside the infamous “Ground Zero Mosque” in Manhattan, got pulled over by a cop in Mississippi, and visited the first mosque ever built in the U.S. in Ross, N.D. – a town with only 48 people in it. Along the way they met the protagonists of Dave Eggers’ bestselling Zeitoun, Cambodian Muslim victims of the Khmer Rouge, a Pakistani-Mormon couple, and many, many others, all of whom are part of the diverse Muslim-American community. Their journey explores what it means to be Muslim in America today, and serves as a powerful counter-narrative to the media’s image of a monolithic Islam.

Spring Break 2011: Students travel to Mississippi as part of the class ‘Religion and the Civil Rights Movement’

2011-03-24T09:55:00.000-07:00

Eight students traveled with Dr. Slade to Jackson, Mississippi to do service learning with Voice of Calvary, meet with civil rights veterans and community activists and to engage ongoing questions of race, religion, reconciliation and justice.

To see a slide show of the trip, click here