For 25 years, “Discerning the Signs of the Times” has held a forum where participants can discuss in a Christian context the moral and political issues that face them daily.
This year, come and join leaders of the church, community, and politics as we continue this discussion in a current context – ECONOMY AND THEOLOGY. How do we face such issues as the recent recession that has the world in its grip and increasing income inequalities that threaten the livelihoods of so many? How can we understand current American religious and political dynamics and immigration issues? How should we, as people of faith, respond?
Together we will seek directions toward a more just and peaceful human community.
Instructor(s)
The Rev. Dr. Serene Jones will focus on religion in America today from her perspective as President of Union Theological Seminary in New York City. She is the sixteenth and first woman president of Union Theological Seminary where she is also the Roosevelt Professor of Systematic Theology. She describes the seminary students she sees as “bringing fresh energy and insight to our understandings of faith in our increasingly global society. They are earnest activists committed to ending poverty and saving the planet…they bring gusto to the task of building communities and breathing life into our next phase of Christian history. A large question remains, however: Will they fill our traditional pulpits or will their sanctuaries spring up elsewhere? What does the church of their future hold?”
Dr. Jones is a prolific and popular scholar in the fields of theology, religion and gender studies. Her books include Feminist Theory and Theology, Calvin and the Rhetoric of Piety and Trauma and Grace. She became the first woman president in Union’s 172-year history in 2008.
Previously the Titus Street Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School, Dr. Jones went to Union after seventeen years on the Yale University faculty, where she also served as chair and faculty member of Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Jones has held faculty appointments at Yale Law School and in the Department of African American Studies and Religious Studies.
Dr. David Little, was former Professor of the Practice of Religion, Ethnicity and International Conflict at Harvard University Divinity School. He also taught at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University and at the Kennedy School of Government. He will explore how evangelicalism displaced liberal Protestantism in the last half century and the religious and political dynamics in American politics today.
Erik Nicholson, Vice President of the United Farm Workers (UFW), advises the organization on foreign guestworker issues and international affairs. He is working on creating a certification process for food around farm labor, food safety, and environmental stewardship issues. He will discuss this initiative and US farm worker and immigration issues.
Larry Rasmussen is Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus, Union Theological Seminary. He is the organizer of Ghost Ranch’s decade project on Earth-honoring Faith and author of the award-winning volume Earth Community, Earth Ethics. His most recent book with Oxford University Press is Earth-Honoring Faith: Religious Ethics in a New Key (Nov. 1).
Need more info? Call us at (505) 685 – 4333 ext 4152
Three ways to register:
- Download printable registration form and mail to: Ghost Ranch Registrar, HC77 Box 11, Abiquiu, NM 87510. OR scan and email your completed form to: [email protected]
- Register by telephone at 877-804-4678, extension 4152 or 4155 — available Monday-Friday 8:30 a.m. – 4:45 p.m. MST.