This article moves the findings of The Confirmation Project research from theory into practice. T... more This article moves the findings of The Confirmation Project research from theory into practice. Three members of the research team highlight three themes (purpose, design, and leadership) and walk congregational leaders through a process of discovering how these ideas can help them find a way forward that is meaningful to their congregation
Thumma: Sure, just call meWilson...You know the majority of information that we get about religio... more Thumma: Sure, just call meWilson...You know the majority of information that we get about religious life is from Pew and Gallup, Barna, and other polls. They provide a vast amount of information about individuals’ faith and practices. One of the things that sets studies like Faith Communities Today (FACT) apart is that it looks more closely at the bedrock of American religious life—that is the organizational and institutional reality of it. Robert Bellah’s “Sheila-ism” comes and goes with the birth and death of Sheila; individualist beliefs last as long as the individual. But congregations and denominations and the whole infrastructure of religious life really need to be understood and thought about theologically. What is their health, their vitality, because as congregations go, so goes the faith of individuals oftentimes. I think some of the rise of the “nones” and nonaffiliating is as much an indictment of the unwillingness by congregations to change as it is a result of shifting social realities.
This transcription of the Question and Answer period for the public event “Martin Luther and Anti... more This transcription of the Question and Answer period for the public event “Martin Luther and Anti-Semitism” was held at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City on November 13, 2016. This event was co-presented by the Morgan Library & Museum, the Leo Baeck Institute, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul in New York City, and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany. The discussion session—as well as the two lectures preceding (also published in this issue)—took place as part of a series of events in conjunction with the Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition “Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation” which ran from October 7, 2016 through January 22, 2017. Professor Mark Silk, Director, Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, served as moderator for the Q&A session. The respondents were Professor Dean P. Bell, Provost, Vice President, and...
Princeton Theological Seminary has an ambiguous legacy around issues of slavery and race. From it... more Princeton Theological Seminary has an ambiguous legacy around issues of slavery and race. From its founding in 1812 through at least the period of Reconstruction, the seminary’s faculty espoused African colonization as the only viable response to the problems caused by slavery in the United States. In their enthusiastic support for the colonization effort, the seminary’s faculty manifested a profound failure of theological imagination in that their efforts along these lines were premised upon an inability to conceive of a society in which Black and White could live together as equals before God. This article signals the beginning of an effort by current faculty to research the history of the seminary’s ambiguous legacy around matters or slavery and race with an eye toward developing a constructive way forward in the present and for the future.
This article moves the findings of The Confirmation Project research from theory into practice. T... more This article moves the findings of The Confirmation Project research from theory into practice. Three members of the research team highlight three themes (purpose, design, and leadership) and walk congregational leaders through a process of discovering how these ideas can help them find a way forward that is meaningful to their congregation
Thumma: Sure, just call meWilson...You know the majority of information that we get about religio... more Thumma: Sure, just call meWilson...You know the majority of information that we get about religious life is from Pew and Gallup, Barna, and other polls. They provide a vast amount of information about individuals’ faith and practices. One of the things that sets studies like Faith Communities Today (FACT) apart is that it looks more closely at the bedrock of American religious life—that is the organizational and institutional reality of it. Robert Bellah’s “Sheila-ism” comes and goes with the birth and death of Sheila; individualist beliefs last as long as the individual. But congregations and denominations and the whole infrastructure of religious life really need to be understood and thought about theologically. What is their health, their vitality, because as congregations go, so goes the faith of individuals oftentimes. I think some of the rise of the “nones” and nonaffiliating is as much an indictment of the unwillingness by congregations to change as it is a result of shifting social realities.
This transcription of the Question and Answer period for the public event “Martin Luther and Anti... more This transcription of the Question and Answer period for the public event “Martin Luther and Anti-Semitism” was held at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City on November 13, 2016. This event was co-presented by the Morgan Library & Museum, the Leo Baeck Institute, the German Evangelical Lutheran Church of St. Paul in New York City, and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany. The discussion session—as well as the two lectures preceding (also published in this issue)—took place as part of a series of events in conjunction with the Morgan Library & Museum’s exhibition “Word and Image: Martin Luther’s Reformation” which ran from October 7, 2016 through January 22, 2017. Professor Mark Silk, Director, Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, served as moderator for the Q&A session. The respondents were Professor Dean P. Bell, Provost, Vice President, and...
Princeton Theological Seminary has an ambiguous legacy around issues of slavery and race. From it... more Princeton Theological Seminary has an ambiguous legacy around issues of slavery and race. From its founding in 1812 through at least the period of Reconstruction, the seminary’s faculty espoused African colonization as the only viable response to the problems caused by slavery in the United States. In their enthusiastic support for the colonization effort, the seminary’s faculty manifested a profound failure of theological imagination in that their efforts along these lines were premised upon an inability to conceive of a society in which Black and White could live together as equals before God. This article signals the beginning of an effort by current faculty to research the history of the seminary’s ambiguous legacy around matters or slavery and race with an eye toward developing a constructive way forward in the present and for the future.
Uploads
Papers by Gordon Mikoski