“My Soul is Filled with Joy: Mariology & the Mission of Mennonite Education” – Dr. Malinda Berry


Augsburger Lecture Series

Using the image and symbol of the alma mater, Dr. Malinda Berry makes the case for Christ-centered education in an Anabaptist/Mennonite tradition that conceptualizes our network of schools as alma maters, or nourishing soul-mothers that are the Seat of Wisdom. This case involves thinking carefully about a nonviolent interpretation of the Christian gospel that asserts itself in the face of Constantinian Christianity. (Job 28:12)

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Dr. Malinda Berry, Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics at AMBS, is an educator-activist-doer. Her own teaching career got its start in a family of educators and has led to teaching roles at Goshen College, AMBS, and for the last five years at Bethany Theological Seminary, Richmond, Ind. Her scholarship endeavors include being one of three founding editors of the Prophetic Christianity Books Series, a project focused on cultivating the scholarship of those connected to the Black Church, the Historic Peace Church and progressive Evangelicalism. In addition to teaching, writing, and editing, Malinda has served as interim pastor in New York City, and worked as a peace and social justice activist in Washington, D.C. She calls herself an “epicurious localvore, she enjoys worship and prayer that involves our senses, and she loves to knit.

PhD, Union Theological Seminary, New York, 2013
MPhil, Union Theological Seminary, New York, 2009
MAPS, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, 2001
BA, Goshen College, Goshen, Ind., 1996