{"id":45606,"date":"2020-04-16T13:59:51","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T17:59:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=45606"},"modified":"2020-04-22T08:16:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-22T12:16:47","slug":"faculty-join-ambs-for-theology-and-peacebuilding-consultation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/faculty-join-ambs-for-theology-and-peacebuilding-consultation\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty join AMBS for theology and peacebuilding consultation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Theology and peacebuilding faculty from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary<\/a> and Eastern Mennonite University as well as other invited guests and students, gathered in Elkhart, Indiana, for a theology and peacebuilding consultation in early March. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consultation brought together peace theologians and peacebuilding scholars from different Anabaptist institutions for a daylong conversation about the state of their respective fields and to brainstorm how they might cooperate in an interdisciplinary way toward developing a theologically robust theory and practice of peacebuilding. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the morning\nsessions, six scholars presented their proposals, with each presentation\nfollowed by an invited respondent and time for feedback from the group. In the\nafternoon sessions, invited guests led open-ended discussions about how to move\nforward in light of what was presented in the morning sessions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a\nwelcome by Beverly Lapp<\/a><\/strong>,\nEd.D., vice president and academic dean at AMBS, Rachel\nMiller Jacobs<\/a><\/strong>, D.Min., associate professor of congregational\nformation at AMBS, began the first morning panel, on peace theology, by\npresenting a paper titled \u201cAt-one-ing ordinary harm,\u201d in which she drew\nattention to the role of forgiveness and reconciliation in response to\nordinary, nonmoral harms in contrast to the typical focus in theology and\npeacebuilding on how to respond to extraordinary moral harms. Nekeisha\nAlayna Alexis<\/a><\/strong>, M.A.T.S., Intercultural Competence and Undoing\nRacism coordinator at AMBS, offered an appreciative response in which she noted\nhow Jacobs\u2019 analysis can helpfully deescalate conversations about racism and\nother unacknowledged biases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malinda\nElizabeth Berry<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., associate professor of theology and ethics at AMBS, then\npresented \u201c\u2018Let Us Make Them in Our Image\u2019: Gender and the Methodological\nConsiderations of Shalom Political Theology,\u201d in which she asked the question,\n\u201cHow do I draw men as readers into women-centered theological work that\u2019s\nintended for every-body?\u201d Maxwell\nKennel<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D. student in religious studies at McMaster\nUniversity in Hamilton, Ontario, responded by highlighting the ways Berry\u2019s\nwork helpfully resists \u201cdisassociation\u201d between one\u2019s\nlife and scholarship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude\nthe peace theology panel, Andrew Suderman<\/a><\/strong>,\nPh.D., assistant professor in theology, peace and mission at EMU, presented\n\u201cRe-Claiming Our Power: Assuming Political Agency in the Quest for Peace,\u201d\ndrawing on his work as a Mennonite Church Canada Witness Worker in South\nAfrica, where he and his wife, Karen, helped coordinate the Anabaptist Network\nin South Africa. In response, Jamie\nPitts<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., associate professor of Anabaptist studies at AMBS,\npressed Suderman to develop his account of power and politics further so as to\nbetter account for the ways in which the aims of church and state have often\noverlapped, despite the avowed \u201cdivision of labor\u201d between church and state\nthat Suderman attributed to the legacy of Constantinianism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timothy Seidel<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., who teaches politics, development and peacebuilding in the department of applied social sciences and the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, kicked off the second morning panel with his paper \u201cExploring Religion and the Post-Secular in the Borderlands of Theology and Peacebuilding.\u201d Seidel expressed misgivings about the secular bias in North American and European-centric models of peacebuilding and asked what possibilities have been closed off because of this bias. He argued for breaking down the binary between the religious and the secular in order to better listen to the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. Respondent Sheherazade Jafari<\/a>,<\/strong> Ph.D., director of the Point of View International Research and Retreat Center at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, affirmed Seidel\u2019s post-secular, decolonial line of thought as it applies to religion and peacebuilding theory and practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johonna Turner<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., assistant professor of\nrestorative justice and peacebuilding at the Center for Justice and\nPeacebuilding at EMU, then presented \u201cWomanist Peacebuilding Ethics: In the\nTime of #Black Lives Matter and #MeToo Movements.\u201d Turner called attention to\nwhat she called \u201cholistic anti-violence organizing\u201d as a contemporary tradition\nof peacebuilding. She offered a post-colonial, womanist, anti-violence\ntheology, with which she found resonance in the Anabaptist foci of community,\nnonviolence and radical discipleship. By focusing on black women\u2019s experiences\nof self-determination, self-agency and storytelling, Turner offered what she\ncalled a \u201cradical, Anabaptist womanist\u201d theology. Respondent Melody Pannell<\/a><\/strong>,\nM.S.W., M.Div., independent scholar, social work practitioner, and founder of\nDestiny\u2019s Daughters, described Turner\u2019s approach to peacebuilding as a process\nof weaving or braiding a number of strands of hair together. She noted that the\nprocess might look messy, but the end result comes together beautifully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the final\npresentation of the morning, Janna\nHunter-Bowman<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., assistant professor of peace studies and\nChristian social ethics at AMBS, presented \u201cWitnessing Peace: Becoming Agents\nUnder Duress in Colombia,\u201d in which she drew on her experiences with\ncommunities in Colombia to offer an account of constructive agency under\nduress. Her account juxtaposed what she called messianic \u201cnow time\u201d with\ngradual time, both of which inform the other in the process of creating what\nJohn Paul Lederach calls \u201cjust peace.\u201d In response, Peter Dula<\/a><\/strong>,\nPh.D., associate professor of religion and culture at EMU, commended\nHunter-Bowman for allowing the voices and experiences of Colombian communities\nto speak into and challenge peacebuilding theories rather than imposing the\ntheories onto the experiences of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the first afternoon session, Gerald Schlabach<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, reflected on the voices that were still missing in the discussion. While he commended the presenters for centering marginalized voices, he raised the question of whether marginalized voices were being selectively appropriated and asked whether there were other voices that might challenge some of the perspectives of the presenters further. In addition to voices from the majority world, Schlabach mentioned traditional Amish communities as another resource for peacebuilding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nekeisha\nAlayna Alexis discussed the need to expand theologies of peacebuilding to\ninclude the wellbeing of non-human animals and creation more holistically. She\nalso challenged presenters to consider how their own eating practices might\nalign with their peace theology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To close the\nconsultation, David C.\nCramer<\/a><\/strong>, Ph.D., managing editor of the Institute of Mennonite Studies<\/a> and\nsessional faculty in theology and ethics at AMBS, offered concluding remarks,\nin which he synthesized the presentations into what he called an \u201cordinary,\norganic theology of anti-violence peacebuilding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Participants\nand attendees were energized by the lively discussions throughout the day. One\npeace studies professor in attendance said that this was the kind of discussion\nhe had been waiting on for decades. AMBS and Goshen College students in\nattendance were likewise enthused by the exchange of ideas among their\nprofessors. Participants left optimistic about the possibilities of ongoing\ncollaboration between peace theologians and peacebuilding scholars at AMBS, EMU\nand beyond. By the end of the day, there was discussion about planning a\nsubsequent consultation to continue the momentum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consultation was organized by Janna Hunter-Bowman, Peter Dula and Salom\u00e9 Haldemann<\/strong>, an M.A.: Theology and Peace Studies student at AMBS, and was generously sponsored by the Marpeck Fund<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Theology and peacebuilding faculty from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary and Eastern Mennonite University as well as other invited guests and students, gathered in Elkhart, Indiana, for a theology and peacebuilding ... read more about Faculty join AMBS for theology and peacebuilding consultation<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[266,359,5589,13679,12503,17562,14145,265],"tags":[17552,16985,9439,17592],"feature":[17427,17425,17241],"class_list":["post-45606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-applied-social-sciences","category-bible-and-religion","category-center-for-interfaith-engagement","category-cjp","category-digest","category-peacebuilding-and-development","category-seminary","tag-andrew-suderman","tag-johonna-turner","tag-peter-dula","tag-timothy-seidel","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-featured-seminary","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"\nFaculty join AMBS for theology and peacebuilding consultation - 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