Readers should also have already receivedtheir copy of a special issue of Criterionpublished for this event, entitled “CelebratingSightings”— a special issue putting into printalmost ten years of the best, most salientcolumns from the Marty Center’s weeklyonline publication. A tenth anniversarysuch as this invites both review and recon-sideration. What makes the Marty Centerunusual, perhaps even unique, in an aca-demic world in which centers proliferate?

We might begin to answer the questionby examining a distinguishing mark of itsname — the fact that it is only “the MartyCenter,” with no adjoining and specifyingprepositional phrase (e.g., “of religion andpolitics”). The Marty Center does not affili-ate itself with a specific topic in religion. Itis, instead, a center for the advanced studyof religion (a carryover phrase from its pre-decessor status as an “institute”). This signifiescommitment to an agenda that is as broadand as variegated as its membership — thefaculty and students of the Divinity School— choose to make it.

The Center thus might study manythings. This provenance suggests that reli-gion is sufficiently variegated in its realities,and yet sufficiently integral, to warrant thebroadest palette. The Latin poet Horacearticulated the aim of epic poetry to beMores hominum multorum vidit — to see allthe ways of humanity — and nothing lessthan such an epic goal applies to the MartyCenter’s interest in religion.

If nothing religious is foreign to theinterest of the Marty Center, it is also thecase that the Center hews to the convictionthat everything religious can only be wellunderstood when situated with reference to its place in public life. This convictionreflects two complementary claims. One isthat religion can only be credibly understoodwhen understanding is guided by recourseto argument and evidence. No special pleas,

So far so good. But there is one furthersalient dimension of the Marty Center’s work;its effort to foster the richest public engage-ment of religion by nothing less than aninversion of the usual paradigm of scholarlyresearch. Rather than identifying audiencesbeyond the scholarly guilt at the conclusionof the project (“dissemination”), the MartyCenter projects explicitly engage such audi-ences at the outset and aim to sustain thatengagement through all aspects of the project.This reflects the conviction that communitiesof religious believers often have much tocontribute directly to scholarly work. Therichest engagement of religion — and notincidentally the truest and most consequen-tial — brings into relief not only the canonsof evidence and argument, but any and allinterested parties.

In the past ten years, the Marty Centerhas been busy: over one thousand Sightingscolumns, some thirty scholarly conferences,programs on pedagogy and on the interfaceof ministerial and academic education,twenty Web Forums, and over one hundredjunior fellows working toward their disser-tations. With this latest conference, the Marty Center has also taken a major step in making its work more accessible to thepublic at large: the conference was video-taped, and streaming media of those files is being made available as a permanentaddition to the Marty Center’s website. We look forward to adding more streamingmedia of conferences, lectures, and othermajor events.

The occasion of this anniversary is oneon which the School justifiably takes pridein these accomplishments. But it is also anoccasion to remember that our work is alwaysever just beginning. If we continue to honorthis charter, the future will be as productiveas the past. ❑

Richard A. Rosengarten, Dean

or recourses to claims of special status, areacceptable. The second is that religion will,when understood in this way, reflect itspotential for good and for ill in the world.

CIRCANews from the University of Chicago Divinity School

S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 | N U M B E R 2 9

THIS PAST FEBRUARY THE DIVINITY SCHOOL CELEBRATED THE TENTH ANNIVERSARY

of the Martin Marty Center and the eightieth birthday of Martin Marty with a conference on the

theme “Religion and the City: Our Urban Humanity and the World Beyond.” The materials from the

conference will be available online at the Marty Center website and readers of Circa and others can get a

good sense there of the flavor of this wonderful event.

Letter

from the

Dean

The richest engagement of religion — and not incidentally

the truest and most consequential — brings into relief not only the canons of evidence and argument, but any and all interested parties.

2 C I R C A

Townes’s workfocuses on Christianethics, womanist ethics,critical social theory,cultural theory andstudies, as well as onpostmodernism andsocial postmodernism.Her specific interestsinclude health andhealth care; the culturalproduction of evil; analyzing the linkagesamong race, gender,class, and other formsof oppression; anddeveloping a networkbetween African Ameri-can and Afro-Brazilianreligious and secular leaders and community-based organizations.

Townes’s books include Womanist Ethicsand the Cultural Production of Evil, Breakingthe Fine Rain of Death: African AmericanHealth Issues and a Womanist Ethic of Care,In a Blaze of Glory: Womanist Spirituality as Social Witness, and Womanist Justice,Womanist Hope. In addition, she is the editor of two volumes: A Troubling in My Soul: Womanist Perspectives on Evil andSuffering and Embracing the Spirit: WomanistPerspectives on Hope, Salvation, and Trans-formation.

The Alumnus of the Year award recognizesoutstanding achievement by graduates ofthe Divinity School, and has been awardedannually since 1947. Past recipients includePeter Paris, Rebecca Chopp, R. Scott Appleby,and William LaFleur.

After earning her B.A. from the University of Chicago and her M.A. from the DivinitySchool, Townes earned her Doctor of Min-istry degree in 1982, also from the DivinitySchool, and her Ph.D. from the Joint Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary/North-western University Program in Religious andTheological Studies in 1989. She is ordainedin the American Baptist Church.

Townes has taught at Union TheologicalSeminary, Saint Paul School of Theology,DePaul University, McCormick TheologicalSeminary and others. She served on theAdvisory Committee of the Women’s Studiesin Religion Program at Harvard DivinitySchool and acted as the director of theWabash Center Workshop on Teaching andLearning for African American Faculty.

The Board of Trustees of the Baptist Theological Union has

named Emilie M. Townes the Divinity School’s Alumna

of the Year for 2008. Townes is the Andrew W. Mellon

Professor of African American Religion and Theology at Yale Divinity

School. In July 2008, Townes will become the first African American

and first woman to serve as the associate dean of academic affairs

of Yale Divinity School. Also in 2008, she will become the first

African American woman to serve as president of the American

Academy of Religion.

She is survived by sisters Jeanne Horan,of Indian Head Park, Illinois, and MaryPatricia Zeiler, of LaGrange Park, Illinois.

Memorials may be given to the Sisters ofCharity, BVM Retirement Fund, 1100 CarmelDrive, Dubuque, Iowa 52003.

at the Catholic Women’s Ordination Con-ference, delivering an ethical and historicalcase for the ordination of women priests inthe Roman Catholic Church. In 1984, Carrwas among a group of twenty-four U.S. nunswho signed an advertisement, published inThe New York Times, which stated that RomanCatholics had a “diversity of opinions regard-ing abortion.”

In 1997, she received the John CourtneyMurray Award for Excellence in Theologyfrom the Catholic Theological Society ofAmerica.

Emilie M. Townes Named Alumnus of the Year

Anne Carr, Theologian, 1934–2008

Professor Carr was a scholar of modern theology who specialized in Catholicthought and feminist theology, and her work included the history of Chris-tian thought, contemporary philosophical theology, the philosophy of religionand Roman Catholic studies. Her research examined subjects from the the-

ology of Karl Rahner to the spirituality of Thomas Merton to theological anthropology— but she is perhaps best known for her groundbreaking 1988 book Transforming Grace:Christian Tradition and Women’s Experience.

Townes will deliver her Alumna of theYear address, “The Dancing Mind,” at4:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 17, in SwiftLecture Hall. A reception will follow.

She authored two other books: The Theolog-ical Method of Karl Rahner and A Search forWisdom and Spirit: Thomas Merton’s Theologyof Self. She coedited six additional books,and published numerous articles in scholarlyjournals such as Horizons, for which she wasassociate editor, and The Journal of Religion,which she coedited.

A Roman Catholic nun and member ofthe Sisters of Charity of the Blessed VirginMary (BVM) for almost a half-century, Carrwas also known as a pioneer for women’srights within the Church. In 1975, she spoke

S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 | 3

Spring News and Notes

About Religion After September 11 and Death,War, and Sacrifice: Studies in Ideology andPractice.

Emphasizing critical approaches to thestudy of religion, he has longstanding inter-est in discourse, practice, power, conflict, andthe violent reconstruction of social borders.Religion, Empire, and Torture is based uponthe author’s reading of official texts from thePersian Empire relating to imperial theology.At the end of his study he brings us back tothe present with his analysis of the photo-graphs from Abu Ghraib in the context ofthe Achaemenian case studies presented inthe first part of the book.

Border Crossing Administrator Joins Staff

Daniel Sack is the administrator of theDivinity School’s new Border Crossing Project, an initiative to generate discussions of vocation between students preparing forministry and students preparing to be theo-logical educators. Sack has experience in boththeological education and in collaboration.For the last six years he has worked with theAssociated Colleges of the Midwest, orga-nizing several collaborative projects for theconsortium’s fourteen liberal arts colleges.Before that he was associate director of theMaterial History of American Religion Pro-ject, an initiative of eight historians interestedin the material practices of American religiouslife. Sack has also taught at Hope College

The Caroline E. Haskell Professor of Historyof Religions in the Divinity School of theUniversity of Chicago, Lincoln also has affiliations with the Departments of Classics

and Anthropology,the Center forMiddle EasternStudies and theCommittee on theAncient Mediter-ranean World. He has publishedeight other books,including Holy Terrors: Thinking

Bruce Lincoln Receives 2007 Frank Moore Cross Award

David Tracy Receives 2008 Jerome Award

The Catholic Library Association’s AcademicLibrary Services Section has selected DavidTracy, Andrew Thomas Greeley and GraceMcNichols Greeleyy Distinguished ServiceProfessorEmeritus ofCatholic Studiesand Professor ofTheology andthe Philosophyof Religion inthe DivinitySchool, as the2008 recipient of the JeromeAward. TheJerome Award,which was first presented in 1992, recognizesan outstanding contribution and commit-ment to excellence in scholarship whichembody the ideals of the Catholic LibraryAssociation.

Some previous Jerome Award recipientswere Jesuits Joseph A. Fitzmyer, Avery Car-dinal Dulles, Richard A. McCormick, andWalter J. Burghardt.

The award will be presented on Tuesday,March 25 at the CLA meeting’s opening din-ner, held this year in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The Frank Moore Cross Award, presented to the editor or author of themost substantial volume related to ancient Near Eastern and easternMediterranean epigraphy, text and/or tradition, was given this year toBruce Lincoln for Religion, Empire, and Torture: the Case of Achaemenian

Persia with a Postscript on Abu Ghraib.

Jean-Luc Marion Awarded2007 Karl Jaspers Prize

Jean-Luc Marion, professor of the philosophyof religion and theology, has been selectedto receive the 2007 Karl Jaspers Prize forextraordinary scholarly accomplishment ofinternational stature. The Prize is awardedevery three years by the city of Heidelbergand Ruprecht Karl University. First awardedin 1983 to Emmanuel Levinas, the prizecommemorated the hundred-year anniver-

sary of the birthof Germanphilosopher KarlJaspers (1883–1969). Otherrecipients of theprize include Jurgen Habermas,who received theprize in 1995, andPaul Ricoeur, who received it in 1989.

and Columbia Theological Seminary, andwas assistant chaplain at Austin College. Heis a historian of American religion andauthor of Whitebread Protestants: Food andReligion in American Culture (Palgrave,2000). He is an ordained minister in theUnited Church of Christ and a graduate ofNorthwestern University, McCormick The-ological Seminary, and Princeton University.The Border Crossing Project is supported bya generous grant from the Lilly EndowmentInc. Sack will be with us for the three-yearduration of the grant.

4 C I R C A

Hall, at the end of a long corridor, the student-run cafe feels like a hidden treasure. Thecafe’s main room houses the coffee counter,four tables, a cold case and a large hot caseholding boxes of food for purchase fromabout 10 Chicago restaurants (includingEdwardo’s and Soul Vegetarian East). You’llfind Korean, Thai, vegetarian soul food,stuffed pizza, South Asian, Middle Easternand deli sandwiches, every-thing priced at about $5.25or less. We tried the Thaicurry and rice, a falafelsandwich, bibimbap and a vegan-soul foodcombo. And we likedthem all. Yum.

But the amazing array of affordable foodis just the beginning. The friendly studentbaristas serve up some of the best and cheapestorganic fair trade coffee in town — a smallcup costs an eye-popping 75 cents. Regularcoffee is 60 cents; a double espresso is amere $1.

“We are kind of well known among theinternational professor and grad studentcrowd for the quality of our espresso,” saidmanager Tiffani Jones. “And we try to keepthings affordable for the students.”

Other attractions include the cool $10 T-shirts (they say “Where God drinks coffee”), the box of free stuff (you can leaveitems — scarves and books, for example —or take them), the rotating art gallery in thesecond dining room (with a dozen tables)and, coolest of all, the tip jar voting system.Each day presents a new battle. On ourvisit, one tip jar was labeled John Cusack,another Jack Black. Whoever collects moretips wins. Last year’s tip jar tournament wasthe “Battle of the Gods.” Just to give you an idea of the kind of folks who sip here:The winner was Athena, with the Dao anda Harry Potter character coming in closebehind. “Yeah, we had a battle betweenSlytherin and Gryffindor,” Jones said.(Gryffindor won.) For impecunious, coffee-lovin’ foodie nerds, this is cafe heaven. ❑

For most of us worker bees, coffeehouseshave become a mere stop on the flight backto our cubicles. For students, a coffeehousecan serve as a relaxing “third place,” made forhours of studying, reading, lounging, eating,chatting, flirting, net surfing and simplybreathing in the aroma of really good coffee.We poked around area campuses, askingstudents, faculty and staff to point the wayto the best java hut around. Here are threefavorites.

The University of Chicago Divinity SchoolCoffee Shop (a.k.a. Grounds of Being)located in the basement of the gothic Swift

Student News

Faculty News and Notes

She is invited to give six lectures in Oxfordduring the 2007–2008 academic year, enti-tled “The Corinthian Correspondence andthe Birth of Christian Hermeneutics.” Thelectures will examine each letter the apostlePaul wrote to the Corinthians as “the birthof Pauline hermeneutics.” Past recipients of the Speaker’s Lecturer position includeAdela Yarbro Collins, Andrew Chester, andLeander Keck.

Margaret Mitchell Named Speaker’s Lecturer

Margaret Mitchell, Professor of New Testament and Early Christian Litera-ture in the Divinity School, has been named Speaker’s Lecturer in BiblicalStudies at the University of Oxford.

Good Caffeine and Good Buzz

Last summer the Chicago Tribune reviewed coffee houses around the city,including Grounds of Being, run by the Divinity Students Association(DSA). Here we have reprinted part of the Tribune’s story, “These spots get A+ for good caffeine, good buzz,” written by Monica Eng. The article

ran on August 21, 2007.

Spring Events

For calendar updates, please consult the Divinity School’s website at http://divinity.uchicago.edu. Access the most up-to-date events information, sign upfor our events listserve (“At the Divinity School”), and get current (and archived)news. Please see p.9 for detailed information on upcoming conferences.

Wednesday Community Luncheons

Every Wednesday when school is in session12:00 noon – 1:30 p.m., Swift Common Room

Lunches this spring will include a Dean’sForum with Professor Jean-Luc Marion;Professors Dipesh Chakrabarty from SALCand Paul Copp from EALC; Eboo Patel,founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, andan “open mic” in honor of National PoetryMonth (April).

Please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/wednesdays.shtml for upcoming datesand speaker information.

Lunch itself is prepared and served by ourcreative and energetic student staff. Thoseinterested in attending should reserve alunch in advance by emailing divinitylunch@gmail.com or by calling 773-702-8230.

Alumna of the Year 2008Lecture and Reception

Thursday, April 174:00 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

A public lecture by Emilie M. Townes, D. Min. 1982, the Divinity School’s Alumnaof the Year for 2008. A reception will follow.Read more here: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/alumni/awards/townes.shtml

Sino-Christian Theology as a Theological Movement and its Development

From the Mainland Chinese AcademiaPerspective and the OverseasAcademia and ChurchPerspective

Tuesday, April 154:00 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

He Guang-hu, Professor, Department ofPhilosophy and Religious Studies, RenminUniversity of China and Milton Wan,Distinguished Professor of the Institute ofSino-Christian Studies and research fellowof Emmanual College of the University ofToronto, presenting; Dwight Hopkins,Professor of Theology at the Divinity School,responding.

Christianity and Christians in Beijing

A Survey of Contemporary Sociology of Religion in China

Wednesday, April 164:00 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

A public lecture by Gao Shining, Professorat the Institute of World Religions and theChinese Academy of Social Sciences.

To Be or Not to Be

Sufi Responses to Existence and Non-Existence in a Poetic Dialogue ofGhazals From Fifteenth Century Herat to Seventeenth Century Istanbul

Tuesday, April 22

4:30 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

A public lecture by Walter Zev Feldman,Associate Professor at Bar-Ilan University in Tel-Aviv and a fellow of the Center forJewish Music Research at the HebrewUniversity, Jerusalem.

S P R I N G Q UA RT E R E V E N T S I N C LU D E

S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 | 5

Inaugural Lectureby William Schweiker

Thursday, April 24

4:00 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

William Schweiker, Director of theMartin Marty Center and Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished ServiceProfessor of Theological Ethics in the Divinity School will deliver hisinaugural lecture as the RyersonProfessor of Theological Ethics on“Humanizing Religion.”

Professor Schweiker’s scholarship and teaching engage theological andethical questions attentive to globaldynamics, comparative religiousethics, the history of ethics, andhermeneutical philosophy.

To Revere, Revise, and Renew

Sa’eb of Tabriz Reads the Ghazals of Rumi

Tuesday, May 64:30 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

A public lecture by Paul Losensky,Associate Professor of Central EurasianStudies and Associate Professor ofComparative Literature at the University of Indiana in Bloomington.

6 C I R C A

An Interview with Willemien Otten

CIRCA: Your research has focused on JohannesScottus Eriugena and Ralph Waldo Emerson.Would you say that medieval thought onnature has relevance now? And what canmedieval thought in general contribute toour understanding of the world today?

WO: My research has indeed focused onEriugena’s concept of nature and in additionI have also concentrated on twelfth-centurynotions of nature, but I am relatively new to Emerson. In Eriugena and some twelfth-century authors, I see a kind of anthropologyunderlying their interest in nature and I wouldlike to explore that same connection inEmerson. So it is not just the medieval viewof nature as such that is of interest, althoughthat view resonates in interesting ways withcontemporary interests in theology and sci-ence, but especially the dynamic interplaybetween cosmology and anthropology thatintrigues me. This is a feature that is oftenbypassed in more conventional articulationsof creation. What worries me in terms of thebroader relevance of medieval scholarship

on an author like Eriugena isthat it tends to “lock him up”in his historical period. Whilewe may be theologically con-versant with Augustine, Lutherand Calvin, and perhaps withAquinas as well, we generally

Willemien Otten has been appointed Professor of the

Theology and History of Christianity. She previously

chaired the Theology Department at Utrecht University

in the Netherlands. Here she discusses her work and the differences

between the American and the European systems of graduate-level

study of religion.

“The fact that inter-

disciplinarity is encouraged

suits me very well,

while the tremendous range

of interests represented

by students and colleagues

makes the Divinity School

a most exciting place

for conversation.”

fail to connect to Eriugena, or to Anselmand Abelard, to name some of my otherheroes. An additional reason for pursuingthe connection with Emerson, therefore, isto reach out to a wider scholarly audienceand give Eriugena a voice in conversation,without making him ‘unmedieval’ but alsowithout forcing his readers to becomeexperts in medieval Neoplatonism.

My current project on Eriugena andEmerson is part of a funded project at theUniversities of Amsterdam and Utrecht onThe Pastness of the Religious Past, in whichour research team wants to develop a new,post-confessional approach to the history of Christianity. One of the attractions of the medieval period is that perceived as anintegrated whole it offers fertile ground forthinking through new theories of culturalinterpretation, as Brian Stock has done withnotions of orality and literacy. Trying tobreak through a fixed, canonical sense ofChristian pastness, our research group takesits cue from Augustine’s view that the past isreally the present of the past, seeing time asdefined more by movement, epiphany, ritualand rhythm than by chronology, linearityand stasis. It is my intent to analyze nature— which as a category in Christian historyis often criticized as timeless and immutableand contrasted with creation — from theperspective of temporality. We plan on host-ing an international conference in AmsterdamOn Religion and Pastness next winter to discuss our first results.

CIRCA: You’ve held previous appointmentsat Loyola University Chicago and BostonCollege in the United States and Utrecht

University in the Nether-lands. What are you looking forward to inyour appointment at the University of Chicago?

WO: My immediate andheartfelt reaction wouldbe: time for research andteaching. In Utrecht I was chair of the theologydepartment for the lastfour years and prior to thatI ran the department’steaching programs just atthe time when Europe

was switching to the Bachelor-Master modelof education, with the Dutch governmentdeciding to be the first to make this massivetransition. Essentially, during my tenure atUtrecht from 1997 to 2007 I have been fairlybusy with administration, even though mypoint in doing so was to put the focus backon research and teaching, and I tried to keepthat my personal focus as well. Given the verycomplex circumstances of Dutch theology(secularism, rise and concomitant fear ofIslam, increasingly fragmented and conser-vative ecclesiastical landscape) and the severefinancial crunches in Dutch higher educa-tion, I foresee unfortunately that it will takeat least another twenty-five years before we

Continued on page 8

S P R I N G 2 0 0 4 | 7

service and the life of the mind, and a talentedgroup of “teaching pastors” with whom ourstudents have interacted in field educationassignments and other projects over the years.

The “Border Crossings” project fundsconsultations and conferences, sponsorsteams of student “theologians-in-residence”to work with congregations, and supportsthe creation of teaching teams that bring thevital conversation between the academy andthe church into the Arts of Ministry class-rooms. In this latter effort, Divinity School

Students who are by now well-acclimated tothe lectures, close reading, and end-of-termpapers required by most of their Chicagocoursework find themselves pushed andstretched to integrate theory and practice,analysis and performance as they movefrom writing about a practice to represent-ing it in their own identities and actions.Those who have taught in the sequence aredaunted by the classes’ scope — how touncover the rich history of these practicesand the theologies that emerge from them,demonstrate the fundamentals of the art,and give students some experience of thecraft, how to build foundations for lifelongapprenticeships, all in ten weeks?

Theological schools and the denomina-tions and congregations they serve have longbeen engaged in a similar exploration of thiscritical nexus of theory and experience asthey seek to train religious leaders who canharness academic training to better meet the challenges of parish and public ministry.Innovations in classrooms and curriculaabound as the church and the academy tryto anticipate what these new leaders willneed to do their work in an ever-changingcultural context. Here at the Divinity School,a generous grant from the Lilly Foundationis helping us to examine and employ ourrich resources for the integration of thoughtand practice — our own students, in boththe M.Div. and Ph.D. programs, who cometo this place committed both to the life of

Ministry Program Update

The “Conversational” Arts

For many years now the core classes during the second year

of our Master of Divinity program have been labeled the

“Arts of Ministry.” Providing ministry students with ten weeks

of training in each of these “arts”— preaching, worship, and pastoral

care — the sequence has often been the locus of considerable anxiety

all around.

faculty are joined in the classroom by a cur-rent Ph.D. student and a practicing minister.The team plans the course syllabus together,shares responsibilities for creating the read-ing list and shaping the class assignments,and rotates leadership of lectures and classdiscussions. Students have opportunity forfeedback and evaluation by each of the teammembers. Classes are designed with plenty ofopportunity for the engaged and energeticdiscussion in which theory questions practice,and practice shapes theory.

While we are still in our first year of athree-year prospectus, early responses to theteam-led Arts classes are promising all around.The autumn preaching class, facilitated byCynthia Lindner, Director of Ministry Stud-ies and Clinical Faculty for Preaching andPastoral Care, David Gregg, Ph.D. studentin Religion and Literature, and AyannaJohnson, pastor of Family of Hope ChristianChurch in Blue Island, encompassed suchtopics as the history and theologies ofpreaching, the role of the preacher and theexperience of the hearers, preaching’s func-tion as performance and embodiment, andthe spiritual discipline of the pastor. Eachstudent was able to preach four times in tenweeks, with generous feedback from each ofthe facilitators and student peers. Reflectingon their experience in the course, studentsremarked on how much more nuanced andrich their conception of preaching hadbecome, and how much their own skill sethad been enlarged. The teaching team, too,were reenergized with a new appreciation of the complexity of the preaching art.Gregg commented that the experienceenriched his own practice, making him abetter preacher as well, insight that wasechoed by Rev. Johnson. Asked to reflect on her experience, Johnson wrote, “Teamteaching was a great experience. I felt able to share my views and help in preachingwithout feeling pigeonholed in my role as“current pastor.” And it was good to hearother points of view on what sermonsshould be and do. We did not use the samemetrics to assess sermons we heard in class,but somehow we frequently agreed on whatwas “good preaching” and what neededwork … Every week I heard (the students’)preaching gave me new energy to meet thechallenge of preaching at my own church.Their effort and diligence pushed me toremember that I, too, had been trained wellfor preaching and could give more to myown sermons by revisiting old lessons andexploring new scholarship. The students havemade me a better preacher, and a renewedstudent of preaching. And their final sermonswere a testament to the fact that they werebetter preachers as well.”

As we continue to recruit “teaching teams”for future classes in preaching, worship, andpastoral care, we are actively increasing ourcommunity of teaching pastors. If you knowsomeone whose thoughtful practice wouldengage our students and enliven our class-rooms, contact Cynthia Lindner atclindner@uchicago.edu. ❑

8 C I R C A

under any of those rubrics is given theumbrella-name of religious studies, as afairly new field inside the humanities inwhich universities so far have not been veryinterested. Given that before our Dutchstate universities had an integrated traditionin place of religious and theological studiesas a respected part of their curriculum, thisfragmentation is academically and institu-tionally a regression and a setback for thefield. I especially deplore the isolationisttendency that speaks from it, which seemslargely driven by religious insecurity stem-ming from both secularism and the rise ofIslam. A concentrated effort to promote the

study of religion as a valuable academic fieldwould be very beneficial for Dutch society,whose recent political tensions and socialunrest have in part been religious in nature,but the drive to organize this on the universitylevel is currently lacking. This is not becauseof any ill will, I should add, but rather becausethe field is so tiny, the constituencies sodivided, and the administrative complexitiesso disproportionately great. As the biggestdifference with the United States, then, I seethe lack of independence in faculty hiresand curricular set-up at many institutionsteaching religion. This is especially ironicsince all the institutions involved (includingecclesiastical ones) are fully governmentfunded, making academic freedom a veryrelevant issue. So far Utrecht has managed tokeep theology and religious studies together,thus resisting fragmentation of students andresources, but the academic and ecclesiasticalpressures to conform to a more compartmen-talized approach are enormous, while addedfinancial pressures further narrow the focus.At the same time, it seems the Netherlandsis at the forefront of a remarkable surge ofnon-institutional religiosity, which is sweepingthrough much of Europe at the moment, andI am intellectually curious to see what theeffect of this trend will be on our currentorganizational model for the academic studyof religion.

CIRCA: Your work looks at how theologians’and philosophers’ views on the interactionsbetween nature, self and God changed in the

medieval period. Can you explain thesechanges in brief?

WO: While medieval culture was in someways uniquely founded on Christianity, itinherited and incorporated a lot of ancientcultural patterns that are hence endemic toit. In that sense the period may have beenless uniformly Christian than we are inclinedto think coming from a biblical-soteriologicalmodel of revelation. I have been especiallyinterested in the period between Augustineand Thomas, which is a theological no man’sland of sorts, as it is unclaimed by any tradi-tion, and I see my own work primarily as anattempt to retrieve the kind of thinking thattook place there. Eriugena’s thought on natureis an important example, Anselm’s interest-ing blend of reason and affection another. Itwas a feature of such a premodern knowledgesystem that the discourse about God was atthe same time a discourse with God, as therewas no formal separation between theologyand philosophy. In terms of medieval nature,this led to very interesting comparisonsbetween Genesis and Plato’s Timaeus in thetwelfth century, promoting a view of naturein which organic growth and developmentwere seen as an extension of divine creation.The twelfth century’s move away from mirac-ulous and interventionist models of the divinereverts back in interesting ways on howscripture was read and salvation interpreted,namely as an extension and validation of theperiod’s cultural interests. The intellectualspan of ideas in this pre-scholastic period wasenormous, with the parallelism of natureand scripture which was my earlier focus asparadigmatic for the open ambience in whichthe conversation between God, self and naturewas conducted. As this tradition both flour-ished and reached its end in the twelfth century, I sometimes think of this era as akind of medieval postmodernism, unleash-ing a richness of poetic ideas but lacking themodernist ability and interest to hold themtogether in a coherent frame. This fragile andelusive quest for a coherent hermeneuticalframe is what I see as one of the connectionswith our present culture, for example, as westruggle to integrate science and religion.

On a deeper historical level, I feel that themedieval period should affect our culturaland theological understanding of the westmore than it currently does, with medievaltexts hardly ever recognized as part of acanonical list, much less so when perceivedas explicitly Christian. How to change thisis one of the underlying ambitions drivingmy work: is it by changing our sense ofChristianity’s past, as in my current project,is it by undertaking explicit, comparativeconnections with non-Christian cultures,something which I would also like to do, asI have pondered a project on monastic ethicswith a friend who teaches Buddhism? Thefun of scholarly life is that there are alwaysmore ways that lead to Rome and I hope thatduring my stay at the Divinity School I havetime to travel down at least a few. ❑

can create the more integrated set-up thatone finds here in the Divinity School, simplyfocused on excellence in the study of religion.In that sense, the fact that I can be a part ofsuch a system now is already beyond what Ithought possible in terms of personal expec-tations. I am especially looking forward tothe enticing prospect of coordinating andcombining my research and teaching interests.My seminar on Eriugena this spring and theone I plan for next year on the Book of Natureare some examples of how I hope my researchand teaching can influence each other in waysthat are beneficial to both. The fact that inter-disciplinarity is encouraged suits me verywell, while the tremendous range of interestsrepresented by students and colleagues makesthe Divinity School a most exciting placefor conversation.

CIRCA: Can you compare the European andAmerican systems of education when it comesto the graduate-level study of religions —especially given that the European system isundergoing a lot of change?

WO: In the above I have already mentionedthe changes in European education relatingto the BA–MA system, which should allowfor more international exchange of studentsand faculty but so far have not really doneso. Let me summarize the Dutch situationas follows. In the Netherlands, academicreligious education is increasingly retreatingto an organizational model based on confes-sional loyalties. What cannot be hosted

Otten Continued from page 6

“...the twelfth century,

I sometimes think of this era

as a kind of medieval post-

modernism, unleashing a

richness of poetic ideas but

lacking the modernist ability

and interest to hold them

together in a coherent frame.”

S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 | 9

The Martin Marty Center builds on a long-standing

conviction of the Divinity School that the best and

most innovative scholarship in religion emerges from

sustained dialogue with the world outside the academy. In all of

its projects, the Center aims to serve as a robust circulatory system

that strengthens, deepens, and extends scholarly inquiry by moving

it through the deliberating bodies of the students, faculty, and

public. — William Schweiker, Director of the Marty Center

MartyCenterNews andEvents

For more information, visit our

Web site http://divinity.uchicago.edu

/degree/ministry/conference/2008/.

The conference is free and open to

the public. Lunch will be provided to the

first 100 registrants.

To register or for more information,

email Laura Koepke at ministryconference@gmail.com or call 773-512-8367.

This event is made possible with

the financial support of the Lilly

Endowment, Inc.

From DusttoSteel

Fourth Annual University of Chicago Divinity School Ministry Conference

Keynote address Rev. Heidi NeumarkPastor and author of Breathing Space: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx

With responses from a panel including an architect, a botanist,a Hebrew Bible scholar,a local community leader, and a pastor.

Friday, April 18, 200810am – 5pmSwift Hall1025 East 58th Street

How does a Christian theology of human beings

in creation apply to our understanding of the city?

How is the church called to participate

in the life of the city?

How does a Christian theology of human beings

in creation apply to our understanding of the city?

How is the church called to participate

in the life of the city?

This quarter the Martin Marty Center is pleased to present the

very first Senior Fellow Symposium as well as two confer-

ences, including one honoring recently retired David Tracy.

Upcoming 2008 Events

Augustine: Theological andPhilosophical Conversations

A Conference Honoring David Tracy

Sunday, May 4 – Tuesday, May, 8, 2008

This conference will celebrate the theologicalscholarship of David Tracy, Andrew ThomasGreeley and Grace McNichols Greeley Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus ofCatholic Studies and Professor of Theologyand the Philosophy of Religion in theDivinity School, and discuss central issuesin his current research. In consultation with Prof. Tracy, the Divinity School hasorganized the conference to explore the significance of Augustine of Hippo for interpreting our contemporary theological,philosophical, and cultural circumstances.

The conference structure will be chrono-logical, with sessions proceeding from lateantiquity through the medieval and earlymodern periods to the present. But, through-out, it aims to establish a series of conversa-tions between the Augustinian tradition,broadly conceived, and contemporary scholarship in theology, philosophy, and cultural history.

See http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/conferences/tracy/ for more information,including speakers and schedule.

From Dust to Steel: HumanBeing as Creature and Creator

The Fourth Annual Divinity School Ministry Conference

Thursday, April 18, 2008

10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Swift Hall

This conference will employ Christian theolo-gies of creation to explore the place of humanbeings within creation. It will focus on therole of the human being as both creature andcreator. This conference asks two broad ques-tions: how does a Christian theology of humanbeings as creature and creator apply to ourunderstanding of the city, and in light of thisunderstanding, how is the church called toparticipate in the life of the city?

The keynote speaker will be Rev. HeidiNeumark, pastor and author of BreathingSpace: A Spiritual Journey in the South Bronx.

Please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/degree/ministry/conference/2008/ for moreinformation and to access the conference blog.

Martin Marty Center Senior Fellow ResearchSymposium

Thursday, April 10, 2008

4:00 p.m., Swift Common Room

This year the MMC is instituting a new event,the Senior Fellow Symposium. This event willallow a Senior Fellow to present her or hiswork in a public forum to members of theseminar, the entire Divinity School commu-nity and also members of the University andinterested persons.

The Martin Marty Center Senior Fellowfor 2007‒ 2008, Mary Gerhart, will presenther work, under the title “The Divine Con-jectures: A Scientist and a Theologian Searchfor Meaning and Purpose in the Universe.”

Mary Gerhart is Professor Emerita ofReligious Studies at Hobart William SmithColleges, working on a book with the work-ing title ‘The Divine Conjectures,’ based onwhat is known of the workings of conjecture and hypothesis in science and religion.

Reception to follow.

10 C I R C A

The demarcations between “sacred” and“secular” sites are not always clear — HolyTrinity Russian Orthodox Cathedral clearlyfits in the former category and the Indepen-dence Park clubhouse in the latter; BohemianNational Cemetery may be harder to classify.

But the contest raises important issues con-cerning the preservation of sacred spaces,which can hardly be ignored in any urbanenvironment.

Those that frequent Chicago Avenue just west of the Dan Ryan Expressway know

“Sightings” of religion in the media are any-thing but few and far between these days; soat Sightings the goal is not simply to pointout such appearances, but to turn nuancedattention both to angles that might have beenmissed elsewhere, and to their implicationsfor the citizens of a pluralistic society.

Surely all of us have been dismayed at onetime or another by the haphazard treatmentof religious issues in many media outlets;Sightings thus seeks out expert authors whocan provide its seven-thousand-plus readerswith worthwhile analysis. Essays that addressissues already extensively covered elsewhere— like recent pieces on events in Jena andBurma — do so from perspectives that maynot be found elsewhere, and they evidence acommitment to methodological rigor uponwhich readers have come to rely. Sightingscontinues to serve as a news source for its

subscribers, and as a teaching and preachingtool, such that it reaches a wide audiencebeyond its ever-growing subscriber base.Weekly emails from readers attest to itsfunction as a source of critical commentaryfor an engaged audience — and readers alsonudge Sightings in new directions, so thatgreater attention to international affairs willbe a priority in the coming months. Thescholars who contribute essays, from an arrayof perspectives and analytical lenses, ensurethat Sightings continues to shed light on eventsand trends that are too often overlooked andtoo easily misconstrued.

But Sightings does not limit itself to essayson religion in the news. As the essay fromElizabeth Blasius on the adaptive reuse ofecclesial architecture shows, religion emergesinto the public sphere in the most ordinary— but still noteworthy — ways. Blasius’ essay,“From Catechism to Condos,” shows Sight-ings at its best: The author is a young scholarwho has been grateful for constructive audiencefeedback; and her insightful essay encouragesus all to think about how, removed fromexplicit ideology or conflict, the forces offaith shape the world we live in, every day.

Read Sightings online at http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/sightings/index.shtml.

Martin Marty Center’s Sightings

Sightings: From Catechism to Condos

Now nearing the completion of its first decade, Sightings, the

biweekly online publication of the Marty Center, contin-

ues to address itself to the task of exploring the intersec-

tions between religion and public life.

St. Boniface Church well; cats and pigeonsknow it intimately. The giant shipwreck of a building silently overlooks its rapidlychanging West Town neighborhood, bothrelic and fixture among increasingly desirablereal estate. Enormous rose windows are bandaged by plywood; doorways are stuffedwith concrete blocks; bricks shift and spallfrom top to bottom. The building is mummi-fied, shrouded by chain link fence, bejeweledwith red and white signs warning “PrivateProperty — No Trespassing.” The bell towersand rooflines teem with life; flocks of birdsand tufts of weeds feed off the structure likea giant coral reef.

This bold-shouldered Romanesque skele-ton, designed in 1896 and dedicated in 1904,was once a place where thousands of turn-of-the-century German-Americans (in 1900, onein four Chicagoans was a German immigrant)came to worship. But the late 1950s saw aradical change in West Town: The KennedyExpressway sliced its way through the city tolink Chicago’s Loop to O’Hare InternationalAirport. Thousands of buildings were razedto make way for mass automobile transit.Many Chicagoans, displaced or not, saw the

“The bell towers and rooflinesteem with life; flocks of birdsand tufts of weeds feed off the

structure like a giant coral reef.”

In a contest sponsored by The National Trust for Historic Preser-

vation, the public will determine via online voting (which ended

October 10th) how one million dollars is to be distributed among

twenty-five historic Chicagoland sites.

S P R I N G 2 0 0 8 | 11

construction of multiple highways in thearea as an opportunity to move their youngfamilies into formerly inaccessible suburbancommunities. Decreased attendance madeSt. Boniface’s massive original structureunnecessary, and as with many parishes,upkeep became difficult for the aging con-gregants. St. Boniface became an architec-tural albatross, its bricks and mortar outlivingits intended use.

Massive protest ensued when the ChicagoArchdiocese closed St. Boniface in 1990, bycommunity members whose major life eventshad occurred there. For structures such aswarehouses, storefronts, power plants andschools, the issue of adaptive reuse — adapt-ing a building for new uses while retainingits architectural integrity — is simple. Adap-tive reuse, for which Chicago has set manysignificant precedents, provides a more sustainable, energy-efficient option thandemolition. It allows for another chapter in a building’s history, exposes those whoinhabit the space to important architecture,and often contributes to neighborhood revi-talization. An old building simply needs tofind a new “user,” and the work can begin.

But for a building that houses a particu-lar type of emotional memory, developmentinto a project that seems not to match theintegrity of the original purpose can be justas difficult as demolition. In the case of anadaptive reuse project meant to generateincome, the market must be comfortableenough with the new use to patronize theservices that are housed within the structure.

For many, the transformation from a sacredspace to a commercial venture is inappropri-ate. Community members whose Catholicrites of passage took place within St. Bonifacemay not be receptive to the space being trans-formed, conservatively, into condominiums.One imagines that they would be even lessreceptive to a restaurant or a nightclub (likeChicago’s Excalibur, in what once was theChicago Historical Society). So St. Boniface,like thousands of religious spaces from behe-moth Neo-Gothic cathedrals to one-roomstorefront churches, now stands dormantand decaying.

But what does it mean to preserve the

integrity of a sacred space? Can a religiousstructure be reused for non-religious purposes,and still retain its emotional cohesion? Asthe emphasis on environmentally soundneighborhood revitalization continues, reli-gious structures like St. Boniface will haveto be adapted to changing times; the public,then, must face the challenge of reconsider-ing what space means in an emotional sense.The adaptive reuse of a sacred space doesn’thave to be disrespectful; with appropriatefinancial backing, spaces like St. Bonifacecan be transformed lovingly into usefulmodern structures, which both celebrate the buildings’ original uses and restore theirsignificance. With thoughtful attention,architectural and spiritual integrity can bepreserved simultaneously. A building’sintended use may deteriorate long before itsstained glass and bell towers, but it shouldstill have a chance to prove itself an assetbeyond worship. ❑

Elizabeth Blasius studies historic preserva-tion at the School of the Art Institute ofChicago, and is an archivist at the ChicagoCultural Center.

The Religion and Culture Web Forum

F

This year is no different: September featuredan essay by Lew Daly on Catholic contribu-tions to the New Deal and the revival of“common good” language in politics. TheOctober issue, authored by Divinity Schoolalumnus Timothy S. Lee, examined the fan-tastic growth and troubled recent history ofSouth Korean Evangelicalism. In November,

another alumna, Elizabeth McKeown, offereda consideration of what the study of religioncan offer to those involved in the study andcuration of museums. December’s essay, byJames K. A. Smith of Calvin College, provedquite popular, bringing Augustinian thoughtto bear on American foreign policy.

January and February 2008 featured essaysby current Ph.D. students at the DivinitySchool: Sandra Sullivan Dunbar challengingthe “two-track” understanding of the obliga-tions of Christian love, and M. Cooper Harrisson preachers and preacherly style in the writ-ing of Zora Neale Hurston. In March, JeromeCopulsky of Goucher College ponderedSpinoza’s influence on the political theologyof Moses Hess and its relationship to modernJudaism.

Each essay is complemented by responsesfrom fellow academics and professionals inrelated fields. Recent commentators includeJoseph Bottum, Kelly Chong, Eric Gregory,Eugene McCarraher, Carolyn Jones Medine,and Peter Meilaender. Visit the discussionboard to join the conversation!

Later this year, the Web Forum will bringyou essays on religion and film, religion out-side the American context, and papers bycurrent affiliates of the Marty Center. To benotified of new content monthly, subscribeto our mailing list at: https://listhost.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/rcwf. The Web Forumwelcomes submissions from affiliates (presentand past) of the Divinity School. Inquiriesshould be directed to the forum’s managingeditor, Debra Erickson, at dje@uchicago.edu.

The Religion and Culture Web Forum seeks out corners of

the intersection of “religion” and “culture” which have not

been examined by mainstream media, presents new ways to

look at familiar topics, and brings the most current scholarship in

religion to a wide audience.

“...the public, then, must facethe challenge of reconsidering

what space means in an emotional sense.”

Non-Profit Org.

U.S. Postage

P A I D

Chicago, Illinois

Permit No. 8086

Swift Hall1025 East 58th StreetChicago, Illinois 60637

For calendar updates, please consult the Divinity School’s website at http://

divinity.uchicago.edu/news/. Access the most up-to-date events information,

sign up for our electronic events calendar —“At the Divinity School” —

and get current, and archived, news.

Religion and the City

Since its inception ten years ago, the MartyCenter has focused on the role of religion inpublic life and has sponsored thirty scholarlyconferences on many topics concerned withthe public face of religion. February’s confer-ence was the center’s first to focus specificallyon the city.

Ray Suarez, senior correspondent of the“The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer,” gave theopening plenary address via a taped speechtitled “From Mega to the Storefront: Church

and Community in the 21st Century.” Suarezhad planned to attend, but the reschedulingof the “Super Tuesday” primary on February 5made it impossible for him to leave Wash-ington. Suarez, the author of The Holy Vote: The Politics of Faith in America, has a stronginterest in religion and took numerous coursesat the Divinity School during his year oncampus as a participant in the Benton Fellowsin Journalism Program.

Three breakout sessions followed Suarez’stalk, each looking at the dynamic interrela-tionships of religions and cities through adifferent lens. The conference also included

musical interludes, a panel discussion, and a second plenary address.

Martin Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distin-guished Service Professor Emeritus, whoseeightieth birthday coincided with the tenthanniversary celebration of Marty Center,joined an array of the conference’s speakersat a concluding discussion, titled “Humaneand Cosmopolitan Religions in the 21stCentury.”

For more information, the program, andvideo content, please see http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/conferences/city/.O

n February 5 and 6, 2008, the Divinity School hosted a conference titled“Religion and the City: Our Urban Humanity and the World Beyond” in honor of the tenth anniversary of the Martin Marty Center. Held indowntown Chicago at the University’s Gleacher Center, the conference

brought together scholars and other experts interested in reflecting on the developmentand growth of religions in the context of cities.

As part of a new initiative to makemore campus events accessible to awider public, the conference wasvideorecorded for archiving on theUniversity’s website.

Please visit the conference’s websiteat http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/conferences/city/ to view.

Pictured from left: Richard A. Rosengarten,Martha Nussbaum, Robert S. Nelson, MartinMarty, and William Schweiker

Pictured from left: Martin Marty with past andpresent Marty Center Directors Wendy Doniger,W. Clark Gilpin, and William Schweiker