DECATUR, Ga. ― The Center for Lifelong Learning at Columbia Theological Seminary will host two August training sessions for 2012 Presbyterian Women’s Bible Study leaders.

The 2012 HORIZONS Bible Study is entitled “Dispatches to God’s Household” and is based on the general epistles ― 1 and 2 Peter, 1‐3 John, and Jude.

The weekday course will be Mon.-Wed., Aug. 6-8, from 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. each day, taught by Nancy Benson-Nicol. The Weekend course will be Fri., Aug. 10 from 7:00-9:30 p.m. and Sat., Aug. 11 from 8:30 a.m.-3:00 p.m., taught by Sharol Hayner.

The prospectus of the sessions says: “The six books of the New Testament explored in this study teach us what it means to live in community and what it means to belong to the household of God. Together, we will explore family as a guiding and powerful metaphor in these epistles. These letters were meant to inspire and comfort the faithful in first‐century Asia Minor, and they continue to speak to us today as we grapple with how to live in community as disciples of Christ.”

PRINCETON, N.J. ― In late June, Princeton Theological Seminary’s Center for Barth Studies held a three-day conference attended by 60 participants in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Karl Barth’s only visit to the United States.

In 1962, the man that many consider to be most influential theologian of the twentieth century delivered the annual B.B. Warfield Lectures here. Barth made the trip to America just after his retirement from his professorship at the University of Basel. His visit coincided with Princeton Seminary’s 150 anniversary. This year the Seminary is marking its bicentennial year.

Barth’s 1962 lectures in Princeton and at the University of Chicago were subsequently published as a book titled Evangelical Theology.

Bruce McCormick, a Barth scholar on the Princeton Seminary faculty, opened the conference, which he said “brings together emerging and leading scholars of Karl Barth to think together about his significance for American theology past, present, and future.” The 11 conference speakers included, among others, Hans-Anton Drewes from the Karl Barth Archive in Basel, Switzerland, and Daniel Migliore, emeritus professor of theology at Princeton Seminary, who taught Barth’s theology.

“Barth’s theology was free from all ideological straight jackets,” he said, “and also free from all theological orthodoxies. The watchword of Barth’s theology is God’s freedom, which supports human freedom.”

SAN ANSELMO, Calif. ― Rev. Dr. James Noel of San Francisco Theological Seminary will be honored as the Graduate Theological Union Distinguished Faculty Lecturer on Nov. 8 in Berkeley, Calif.

The GTU, one of the largest partnerships of seminaries and graduate schools in the United States, celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2012. Each November, the GTU faculty honors a distinguished professor who embodies the scholarly standards, teaching excellence and commitment to ecumenism that define the GTU. Nominations are considered by the Council of Deans, which selects the Distinguished Faculty Lecturer.

Noel is the H. Eugene Farlough, Jr. Chair of African American Christianity and professor of American religion at SFTS. He is also director of the GTU’s Black Church/Africana Religious Studies Program and interim pastor at New Liberation Presbyterian Church in San Francisco.

His lecture is entitled “Black Religion in the Atlantic World during the Age of Revolution: Excavating the ‘Sublime.’”

PITTSBURGH ― Whether she’s washing a window, taking out the recycling, or vacuuming the floor, Audrey Starr is working with a smile on her face.

Starr, a custodian at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and the recipient of the 2012 Calian Prize for Campus Community Service. This award — established by former President Carnegie Samuel Calian — is given each year to an exemplary member of the seminary community who demonstrates excellence in carrying out responsibilities and volunteer assignments and also expresses a caring spirit of good will and hope so essential in the seminary’s life together as a community.

“Audrey lights up every room she enters. I don’t think she has a grumpy bone in her body. Faculty, staff and students alike all appreciate the ever-present glow on her face. She certainly epitomizes what the Calian award is all about,” says President William Carl.

Starr came to the Seminary four years ago following more than two decades in the microfilming industry. She had been laid off and was looking for employment. At a family member’s suggestion, she applied at the seminary.

AUSTIN, Texas -- The 2012 Heyer Lecture at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary will be on the theme of immigration.

The Sept. 27 lecture will be delivered by Nestor P. Rodriguez, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin. His research focuses on Guatemalan migration, U.S. deportations to Mexico and Central America, the unauthorized migration of unaccompanied minors, evolving relations between Latinos/as and African and Asian Americans, and human rights issues of broader enforcement.  

 

 

 

CHICAGO ― Eleven McCormick Theological Seminary students were published in a new book entitled The Beginning of Difference: How the Authors of Genesis Thought about Themselves and Others.

Newly published authors include: T.C. Anderson, Sandra J. Brown, Angelica Munera Cervera, Shelley Donaldson, Linda Eastwood, Mike Ellis, Jennifer J. Ikoma-Motzko, Peter Horth, Youngil Kang, and Eun Joo (Angela) Ryo. Many of the new authors graduated in May 2012. McCormick’s Theodore Hiebert, professor of Old Testament, is the editor.

McCormick students composed twelve studies which describe the ways in which the authors of Genesis viewed cultural difference. Each chapter in The Beginning of Difference focuses on a single narrative from the book of Genesis. The aim of these studies is to find out whether the ideas about difference at the very beginning of our biblical traditions provide resources for our thinking about and living with diversity today or whether these beginnings provided obstacles for thinking about our life together.

Hiebert says, “The impetus for this course really comes from our own community at McCormick. We are a diverse community and interest in discovering ways to live with diversity in ways that enrich each of us rather than divide us from each other.”

The Beginning of Difference is available for $10.45 through lulu.com, a self publishing company. For additional information, please click here.

RICHMOND, Va. ― A fabric art on display in the foyer of the William Smith Morton Library at Union Presbyterian Seminary here is a gift from the Presbytery of the James to commemorate the seminary’s bicentennial theme ― “Seminary and Church Together.”

Designed by Heide Schumann and Linda Makrancy and quilted by members of South Plains Presbyterian Church in Keswick, Va., the artwork represents the mountains, piedmont, and flat lands of the presbytery, as well as the passage of time “that continues to give us new opportunities to love and serve the Lord.”

ATLANTA ― To facilitate campus improvements, the Interdenominational Theological Center here ― which includes Johnson C. Smith Seminary ― is temporarily moving select classes across the street from the campus to Morris Brown's Hickman Building. The move date is set for Aug. 1.