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Jeremy Begbie published “Theology and Music,” in The Oxford Handbook of Western Music and Philosophy, edited by Tomas McAuley. He spoke in London in June at a public symposium with James MacMillan, Ben Quash, and others on “Divine Mystery and the Arts” at Westminster Abbey and on “Sounds of Hope” for the Kingdom Theology Conference at Westminster Theological Centre. In July he lectured on “Trinitarian Theology Today” at Regent College’s Abbey Summer School in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Luke Bretherton published “Democracy and the Criminal Justice System,” in Political Theology (16.3, 2015), and two articles for the Australian Broadcasting Company’s Religion and Ethics website: “The U.K. General Election and the Return of Democratic Politics” and “The End of National Borders: Thinking Ethically in the Face of Mass Migration.” He delivered three plenary presentations: “Growing Stronger Together: How Can We Build Flourishing Communities?” to the Church Urban Fund’s conference in Nottingham (U.K.) on July 9; a discussion of his book Resurrecting Democracy: Faith, Citizenship and the Politics of a Common Life (Cambridge University Press) at the Citizens UK symposium in London on July 10; and “What Is a Good City? A Theological Reflection” for Science, Religion, and Culture Week at St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral (Melbourne, Australia) on Sept. 29.
Kate Bowler gave a public interview, “The New Thought Origins of the Prosperity Gospel,” at the International New Thought Colloquium in Miami (Fla.) in May, and the lecture “Megaministry” at the Fourth Biennial Conference on Religion and American Culture in Indianapolis in June.
Christine Burkett and Nathan Kirkpatrick taught the course “Advanced Practice of Preaching” for Course of Study held at Duke Divinity School in July. Burkett also delivered the lecture “Building a Bridge: Speaking from the Gut” for the Institute of Preaching, sponsored by Leadership Education at Duke Divinity, in September.
Charles Campbell preached for the commencement service at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary in May. His book (co-authored with Johan Cilliers) Preaching Fools: The Gospel as a Rhetoric of Folly was published in German.
Stephen Chapman published “The Covenant God of Israel: Joshua 8, Divine Concession, and Jesus,” in Covenant and Election in Exilic and Post-Exilic Judaism, edited by Nathan MacDonald (Mohr Siebeck). May 19–21 he attended the annual meeting of the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion in Raleigh, N.C., and presented “Jeremiah 29 and Political Theology.”
James Crenshaw published “Qoheleth’s Hatred of Life: A Passing Phase or an Enduring Sentiment?,” in Wisdom for Life, a festschrift for Maurice Gilbert, edited by Nuria Calduch-Benages (BZAW 445; De Gruyter); “Poor but Wise (Qoheleth 9:13–16),” in Celebrate Her for the Fruit of Her Hands: Essays in Honor of Carol L. Meyers, edited by Susan Ackerman, Charles E. Carter, and Beth Alpert Nakhai (Eisenbrauns); “Literacy” and “Theodicy,” for the Society of Biblical Literature’s Bible Odyssey website; and a review of Reading Ecclesiastes Intertextually, edited by Katharine Dell and Will Kynes (Bloomsbury T&T Clark), in the Journal of Theological Studies. He also edited Have You Considered My Servant Job? by Samuel E. Balentine (University of South Carolina Press).
Susan Eastman participated in the 2015 Building Bridges Seminar, which brought together Muslim and Christian scholars to discuss “Human Action within Divine Creation,” at the Georgetown University campus in Doha, Qatar, May 3–5. She delivered the paper “ ‘It’s Personal’: Paul on Divine Action and the Intersubjective Self” at the conference “Science and Personal Action: Human and Divine,” hosted July 17–18 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Ian Ramsey Centre for Science and Religion at the University of Oxford.
Matthew Floding co-edited with Barbara Blodgett the book Brimming with God: Reflecting Theologically on Cases in Ministry (Pickwick Publications).
Mary McClintock Fulkerson published “Difficult Dialogue and Wisdoms about Difference: Doing as a Way of Knowing,” in Where We Dwell in Common: Pathways for Dialogue in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Gerard Mannion (Palgrave Macmillan), and “Exploring the Role of Ethnography in Theology: A Work in Process,” in Lived Theology in Style, Method, and Pedagogy, edited by Peter Slade, Sarah Azaransky, and Willis Jenkins. She delivered a plenary presentation, “Opening to the World: A Reformed Feminist Posture of Openness,” on May 22 at the Ecclesiological Investigations Conference “Vatican II—Remembering the Future” in Washington, D.C.
Jennie Grillo received an American Council of Learned Societies Fellowship for 2015–16 to work on her book project The Additions to Daniel in the History of Interpretation and was selected as a 2015–17 Mellon Fellow at Rare Book School, University of Virginia.
L. Gregory Jones delivered the keynote address “Getting Ahead of the Curve: Internationalizing Christian Higher Education in an Era of Disruption” at the International Association for Promoting Christian Higher Education Conference at Calvin College on June 4, and three lectures as the keynote speaker for the conference “The Art of Forgiveness” held at Carey Baptist College (Auckland, New Zealand) Aug. 6–8. He gave the convocation address at the commencement of Vancouver School of Theology on May 11 and led a continuing education workshop for Vancouver-area clergy on May 12, facilitated the Fuqua/Coach K Center on Leadership & Ethics Leadership Roundtable in New York City on May 14, addressed the New York Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church on June 10, and spoke at the SMU Christian Fellowship Retreat on Aug. 22. With Susan Pendleton Jones, he spoke at the Duke Divinity School alumni breakfast at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship meeting in Dallas, Texas, on June 19.
Richard Hays participated in a panel discussion and delivered a lecture at the Lanier Theological Library in Houston, Texas, on May 22–23 and preached during the Sunday morning services at First Methodist Church in Houston on May 24. He addressed the delegates at the North Carolina Annual Conference in Wilmington on June 9 and the Western North Carolina Annual Conference in Lake Junaluska on June 17.
Xi Lian delivered the plenary paper “Missionaries in the Making of Vernacular Christianity in China” on May 21 at “The Shaping of Christianity in China,” a conference at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies (U.K.) organized by Overseas Missionary Fellowship to mark the 150th anniversary of the founding of the China Inland Mission.
David Marshall published “Dialogue, Proclamation and the Growth of the Church in Religiously Diverse Societies,” in Towards a Theology of Church Growth, edited by David Goodhew (Ashgate). In May he organized and facilitated the 14th annual Building Bridges seminar for Muslim and Christian scholars, held in Doha, Qatar, on “Human Action within Divine Creation.” He led several seminars on Christian-Muslim relations: for the Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue at the University of Geneva (Switzerland) in June, and at the Reformed Seminary (Jakarta, Indonesia) in August.
Russell Richey delivered the opening lecture and served as event planner (with Douglas Meeks) for a conference on the future of theological education in the UMC held Feb. 26–28 in Nashville, Tenn. He also gave the inaugural lecture for the Wesleyan Historical Society Meeting, March 5, at Mount Vernon Nazarene University in Ohio, and the annual Willson Lecture for the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry in Nashville, Tenn., on March 12. He served on the planning committee, chaired two sessions, and led a panel for the 150th United Methodist Women Celebration Conference, held at Methodist Theological School in Ohio in May. He also co-directed Asbury Theological Seminary’s Wesleyan Studies Summer Seminar in June.
Meredith Riedel published “Nikephoros II Phokas and Orthodox Military Martyrs,” in Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures (41.2, 2015). She presented the paper “Byzantium: Christian Empire or Christian Republic?” at the International SBL Meeting in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in July. On June 24 she lectured on “The Cruelty of Heresy” at Triangle Presbyterian Church, Durham, N.C.
Lester Ruth delivered the address “In Case You Don’t Have a Case (and Sometimes When You Do): Reflections on Methods for Studying Congregational Song in Liturgical History” at the Christian Congregational Music Conference at Ripon College Cuddesdon (U.K.) in August.
Ross Wagner received a grant from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to support three months of research at the University of GЪttingen (Germany).
Laceye Warner was the plenary speaker on the theme “Living Church: A Theological Practice of Evangelism” for the Academy for Evangelism in Theological Education, Wheaton College (Ill.), on June 18. She spoke on United Methodist polity for the Local Pastors’ Licensing School of the Western North Carolina Conference on May 11, and she preached on “Prayers to God” and was instructor in evangelism for the Local Pastors’ Licensing School of the Texas Conference on July 19. She served as an instructor for the Reynolds Leadership Fellows of the Western North Carolina Conference on July 13, during their Wesley tour of the United Kingdom, and for the Texas Youth Academy, held July 20–30 at Southwestern College in Georgetown, on the topic of resurrection.
Will Willimon published How Odd of God: Chosen for the Curious Vocation of Preaching (Westminster John Knox) and an article in The Christian Century on the novels of Karl Ove Knausgaard. In May he participated in the Council of Bishops meeting of the UMC in Berlin (Germany), and in June he gave a lecture and preached at the Festival of Preaching in Denver, Colo., and lectured and led workshops at the Annual Karl Barth Conference at Princeton Theological Seminary. He preached at St. Andrew’s Dune Church (Southampton, N.Y.) in August, at McDonough (Ga.) Presbyterian Church in September, and at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Va.
Brittany Wilson participated in the invited panel “Biblical Masculinities” at the European Association of Biblical Studies in Cordoba, Spain. She was also a 2015–16 grant recipient of the Wabash Center and participated in the Wabash Teaching and Learning workshop for pre-tenure theological school faculty in July.
Lauren Winner taught a spiritual writing workshop at the Collegeville Institute (Minn.) in June and July, spoke on her book Wearing God at Adelynrood (Byfield, Mass.) in August, and led a women’s retreat at Lake Junaluska (N.C.) in September.
Norman Wirzba published From Nature to Creation: A Christian Vision for Understanding and Loving Our World (Baker Academic) and co-edited, with Brian Treanor and Bruce Ellis Benson, Being-in-Creation: Human Responsibility in an Endangered World (Fordham University Press). His essay “Why Theological Education Needs Ecological Wisdom” was published in The Christian Century. He gave several presentations, including four lectures on “Food, Farming, and the Ministries of the Church” for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio (May 5–7), two lectures on “Caring for Creation” at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary (June 8–9), and two presentations on “The Spirituality of Eating” at the Monteagle Sunday School Assembly in Tennessee (June 11–12). He led a retreat with Wendell Berry in late August on the values of education for incoming freshmen at the University of the South in Sewanee (Tenn.), delivered a lecture Sept. 10 on “The Elemental Earth” at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame (Ind.), and was the keynote speaker at Princeton Theological Seminary’s “Just Food” conference Sept. 24–26. He also traveled to Istanbul, Turkey, to participate in the May 26–30 Christian-Muslim dialogue “Creation: Our Shared Inheritance.”