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Esther Acolatse published “What Is Theological about Practical Theology: Toward a Hermeneutic of Primal Speech,” in Practical Theology (7.3, 2014); and “Culture of War, Violence, and Sexual Assault in the Military: An Ethic of Compromise?,” in The Journal of Pastoral Theology (24.1, 2014). She delivered the Stanley Grenz Distinguished Lecture Series, entitled “Re-enchantment: Envisioning the Future of Theology for the Missional Church of the 21st Century,” Oct. 6–7 at the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology, and at the AAR Annual Meeting in November responded to a panel discussing “For Freedom or Bondage,” sponsored by the Christian Theological Research Fellowship and the African Association for the Study of Religion. She gave a plenary address on “Practical Strategies for Spiritual Warfare” and a workshop on “Warfare Prayer” for the Dec. 3–4 Holy Spirit Conference, Aldersgate Renewal Ministries, hosted by United Theological Seminary in Ohio, and led the seminar “Pastoral Leadership and the Reconciling Church” at the Great Lakes Institute Leadership Institute in Uganda, Jan. 10–16. She taught in the annual doctoral seminar at the Akrofi-Christaller Institute for Theology, Mission and Culture in Akropong Akuapem, Ghana, April 13–15.
Jeremy Begbie delivered the Stob Lectures at Calvin College in November on the theme “Musical and Reformed Reflections on a Contemporary Trend—Reactivating Transcendence”; the LeRoy Martin Distinguished Lecture at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in January, “The Sound of Freedom: The Music of Liberation”; and “More than Meets the Ear: What Does Music Have to Do with God?” for the Liturgy and Music Commission, Diocese of West Texas, St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, San Antonio, in February. As pianist, he performed Olivier Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen with Cordelia Williams as part of the Easter Festival at King’s College, Cambridge, in March.
Kate Bowler received a 2015 sabbatical grant from The Louisville Institute to support her next book on the co-pastor wife as a modern American icon. She published “The Daily Grind: The Religious Labor of the American Prosperity Gospel,” in the Journal of Cultural Economy (8.1, 2015), and participated in a roundtable response to her book, Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel, at the Conference on Faith and History in New York, N.Y., in January. She presented the lecture “Harvest Time at Springs Church: A Prosperity Gospel for Winnipeg Mennonites” to the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada, University of Winnipeg, in October, and “The Wackerites: An Ethnographic Account of a North Carolina Sect,” a tribute to Grant Wacker, at the American Society of Church History meeting in New York, N.Y., in January.
Luke Bretherton published Resurrecting Democracy: Faith, Citizenship and the Politics of a Common Life for the Cambridge Studies in Social Theory, Religion and Politics series. He delivered the 2014 Margaret Lindquist Sorensen Lecture at Yale Divinity School on Oct. 9, the paper “Religion and Power: New Directions in Social Ethics” at Princeton University on March 12–13, and the Schaff Lectures at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary on March 24–25. In October he led a three-day workshop for the Industrial Areas Foundation in Dallas, Texas.
Douglas Campbell published Framing Paul: An Epistolary Account (Eerdmans); “Participation and Faith in Paul,” in the collection “In Christ” in Paul: Explorations in Paul’s Theology of Union and Participation, edited by Michael J. Thate, Kevin J. Vanhoozer, and Constantine R. Campbell (WUNT; Tuebingen: Mohr Siebeck); “N.T. Wright and the Lutheran-ness of Paul,” in Marginalia; “Covenant or Contract in the Interpretation of Paul,” in Participatio: Journal of the Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship (supp. vol. 3, 2014); and “Beyond the Torah at Antioch: The Probable Locus for Paul’s Radical Transition,” in Journal for the Study of Paul and His Letters (4.2, 2014). He argued the “no” position in a debate with Douglas Moo on the question “Paul on Justification: Is the ‘Lutheran’ Approach to Pauline Justification ‘Justified’?” at the Carl F.H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, on Feb 12. At the SBL Annual Meeting in November he presented two papers: “Apocalyptic and Salvation-History: A Response to N.T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God,” at the Pauline Soteriology Consultation; and “Paul’s Apocalyptic Epistemology,” at a special session.
J. Kameron Carter was named one of six Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2015–2016 for his project exploring Christianity’s post-racial blues.
Stephen Chapman published “Studying the Word of God,” in the “Scripture” issue of Christian Reflection. He taught an advanced Old Testament class for Weekend Course of Study throughout the fall and offered a seminar on preaching the Old Testament in Advent (Year B) for Convocation & Pastors’ School in October. He lectured at Baylor University in March on “What Is the Use of History? The Bible and Historical Criticism.” He preached on Isaiah 52 in Goodson Chapel for the Divinity School’s annual foot-washing service and continues to speak at a number of area churches, including the Congregation at Duke Chapel, First Baptist in Raleigh, First UMC in Graham, St. Luke’s Episcopal in Durham, and St. Michael’s Episcopal in Raleigh. This year he began a term as director of graduate studies for Duke’s Ph.D. program in religion.
Mark Chaves and Shawna Anderson published “Changing American Congregations: Findings from the Third Wave of the National Congregations Study,” in Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (53.4, 2014). On Feb. 15 he delivered the annual Bracke Lecture at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Mo., a lecture co-sponsored by the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis.
Matthew Floding and Rhonda Parker presented a workshop, “Developing Supervisor-Mentors in Communities of Practice,” at the Association for Theological Field Education (ATFE) Biennial Consultation with colleagues from Princeton Theological Seminary, Yale Divinity School, Virginia Theological Seminary, and Beeson Divinity School. The content was the fruit of two years of research conducted collaboratively with the support of a grant from ATFE. The findings of this group were published in the April issue of the journal Reflective Practice as “The Power of the Learning Community Model for the Development of Supervisor-Mentors.” Floding also conducted a workshop for new field educators at the ATFE event.
Mary McClintock Fulkerson published the preface for Thinking about Things and Other Frivolities: A Life by Edward Farley (Cascade Books) and the foreword in Christian Doctrines for Global Gender Justice, edited by Jenny Daggers and Grace Ji-Sun Kim (Palgrave Macmillan). She taught a seminar, “Radical Eucharist: Seeking Authentic Community,” at Convocation & Pastors’ School in October. At the AAR Annual Meeting in November she gave a presentation on “Fieldwork in Theology and Ethics: A Methodological Conversation with Anthropologists about Ethnography” and a response to presentations on “New Approaches in Comparative Religious Ethics: Gender Analysis and Ethnographic Data,” a panel hosted by the Comparative Religious Ethics Group. She spoke on “Colorblindness as Racism” at the Sacred Conversations: Black Lives Matter panel discussion at Duke Memorial UMC in Durham on Jan. 28 and on “Feminist Theology” at the Duke University Women’s Center on Feb. 18. She delivered the plenary speech “Theology and Ethnography: Creativity, Challenge, and Change” and the paper “Gender, Sex, and the Academic Study of Religion: A U.S. Perspective” for the “Gender, Sex, and Systematic Theology—Present Realities, Future Aspirations” panel at the Society for the Study of Theology Conference “Thinking the Church Today,” held April 14–15 in Nottingham (U.K.).
Jennie Grillo was awarded a research fellowship for 2015–16 from the American Council of Learned Societies. She published the essay “Worship and Idolatry in the Book of Daniel through the Lens of Tertullian’s De idololatria,” in Monotheism in Late Prophetic and Early Apocalyptic Literature, edited by Nathan MacDonald and Kenneth Brown (Mohr Siebeck) and gave two papers at the SBL Annual Meeting in November: “‘You Will Forget Your Ancient Shame’: The Innocence of Susanna and the Vindication of Israel” and “Reading Susanna Allegorically.”
Richard Hays published Reading Backwards: Figural Christology and the Fourfold Gospel Witness (Baylor University Press). He delivered a number of lectures: the Reynolds Lecture, “‘Hidden from the Wise and from the Intelligent’: Jesus Goes to the University,” at Greensboro College on Nov. 6; “What Can Christian Theology Offer to the World of Law?,” part of the McDonald Distinguished Scholar Lectures on Christian Scholarship at Emory Law School in Atlanta, Ga., on March 16; “Do the Gospel Writers Misread the Old Testament?,” a public lecture March 25 at the University of Virginia; and a series of lectures in Japan in April, including at the Forum on Reconciliation in Northeast Asia, the Nagasaki Theological Symposium, the Preacher’s College, Union Theological Seminary, the New Testament Society, and the Tokyo Theological Symposium. At the SBL Annual Meeting in November, he presented the paper “The Erasure of Israel in Rudolf Bultmann’s Theology of Paul” and participated in a panel discussion on Reading Backwards. He preached at Christ Church in Plano, Texas, on March 1.
Willie James Jennings received the 2015 Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Religion for his book The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race.
Xi Lian was named one of six Henry Luce III Fellows in Theology for 2015–2016 for his critical biography of Lin Zhao, a Chinese Christian who was executed during the Cultural Revolution.
Richard Lischer published an Ash Wednesday meditation, “The Shape of Ashes,” in The Christian Century (Feb. 18) and wrote “Lessons from the Letters” (on Dietrich Bonhoeffer) for the magazine’s blog Then & Now. He lectured and preached as part of the annual Bach Cantata series at Grace Lutheran Church, Chicago, Ill., and preached the ordination sermon for Andrew Tucker D’12, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Durham, N.C. He gave an introductory talk before the theatrical production of Katori Hall’s The Mountaintop at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Raleigh, N.C., and continues to serve as a consultant to the documentary film Origin of the Dream, produced in conjunction with the Department of English at North Carolina State University. He participated in the Duke Chapel Bridge Conversation “What to Say When Someone Is Dying” and recently appeared on WRAL-TV’s On the Record with David Crabtree. His book Reading the Parables was named one of the 10 best books of 2014 by the Academy of Parish Clergy.
Randy Maddox published “‘Anticipate Our Heaven Below’: The Emphatic Hope and Abiding Tone of Charles Wesley’s Eschatology,” in Proceedings of the Charles Wesley Society (vol. 17, 2013), and “A Zealous (but Respected) Adversary: John Lewis’s Correspondence with John Wesley,” in Wesley and Methodist Studies (vol. 7, 2015). He presented the keynote address “Excellence in (Methodist) Ministry: Some Historical Perspectives on Present Concerns” at the Gathering on Excellence in Ministry, sponsored by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry (UMC), in Denver, Colo., Aug. 12; the J. Arthur Heck Lectures on “‘Anticipate Our Heaven Below’: Wesleyan Precedents for Reclaiming Holistic Salvation” at United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, Oct. 15; the lecture “‘Anticipate Our Heaven Below?’ Wesleyan Tensions in Eschatology” to the Norwegian School of Theology, Oslo, Norway, Jan. 19; and a series on “Holistic Salvation—A Central Wesleyan Conviction for Ministry Today” at a pastors’ school for the Norway Annual Conference of the UMC, Oslo, Norway, Jan. 20–23.
David Marshall led a weekend symposium in November at Christ Church Cathedral, Nashville, Tenn., on the topic “Towards Understanding Islam.” He gave a lecture at the University of Bristol (U.K.) titled “On Writing an Introduction to the Qur’an for Christian Readers.”
Sujin Pak published “Three Early Female Protestant Reformers’ Appropriation of Prophecy as Interpretation of Scripture,” in Church History (84.1, 2015). She delivered a lecture for Duke Youth Academy’s sessions on “Vocation” in February.
Richard Payne was appointed to the Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, of the National Institutes of Health, by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Its main goal is to implement a national health plan to improve the assessment and management of chronic pain in the United States, in line with the Affordable Care Act. He also received the Pioneer Medal from the HealthCare Chaplaincy Network in May and was elected to the Harvard Medical School Alumni Council in October.
Russell Richey published Formation for Ministry in American Methodism: Twenty-first Century Challenges and Two Centuries of Problem-Solving (UMC General Board of Higher Education and Ministry).
Lester Ruth published “What Ancient Worship Leaders Might Say to Today’s Worship Leaders,” in Worship Leader (March/April 2015); presented “The History of the Term Contemporary Worship” at the North American Academy of Liturgy meeting in Minneapolis, Minn., Jan. 2; and participated in a panel discussion on “The Turn toward the Formative in Contemporary Worship” at the Calvin Worship Symposium in Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 19.
Beth Sheppard published “Viae et Pontes: The Literary Mileposts of Garry Wills (An Annotated Bibliography),” in Nation and World, Church and God: The Legacy of Garry Wills, edited by Kenneth L. Vaux and Melanie Baffes (Northwestern University Press). She presented “History, Historical, Historiography: The Fourth Gospel’s Use of Dialogue as Window to the Past” at the SBL Annual Meeting in November.
Eboni Marshall Turman delivered the Pan-African Women’s Lecture at Yale University on Feb. 11 and the Women’s History Month Lecture at McCormick Theological Seminary on March 5. She attended the 2014–15 Wabash Pre-Tenure Faculty in Theological Schools Workshop and was the respondent to the 25th-anniversary UM Women of Color Scholars panel on Nov. 21.
Ross Wagner published “Interpreting the Sealed Book,” in the Journal of Septuagint and Cognate Studies (vol. 47, 2014). He joined the editorial board of the Mohr Siebeck monograph series Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament. He delivered several lectures: “The Septuagint as Christian Scripture,” for the Institute for Biblical Research at the SBL Annual Meeting; “Paul, Scripture, and the Faithfulness of God,” the plenary address to the Central States Region SBL meeting; and “Sanctified by the Body of Christ: Greek Scriptures in the Christian Bible,” a public lecture at the University of Notre Dame, where he also participated in a panel discussion on the theological interpretation of Scripture. Other presentations included “Speaking Boldly with the Gentleness of Christ,” for the North American Society of Early-Career Theologians; the paper “Beloved on Account of the Ancestors (Rom. 11:28),” at the Drumwright Colloquy on Romans 9–11 at Baylor University, Nov. 19–20; and a talk on Cardinal Newman’s reading of Scripture, for the Epiphany Theology Group meeting in Pasadena, Calif. He taught a 10-week adult education course on 1 Peter at All Saints Church, Durham, N.C., and spoke at Baptist Grove Church, Raleigh, N.C., on “Church and Ministry: Growing Together into the Full Stature of Christ.”
Will Willimon delivered the McLeod Lectures, on Karl Barth’s doctrine of election and its implications for preaching, at Princeton Theological Seminary in November and lectures at the Buechner Institute in Bristol, Tenn., in March. He had several preaching engagements: the Holy Week services at Church of the Advent on Beacon Hill in Boston, Mass., as well as churches in New York City, Shreveport, La., Rock Hill, S.C., Raleigh, N.C., Chicago, Ill., and Houston, Texas. He led a six-week study on his book Sinning Like a Christian at Edenton Street UMC in Raleigh, and in January spent a week with clergy in Norway and Sweden talking about evangelism and mission.
Brittany Wilson published Unmanly Men: Refigurations of Masculinity in Luke-Acts (Oxford University Press). She delivered the paper “Masculinity in Luke” on the invited panel “Configuring Gender in Luke’s Gospel” at the SBL Annual Meeting in November.
Lauren Winner published Wearing God (HarperOne). She was the keynote speaker at the clergy conference for the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, N.J., in October and at “A Church for All Generations in an Age of ‘Nones,’” an event sponsored by the School for Leadership Training at Eastern Mennonite University in January.
Norman Wirzba gave several lectures in Sweden relating to creation and food (at the Stockholm School of Theology, Stockholm’s Catholic diocese, and BjКrka SКby) the week of Oct. 20–24. At the School of Theology in Sewanee, Tenn., he lectured on “Salvation with the Stomach in Mind” and “Theological Sources for Sustainable Agriculture.” Other lectures included “New Testament Bases for Creation Care” and “Food Justice,” at Vanderbilt Divinity School and Vanderbilt’s Center for Bioethics and Society; “Why Theological Education Needs Ecology,” at Yale Divinity School; the keynote address “Food and Faith,” at the Gravatt Conference Center in Aiken, S.C.; “On Renewing Creation,” at Candler School of Theology’s Centennial Conference; “The Spirituality of Eating,” at North Park University in Chicago, Ill.; “Creation, Evolution, and the Fall,” at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill.; and the Kulenkamp Lectures at Eden Theological Seminary in St. Louis, Mo. He was the McClendon Scholar in Residence at New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., Feb. 6–7. His book Making Peace with the Land was translated into Korean.