Spirituality & Religion
Spirituality & Religion
Spirituality & Religion
I am committed to the belief that a just world is possible, and that religion’s role is to help usher in that world, abandoning exclusionary theology, oppressive regimes, and violence done in God’s name. For me, spirituality is not about magical thinking or the supernatural; I feel very strongly that religion is to be about listening to God's call to move into strong, healthy, and inclusive communities in the here-and-now.
My wife (Kristina) and I both serve in the ministry within the Religious Society of Friends. Mostly I serve as a religious educator, but I also preach — within and beyond the denomination — as well. I travel in the itinerant ministry under the oversight of a care and accountability committee appointed by of Fresh Pond Monthly Meeting of New England Yearly Meeting. With Kristina, I have taught Quaker Faith and Practice at Pendle Hill, and have created a series of adult religious education videos for use in Quaker Meetings. I also serve a supportive role in the Quaker worship experiment that is Three Rivers Meeting. In the ministry I travel widely and have co-lead retreats in Michigan, Ottawa, Vermont, and various venues in New York and Massachusetts. I was a plenary speaker for the National conference on Quaker Leadings and Discernment, and have been the invited leader of Bible Study for both Farmington-Scipio Regional Meeting, and New York Yearly Meeting's Annual Sessions. I am interested in the practices of Early Friends and issues of discipline and transformation within Monthly Meetings.
Academically, I am a theologian and my work focuses primarily on the development of a public theology of public education, though I do juggle a number of side projects relating to creative and liberation approaches to Adult Religious Education. I work in the disciplines of Practical Theology and Religious Education, and am a huge adovacte for making theology accessible to folks. Technical academic language certainly does have its place, but I think that as a scholar I should make sure that at least periodically I check in to make sure my work still matters to folks who are not in the academy. I was the founder of The Association for Theopoetics Research and Exploration and THEOPOETICS, an online journal. For a while I vlogged regularly at The Image of Fish, the archives of which now live here. In addition to these online sources, I periodically publish in academic journals, denominational resources, and speak at various venues either as preacher or lecturer. You can read more about that here.
The Arts play a large role in my sense of all things, perhaps especially those things which are spiritual-centered. Throughout my work run themes addressing practices of creativity, embodiment, and (re)imagining the Divine, all of which are addressed in my work with theopoetics.