Faculty Activities

Tejai Beulah
Assistant Professor of History, Ethics and Black Church and African Diaspora Studies

Professional and guild meetings

American Academy of Religion, San Diego, November 2019

Academic lectures and presentations

“Black Christian Intellectuals? Reimagining 20th Century Black Women’s Work,” MTSO Scholarship Competition, February 2020.

Church and popular presentations

“Howard Thurman’s Footprints of a Dream: How to Fellowship with All Peoples,” Ohio Council of Churches’ 100th anniversary conference, MTSO, Sept. 6, 2019.

Preaching

MTSO chapel service, Feb. 4, 2020.

Preached virtually on multiple occasions for Facebook’s Freedom Church of the Poor, part of the Reading the Bible with the Poor group, sponsored by the Kairos Center of Union Theological Seminary and the National Poor People’s Campaign, Spring 2020.

Presenter for graduation service, New Bethel Baptist Church, Youngstown, June 14, 2020.

Valerie Bridgeman
Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs
Associate Professor of Homiletics and Hebrew Bible

Publications

“Interpreting the Bible in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter: The Gideon Story and Scholarly Commitments,” 311-325, in Second Wave Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible, Atlanta: SBL Press, 2019.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Christian Preaching,” presented during Universalist Unitarian conference on Being a UU Student in Christian Seminaries, July 8, 2019.

Presented four lectures at Anderson University School of Theology & Christian Ministry: “The Body Speaks: Embodied Complaint in the Book of Job,” “‘Because I’m the Deity’ and Other Unsatisfactory Answers in the Book of Job,” “The Book of Job on Communal Trauma and Suffering,” and “The Book of Job on Creation and Why We Should Care about Planet Earth,” Oct. 21, 2019.

“Womanist Tribe Rising and Coalition Building in the Guild,” presented in joint session of Women in the Biblical World and Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 26, 2019.

Professional and guild meetings

American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meetings, San Diego. Elected to the Women in the Profession Committee, Society of Biblical Literature, November 2019.

Church and popular lectures

“Seminary for the 21st Century,” at The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries, Atlantic City, July 16, 2019.

Preaching

New Salem Baptist Church, Columbus, Oct. 13, 2019.

Princeton University Chapel, Princeton, New Jersey, Dec. 6, 2019.

Academy of Homiletics, New Brunswick, New York, Dec. 8, 2019.

Other activities

Day of Return Pilgrimage and Study Tour, Ghana, July 24-Aug. 6, 2019.

Convener and Panel presider, Ohio Council of Churches’ 100th anniversary conference, MTSO, Sept. 6, 2019.

Dean of Seminarians, National Council of Churches Christian Unity Gathering, Hampton, VA, Oct. 13-16, 2019.

Kyle Brooks
Assistant Professor of Homiletics, Worship, and Black Church and African Diasporic Studies

Publications

“The Sound of Celebration: Digital Interventions in the Black Church Whooping Tradition,” Fire!!! Vol. 6, No. 1, Theorizing the Digital Black Church, Spring (2020).

“Conclusion: Our Pedagogical Task” in “Short Takes: Teaching in Times of Crisis: Practices and Promises of Liberative Pedagogies,” Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion Vol. 36, No. 1, 2020.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Teaching in Times of Crisis: Practices and Promises of Liberative Pedagogies,” American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 23, 2019.

Church and popular presentations

Panelist, “In the Beginning Was the Word: Understanding the Intersection of Rhetoric, Race, and Religion,” African American Public Address Pre-Conference at National Communication Association, Baltimore, Nov. 13, 2019.

Paul Burnam
Director of Dickhaut Library

Publications

“Everett Tilson: Pioneer in the Condemnation of White Privilege,” Ohio History, 127 (2020).

Jeffrey Jaynes
Professor in the Warner Chair of Church History
Director of Doctor of Ministry Program

Publications

Review of Maciej Ptaszyński’s Beruf und Berufung: Die evangelische Geistlichkeit und die Konfessionsbildung in den Herzogtümern Pommern, 1560-1618 in Sixteenth Century Journal, Summer 2019.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Beyond ‘Cut and Paste’: Johannes Bugenhagen and Contextual Reform in the Hansa Cities,” at Sixteenth Century Studies, St. Louis, October 2019.

Professional and guild meetings

Sixteenth Century Studies, St. Louis, October 2019.

Preaching

Rose Run Presbyterian Church, New Albany, Sept. 15, 2019.

Boulevard Presbyterian Church, Grandview Heights, Oct. 13, 2019.

Paul Kim
Professor of Hebrew Bible in the Williams Chair of Biblical Studies

Publications

“Ruth vis-à-vis Esther: Reading Intertextually Ruth the ‘Widow’ and Esther the ‘Orphan’ as Diasporic ‘Immigrants,’” in The Korean Journal of Old Testament Studies 74 (2019).

“Fun in the Pun in Deciphering Isaiah,” essays in honor of Tai-il Wang, Canon and Culture: A Journal of Biblical Interpretation in Context 13 (2019).

Review of Jongkyung Lee’s A Redactional Study of the Book of Isaiah 13-23 in Oxford Theology and Religion Monographs in Biblica 100 (2019).

Review of Shawn Zelig Aster, Reflections of Empire in Isaiah 1–39: Responses to Assyrian Ideology, Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature Press, 2017, in Biblical Interpretation 28 (2020).

Academic lectures and presentations

“Were There (or Can There Be) ‘Good’ Slave-Owners? An Intertextual Dialogue among Genesis 21, Exodus 21, and Deuteronomy 15,” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, November 2019.

“E Pluribus Unum: Finding Intertexual Threads That Unite the Book of Isaiah,” Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Rome, Italy, July 3, 2019.

“Ruth vis-à-vis Esther: Reading Intertextually, Exploring Diaspora Hermeneutics,” keynote address at 111th Conference of the Korean Society of the Old Testament Studies, Daejeon, Korea, Sept. 20, 20.

Professional and guild meetings

Society of Biblical Literature International Meeting, Rome, Italy, July 1-5, 2019.

111th Conference of the Korean Society of the Old Testament Studies, Daejeon, Korea, Sept. 20, 2019.

Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 21-26, 2019.

Church and popular lectures

“Intertextuality: Its Method and Praxis,” Seoul Christian University, Seoul, Korea, Sept. 22, 2019.

Preaching

“Kindom of God,” Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus, Aug. 11, 2019.

“Hall of Faith,” Condit Presbyterian Church, Condit, Aug. 18, 2019.

Mt. Vernon First Presbyterian Church, Mt. Vernon, Oct. 6, 2019.

“Baby Boomers, Millennials, Gen X, Y, Z,” Condit Presbyterian Church, Jan. 5, 2020.

“What Are Most Important,” Korean Presbyterian Church of Columbus, Columbus, Feb. 16, 2020.

Sarah Heaner Lancaster
Professor in the Werner Chair of Theology

Academic lectures and presentations

“Sin and Duty: Methodists, Moravians, and Antinomianism,” Manchester Wesley Research Centre, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, November 2019.

“John Wesley’s Interaction with the Moravians in England,” seminar at Nazarene Theological College, Didsbury, England (via Zoom), March 28, 2020.

Professional and guild meetings

Post Way Forward Gathering of United Methodist Scholars, Lovers Lane United Methodist Church, Dallas, Aug. 7-8, 2019.

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 22-26, 2019.

Church and popular lectures

“Not Giving Up on the Authority of Scripture,” Post Way Forward Gathering of United Methodist Scholars, Dallas, Aug. 7-8, 2019.

“Ecumenism and the Disinherited Reconsidering Mission” Ohio Council of Churches’ 100th anniversary conference, MTSO, Sept. 6, 2019.

“Making Sense of the Bible: Inspiration and Inerrancy,” Moebius Group, Church of the Messiah, Westerville, Feb. 20, 2020.

“But the Bible Says It’s Wrong,” A Place to Be Group, Church of the Messiah, Westerville.

Elaine Nogueira-Godsey
Assistant Professor of Theology, Ecology and Race

Publications

“Towards a Decological Praxis” in Horizontes Decoloniales 1 (2019).

“Tangible Actions Toward Solidarity: An Ecofeminist Analysis of Women’s Participation in Food Justice,” with Kelsey Ryan-Simkins, in Valuing Lives, Healing Earth, Louvain, Belgium: Peeters Publishers, forthcoming.

“Por uma Práxis Decológica” In Religião, Gênero, Violências e Direitos Humanos, Vitória, Brazil: Editora Unida, 2019.

“Beyond God the Mother and God the Father” in The Immanent Frame, June 2019.

“The Joy of Working Groups” in The International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2019.

“Recognizing and Coming to Terms with ‘Dominator–Subordinated’ Relationships” in The Future of “Science and Religion”: Beyond “Religion” and “Science,” 2019.

Assistant editor, Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, 2016-present.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Women’s Participation in Food Justice: Developing Transnational Solidarity,” with Kelsey Ryan-Simkins, MTSO, Sept. 24, 2019.

“Creating and Expanding Public Spheres and Climate Change,” American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Women’s Caucus, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, Nov. 23, 2019.

“Recognizing and Coming to Terms with ‘Dominator–Subordinated’ Relationships,” International Society for Science and Religion, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, Nov. 24, 2019.

“Connecting Theology, Ecology and Race: A Conversation on Environmental Justice,” Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina, March 26, 2020.

Professional and guild meetings

Wabash Workshop for Early Career Theological School Faculty, Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana, July 15-20, 2019.

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting in San Diego, November 2019.

Pre-conference meeting of the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, Nov. 22, 2019.

Pre-conference meeting of the Feminist Liberation Theologians Network, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, Nov. 22, 2019.

Religions and Ecology Unit luncheon, American Academy of Religion, San Diego, Nov. 22, 2019.

Other activities

MTSO delegation to Borderlinks, Tucson, Arizona, Aug. 14–20, 2019.

Wage Theft Clinic, Central Ohio Worker Center, Oct. 5, 2019.

“Peer Mentoring Clusters” Wabash Center grant, with Swasti Bhattacharyya and Verna Marina Ehret, 2019-2020.

Treasurer, International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 2019-2022.

Co-chair, American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature Women’s Caucus, (2020-2022.

Steering committee, Latina/o, Religion, Culture and Society Unit, American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature, 2020-2022.

Paul Numrich
Professor in the Snowden Chair for the Study of Religion and Interreligious Relations

Publications

“Epilogue: Understanding a Decentralised Social Movement” in The Interfaith Movement: Mobilising Religious Diversity in the 21st Century, London: Routledge, 2019.

Academic lectures and presentations

“Worldview Competency in Health Care,” Spiritual Care Grand Rounds, Wexner Medical Center, Columbus.

Professional and guild meetings

“Faith Leaders Workshop,” Grady Memorial Hospital, Delaware.

“Ethics for the Set-Apart Ministry: Advanced Course,” Greenville.

Church and popular lectures

Panel moderator, “Civility in an Era of Hostility: An Interfaith Perspective,” Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, Columbus.

Other activities

Consulted with Chicago History Museum on Chicago Sacred project.

Annual Kristallnacht Commemoration, Bexley.

M. Fulgence Nyengele
Professor of Pastoral Care and Counseling in the Chryst Chair in Pastoral Theology
Director of Master of Arts in Counseling Ministries Program

Publications

Développement et Croissance du Méthodisme Uni en RD Congo: Origines, Défis, et Possibilités (Development and Expansion of United Methodism in DR Congo: Origins, Challenges, and Possibilities), Nashville: General Board of Higher Education and Ministry, 2020.

Professional and guild meetings

“Decolonial and Postcolonial Relational Engagement with Borders and Hybrid Identities,” 35th Anniversary of the Society for Pastoral Theology, San Diego, June 2020.

Church and popular lectures

Taught “Pastoral Counseling and Congregational Care” course at the Burundi Conference Course of Study Program, Burundi Conference of the United Methodist Church, Bujumbura, Burundi, Feb. 8-15, 2020.

Joon-Sik Park
Professor in the E. Stanley Jones Chair of World Evangelism
Director of Course of Study School in Ohio

Publications

Contributing editor for International Bulletin of Mission Research.

Editorial Board of Theology of Mission (Journal of the Korean Society of Missiology).

Professional and guild meetings

Course of Study Directors Meeting, Dallas, Oct. 29-30, 2019.

American Society of Missiology Board of Directors Retreat, Chicago, Dec. 6-7, 2019.

Church and popular lectures

“Renewal and Recommitment,” Mansfield Korean United Methodist Church, Mansfield, Aug. 11, 2019.

“Facing God,” Dayton Korean United Methodist Church, Dayton, Aug. 25, 2019.

“The Missional Call of the Church,” Korean Church of Columbus English Ministry, Columbus, Oct. 13, 2019.

“Seeking God’s Reign and Righteousness,” Amen Methodist Church, Seoul, Korea, Jan. 12, 2020.

Susan Ritchie
Fully Affiliated Faulty, Theology
Director of Unitarian Universalist House of Studies

Academic lectures and presentations

“Myths of the Underground Railroad: Formerly Enslaved Persons and the Universalists of Girard, Pennsylvania,” Universalist Convocation, October 2019.

Professional and guild meetings

UU Ministers Association, Central East Regional Group, September 2019.

UUMA Cluster monthly meetings.

Church and popular presentations

“History of Lay Ministry in Unitarian Universalism,” UU General Assembly, June 2019.

“The Victorian (Cult)ure of Death,” Greenlawn Cemetery Association, October 2019.

“Complexities of Interdependence: The Unitarian Universalist Response to Albert Schweitzer,” Interfaith Association of Central Ohio, October 2019.

“Life and Ethics of Albert Schweitzer,” Interfaith Association of Central Ohio Conference, October 2019.

“World Religions in Eight Sessions,” presented for inmates through the Horizon Prison Initiative, Ohio Reformatory for Women, fall 2019.

“What Strange Love Is This?” at Historic Reunification of the Cleveland UU Congregations, Cleveland, September 2019.

Sermons as minister of the North Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Lewis Center, Ohio.

Other activities

Organized the first-ever Convocation for UU Students at Non-UU Theological Schools, July 2019.

Horizon Prison Initiative Board Member, UU Society for Community Ministry.

Ryan Schellenberg
Associate Professor of New Testament

Academic lectures and presentations

“‘The Prisoner of Jesus Christ’ and ‘The New Socrates’: Imprisonment and Authority in the Roman World,” Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 25, 2019.

Response to Troy Martin, “Ἀγαπητοὶ Ἀδελφοί (“Beloved Siblings”): Septuagintal Terms of Endearment in Early Christian Literature,” Atlanta New Testament Colloquium, June 1, 2020.

Book review panelist, Ancient Rhetoric and the New Testament: The Influence of Elementary Greek Composition by Mikeal C. Parsons and Michael Wade Martin, Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 24, 2019.

Church and popular presentations

“Ancient Christian Resources for Confronting Mass Incarceration,” Ohio Council of Churches’ 100th anniversary conference, MTSO, Sept. 6, 2019.

“Paul, Prison, and the Justice of God,” Annual Mennonite Bible Study Series, Mountain Lake, Minnesota, Jan. 10-12, 2020.

Church and popular lectures

“Ancient Christian Resources for Confronting Mass Incarceration,” Ohio Council of Churches’ 100th anniversary conference, MTSO, Sept. 6, 2019.

“Paul, Prison, and the Justice of God,” Annual Mennonite Bible Study Series, Mountain Lake, Minnesota, Jan. 10-12, 2020.

Preaching

MTSO chapel, Sept. 24, 2019

Timothy L. Van Meter
Associate Professor in the Alford Chair of Christian Education and Youth Ministry
Coordinator of Ecological Initiatives

Academic lectures and presentations

“Ecological Engagement in Theological Institutions,” American Academy of Religion, Nov. 2, 2019.

“Cultivating Hope, Courage, and Vision at the End of it All,” keynote address at Los Angeles Symposium on Ecologically Responsible Theological Education, Brandeis-Bardin campus of the American Jewish University, Simi Valley, California, Nov. 4, 2019.

“Cultivating Hope, Courage and Vision,” keynote address at Chicago Symposium on Ecologically Responsible Theological Education, Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Dec. 6, 2019.

Professional and guild meetings

Association for Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, Spokane, Washington, Oct. 27-30, 2019.

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, Nov. 22-26, 2019.

Church and popular lectures

“Climate Change and Faith,” General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church, July 11-14, 2019.

“Creation Care Imperatives for the Local Church,” State of Ohio United Church of Christ Conference, Westerville, Sept. 28, 2019.

United Methodist Church Indiana Creation Care Conference, Fort Wayne, Oct. 19, 2019.

Other activities

Attended Climate Underground Regenerative Agriculture Conference at Al Gore’s Caney Fork Farm, Carthage, Tennessee, Oct. 13 and 14, 2019.

Planned and led Luce-funded conferences at American Jewish University, Simi Valley, California (November 2019) and Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (December 2019).

Board chair, Ohio Interfaith Power and Light.

Treasurer, Hispanic Summer Program.

Robin Knowles Wallace
Professor in the Taylor Endowed Chair of Worship and Music

Publications

Editor, The Hymn: A Journal of Congregational Song, Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, Summer 2019, Autumn 2019 and Winter 2020.

“Hymnic Anniversaries 2020” in The Hymn 70:3:37, Summer 2019.

“Annual Conference Report 2019” in The Hymn 70:4:35, Autumn 2019.

Review of Rooted and Rising: Voices of Courage in a Time of Climate Crisis by Leah D. Schade and Margaret Bullitt-Jonas, in Interpretation, forthcoming.

Professional and guild meetings

The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, Richardson, Texas, July 14-18, 2019.

Editorial Advisory Board Annual Meeting, The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, July 14, 2019.

The Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Canterbury, England, July 23-25, 2019.

Preaching

Eucharist service, Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Canterbury, U.K., July 24, 2019. Subsequently published as the editorial in the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland Bulletin 301, Volume 22, No. 8, Autumn 2019.

Grace United Church of Christ, Lancaster, Aug. 18, 2019.

St. Michael’s United Church of Christ, Baltimore, Ohio, Sept. 1, 2019.

Other activities

Served on Department for Church and Authorized Ministry for the Central Southeast Ohio Association of the United Church of Christ, 2019.

Interviewed about the Triduum with MTSO alum Andy Burns, Church of the Saviour, Westerville, April 6, 2020.

Discussion with MTSO alum Cordelia Burpee, Congregational Church of South Hero, South Hero, Vermont, May 31, 2020.

Participated and sang with Space for Peace, out of the University of Winchester, Winchester, U.K., June 1 and 15, 2020.

Yvonne Zimmerman
Associate Academic Dean
Associate Professor of Christian Ethics

Academic lectures and presentations

“Reducing Harm, Practicing Faith and Building Relationships: Lessons on Collaborating Across Religious Differences,” keynote address for the Rights, Dignity and Religion: Responding to Modern Slavery Conference, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, U.K. Jan. 24, 2020.

Professional and guild meetings

American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, San Diego, November 2019.

Women Advancing in Leadership, Association of Theological Schools. Pittsburgh, Oct. 23-25, 2019.