“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“Reimagining Seminary as Neo-Monastic Cohorts” – Trevin Wax at Mere Orthodoxy: “Theological education and pastoral training are in a state of flux. Many seminaries are slashing budgets and laying off faculty in response to declining enrollment. This is just the beginning. All institutions of higher education are bracing themselves for the demographic cliff (the number of high school students across the country is about to decline rapidly). Seminaries anticipate fewer graduates pursuing ministry degrees. There’s already a shift away from the cherished Master of Divinity, as more and more students opt for degrees with less stringent requirements. The prevalence of online courses and digital delivery has dramatically reshaped expectations around cost and convenience. What’s more, the anti-institutional ethos of our age combined with the diversity of political and social views among students, faculty, staff, and alumni—even those who adhere to the same confession of faith—make leadership in this era fraught with peril, ever vulnerable to controversy. Seminaries are groaning and fracturing beneath the weight of this pressure. Some schools will close. Others will consolidate with larger or sister institutions, as denominations consider more efficient ways to share resources. Some will continue to survive, but just barely, while a few will no doubt thrive in the new landscape. In the midst of this uncertainty, one thing is for sure: theological education will not disappear. Churches will still need pastors, and pastors will continue to look to seminaries to supplement the instruction they receive in the church; they’ll look to seminaries to equip them with theological education and prepare them for ministry. But what should the next era of theological education look like?”
“The History of Christianity in Africa // Africa Study Bible” – Africa Study Bible at The Gospel Coalition: “Africa is one of the most dynamic centres of Christianity in the world. Africa has a significant share of the world’s 2.2 billion Christians. It has about 30% of the world’s evangelicals, 20% of the world’s Pentecostals and charismatics, and about 15% of the world’s Roman Catholics. In addition, Africa has significant Orthodox groups such as the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Churches and the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria. Christianity was well established in North Africa in the first few centuries after Christ. From a solid foundation in North Africa, Christianity moved deeper into the heart of the continent. The challenge by Islam and African traditional religions deepened the faith of believers. The fifteenth century was a turning point when Catholicism from Portugal circled the continent. The modern missionary movement and indigenous Christian movements in Africa of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries built upon these earlier foundations.”
“The Creative Mind in Captive Times” – David Stromberg on Czesław Miłosz’s The Captive Mind in The Hedgehog Review: “When Czesław Miłosz’s book about the enslavement of consciousness by totalitarian powers was published in 1953, translator Jane Zielonko, working closely with Miłosz, rendered its English title as The Captive Mind. There is no question that the title was effective, particularly as the book came to be considered a classic of anti-Stalinism—perhaps the work closest to rival the status of Hannah Arendt’s Origins of Totalitarianism (1951). Unlike Arendt, though, Miłosz had actually defected from an increasingly Stalinist Poland, and he wrote from the perspective of a poet rather than that of a historical and political thinker. As a result, his book offers something different from hers—not an analysis of the mechanisms by which repressive regimes consolidate power, but the experience of a creative individual living under such repressive regimes, both the Nazi occupiers of Warsaw during World War II and the Communist Party after the war. One way of appreciating what makes his book unique—and relevant to historical periods beyond his own—is looking at the semantic nuances of its original Polish title.”
“Refugee advocates rally outside White House amid furloughs, frozen funds” – Aleja Hertzler-McCain in The Christian Century: “Over the sounds of construction machinery dismantling inauguration-related viewing stands and other structures in front of the White House, faith-based advocates for refugees worked to make their voices heard Tuesday in Lafayette Square. ‘ Gracious God, we gather on this day so that we might bear witness to your love for all people,’ prayed Bishop William Gohl Jr., of the Delaware-Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ‘and that you would help us to be the moral conscience and voice of this nation again, reminding each one of us that we are immigrants who have found our way to this place.’ The crowd of about 100 was protesting President Donald Trump’s suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Program, which vets refugees for entry into the United States and works with refugee resettlement agencies, the majority of them faith-based, to support those refugees for the first 90 days. Some who had protested on behalf of refugees at the beginning of Trump’s first term said they were experiencing a sense of dejá vu. ‘I’m encouraged, while at the same time discouraged, to see that some of our signs have returned,’ Sharon Stanley-Rea, director of the Washington office of Church World Service, an organization that resettles refugees, responds to disasters and works on poverty and hunger issues, said at the protest. Held aloft were signs quoting the Gospel of Matthew and the Hebrew Prophet Isaiah; others said ‘Cold Heart, Frozen Funds,’ and ‘Stop Hate, Love Refugees.’ Stanley-Rea told the assembly that more than two-thirds of Church World Service’s national staff had been furloughed, including 100 percent of the Washington office staff.”
“Report details 17 cases of abuse by IHOPKC founder Mike Bickle” – Kathryn Post and Bob Smietana at Religion News Service: “Mike Bickle, the influential founder of the International House of Prayer, a global missionary group, committed sexual abuse or misconduct involving at least 17 survivors, according to an independent report released Monday (Feb. 3). The allegations range from spiritual abuse to rape. ‘Bickle, as a pastor and leader, was entrusted with the care of his congregation’s spiritual wellbeing; however, he betrayed this trust by misusing his position of authority to engage in sexual misconduct with multiple victims,’ the report stated. ‘His actions not only violated the sanctity of his role but also caused profound harm to those he was meant to guide and protect.’ The report was conducted by the investigative firm Firefly but overseen by Tikkun Global, a Messianic Jewish network that had previous ties to Bickle and IHOPKC, based in Kansas City, Missouri. Tikkun was asked to oversee the report by the so-called Advocate Group, which consists of former IHOP leaders who raised concerns about the alleged abuse. The report was based on a review of over 6,000 documents and interviews with 210 individuals. The current IHOPKC board of directors and Bickle did not respond to Firefly’s attempts to contact them.”
“The Enemies: Praying the Imprecatory Psalms” – An excerpt from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Psalms: the prayerbook of the Bible at Renovaré: “No section of the Psalter causes us greater difficulty today than the so-called imprecatory psalms. With shocking frequency their thoughts penetrate the entire Psalter (5, 7,. 9, 10, 13, 16, 21, 23, 28, 31, 35, 36, 40, 41, 44, 52, 54, 55, 58, 59, 68, 69, 70, 71, 137, and others).… Can the imprecatory psalms be understood as God’s word for us and as the prayer of Jesus Christ? Can we as Christians pray these psalms? Note carefully again that we do not ask about possible motives, which we can never fathom anyway, but rather about the content of the prayer.”
Music: Odetta, “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child,” from Odetta at Carnegie Hall
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Matthew Erickson 