Its omnipresence is heightened in the yearof a presidential election. How might wethink well about “the religion of the repub-lic” in this new century whose advent is sovariously challenged, not to say troubled?In a world that is smaller than ever, and inwhich our information about the claimsto faith of myriad institutions—not solelyreligious or political ones—is so detailed,how does one talk about the “faith” citizensmight have in their nation?

These are urgent questions, but theiranswer today is embroiled far too exclusivelyin the adjudication of disputes about prayerin schools and the like. At the time of thefounding of the nation, however, the phrase“religion” had a significantly varied referencein the hands of those who, like BenjaminFranklin, were deists and distinguishedbetween belief in God and the theologiesof the Christian religions (note the plural).Franklin’s own idea of faith links it not to a particular religious tradition, but to anattitude toward ideals and their realization.For Franklin, republican faith had as its ob-ject the nation’s Constitution. But Franklinwas clear that the faith was directed not tothe document itself, but to the ideals towhich it offers partial declaration. Indeedfor Franklin the religions were themselvesexemplary of misplaced or overreachingfaith. The chief difference, he remarked inhis speech endorsing the new Constitution onSeptember 17, 1787, between the doctrinesof the Roman Catholic and the Anglicanchurches, was that “the Romish Church isinfallible, and the Church of England isnever in the wrong.”

Franklin’s republican faith had another,parallel antithesis: the habits of individuals.What he deplored in these “Sects” he foundabundantly present as well in his fellow

creatures of God, “the many private persons(who) think almost as highly of their ownInfallibility as that of their Sect.”

Whatever republican faith might mean,for Franklin it must not partake of the cer-titude of infallibility. In doctrine, whetherinstitutional or personal, resided despotismrather than democracy.

Republican faith, then, is the antidoteof doctrinal faith precisely because doctrineimplies infallibility. One might wonder whatFranklin would have made of John HenryNewman’s later concept of the developmentof doctrine; whatever the answer, we canbe sure that Franklin would only have em-braced it if, and when, he was assured thatdevelopment precluded dogmatism.

Today our discussions of religion anddemocracy focus on matters of church andstate and what sort of wall should exist bet-ween them in American public life. Franklin’snotion of republican faith suggests that wewould do better to consider the quality ofthe faith that is the prerequisite even to suchadjudications. Individuals and institutions,whether political or religious, hold in com-mon a predilection for settled opinion. ForFranklin, such established creeds, whetherby church or by state, were in fact despoticand thus the antithesis of democracy.

To guard against both tendencies in ourbehavior and our institutions is to promoteand preserve the civility that is essential toour common life. The common religion of our republic is thus the resistance of alldogmatisms. In that way, and that way alone,we may retain the benisons of republicangovernment bequeathed to us. And this maybe the ultimate act of faith—to enshrinevalues of the past in the present, for thebenefit of the future. ❑

Richard A. Rosengarten, Dean

CIRCANews from the University of Chicago Divinity School

A U T U M N 2 0 0 8 | N U M B E R 3 0

FOR AMERICANS THE PHRASE “FAITH OF OUR FATHERS” CAN HAVE A DOUBLE RESONANCE.

It references both the founders of the United States of America and is also the source of that “holy faith”

of which Christian hymnody proclaims the singer’s fealty unto death. This double legacy, with all its

implications—the exclusivist reference of Christianity, the questions of the extent of citizenship, the

establishment of religion—has been pivotal to the nation’s history.

Letter

from the

Dean

Today our discussions of

religion and democracy focus on

matters of church and state and

what sort of wall should exist

between them in American public

life. Individuals and institutions,

whether political or religious,

hold in common a predilection

for settled opinion.

2 C I R C A

Faculty News and Notes

Fulton Receives Guggenheim

The John Simon Guggenheim MemorialFoundation has named Rachel Fulton,Associate Professor of Medieval History inthe Department of History and AssociateFaculty in the Divinity School, a 2008 Gug-genheim fellow. Fulton, who was selected fromamong 2,600 U.S. and Canadian applicants,will use her Guggenheim fellowship to pursuea project on the Virgin Mary and prayer.

She will look at the cognitive and experi-ential aspects of prayer in monastic culture,with an emphasis on the practices that devel-oped from the tenth to fifteenth centuries

for prayer to the Trinity and the VirginMother of God. Those practices included therecitation of the Little Office of the BlessedVirgin Mary, modeled on the monastic liturgyof the Hours, as well as meditation on theJoys and Sorrows of the Virgin through therecitation of the rosary.

“My immediate purpose,” she said, “is tofind a way to describe monastic, Marianprayer as a practical art, that is,as a practice that takes skill anduses particular tools. My ultimategoal is to develop an understandingof the meaning and importanceof worship as a creative act.”

Fulton will work on a bookthat will look at how medievalChristians came to understandGod through praying to the VirginMother. One of her objectives is to break down the divide thathas developed among the disci-plines of history and the sciences,such as the psychology of “whatwe know by thinking and whatwe know by doing, about religionas well as about ourselves,” she said.

Fulton has published extensively on topicsrelated to the Middle Ages and is the authorof From Judgment to Passion: Devotion toChrist and the Virgin Mary, 800–1200.

Faculty Notes

This fall, the Divinity School welcomes one new full-time

faculty member and two visiting faculty members to its

fold. To access online faculty profiles, which include bibli-

ographies, photographs, and contact information for each faculty

member, please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/faculty/index.html.

Doniger Receives AAR Award

Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distin-guished Service Professor of the History ofReligions, has been awarded the AmericanAcademy of Religion’s 2008 Martin E. MartyAward for the Public Understanding of Reli-gion. Professor Doniger will be featured atthe Marty Forum held Sunday, November 2,at this year’s AAR Annual Meeting in Chicago.

The Martin E. Marty Award for the PublicUnderstanding of Religion, established in1996, recognizes extraordinary contributionsto the public understanding of religion. Theaward goes to those whose work has a rele-vance and eloquence that speaks, not just toscholars, but more broadly to the public as well.

Doniger’s research and teaching interestsrevolve around two basic areas, Hinduismand mythology. Among her many books are three Penguin Classics: Hindu Myths:

A Sourcebook, Translated fromthe Sanskrit; The Rig Veda:An Anthology;108 Hymns,Translated fromthe Sanskrit; and The Laws of Manu(with Brian K. Smith). Inprogress areHinduism: An AlternativeHistory (forPenguin) and a translation

of the last four books of the Mahabharata.Previous winners of the Martin E. Marty

Award for the Public Understanding ofReligion include Andrew M. Greeley, JohnL. Esposito, and Cornel West.

Above: Professor Rachel Fulton

A U T U M N 2 0 0 8 | 3

Appointments

Stackert Appointed Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible

Jeffrey Stackert is abiblical scholar whosituates the HebrewBible in the contextof the larger ancientNear Eastern worldin which it was com-posed. His first book,Rewriting the Torah:

Literary Revision in Deuteronomy and theHoliness Legislation (Mohr Siebeck, 2007),addresses literary correspondences amongthe biblical legal corpora and especially the

relationshipsbetween similarlaws in Deutero-nomy and penta-teuchal Priestlyliterature. He alsocoedited the newvolume Perspectiveson Purity and Puri-fication in the Bible(T&T Clark, 2008).

His current research is in the areas ofbiblical law, with special focus upon the bookof Deuteronomy and its literary interactionswith Israelite and non-Israelite sources; Priestlyritual texts and their ties to non-biblicalancient Near Eastern literature and practice;and the cultic and martial imagery of Amos’svisions.

Stackert received his M.T.S. (in HebrewBible) from Boston University School ofTheology and his Ph.D. (in Near Easternand Judaic Studies) from Brandeis University.He joins the Divinity School from the Uni-versity of Minnesota.

Visiting Faculty

Tzvi Abusch is Visiting Professor of HebrewBible and the Ancient Near East, in residenceSpring Quarter 2008–09. The Rose B. andJoseph Cohen Professor of Assyriology andAncient Near Eastern Religion at BrandeisUniversity, he has taught at the Jewish Theo-logical Seminary of America and the HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem and has held a num-ber of awards and fellowships. Most recently,

he was a member of the Institutes for Ad-vanced Study in Princeton (2003 – 04) andin Jerusalem (2006). He received his Ph.D.from Harvard University.

Ryan Coyne is Visiting Assistant Professorof the Philosophy of Religion and Theology.A graduate of the Divinity School, Coynestudies both the history of Christian thoughtand modern continental philosophy. In theformer field, he is especially interested in thehistory of Christian mysticism, as well as therelation between mysticism and scholasticism.In the latter field, his research interests includethe development of the philosophy of religion,hermeneutics, phenomenology and decon-struction. He is currently working on a bookexploring the role of Augustine’s theologicalanthropology in the formation of MartinHeidegger’s philosophy.

subsequently earned a Ph.D. in biochemistry at HarvardUniversity.

He began his professionalcareer as a member of the U.S.Public Heath Service, servingas a researcher in molecular bio-logy at the National Institutesof Health. In 2001, PresidentBush appointed Kass chairmanof the President’s Council on

Bioethics.The John Nuveen Lecture was established

in 1972 by the Trustees of the Baptist Theo-logical Union, who oversee an endowmentthat helps to support the University of ChicagoDivinity School. Each year, a prominentmember of the University’s faculty is invitedby the BTU and the Divinity School todeliver the lecture. A reception will followthe lecture.

Kass has written Toward a MoreNatural Science: Biology andHuman Affairs, The Hungry Soul:Eating and the Perfecting of OurNature, The Ethics of HumanCloning (with James Wilson), andthe anthology Wing to Wing, Oarto Oar: Readings on Courting andMarrying, which he edited withhis wife and fellow University faculty member, Amy Kass.

A Chicago native, Kass earned his S.B.and M.D. degrees at the University. He

Kass to Deliver Nuveen Lecture

Thursday, November 20, at 4:00 p.m. in Swift Lecture Hall. This event is free and open tothe public. For more information, or special needs assistance, please contact Terren IlanaWein at terren@uchicago.edu or 773-702-8230.

Leon Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the College and the Committee on Social Thought, has been selected to deliver the 2008 JohnNuveen Lecture. Kass is one of the nation’s leading experts on medical ethics.His early research in molecular biology led him to contemplate the human

consequences of science, an area of inquiry in which he has been engaged for more than thirty years.

4 C I R C A

Alexander Hivoltze-Jimenez1974 ‒ 2008

The Divinity School community is deeplysaddened by the sudden passing of AlexanderHivoltze-Jimenez, a first-year Ph.D. studentin Theology. Alex passed away suddenly inMay 2008 from a bacterial infection. Onlytwo weeks prior, Alex had been awarded aFord Foundation Diversity Pre-DoctoralFellowship. Alex’s research and writing focusedon liberation theology and queer theology.He had previously studied at Oxford Univer-sity, and held two master’s degrees fromBoston University. A promising scholar andgood friend to many in the Divinity School,his death is a loss to friends and colleaguesthroughout the University community.

New Religion and CultureWeb Forum Editor Named

Spencer Dew is the new Managing Editorfor the Religion and Culture Web Forum,

the Marty Center’smonthly onlineforum for thought-provoking discussionon the relationshipof scholarship in reli-gion to culture andpublic life. Mr. Dewreceived a B.A. fromthe College of

Wooster and a Master’s Degree from theDivinity School, where he is currently a Ph.D.candidate in Religion and Literature. A reg-ular reviewer for Rain Taxi Review of Booksand a member of the fiction staff of theChicago Review, Dew is a former MartinMarty Dissertation Fellow and frequentlycontributes to the Marty Center’s Sightings.

His primary research focus is on the polit-ical and ethical functionality of literature,particularly twentieth-century Americanwritings. He is completing a dissertationtitled “Pedagogy and Community: KathyAcker’s ‘Talmudic Mode.’” Dew also hasbroader interests in public discourse on andabout religion, especially representations ofsocially marginal, immigrant, and subalternreligious practices, be they of European Cath-olics or the religions of the African Diaspora.

Dew looks forward to continuing therobust conversations of the Web Forum, whichhe sees as an important venue for exploringthe myriad manifestations of religious prac-tice in human culture.

Read more about RCWF at http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/webforum/index.shtml.

She will supervise weekly religious services atRockefeller Chapel, develop programming,coordinate the many independent CampusMinistries that serve students affiliated withparticular faith communities, provide pastoraland spiritual care, oversee the robust musicalprograms at the Chapel, attract speakers andother special events to the Chapel, take on arole in University community involvement,and have the possibility of teaching.

Theology from Oxford University, a Th.M.in Intercultural Studies from Fuller Theo-logical Seminary in Pasadena, and Ph.D. inReligion and Social Ethics from USC.

Rev. Davenport will deliver a WednesdayCommunity Luncheon at the DivinitySchool on January 14, 2009.

“I’m looking forward to finding new waysof integrating students’ questions about mean-ing and spirituality into their overall experi-ence of life at the University of Chicago,”said Davenport. “It’s an exciting moment tobe grounding this kind of work in the greatintellectual culture of the University. I’m look-ing forward to building upon the work thatalready has been done to make RockefellerMemorial Chapel a place of spiritual welcomefor students and community members of allkinds of religious traditions.”

Davenport, who was chosen by a searchcommittee chaired by Kathryn Tanner, theDorothy Grant Maclear Professor in the Div-inity School, comes to Chicago after seventeenyears at the University of Southern California,where she served as Episcopal chaplain andAssistant Dean of Student Affairs before be-coming Senior Associate Dean of ReligiousLife. She is an accomplished musician, withexperience in choral direction, organ perfor-mance and musical arranging. Originally fromEngland, Davenport has a B.A. and M.A. in

Dean of Rockefeller Chapel Appointed

Other News and Notes

The Reverend Ms. Elizabeth Davenport has been appointed the new Deanof Rockefeller Chapel. Her appointment was effective July 1, 2008. AsDean of Rockefeller Chapel, Davenport will provide vision and leadershipon campus for students and other members of the University community

seeking religious and spiritual meaning, including promoting a lively and robust inter-faith dialogue, and furthering the understanding of religious diversity on campus.

Klauck Awarded HonoraryDoctorate

On April 26, 2008, during a Dies academicuscelebrating the 175th birthday of the Universityof Zurich, Hans-Josef Klauck, the NaomiShenstone Donnelly Professor of New Testa-ment and Early Christian Literature, wasawarded an honorary doctorate. The doctorhonoris causa was given at the suggestion ofthe University’s Fakultaet, or Protestant Theo-logical School, in recognition of Klauck’svaluable contributions to scholarship onhistory, literature and theology of EarlyChristianity and the New Testament.

J U N E 2 0 0 8

The Altar and the Screen: Filmmaking and Worldmaking

B Y S . B R E N T P L AT E

O

Autumn and Winter Events

Annual John Nuveen Lecture and Reception

Thursday, November 20

4:00 p.m., Swift Lecture Hall

The John Nuveen Lecture was established in1972 by the Trustees of the Baptist Theologi-cal Union, who oversee an endowment thathelps to support the University of ChicagoDivinity School. Each year, a prominentmember of the University’s faculty is invitedby the BTU and the Divinity School to de-liver the lecture. This year’s speaker is LeonKass. See more at http://divinity.uchicago.edu/alumni/nuveen.shtml. A reception willfollow.

For calendar updates, please consult the Divinity School’s website at http://divinity.uchicago.edu. Access the most up-to-date events information, sign upfor our events listserve (“At the Divinity School”), and get current news. Please

see p.7 for detailed information on upcoming Marty Center conferences.

Wednesday Community Luncheons

Every Wednesday when school is in session12:00 noon–1:30 p.m., Swift Common Room

Lunches this year will include Paula Fasseas,the founder of PAWS Chicago; Dean’s Forawith Professors Christian Wedemeyer andMartin Riesebrodt; Natalie Moore, who coversthe South Side of Chicago for Chicago PublicRadio, and many more.

Alumni Receptions at the AAR and SBL Meetings

American Academy of Religion (AAR)Reception

Saturday, November 17:00 – 9:00 p.m., Swift Hall, Chicago

All Divinity School alumni and friends areinvited to a reception in Swift Hall to beheld in conjunction with this year’s annualmeeting of the AAR in Chicago. Shuttle bustransportation will be provided to HydePark from downtown.

Society of Biblical Literature (SBL)Reception

Sunday, November 23

9:00 – 11:00 p.m., Boston, Massachusetts

We will continue the Divinity School’s tra-dition of a Sunday night reception for alumniand friends at the SBL meeting in Boston.All Divinity School alumni and friends arecordially invited.

For more information about either event,please contact Mary Jean Kraybill at 773-702-8248 or mjkraybill@uchicago.edu. See you there!

Border Crossing Series

Now in its second of three years,the Border Crossing Project con-

tinues its work of connecting ministryand doctoral students around discus-sions of vocation. Three public confer-ences will explore the intersections anddivergences of clergy and teachers’intellectual interests and professionalpursuits.

See http://divinity.uchicago.edu/events/lilly/ for more information.

September 26, 2008

Authority and Intimacy: Forming Whole Persons for theClassroom and the Congregation

Mark Schwehn, keynote address

January 2009

Resisting Mission: Redefining Engagement

April 24, 2009

Fifth Annual Ministry Conference

The Border Crossing Project is generouslysupported by the Lilly Endowment.

E V E N T S AU T U M N A N D W I N T E R Q UA RT E R S I N C LU D E

Bond Chapel Worship

Every Wednesday when school is in session11:30 a.m.–12:00 noonJoseph Bond Chapel, 1050 East 59th Street

Bond Chapel worship is a brief midweek service of music, prayer, readings, and preach-ing in an ecumenical spirit, offered by andfor the students, staff, and faculty of theDivinity School and the wider Universitycommunity. The weekly gathering providesregular space and place for reflection, wonder,and praise. All are welcome!

Please see http://divinity.uchicago.edu/news/wednesdays.shtml for upcoming datesand speaker information.

Lunch itself (a vegetarian meal; a veganoption is available by prior request) is preparedand served by our creative and energetic student staff. Those interested in attendingshould reserve a lunch in advance by email-ing divinitylunch@gmail.com or by calling773-702-8230.

A U T U M N 2 0 0 8 | 5

6 C I R C A

An Interview with Kevin Hector

CIRCA: You’re teaching an introduction totheology course next year. What are youseeking to accomplish in that class?

KH: The course was originally developed tofill a need in the M.Div. curriculum, andwhile it has been designed to serve a wideraudience, let me begin by saying somethingabout what we hope it will accomplish forministry students. The goal, simply stated, isto provide students with the tools to becomepublic theologians, that is, to be able to thinktheologically about the world around them(where “the world” may include a classroom,a halfway house, a public demonstration, apulpit, or any number of other circumstances),and to do so in a way that is publicly intel-ligible, publicly accountable, and publiclyrelevant. In my view, one learns how to engagein a practice — to speak a language, for in-stance — by trying to go on in the same wayas those whom one recognizes as knowinghow to do so. In order to teach students howto engage in the practice of theology, there-fore, we have organized the course into threecomponents: first, lectures to provide studentswith an overview of the theological traditionand a model of theological practice; second,each student will choose a theologian (ortheological movement) whom he or she seesas a skilled practitioner and will read his orher works throughout the course; and third,we will meet each week for a critical conver-sation about the week’s themes and readings.The idea is that by attending carefully to atleast one figure whom they recognize as know-ing how to theologize — and being respon-sible contributors to an ongoing theologicalconversation — students will become betterequipped to carry on the practice themselves.

CIRCA: How has teaching in a school withone theology curriculum for both doctoraland ministerial education inflected the wayyou organize your classes?

KH: I don’t suppose that it has, and whilethat may say something about me, I supposeit says more about our ministry program andthe Divinity School in general. One of theDivinity School’s greatest strengths is its un-compromising commitment to rigorous,critical inquiry — we are constantly holdingone another accountable for clarifying ourclaims, demonstrating our entitlement tothem, relating them to the claims of otherdiscourses, etc. — a net effect of which isthat Swift Hall is no respecter of persons:whether one is a ministry student, a doctoralstudent, or a faculty member, one is expectedto become a contributing member of an on-going conversation wherein one holds othersresponsible and expects to be held responsible,

too. It is not surprising, therefore, that min-istry students take classes alongside doctoralstudents, especially when one keeps in mindour vision for ministry education. One ofthe ministry program’s key hypotheses, I takeit, is that the best way to prepare studentsfor ministry is to teach them how to engagein the sort of critical inquiry to which theentire School is dedicated. If so, then ministrystudents ought to be included in classes thesame way everyone else is; namely, by virtueof their ability to contribute to the carefulexamination of a variety of claims.

CIRCA: Tell us about your forthcomingbook, and about future research projects.

KH: As I see it, one of the temptations towhich theologians (and, for that matter, philo-sophers and other “theorists”) are liable is to appeal to “metaphysics” in order to solvean explanatory problem; that is, if we havetrouble explaining some phenomenon in termsof that which is ordinary and accessible to us,the temptation is to posit an extraordinary,inaccessible, yet nevertheless “real” something-or-other that bridges the explanatory gap.

This leads to several problems, two ofwhich are especially relevant to the presentdiscussion: first, given that our understand-ing of ordinary phenomena is supposed todepend upon their relationship to some extra-ordinary phenomenon, it is crucial that webe able to explain how the two phenomenaare related—but because we have located theexplanans in a strata of “reality” that is appar-ently unrelated to ordinary phenomena, it is exceedingly difficult to see how we couldrender this relationship intelligible. This iscustomarily referred to as the problem of“dualism.” The second problem is related to this: so that, for instance, that which is“extraordinary” is frequently identified withsome characteristic of those who are domi-nant, while that which is “ordinary” is iden-tified with those who are dominated. Theover-simplified picture that emerges thuslooks something like this: explanatory gapstempt theologians (and others) to posit “meta-physical” gap-fillers, these gap-fillers standin a dualistic relationship to the ordinaryphenomena they were trying to explain, andthis dualism is frequently used to underwritecertain social arrangements.

I argue that, by providing thoroughly“ordinary,” non-reductive explanations oftheological phenomena, we can free our-selves from the temptation to posit a “meta-physical” explanans, from which it followsthat we can do without the consequent

Kevin Hector is Assistant Professor of Theology and of the

Philosophy of Religion. He began his appointment in autumn

of 2007. In this interview Hector discusses his goals for an

upcoming course, his forthcoming work, and his reflections on his

year in Swift Hall.

“. . . Swift Hall is no respecter of persons: whether one

is a ministry student, a doctoral student, or a faculty member,

one is expected to become a contributing member of anongoing conversation whereinone holds others responsible

and expects to be held responsible, too.”

“. . . one of the temptations to which theologians (and,

for that matter, philosophers andother “theorists”) are liable is to appeal to “metaphysics”

in order to solve an explanatory problem.”

Continued on page 10

A U T U M N 2 0 0 8 | 7

The Martin Marty Center builds on a long-standing

conviction of the Divinity School that the best and

most innovative scholarship in religion emerges from

sustained dialogue with the world outside the academy. In all of

its projects, the Center aims to serve as a robust circulatory system

that strengthens, deepens, and extends scholarly inquiry by moving

it through the deliberating bodies of the students, faculty, and

public. — William Schweiker, Director of the Marty Center

MartyCenterNews andEventsMarty Center Conferences

U P C O M I N G I N 2 0 0 9

Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Cultures:Overtures toward Interdisciplinary Theories and Theologies of Culture

Wednesday – Thursday, April 22 – 23, 2009Swift Hall

Christian theology, especially theologies ofculture, currently confronts an interdisciplinaryand intercultural reconfiguration: the needto take into consideration the various waysin which culture has engaged with theology.Recent trends in theology demonstrate agrowing appreciation for interdisciplinaryapproaches that readily embrace the method-ologies of other increasingly specialized fields,and increased attention on and participationby the once “Third” and “Fourth” worlds ofcolonized and indigenous peoples respectivelyhave both challenged and contributed correc-tions to various disciplinary methodologies,including those in theology. These recent

trends suggest a decisive move for a compara-tive, interdisciplinary approach to the perennialreflection upon ideas of and concern for thedivine in, through, and before cultures.

This conference will explore such ques-tions and themes from various perspectives,especially from the perspective of contempo-rary and emerging theological work in culture.It will also include critical work from otherhuman sciences as they reflect on religion andtheology. The central focus will be emergentreconfigurations of theologies of culturesframed as a new kind of conversation in thevein of sustained previous approaches.

Schleiermacher, the Study of Religion, and the Future of Theology: A Transatlantic Dialogue

Wednesday – Friday, October 29– 31, 2008Swift Hall

and Saturday, November 1, 2008The Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Downtown Chicago

The past three decades have witnessed a sig-nificant transatlantic and trans-disciplinaryresurgence of interest in the early nineteenth-century Protestant theologian and philoso-pher, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834).As the first major Christian thinker to theo-rize religion in a post-Enlightenment contextand re-conceive the task of theology accord-ingly, Schleiermacher holds a seminal placein the histories of modern Christian thoughtand the modern academic study of religionalike. Whereas his ‘liberalism’ and humanismhave always made him a controversial figure

among theological traditionalists, it is onlyrecently that Schleiermacher’s understandingof religion has become the target of polemicsfrom Religious Studies scholars keen to dis-

associate their discipline from its partial origins in liberal Protestantism. The purposeof “Schleiermacher, the Study of Religion, andthe Future of Theology” is to bring leadingexperts from Europe and North America to-gether to probe the viability of key featuresof Schleiermacher’s theological and philo-sophical program in light of its contestedplace in the study of religion.

Co-sponsored by the Martin Marty Centerof the University of Chicago Divinity Schooland Stanford University, in cooperation withthe Schleiermacher Group of the AAR andthe Schleiermacher-Gesellschaft, with addi-tional financial support from the GermanAcademic Exchange Service and the DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft.

Visit http://marty-center.uchicago.edu/conferences/schl/index.shtml for more details.

Schleiermacher holdsa seminal place in the histories of modern Christian thought

and the modern academic study of religion alike.

Upcoming Events atthe Marty Center

“Public Religion and Types ofSecuralism” with Charles Taylor

February 13

The Sharpe/Hoover LecturesApril 22 and 23

Please visit our website for more information.

8 C I R C A

This past spring, as the Alma Wilson Teach-ing Fellow, I taught a class in the College onthe Bible as a problem within modernity.What constitutes the sacredness of sacredtexts? What sort of norming power oughtthey to have? In what does their truth consistand how is it to be appropriated and applied?The historical separation and difference bet-ween the world of the Bible and that of thecontemporary Christian for whom the Bibleis to be normative is one of the definitiveproblems for post-Enlightenment Christianthought. The categories and concepts devel-oped in the course of wrestling with thisproblem echo in various ways through con-temporary debates about fundamentalismsof all sorts. My course this spring, entitled“Historical Knowledge and Biblical Faith,”investigated a crucial turning point and dev-elopment in the treatment of this problemthrough a focus on the biblical theology andhermeneutics of Rudolf Bultmann (1884–1976).

As a key figure in the Dialectical theologymovement in the 1920s and 30s, Bultmannjoined in the revolt against the assumptionsand methods of nineteenth-century liberaltheology, particularly as those informed thesearch for historical information about Jesusin the New Testament. He went on to for-mulate a theory of biblical interpretation

Marty Center Fellowship Programs

A Report from the Wilson Teaching Fellow

Each year, the Alma Wilson Teaching Fellowship, made possi-

ble by a generous endowment gift, provides one advanced

graduate student in the Divinity School an opportunity for

supervised teaching experience in the University of Chicago’s under-

graduate college. Marsaura Shukla, a Ph.D. candidate in Theology,

reflects on her year of teaching.

and theology influ-enced by the existen-tial philosophy ofMartin Heidegger,which set him atodds with the leaderof the Dialectical theology movement,Karl Barth. The issuebetween them wasthe accessibility ofthe subject matter ofa text as ancient andforeign as the Bible.Rudolf Bultmannand Karl Barth, inwhat their positionsshare and in their differences, set theparameters of theconversation about the Bible as sacred textfor much of the twentieth century and, inmany ways, still today.

On an unseasonably cold April Fool’s day,I and my seventeen intrepid students “rushedin” to see what is at stake in these variousand sometimes dauntingly complicated for-mulations of and responses to the problemposed by the Bible for theology in light ofhistorical consciousness.

As we quickly discovered, this fairly specificissue opens into abiding theological questionsabout the relation of God to the world, thenature of faith as the human response to God,and the role of philosophical argument inexplicating that response of faith. It was excit-

ing to figure outtogether how thelarger theologicalquestions moti-vate and also getrefracted throughthe more focusedterms of the de-bate, to see howtheology — as aparticular form of thinking aboutreligion— happenson a conceptuallevel. Apart fromserving as an intro-duction to theconceptual land-scape of theology,though, the classreadings illustrat-ed what might be

called the “life-world” of theology. Through reading letters and sermons along

with essays and more formal theologicalarguments, the students were introduced towhat being engaged with the questions oftheology looks like. Bultmann and his inter-locutors are different enough from us for thisportrait to be arresting while at the sametime being similar enough to raise fruitfulquestions. The opportunity to explore theconceptual landscape and passionate life-world of theology with University of ChicagoCollege students was truly a privilege. ❑

“The opportunity to explore the conceptual landscape and

passionate life-world of theologywith University of Chicago College students was truly

a privilege.”

Martin Marty Center Senior Fellows Symposium

The Senior Research Fellow Symposia, instituted in 2007, allow Senior Fellows to present

their work in a public forum. The symposia are free and open to the public. All symposia

are on Thursdays from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. in Swift Hall. Visit the Marty Center website at

http://marty-center.uchicago.edu for updates. Please see page 9 for more information on

the Fellows and the Marty Center fellowship programs.

November 13, 2008

Clemens Six

Clemens Six’s project is tentatively titled“Modernity and Religion: The Reception of Indian Theories to Rethink a HistoricalRelationship.” Six is a recent Ph.D. inSouth Asian Economic and Social Historyfrom the University of Vienna and recentlyauthored Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. Politikund Religion im modernen Indien.

February 26, 2009

Vincent RougeauAssociate Professor and Director of the Centeron Law and Government, University of Notre DameLaw School

April 16, 2009

Sarah Macfarland TaylorAssociate Professor, Department of Religion, Northwestern University

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This year’s Marty Center dissertationseminar is being offered in twosections, one led by William Sch-weiker, Director of the Center;

the other led by Malika Zeghal, AssociateProfessor of the Anthropology and Sociologyof Religion and of Islamic Studies.

The Senior Research Fellows and JuniorDissertation Fellows, listed below, will par-ticipate in the seminar, which is designed toadvance interdisciplinary research in all areasof religious studies. Dissertation Fellows willbe required to present their individual pro-jects not only within the seminar, beforetheir peers, but before public interlocutorsat a special spring meeting. The seminar’sgoal is to advance scholarship mindful ofthe public setting of all inquiry. The springmeeting helps participants articulate theirprojects in ways that will be intelligible tospecialists and non-specialists alike.

Senior Research Fellow Symposia

The Senior Fellow Symposium will allow aSenior Fellow to present her or his work in apublic forum to members of the seminar, theentire Divinity School community, membersof the University, and interested persons.Please save these dates: November 13 (C. Six);February 26 (V. Rougeau); April 16 (S. Mac-farland Taylor). All symposia are Thursdaysfrom 4–6:00 p.m. in the Common Room.

Dissertation Fellows

Of our twelve dissertation (junior) fellows,seven are Divinity School students and fiveare extradepartmental.

Divinity School Fellows and their Dissertations

D. Maurice Charles, “Heresy, Treason, and Royal Perogative: Henry VIII and thePlenitude of Power”

Carrie Dohe, “The Wandering Archetype:C.G. Jung’s Wotan and the Coming Religionin Early Twentieth Century Pan-GermanCulture”

Cooper Harriss, “Ralph Ellison: Religion,Race and the Irony of African-AmericanLiterature”

Anne Knafl, “Forms of God, Forming God:A Typology of Divine Anthropomorphismin the Pentateuch”

Carlos Manrique, “Religion, Subjectivityand the Political in Derrida’s Reading of Kant”

Daniel Shin, “The Public Theology ofHans W. Frei: Hermeneutics, Christology,and Theological Ethics”

Sally Stamper, “Horror and Its Aftermaths:A Psychological Reading of Human Sufferingfrom Friedrich Schleiermacher to MarilynMcCord Adams and Jonathan Lear”

Extradepartmental Fellows

Catherine Bronson, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, “The Eve of Islamic Exegesis”

Urmila Nair, Department of Anthropology,“When the Sun’s Rays are as Shadows: The Rituals of the Nechung Deity inTibetan Exile”

Xiaoli Tian, Department of Sociology,“Relocating Science: Western Medicine in19th-Century China”

Jeremy Walton, Department of Anthro-pology, “Constructing Civic Virtue in aSuperior State: Islam and Civil Society inContemporary Turkey”

Jennifer Westerfield, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations,“In the Shadow of the Sphinx: PharaonicSacred Space in the Coptic Imagination”

Marty Center Fellows 2008‒2009

The Martin Marty Center, continuing its emphasis on global interactions and aspects of religion, will

have four senior fellows, one associate, and twelve dissertation (junior) fellows in 2008–09.

Clemens Six will be working on a projecttentatively titled “Modernity and Religion:The Reception of Indian Theories to Rethinka Historical Relationship.” Six, who will beworking with Martin Riesebrodt, Professorof the Sociology of Religion, is a recent Ph.D.in South Asian Economic and Social Historyfrom the University of Vienna and recentlyauthored Hindi-Hindu-Hindustan. Politikund Religion im modernen Indien.

Sarah McFarland Taylor will be workingon two projects tentatively titled “EternallyGreen: American Religion and the Ecology ofDeath” and “Religious Responses to GlobalClimate Change.” Taylor is currently AssociateProfessor at Northwestern University’s Depart-ment of Religion, where she also teaches inthe American Studies program and the Envi-ronmental Policy and Culture program. Shepublished Green Sisters: A Spiritual Ecologywith Harvard University Press in 2007 andhas two book projects currently underway.

Associate

Wu Guo is a professor of the Institute ofReligious Studies, Sichuan University. Hisfield of specialty includes Taoism, especiallytwo Taoist sects: Quan-zhen (perfect verity)and Jing-ming (purity and sunniness). Hecomes to the Marty Center from the Harvard-Yenching Institute, where he was working ona research project titled “Taoism in ModernChinese Society and Trends of ContemporaryNeo-Taoism.”

Senior Research Fellows

Jiangyang Dong, a Visiting Research Scholarfrom China for the 2008–09 Fulbright ScholarProgram, will pursue a research project enti-tled “A Study on the Relationship Between theChristian Church and the Government inthe USA and its Potential Meanings TowardChina.” His project focuses on a comprehen-sive and interdisciplinary study of the historical,religious, political, philosophical and socio-logical dimensions of church-state relations.

Vincent Rougeau will be working on a pro-ject tentatively titled “Faith and Citizenshipin the New Millennium: Christian Witnessin a Pluralist Society.” Rougeau is currentlyAssociate Professor and Director of the Centeron Law and Government at Notre Dame LawSchool; he recently completed a book withOxford University Press entitled Christians inthe American Empire: Faith and Citizenshipin the New World Order.

10 C I R C A

dualisms and undercut the support thesedualisms lend to inegalitarian relationships.The book I am just finishing, tentativelyentitled On God-Talk: Theological Semanticsand Pneumatological Pragmatics, exemplifies

this strategy. The prevailing view maintainsthat God-talk cannot be a species of ordi-nary talk, and thus commonly appeals toextra-ordinary bridge-concepts to explainhow God-talk could be meaningful, true, orabout God. As a result, God-talk’s answer-ability to God appears incompatible with itsanswerability to us, such that God-talk isall-too-often called upon both to elevate thestatus of a particular agenda and to insulatethat agenda from criticism. I counter all ofthis by providing an “ordinary” account ofGod-talk: by explaining the semantics(meaning, truth, “aboutness,” etc.) of ordi-nary language in terms of the norms implic-it in our recognition of certain language-useas correct, and then explaining the sense inwhich the normative Spirit of God-talk islikewise mediated through an ongoing pro-cess of mutual recognition, I argue that wecan understand God-talk as a species ofordinary talk, that we can thus avoid “meta-physics” and dualisms, that we can under-stand God-talk’s answerability to God pre-cisely in terms of our answerability to oneanother, and so on.

CIRCA: What have you found to be theprospects for interaction with other areas of study in the Divinity School? In theUniversity?

KH: It seems to me that in order to countas a “good citizen” of Swift Hall — and ofthe wider University —one must be com-mitted to critical inquiry (as opposed todogmatism) and exhibit a certain catholicityof interest (as opposed to parochialism). Inview of the latter, it is perhaps unsurprisingthat several colleagues have already turnedout to be invaluable conversation partners:in addition to ad hoc conversations on every-thing from critical theory and the nature of“practice” to politics and personal life, I haveespecially enjoyed participating in a readinggroup that Dan Arnold and I facilitated (onsome key figures in contemporary philosophy),as well as a faculty-wide seminar, convened byWilliam Schweiker, that has been discussingCharles Taylor’s A Secular Age. I find suchconversations tremendously helpful, and Ilook forward to cultivating more of them. ❑

Dean of Students’ Report

Convocations

Summer 2007

M.A.Brian James ClitesAlan Jay DagovitzJustine Farrell HoweShaily Shashikant PatelNathan Hearding PhillipsGary Neil Shapiro

Ph.D.Catherine Selene AdcockAnthony Michael CerulliErik Christopher OwensShubha Pathak

Winter 2008

M.A.Stephen Harding BlackwellDiana Katherine Frantz

Ph.D.Mihwa ChoiJohn M. FreymannLea Faye SchweitzKristin Diane Van

Heyningen

Spring 2008

M.A.Ellen Alexis AmbrosoneScot Andrew AusbornMelissa Susan BlaschkeDaniel Patrick BorlandPaul H.B. ChangJoshua Andrew ConnorMark Peter DankelJeannette Marie DarcyEllyn Rachelle FarrellyThomas Scott Ferguson

Donald Edward FrederickAaron Phillips HammesKaylon Elizabeth

HammondSusan Hoshang KaraniElizabeth Eleanor KevernHannah Kathleen LawrenceElizabeth Ann Lasar MuirKimba A. LevittLauren Therese O’ConnellMark RobinsonToby C. SiegelBrian James SweeneyMegan Nicole Wade

AntieauKyle Adam WagnerPeter Jonathan WalfordErica Ilardi WovsanikerHongmei Zhao

M.Div.Aaltje Marie BaumgartJonathan Andre FriesenGeorge Ryan GilbertEdmund Immanuel HarrisDavid W. JohnsonCasey Lee KarbowskiLaura Elizabeth KoepkeKinndlee Shea LundRyan Christian SingletonTedd Patrick SteeleWesley Su-Ming SunCatherine Emily Schrement

Turner

Ph.D.Elliot Joe CosgroveRyan David CoyneJoel Sebastian HarterAnte JeroncicBenjamin Elliot SaxJeffrey Charles ShirkeyCourtney Suzanne Wilder

Student Fellowships,Grants, and Awards2007–2008

American Association of University WomenFellowship

Gabriel Amber Robinson

The Armstrong VossScholarshipLindsey Erin Braun

The Wayne C. BoothGraduate Student Prize for Excellence in TeachingCarlos Andres Manrique

Foreign Language and Area Study Fellowships

Academic Year

Ellen Alexis AmbrosoneMaria Eugenia AlbinaErin Hillary EppersonRandall MooreAntje Postema

Summer

Ellen Alexis Ambrosone

Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral DiversityFellowshipAlexander Phillip

Hivoltze-Jimenez(deceased)

Furstenberg FellowshipRuchama Jerusha

Johnston-BloomChaim Meir Neria

The Louisville InstituteDissertation FellowshipSandra Jeanne

Sullivan Dunbar

Provost’s SummerFellowshipsEmmanuelle Neuman

BurtonMegan Elizabeth DohertyCarlos Andres ManriqueAnne Taylor MockoSeth PerryGarry G. Sparks

College Graduates in Religious Studies2007–2008

Nine students completedfourth-year B.A. papers inReligious Studies this year,led by the B.A. paper pre-ceptor, Hillel Gray. They andtheir topics are (advisors’names follow in brackets):

Wallace Bourgeois,“Conceptions of HumanPerfection from Neitzscheand Christianity” (W. Schweiker)

Joseph Bozdech, “And the Future, King?: Hege-monic Validation inAncient MesopotamianOmen Correcting Rituals” (C. Faraone)

Sarah Jackman,“Eschatology andExploration: Rethinking the Historical Columbus” (C. Gilpin)

Nate Hainje, “Beliefs andIdeals: The Role of ThomasJefferson’s Religious Beliefswithin the Formation of hisConcept of ReligiousFreedom” (C. Gilpin)

Mark Holum, “Death, Sex,and Horses: The Paradoxesof the Superlative King inthe Mythology of theAsvamedha” (W. Doniger)

Alexandra Jamali,“Congratulations andCondolences: TheAesthetics of MartyrImagery in the Films ofMohsen Makhmalbaf” (F. Lewis)

Jamal Jones, “The FolkWithin and the FolkWithout” (B. Lincoln)

Hannah McConnaughay,“Civil Religion in SouthAfrica: Two Regimes,Shared Narratives, and theImportance of Diversity”(C. Gilpin)

Meredyth Richards,“Petrus the Teacher: Reasonand Instruction in theDialogue Against the Jews”(J. Robinson)

Some of our Ph.D. graduates are available for appointment. Their resumes can beaccessed online at: http://divinity.uchicago.edu/resumebook/index.html.

Hector Interview Continued from page 6

Enrollment

This fall, the Divinity School enrolled ninety-seven entering degree candidates: five A.M.R.S., sixty-one M.A., fourteen

M.Div., and seventeen Ph.D.

The heightened profile of religions in worldevents, Christianity’s explosion in the globalsouth, and the interests of our current studentswho come to us with their thought worldsshaped by internet communications all com-bine to shape our conversation about thepossibilities and parameters of religious lifeand leadership.

This summer M.Div. students traveled toKenya, Tanzania, and India to study ministryand ministry education in a variety of culturalcontexts. Erin Bouman, a rising third-yearstudent who taught school in Tanzania beforeher matriculation in the Divinity School,

Ministry Program Update

Global Perspectives on Ministry

Ministry students often tell us that they choose Chicago’s

Master of Divinity program for its characteristic emphasis

on the public engagement of religious communities and

religious leadership. The program is engineered to be contextual —

students are able to design courses of study that are both wide-ranging

and deeply rooted, electing courses throughout the university and the

Hyde Park seminaries and taking advantage of internship opportunities

in congregations and agencies throughout the city and its surround-

ing areas. Increasingly, the program’s public horizons are broadening.

“. . . Christian communities

in Kenya, Tanzania, and India

are helping our students to

think more creatively and

critically about our common

practice . . .”

engaged in “missions” or development workabroad, and some have been deployed thus.The shift in these current international studyprojects, however, is a significant one —rather than being seen as destinations formissions or recipients of outreach, theChristian communities in Kenya, Tanzania,and India are helping our students to thinkmore creatively and critically about ourcommon practices — leadership formation,ordination and ecumenical relationships —as reflection partners and teachers, helpingto shape a generation of religious leaderswith truly global perspective.

Matthew’s and Bethany’s studies abroadwere made possible by the first InternationalMinistry Study grants to be issued by the

Divinity School, thanks to generous match-ing gifts by the Carpenter Foundation andthe Baptist Theological Union. The ministryprogram will be receiving applications for nextyear’s international study grant recipientsduring the upcoming fall quarter; currently,the funding for this program will extend forfour years of travel grants. Erin received fund-ing for her study from the ministry fellowsprogram of the Fund for Theological Educa-tion. Though our students are impressivelyresourceful in designing their research projectsand establishing international conversationpartners, Circa readers are encouraged tocontact the Director of Ministry Studies ifyou have contacts or ideas about noteworthyinternational ministries. ❑

— Cynthia Lindner, Director, Ministry Program

A U T U M N 2 0 0 8 | 11

returned to Tanzania this summer to researchthe role of women and women’s ordinationin the Lutheran church there. MatthewRobinson, a rising third-year whose academicinterests include the transmission of textsand hermeneutics, is spending ten weeks inKenya improving his Swahili and observingthe role of scripture study in the formationof pastors in congregational Bible schools.Classmate Bethany Lowery traveled throughnorthern India investigating the ecumenicallybased Church of North India as a model for ecumenical partnership in a religiouslyplural culture. All three students have beendocumenting their observations and insightson blogs and in journal reflections; they will be reporting on their studies for theircolleagues at the Divinity School in presen-tations to be held throughout the comingacademic year.

International study and travel is not newamong Divinity School students — certainlymany of our Ph.D. students do research andlanguage study abroad, and it is not uncom-mon that our students come to our programshaving lived or studied in another cultureduring their undergraduate work, or after-ward. Many of our ministry students comefrom denominations that have historically

For calendar updates, please consult the Divinity School’s website at http://

divinity.uchicago.edu/news/. Access the most up-to-date events information,

sign up for our electronic events calendar —“At the Divinity School”— and

get current, and archived, news.

Spring Convocation

The University of Chicago held its 494th Convocation in June of 2008. Degrees were conferred upon candidates from the DivinitySchool during Session II, held on Friday the 13th at 2:30 p.m. Wendy Doniger, the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professorin the Divinity School, delivered the Convocation address at Sessions I, II and III. Her speech, entitled “Thinking More Criticallyabout Thinking Too Critically” will be printed in a forthcoming issue of Criterion.

Circa Images © Cover: Scott Rothstein. Pg 2: Fulton, Beth Rooney; Medieval stone figure, Tony Baggett. Pg 3: Torah, Fotolia; Bible, Stephen Orsillo; Wall, Sam Spiro; Kass, Chronicle Archive; Medical Collage, Elena Pankova. Pg 4: Computer, Robert Mizerek and Douglas Freer; Davenport, Steve Kagan;Rockefeller, Sam Spiro. Pg 5: Trees, Elena Elisseeva; Manuscript, Vladislav Gurfinkel; Group, Alexey Klementiev; Boy, MW Productions. Pg 6: Hector, Steve Hagan. Pg 7: Hands, Marcin Kempski; Streetscene, Anita Romero. Pg 8: Book, Paul Bodea; Shukla, Steve Kagan; Arch, Robin Winge. Pg 9:Streetscene, Dan Low; Shop, Fotolia; Mosaic, Yali Shi; Head, Andrea Danti. Pg 10: Hector, Steve Hagan; Leaves, Barbro Bergfeldt. Pg 11: Arrows, Juice Images; Fretwork, Jgz; Woman, Juan Llompart. Pg 12: Convocation, Steve Hagan.

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