Come to part or all!

Canadian Theological Society

Virtual Conference

May 24-26, 2022

Abstracts

Panel 1: 

Gordon Rixon, Regis College

A Slain Lamb Standing: Journeying in Reconciliation

My roundtable presentation advances my reflection on the development of church doctrine on indigenous rights and the preparation of a revised edition of Michael Stogre, S.J., That the World May Believe: The Development of Papal Social Thought on Aboriginal Rights (1992). In a recent paper, I explored three areas of learning arising for church communities as people of faith identify and address systematic issues of colonialism, racism, and abuse. I examined each of these areas as a response to a question. Why are communities slow to recognize and respond to the humanity and suffering of those who have been harmed? Why are communities reluctant to acknowledge and address the woundedness of perpetrators, who are themselves often victims of complex, intergenerational trauma? What changes need to emerge in religious leadership to support a culture of healing, restorative justice, and preventative care in our communities? My presentation focuses on the third question and addresses the need to complement the teaching office of Bishops with a leadership role in facilitating recovery from trauma. Recent statements by some Bishops deflecting responsibility for the imbroglio of religion, colonialism, and sexual violence flags the need to develop competence in additional forms of discourse. In Trauma and Recovery (2015), Judith Herman outlines that recovering from trauma is a survivor-focused journey that overcomes the loss of identity and agency by re-establishing basic social safety, narration and memorialization of violation, and social activism. In “‘The Trinity is our Social Program’: The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Shape of Social Engagement” (1998), Miroslav Volf proposes an approach to interrelating religious vision and engagement in social issues. Drawing on these two authors, I identify how leadership could become more adept at engaging multiple forms of discourse and, thereby, again repudiate what Stogre identifies as a tendency in church doctrine and practice to subordinate justice to the advancement of Christian mission.

Graham P. McDonough, University of Victoria

How Supersessionism Obstructs the Catholic Church’s Approach to Reconciliation

I hypothesize that supersessionism – a belief that Christianity replaces and fulfils Judaism – sets a template within Christianity that obstructs today’s Catholic Church efforts at reconciliation with Indigenous persons and groups. I begin with a broad, but robust generalization that reconciliation should entail apologies for both past actions and the modes of thought that enabled them. Catholic Church apologies for the actions of residential schooling also must apologize for Catholic Church disrespect of the religious freedom of Indigenous persons, and disrespect of Indigenous spiritualties – beliefs, practices, and lifeways. I will argue that while the Canadian Catholic Bishops’ (CCCB) 2016 “Response to Call to Action 48 (On Adopting and Implementing the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples)” properly recognizes colonizers’ violations of Indigenous persons’ religious freedom, it insufficiently recognizes colonizers’ beliefs that Indigenous spiritualities are less than Catholic Christianity. While the Church’s respect for the rights of Indigenous persons to practice their spirituality is one thing, its respect for the content of that spirituality itself is another, and I will show that the CCCB’s talk of respect for religious rights is made to do the work of respect for the content of spiritual practices. These insufficiencies echo a wider phenomenon in the Church that enables colonial structures of thought to persist in this new guise, including how contemporary Catholic school curricula mirror it in their presentations of Judaism and Indigenous spiritualities. Hence, I maintain that as supersessionism remains within Catholic school experiences it also impedes teaching for reconciliation.

Panel 2:

For a Humble Church: Catholicism, Repentance and Building Cultures of Peace

Inspired by the recovery of unmarked graves on the sites of former Indian Residential Schools in Canada, this panel of four Catholic theologians will explore the themes of social sin and repentance as they apply to the Canadian Catholic Church. Acknowledging our positions of privilege as Catholic settlers situated in western Canada, the panelists will critique ecclesiologies that promote cultures of exclusion and explore ways of fostering cultures of encounter and peace. The latter will include a focus on moments, signs, gestures, and movements toward a collective, Catholic response to the abuses perpetrated by the Catholic Church.

Sr. Zoe Bernatsky (Newman Theological College) uses Ignatian spirituality to shift focus from fear, pride, and self-protection to open-hearted encounter within the Catholic church, critical for kenotic repentance, conversion, and healing from harms suffered by indigenous peoples at residential schools.

Nick Olkovich (St. Mark’s College) explores ecclesiological dimensions of social sin and grace, with a particular focus on the evils of clericalism and triumphalism, in dialogue with Pope Francis’ call for a synodal church committed to constructing an inclusive common good.

Doris Kieser (St. Joseph’s College) engages Bernard Lonergan on conversion alongside the Vatican II notion of a pilgrim church, to consider gestures of repentance and steps toward reconciling for abuses perpetrated by the church and traumas suffered by indigenous peoples in Canada.

Christopher Hrynkow (St. Thomas More College) works from a Peace Studies perspective, integrating theological concepts related to corporate responsibility and responsibility, to identify structural barriers to Catholic participation in transformative cultures of encounter, dialogue, and peace.

Panel 3:

Jeremy M. Bergen, Conrad Grebel University College

Christian Martyrdom, Cultural Trauma, and Conspiracies of Silence

Problem: The ways in which churches and Christian theology frame the suffering of particular victims as “martyrs” may have implications for how churches and Christian theology respond to other victims of violence.

Contribution: I will connect contemporary theologies of martyrdom with the lens of cultural trauma.

The interpretation and narration of particular deaths as martyrdom is a framework within which some victims of violence are recognized and lauded by the Christian community and their witness held up as inspiring and instructive. In this brief presentation, I consider some implications of understanding the discourse of martyrdom as a response to “cultural trauma,” a concept developed by Jeffrey Alexander and Ron Eyerman. The language of martyrdom provides meaning to suffering but does so at the risk of silencing some voices and perspectives, including the martyrs who can no longer speak for themselves. The paper is part of a larger project assessing the claim that Christian martyrdom, in the words of Pope Francis, is an “ecumenism of blood” which advances the unity of the church. An important and defensible thesis, critical examination of this claim also reveals troubling costs, including cultural conspiracies of silence in the name of a coherent martyr narrative. The collective repression of the memory of Jesus as a victim of sexualized violence epitomizes this danger. How churches and Christian theology frame the suffering of particular victims as “martyrs” has implications for how churches and Christian theology respond to other victims of violence.

Preston D. S. Parsons, Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener

Bonhoeffer and the Problem of Vicarious Repentance

As bishops calls the church to repentance for the sins of the unrepentant, Bonhoeffer’s theology of vicarious repentance offers theological grounding to these calls. Amid the revelations of the church’s contribution to indigenous trauma, Anglican bishops have called for the church to repent. Many actors, however, are dead; others are unrepentant; others see repentance for the sins of others as an incoherent proposal. These calls for repentance, alongside the unwillingness or inability for some to repent, leads to the problem of repentance for the sins of others, and the need for a coherent theological articulation of this mode of repentance. Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes the church as a community in which we act for others. Bonhoeffer writes of the forgiveness of sins, intercessory prayer, and sacrificial work as ways that one can act vicariously. What is less clear is the way repentance fits into Bonhoeffer’s schema. Yet when he does write on repentance, he writes about it much as he does on other forms of vicarious action. This leads to the possibility that repentance may serve a vicarious function Bonhoeffer’s thought. This possibility offers two opportunities. The first is to investigate how repentance functions for Bonhoeffer in Bonhoeffer’s theology as a whole, and thus to fill a lacuna in Bonhoeffer research. The second is to employ the fruits of this research in support of the bishops’ call for the church to repent for the sins of the unrepentant.

Ryan Turnbull, University of Birmingham

Haunted and Held: Indigenous Place-Making and Settler Unknowing

The 1930s saw a massive drought in the heartland of the Canadian prairies. In response, the federal government created the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administrative and gave it broad powers to intervene in the Canadian prairie landscape to mitigate the worst effects of the drought. One mitigation strategy involved the creation of a series of community pastures that would better protect the eroding top-soil in drought conditions than the cultivation practices of the time. However, in some instances, the land identified for expropriation into pasture land was the home of an Indigenous people group known as the Métis. In one such site, Ste. Madeleine, Manitoba, the entire community was displaced, largely without compensation, and saw their homes burnt and dogs shot, all to ‘protect’ the ‘marginal’ land and provide reliable pasture to the settler community. My presentation provides an overview of ethnographic and archival research I have conducted on this site as a way of exploring the conflicts in Indigenous and Settler place-making and identity formation. From this case study I argue that Christian theologies of place have to grapple seriously with practices of settler unknowing. Following both Eve Tuck and recent work by Settler-Canadian theologians seeking to engage decolonization, I interrogate the descriptions of Ste. Madeleine through the lens of hauntology of this site in order to demonstrate how the Indigenous-haunted psyche of settler colonialism reproduces violent erasures and how this ‘haunting’ must be accounted for if Christian theologies of place are to move beyond their colonial structures.

Panel 4:

Faith, Hope and Love as Embodied Disciplines and Practices within Liberatory Anti-Violence Movements

Drawing primarily from Black feminist, womanist, Latina, and Mujerista theologies, we examine contemporary social movements created by women of colour in the U.S. and Canada that are enacting strategies to challenge intimate violence and the violence of prisons and policing. We argue that these cultural and political spaces offer a prophetic witness to faith, hope and love as embodied disciplines and practices in the face of violence. U.S. organizer Mariame Kaba’s oft-repeated phrase “hope is a discipline” is an influential mantra for these movements. Yet another is Canadian cultural worker Kai Cheng Thom’s urging, “I hope we choose love,” rather than punishment in the aftermath of violence. Liberatory anti-violence movements forged from the interstices of vulnerabilities to interpersonal, systemic and carceral violence situate their practices of resistance as exercises in hope and faith, imagining ways of practicing justice and accountability that do not yet exist. Likewise, organizers understand their efforts as a disciplined embrace of “love as the practice of freedom,” to quote recently departed writer bell hooks. Addressing the moral and ethical foundations, and theological implications of liberatory anti-violence movements, we posit that learning from their embodied practices of faith, hope and love can serve as a rich resource for doing theology and formulating Christian social ethics.

Panelists:

Johonna McCants-Turner, Conrad Grebel University College

James W. McCarty, University of Washington Tacoma

Hannah Bowman, Mount Saint Mary’s University

Panel 5:

Beyond Saints and Superheroes: How Can Canadian Churches Support Parents Raising Children with Disabilities?

The proposed panel reviews the results of a qualitative study funded by the Louisville Institute exploring the experiences of parents raising children with disabilities in Canadian churches.  Briefly, the results indicate that parents encounter numerous physical, social, theological, and attitudinal barriers to church participation.  Parents report that poor understanding of disabilities and caregiving among church communities can manifest in judgmental attitudes, ableist theology, and social exclusion that render church “unsafe” for their child and family.  Parents desire churches that; 1) extend practical support, 2) offer meaningful inclusion, 3) demonstrate a willingness to learn about disability, and 4) provide unconditional friendship and the lived experience of true belonging. The results of this study are relevant for faith communities considering ways to welcome people with disabilities into their communities, but also for churches hoping to embrace radical welcome more broadly. This panel will present findings, offer a theological framework of embodiedness as an entry for dis-abling church, and provide an opportunity for conference attendees to collectively explore the theological and practical implications of the parents’ stories and discuss strategies to make their own faith communities safe and welcoming for all.

Panelists: 

Laura MacGregor, Martin Luther University College, Wilfrid Laurier University

Allen Jorgenson, Martin Luther University College, Wilfrid Laurier University

Kayko Driedger Hesslein, Lutheran Theological Seminary Saskatoon

Vincent Haven, United Church of Canada (retired)

Jay Newman Lecture:

Frederick Ware, Howard University

Afropessimism and the Dogged Strength of Blackness: An Assessment of the Ground for a Theology of Hope

This presentation assesses the plausibility of three expressions of optimism over against Afropessimism. These expressions are framed eschatologically (W.E.B. Du Bois’s Black Messianism), Christologically (M. Shawn Copeland’s resurrection hope), and philosophically (Victor Anderson’s relational concept of race and view of the emergence of faith and beloved community from the process of creative exchange). Afropessimism is variously defined as an intellectual movement, school of thought, and framework of social and political analysis that asserts Black people are integral to human society, American society in particular, but are ironically excluded from it and targeted for gratuitous violence. Afropessimists argue that Blackness and other categorizations of minorities are a condemnation to “ontological death,” the status of nonperson, a “thing,” without human identity or subjectivity. With Black life described as such, this presentation ponders the questions. Is there an alternative to anti-blackness and racial violence? Is there no solution (end) to racism? Do these expressions of hope, or any other forms of optimism so conceived, adequately inspire social action to address past and present injustices and work toward a sustainable and equitable future?

Panel 6:

Carl Friesen, University of Notre Dame

Hope in the Kenotic Pattern of Creation: Theological Naturalism and Ecological Crisis

The unprecedented challenges created by our ecological crises has prompted theologians to emphasize that Christian hope is not in nature itself, but in an eschatological future where suffering and death are ultimately overcome. Some environmentalists, by contrast, contend that such eschatological hope is morally problematic for it leads to naïve, unscientific prescriptions for human-nature relationships. Insofar as hope is reasonable at all, they suggest that it is rests on the human capacity to successfully respond to crisis. Both accounts of hope tend to overlook the regenerative rhythm of natural processes in se and thus struggle for direct moral relevance. This paper argues for a Christian hope grounded in natural processes as manifestations of divine wisdom. A naturalistically grounded hope is intensely practical for it recognizes the kenotic rhythm of God’s creation—its impetus to bring new life out of death—as pattern for the moral life. Christian descriptions of hope almost exclusively focus on God’s redeeming activity in Jesus Christ, now and in the eschaton. While an eschatologically grounded hope has some practical relevance in addressing environmental degradation, it also distorts our understanding of how to respond to nature in the present by extrapolating moral norms from an imagined future rather than attempting to respond to nature as it is. What is needed instead, I argue, is an account of hope grounded in the life-sustaining processes of nature itself. If we view nature as indication of God’s wisdom, we have a template of sorts for how to structure our lives.

Michael Stoeber, Regis College

Sacred Groves or Profitable Commodities? Exploring Dispositions toward our Environment in Interreligious Dialogue

This paper will explore human orientations that have contributed to current environmental issues and propose positive creative responses.  It will illustrate the problems in relation to Indigenous peoples and coloniality contexts, highlighting both distorted and reverential approaches to trees through consideration of a concrete historical case—the radical depletion and degradation of the White Pine forest ecosystem of Ontario and other areas of eastern North America, from the 17^th -19^th c. The paper: (i) compares this Canadian/USA context to current conditions in the Amazon Rainforest of South America; (ii) analyzes core traditional distorted human attitudes that contribute to such environmental destruction and socio-cultural repression, whereby trees are solely objectified, hyper-commodified, and radically exploited; and (iii) points to supportive and personally transforming attitudes towards trees—especially through Jewish-philosophical and Indigenous models—which highlight their intrinsic value and our potential relationship with them, in respectful, appreciative, non-intentional, unmediated, and deeply spiritual ways.  The main dialogue partners will be Martin Buber, Nick Black Elk, Pope Francis, Lynn White, Jr, Edith Stein, and Andrew Vietze.

Jean-Pierre Fortin, University of St. Michael’s College

White Messiah, Colonizing Ecology: Dune as Dystopic Representation of the Future

The release of the movie Dune (Part I) by French Canadian director Denis Villeneuve invites a critical reconsideration of Frank Herbert’s vision for the future of humankind. Pertaining to “cautionary science fiction,” Dune embodies Herbert’s attempt to warn his readers about the consequences of giving in to the western (post)modern neoliberal ideal. The search for messiahs (such as Paul Atreides) in and to whom the hope and mission of saving humankind can be invested and entrusted may lead society to relinquish freedom and agency for the safety and comfort of clearly defined stable order. Excessive faith and trust placed in human science and technology generate deterministic understandings of nature and history, themselves providing means to control, disrupt or annihilate natural ecosystems and evolution. In such a world, the temptation is great for members of privileged castes to use religion as a tool to manipulate populations deemed “primitive,” for the sake of imperial conquest (cf. the Corrino, Harkonnen and Atreides houses) or to produce the ultimate version of the human being (cf. the Bene Gesserit order). Dramatizing the deleterious effects of enforced theocracy, imperial domination, colonization and patriarchy, Dune compels its readers to nurture understandings of religion and the supernatural transcending superstition, notions of the human and education overcoming unilateral rational control of the body, in favour of embracing the inherent indeterminacy of natural and human evolution and history. Dune thereby provides contemporary theologians with constructive resources to produce faithful and liberating articulations and embodiments of God and the human.

Special Session:

Papal Apology Roundtable

This roundtable is intended to offer personal and pastoral reflections on the papal apology by Indigenous and non-Indigenous panelists. After viewing the Apology, several invited guests will speak to its meaning in their lives and their hope for Pope Francis’ visit to Canada. We will then open the conversation to all those gathered.

Panelists:

Msgr. Donald Bolen, Archbishop of Regina

Rev. Daryold Winkler, St. Basil’s Parish, Ottawa

Jeremy M. Bergen, Conrad Grebel University College

Christine Jamieson, Concordia University

Chairs:

Jane Barter, University of Winnipeg

Doris Kieser, St. Joseph’s College

Panel 7:

Andrew K. Gabriel, Horizon College & Seminary

Hope for the Future: On the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada’s Renewed Statement of Faith

The Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) is Canada’s largest evangelical denomination. In May of 2022 its General Conference will vote on a “refreshed” statement of faith, and the denomination’s leadership expects it to receive broad affirmation. This is the first major rewrite of the statement since 1980. This presentation will give a brief overview of the history of the PAOC’s “Statement of Essential Truths,” report on the results of the vote, and survey key changes in the statement. The presentation will demonstrate that while the statement continues to express conservative evangelical theology, 1) its changes allow for a greater diversity of theological views within the denomination, while at the same time 2) giving more emphasis to Pentecostal theological sensitivities as the statement draws on the best of historical and contemporary Pentecostal theology, and 3) its changes include attempts to addresses some current cultural and ecclesial issues, such as the place of women in ministry, concerns for creation care, and the inclusion of those of various ethnic and racial identities.

Don Schweitzer, St. Andrew’s College

The Christology of George Soares-Prabhu, SJ

George Soares-Prabhu, SJ  (1929-1995) was one of India’s foremost Biblical theologians. His contributions to a liberating Biblical theology for India, collected in four volumes, are distinguished by the high quality of his exegesis and his insistence on interpreting Scripture in relation to India’s massive poverty, religious pluralism and caste discrimination. Christology was one of his central themes. This presentation will ask what Canadian theologians can learn from Soares-Prabhu. It will answer this through examining five aspects of his christology: 1) his negotiation of the tension between the contextuality of a liberating theology and the universality of its truth claims; 2) the dialectical relationship of Indian culture and the Biblical traditions in his approach to christology; 3) his notion of the Jesus of faith as a way of surmounting the tension between the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith; 4) his emphasis on understanding Jesus through his public ministry as narrated in the Synoptic Gospels; and 5) his repudiation of Chalcedon’s christological affirmations.

Canadian theologians can learn from Soares-Prabhu on all these points, though from a Western perspective, his repudiation of the Chalcedonian Definition seems one-sided.

Zane Chu, Regis College

Good despite Evil: Reformulating Lonergan’s Law of the Cross

Bernard Lonergan concisely articulated the meaning and practical significance of Christ’s saving work as the law of the cross. God saves us not by the exercise of power, but by converting or transforming evil into good. This develops a fundamental element of reflection on God’s saving work in the tradition of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. My paper interrogates the meaning of “converting” or “transforming” evil into good, particularly in light of experiences of the trauma of sexual abuse or the colonization of Indigenous peoples that would rightly resist such an expression. Speaking of “transforming” such evils into good seems not only inappropriate but also perverse. Therefore, it is incumbent on Christian theologians to clarify this meaning, and possibly to reformulate it in other terms. First, I collect the various explanations of the transformation of evil into good according to the law of the cross in Lonergan and his interpreters. Second, guided by these explanations I offer one possible reformulation: that the law of the cross means the possibility of good despite evil and invites the doing of good despite, and against, evil. This reformulation, I then argue, relates the law of the cross to hope and charity, further specifying its practical import. My ultimate goal is to open up reflection on the cross and reconciliation in the trajectory of Augustine, Aquinas, and Lonergan, such that theological understanding listens more attentively to concrete experiences of evil, and responds more sensitively, not with harmful words but with the hope of “Good News.”

Patrick Nolin, Regis College

Memory, Forgetting, and a Defense of Narrativism in the Retrieval of Recollection

In the translator’s notes to the English edition of St. Thomas Aquinas’ commentary to Aristotle’s De memoria et reminiscientia, Kevin White argues that Aristotle’s treatise offers a precision in vocabulary concerning the idea of memory which has been significantly thinned in contemporary English. The nomenclature between remembering, forgetting, and recollecting is at times difficult to parse. Given their three distinct, yet related functions, and our common language regarding their affective and cognitional responses in human operations, no wonder there exists a conflation between the operations of each of the three faculties. Nevertheless, it is important to retrieve a theory of recollection that differentiates itself from the category of remembering – which is associated more aptly with the affectivity of memory – in the attempt to produce what Freud called “a geography of the subject.” This paper thus will serve as a retrieval of recollection apart from the categories of remembering and forgetting within our memory. In doing so, it will demonstrate how a theory of recollection rescues a narrativist school of thought concerning the role of memory in healing from crippling relativism and how it can adequately address traumas that have been undertaken by both the individual and community. The inability to adequately reflect on the operations of these three faculties poses tremendous difficulties in how we may attempt to move forward in peace.

Panel 8:

Intersectional Feminist Imagination

Many had hoped that by 2022 diverse feminist theologies would have transformed Christian theology. However, mainline theological circles often treat critical feminist interventions as a side conversation, or even a conversation of the past. Intersectional feminism recognizes that there is no universal human experience and no prototype for women’s experience. Experiences of gender, racialization, dis/ability, class, religion, and sexuality interrelate and transform one another. This panel makes the case that the conference theme, “Remembering Trauma/Imagining Hope” is incomplete without intersectional feminist perspectives that imagine the past, present, and future otherwise. Invested in the Canadian theological world from different perspectives and disciplines, the panelists ask: How are mainline ecclesial practices rooted in colonial, patriarchal, exploitative worldviews, even when these communities explicitly state their commitments to do otherwise; and how can intersectional feminism bridge the ideological divide between ministry and administration and bring a more holistic approach? How are postcolonial ecofeminist theological contributions necessary for preachers and homiletical scholars to engage climate crisis effectively? How can a priority for indigenous women as the most marginalized identify cracks in socio-economic and political structures—including those designed as safety nets—that perpetrate injustices? How can queer and critical feminist perspectives build theological understanding about diverse gender identities? The panelists will foster dialogue among panelists and audience by posing the question: what might an intersectional and explicitly feminist collective look like in the contemporary Canadian theological landscape?

Panelists:

Michelle Voss Roberts, Emmanuel College

Sheryl Johnson, St. Stephen’s College

HyeRan Kim-Cragg, Emmanuel College

Carmen Lansdowne, First United Church Community Ministry, Vancouver

Moderator:

Alexa Gilmour, Pacific School of Religion

Pope Francis and the Future of the Church: Prospects and Challenges for Renewal

April 6, 2022

Dear friends and colleagues:

As we look forward to the annual meeting of the Canadian Theological Society, I wanted to update you on some newer business with which the Executive has busied itself over the past year. I also am pleased to share with you the exciting program of the annual meeting, which will be held online May 24-26.

Dignity, Equity, and Justice

The Executive has taken further strides in developing policies that will attract and retain a diverse set of participants, leaders, and theological inquiries at the CTS. The Dignity, Equity, and Justice Committee has taken the lead in identifying critical tools and practical outcomes in the Society for strengthening its practices of scholarly inquiry, programming, publication, networking, and professional formation. The Executive has developed policy to ensure the Society’s commitment to these principles and will also be introducing a bylaw change for members to vote on at the AGM, which aims to regularize the role of Chair of the DEJ Committee on Executive.

Nominations Committee

Almost all positions on Executive are coming to the end of their term, including Vice-President, Program Officer, Treasurer, Secretary, and Student Representative. Please consider putting your name forward or nominating a colleague for these positions. This is a collegial group of scholars and the work of shaping theology in Canada is a rewarding venture. Please forward your nominations to the Chair of the Nominations Committee, Will Sweet:  wsweet@stfx.ca .

Annual Meeting Program

The theme of this year’s annual meeting is Remembering Trauma, Imagining Hope. This theme was occasioned by the discovery of over two thousand unmarked graves in former church-run residential schools last summer.

Clearly this theme is one that resonated with the Society as almost all papers and panels at this year’s annual meeting are concerned with questions of repentance, reconciliation, liberation, and intersectional forms of oppression and injustice.  Two sessions of the program are dedicated specifically to Dignity, Equity, and Justice. We will also hosting a viewing and a special roundtable on Pope Francis’ Apology to residential school survivors. Our Newman Lecture, by the remarkable The Rev. Dr. Frederick Ware, a foremost scholar of Black Theology, is certain to enhance and deepen our conversations.

Solidarity with Ukraine

As we think on themes of trauma and hope and pray for just peace in the world, we wish to express our solidarity with Ukraine and members of the Ukrainian diaspora during this time of war and suffering. We think of the churches and seminaries in Ukraine and in Canada, especially of St. Andrew’s College Faculty of Theology in Winnipeg and the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies in Toronto, and we extend to them our prayers that this war may soon end and that the important work of healing, reconciliation, and peacebuilding may soon begin.

A Word of Thanks

Finally, I wish to thank all the members of Executive for being such a hard-working, kind, intelligent, and cheerful group of scholars. I am deeply enriched by their collegiality and for making my role so easy and delightful. I look forward to seeing you, to hearing your scholarly papers, and especially to imagining hope together!

With every good wish,

Jane Barter

We ask you to submit a proposal by the 11^th of March 2022. If accepted the length of your presentation should not exceed 30 minutes. The WFTL’s program will be organized, in large part, on the basis of the proposals we receive and accept; we will then follow up with you. For further information, you can contact Brandon Haskel-Martinez, the WFTL assistant coordinator, at haskel.brandon@gmail.com .

CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS

Guidelines and questions

For the WFTL from June 6th to 9th, 2022, which is held online, please submit the following information:

1. A working title for the submission
2. A 250-word professional biography
3. A 400-word summary of the presentation
4. The name of the organization and the participants (if any)
5. The format of the activity: “academic” (individual or panel presentation), popular education, artistic presentation, other (specify)
6. Language (the WFTL is held in four languages: Spanish, English, Portuguese and French)
   1. The thematic axis (see the previous page)

Participation in the WSF from May 1st to 6th, 2022 – Survey

During the WFTL from June 6th to 9th, we will make a return on the WSF.

1. Do you plan to offer a workshop at the WSF in Mexico City in person?
   1. If so, what kind of presentation?

WFTL’s official website : wftlofficial.org

The Department of Religious Studies at St. Francis Xavier University invites applications for a 9-month Limited Term Appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin September 2022. This position is subject to final budgetary approval. Applicants should have a PhD in Religious Studies or Theology and show evidence of strong teaching ability. The successful candidate will teach six courses (18 credits) of undergraduate courses: RELS 117: Ethics for Health Care Providers; RELS 222: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in World Religions; RELS 333: Religion, Violence, & Peace; and three other courses from the Department’s offerings. The Department is seeking candidates who are committed to contributing to StFX’s priorities of equity, diversity, and inclusion. Demonstrated ability in fostering a climate of inclusion in the classroom is an asset.

Electronic submission of curriculum vitae, letter of application, teaching and research summaries, and the names, addresses (including email) and telephone numbers of three (3) references should be sent via email to:

Dr. Ken Penner

Chair, Department of Religious Studies

kpenner@stfx.ca

Review of applications will begin February 28, 2022 and continue until the position is filled. Interviews will be virtual; teaching will be in-person.

Only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. StFX respects diversity and welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and members of sexual minority groups.

Probationary (Tenure-Track) Appointment: 

Huron-Lawson Chair in Contextual Theology

Huron is completely unique to post-secondary institutions in Canada. With the aim to redefine Liberal Arts education, Huron is creating a university experience unlike any other that prioritizes ethical leadership and community engagement, as much as the pursuit of academic achievement.

As the founding institution of Western University, since 1863, Huron has remained strategically small to best serve the needs of its students.  We provide an elite, yet accessible, education, because every student with the passion and work ethic to positively change our world deserves to access the knowledge to understand it and the skills to shape it. Huron’s mission is to develop Leaders with Heart from all backgrounds and foster a vibrant and inclusive community and prepare students to be engaged citizens who transform the sectors they work within. Our commitment to providing the best-possible Liberal Arts education means students have many unique opportunities to enrich their learning experiences.

SUMMARY:

Building on 158 years of excellence in theological education, Huron’s Faculty of Theology is committed to providing students with the academic grounding and experiential learning they need to develop as resilient and successful Leaders with Heart, whether they go on to ordained ministry, public service, further study, or another field. The Faculty of Theology offers Bachelor of Arts courses and modules in Religion and Theology, as well as the Master of Divinity, the Master of Theological Studies, and the Master of Arts (Theology) degrees.

The Faculty of Theology at Huron invites applications for a full-time tenure-track appointment in Contextual Theology (open rank). The appointment will commence July 1, 2022, subject to final budgetary approval.

QUALIFICATIONS:

Candidates will hold a Ph.D. or Th.D. in Theology or related field, and will have excellent qualifications in teaching and research in Contextual Theology. Candidates with established profiles in any relevant area of research, including (but not limited to) Indigenous, Liberationist, Feminist, Black, Latinx, Postcolonial, Queer, or Environmental theologies, will be considered. Preference will be given to candidates whose research and teaching record demonstrates readiness to teach and supervise in our research M.A. (Theology) program, and whose teaching experience or capacity includes Contextual Theology courses at the M.Div. or M.T.S. level and Religious Studies courses at the B.A. level. The successful candidate will be expected to teach 2.5 full courses per year (with a 0.5 course release in each of their first two years of employment), maintain a research program, and participate in the administrative life of the Faculty and University. The successful candidate will also support and contribute collaboratively to the mission of the Faculty of Theology and will work well in an ecumenical and interfaith environment.

Interested candidates should forward (by email): a cover letter; an up-to-date c.v., including the names of three references; a summary of teaching philosophy and research interests (maximum four pages); and sample publications to:

Dr. Daniel A. Smith

Dean, Faculty of Theology

Huron University College

theology@huron.uwo.ca

The closing date for receipt of applications and supporting materials is January 28th, 2022 at 11:59pm.

Huron values its place in an interconnected world and desires to reflect this value, acknowledging our responsibility to strive towards a diverse and equitable employment and educational environment that recognizes the inherent worth and dignity of every person.  We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, especially those from racialized persons / persons of colour, women, Indigenous / Aboriginal People of North America, persons with disabilities, LGBTQ2S+ persons, and others who may contribute to the diversification of ideas.

Applications from all qualified individuals are invited; however, Canadian citizens and permanent residents will be given hiring priority. We thank all applicants for their interest; only those selected to proceed in the competition will be contacted. Should you require accommodation in making an application, please contact Human Resources at 519-438-7224, extension 703, or huronhr@huron.uwo.ca.

JOB POSTING

Executive Director, Toronto School of Theology

The Toronto School of Theology, affiliated with the University of Toronto, invites applications for the position of Executive Director. The appointment is for a five-year term (with possible renewal) commencing July 1, 2022.

The Toronto School of Theology (TST) was founded during 1969-70, in recognition of two potentials: the benefits of shared courses, teaching resources, and services; and trust in the promise of ecumenism. TST was then – and remains today – the largest ecumenical consortium for theological education in Canada, comprising seven member theological schools: Emmanuel College (United Church of Canada), Knox College (The Presbyterian Church in Canada), Regis College (Roman Catholic: Jesuit), St. Augustine’s Seminary (Roman Catholic: Diocesan), University of St. Michael’s College, Faculty of Theology (Roman Catholic: Basilian), University of Trinity College, Faculty of Divinity (Anglican Church of Canada), and Wycliffe College (Anglican: Evangelical). TST has continued to live out its commitment to ecumenism and cooperation in changing configurations for these 50 years.

The TST consortium offers a full range of professional and academic degrees. Degree programs operate at the post-baccalaureate level, and most degrees are conferred conjointly with the University of Toronto. Academic standards are consistent with those of the University of Toronto and are maintained through highly developed processes of quality assurance that are overseen by the University. All TST students are registered in a member college. Students in advanced degrees hold status both at their college of registration and in the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies, which oversees their admission and progress through their degree program under the direction of the Executive Director. TST does not confer degrees. TST is in the process of petitioning for affiliate membership in the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) in the United States and Canada, while each of the seven member schools of the consortium is a fully accredited member of ATS. For more information, please visit the TST website: www.tst.edu

Position Summary

Reporting to the TST Board of Trustees, the Executive Director is the Chief Executive and Administrative Officer of TST and a member of the graduate Faculty. Positioned at the heart of TST’s web of interdenominational, intergenerational and interinstitutional relationships, and in cooperation with the heads of the member schools, the Executive Director leads the TST community in the pursuit and development of its ecumenical mission, its dedication to cooperation in academic endeavour, its commitment to excellence in theological inquiry, education, and formation, and its engagement with the University of Toronto.

The Executive Director, in consultation with the Principals/Presidents/Deans of the seven Member Colleges, will:

• ensure TST fulfills its mission in an evolving context;
• maintain institutional integrity; and
• build broader institutional capacity.

The Executive Director will achieve these by:

• discerning and promoting a distinctive shared vision for TST, and working with others to achieve this vision;
• overseeing processes of strategic planning, graduate faculty appointments and quality assessment and ensuring compliance with relevant standards;
• building and maintaining a strong central administrative team; and
•  identifying strengths and potentials within the consortium and mobilizing them to the common good of the consortium.

Qualifications

• Academic qualifications commensurate with eligibility for graduate faculty membership at TST (a PhD or its equivalent in a theological or related discipline).
• Proven administrative and managerial skills and experience.
• Strong interpersonal skills including the ability to communicate, to listen, and to work with and through others.
• Familiarity with the TST consortium of seven theological schools, and with the University of Toronto’s system of federated and affiliated universities and colleges.
• Thorough knowledge of theological education in Canada and the United States acquired by academic administration and teaching in a theological college or related discipline.
• Excellent communication skills – oral and written.
• Commitment to the goals of ecumenism and diversity.
• Appreciation of the distinctive characteristics of theological consortia.

The Toronto School of Theology is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion throughout its community and in all of its employment practices.

Application Process

The search committee will begin considering potential candidates on February 3, 2022 and will continue until the role is successfully filled.

Applications are to include:

• cover letter detailing how experience satisfies the qualifications for the position;
• curriculum vitae; and
• three letters of reference with phone and email contact information (referees will not be contacted without the consent of the candidate).

Forward the above application materials, in confidence, as PDF documents to:

TST Executive Director Advisory Search Committee

tstdirectorsearch@tst.edu

Department of Religious Studies – Tenure-Track Appointment

The Department of Religious Studies at St. Francis Xavier University invites applications for a Tenure Track position at the rank of Assistant Professor to begin July 1, 2022.  Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience. This position is subject to budgetary approval.

St. Francis Xavier University is a leading national undergraduate university with a reputation of academic excellence, scholarly inquiry, and service to society. Recognized as one of the finest universities in Canada, StFX is meeting the needs of today’s undergraduates through outstanding teaching, exceptional hands-on research experiences, the very best in a residential community, and unique opportunities to make a contribution to communities at home and abroad. As part of its mission of excellence in teaching, the university sees faculty involvement in research, reflective inquiry and creative work as essential. StFX is committed to providing strong support for the encouragement of these priorities. StFX University is situated in a vibrant east coast arts community of Antigonish, Nova Scotia, a community noted for the quality of its culture and recreational facilities, friendliness of its people, and the natural beauty of its coastal landscape.

Position responsibilities include teaching and supervision in the undergraduate program, conducting a program of research, and academic and professional service. The successful candidate will have an active program of research in one of the following areas:

• Christianity (e.g., New Testament, history, theology, diversity, society)
• East Asian religions (China, Japan, Korea)
• Indigenous religions

St. Francis Xavier University is committed to the principles of equity, diversity, and inclusion. In accordance with this commitment, the Department seeks candidates who can contribute to and strengthen the diversity of our community, and will prioritize applications from one or more of the following underrepresented groups: women, Indigenous persons, members of visible minorities, people with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+ individuals.

Applicants should have a PhD in Religious Studies and show evidence of effective teaching ability. A background in diaspora and colonialist/post-colonialist theory is an asset.

Electronic submission of curriculum vitae, letter of application, teaching and research summaries (including sample syllabi and a sample of scholarly research), and the names, email addresses and telephone numbers of three (3) references should be sent via email to:

Dr. Ken Penner

Chair, Department of Religious Studies kpenner@stfx.ca

Review of applications will begin January 1, 2022 and will continue until the position is filled.

“Only those selected for an interview will be contacted. Preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents. StFX respects diversity and welcomes applications from visible minority group members, women, Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and members of sexual minority groups”.