2010 Conference
May 2010 | North Park University | Chicago, IL
The Road to A New Humanity
Presenting Speaker
John Phelan
“For years, I had been struck by the fact that many passages in the Bible, in both Old Testament and New, show God going out of his way to forgive and save. God even lets himself be talked out of the violence he seems to intend at some points!
In Hosea, God expresses anguish at contemplating the judgment of Israel. In many cases, God seems to be a reluctant judge — a judge looking for an opportunity to forgive, to let people off the hook. The book of Jonah challenged me to rethink God’s willingness, even eagerness, to forgive. The angry and reluctant prophet expresses frustration that his enemies are to emerge unscathed from God’s prophetic warning.
How are these passages to be placed alongside others where God seems ready — even eager — to judge violently?
When I discovered René Girard’s work, I was given a new set of lenses — a new way of seeing that made sense of the confusing data and opened up richly rewarding insights into the gospel. They give me new hope for the renewal of God’s creation through a gospel of peace and nonviolence.”
John's paper has been published in the book Compassionate Eschatology, ed. Michael Hardin.
“Each year the Theology and Peace Conference gets better and better. 2010 was especially enriching conference. I enjoyed conversations and fellowship with new people and old friends. It's spiritually invigorating to be part of an organization that seeks to change the theological landscape of American Christianity. The presenters this year were excellent — and, like every year, they stayed for the whole conference! That sense of community, where the presenters are also participants, is rare in a conference setting. I'll be sure to attend next year!”
Adam Ericksen
“At our 2010 conference, Theology & Peace took great strides toward becoming a real community of faith rooted in the transformative love of Christ! We were a wonderfully diverse group in some ways — a good dozen denominations or other church configurations were represented and we had a few who were introduced to mimetic theory at our MT 101 session as well as those who've been “doing" mimetic theory and theology for years.
Our speakers led us into good discussions of mimetic theory and Biblical theology, Christian liturgy, and emergent spirituality — all things the pastors, lay leaders and theologians among us can now build on in their own work. And all of our sessions were interwoven with prayer, which made the Word even more alive in our words. We also had some good conversation about the mission of Theology & Peace and what our next steps might be as we seek to transform North American Christianity, a vision we continue to hold to with confidence and humility.”
Dorothy WhistonAttendee
Reviews
“What a wonderful and successful conference. It literally led us on a Road to a New Humanity. Our speakers' presentations were stimulating and insightful. The worship, "pop ups", prayers, hymns, small group discussions and Bible study that were woven through the days created a unity, a community and an identity around the insights of mimetic anthropology. This experience is still resonating in me and I look forward to our getting together again next year.”
Tony Cicariello“T&P's 2010 conference was nourishing and stimulating. The formal talks were full of interesting insights, and the group discussions were even better. The exegetical presentations were especially helpful to me as a parish pastor and preacher. On top of all that, the folks who turned out for the conference are a great bunch — intellectually lively, creative and affable. I would hate to have missed it, and plan to come back next year for more!”
Tom Nicoll“The first person I met at the conference was Joel who said he'd been so looking forward to coming back again after attending Theology & Peace 2009! This is what it's about — building a community of faith and conversation on crucially important human issues like imitation and violence — because these are the tools for a dramatically renewed theology. T&P 2010 continued the good energy of past conferences, built on them in a substantial way, and prepared the ground for a break-through “New Kind of Christianity" gathering 2011.”
Anthony Bartlett