Dr. Robert MooreFaculty Engagement

Chicago Theological Seminary’s faculty not only provide students with the skills and understandings needed for religious leadership, they are leaders in their own right, especially in fostering meaningful public dialogue around current theological and social issues. Faculty members have a wide engagement with the church and society, but a common sense of purpose and responsibility. Whether through writing and publication (what Professor Dow Edgerton calls “distance education”), activism, ministry and church leadership, or instruction and dialogue, they act out their commitment to transform society toward greater justice and mercy.

Faculty engagement not only carries the practices of the CTS community—questioning, mutual learning, accountability and commitment to the challenges of today—off-campus, it also, as President Alice Hunt puts it, offers “the chance to learn about what is happening in the church and wider society and keeps us honest about where we are in relation to the real world contexts around us.”

Professor Timothy Sandoval adds that such engagement “is a way of making new friends for the seminary and a way of getting (or staying) connected to different people who share CTS’s values and mission. It is this larger web or community of people with whom we at CTS, and especially our graduates, work and partner that can have a real impact, even if often only small and local, on church and society.”

The event listings below represent only some of the ways faculty are engaging with the campus, church, and larger community.

Off-Campus Engagements

Please contact the host institution or faculty member for more information.

Alice Hunt:

  • Keynote, Northwest Association, Ohio, & 2 workshops – “How We Got the Bible”, Eilston, OH, 4-28
  • How Did We Get the Bible We Use – Edgebrook UCC, 5-6-12
  • Keynote, NW/Dakota Conference, South Dakota (?), 6-2-12

Ted Jennings:

  • Plenary Address, Queertopia (National Queer Academic/Art Conference, sponsored by Northwestern), Chicago, May 25

Rachel Mikva

  • Adult Education – Dangerous Religious Ideas, 1st Cong. Of Western Springs, April 29 & May 6

Julia Speller

  • Keynote, Church Archival Consultation, Sponsored by Friends of Amistad, Chicago, IL, April 28

JoAnne Terrell:

  • Midwest Episcopal District AMEZ Church Megaconference, Teacher, School of the Prophets, Louisville, KY, 5-29/6-3
  • Mentoring Conference, FTE, Notre Dame University, June 7-10
  • AMEZ Church General Conference – Delegate – Report on State of the Church – Charlotte, NC, July 20-28

On-Campus Convocations

Faculty members newly returned from sabbatical will share their work in public Convocations. Convocation services are held at 12:00 p.m. in the Graham Taylor Chapel.

  • On Wednesday, February 1, 2012 Dr. Lee Butler, Professor of Theology and Psychology, gave an address titled, "Do you Dream in Color: Religion, Terror, and the American Dream."

Past Convocations

Read excerpts from past convocation addresses delivered by your faculty and learn more about the areas of research and academic pursuit that make our faculty excellent.