Theology Faculty News Spring 2022

During the 2021-22 academic year the Theology Department, along with a Theology program graduate, contributed to a series on the sacraments that was published the Catholic Messenger:

• Baptism
• Reconciliation
• Eucharist
• Confirmation
• Anointing of the Sick
• Holy Orders
• Marriage (forthcoming)

Other faculty accomplishments in the 2021-22 academic year include:

Ella Johnson's article "Eucharistic Theology and Anthropology in Gertrude of Helfta and William of Saint-Thierry: On the Sense of Taste," was published in Magistra 27, no. 1 (2021): 79-93, and she wrote a blog for Wabash: "Providing a Stabilizing Scaffold for Students while Teaching about Justice during Unjust and Uncertain Times." Dr. Johnson also led a retreat "Images of God as Woman, Women as Images of God" at Our Lady of the Prairie Retreat Center in Wheatland, Iowa, and will be presenting at two conferences this summer: "Defining Human Life Backwards: The Theology of Life in Death in Gertrude of Helfta's Spiritual Exercises" at the 57th International Congress for Medieval Studies, and "Penitential Services for Racism: Potential or Harm?" at the College Theology Society annual convention.

Micah Kiel's article "There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences (Luke 21:11): Apocalyptic Imagery in the New Testament" was published in Bible Today, Vol. 60 no. 2 (2022).

Lisa Powell presented a paper for a panel on Ecology and Disability Ethics at the Annual Meeting for the Society of Christian Ethics on which she discussed SAU students' "Sustainability Warriors" podcast.

Matthew Coomber's article "An Interpretive Model of Privileged Contempt: Understanding Disdain Toward Those of Lower Status, from Ancient Israel to the New American Politics" was published in the Journal of Religion and Society, and his book chapter "Poverty and Social Justice in Micah" was published in the Cambridge Companion to the Hebrew Bible and Ethics. He delivered an address to the Society of Old Testament Studies titled "Interpreting the Psychology of Privilege: The Modern Relevance of Contempt in the Hebrew Bible," and presented the paper "Legitimacy of Drawing Biblical Texts into Modern Ethical Discourse: A Psychological Approach" at the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting.

Annual Theology Summer Book Club
In Summer 2021 faculty, alumni, and friends gathered with Dr. Coomber outside at the Freight House in Davenport to discuss Kelly Baker's book "The Gospel According to the Klan," which examines the way the KKK manipulated ideas associated with Christianity to expand its reach and convince white Christians that racist actions and beliefs were not only appropriate but warranted.

Together, the group considered the ways in which Christianity may still be leveraged for similar ideologies, and yet also how the Gospel of Jesus calls us to stand against such hate and violence.

This summer we will reconvene to discuss "Rescuing the Gospel from the Cowboys: A Native American Expression of the Jesus Way" (2015, InterVarsity Press), by Richard Twiss. Dr. Adams will lead our discussion on the Freight House deck outside the Front Street Tap Room, 421 W. River Dr., Davenport, on June 2, 16, and 30 from 5-6:30 p.m. No RSVP necessary.