In dialogue is discovery, unexpected discovery.
I am a straight, white, married, male, of the tall persuasion (6’3″), with all the benefits (and illusions!) that may come with that.
Art communicates religion best, I believe. Seeing “Satyagraha” on the stage of the Lyric Opera in Chicago confirmed me in that belief. Art does not try to persuade; it simply declares.
I wish that Sunday morning had as intimate and visceral a connection to reality as that opera by Phillip Glass. The artist, offering him or herself up for the world, does more than the preacher in the pulpit can. Thomas Hardy in his poetry offers a more potent “sermon,” the poets at the Green Mill Lounge (in Chicago) preside at a more potent “liturgy,” than you can find practically anywhere on Sunday morning.
During the years of the Iraq War, I couldn’t understand why we weren’t opening worship with scenes from “Ajax,” the play by Euripides that portrayed a field general gone mad with the killing.
As a United Church of Christ minister in urban pastorates and college chaplaincies, I encourage us to transform our private devotions into public endeavor. Let that which is whispered in our hearts be shouted from the rooftops, that the world may be enriched.
We can make “I and Thou” come true–on a public platform first comes articulation, then dialogue. More about that in my blogs.
Education:
Princeton University, B.A., English.
University of Chicago Divinity School, M.A. Theology; Ph.D. Religion and Literature.
Current Employment (2017 – ):
Boston Public Schools
Writing Specialist, Adult High School (in Madison Park H.S., Roxbury)
Past Employment:
University Chaplaincies
Princeton University (1973-79), Tufts University (1979-81), Skidmore College (2009-2015)
Urban Pastorates
Morningside UCC, Los Angeles (1981-1985)
Old South Church (Associate Minister), Boston (1990-1998)
Central Congregational Church (Minister), Boston (1990-2003)
Teaching
Loyola Marymount Univ., Los Angeles, Adjunct in Theology (1983-1985)
University of Chicago Divinity School (1985-1990)
Andover Newton Theological School, Adjunct in Homiletics (1997-2003)
Berkshire Community College, Adjunct in English Dept. (2004-2014)
Skidmore College, Adjunct in Religion (2009-2015).