ISSUE 6 SPRING 2021
FreshThinking MAGAZINE OF THE CENTER OF THEOLOGICAL INQUIRY
Theology in Light
Theology in the Age of AI
Theology in Japan
Religion & the Built Environment
Machine Intelligence & Pastoral Care
Bridging Church & Secular Society
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DIRECTOR William Storrar ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR Joshua Mauldin EDITOR Karin Morse CONSULTING EDITOR Linda Arntzenius DESIGNER Debra Trisler CONTRIBUTORS Stephan De Beer Kyle Dugdale Elise Edwards Tammy Gaber Maria Insa-Iglesias Kanan Kitani Nesrine Mansour Gerald McKenny Martin Radermacher Murray Rae Esther Reed Erin Raffety Daniel Schipani Whare Timu Philip Webb EDITORIAL ASSISTANTS Louis-Clarence Hammond Jade Talag MAGAZINE SPONSORS Gayle Robinson Jay & Harriet Vawter
OUR MISSION
OUR PROGRAM
We convene leading thinkers in an interdisciplinary research environment where theology makes an impact on global concerns, and we share those discoveries to change the way people think and act.. Religion & the Built Environment 2020-2021
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Theology in Light
Theology in Japan
From the Director A fresh answer from the worldwide members of our research workshop to the question, “But what is theology?”
A theologian shares her journey of working in Japan; the challenges of a small Christian population and the unique spirituality of the Japanese
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Theology Is All Around Us
A Journey for Justice
Join our eight workshop members on a visual tour of eight buildings that inspire and provoke religious experience and a spiritual sense of wonder and hope
A living example of the effects of the built environment and the global issue of racism, right here at our doorstep
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Theology in the Age of AI
Board News
CTI is pioneering research that assesses the possibilities of pastoral care through video games and machine intelligence incorporating elements from the Biblical narrative
CTI pays tribute to Board Chair Fred Anderson, Trustee Robert Hendrickson, and welcomes new Board officers and trustees
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From the Editor
Spring Books from our CTI Members
Why We Give to CTI
Showcasing advanced research
From building bridges of understanding to being an indispensable space for advanced theological and interdisciplinary research—our donors share why they support CTI
PHOTOGRAPHS: COVER TAMMY GABER; THIS PAGE, SFIO CRACHO/ADOBESTOCK.COM
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FROM THE EDITOR
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picture says a thousand words. This edition’s cover is a bona fide example of this saying. At first glance, you see a serene building, but as you look closer, more interpretations and possibilities leap to mind. The same can be said of CTI. When I first came to CTI two years ago, what looked, at first glance, to be a ‘serene’ building, was a roaring fire of intellectuals and policy makers, devoted to bringing the knowledge and practice of theology to the understanding of global concerns. As you look closer, you see the intense activity and output of our work—our yearly workshops on global concerns—this year the built environment, the natural environment the next—theologians, scholars, and scientists participating from across the globe, our Knowledge Exchanges where we connect our findings with policy makers, our publications, public lectures, podcasts, and of course, this magazine, one of the many ways we share our knowledge with the wider world. The theme of this issue “theology is all around us” is reflected in the range of articles and the activity they highlight from our special feature to pioneering research connecting machine intelligence and pastoral care. Take more than a passing glance; settle in for a thought-provoking read. —Karin Morse
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An independent nonprofit with an international program of interdisciplinary research DIRECTOR William Storrar ACADEMIC ADVISORY PANEL John Bowlin Peter Casarella Francis Clooney David Fergusson Agustín Fuentes Jan-Olav Henriksen Cathleen Kaveny Nico Koopman Ian McFarland Friederike Nüssel Peter Ochs Peter Paris Esther Reed Susan Schneider Jeremy Waldron Leslie Wingard
BOARD OF TRUSTEES Roy Lennox, Chair Gayle Robinson, Vice Chair Jon Pott, Secretary Robert Wedeking, Treasurer Fred Anderson Darrell Armstrong Bette Jane (B.J.) Booth Brian Fix Robert Gunn Dale Irvin Carter Karins Douglas Leonard David Markus Judith McCartin Scheide William Storrar Jay Vawter Charles Wall
HONORARY TRUSTEES Craig Barnes Robin Lovin Richard Mouw Krista Tippett EMERITUS/EMERITA TRUSTEES Robert Hendrickson Judy Wornat Ralph Wyman IN MEMORIAM James Armstrong Frank Reiche
Henry R. Luce Hall, 50 Stockton Street, Princeton, NJ 08540 609.683.4797 • cti@ctinquiry.org
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— FROM THE DIRECTOR —
THEOLOGY IN LIGHT 4
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ut what is theology?” Intrigued by our research program on global concerns, this is the question I am often asked when representing the Center of Theological Inquiry in the wider community. As readers of this column know, I usually reply with the classic definition that inspires our interdisciplinary mission, “Theology is the study of God and all things in relation to God.” In this past year I have learned a fresh answer from the worldwide members of our research workshop on religion and the built environment, “Theology is all around us.”
THEOLOGY IN STONE I first saw the built environment as theology in stone when contributing a chapter to the Oxford History of Scottish Theology. I chose to write on Alexander Thomson, a Presbyterian layman whose work as an architect in 19th century Glasgow has long fascinated me. His designs earned him the epithet ‘Greek Thomson’. He drew on the principles of ancient Greek architecture to design a stunningly original range of domestic, commercial, and church buildings for a great industrial metropolis. His architectural legacy is recognized today as work of international standing. Thomson’s designs combined the latest building technologies of the age with what I discovered was his highly developed theological vision of the built environment and the architect’s role in it. As the architectural historian Gavin
Stamp wrote, “Thomson’s theology and architecture were inseparable.” So, what was Thomson’s theology in stone? Late in his career, not long before his death in 1875, Thomson gave a series of lectures in which he set out his vision of architecture and the vocation of the architect. Here he distilled not only the practical wisdom of a professional lifetime as a working architect, but also the theology which informed his practice as a person of faith. Thomson drew on ancient Greek and Egyptian architectural precedents because
on the prevailing Victorian fashion for Gothic as the truly Christian style of architecture. Instead, he pioneered what I have called a Presbyterian modernity in his passion for the horizontal line and preference for using iron girders, enabling him to span wide spaces that defied the gothic arch. Thomson articulated this Protestant theology of design in a maxim for the temple-like churches he designed: “Instead of being crowded with stone pillars, they should be as open as possible,” the better to hear the sermon!
“The long terraces Thomson designed were not just for clients, they were there to inspire religious experience.”
he thought they expressed enduring laws of harmonious design which the Creator had established in the counsels of eternity for all time. It was the calling of the architect to discover these enduring principles of design, but apply them with human creativity to meet the challenges of the present day. He was bold enough to claim that the architect was a co-creator with God. Moved by these theological convictions, Thomson waged public war
As the critic Robert Crawford has said of him, the Presbyterian Thomson hated arches. Horizontality had a religious allure for him. Thomson himself praised, “the mysterious power of the horizontal element in carrying the mind away into space, and into speculations upon infinity.” Crawford notes that the long terraces of elegant houses Thomson designed were not just for his clients; “they are there to inspire religious experience.”
[Photograph by William Storrar]
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THEOLOGY IN CYBERSPACE Buildings are there to inspire religious experience, all kinds of buildings, secular as well as sacred. That is what I learned in convening our weekly Zoom seminar on the built environment with my colleague Joshua Mauldin, thanks to our gifted and gracious group of theologians, architects, urban planners, and scholars of religion. I say ‘gifted and gracious’ because as the pandemic suspended international travel and imposed local lockdowns a year ago, these highly rated researchers all set aside their disappointment at not being with us in Princeton as planned and agreed to participate in a virtual workshop instead. Every one of us mourned the loss of day-to-day conversations in our usual resident community of inquiry. Yet in our closing seminar in April, every workshop member spoke movingly of how
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much our weekly exchange of work in progress on screen had meant to them, not only as researchers advancing knowledge but also as colleagues supporting one another in navigating life under the threat of COVID-19. This is the gift and grace of CTI, combining scholarship with fellowship, even in a global crisis. THEOLOGY ALL AROUND US As you will now see as you join our workshop members in a visual tour of their CTI research projects in the following pages, theology is all around us. Look out for eight buildings that inspire or provoke religious experience, whether a spiritual sense of wonder and hope, a prophetic sense of injustice and indignity, or even a revelatory sense of the hidden gods of the built environment. After your tour of these diverse buildings and their theologies
in stone, plaster, and virtual reality, you can meet your expert guides on the contributors’ page. Happily, you will meet them again this Fall as our Associate Director Joshua Mauldin interviews all eight workshop members for the next season of his acclaimed CTI podcast series, Theology Matters. THEOLOGY IN LIGHT In closing, I am especially grateful to workshop member Tammy Gaber for allowing us to use the picture on our front cover. My fellow Scottish Presbyterian, Greek Thomson, would be delighted by Tammy’s choice of building for these pages. In his lectures, Thomson celebrated the Islamic style of architecture as one of “marvelous beauty,” teaching us all, I think, to do theology in light. —William Storrar, Director
Theology is all around us.
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hroughout the world, Muslims make places to gather, worship, learn, celebrate, mourn, and contribute to society in a variety of spaces. Such spaces take many forms, ranging from borrowed spaces such as converted storefronts to purpose built complexes which function with extended programming. A contemporary Muslim place of prayer does not need to be confined by preconceived notions of historical examples. In Canada, with over a century of Muslims creating community and spaces, one of the most recent examples is the Ismaili Centre in Toronto. Designed by the late Indian architect Charles Correa in collaboration with the Toronto-based Moriyama & Teshima Architects, it is a complex of varied spaces for contemplative, cultural, and educational purposes, set in landscaped park with formal and informal gardens. The concept of light, both divine and literal, inspired the design of the multifaceted, triple-glazed dome. Light is gently diffused into the worship space, furnished simply with Canadian maple wood walls, carpeting, and an onyx mihrab (the niche located at the point nearest to Mecca, toward which the congregation faces to pray). While this space glows during the day, in the evening, it radiates illumination, easily seen from afar and most appreciated from the gardens. TAMMY GABER
[Photograph by Tammy Gaber]
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his journey starts with a large conceptually-transcendent interior space possessing an axial plan directing the procession from the portal located at the rear wall to the apse hosting the altar. The procession goes through a long nave and two side aisles divided by two rows of eight stone pillars each leading to a transept projecting at right angles. The center of the image leads to pointed arches and a framework of crossed rib vaults evocative of Gothic and Romanesque architecture with prominent height emphasizing the verticality of the building and guiding the eye towards the sky as a subtle overtone of heaven. Large upper windows along both sides of the nave, crowned with ogival arches, yield the fusion of light, the immaterial of the heavenly, with the material man-made colored glass. Walking through the doors and glancing further into the space reveals an altar table with a white cloth and two candles, one on each side, as well as a crucifix centrallysuspended above it. Light streams through three narrow and tall pointed windows behind the apse, casting shadows that give the space a spiritual atmosphere. This brief description illustrates the space featured in the image of a virtual rendering of a Christian sacred building, captured from a walk-through video of this virtual church—from the entrance and proceeding along the nave to the apse. Light here is a symbol of the sacred, streaming to enhance the axis-mundi (axis of the world) where heaven and earth melt into each other to bring humans closer to the Divine. Windows go beyond the function of light access to become an image of God’s presence. The image fosters attention to the virtual light which becomes the ‘holy light’ of cyberspace. As a new territory, cyberspace is becoming the new realm of the mind and imagination offering unlimited possibilities for architectural styles and religious features that enable the valorization of spiritual perception beyond the physical one. These possibilities are expressed as different types of religious virtual spaces used in a myriad of digital media platforms (e.g., games, websites, applications, etc.). As you look at this image, I would like you to ask the question: how much of our spirituality is embodied as the boundary between reality and virtuality becomes blurry? NESRINE MANSOUR [Image courtesy of Nesrine Mansour]
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ife and death are never far apart. Not in human lives, nor in neighborhoods or buildings. We do our urban work of ministry, of design or of city-building in spaces between pasts and futures, between life and death; (un)conscious of wounded remnants that inhabit these spaces. Like cartoonist Will Eisner’s demolished building—a deeply moving chronicle of a city building and the people who inhabited it—we, too, are surrounded by ghosts reminiscing about memories lost. The building in the background of this photograph of Schubart Park in Pretoria, South Africa, is part of four tower buildings built in the early 1970s, at the height of apartheid, to accommodate low-income white residents. Schubart Park sits on the edge of an inner city neighborhood where people of color were forcibly removed during the 1960s and 1970s. After apartheid’s collapse in 1994, it swiftly changed to become predominantly black. Owned and managed by local government, property management collapsed, tenants refused to pay rent, and more than 700 families were illegally evicted in 2011. The buildings were not secured and subsequently stripped to the bone. What remains are skeletons of memory; a monument to city governance gone seriously wrong.
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In the foreground is the new social housing development of Thembelihle Village. Due to government obstruction, it took 18 years to be completed. Housing 738 families who would normally be unable to live in such a central urban location, the Thembelihle Village, meaning ‘good hope,’ is meant to mediate life, flourishing, and freedom in how people assert their right to be in the city. Yet, embodied in this village is the frailty of new life. Some have already attempted to claim this beautiful community for their own selfish gain, whilst the on-going demands of high maintenance, even in a brand-new building, remind one of how fleeting life is. These two spaces, separated only by a tarred road, serve as a reminder of the proximity of death and life. Frail life, to grow and be sustained, requires tenacity of care, on-going alertness, diligent nurture, and resistance to looming death. In pondering these images in the context of the Easter events, central to the Christian tradition, in which life and death are only a few days apart, I contemplate the meaning of Easter for buildings and neighborhoods. I cling to the hope that life might still be stronger than death. STEPHAN DE BEER [Photograph by Barry Lewis]
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ike many images, this photograph tells a story. In this case, it is a story about religion in the built environment, about un/dignified spaces, about migrant religions finding and making space, about ways of seeing oneself and of wanting to be seen. In short, this photograph is a window into the attempts of migrant communities to become recognized as permanent actors in urban spaces. What we see here is the story of the Merkez Mosque in Essen, one of the large cities in the population-dense Ruhr-area of Germany, starting with the ‘garage mosque’ (often referred to as ‘backyard mosque’ in German) and then building a new, representative mosque. What may seem like a successful example has a complex history that includes severe objections, temporary closures of the construction site, and insults to the project, such as a pig’s head placed at the site—clearly an undignifying assault. This story could be told for migrant and minority religious communities in many places of the world. While the actors and the scenery change, a common thread runs through these stories—that of finding and making dignified places for spiritual practices and collective identity. In today’s post-secular and diverse societies, the city becomes a place where “power struggles and conflicts concerning the right to religious practices and representations in the public realm are carried out,” according to Helmuth Berking. And they are not just carried out in discursive realms, in public debates about the place of Islam in Western countries, for instance, but also in and through the built environment. Diversity is not just a social factor; it is mirrored in the urban built infrastructure. In many cases, these communities still have not found places where they feel they can worship in a dignified environment. But if they are—like every other group and individual—entitled to have and live with dignity, this should include built places of worship. The entitlement to partake in material resources must include spatial resources. As John Cary puts it in his 2017 TED talk, “Well-designed spaces are not just a matter of taste or a question of aesthetics. They literally shape our ideas about who we are in the world and what we deserve. That is the essence of dignity.” MARTIN RADERMACHER [Photograph courtesy of euroluftbild.de/Hans Blossey]
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he National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) in Washington, D.C. represents key issues I explore in my scholarship. It featured in an article I published in 2017, and I keep returning to it in my work. Visiting D.C.’s Smithsonian museums is always something of a pilgrimage for me, and this building especially evokes that feeling as I learn about my people, my history, and myself. Like other high-profile museums, this building’s design was selected through competition. The winning entry was submitted by a team led by the London-based, Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye, working with Phillip Freelon, head of the largest minority-owned architecture firm in the United States, and the firm founded by J. Max Bond Jr., who is known as the “dean of African American architects.” Adjaye, the lead designer, envisioned a bronze-paneled building that draws on the shape of a traditional Yoruban caryatid—a column topped by a corona (crown). And yet, the architecture references a narrative of the African diaspora and enslavement. The decorative, patterned exterior panels reference a tradition of metalsmithing developed by freed slaves. As Adjaye explained, the building’s form “tell[s] a story that moves from one continent, where people were taken, along with their cultures, and used as labor, then contributed towards making another country and new cultures.” The building’s interior, too, communicates a narrative; it is a passage through history that includes horrors, celebratory moments, cultural achievements, and spaces for contemplation and rest. Although NMAAHC’s design does not reference overtly spiritual or religious motifs, it provokes questions that inspire me as a Christian ethicist. How can the built environment convey the highest ideals and teachings that our sacred traditions uphold? How might works of architecture communicate new or rediscovered narratives about race that affirm the beauty, resilience, and innovation of African-Americans? ELISE EDWARDS
[Photograph by Elise Edwards]
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are Waaka, the great meeting house could be understood as existing in time rather than space. According to Ellen Andersen, “One cannot understand the wharenui without visiting the building and having it explained by the Tangata Whenua [the people of the land], from the inside out.” It is not possible to make a casual visit to Tapu te Ranga Marae to visit the wharenui. Even if one knows all about the wharenui, marae protocol involves a well-known series of events, which take time. It was not intended to be seen as a three dimensional object in a space. One does not walk around it and admire the sides and the rear. It is a structure consisting of one large space entered through a gabled porch. The interior is often highly decorated with few, if any, windows. Description of the architecture for those unfamiliar with it, however, easily slips into a Western focus on construction, materials, decoration and craft, which creates the “urban artefact.” The wharenui is nearly always named after an ancestor, and many of the carvings or illustrations within depict ancestors. As Albert Refiti of the University of Auckland puts it: “The [meeting] house is also often metaphorically a body, the personification of an ancestor, with the ridge beam and rafters often seen as spine and ribs for instance.”
The wharenui and the conception of space and movement through the land can seem diametrically opposed to that which is European. Earth, for example, is conventionally represented with north at the top, a relic of Western civilization’s European origins. The universe has no up or down. Europeans refer to the north of New Zealand as the top, the south as the bottom. But the Māori word for north is “raro,” also meaning down or below or bottom, the word for south is “runga,” also meaning top or upwards or above. This inversion of the Western point of view derives from the arrival of Māori in New Zealand at the north of the country, then a steady settlement moving towards the south. From the Māori point of view, as they faced this new land, where they had come from was behind them (north), where they were going was ahead of them (south). Relationship between the wharenui and the land was crucial, unlike the strict demarcation of spatial boundaries that we are familiar with from the Western political map. We can argue that this notion can be extended to the appreciation of architecture—that as with the land, wharenui architecture exists primarily in its relationship to the person moving through it, the way it is seen and experienced, the meaning of the building to the inhabitant, and that this is all based in time, more than it is in space. WHARE TIMU
[Photograph courtesy of Whare Timu]
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ooking upward into the dome of the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, in the consternation of our present moment (April 2021), the viewer’s gaze is met by that of George Washington, who stares back down, his head delineated against a golden background. This is Constantino Brumidi’s 1865 fresco, “The Apotheosis of Washington.” Understood literally, the nation’s political leader is here deified before our eyes, at the rhetorical climax of an interior space modeled after the Pantheon—a temple to the Roman imperial ruler cult—and after many subsequent ecclesiastical structures of equal architectural ambition. Much has been written about Brumidi’s fresco, and about its role within the establishment of America’s “civil religion.” Iconographers have taken care to identify its panoply of allegorical figures, just as they have noted the representative faults of the frieze of American history that winds its way around the Rotunda immediately below this dome. Less attention has been devoted to the empty space at the apex of the dome, behind the seated figure of Washington. This space is the geometric center of the architectural center of the representative center of the nation. But here, where earlier depictions of apotheosis would typically open up to reveal Divine glory—represented, however imperfectly, through word or image—the painter of Washington, DC, who wishes to elevate the father of the nation, must leave the heavens empty. He settles for the golden glow of the fresco itself, substituting the physical for the metaphysical. But the material at hand is faulty. To be precise: the seams are showing on the painted plaster that covers the heavens over the center of the nation. Reviewing the work in 1866, superintendent Montgomery Meigs wrote: “I am glad the country at length possesses a Cupola on whose vault is painted a fresco picture after the manner of the great edifices of the old world. I regret that the joinings of the plaster still show too plainly in the clear graduated tints of the sky, the progress of each day’s work, but these, I trust, will disappear as the picture dries more completely.” Meigs did not live to see his regrets vanish. The joinings of the plaster have not yet disappeared. But perhaps this is just as well. After all, as an allegory this is as significant as any of the more intentional narratives supplied elsewhere. KYLE DUGDALE [Photograph by Adam Fagen, 2008: https://www.flickr.com/photos/afagen/2674233251]
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uildings tell stories. They tell stories about the people who build them, about how those people understand the world, and about who they aspire to be. The building pictured here tells the story of a covenant being honored, a covenant between a colonial government and the indigenous people of New Zealand. The covenant in question is the Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840 between Māori tribes and the British Crown which thereby established New Zealand as a British colony. The covenant, which protected the Māori right to self-governance and guaranteed to Māori enduring possession of their lands and fisheries, has been repeatedly dishonored through the subsequent course of history. But there has been, in recent years, a turning of the tide; attempts are being made to compensate Māori for the injustices of the past and to work in constructive partnership with Māori as was originally intended. This building, housing the offices of the Christchurch City Council, is an expression of that partnership. Originally a mail sorting center, it has been extensively renovated by Ngāi Tahu Property, the property arm of the Māori tribe which is native to the area. Māori cultural references and values are prominent throughout. Care for the environment is one of those values, and so the building has been adapted to minimize energy consumption and emissions. The flowing water that runs the length of the forecourt is a symbol of life for Māori, much like the living water of which Jesus speaks. Sculpted bronze eels, an important food source for Māori, populate the water course and so indicate that the watercourse is healthy and fruitful. Prominently featured is the carved post which again tells stories of Māori history. Called Te Pou Herenga Waka, which means ‘the hitching post for canoes,’ it represents a point of safety and stability. In recent years Te Pou Herenga Waka has been used by Māori Christians as a metaphor for Christ, the hitching post in whom we may find a secure mooring. For some there will be a recollection here of the Christian vision of covenant faithfulness that inspired the Māori chiefs to sign the Treaty that had been commended to them by the first missionaries. The building has been given the Māori name, ‘Te Hononga’ (The Joining), in recognition of the partnership between the Māori tribe and the Christchurch City Council. Buildings tell stories, stories about the people who build them, about their understanding of the world, and about who they aspire to be. MURRAY RAE [Photograph courtesy of Ngāi Tahu Property]
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RELIGION & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT WORKSHOP MEMBERS Tammy Gaber is Associate Professor at Laurentian University’s McEwen School of Architecture in Sudbury, Canada. Her CTI project, “A New Cosmic Order of Orientation and Time: Designing Mosques in the Subarctic,” explores the diversity, beauty, practicality, and versatility of mosques in the northern regions of Canada and Scandinavia. Her book, Beyond the Divide: A Century of Canadian Mosque Design, will be published in 2022.
Nesrine Mansour focuses on the intersection of architecture, religion, and media. An Assistant Professor of Architecture at South Dakota State University, she holds a PhD in Architecture and a Certificate in Digital Humanities from Texas A&M University and employs empirical research methods to assess the effect of light on the spiritual experience in virtual sacred spaces. At CTI, her interdisciplinary research project is “Religion and the Sacred Virtual Built Environment.”
Stephan De Beer is Associate Professor of Practical Theology at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, where he directs the Centre for Faith and Community. In his CTI research project, “A FaithBased Housing Agenda: Co-Constructing Flourishing African Urban Futures,” he contributes a theological and conceptual framework for faith-based housing action in African cities, emanating from the Global South and shaped by insights from liberation theology, equity planning and radical geographies.
Martin Radermacher is Chair for the Study of Religion at the Center for Religious Studies at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. His CTI research project, “Dignity and Atmosphere: Conceptual Approaches to the Study of Religion and the Built Environment,” investigates how built environments foster and restrict the notion of dignity that is recognized as a fundamental value for many of today’s societies and has deep roots in various religious traditions.
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Elise Edwards is an Assistant Professor in Religion at Baylor University as well as a registered architect. Her research draws upon theology, ethics, architectural theory, and urban studies to develop theological, ethical perspectives on civic engagement, cultural and artistic expression, and justice. She focuses on cultural expressions by, for, and about women and marginalized communities. Her CTI project examines how racial injustice is expressed through the built environment and addresses what the Christian doctrine of creation offers for the task of interpreting architecture and public space. Whare Timu, an architect based in Auckland, New Zealand, advocates simplicity, low impact, and natural solutions in design and planning. He has a deep understanding of the indigenous customs of the Māori peoples, applying his own knowledge of the the Māori worldview where applicable. Timu’s CTI project is based on a reallife project of re-designing the Tapu te Ranga Marae in Wellington, exploring indigenous Māori design principles to understand how these can be adopted in developing alternative settlement patterns, as a form for creating intentional community.
Kyle Dugdale has taught history, theory, and design at Yale School of Architecture and at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. As an architect and historian, he is interested in architecture’s claims to metaphysical significance and is particularly curious about architecture in biblical narratives. His essay is an extract from his CTI work in progress, The City and Its Gods.
Murray Rae is Professor of Theology at the University of Otago in New Zealand. After completing a Bachelor of Architecture degree, he worked as an architect in private practice before studying theology and philosophy. His research interests include theology and the arts, especially architecture, Māori engagements with Christianity, Christian ethics, and the work of Søren Kierkegaard. His CTI project explores what the Christian tradition teaches about how the built environment can contribute to the flourishing of the city.
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Theology in the Age of AI
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The Spiritual Loop Game is a collaborative project by Erin Raffety, CTI Research Fellow in Machine Intelligence & Pastoral Care, and Maria Insa-Iglesias, researcher in computing at Glasgow Caledonian University.
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n July of 2020, CTI launched its Spiritual Loop Project, a two-year, fieldwork based study investigating the possibilities of video gaming in providing spiritual communication and connection for families and congregations with members with disabilities. Nearly a year into this dynamic project funded by a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation, research fellow Erin Raffety, in conversation with Associate Director Josh Mauldin, shares her work in progress—what has been challenging and surprising, and how partnering with Maria Insa-Iglesias, a PhD Candidate in Data Visualization for Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, has transformed ideas into reality.
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JOSHUA MAULDIN: Tell me about this exciting project you are collaborating on. ERIN RAFFETY AND MARIA INSA-IGLESIAS: We are creating a Minecraft mod, which is a realm within the popular videogame Minecraft, which gives people with and without disabilities in congregations opportunities to engage in spiritual play with one another. The project brings together both machine intelligence and accessibility in gaming, as well as incorporates elements from the Biblical narrative and the Christian tradition in cooperative play. JM: What are the goals of the project and specifically of the video game you are developing? ER and MI: We’re experimenting with new avenues for connection and care with people with disabilities in faith communities by creating this video game. Our goal for the game is to give people with disabilities additional opportunities for self-expression and leadership that may not be currently available and that through cooperative game tasks, people with and without disabilities can connect in new, deep ways online. We’re also incorporating machine intelligence to enhance the variability of the game with the integration of non-player controlled characters, as well as to provide opportunities for us to study and understand how participants collaborate with each other in the game. In the context of a global pandemic, we hope this game gives congregations some levity, purpose, and connection. JM: What are some of the challenges you’ve faced in creating this game? ER and MI: Partnering with Maria and Glasgow Caledonian University has helped tremendously because they offer the technological know-how to make the ideas we have a reality. One of our challenges is the diversity of our research participants. Even though they’re all from Protestant churches, designing a game that meets the needs and interests of folks of a variety of ages, experiences of disabilities, and backgrounds has kept us on our toes. Another challenge is the time constraint and complexity of the game. We’re trying to find this optimal balance to allow people free will in the game, while also giving them enough vision and purpose to facilitate insight and connection. Our aspiration is that this game will serve as a prototype that motivates them to continue growing and connecting spiritually in lots of different ways.
Maria Insa-Iglesias
Erin Raffety
This project aims at creating a Minecraft mod to provide people with and without disabilities
JM: What has surprised you the most in this project? ER and MI: We were surprised by how excited all our participants are that we’re doing this project: there is huge enthusiasm out there for video games, but I was really impressed to hear clergy and other church folk embracing the project as well. In doing the fieldwork, I didn’t ex-
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in congregations with a virtual environment where they can engage and grow spiritually.
“There’s something theologically significant here, too: our religious spaces don’t typically encourage play, but God does, and video games do, too.” —Erin Raffety
pect the unadulterated joy that people have for video games to move me so much, but it was amazing to watch people play and experience a bit of what they get out of play. The depth of our theological discussions in both the fieldwork with participants and the game development have surprised me, too. Something that surprised Maria is how people with disabilities can express and be themselves just playing a video game. Creating their own avatar, they feel that they can be and do what they want without limits. This reminds us that this isn't just a game. Behind all the elements of the game is not just technological hard work, but theological conviction: play matters. Disabled people have robust spiritual lives. Our hope is that we all grow spiritually as we’re all co-laborers in the kingdom of God, figuring this out together. JM: Who do you hope will play the game? ER and MI: The current goal is to have three groups of folks, with and without disabilities, clergy and laity, adults and kids, play the game within their congregations in order to deepen existing relationships. As we’ve worked on this game, we’ve learned a lot from the Autcraft community, a subset of Minecraft players with autism, who create community online by offering a supportive place to play. We are hopeful that the game may have a similar future adoption by congregations and families with people with disabilities who want to continue to play it together. JM: How might this game help us think through the intersection of religion and the digital environment? ER and MI: With the pandemic, of course, so much of our religious life is online lately, and there’s this misperception that digital forums become substitutes for offline religious life. But they’re more like supplements not substitutes, and they often reinforce each other. We’re hoping to do that with this game—provide yet another opportunity for fellowship, connection, and spiritual dialogue, using a tool, video games, that provide so much joy. And, again there’s something theologically significant here, too: our religious spaces don’t typically encourage play, but God does, and video games do, too. In terms of supplemental religious experience, the digital environment has a tremendous opportunity to expand and augment not just reality or accessibility, but our current religious practices.
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THEOLOGY IN JAPAN
Bridging Church & Secular Society CTI’s Assocate Director, Joshua Mauldin, in conversation with Kanan Kitani, Assistant Professor of Theology, Doshisha University, Kyoto, and a CTI resident member in 2018.
CTI’s Director visiting Doshisha University with Dr. Kitani
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Joshua Mauldin: Kanan, welcome to Colloquy, our conversation on theology as a field of study. How did you first become interested in theology and who influenced you? Kanan Kitani: Actually, there is no dramatic story behind why I attended university to study theology. I chose the university I graduated from because it was well-established and the graduates’ job opportunities were promising. I even did an internship at Apple Japan Inc. while I was in school. My mentor, a professor of historical theology, recommended that I carry on with my studies in graduate school. If not for his advice, I probably would be working in a corporate job right now. When I was in school, I read whatever theological books that were translated into Japanese. The textbooks in college were usually written by famous theologians, such as Karl Barth, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Jürgen Moltmann. Japanese theologians tend to praise German theology as the pinnacle of theology, so I didn’t have many opportunities to read books by Asian theologians while I was in college. After I graduated and became involved in the ecumenical movement through the World Council of Churches, I started reading many of the Japanese theologian Kosuke Koyama’s works. Of course, I was greatly influenced by reading these theologians’ books; however, I was also influenced significantly by artists and writers who expressed their faith in secular society, such as Shusaku Endo and Martin Scorsese. I think their books and movies are important because they initiate a dialogue about faith between Christians and non-Christians. Naturally, I read the novel and watched the film Silence. It is interesting to see the difference between the two, in that for Endo, Kichijiro is the protagonist who embodies human weakness, but for Scorsese, the protagonists are the Catholic missionaries who sacrificed their lives to go on a deadly mission to Japan.
Historic Oura Church, Nagasaki, Japan
JM: What do you see as the role of theology? KK: I think theology plays a bridging role between the Church and secular society. The gap between the values of secular society and the Church will probably become wider. I am not saying that the Church should adjust to whatever realities these worldly values offer. However, conflicts among values inevitably will deepen. In such circumstances, theology provides a space in which to examine societal events through God’s eyes—for example, I am currently writing a paper on climate change and theology.
PHOTOGRAPGHS: SEANPAVONEPHOTO, ADOBESTOCK.COM
JM: What are the specific challenges of doing theology in the Japanese context? KK: There are definitely some challenges to doing theology in Japan. The three most significant challenges, in my opinion, are the language barrier, the small Christian population, and the unique spirituality of the Japanese. First of all, the language of higher education in Japan is Japanese, and most theological books published outside Japan will not be translated into Japanese because the number of readers of theological books is very small. Throughout history, the Christian population in Japan has never been more than 1% of the total population ever since Christianity’s arrival in the 16th century. Therefore, few theological books are available to theology students in Japan. Publishers only want to publish books that are likely to sell to a certain extent. The number of Christians in Japan currently stands at about 950,000 and is decreasing every year. With a smaller Christian population, there are fewer people studying theology, and it may soon become difficult to maintain theology departments in universities.
Orthodox Church, Hakodate, Japan
The reason for the Christian population in Japan being so small lies in the unique spirituality of the Japanese. Throughout history, the government and feudal lords have forced the general public to follow a particular religion. At one time, the people were urged to follow Buddhism, and when Buddhists revolted, the government favored Christianity and suppressed Buddhists. From the early modern period until the end of World War II, the people were forced to worship the emperor by forming the state Shinto religion. Although freedom of religion has been guaranteed since the end of the Second World War, the spirituality of the Japanese is a syncretism of various religions due to these historical circumstances. I think Japanese people are not used to choosing their religion or belonging to just one religion. JM: What advice would you give to someone interested in studying theology? KK: Here’s what I would like to tell my 18-year-old self: If you are thinking of becoming a theologian, you’d better think twice. I jumped into the world of theology without knowing much about what it was. Now that I have studied it a little, I can say that theology is a very profound and intricate discipline. It has accumulated so much research over a long time period that theologians must continue studying it throughout their lives. Even in a lifetime, it is impossible to read all of the theological books. Theology is about looking for the possibility of the impossible because it is impossible in principle for finite human beings to understand the infinite God fully. JM: With that wise call to humility, Kanan, thank you for all you do for theological inquiry in Japan.
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A JOURNEY FOR
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he history of Princeton is well known. It is extolled in nearly every corner of the world with its leading university and connections to our country’s Founding Fathers. Except for one neighborhood that lies right in the heart of town. The Witherspoon-Jackson Street area is and has been a vibrant community for years yet is barely mentioned as part of Princeton’s story. Known as Black Princeton, these residents forged a supportive network within the boundaries of their neighborhood while enduring racism just by crossing the street. The image of two contrasting experiences in such close proximity exposes the potential of our built environment: it can be used to heal or harm. Building bridges of understanding through dialogue is the core of CTI. We convene theologians, scientists, scholars, and policymakers to think together on global concerns. In this year’s current research workshop, we are studying the complex relationship between religion and the built environment. Kathryn Watterson’s book, I Hear My People Singing, Voices of African American Princeton, provided a living example of the effects of the built environment and the global issue of racism, right here at our doorstep. In February of 2021, CTI hosted “Kitsi” Watterson, local historian Shirley Satterfield, and CTI Member Elise Edwards in dialogue with Director William Storrar to discuss these two global concerns and their effects on our community.
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“The social practice of racism literally gets mapped onto a city.” —Elise Edwards
From an early age, Kitsi recounted seeing the repressive effects of racism, which shaped her life and career. While teaching a class at Princeton University on “Finding Voice Perspectives on Race, Class, and Gender,” she wanted her students to experience racism and understand that it is still pervasive. A meeting with renowned Witherspoon-Jackson residents Hank Pannell and Buster Thomas and the revelation that this long-standing community did not have a recorded oral history, launched what would become I Hear My People Singing. “If we don’t get them now, it will be too late.” Kitsi’s students played an integral role in interviewing residents. “The more we learned, the more we investigated.” As they walked to the neighborhood, they became more aware of the effect of their environment as it changed, “Students said that when they walked across the street, as they walked into the neighborhood, the complexion changed, it got darker, it got friendlier, it got more light, we left the bubble of the university and walked into a sea of humanity.” The core values of childhood, church, education, and housing resonate throughout the oral histories and residents had these in abundance—so long as they stayed within the boundaries of their neighborhood. There was safety, there was community, there was love. Shirley Satterfield, a longtime resident, grew up in this neighborhood and shared firsthand accounts of the joys of living in this special community. “Everyone took care of everybody’s children. It was like one big family in our community.” The desegregation of schools exposed these children to the harsh reality of inequality in practice. “I did not know what segregation was because we had everything in our community. When I found out about segregation was when they integrated the schools. They were integrated on the outside, segregated on the inside,” Shirley remembered. They lost their teachers who were part of their community, members of their families, and part of their churches. They not only taught them academics, but also respect and their own history.
“The social practice of racism gets literally mapped onto a city.” Elise Edwards, a current member of the CTI research team and scholar studying how race and racism have altered the built environment of American towns, joined the conversation to share her insights as a theologian and an architect. “It (the book) highlighted the ways some of the phenomena that we see throughout the country played out (here) in a town the size of Princeton. Some of the ills we think of as being part of big cities—red lining, gentrification, and urban renewal—or the types of segregation practices we associate with the south, we see taking place in Princeton and we hear from the people who experienced it. Racism is a kind of caste system. It is all about keeping certain people in their place and in cities and towns, you have certain places are designated and allowed for certain people based on racism and class.” Under constant threat, what resonates throughout the book is the indefatigable spirit of the Witherspoon-Jackson neighborhood. They harnessed the built environment to heal and to excel. It is an extraordinary story of people determined to forge a thriving community for their families. We cannot walk by unaware of our wider community and how we all contribute to human flourishing. It is through these public lectures in dialogue with theologians, scholars, scientists, and policy makers that we share our theological insights with you. Become a Friend of CTI and you can actively participate in these conversations and follow our dynamic research program that is making a difference in our turbulent world.
watch the full video online at ctinquiry.org/publicevents
Opposite page, clockwise, from top left: Kitsi Watterson, Shirley Satterfield, Elise Edwards
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CTI Member Books Spring Books. Latest books from our scholars, showcasing advanced research
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hat are the humanities for? The question has perhaps never seemed more urgent. While student numbers have grown in higher education, universities and colleges increasingly have encouraged students to opt for courses in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) or take programs in applied subjects like business and management. When higher education has taken such a utilitarian turn, the humanities are judged to have lost their centrality. In a book written in residence at CTI, Willem Drees urges us to adopt a clearer conception of the humanities as more than just practical vehicles for profit or education. He argues that these disciplines, while serving society, are also intrinsic to our humanity. His bold ideas about how to think with greater humanistic coherence mark this topical book out as unmissable reading for all those involved in academe, especially those in higher educational policy or leadership positions. Willem B. Drees, What Are the Humanities For? (Cambridge 2021)
ccording to Jan Muis, the postmodern and secular culture of the West requires a new reflection on God. In The Implicit Theology of the Lord’s Prayer: A Biblical and Theological Investigation CTI Member Jan Muis investigates the concept of God that is implied by an original biblical expression of the Christian faith: the Lord’s Prayer. He understands the divine attributes central to this concept from the biblical narrative of God’s self-revealing actions, and explains them in a non-essentialist framework. Muis concludes by answering the question, “In what sense does God exist?”
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tudies into religion and violence often put religion first. Building on the work of René Girard, CTI Member Wolfgang Palaver argues we should begin with an understanding of violence before turning to religion. Building on his research in CTI’s research workshop on religion and violence, Palaver highlights a distinction between the sacred and the holy in order to understand the history of religion as well as the human tendency to violence. Along the way he interprets the work of scholars like Henri Bergson, Jacques Maritain, Simone Weil, and Emmanuel Levinas.
Jan Muis, The Implicit Theology of the Lord’s Prayer (Lexington Books 2021)
Wolfgang Palaver, Transforming the Sacred into Saintliness (Cambridge 2020)
This book arose in wonderment of the biblical witness of God. Along the way, I have been provoked to reflect anew upon the Christian faith in God by what was said about God in our society, in our churches and publications, and among friends and fellow theologians. The outline for the method and design of this book began to take shape in the summer of 2006 during my stay as a resident member at the Center of Theological Inquiry at Princeton, under the enthusiastic guidance of its director, William Storrar. It is with immense gratitude that I think back to the thought-provoking discussions that I enjoyed being part of. —Jan Muis
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1. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Cities Edited by Katie Day & Elise M. Edwards 2. Reading with the Grain of Scripture Richard B. Hays 3. Representation and Ultimacy Jan-Olav Henriksen 4. The Oxford Handbook of the Book of Revelation Edited by Craig R. Koester 5. Barth, Bonhoeffer, & Modern Politics Joshua Mauldin 6. Religion Without Violence Peter Ochs 7. Thomas of Odessa’s Explanations of the Nativity and Epiphany Edited by Ute Possekel & J.F. Coakley 8. Religious Language Olli-Pekka Vainio 9. Human Dignity, Human Rights, and Social Justice Edited by Zhibin Xie, Pauline Kollontai & Sebastian Kim
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Honoring Good Government at CTI
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his magnificent fourteenth century fresco is one of three panels painted for the Palazzo Publico in Sienna. The whole work on three walls is called The Allegory of Good and Bad Government. The panel shown here represents an allegory of good government. The frescoes were commissioned for the Salon of Nine to remind the nine magistrates who met there of their public duty to govern for the common good. Having seen these frescoes in person, they have stayed with me as a vivid reminder of the fundamental importance of good governance for the flourishing of any public institution. The Center of Theological Inquiry is no exception. CTI was incorporated with the State of New Jersey in 1978 as an educational nonprofit. As such, we are called on to perform a public benefit. In our case, our research program informs public thinking on religion and global concerns. While I am responsible for delivering that program and public benefit, I am accountable to CTI’s Board of Trustees, who ensure our good governance as a nonprofit institution. It is therefore my pleasure to honor two outstanding trustees whose portraits I see in my mind’s eye in CTI’s own Allegory of Good Government. above: The Allegory of Good Government (detail) by Ambrogio Lorenzetti
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Fred Anderson
IMAGE: COMMONS.WIKIMEDIA.ORG
Dr. Fred R. Anderson has served four terms as Chair of the Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2021. In that senior office, Fred has provided exceptional leadership on the Board and wise counsel to me as Director. He has brought the pastoral experience of his vocation as a distinguished senior pastor in one of the great city churches of New York and the erudition of his own scholarship as a sacramental theologian to guide the deliberations of the Board, not only on the stewardship of the institution, but also in the fulfillment of our mission. More than anyone, Fred has grasped the conviction of our founder, Dr. James I. McCord, that theology must inform advanced research as much as it informs congregational ministry. As he has often said, religious leaders like him need to be reading the work of our scholars to preach intelligently on the complex concerns of their congregants. It is not surprising that Fred should be so attuned to the bold genius of James McCord in founding a nonprofit for this theological purpose. Fred was his student and, in every sense, his apostolic successor in leading CTI. Fred steps down from the Chair, but happily not the Board, knowing that under his watch our endowment has doubled, our Board membership is immeasurably strengthened by its growing diversity, and CTI is advancing his mentor’s legacy.
Robert Hendrickson Mr. Robert F. Hendrickson was elected a Trustee Emeritus at the February meeting of the Board of Trustees upon retiring after two decades of distinguished service. In awarding this honor, the Board was recognizing that Bob has made an exceptional contribution to the life and work of the Center as a long serving trustee. He brought his professional experience as a global business leader with a Harvard MBA, responsible for the worldwide manufacturing plants of one of America’s leading pharmaceutical companies, and his excellence in nonprofit governance and philanthropy, to transform the sound financial administration of the Center and the expectations of giving on our Board of Trustees, all by gentle mentoring and generous example. Like Fred Anderson, Bob has also been a wise counselor to me as Director, giving me a free masterclass in corporate leadership of a nonprofit institution. Above all, Bob is a person of deep personal faith, the bedrock of his Christian values and public service, the wellspring of his kindness and compassion. And so, we are thankful that Bob will continue to participate in the life and work of CTI as a Trustee Emeritus. May I record my thanks to him for guiding us through the challenges of the last two decades to this moment in our history, fit and ready for the journey ahead. —William Storrar, Director
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Newly Elected Board Officers Roy Lennox Chair Roy Lennox joined CTI in 2015 with an extensive career in banking and finance as well as a background in education with a PhD in History and an MBA from Columbia University. Roy has served many roles: Treasurer, Chair of the Investment Committee, Chair of the Facilities Task Force, and Vice Chair.
Gayle Robinson Vice Chair With a distinguished career in New York’s financial and banking sector, Gayle Robinson served as the Chief Operating Officer for Marble Collegiate Church in NYC. Now retired, she is an active community member, including having served as board chair of her alma mater, Barnard College. Gayle joined the CTI Board of Trustees in 2019 and recently served as Treasurer and a member of the Strategic Planning and Trustee & Governance Committees.
Robert Wedeking Treasurer As the Chief Investment Officer for Geller Advisors, LLC, Rob Wedeking brings extensive experience in asset management and investing in a wide variety of traditional, hedge fund, and private equity investment strategies. He has been involved in several community organizations serving on fundraising and investment committees. Rob joined the CTI Board of Trustees during the pandemic, serving on the Philanthropy Committee.
New Board Members Darrell Armstrong Darrell Armstrong’s experience echoes CTI’s interdisciplinary approach with his extensive training and background in policy and theology. A national and international advocate for child and family welfare serving on several boards and organizations, Darrell is the Senior Pastor at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton, New Jersey, and is pursuing a doctorate in social work.
Bette Jane (B.J.) Booth B.J. Booth brings an international background in finance, marketing, government, media, and real estate to her new role as a CTI trustee. A long-time Princeton resident, B.J. has also served many non-profit organizations in leadership positions from schools to hospitals to her church.
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Theology today has to earn its place in contemporary academic and public life, and CTI keeps earning a place for theology in its engagements with other fields on pressing topics. Theology takes risks when it opens itself to other disciplines and addresses issues of wide significance. But CTI proves that theology is often truest to itself—and often more interesting as well—when it is willing to take those risks.
CTI helps me to think better about contemporary issues. The Fresh Thinking magazine is a great read, and it’s always worth making time for the webinars. Thank you, CTI, for provocation, inspiration, and intellectual community. I give because of gratitude for the many ways in which CTI renews my sense of service to students, fellow researchers, and wider public audiences. Esther Reed Professor of Theological Ethics, University of Exeter
Gerald McKenny Walter Professor of Theology, University of Notre Dame
Join us
President, UK Society for the Study of Christian Ethics (2018-2021)
as Friends of CTI.
Over the years we have I give to the Center of witnessed a fascinating Theological Inquiry as an dynamic of continuity and acknowledgment of all that ctinquiry.org/support change at the CTI, always I receive from it. I began consistent with its mission and following CTI’s work for reason for being. The Center intellectual engagement, builds bridges of knowledge which it has provided, but it and understanding that enrich has grown beyond that to be scholarship and inform public thinking on a forum for profound questions of meaning and global concerns. I continue to draw inspiration being in the world. I have been challenged to and creative challenge from the unique think in new, more reflective, ways about the contributions unfailingly stemming from this world around me, and so I want to support this indispensable space for advanced theological institution which gives me so much. and interdisciplinary research. Daniel Schipani Professor of Pastoral Care at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Philip Webb Chief Operating Officer at New Jersey Institute for Social Justice
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KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE on Building Racial Justice
Join Us For
THE COLLOQUY a new series of conversations on theological books CTI undertakes groundbreaking research on theology and global issues, and then shares our research with policy makers and the public. Drawing on this year’s Research Workshop on Religion & the Built Environment, CTI is hosting a Knowledge Exchange event with Black Church leaders, community organizers, and urban planners in the USA, exchanging case studies on housing and community development projects in the cities of Baltimore and Pretoria, and reflecting on the architectural design and urban planning issues raised in such projects. Bishop Douglas Miles, a church, community, and civil rights leader in Baltimore, and his Baltimore team will exchange their expertise on building racial justice with the research insights of four CTI workshop members: Elise Edwards (Baylor University, USA), Murray Rae (University of Otago, New Zealand), Stephan de Beer (University of Pretoria, South Africa), and Whare Timu, a leading Māori architect in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Public Panel Date To Be Announced
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Karl Barth is widely viewed as one of the most important theologians of the twentieth century and for this first Colloquy webinar, we will feature two CTI Members whose recently published books delve into Barth’s legacy for the church and society: Christiane Tietz, Karl Barth: A Life in Conflict and Joshua Mauldin, Barth, Bonhoeffer, and Modern Politics.
June 23, 2021 12:30 p.m. - 2:00 p.m. edt Join the conversation as CTI Director William Storrar convenes these two dynamic authors in dialogue with a panel of theologians. Visit ctinquiry.org to register.
RESEARCH TIMELINE 2012-13 EVOLUTION & HUMAN NATURE
2013-14
RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE & MORAL IDENTITY
2014-15 LAW & RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
2015-17
SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS OF ASTROBIOLOGY
2017-18 RELIGION & MIGRATION
2018-19
RELIGION & VIOLENCE
2019-20 RELIGION & ECONOMIC INEQUALITY
2020-21
RELIGION & THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT
2021-22 RELIGION & THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT
Center of Theological Inquiry • Henry R. Luce Hall • 50 Stockton Street Princeton, NJ 08540
ctinquiry.org
50 Stockton Street Princeton, NJ 08540
LEADING THINKERS
LIVE
Join CTI for its inaugural Leading Thinkers LIVE series featuring Director William Storrar in conversation with leading thinkers on the global concerns of our times. SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 Princeton economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton, Nobel Laureate, will be discussing their major new book on the health care crisis and future of the American economy, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism.
Keith Leslie, leadership mentor, will discuss his book, A Question of Leadership: Leading Organizational Change in Times of Crisis and sharing case studies from his frontline work as a former partner with Deloitte and McKinsey and as a mental health advocate.