View - and Register for - Our Educational Events
If you wish to register for any of these interesting educational events, you can register and where appropriate pay online by clicking the "register and pay" icons below or you can print out the registration form and send it with a check or your credit card information to: Educational Outreach Events, c/o Yvette Law, Hartford Seminary, 77 Sherman Street, Hartford CT 06105.
If you have any questions, please call Yvette Law at 860-509-9555 or email her at events@hartsem.edu.
Fall 2009
God’s Word in Greek: Reading the Gospel of Matthew
With the Rev. Edward F. Duffy
Tuesdays, September 8, October 13, November 10 and December 8
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“God's Word in Greek” is an annual continuing education workshop. This workshop will conduct monthly translation sessions of selected texts from the New Testament, this term continuing the reading of “The Gospel of Matthew,” Chapter 17 and succeeding chapters. Participants will be encouraged to fine tune their New Testament Greek reading skills as well as explore the readings in light of their faith understanding. Reading the Greek text together with other colleagues will enhance understanding of New Testament issues. Participants should have basic proficiency in New Testament Greek; at least a one-year course in basic Greek should suffice.
The workshop resumes in January on the following dates: January 12, February 9, March 9, April 13, May 11 and June 8.
The Rev. Edward F. Duffy is adjunct professor of New Testament Greek at Hartford Seminary. He is minister of the First Presbyterian Church of Fairfield, CT. From 1994 to 2004, he was minister of the First Congregational Church in Litchfield. He received his B.A. from Princeton, an M.A. in musicology from Columbia, and the Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary. He completed his Ph.D. in 2000 from the Graduate Theological Foundation. His dissertation was a translation and commentary on Didymus the Blind's Job commentary.
Cost: $80 for fall series; $180 for full year
A Drumming Circle
With Jan Gregory
Mondays, September 28, October 12 and 26, and November 9 and 30
7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Those who are interested in participating in African hand drumming should enroll in this facilitated drumming circle.
African djembe drums, along with other African hand percussion, will be used. When you register, please indicate whether you will bring your own drum or will need to borrow one for the drumming sessions.
Anyone can learn to drum - no musical experience is necessary. Int he drumming circle, we'll learn basic skills as well as interesting, complex rhythm from many African countries and from Belize. Come experience the community that forms when we drum together.
Please note that the Drumming Circle will take the winter off and resume in March 2010. The spring dates are March 15 and 29, April 12 and 26 and May 10 and 24.
The instructor/facilitator will be Jan Gregory, owner of the Renaissance Center: Your Community Music School, and Director of Music Ministry, South Britain Congregational Church, UCC, both in Southbury, CT.
Note: The circle will be offered only if sufficient people register to participate. Hartford Seminary reserves the right to cancel due to low enrollment.
Cost: $100 fall only; $180 full year
Movie and Panel Commentary
The Alpha and the Mega
With Hartford Seminary Professor Scott Thumma and Liberty Churches Pastor Jim Pourteau
Thursday, October 8
7 p.m.
What began as a simple question, "What is a megachurch?" quickly became an obsession for filmmaker Morgan Mead. What he found would change his way of thinking about religion, church, and preconceived notions of the largest churches in America. The first stop was to get some real facts from Scott Thumma, Hartford Seminary Professor, megachurch expert and author of books and articles on the subject of megachurches. Armed with the facts, Mead then headed to numerous megachurches, small churches and the general public to get their points of view. "The Alpha and the Mega" explores the megachurch phenomenon with a look at the different types of megachurches, their origins, and of course their opposition. Are these megachurches taking over America and running the small church out of town? Are they preaching "religion lite?" Are they money-making machines? Is their message watered down or too empowering? Should pop culture really be used in chuch? Why does church need to be so BIG?
Join us for an exclusive showing of the documentary giving a visual look inside America's largest churches. Engage with Scott, Liberty Churces Executive Assistant Pastor Jim Pourteau and two mainline clergy, The Revs. Katherine A. Heichler and Paul D. Krampitz as they wrestle over these questions as well as assess what can be learned from the megachurch model. Scott will offer a commentary followed by a panel discussion
Professor Scott Thumma
is Professor of Sociology of Religion at Hartford Seminary's Hartford Institute for Religion Research and specializes in research on Megachurches. He is the co-author of the book
"Beyond Megachurch Myths: What We Can Learn from America's Largest Churches."
Jim Pourteau serves as the Executive Assistant Pastor of Liberty Churches in Shrewsbury and Worcester, MA, a multi-campus fellowship and home of the New England Dream Center. In addition to team development and his administrative duties, Jim shares preaching responsibilities with Liberty's lead pastor, Will Bard. Jim's contribution to the Liberty team comes from over 20 years of pastoral ministry experience and formal education in Evangelism from J.S.B.C. (Jimmy Swaggart Bible College) and Christian Counseling from Louisiana Baptist University.
Kate Heichler is priest-in-charge of the Church of Christ the Healer in Stamford. Paul Krampitz is pastor of St. Andrew Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bristol.
Free
Please register in advance for this event.
Sacred Trust: A Forum on Religion and the Environment
Coming Home: The Oikos of God and Climate Change
Keynote Address: Michael Schut
Thursday, October 15
4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Co-Sponsor: Interreligious Eco-Justice Network
Location: Unitarian Society of Hartford, 50 Bloomfield Ave, Hartford
Economics and ecology share the same Greek root of oikos, meaning household. The rift between them has resulted in an incredibly productive economy, able to generate previously unimaginable wealth, but one whose impact can often be described as violent. The world is unspeakably, indescribably beautiful; the world is significantly threatened by climate change fueled by our voracious economy. In the midst of this beauty and these threats, the church has a particularly crucial role to play leading up to the Copenhagen conference on climate change and beyond: to invite all of us to come home, to our own place and to living in ways that reflect the sacredness of the household.
Michael Schut serves as the Economic and Environmental Affairs Officer of The Episcopal Church, following 11 years on the staff of Earth Ministry in Seattle, WA. His new book is “Money and Faith: The Search for Enough.” Schut also edited and co-wrote “Simpler Living, Compassionate Life: A Christian Perspective,” which won the second best book of 2000 award by the Catholic Press Association, and the anthology and study guide “Food and Faith: Justice, Joy and Daily Bread.” He has worked with homeless men, served as a Park Ranger, led wilderness trips and facilitated retreats and workshops.
This forum includes displays and workshops.
$30 (includes dinner)
Pastoral Ministry and the Ecological Crisis
A workshop with the Rev. Thomas Carr
Wednesday, October 21
9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
“What we call the environmental crisis is not merely a crisis in the natural environment of human beings. It is nothing less than a crisis in human beings themselves.”
- Jurgen Moltmann
In 1989, environmental writer Bill McKibben wrote about what he called “the end of nature.” By that, McKibben meant that we have come to an end of an era in which humanity could view nature as a force independent of human beings. With all of Earth’s life systems under severe stress, with nearly seven billion people on the planet, along with our infrastructure, humanity has become a geological force; we now shape life on the planet in a very fundamental way which places us in a brand new place as a species and as people of religious faith. And we are being called to respond.
This workshop is designed to examine three areas of ministry in local congregations: 1) explore some of the theological and cosmological foundations essential to give meaning to our Christian faith in light of the global ecological crisis; 2) reflect upon our worship of God and discover liturgical resources to assist in that worship; and, 3) examine ways to integrate ecological stewardship and human justice into the ministries and mission of local congregations.
This is an essential program for pastors and other religious and lay leaders.
The Rev. Thomas Carr is the pastor of the First Baptist Church, West Hartford, where he began his ministry in 1992. For more than twenty years, Carr has been involved in issues of ecology and environmental justice with churches and through interfaith relations. He serves as the American Baptist Churches of Connecticut Eco-Justice Coordinator, was formerly on the National Council of Churches, USA Eco-Justice Working Group, is the co-founder of the interfaith Earth Prayers, co-founder and co-chair of the board of the statewide Interreligious Eco-Justice Network and works with the interfaith National Religious Coalition for Creation Care. He worked with others throughout Connecticut to pass legislation to clean up the “Sooty Six” power plants, and has assisted religious communities to understand the need for energy conservation and the purchase of renewable energy. In October, 2008, he was part of the first faith-based training for The Climate Project, a non-profit organization founded by former vice president, Al Gore. The Climate Project has trained more than 2,500 people in seven different countries to offer presentations focused on global climate change – the causes, consequences and solutions. Tom has offered presentations in a dozen communities around Connecticut.
$30 (includes lunch)
The Transformative Power of King David and President Barack Obama
With Uriah Kim
Wednesday, November 4
7 p.m.
King David of the Hebrew Bible (1 Samuel 16 to 1 Kings 2) invokes awe and adoration on the one hand and profound sympathy on the other. He is a hero of faith many of us strive to imitate, and, at the same time, he is all too human in whom we see our frailties. It is no wonder that this David has captured the imagination and the heart of so many people over the years. Even though many have uncritically appreciated this David for inspiration, there have always been critics of David, describing him more realistically as an ambitious man who was willing to do anything for power and control and for sexual fulfillment. In this lecture Prof. Uriah Kim presents a David of postcolonial imagination: he did not just use Realpolitik and the sword, nor did he depend totally on God’s providence alone to establish his kingdom; rather, he practiced the transgressive power of hybridity to forge a “multi-people” kingdom. Moreover, Prof. Kim will reflect on President Obama’s use of this power to move the U.S. a step closer to realizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream of America becoming the “beloved community.”
Uriah Kim is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Hartford Seminary. He is author of “Identity and Loyalty in the David Story: A Postcolonial Reading” and “Decolonizing Josiah: Toward a Postcolonial Reading of the Deuteronomistic History.”
Free
Beyond the Linear Lens: A Focus on Spirituality
With Yehezkel Landau, Yahya Michot and Miriam Therese Winter
Thursday, November 19
7 p.m.
Professors Yehezkel Landau, Miriam Therese Winter, and Yahya Michot will offer an interfaith evening of celebration of the Spirit, from their faith perspectives. They will reflect on the mystical dimensions of spirituality in Judaism, Christianity and Islam and offer insights into how each of us can respond to the challenges of faithful living in the 21st century through the spiritual traditions of our faith. The evening will include reflection, prayer and conversation.
Yehezkel Landau is Faculty Associate in Interfaith Relations at Hartford Seminary. He lived in Israel from 1978 - 2002, where he was engaged as an interfaith educator at several Christian ecumenical institutes and as a religiously-motivated peace activist, first as executive director of the Oz veShalom religious peace movement and then as co-founder of Open House. Landau has authored numerous articles in various journals, and is co-editor with David Burrell of the book “Voices from Jerusalem: Jews and Christians Reflect on the Holy Land.”
Miriam Therese Winter, a Medical Mission Sister, is Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Spirituality and director of the Women’s Leadership Institute at Hartford Seminary. She has published a number of books and recorded more than 200 of her original songs. Her most recent book is “Paradoxology: Spirituality in a Quantum Universe.”
Yahya Michot is Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. He is editor of The Muslim World journal and director of the Seminary’s International Ph.D. program. Before joining Hartford Seminary in September 2008, Michot taught various courses in Arabic and Islamic thought and history at the universities of Louvain and Oxford. He often participates in international conferences. Recently, he spoke on “Islam and Modernity” at a course on strategic issues for senior Defense officers of the United Kingdom and attended the official opening of the new Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.
Free
The Institutes in the Making: John Calvin's Pastoral Voice
With Elsie McKee and Kelton Cobb
Monday, November 23
7 p.m.
Celebrating the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth in 1509: John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion have been a mainstay in Reformed Protestant theological education for centuries, a model for how to think through Christian beliefs in a coherent way, shaping the theological minds of countless pastors and their teachers. The version of the Institutes most late-20th century seminarians read was the 1960 translation done by Hartford Seminary professor Ford Lewis Battles, which was based on Calvin’s eighty chapter 1559 Latin revision. But the Institutes first appeared in 1536, a mere six chapters, written by Calvin when he was 27 years old. It was offered as a short statement explaining the biblical beliefs of the then very recently emerged Protestant movement. It was a fresh and exciting clearing of the deck. Calvin began expanding it almost immediately, and in 1541 sent his own French translation of it to press. Written in the vernacular, this French version had lay Christians in mind—the many recent converts who were experiencing persecution—and offered a very pastoral approach to basic Christian beliefs that might sustain them.
For the first time, this 1541 French version of the Institutes has been translated into English by Elsie McKee, and published this year by Eerdmans. Prof. McKee will help us to understand how the Institutes evolved, and to hear once again Calvin’s pastoral voice from the early years of the Reformation. Prof. Kelton Cobb will reflect on ways in which Calvin has impacted our culture, and offer some collected memories of Hartford Seminary’s own Ford Lewis Battles who, like Prof. McKee, dedicated many years to awakening the voice of Calvin from across the centuries.
Elsie McKee, Archibald Alexander Professor of Reformation Studies and the History of Worship at Princeton Theological Seminary teaches courses on the theology of Calvin and prayer practices in Christian history. McKee’s diverse interests span the history of the church, exegesis, theology, and worship, especially in the Reformation; women and laity in the Reformation and Christian history; John Calvin’s sermons, commentaries, and doctrine of the church; and Katharina Schuetz Zell and lay theology. Among her publications are “John Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion,” “Katharina Schuetz Zell, Church Mother: The Writings of a Protestant Reformer in Sixteenth-Century Germany,” and “John Calvin: Writings on Pastoral Piety.” An ordained Presbyterian elder, she is a member of the North American Liaison Board for the Protestant University of Congo, where she spent much of her youth, which supports theological and medical education in that country.
Kelton Cobb is Professor of Theology and Ethics at Hartford Seminary and author of “The Blackwell Guide to Theology and Popular Culture.” Cobb edits the book journal Conversations in Religion and Theology.
Free
Movie and Commentary
The Road to Mecca
With Yahya Michot and Herb Brockman
Wednesday, December 2
6:30 p.m.
Muhammad Asad (1900–1992) is as famous for his amazing life as for his reform-minded translation of the Qur’ān. Born Leopold Weiss into a Jewish family in the Ukraine, he discovered Islam in Palestine and converted in 1926. Travelling widely in the Muslim world, he became advisor to King ‘Abd al-‘Azīz of Saudi Arabia and, after the partition of India, Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations. Georg Misch’s documentary film A Road to Mecca: the Journey of Muhammad Asad (2008) has won various cinematographic awards in the West, Israel and the Arab world. It traces the existential and spiritual journey of this European intellectual who, against the prejudices of his time and kin, found in Islam the harmony and purity, peace and humanity he was searching for. The film also raises interesting questions about the way we sometimes look at Islam, the Middle East and our own Abrahamic faiths.
After a showing of Misch’s documentary, Prof. Yahya Michot and Rabbi Herbert N. Brockman will address some of the questions raised in the film in an inter-religious perspective. Audience participation will be encouraged.
Yahya Michot is Professor of Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at Hartford Seminary. He is editor of The Muslim World journal and director of the Seminary’s International Ph.D. program. Before joining Hartford Seminary in September 2008, Michot taught various courses in Arabic and Islamic thought and history at the universities of Louvain and Oxford. He often participates in international conferences. Recently, he spoke on “Islam and Modernity” at a course on strategic issues for senior Defense officers of the United Kingdom and attended the official opening of the new Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar.
Herbert N. Brockman is rabbi of Congregation Mishkan Israel in Hamden, CT. After graduating from Ohio University, he attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati where he received both a Bachelors and a Masters degree in Hebrew Letters. He received his Ph.D. from the Ecumenical Institute of St. Mary's Seminary and University of Baltimore. Upon completion of 25 years in the rabbinate, Brockman was awarded the Doctor of Divinity from Hebrew Union College. Brockman teaches and engages in community projects, and has been at the forefront of interfaith and justice work, not only in New Haven, but also nationally and internationally. He serves on the board of Interfaith Cooperative Ministries and Hartford Seminary, and teaches at Yale Divinity School.
Free
CANCELLED
Innovation, Social Change, and the Emerging Future of American Congregations
A Continuing Education Course with Dr. Gerardo Marti
Monday, January 4 – Wednesday, January 6
9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Much of the recent conversation on "secularization" among social scientists or "postmodernism" and "the emerging church" among church leaders is an attempt to reflect on social change and its impact on religious structures. This special course takes "change" as a fundamental, yet highly negotiated, dynamic of congregational life. More specifically, the course will continually connect contemporary (post-1960) societal arrangements with adaptation, reaction, innovation, and experimentation in congregational beliefs and practices with implications for church leaders.
By incorporating a historical sensitivity and scholarship rooted in a sociological perspective, the course seeks to develop more textured, more layered, and more sophisticated approaches to the ongoing changes and negotiations that religious congregations always make in relation to the broader social world.
This is an essential leadership program for all pastors and other religious and lay leaders.
Dr. Gerardo Marti is the L. Richardson King Assistant Professor of Sociology at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C. After 15 years in local church ministry in a variety of settings both domestic and abroad, Marti became deeply engaged in sociological scholarship at the intersection of congregations and social change. An underlying theme in all his published work is a continual wrestling with congregational vitality in the face of social change, including “A Mosaic of Believers: Diversity and Innovation in a Multiethnic Church,” “Hollywood Faith: Holiness, Prosperity, and Ambition in a Los Angeles Church,” and “Worship Across the Racial Divide: Notions of Race and the Practice of Sacred Music in Multiracial Churches” (under contract). He is currently conducting new research which includes a wide-ranging reflection on politics in relation to "the emerging church," "the evangelical left," and "the new evangelicalism." Marti received his Ph.D. at the University of Southern California.
$250 (includes lunch with Dr. Marti each day)
To register for events, you can register and where appropriate pay online by clicking on the "register and pay" icon or print out the registration form and send it with a check or your credit card information to:
Educational Outreach Events
c/o Yvette Law
Hartford Seminary
77 Sherman Street, Hartford CT 06105
PAST EVENTS
THE MICHAEL R. RION LECTURE
Christianity and the Problem of War
Lecture by Stephen L. Carter
June 23, 2009
God’s Word in Greek: Reading the Gospel of Matthew
With the Rev. Edward F. Duffy
A monthly workshop on Tuesdays, 2008-2009
A Drumming Circle
With Jan Gregory
A biweekly series from September through November and March through May, 2008-2009
Learning from the Megachurch Phenomenon
A two-day continuing education program with Prof. Scott Thumma
June 8 and 9, 2009
Paul, the one whom Christians call "apostle"
Panel discussion with Prof. Yahya Michot, Prof. Mahmoud Ayoub, Prof. Davide Tacchini and Prof. Kelton Cobb - moderated by Dean Efrain Agosto
May 6, 2009
The New Atheism: Denying God and History
Lecture by The Rev. Dr. Borden Painter
April 15, 2009
The Mystery of Paul
Film followed by commentary by Wayne A. Meeks, Ph.D.
April 2, 2009
A Day of Respect: Welcoming People with Disabilities
Day long workshop with keynote speaker: William C. Gaventa
March 16, 2009
Co-Sponsor: The Connecticut Council on Developmental Disabilities
Supporting Sponsors: the Office of Protection and Advocacy and the University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities at the University of Connecticut Health Center
Book Signing and Reception
Threefold Blessings
With Janet Bristow and Victoria Cole-Galo
March 17, 2009
Co-Sponsor: The Women’s Leadership Institute at Hartford Seminary
Justice and the Shari’a in Contemporary Society: Conflict or Co-existence?
Lecture with Prof. Yahya Michot
March 5, 2009
Preaching and Teaching About Homosexuality in the Christian Churches Today
A workshop with The Rev. Dr. Frank Kirkpatrick
February 26, 2009
Book Signing and Reception
Fundamentalism, Feminism and the American Girl
With Susan Campbell
February 24, 2009
Co-Sponsor: The Women’s Leadership Institute at Hartford Seminary
Reflections, Book Signing, and Reception
Paradoxology: Spirituality in a Quantum Universe
With Prof. Miriam Therese Winter
February 3, 2009
Co-Sponsor: The Women’s Leadership Institute at Hartford Seminary
For full details on these past events, click here: Spring 2009 Events
