Tag: Alternative Seminary

When the State is the Church

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Another compelling offering from The Alternative Seminary.

Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart is a minister, professor, and movement strategist. Naomi has worked as a faith organizer and director for POWER Interfaith, the National LGBTQ Task Force, and the Mayor’s Office of Public Engagement in the city of Philadelphia. She teaches emerging scholars of religion and theology at Villanova University, Arcadia University, and Harvard School of Divinity.
Registration is required. You can register here.

The deadline for registration is November 25.

If you have any questions, please contact Will O’Brien at willobrien59@gmail.com or 267-339-8989.
The Alternative Seminary is a program of biblical and theological study and reflection
designed to foster an authentic biblical witness in the modern world.

Faith and the Search for Justice

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The Alternative Seminary invites you to Faith and the Search for Justice: Ignazio Silone’s Bread and Wine

A Four-Session Online Course

Thursday evenings, June 27 – July 25 (no class July 4)

7:00 – 8:30 p.m. EST

“In wrestling with the problem of how to present the teachings of nonviolence in an age of mass violence, it seems to me that the writings of Ignazio Silone are of immense importance.”  – Dorothy Day

Catholic Worker founder Dorothy Day often cited the novel Bread and Wine by Ignazio Silone as one of the most influential works of fiction in her life.   A deeply humane and compassionate novel, it was written in 1936 while Silone was in exile from his native Italy for his resistance work against the fascist government of Benito Mussolini.  He recounts the story of an idealistic revolutionary who tries to organize Italian peasants against a repressive regime. 

Continue reading “Faith and the Search for Justice” →

Whose Liturgy Is It Anyway?

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Feminist/Womanist/Queer Liberation and Theology, Theological AnimationLeave a comment

Another compelling offering from Alternative Seminary.

Whose Liturgy Is It Anyway? Reclaiming Christian Liturgy as the People’s Work

A Three-Part Series Led by Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart (above)

Saturdays, March 9, 16, 23. 10:00 am- 12:00 noon EST. $100

Familiar and traditional liturgy in Christian worship can be a source of comfort. But liturgies left unexamined can do harm. In this series, we’ll explore various liturgical forms and ask – whose liturgy is this and what “work” is this liturgy doing? 

Continue reading “Whose Liturgy Is It Anyway?” →

Gospel Healing in a World of Suffering

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A new offering from the Alternative Seminary.

A FIVE-WEEK ONLINE COURSE
September 13 – October 11, 2023
Wednesday evenings, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

We have come through a global virus, but our world is still in desperate need of healing.

Severe poverty and deepening divides of income, war and violence, racism and other forms of hatred and systemic discrimination, a ravaged creation: All of these cry out for healing – but what is the healing we need? As we emerge from the global pandemic, how does this moment of deep societal vulnerability force us to ask deeper questions about who we are and what kind of world we need? And how do we engage in self-healing practices?

For five weeks, we will explore together several Gospel accounts of Jesus’ healings, reflecting on how these stories speak to our society and world. We will reflect on ways we are all in need of healing and how we can be empowered to be faithful disciples and healers in this time of manifold crises.

Continue reading “Gospel Healing in a World of Suffering” →

A Call to Gospel Nonviolence

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Another compelling event from Will O’Brien of the Alternative Seminary in Philly.

Dear friends, 

I am reaching out to many friends and colleagues of the Alternative Seminary with a request that you help promote our upcoming program.

We are once again doing the special Advent program, “The Cross of Christ: Justification for Redemptive Violence or a Call to Gospel Nonviolence?” on Saturday, February 25.

As those of you who have participated in the past know, the program offers a critique of how atonement theology has bred terrible suffering by offering a vision of sacred violence that justifies actual violence, especially again women and minority communities. Starting with resituating Jesus’s crucifixion in historical context, we explore how the cross can be seen as a symbol of nonviolent resistance to oppressive powers. The themes continue to be urgent, especially with the rise of Christian nationalism, in this country and around the world.

Continue reading “A Call to Gospel Nonviolence” →

Peace on Earth and the Politics of Christmas

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A VIRTUAL PROGRAM

Saturday morning, December 3

10:30 am EST

Much of the Christian church in the United States has been co-opted by an American gospel of prosperity, racism, violence, and militant nationalism. The celebration of Christmas is a victim of that co-optation: It is wrapped in innocent, Hallmark-card imagery. But in fact the biblical texts describing the coming of Jesus are making powerful assertions about the politics of the Bible that speak very much to our contemporary global crises.

In this virtual class, we will reflect on the “nativity narratives” in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke to see how they express core biblical themes of justice and liberation. We will “un-domesticate” these tales of liberation and reflect on how they are truly challenging us to a revolutionary discipleship. This program will be broadcast via Zoom. It will be facilitated by Will O’Brien, coordinator of The Alternative Seminary. A perfect event for Advent.

Continue reading “Peace on Earth and the Politics of Christmas” →

The Cross in the Midst of Creation

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How do activism and scholarship contribute to our understanding of Scripture in the world today?

October 20, 2022, 7:30pmEDT on Zoom

CLBSJ and the Alternative Seminary warmly invite you to join us for a dialogue emerging from Rev. Sharon Delgado’s new book, The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World. Joining Delgado in conversation will be Daryl Grigsby, author, community organizer and lay theologian. Both Delgado’s and Grigsby’s theological reflections are rooted in their decades of work for economic equality, climate justice, racial healing, and peace. Today’s society is increasingly difficult to navigate, burdened as it is with violent political discourse, widening racial division and lies accepted as truth. This difficulty is compounded with increasingly virulent public manifestations of white Christian nationalism that convey exclusion and violence. Delgado and Grigsby will explore how their understanding of scriptures, spiritual practices, and lifetimes of struggle inform their mutual conviction that despite all the bad news, the message contained in Jesus’ life, ministry, crucifixion and resurrection — which Paul called “the word of the cross” in 1 Corinthians 1:18 — offers good news that is deeply relevant today.

Continue reading “The Cross in the Midst of Creation” →

Challenging Power and Privilege: Is Good News for the poor Bad News for many of us in North America?

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By Will O’Brien, coordinator of The Alternative Seminary

Our Western scholarship and church teaching have communicated to us the notion that the four Gospels convey “objective truth,” and we read them to discern their objective and universal meaning. But such an approach to Scripture, bred in the Western / European church, has functioned to uphold social power systems of domination. What is “objective” and what is “universal” have been adjudicated conveniently by church hierarchy and monarchs to serve the needs of Empire, muting the prophetic and liberating voices of scripture.

In recent decades, the Western church has had its safe objectivity subverted by the powerful and insistent voices from the global south, who have forced us to reckon with the social contexts of scripture – both in its historical origins and in our contemporary world. They have exposed the lie behind the phony neutrality of Western biblical scholarship and challenged our concepts of universal meaning by reading the gospels in contexts of real-life suffering, oppression, and unjust social systems.

Continue reading “Challenging Power and Privilege: Is Good News for the poor Bad News for many of us in North America?” →

THE CROSS OF CHRIST:  A Justification for Redemptive Violence Or a Call to Gospel Nonviolence?

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Another compelling online offer from the Alternative Seminary in Philly. See details below for tomorrow’s gathering.

The cross can heal and hurt; it can be empowering and liberating but also enslaving and oppressive … I believe that the cross placed alongside the lynching tree can help us to see Jesus in America in a new light, and thereby empower people who claim to follow him to take a stand against white supremacy and every kind of injustice.” ― James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree

We are witnessing how the Christian faith has been contorted to almost unrecognizable shape and put at the service of empire – even though the founder of the faith was executed by empire. The cross of Christ, perhaps the central image of Christian life and thought, has been frequently been used to promote the idea of “redemptive violence,” and has been directly or indirectly used to vindicate and even bless human violence.

Continue reading “THE CROSS OF CHRIST:  A Justification for Redemptive Violence Or a Call to Gospel Nonviolence?” →

THE CROSS OF CHRIST: A JUSTIFICATION FOR REDEMPTIVE VIOLENCE OR A CALL TO GOSPEL NONVIOLENCE?

On By RadicalDiscipleshipIn Subverting Empire, Theological Animation1 Comment

A timely Lenten offering from the Alternative Seminary in Philly. An online gathering on Saturday morning.

The cross can heal and hurt; it can be empowering and liberating but also enslaving and oppressive … I believe that the cross placed alongside the lynching tree can help us to see Jesus in America in a new light, and thereby empower people who claim to follow him to take a stand against white supremacy and every kind of injustice.” 
― James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree

 We are witnessing how the Christian faith has been contorted to almost unrecognizable shape and put at the service of empire – even though the founder of the faith was executed by empire. The cross of Christ, perhaps the central image of Christian life and thought, has been frequently been used to promote the idea of “redemptive violence,” and has been directly or indirectly used to vindicate and even bless human violence.

Continue reading “THE CROSS OF CHRIST: A JUSTIFICATION FOR REDEMPTIVE VIOLENCE OR A CALL TO GOSPEL NONVIOLENCE?” →