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On Friday, November 5, Rev. Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock will present the Couillard Memorial Lectures at Moravian Theological Seminary. Her presentation will focus on Reading the Bible Through a Paradise Lens. She will discuss the common image of Christ as the crucifixion and that, in fact, for the first thousand years of the Christian era, images of Jesus depicted him as the restorer and protector of Paradise in this present life and on this earth—and never as the crucified victim. Her argument will revolve around the thought that if we were to take this fact with the seriousness it deserves, it would revolutionize a Christianity that should lead movements to bring peace and healing to a broken world. In her lectures, Dr. Brock will expand on the themes introduced in her book, Saving Paradise, and will present her thoughts on how this perspective can help us to read the prophets and passion narratives in a new way and find a life-affirming, this-worldly faith committed to justice, creation, and peace.
Dr. Brock is Founding Director of Faith Voices for the Common Good, and she chaired the planning committee of the first Truth Commission on Conscience in War at Riverside Church, March 21, 2010. She is a Visiting Scholar at the Starr King School for Ministry at the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA. She was a professor of religion and women’s studies for twenty years and held the Endowed Chair in the Humanities from 1990-97 at Hamline University in St. Paul, MN. From 1997-2001, Dr. Brock directed the Fellowship Program at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University, a prominent advanced research institute, and from 2001-2002, she was a Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School Center for Values in Public Life.
Dr. Brock’s latest book, Saving Paradise: How Christianity Traded Love of This World for Crucifixion and Empire, co-authored with Rebecca Parker (Beacon, 2008), was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of 2008 and has received critical acclaim by reviewers in the Christian Century, National Catholic Reporter, and Religious News Service. Her first, Journeys By Heart: A Christology of Erotic Power, won the Crossroads/Continuum Publishing Company award for the most outstanding manuscript in women’s studies in 1988. She is the co-author of Casting Stones: Prostitution and Liberation in Asia and the United States, which won the Catholic Press Award in Gender Studies in 1996, and the co-author of the 2001 book in narrative theology, Proverbs of Ashes: Violence, Redemptive Suffering, and the Search for What Saves Us. In addition to publishing many essays, she was an editor and contributor to Guide to the Perplexing: A Survival Manual for Women in Religious Studies, Setting the Table: Women in Theological Conversation, and Off the Menu: Asian and North American Asian Women’s Religion and Theology.
Dr. Brock’s service to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the 1980s and 1990s includes the Presidency of Disciples Peace Fellowship, membership in the North American Pacific Asian Disciples, a term on the General Board and Administrative Committees, two terms on the Committee on Renewal and Structural Reform, as well as the vice-presidency and presidency of the board of the Division of Overseas Ministries, and election as the first chair of the Common Global Ministries Board of the Disciples and the United Church of Christ.
In 1993, Dr. Brock represented the National Council of Churches on an International hi-level ecumenical delegation to support the peace-making processes in Guatemala and El Salvador. She has lectured in Australia, New Zealand, England, Germany, Denmark, China, Japan, the Philippines, Norway, and Canada, as well as throughout the United States and is a member of the U. S. Group of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, the leading global organization of liberation theologians.
For more information about the Couillard Lectures, or to register for the lecture, click here.
Moravian Seminary encourages persons with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the physical access provided, please contact Amanda Griesser 610-861-1519 at least one week prior to the event. |
