The Seminary Explores

Dr. Vincent Evener, Visiting Instructor in Reformation and Lutheran Studies at the Gettysburg Seminary discusses his choice of the ten top stories/events in religion for 2015. These include: The visit of Pope Francis, the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, issues of violence in particular the A.M.E. church killings in Charleston, South Carolina and terrorism, and immigration. He highlighted his concern for cooperation, openness, constructive endeavors to counter the rhetoric of suspicion and hate.

Dr. Leonard Hummel, Co-editor of Gettysburg: The Quest for Meaning, discusses the new book, published by Seminary Ridge Press and its purpose: to examine religion and the Civil War, including the Bible and slavery, ghost tours and pilgrims, the “lost cause” of the Confederacy, forgetting and remembering why it started, and how all this informs our search for a just and equitable America.

Michigan-based poets Michelle Bonczek Evory and Rob Evory were selected as the first Artists-in-Residence at the Gettysburg National Military Park. They discuss their lively, intense first weeks with Katy Giebenhain, Poetry + Theology editor of Seminary Ridge Review, and share some original new work. They are in residence for the month of July, 2015.

http://thepoetsbillow.org/gettysburg/

http://www.nationalparksartsfoundation.org/ 

In this second part of a two-part series, Thomas Rutherford, Licensed Town Guide in Gettysburg Pennsylvania, brings stories of courage and compassion about children amidst the horrors of the Battle of Gettysburg, one as young as 8 or 9 years old: Tillie Pierce, Sadie Bushman, and Charlie McCurdy.

Dr. Leonard Hummel, Co-editor of Gettysburg: The Quest for Meaning, discusses the new book, published by Seminary Ridge Press and its purpose: to examine religion and the Civil War, including the Bible and slavery, ghost tours and pilgrims, the “lost cause” of the Confederacy, forgetting and remembering why it started, and how all this informs our search for a just and equitable America.

Dr. Collinge discusses the content and context of the encyclical, Laudato si, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi. It is a meditation on created nature and the place of humanity in it. The pope adds something new: he joins the Catholic theology of creation (not anthropology) with the tradition of Catholic social ethics, especially his concern for the poor. 

Dr. Christianson asks Dr. Daryl Black, new President and Executive Director of the Gettysburg Seminary Ridge Museum, the question, “Why do we have museums and should they do more than just collect “keepsakes”? Dr. Black describes the change in museums over the past two decades from emphasizing a collection of items, e.g. rifles, to interpretation of these items in the wider context of the need for human beings to make meaning of the past.  He illustrates this with the conflicting ways North and South used the Bible and even viewed God in the Civil War.