The Seminary Explores

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 episode, which kicks off our year of “Science in the Seminary,” Kristin Largen talks with Kristin Stuempfle about the importance of dialogue between science and religion.  Kris uses the example of her father, Herman Stuempfle who was the President of Gettysburg Seminary from 1976 to 1989.  In particular she references the hymn he wrote for her, “Go Forth in Search of Truth.”

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, Professor of Pastoral Theology, Gettysburg Seminary, describes a grant from the Templeton Foundation  that enables the three “c’s”: competencies in science for seminarians, connections with scientists at other institutions and a core that encourages dialogue with science--for example, the connection between a professor of physics and a professor of Old Testament in a course on Genesis and the origins of the universe.

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.

Dr, Christianson and Sue Hill discuss the life and writing of Elsie Singmaster.  Elsie Singmaster was one of the best-known authors of her day, appearing in anthologies along with Ernest Hemingway.  Her stories of Gettysburg citizens who were caught in the battle and still managed to serve the wounded and dying are worth discovering again.