The Seminary Explores

Syria is Serious Business

Dennis F. Carter, Career Foreign Service Officer, Department of State addresses several important questions: How is the U.S. and the United Nations handling the refugee crisis? Is there reason to fear the influx of Syrian refugees?  What religious ideology drives Isis to detest the “secular state”?  Why does Russia support the Assad regime?

The State of Education

Two retired professors of education and school Superintendents, Dr. Wenifort Washington and Dr. Jean Harper discuss the challenges and opportunities in public education. They talked about the need for partnership between the schools and community agencies and institutions including the church. In addition they highlighted the role of the Federal Government in the educational process.

A Time of Transition: Retirement and the Clergy

Pastor Paul Mundey, Senior Pastor at the Frederick Church of the Brethren, discusses the issues of retirement for the clergy. What does retirement mean for the pastor? What are the issues for the congregation? Mundey shares his process of transition into retirement as an example and highlights some of the research and scholars on retirement and transitions in the parish.

The Cost of War: Yugoslavia

James Roach, retired Site Manager of the Eisenhower National Historical Site and Chief of Interpretive and Visitor Services, Gettysburg National Military Park,  discusses the complex reasons for the formation of Yugoslavia after World War I and its break-up into seven different countries during a devastating war between 1992 and 1995.  Among the complex factors are long memories of previous conflicts together with ethnic and religious differences: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Muslim.  Two results were the displacement of four million people and an abiding feeling of distrust.

Hand’s–on Social Justice

The Rev. Scott Schul, Pastor, Grace Lutheran Church, State College, PA; and chair of the Policy Council, Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania, describes the work of LAMPA (Lutheran Advocacy Ministry in Pennsylvania), one of several state agencies that put into practice the Social Statements of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. 

LAMPA sets policy, organizes resources, and then advocates for that policy in the state legislature.  Two current involvements are opposition to same-day lending practices and promotion of nutrition in early education, especially breakfasts. 

http://www.lutheranadvocacypa.org/

Welcoming a new face and a new perspective: Dr. Vince Evener

In this episode we welcome to the faculty of Gettysburg Seminary Dr. Vince Evener, Visiting Instructor in Reformation and Luther Studies, and hear about his background and his work in Luther Studies.

Vincent Evener received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago Divinity School in June 2014.  His research focuses on how Martin Luther and other reformers worked to achieve a daily transformation, including an intensification of devotion, in the lives of Christians.

Gettysburg: The Quest for Meaning

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.

New Words, Old War: Artists-in-Residence on the Gettysburg Battlefield

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/ 

Talking Science in the Seminary with a Stuempfle

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.”

The Cost of War, Part 2: Children of the Battlfield

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.

Listen to our first interview on The Cost of War from November of 2014.