Previous Pro Ecclesia Conferences
2023: Life Together
The Communion of the Saints in a Time of Division and Disease
Monday, June 5 – Wednesday, June 7
Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland
Both locally and nationally, Christian fellowship has been severely tested by the impact of the pandemic and the heightened tensions of our political and cultural life. ‘Social distancing’ and virtual worship have eaten into the fellowship within congregations and parishes. Our polarized politics and the ‘culture wars’ that have accompanied it have severely tested our ability to pursue a common life, not only within our wider society, but within and among our churches. This conference discusses theologically and pastorally how we address these challenges. We have assembled a range of speakers from different backgrounds: medicine, ethics, New Testament studies, parish ministry, and theological studies.
Speakers
William Cavanaugh, PhD, Professor of Catholic Studies, DePaul University, Chicago, IL
The ‘Little Way:’ Practices of Faith and Solidarity in a Polarized World
What virtues and practices can Christians and churches bring to bear in the face of increased polarization, distancing, and despair? This presentation explores the "little way" of Therese of Lisieux and Dorothy Day's appropriation of it. The little way is a type of attentiveness to other people as Christ-bearers, which includes doing ordinary things with extraordinary love. The presentation examines in particular the spirituality and practices of solidarity, in which we share in both guilt and forgiveness, and ultimately in the love of God.
Rev. Chris Currie, PhD, Senior Pastor, St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church, New Orleans, LA
A Post-Pandemic Ecclesiology: Everything is Different, Everything is the Same
The presentation explores what it means to be the church in the context of what the pandemic and hyper-polarization have done to our life together. How might the particular marks of Christian community be re-articulated in a way that will serve the church well in such a time as this and provide theological substance and rationale for the necessity of Christian community in crisis and in post-pandemic America?
Lydia Dugdale, MD, MAR, Associate Professor of Medicine, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, New York, NY
The Lost Art of Dying: Reviving Forgotten Wisdom
With more than a million dead in the United States from COVID-19 and more than 6.5 million dead globally, the pandemic brought death to the fore in a way that Americans hadn’t experienced since World War II. Although Christians should be among the most equipped to face dying and death, we tend to choose more aggressive end-of-life treatments than do our non-religious counterparts. How might the Church lead the way in preparing the faithful for death? A fifteenth-century handbook on the “art of dying” offers invaluable instruction to all of us and poses a challenge for how we live our lives well today.
Rev. Wesley Hill, PhD, Associate Professor of New Testament, Western Theological Seminary, Holland, MI
The Last Severity, the Last Hope: Ecclesial Crises in Christological Perspective
The presentation features an exposition of 1 Corinthians, paying special attention to the way in which Paul addresses the crises of the church in Corinth by flanking them with discussion of Jesus' crucifixion (see especially 1:10-31) and resurrection (15:1-58). Paul's Christological approach is offered as a model for our imitation, as we today navigate similar issues of division and dissension in the church and in the wider culture.
Myles Werntz, PhD, Associate Professor of Theology, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, TX
Reconnecting in a Dismembered Age: Church Community, Digital Culture, and The Mending of the World
In an era of multiple fractures within society and the church, the temptation is to focus on strategies of fixing particular problems. But this approach frequently exacerbates the problem of fragmentation unintentionally. One prominent example is the use of digital technologies to connect scattered congregants, whether through increased use of livestreaming and other technologies to provide people with the experience of church attendance. Digital culture, however, operates from a presumption of the individual, networked together through common interests. Accordingly, increased use of digital technologies to bring people together leaves untouched the basic problem of church division: the fragmentation of persons along fault lines of interest groups.
To address the manifold fractures of congregational life, we must stop focusing on the particular fractures, and recapture a more basic vision of our church gathering, allowing that in turn to determine the mode of our gathering and the way in which we address the material sources of division. Focus must be placed upon relearning the practice of gathering as the body of Christ—a body which is gathered not through networks of common interest, but by differentiated persons gathered up by Christ’s sacrifice; only this will give us the focal practice necessary to engage the material forms of division without unwittingly validating the logic of fragmentation in them.
Sondra Wheeler, PhD, Professor Emerita of Christian Ethics, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, DC
In Absentia: the Risks and Lessons of ‘Virtual Community’
Some temptations and deformities always present in church life were exacerbated and also obscured from sight by the physical distancing of church life during the pandemic. The very convenience of online worship, fellowship, and (in some cases) even sacraments, blunts the formative power of community. In addition, many of the moral dangers of ministry were increased by the added isolation, while the opportunities to develop its requisite virtues were sharply curtailed. What have we learned from this forced experiment, and how do we apply those lessons?
2021: The Sermon on the Mount
Monday, June 7 – Wednesday, June 9
Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount marks a radical departure—on this, all can agree. It is high poetry, opening with the eight “beatitudes” that run from “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” through sorrow, meekness, the longing for righteousness, mercy, purity, peace-making, to the concluding pronouncement that circles back to the first: “Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Our Lord’s teaching includes metaphor that calls for appropriate action: We are salt and light and should live accordingly. He claims not to be departing from his Hebrew heritage, but to be taking it down to its very core. You have heard it said, for instance, “Thou shalt not kill,” but he says, you shall not be angry. And so on, through a number of the ten commandments, all pointing to a summons to be like “your Father which is in heaven.”
From poetry to high calling, Jesus aims repeatedly at our inmost parts, our heart. Pray in secret, for instance. Put your treasure in heaven—for then, your heart will be in heaven also. He aims to disabuse us of worldly anxiety, to attend to the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, all of which God takes care of.
But he also teaches about judgment, about being honest about ourselves (recognizing that log in our own eye). At the verbal center of the sermon we find the inexhaustible treasure of the Lord’s Prayer. And at the end, the memorable image of building a house. If we hear Jesus’ words and do them, our house will be built on a rock. “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not.” But if we fail to do Jesus’ words, our house is built on sand, and it will fall.
All this is beautiful and arresting. It is memorable, at least in its various parts. Yet it is also manifestly deep. Each verse of it is profound in itself. And study of how its parts relate to each other also leads to profundities. No Christian who has ever existed has felt he or she completely understood the Sermon on the Mount. Every Christian who reads it again finds a new depth, a new insight, a new summons.
A depth, an insight, a summons—to what? That is the question. Is this about ethics, or about doctrine, or about perfection of life for a few people, or about everyday life for any Christian, or about spirituality, or about economics, or about poetry, or about mission? Yes to all these—and to many more.
Victor Lee Austin, program director
2019: What’s the Good of Humanity?
Explorations and Articulations of Christian Wisdom
June 3-5
Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland
From a Christian perspective it could well be said that humanity, a good gift of God, is being undermined by the technology and thought-patterns and practices of contemporary Western culture. In response to what is seen as an attack, many books have been written (and conferences held) on the harm of these technologically-driven practices. These articles and books focus on what is wrong (with euthanasia, with surrogate motherhood, with the denial of the male-female difference, and so forth).
Yet to make a compelling cultural witness, it is more important for Christians to know what is right, and essential that they be able to articulate the positive. Why do babies matter? What is the goodness embedded in being made male and female? How can one approach death in a godly manner? We need, in other words, to be able to give an account of God’s “Yes” (2 Cor. 1:20), the hope that is within us (1 Pet. 3:15).
Speakers
Patrick Lee, The Soul in Scripture and Christian Tradition
Nancey Murphy, What is the relationship of the brain, consciousness, and Christian faith?
Edith Mary Humphrey, Male and Female, the Image of God, and the Significance of Children
Phillip Cary, Chastity and the Wealth of Life: On Being Male and Female
Gilbert Meilaender, On Dying
Donna Freitas, Practicing Christianity in the Age of Facebook & Smartphones
Panel Discussion
Banquet Address by Paul Hinlicky
2018: Hope Today
June 4 – 6
Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland
In a world of heightened anxieties and dangers, this conference proposes to return to the basics of Christian hope. What is Christian hope? What are its grounds? How is it a virtue for human living? And in the midst of our many divisions, what does hope mean, not only in the world, but in the Church? How does Christian hope impact the lives we live today?
The 2018 CCET conference “Hope Today” will begin Monday evening, June 4, and continue to Wednesday noon, June 6. It is especially designed for clergy and lay people who are theologically interested but not necessarily theological experts. Registration includes admission to all sessions plus the conference banquet on Tuesday evening. Reasonably priced (and convenient to the conference) dorm accommodations are available.
Speakers
Carolyn Chau, Western University
The ways of perishing and the practice of hope
Elizabeth Agnew Cochran, Duquesne University
Hope as a Political Virtue: Reconsidering Jonathan Edwards for American Christians
David Elliot, Catholic University of America
Hope as a virtue
Wesley Hill, Trinity School for Ministry
The role of hope in Christian friendship
Willie James Jennings, Yale Divinity School
Race, ecumenism, and the hope for church unity
Peter Leithart, Theopolis Institute
Eucharistic hope
David Yeago, Trinity School for Ministry
Banquet speaker
2017: Repentance and Forgiveness
June 5 – 7
Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland
Reconciliation is the heart of Christianity. It is the point of the Incarnation, the cross, and the exaltation of Christ: that all people be drawn to God, and that it be possible for all people to be drawn to God. The good news of reconciliation is at the same time a call to repent and to be forgiven, and then, concomitantly, to forgive.
It is time to reexamine these fundamental Christian claims. The 2017 annual conference of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology will return to the biblical sources to help us understand reconciliation afresh. It will raise questions about repentance and forgiveness from various perspectives: Jewish, Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant. It will also consider our present-day context, what has been called the “technoculture,” as well as the practice of repentance and forgiveness.
The conference will offer opportunity for question, discussion, and reflection on these fundamental matters in the context of common Christian prayer.
Speakers
Peter Bouteneff, St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
How to Be a Sinner: Negotiating the Church’s Language of Self-Condemnation
John Burgess, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
Is Reconciliation Still Relevant? Reflections on a Theological Theme in an Era of Diversity and Inclusivity
Ellen Charry Moore, Princeton Theological Seminary
Repentance and Forgiveness Between Christianity and Judaism
Dominic Langevin OP, Dominican House of Studies
The Virtue of the Sacrament of Penance: Individual and Hierarchical
Brent Waters, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Confession and Repentance in the Emerging Technoculture
Stephen Westerholm, McMaster University
Biblical Foundations
Banquet address: Carl Braaten, Co-founder, CCE
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