Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Practical Theology
Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow
Andrew Packman is Visiting Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics and Practical Theology at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. He works in the field of theological ethics. His scholarship revives ancient questions about the place of affectivity in moral and religious life by posing them anew in contemporary contexts of social oppression. His first book project, tentatively entitled Theology and the Atmospherics of Race: Schleiermacher, Affectivity, and the Tenacity of Racism, draws constructively from critical race theory, social psychology, and the works of Friedrich Schleiermacher to propose a novel theological diagnosis of anti-Black racism’s recalcitrance in American life. His next project builds on his ethnographic research of a Bosnian interfaith choir that pursues political and religious reconciliation through aesthetic, performative means. Before coming to United as a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, he taught at the University of Chicago and Loyola University Chicago.
Packman is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). In 2012, he joined with two colleagues to plant a dinner church in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood called Root and Branch. He also co-founded the Constructive Theologies Project, a group of Disciples of Christ thought leaders who contribute theological reflection to the church’s work of racial justice and reconciliation. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Sarah, and their two sons, Benjamin and Owen.
Education
- Ph.D., University of Chicago
- M.Div., University of Chicago
- B.A., Loyola University Chicago
Scholarship and Writing
- “Structural Sin and the Affective Structure of Agency: Systemic Racism, Implicit Bias, and Schleiermacher’s ‘Collective Power of the Flesh’,” Presentation at the Joint Liberation Theology Unit and Schleiermacher Unit, AAR Annual Meeting, San Antonio, November 2021. (forthcoming)
- Review of Ki Joo Choi, Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity (Eugene: Wipf and Stock, 2019) in The Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 40.2 (2020): 386-387.
- Review of John G. Stackhouse, Why You’re Here: Ethics for the Real World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018) in The Journal of Religion 100.2 (2020): 290-292.
- “They Became Futile in their Thinking: Implicit Racial Bias, Social Sin, and the Death of the Soul,” Presentation at the Disciples Divinity House at the University of Chicago, November 2019.
- Review of Jennifer L. Eberhardt, Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do (New York: Viking, 2019) in The Christian Century 136.21 (2019): 39-40.
- Entry on “Race and Religion” in A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion, edited by Charles Taliaferro & Elsa J. Marty, Second Edition (New York: Bloomsbury, 2018).
- “Enhancing Racialized Social Life: The Implicit Spiritual Dimension of Critical Race Theory,” Religion & Culture Forum, a digital publication of the Martin Marty Center at the University of Chicago (December 2017)
- “Schleiermacher’s Change of Heart and the Recovery of Feeling in Theology,” Presentation at the Joint Schleiermacher Unit and Christian Systematic Theology Unit, AAR Annual Meeting, Boston, November 2017.
- “Interfaith Repertoire: A Bosnian Choir Sings Reconciliation,” The Christian Century 129.12 (2012): 30-32.
Research Interests
- Religious Aesthetics and Social Change
- Moral Motivation and Moral Failure
