Public Theology

March 19, 2024
Public Theology VOICES

Rev. Shannon Dycus Illuminates the Sacred in Education and Ministry

  For DMin student Rev. Shannon Dycus, faith and education have been foundational influences and pursuits. “My story,” Shannon shares, “includes the nurture of wonderful Black women in my life and lineage. My grandmothers and mother modeled faithful and bold ways of living out their calls with ministries that were not allowed to flourish in their contexts.” In high school, a counselor saw her creative and leadership potential for guiding others. At Butler University, she earned a degree in secondary education. While she enjoyed working with young people in the classroom and after-school programs, Shannon felt something was missing. “I felt the gap,” she recalls, “of how to care for their spirits and lead holistically.” (more…)

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November 15, 2023
Faith Progressive Christianity Public Theology

What Is Progressive Theology? United’s President, a Faculty Member, and an Alum Explore Answers

On November 4, 2023, President Molly T. Marshall, a Christian theologian, and Dr. Demian Wheeler, United’s associate professor of philosophical theology and religious studies, traveled to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. At Spirit of Peace UCC in Sioux Falls, they joined Rev. Charles Owens, a 2013 alum and the church’s senior pastor, to unpack the question: What Is Progressive Theology? The panel was moderated by District 10 Representative Kameron Nelson, South Dakota's only openly gay state representative.  (more…)

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August 4, 2023
Activism Beliefs Community Inclusion lgbtq news releases Open and Affirming Politics Public Policy Public Theology statement Transgender Rights

Statement by United on the Supreme Court’s Recent Rulings

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July 5, 2023
Public Theology theology and the arts

Recent Encounters with Theaster Gates’ Black Vessel for a Saint: Viewing the Sacred through Locked Steel Doors

Black Vessel for a Saint sits on the southwest end of the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden with an air of incongruous monumentality. A 20-foot-tall cylinder of coal-black bricks, the Vessel rests on a raised cement platform, with two long cement ramps leading to a pair of doorways. Inside the cylinder, one encounters a six-foot tall, roofing tar-blackened statue of Saint Lawrence, who holds a luxuriant quill pen in his right hand and a Bible in his left. According to the didactics accompanying the Vessel, Theaster Gates—a polymathic Chicago artist known for his urban revitalization efforts and use of reclaimed materials—intended the temple-like structure to serve as “a secular sacred sanctuary—a place open to all for gathering and reflection.” (more…)

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