Flourishing in the Clearing: Womanist Approaches to Spiritual Care
Jessica Chapman Lape, Assistant Professor of Interreligious Chaplaincy and Program Director for Interreligious Chaplaincy
In Toni Morrison’s novel, Beloved, we see the character Baby Suggs, an ex-slave and spiritual leader, facilitate healing and flourishing for her African American community deep in a forest clearing. Through the use of sources such as Black literature like the works of Morrison and Zora Neale Hurston, to the scholarship of womanist scholars and pastoral theologians, this lecture will discuss distinct and embodied characteristics and practices of contemporary womanist spiritual caregivers who work to facilitate healing and flourishing for African American women. This lecture will also explore the broad implications of inviting all spiritual caregivers into the work, awe, and abundance of womanist care – so that all Black women may flourish in the clearing.
United’s Faculty Favorite Lecture Series
Every teacher has one—the lecture that they love the best, the one that they can literally feel in their bones when they deliver it in class. In this series we invite you to get to know United’s current faculty and get a taste of what happens in the classrooms at United. These favorite lectures will be delivered on Zoom, so enjoy it with a family member, invite a far away friend, or host your very own “watch party.” Whatever the format, take this opportunity to learn what it is like to experience the transformative learning experience that happens in the classrooms at United. All lectures are free and open to the public.