Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination
 
March 24-26, 2010

Point Loma Nazarene University

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When many Christians consider the prophetic imagination, they think of attempts to decipher how the world will end or religiously based movements for social and political change. The biblical understanding of prophecy, particularly as embodied in Jesus and such prophets as Hosea, Amos, and Isaiah, while including both a hope for the future and a critique of the present social and economic situation, also seeks to free believers in Christ to witness to the future of God creatively in the present. The prophetic imagination is, in the light of the gift of God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ, a challenge for Christians to question the assumptions, beliefs, and practices that the church often takes for granted. It calls believers in Christ to reflect deeply on the ways that the church has accommodated itself to and allowed itself to be defined by the dominant culture and thereby has been a party to economic and social systems of sin, oppression, and injustice. The prophetic imagination provides a challenge to the church to renew its criticism of the dominant culture and envision a new and vibrant way of being in but not of the world.

This conference will explore various dimensions of the prophetic imagination, especially around the three key movements or stages of encounter with the prophetic imagination:
1) dissatisfaction with and critique of dominant culture;
2) taking responsibility for and learning to lament the extent to which we have been complicit with the sinful and destructive forces of the dominant culture;
3) creatively and hopefully envisaging new modes of being the church in the world and new ways of embodying God’s will for the world.


Plenary Speakers

		Bill McKibben Christian environmental activist, scholar in residence at Middlebury College, and  author of Deep Economy , The End of Nature, Hope: Human & Wild , and The Age of Missing Information . In 1989, McKibben was one of the first to speak out about the threat of climate change and global warming. An American environmentalist and writer, Bill McKibben is the founder of 350.org , an international climate campaign. In October 2009,   350.org organized the 350 International Day of Climate Action, with thousands of events planned at iconic places around the world. Bill frequently writes about global warming, alternative energy, and the risks associated with human genetic engineering. Beginning in the summer of 2006, he led the organization of the largest demonstrations against global warming in American history. McKibben is active in the Methodist Church, and his writing sometimes has a spiritual bent.
		Kathleen Norris A Poet and Essayist, Norris is author of Acedia & me: A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, Dakota: A Spiritual Geography , Cloister Walk , Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith and The Virgin of Bennington. Exploring the spiritual life, Norris’ work is at once intimate and historical, rich in poetry and meditations, brimming with exasperation and reverence, deeply grounded in both nature and spirit, sometimes funny, and often provocative. In 1986, Norris became an oblate, associate, of a Benedictine monastery, Assumption Abbey in North Dakota, and spent two years in residence at the Ecumenical Institute at St. John's Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota. Her book The Cloister Walk is structured as a diary of her monastic experience. Norris' most recent book, Acedia & me : A Marriage, Monks, and a Writer's Life, is a study of acedia, the ancient word for the spiritual side of sloth. She examines the topic in light of theology, psychology, monastic spirituality and her own experience.
		Michael Eric Dyson A Sociologist and Theologian  from Georgetown University, Dyson's newest book April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Death and How it Changed America, joins his others: Can You Hear Me Now? , Come Hell or Highwater: Hurricane Katrina and the Color of Disaster, Holler if You Hear Me.   Dyson, who studies American culture and how it pertains to African Americans, uses the terms "Afristocracy" and "Ghettocracy" to describe a bifurcation in American black society. He is also a leading scholar on hip-hop music and the culture surrounding it, as well as its roots in African and African-American cultures and its influence on American popular culture. Speaking from a strongly liberal viewpoint, Dyson feels that the social factors that influence lower-income black Americans to have such high rates of crime, teen pregnancy and divorce cannot be overlooked when addressing these issues from a national stance.
		Emmanuel Katongole Theologian and priest, associate professor of theology and world Christianity and co-director of the Center of Reconciliation at Duke Divinity School, Katongole is author of A Future for Africa: Critical Essays in Christian Social Imagination, Beyond Universal Reason, and African Theology Today . A Roman Catholic priest from Uganda, he offers a redeeming concept of how to live in a world marked by AIDS, civil war, genocide and other destructive conflicts. As co-director of the Center of Reconciliation, he is working on programs and designing initiatives that will help to form, nurture and support transformative leadership for reconciliation teaching, research and partnerships with communities and ministries all over the world.
		Guest Speaker Joining us will be Dr. William T. Cavanaugh,  a professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas (St. Paul, MN) who will be hosting a special conference session to review his most recent book, The Myth of Religious Violence . He is also the author of Torture and Eucharist: Theology, Politics, and the Body of Christ (1998), Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire (2008).
		Guest Emcee Dr. Benefiel is the president for Nazarene Theological Seminary (Kansas City, MO). Trained as a sociologist, he is also an ordained minister who has pastored churches in a variety of urban settings. He is author of A Theology of Place: Ministry in Transitional Communities (1996).

Download the Conference Schedule (PDF)

Lodging in San Diego

We suggest lodging at The Island Palms Hotel on Shelter Island as a daily shuttle to and from the hotel to the university will be provided for your convenience. Please make reservations by clicking on this link www.islandpalms.com or by calling 800-922-2336. You may secure a group rate by referencing Nurturing the Prophetic Imagination or "NPI" for short.


For directions to the university, please visit our directions & maps page.

Need additional help or information? Please contact event coordinator, Edie Chapman, at ediechapman@pointloma.edu or by calling 619-849-2297.

The conference is co-sponsored by the PLNU Wesleyan Center, Center for Justice and Reconciliation, Writer's  Symposium by the Sea, Center for Pastoral Leadership,
and Center for Women's Studies.