Theology and Peace -- Home

The World Café: Positive Change Through Conversations Without Winners or Losers. Joel Nau. Explore the World Café as a model for organizations to move beyond conflict to inclusive conversations which generate ideas for action.

The Eucharist as Making Peace: Atonement and Thanksgiving. Revs. Bradley C. Dyche, Tom Nicoll. This workshop will address how our various prayers and practices for Holly Communion do and do not create a group unity based on the positive mimesis of Jesus and his last meal.

It’s Not All About Fun, Justice, Nonviolence, or the Hokey Pokey, So What Is It About? Josh Kaufman-Horner. In recognition that the call to follow Jesus is not primarily a pursuit of the cultural idols of fun, secular “justice”, or nonviolence this workshop seeks to recover Jesus’ teaching on the more subversive missions of his followers.

Mimesis, Superheroes and the Gospel. Susan Wright. Engaging comics as a powerful mimetic medium for subverting American militarism: reading together the Gospel's transformation of the highly influential superhero genre as it molds not only the hearts and minds of the next generation, but ours as well.

Contemplative Prayer: Abiding in the Presence of Christ. Abbott Andrew Marr. An introduction to contemplative prayer as a means of grounding ourselves in God's desire and strengthening us to resist human mimetic desires that pull away from God's desire.

William Law and the Essence of Desire. Wendall Holmes, Anthony Bartlett. Introducing the writings of the 18th century English mystic: desire as the heart of nature, its character also as wrath or violence, the nonviolence of God, and the restoration of all desire through return to its ground in God.

Swimming Against the Stream: Welcoming the Despised. (Mimesis & CoSA) Melanie Weaver. Will explore the implications of mimetic theory in the intentional modeling of community-building behaviour, in the context of Circles of Support and Accountability through which people who have offended sexually achieve safe and successful reintegration in the community after serving lengthy prison sentences.

The Experience of Forgiveness: exploring what it means to live as forgiven people. Scott Hutchinson. We'll get in touch with the power of God's radical grace, which opens closed futures, heals wounds, enlivens relationships, and builds community.

Developing and Preaching a Systematic Gospel Using Mimetic Theory. Michael Hardin. Will look at a number of ways the mimetic theory can be a tool combined with other resources (historical-critical, literary, rhetorical) useful for preaching

Christ the Photon of Compassion, the Subversive Sign of the Time. Tony Cicariello, Heather Scanlon. A discussion of Virtually Christian by Anthony Bartlett, a book that helps us see, recognize and experience Christ at work in the depths of our contemporary human condition (available through www.amazon.com).

Teaching the Bible and Nonviolence to Children.
Adam Ericksen, The Raven Foundation We will explore ways to teach childhood bible stories, that are often quite violent, in a way that fosters peace and nonviolence.