ESR Talks

In this episode Matt and I meet with ESR’s dean, Jay Marshall, to talk with a group of students who are a part of a first cohort in an 18-month certificate program in entrepreneurial ministry. These students have met together first in a retreat setting with one of the instructors, Samir Selmanovic (wisdomworkroom.com). Samir will also be teaching a fall semester course on Spirituality and the Entrepreneur. The course the students are just completing during the two-week August intensive is Creating Your Ministry Canvas with Rebecca Jestice, Associate Professor of Global Management at Earlham College. We will be hearing from four of the 11 students in the program, some ESR graduates and some current ESR students. Of the former are Adriana and Summer; of the latter group are Jaimie and Andy. We recorded our conversation on August 11th, 2017.

In this episode Matt and I talk with Stephen Angell, Geraldine Leatherock Professor of Quaker Studies at ESR since 2001. Steve is a graduate of ESR earning an M.A. in 1982. He went to further graduate work at Vanderbilt and completed his Ph.D. in 1988. Steve has worked with a British Quaker scholar, Ben Pink Dandelion, to edit several volumes including the Oxford Handbook of Quaker Studies in 2013 and Early Quakers and their Theological Thought, 1647-1723 published in 2015. Steve has been active in Quaker monthly meetings, yearly meetings, and in Quaker Organizations like Friends General Conference and Friends Association for Higher Education. We recorded our conversation on May 15th 2017.

In this episode Matt and I talk with Stephanie Crumley-Effinger, Director of Supervised Ministry at ESR. Stephanie is both a graduate of Earlham College earning a B.A. in 1977 and of Earlham School of Religion with an M.Div. in 1981. Stephanie has worked in campus ministry for two Quaker colleges, Wilmington College and Earlham College. She has been working at ESR since 2000 directing field education for M.Div. students. We recorded this conversation on May 10th, 2017.

In this episode Matt and I talk with Jim Higginbotham, Associate Professor of Pastoral Care at ESR. Jim earned an M.Div. from Vanderbilt Divinity School in 1983, an M.S. from Loyola College of Maryland in 1990, and his Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University in 2005. Jim has been on the faculty of ESR since 2005 and teaches courses related to pastoral care. You can engage with Jim through his Academia.edu and LinkedIn pages. Our conversation took place on May 1st, 2017 in the Barclay Center of ESR.

In this episode Matt and I talk with Lonnie Valentine, Trueblood Chair of Christian Thought. Lonnie graduated from ESR in 1983, went on to Emory University earning a Ph.D. in 1989, after which he returned to teach at ESR. Lonnie primarily teaches courses in the area of peace and justice studies. We recorded the podcast on April 20th, 2017 in Teague Library, the former office of D. Elton Trueblood, because of Lonnie’s connections with Trueblood. Lonnie also brought other items that represented his own formation and what influenced him and can be seen in the picture on the podcast home page at esrtalks.esr.earlham.edu.

In episode eight Matt and I talk with Phil Baisley, Professor of Pastoral Studies at ESR since 1999. In addition to earning his M.Div. degree at ESR in 1993, Phil has also gone on to graduate in 2009 from Ashland Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry degree. Because of Phil’s connections with interacting with people at coffee shops and pubs including performing original songs as half of the duo of Somebody’s Brothers, we met Phil at a local coffee shop called Roscoe’s on April 12th 2017.

In episode seven we talk with Miriam Bunner and Julie Dishman. Miriam is the assistant to the dean, Jay Marshall, who is currently on a six-month sabbatical and soon to return. Julie is ESR’s receptionist and secretary to Matt in Admissions and to the teaching faculty. We learn about what brought them to work at Earlham, something about the work they do here, and about some of their personal interests. We met to talk on March 20th, 2017, a stormy spring morning with some thunder in the background.

In episode six we talk with Nancy Bowen, Professor of Old Testament at ESR. As a scholar of the Hebrew Bible with a Ph.D. from Princeton University and as a trained and experienced minister within the United Methodist Church with a Masters of Divinity from Claremont School of Theology, Nancy has been teaching at ESR since 1991. Her recent publications include a commentary on Ezekiel for the Old Testament Commentaries series and a forthcoming commentary on the Wisdom of Solomon for Liturgical Press in the Wisdom Commentary Series. It happened that we scheduled Nancy to talk with us on International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2017.

In episode five Matt and I talk with Ben Brazil, Assistant Professor and Director of the Ministry of Writing Program at ESR. In spite of my memory lapse in this conversation, Ben started at ESR in 2013. As he tells us, his education began at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he majored in Journalism and Latin American Studies. He earned a Masters of Theological Studies at Candler School of Theology at Emory University in 2005. He completed his doctoral program at Emory University in American Religious Culture in 2015. He has written extensively about the theology of travel, and has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. You can find recently published essays online: “Indiana Winter, Take One” from November 2015 in Topology Magazine and from January 2016, “On Nostalgia, Myth, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” in the web magazine Sacred Matters.

In episode four Matt and I interview our colleagues Eric Chisholm and April Vanlonden. Eric is the Business Manager at ESR and is an assistant coach of the Earlham College men’s basketball team. April is the Director of Academic Services for ESR and for our sister seminary, Bethany Theological Seminary.