The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

What if my presence is dangerous to the well-being of others? Taking agency and responsibility as an act of spirituality and faith maturity.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Emmanuel Y. Lartey, the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Pastoral Theology and Spiritual Care at Candler School of Theology. 

What if face-to-face is not the best kind of teaching?  Constructing community must be intention in any delivery system.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Marcia Riggs (Columbia Theological Seminary). 

In this time of uncertainty and grief, religious leaders need new and old imaginations to unleash the power of liturgy and sermons to heal, comfort, and inspire. What intellectual, spiritual and creative wells can be drawn upon to address the suffering of the people? Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Lisa L. Thompson (Vanderbilt University) and Dr. Richard Voelz (Union Presbyterian Seminary).

How is the pandemic a cause of revelation? Resisting the sink into doom, and rather unveiling opportunities for hope, might be the challenge of the moment. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Tina Pippin (Agnes Scott College). 

The pandemic has caused questions and new curiosities to come alive in this moment. Learning through discovery is of mutual benefit to teacher and learner. Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Mary Hess (Luther Seminary).

Teaching during the pandemic needs deep listening, resistance to expedient actions, and awareness that people are differently vulnerable and differently resourced. Adjusting syllabi might mean asking ,“In what ways does the course content relate to this crisis moment?” Every course will need a different pivot, adjustment, or change.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Joretta Marshall (Brite Divinity School). 

Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Marsha Foster Boyd (Luther Seminary) and Dr. Stephanie Crumpton (McCormick Theological Seminary). Pandemic, crisis, quarantine, homeschooling, working remotely, job loss, grief and sorrow - all experiences of stress, strain and struggle. This conversation will focus upon issues of care for the soul during this time of Covid-19. What practices of self-care are needed in this moment?

We start where we are!  Teach from the disorientation of the pandemic with reliance upon mutuality and interdependence one with another.  Our adult learners share in the suffering, as well, they share in the discovery as we learn together.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Bobbi Patterson (Emory University). 

Conventional and online teaching are two options, and competency based theological education is a third option. Adding competency based theological education is a viable response to the COVID crisis in education.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Kent Anderson (Northwest Baptist Seminary, British Columbia). 

School campuses and classrooms have become ghost towns. What has the pandemic crisis done to all of education.  Crisis is calling us to think creatively about the need for communal epistemologies.  Dr. Nancy Lynne Westfield hosts Dr. Kenneth Ngwa (Drew Theological School).