Theology on Tap Chattanooga

“The Lessons of Weakness: Cultural Humility in Augustine of Hippo” with Rev. Dr. Joseph Sherrard Humility is an ambiguous virtue. We long for it and resist it at the same time. As soon as we think we've got it, it’s slipped through our fingers. It's deeply desirable, but evidently in short supply. Our politics, our cultural discourse, even our theology--very little of it is humble these days, and...

Suffering & Theology in Kendrick Lamar: Grief & Survival Through Hip-Hop In The Spirituals and the Blues, James Cone connects the hopeful power of black church music to “secular spirituals” called the blues. In Cone’s words, both genres are about black survival. In this Theology on Tap lecture, Alex Sosler develops Cone’s thesis from the blues into a theologically-informed read of modern hip-hop w...

At the heart of Christian faith is a shocking claim: God became human and died. It is the story of a man who bore profound humiliation, exposure, and shame, placing God not in sanitized spirituality but in the raw realities of birth, desire, touch, and harm. This evening will explore how Christ's embodied life and death confront our cultural stigmas toward bodily trauma and reveal a salvation that...

In today's landscape of digital interactions, many people long for deeper connections. We have a desire to move from being lonely and disconnected in our relationships to be seen, known, and wholly loved. From friendships to romantic relationships, meaningful and genuine personal connections remain our heart's desire. College chaplain Rev. Erin Moniz is deeply attuned to the questions and concerns...

“The Subversive Prophetic Imagination: How the Arts (and Brueggemann) Can Help Us Navigate the Rise of Christian Nationalism” with Dr. Mary McCampbell Doors 6:30pm, Lecture 7:00pm In these painful, divisive times, it is helpful to trace the reality of prophetic truth from the God-spoken messages of the Old Testament prophets to the subversive works of artists resisting the “empire.” Dr. McCampbell...

Single Christians often encounter the church as a place where marriage and family are lifted up as the main ways to follow Christ faithfully. But there are Bible passages and historical moments that suggest otherwise. In this talk, we'll think through several different ways that Christians in the past have lived out singleness, including being "never married," "dating but not committed," and what...

Do you ever feel like you're alone in your struggles to live out the Christian faith? Do you ever read the Bible yet still wonder what it looks like to follow Jesus in the complexity and difficulty of our time? The stories of great men and women throughout the history of the church can help us form a bridge between the teaching of Scripture and our embodied lives. Come and learn about how the sain...

Have you ever wondered what Jesus would drink? Was his family perhaps involved in growing vines and making wine? What would their family celebrations have been like? And what might this tell us about God and how he wants us to live today? Food and wine have become such hot topics in our culture, and yet there is so much confusion and ambivalence around it as well. We are so far removed from the wo...

"Mystic Faith in Mary Oliver's Poetics & Personal Practices" Mary Oliver once wrote, "Maybe the desire to make something beautiful / is the piece of God that is inside each of us." Though never espousing a Christian faith, Mary Oliver presents nature, the spirit, the body, and the divine in her simple but elegant poetry in terms that evoke the Christian mystic tradition. In our personal experience...

Our journeys of faith often involve the navigation of doubt. In this lecture, Dr. Luke Irwin explores this dynamic through the Gospel of John. There, Jesus famously says to “Doubting Thomas:” “Have you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). This statement from Jesus may make us question whether the “eyes of faith” should rely on vis...

The evening will feature poetry from Nikki Lake, a lecture from Rev. Dr. Zac Settle, and then a conversation between the two moderated by CALEB Faith Caucus leader Christopher Heintz. 00:01 - Opening Intro & Announcements  07:26 - Poetry by Nikki Lake 08:53 - Lecture from  Rev. Dr. Zac Settle 46:19 - Poetry by Nikki Lake 47:21 - Conversation between Christopher Heintz, Nikki Lake, & Zac Settle Lec...

Through Berry’s fiction, poetry, and essays, we see a vision of how the transcendent beauty of creation is known in particularity. For this venerable Kentucky writer, human flourishing is a loving stewardship of people and place, appreciating the spiritual fruit of our embodied existence. Dr. Thomas Pope joined Lee University's political science faculty in 2010, where he teaches courses in politic...

"God and Architecture: How the Built Environment Influences Our Formation" Similar to how a fish is unaware of the influence of water, architecture shapes our lives. Through the grandeur of cathedrals and the brutality of concentration camps remind us of the profound power of the built world, most of our lives unfold in less dramatic settings, where built environments subtly but meaningfully influ...

Our annual partnership with Richmont Graduate University & the Spiritual First Responders Project on the intersection of theology & psychology. The event was titled "An Evening on Trauma, Faith, & Reconstruction" and featured lectures by Dr. Hillary McBride & Dr. Preston Hill. "The Psychology of Faith Reconstruction After Spiritual Trauma" by Dr. Preston Hill  Many people experiencing faith decons...

Our annual partnership with Richmont Graduate University & the Spiritual First Responders Project on the intersection of theology & psychology. The event was titled "An Evening on Trauma, Faith, & Reconstruction" and featured lectures by Dr. Hillary McBride & Dr. Preston Hill. "Growing Ourselves Up: Understanding the Long Term Impact of Spirituality Traumatic Contexts on the Development of Self" b...

Women Who Do: What We Can Learn from Female Disciples in the Gospels When we think of disciples, we often picture the Twelve – the small group of men who followed Jesus throughout his ministry. But Jesus had many disciples, and the gospels are clear that we, as Christians, can learn from all of the people who followed Jesus. In her lecture, Dr. Carey will highlight the importance of female discipl...

"Evangelical Worship: An American Mosaic" with Dr. Melanie Ross 6:30 - Lecture Begins 1:04:30 - Q & A In partnership with UTC - Department of Philosophy & Religion Evangelicalism has undergone seismic and controversial shifts in worship over the last forty years, particularly in the areas of preaching and music. In this talk, liturgical scholar Melanie Ross shares stories from her ethnographic res...

In partnership with Faith Co-Op 5:40 - Lecture • 57:00 - Q&A Learn more about Reformed Theological Seminary - Orlando's Faith, Work, & Culture Graduate Certificate Program "The Trinity & Work: How God's Work Informs Our Work" - How does the work of the triune God inform our work? In 1 Corinthians 12:4-6, Paul provides an illuminating framework for addressing this question. In our various fields of...

Lecture at 5:45 Q & A begins at 42:00 Our spiritual lives are deeply connected to bread―the bread we break with family and friends and the Bread that is Christ’s Body, given and broken for us. Kendall Vanderslice, a professional baker and practical theologian who spends her days elbow-deep in dough, believes that there is no food more spiritually significant than bread―whether eating, baking, shar...

We are living in a world that is sick. Both literally sick, with 60 percent of adults in the US living with a chronic illness and rising rates of autoimmune diseases in particular, including long COVID, and figuratively sick, facing ever increasing rates of burnout, anxiety, and disconnection. As a writer, activist, and theology student, Lyndsey Medford, draws on her experiences with a rare autoim...

"The Trinity & Trauma-Safe Churches" with Dr. Preston Hill Whether we realize it or not, our churches are full of those who have experienced and are living with the aftereffects of horror and trauma, whether as survivors, carers, or perpetrators. The central question of this book is simple: How can our churches become open to the Trinity such that they are trauma-safe environments for everyone? Ho...

The social and political life of the church is in upheaval, as the currents of our polarized culture invade the Christian witness from both within and without. We desperately need a re-centering on the radical work of Jesus, even if this means ceding our securities and curating a holy suspicion of the world's power structures. In this lecture and in his new book, Making Christ Real, Dr. Sam Youngs...

"Space, Sound, & the Body in American Evangelicalism" with Dr. Tucker Adkins Evangelicals are perhaps the most discussed group in American Christianity, but such conversations often revolve around two distinctions: politics and theology. Evangelicals vote this way, and evangelicals believe these things. In this way, we typically cast evangelicalism as longstanding, identifiable sets of ideological...

What if we understood nationalism as a religion instead of an ideology? What if nationalism is more spiritual than it is political? Several Christian thinkers have rightly recognized nationalism as a form of idolatry. In this TOT lecture, David A. Ritchie , author of the book Why Do the Nations Rage?, will argue that nationalism is inherently demonic as well. Through an interdisciplinary analysis...

"Who Will Cast the First Stone: Christianity & the Death Penalty" with Rev. Stacy Rector. Rev. Rector is the Executive Director of Tennesseans For Alternatives to the Death Penalty, an organization working toward the end of the death penalty in Tennessee. She is the Associate Pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville and has served as a spiritual advisor for men on death row. In the lectur...