2010 Program Schedule

June 13-19

Margaret Edson – Inside Out

Christians are inside-out people. Or, the more we are like Jesus, the more inside-out we are. Some religions, or systems of living, emphasize the inner life. Others give elaborate instructions for good deeds in this needful world. Justification by faith? Or justification by works? Some talk the talk; others walk the walk. At some point, we will outgrow the need for this-or-that. We will live beyond choosing. Our inner life will have perfect outer expression, with nothing lost in translation.

How do we get there? And can we expect any help from Jesus (of all people)? Inside out; upside down; thinking and writing; simplicity and complications; Jesus shoes: what happens when our longings become our walking papers? Maggie will explore four topics: the relation of speech to text; the relation of resolve to action; things that are worth doing badly; and shoe-shopping in Sepphoris with Jesus. This is a week of creating new knowledge. There is no book in the works. Nothing is recycled from last semester. I’ll do the homework; we’ll skip the test; let’s come out different from how we came in. Or rather, let’s mix it all up and end up inside out.

Margaret Edson was born in Washington, DC and between earning degrees in history and literature worked in the cancer and AIDS inpatient unit of a research hospital. Wit, her play, was written in 1991 and received the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1999. The HBO production won the Emmy Award for best film in 2001. Wit has received hundreds of productions in dozens of languages. It is widely used as a teaching tool in settings ranging from high school English to bioethics seminars. Ms. Edson has been an elementary school teacher for seventeen years, in Washington, DC, and Atlanta.

July 11 - 17

Margaret Coel – Arapahos, the Spirituality of a Plains Indian Tribe

Who were the people who once roamed the Great Plains of Wyoming and Colorado and lived on the vast herds of buffalo? Warriors in feathered headdresses riding across the empty spaces are fixed in American iconography by the photos of Edward S. Curtis and the old cowboy and Indian movies, many of which featured actual Arapahos. Today the Arapahos remain a vibrant people with a rich culture and ancient spiritual beliefs. They occupy the nearby Wind River Reservation. They have been sustained by a rich spirituality handed down through the generations.

The week-long session will focus on the way in which Arapaho spirituality is related to the people’s history and to the landscape of the Great Plains, as well as the way in which many Arapahos accept Christian teachings while not abandoning their own ancient beliefs.

Margaret Coel is the author of fifteen books about the Arapaho people, including Chief Left Hand, a history of the tribe and a biography of one of their leaders in the mid-19th century, as their way of life on the Great Plains was coming to an end. Chief Left Hand, published by the University of Oklahoma Press in 1981, was awarded the best non-fiction book of the year by the National Federation of Press Women. Coel is also the New York Times bestselling author of the Wind River mystery novels set among the Arapahos on the Wind River Reservation.

She is a five-time winner of the Colorado Book Award, and her novel, The Spirit Woman, won the Willa (Cather) Award for the best novel of the West. Her short stories and essays have appeared in numerous anthologies. Her most recent novel, The Silent Spirit, will be published in September. She is a fourth-generation Coloradoan with a life-long interest in the history and peoples of the West. This will be Margaret’s second time offering a session at Ring Lake Ranch.

July 18 - 24

Amy Oden -- God’s Welcome, Our Welcome

Jesus said, “I was a stranger, and you welcomed me.” We will focus on the crucial place of strangers—in our communities, in our families, in ourselves, and in God—as sources of grace and renewal. Voices and practices from our ancient Christian family will companion us as we explore welcoming the stranger in our own lives and communities today.

Amy Oden is Professor of History of Christianity at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. Most of her work has been an effort to make ancient voices, especially women’s, accessible to current audiences. Her recent scholarship has focused on the radical practice of hospitality in early Christianity and its challenge for communities today.

July 25 - 31

Steve Tipton – God Goes to Washington -- American Religion and Politics Today

What is the role of religion in American public life? Tocqueville's vivid picture of a "democratic and republican Christianity" revealed Americans’ religion as "the first of their political institutions" in 1830. Is this picture a museum piece in a public square now crowded by religious lobbies and parachurch partisans engaged in culture wars, or is Obama redrawing it in the progressive image of prophetic peace and justice? Let's show and tell, delve into our convictions and doubts, and discover more about how we co-create and contest who we are through body politics.

Steven M. Tipton teaches sociology and religion at Emory University and its Candler School of Theology. He is the author of Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life, and co-author of Habits of the Heart and The Good Society. He has hiked in the Sierras, played semi-professional baseball in California, and worked in Harlem as a murder investigator for the New York State Superior Court.

August 1 - 7

Bishop Will Willimon -- Haunted by God with Flannery O’Connor

Flannery O’Connor’s stories provide some of the most challenging and invigorating explorations of Christian redemption in literature. In this retreat we will read some of her most revealing stories and discuss them, as well as view a couple of films of her work. We will immerse ourselves in her unique vision of Christian redemption and atonement and ponder the implications of her work for contemporary believers.

Will Willimon is a prolific author and preacher. He is Bishop of the United Methodist Church in the North Alabama Conference. His book, Reading with Deeper Eyes is an exploration of the life of fiction and the life of faith. He is speaker at many conferences and has served on the faculties of universities in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and Germany. For twenty years he was Dean of the Chapel at Duke University.

August 8 - 14

Carrie Newcomer -- Before and After: Creatively Exploring Our Transformative Stories

This session explores how our personal stories of hope, struggle, and transformation connect us to the larger spiritual and cultural story.  We will consider the sacred in the ordinary, giving special attention to daily transformations, as well as reflect upon the wisdom and opportunity gained in crisis. We will utilize music, writing exercises, deep listening, and discussion to identify the important stories of our lives and times, and how we as individuals can participate in new stories of hope and possibility.

Carrie Newcomer has been described as “a soaring songstress” by Billboard and “a rising star” by The Wall Street Journal, a “prairie mystic” by the Boston Globe. The Indiana native sings of the small joys and pains in life, emphasizing the little moments that are often taken for granted. Her albums include Regulars & Refugees, The Age of Possibility, The Gathering of Spirits, the Betty’s Diner collection and her last album, The Geography of Light. She toured with Alison Krauss and Union Station in Europe and the U.S. and recorded the title track of her 2002 The Gathering of Spirits album with Krauss.

In 2009 Carrie received Folkwax Artist and Album of the Year, and was featured in the Emmy nominated Wilderness Plots PBS Special. “To my mind - a writer’s mind- Carrie Newcomer is much more than a musician. She’s a poet, storyteller, snake-charmer, good neighbor, friend and lover, minister of the wide-eyed gospel of hope and grace.”- Barbara Kingsolver (Author of The Poisonwood Bible)

August 15 - 21

Jacob Kinnard -- Why Comparing Religions Matters

This session will focus on why it is crucial, especially now, to grapple with religions other than our own. But how do we go about learning another religion without "translating" it into our own.  How do we understand not just what is similar, but also what is different?  Why does attention to difference matter? These are some of the issues we will grapple as we look at four non-Christian traditions:  Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism.

Jacob N. Kinnard teaches courses on the religious traditions of India, comparative religion, and theoretical and methodological issues in the study of religion. He is the author of Imaging Wisdom: Seeing and Knowing in the Art of Indian and The Emergence of Buddhism, and co-editor of Constituting Communities: Theravada Traditions in South and Southeast Asia.

He has published articles on topics in Indian religions in journals such as History of Religions, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, The Eastern Buddhist, and the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, as well as chapters in a wide range of edited volumes and encyclopedias.

August 22 - 28

Ann Brock -- Peter, Paul, and Mary (Magdalene), the Early Years: Three Apostles, Three Spiritualities

Christianity at its best is seen in the lives of believers who emulate the spirituality of the Jesus we know from the Gospels. How is the presentation of Jesus in these writings seen in the legacies of his disciples, especially Peter, Paul and Mary Magdalene? In particular, we will ask: Does Paul’s spirituality stifle or support women? Impetuous, headstrong Peter – particularly in relation to Mary Magdalene -- is portrayed in several ways, so how do these depictions affect Church politics? Finally, Mary Magdalene has been portrayed as everything from repentant sinner, to the first apostle, and even as the wife of Jesus in books such as the Da Vinci Code, but who was she really and what does her spirituality teach us?

Ann Graham Brock is Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Origins at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. Her most recent monograph is entitled: Mary Magdalene, the First Apostle: The Struggle for Authority. She has also co-edited five other books, and had numerous encyclopedia and journal articles published in German, French, and English. Ann has also appeared on the History Channel in its presentation of The Twelve Apostles, the Discovery Channel in The Real Da Vinci Code, and in several British television documentaries.

August 29 - September 4

Rodney Hunter – Searching for Hope

In this retreat, we’ll be searching for a realistic sense of hope for today’s world and for ourselves, rooted in faith. How many times have we asked ourselves in the face of depressing public news or personal crisis, is there any real hope for the future? Or more to the point, how justified and realistic is it to “hope in God” in the face of personal problems, or in relation to the very threatening, urgent, and overwhelming social and environmental dangers now confronting global humanity? Are there compelling grounds for such a hope today?

As one who asks these questions a lot myself, I am looking forward to an open, honest discussion with seminar participants, and to sharing, through informal presentations, some fresh, contemporary theological and psychological angles that offer, I believe, some real help and possibility for us all as we attempt to answer these great questions of everyday life.

Rodney Hunter retired a few years ago from teaching pastoral theology at Emory University, but maintains an active academic and professional life of research, writing, speaking, and consultation. He is the author of numerous academic articles and the editor of two books, including the Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling. He is a dedicated student of classic piano and, with his wife Ann, a long time Ring Lake enthusiast who has also led several previous seminars at the Ranch.

Sept. 4 - 10

Flyfishing and Theology

FAITH  - FELLOWSHIP – FLYFISHING    

Though not a regular seminar session, guests are welcome to register with Fred Webb for the 12th year of this program at Ring Lake Ranch.  (540) 962-1300