Interventions is a space for students, scholars, clergy, and activists to write and collaborate on practical and theological approaches to issues of economy, ecology, religion, and justice.
Power and Privilege: Reclaiming Solidarity for Justice
This forum brings together the voices of Filipe Maia, Aaron Stauffer, and Joerg Rieger to explore the critical intersections of class, power, privilege, and solidarity. This fourm is grounded in Chapter 4 of Rieger’s Theology in the Capitalocene. Through these essays, each contributor uncovers how the confusion between privilege and power sustains systems of exploitation, why solidarity must be rooted in shared material struggles, and how movements can transform through collective action. From dismantling false narratives of unity to envisioning deep solidarity that transcends identity-based divides, this forum offers a path toward reclaiming justice in an unequal world.
The Age of the Capitalocene & the Theological Critique of Idolatry
April 2024
On April 10th at Vanderbilt Divinity School the Wendland-Cook Program welcomed Dr. Jung Mo Sung for a lecture titled, “The Age of the Capitalocene and the Theological Critique of Idolatory,” and featured responses by Dr. Joerg Rieger and Dr. Phillis Sheppard. This forum presents an abbreviated version of Dr. Sung’s lectures and the responses by Dr. Rieger and Dr. Sheppard.
Listening to the Spirit
April 2024
People organize to protect and fight for what they hold sacred. Organizing works by building relational power grounded in values and relationships. Issue wins are vital - building radically democratic power is at the heart of organizing, but the first step to building political and economic power is building radically democratic relationships. Because of the crucial role of sacred value in organizing, some organizing practices are religious practices. These are the central claims of Aaron Stauffer’s new book, Listening to the Spirit: The Radical Social Gospel, Sacred Values, and Broad-based Community Organizing.
Social Gospel in the South
October 2023
This project aims to research the Social Gospel legacy of Vanderbilt Divinity School in the early decades of the twentieth century and to tell that story to a broad audience. Although the Social Gospel movement has attracted growing attention in recent years, the Vanderbilt story is largely unknown and untold. Vanderbilt Divinity’s designation as “school of the prophets” derives from this period, as it was an important intellectual and educational hub.
In this first forum, we turn to historians and labor organizers in order to set the stage for future conversations to come.
Resource Library
Check out our resource library — the sortable one-stop shop for all things Wendland-Cook Program. Here we have all of our Interventions Forums, Statements, Blogs, Webinars, Interviews, Toolkits, and more. Check it out!