Engaging Christianities and Socialisms
Engaging Christianities and Socialisms is an exciting new partnership between The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice at Vanderbilt Divinity School and the Institute for Christian Socialism. Together, we are convening a cadre of thinkers, organizers, and working people to reflect on which forms of socialism, past and present, might be advanced by Christians today and how the power to realize them might be organized.
This series of webinars will be paired with an Interventions forum of the same title. Combing webinar and written material is a unique chance for our audience to engage deeply in pressing matters of economic, political, and theological urgency, for example:
How do commitments to socialism change understandings and expressions of Christianity, and how do commitments to Christianity shape understandings and expressions of socialism?
What forms of Christian identity are ruled out of bounds, especially considering the role of racism, hetero-sexism, ethno-nationalism, and related forms of supremacy in undermining the potential collective power of working people?
What we hope will result are critical and constructive conversations among prominent theologians, ethicists, public intellectuals, and movement organizers about the relationship between multiple Christianities and socialisms.
Watch the Webinar Series Here
What Have Christianity And
Socialism To Do With Each Other?
March 8 at 7:30pm CST
As conservative efforts have moved the public image of Christianity to the right, it is time to reclaim alternatives. While for many older Americans “socialism” is still a bad word, younger generations tend to be curious about the complex histories of socialist movements in the United States and globally. Hosted by the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice and the Institute for Christian Socialism, this first webinar in the Engaging Christianities and Socialisms series seeks to address these concerns and to set the stage for the coming three webinars by bringing together prominent thinkers who have long explored alternative images of Christianity on the left. Featuring Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Joerg Rieger, Cornel West, and moderated by Angela Cowser, this webinar will investigate the history and future of Christian Socialisms that are deeply democratic, intersectional, and praxis oriented. Participants will discover that not all kinds of socialism are equal, and neither are all kinds of Christianity.
How Can Christian Socialists
Build Deeper Solidarities?
April 12 at 7:00pm CST
The history of Christian socialisms is more diverse and intersectional than is broadly known. Since at least the nineteenth century, Christian socialists have been part of the labor movement, the Black freedom movement, the Women’s movement, the environmentalist movement, and Queer rights movements. Today, Christian Socialists are once again reclaiming this intersectional history in order to reinvigorate the best of various radical Christian Socialist traditions.
Featuring Tim Eberhart, Obery Hendricks, Sarah Ngu, Jeremy Posadas, and moderated by Joshua Davis this webinar explores how deep solidarities and intersectional analysis can deepen the theological, economic, and political resources for Christian socialisms today.
What Is To Be Done?
May 17 at 7:00pm CST
Christian Socialisms today have to be active and engaged. For too long, the majority of Christian denominations have produced modes of theology, economics, and politics that fail to contest dominant flows of power and to promote the formation of religious, economic, and political democracies.
This final webinar in the Engaging Christianities and Socialism series, sponsored by the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice and the Institute for Christian Socialism, will counter these trends by facing the challenges of our time head on: How can Christian socialists today join all working people to build religious, economic, and political democracies, and what are the unique strengths that Christian socialists might bring to these action-oriented movements? Bringing together world-renowned scholars and organizers, this final panel will equip and educate participants in how they can join up with specific movements for change and take action.