Skip to main content

‘public theology’

Public theology fellow leaves legacy of community building and support

Dec. 20, 2021—The Rev. Teresa L. Smallwood, who helped launch Vanderbilt’s Public Theology and Racial Justice Collaborative as associate director in 2017, is moving to Pennsylvania’s United Lutheran Seminary in January. Over Smallwood’s four years at Vanderbilt Divinity School, the Collaborative has hosted nearly 30 workshops and more than 20 fellows and scholars to advance racial justice...

Read more


READ THIS BOOK: November 2017

Nov. 13, 2017—The question of the “other” is a recurring one. Many scholarly volumes wrestle with this inquiry: who is the other? Toni Morrison enters the discourse with a decidedly reflective view of her own work alongside a plethora of writers who have produced both fictional and scholarly, literary and scientific contributions. Morrison’s particular reference to “origin”...

Read more


The Danger of American Civil Religion

Nov. 1, 2016—The 2016 presidential election carries with it the enormous gravity of deciding not only who will be the next President of the United States—and, by extension, the leader of the free world—but also of determining if this culturally-constructed public theology that is manifested in the legacy of American Civil Religion (ACR) will undergo a desperately needed reformation. The...

Read more