Introducing the 2016-17 Seminar Series

Reframing the Gospel for Mission:

Recovering the Prophetic Dimension of Jesus’ Way of Being Human

Now Offered in 8- or 3-Session Options

Registration Information

Until online registration is available, please use this pdf form. Online payment via PayPal is available below, so register in one of two ways: (1) print and fill out the pdf form, scan and email it to Paul Nuechterlein, making payment online; or (2) mail your check for payment with the completed registration to address on form.

Link to .pdf Registration Form

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Basic Seminar Information

This 8- or 3-session series introduces and applies the work of René Girard to gain a better understanding of and engage in central issues of our survival, e.g., racism, economics, and militarism. As Disciples of Jesus, participants will gain a vision for living into the movement of God’s Spirit to bring the day when, instead of laying waste to our cities one more time, we beat swords into plowshares and no longer learn to make war anymore (Isa 6:11; 2:4). (Share with friends through this pdf flyer.)

What: Seminar series in two options: (1) 8 one-day-per-month sessions October-May; (2) 3 1.5-2.5 days session Fall, Winter, Spring -- Varying days and dates per each location

Where*: In the process of being determined

“I’m convinced that the seminal work of René Girard is the single most promising and productive contemporary resource capable of stimulating fresh readings of the Bible, constructive critical thought about Christian theology and practice, and incisive inducement to productive activism.

Paul Nuechterlein has helped me more than anyone else to read the Scriptures in light of Girard’s groundbreaking work. I’d encourage anyone and everyone to seize an opportunity to learn with Paul.”

~ Brian D. McLaren,

Christian author and teacher

Who: Clergy and lay church leaders interested in recovering the prophetic dimension of the Gospel

Tuition: $550 in 2016; or $600 spread over 2016-17 ($100 at time of registration)

Required Reading: Everything Must Change by Brian McLaren, Compassion or Apocalypse? by James Warren, and numerous chapter excerpts and extended outlines from additional MT books.

8-Session Option
This option provides optimal spacing for reading and digesting the seminar concepts and applications

Schedule: Sessions 1 through 3 introduce Mimetic Theory (MT) and its application:

• October - Mimetic Theory 1: Original Goodness  ̶  Created in God’s Image for Compassionate Stewardship
• November - Mimetic Theory 2: Original Sin  ̶  From Mimetic Desire to Mimetic Violence
• December - Mimetic Theory 3: Original Sin  ̶  Cultures of Sacred Violence and the Prophetic Critique of Sacrifice

Sessions 4 & 5 introduce theological topics most pertinent to MT:

• January - MT and Theology: Apocalypse and Eschatology
• February - MT and Theology: The Cross and Atonement — from Retributive Justice to Restorative Justice

Sessions 6 through 8 explore applications of MT to prophetic engagement of our contemporary power structures of racism, economics, and militarism.

• March - MT and the Prophetic: Racism - Engaging Inequity in the Equity System
• April - MT and the Prophetic: Economics - Engaging Scarcity as Sacred Violence in the Prosperity System
  
• May - MT and the Prophetic: Militarism and Policing - Engaging the Sacred Violence in the Security System

3-Session Option
This option is offered for situations of further travel distance for Paul Nuechterlein

Schedule: Same order of topics as above but grouped into 3 seasonal sessions:

• Fall - Introduction to Mimetic Theory in 2.5-Day Session
  
• Winter - Mimetic Theory and Theology in 1.5-Day Session
  
• Spring - Mimetic Theory and the Prophetic in 2.5 Day Session
  

* Outside of southwest Michigan and the Greater Chicago area, if you have ten+ people interested in this series for 2016-17 contact Paul Nuechterlein by email (paulnue56@sbcglobal.net) or phone (269-290-4533) to inquire about scheduling a series. Please note that locations more than a 3-hour drive from Kalamazoo, MI require overnight accommodations and travel expenses. There are also one-day options for 2016-17.

Paul Nuechterlein has been a student of René Girard’s work for over twenty years. He has presented at multiple international conferences of The Colloquium on Violence and Religion, makes Mimetic Theory accessible through his website Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary (girardianlectionary.net), and is currently the Contributing Theologian for Theology and Peace, a para-church organization dedicated to “the application of René Girard’s groundbreaking work to subvert the matrix of human violence.”