The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

Marcia Y. Riggs, PhD is the J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics and Ombudsperson at Columbia Theological Seminary. In this Silhouette Podcast Interview, Riggs discusses wanting to be an artist who made statements with her art, the inspiration of Bell Hooks' "Teaching  Community: A Pedagogy of Hope," reinventing oneself in the classroom, the value of a position to help manage conflict, the superpower of seeing pattern and connection, and the importance of confronting violence rather than ignoring it as well as believing in the inherent goodness of people. 

Dwight M. Hopkins, PhD is the Alexander Campbell Professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School. In this interview, Hopkins discusses his desire to be a writer as early as kindergarten, the freedom of the teaching life, the superpower of cross-cultural engagement, and the miracle of helping students realize that they much more than they think they are. 

Steed Davidson, Ph.D is Dean of the Faculty and Vice President of Academic Affairs and is Professor of Hebrew Bible / Old Testament at McCormick Theological Seminary. In this Silhouette Interview, Davidson discusses his childhood desire to be a meteorologist and the pride of his family in his profession. Also: surprise at the difficulty of the teaching life with its constant attention, the superpower of mediation and the "Sense of We," surviving violences by writing and community, and the miracle of igniting students' curiosity. 

Lisa L. Thompson, Ph.D is Associate Professor and the Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair of Black Homiletics and Liturgics, Homiletics and Liturgics at Vanderbilt University Divinity School. Thompson discusses the childhood dream of being an OBGYN, rejecting the false dichotomy between scholarship and teaching, and the ways in which faculty can be punished for being good teachers.  Also: the superpowers of intuition and the facilitation of creativity, community as the key to surviving violence, the miracle of helping people own their voices, and cultivating institutions that facilitate creativity. 

Peter T. Cha, PhD is Professor of Church, Culture and Society at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Cha discusses his childhood desire to be an architect and how that love of design informs his teaching and class creation. He also talks about the demands of institutional citizenship, the superpower of distillation, and the joy of the 'aha' moments.

Rolf Jacobson is Professor of Old Testament and the Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology, and Ministry at Luther Seminary. 

In this Silhouette Interview, Jacobson discusses early thoughts of a career in finance, bafflement at the pace of technological and societal change, being a musician, dogged persistence of his students and colleagues in a world filled with violence, as well as the superpower of sarcasm--one of the gifts of the spirit Paul didn't get a chance to enumerate!