The word “formation” is more than just Episcopal jargon for Sunday School or Christian Education. When we come together in community to study, pray, and discuss the ways of God, we are shaped and reshaped by new ideas and the perspectives of others. Sometimes we get a glimpse of God and of who God calls us to be.
Formation suggests development, and even a sense of structure … but structure, like a cloud formation, evolves, grows, and shifts. Come be formed and re-formed, and possibly even made new.
Oct. 25
Christian Nationalism
Professor John Kaltner
This session will explore the presence of Christian Nationalism in modern American society, with a focus on how those who espouse it often misuse the Bible to justify their views and actions. We will consider several recent examples of how Christian Nationalists have coopted the biblical text to support their positions on some of the most hotly debated social issues of our time.
John Kaltner is the Virginia Ballou McGehee Chair of Muslim-Christian Relations at Rhodes College, where he has taught since 1996. His main area of training and research is in biblical studies, with a particular interest in the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an. His books include Ishmael Instructs Isaac: An Introduction to the Qur’an for Bible Readers (1999), Islam: What Non-Muslims Should Know (2016), and The Bible and the Qur’an: Biblical Figures in the Islamic Tradition (2018, coauthored with Younus Mirza).
