Threads of History: Exploring Culture and Faith

Three stories of inter-faith: Tales of African Spirituality, presented by Dr. Stephanie Y. Mitchem

Sunday October 4, 3:30

St. Timothy Methodist Church, Brevard

Prof. Mitchum’s research began with questions about Black spirituality. She has traveled widely, understanding that to understand African spirituality needed to develop a new appreciation of the dimensions of interfaith interaction. In the process, she developed a new appreciation of how it is impossible to understand spirituality without understanding other faiths that have impacted African and undoubtedly other religions. She also has come to understand how this process continues to our age. In this talk she will delve into three interfaith stories from the continent of Africa that are centuries old. Yet speak to us today.

Stephanie Y. Mitchem, (Ph. D. Northwestern University) is Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina (Columbia, SC). She uses an interdisciplinary lens (theology, history, womanist ethics, feminist studies, cultural studies, anthropology, ethnography) to study the religious and social lives of African Americans and Africans in the Diaspora; women, gender, and justice; and issues of human rights. Her books Mitchem’s books include Introduction to Religions of the African Diaspora; Race, Religion and Politics: Towards Human Rights in the US; Introducing Womanist Theology; and African American Folk Healing

Sunday, February 15 at 3:30

Sacred Heart Catholic Church

150 Brian Berg Drive, Brevard, NC

Beyond The Rainbow Bridge: Animals as Religious Subjects in Christianity and Buddhism:

Are animals worthy of religious recognition? This talk will consider how Christianity and Buddhism ritualize animals through blessings, funerals, and life releases. Examining creation theology versus karmic rebirth reveals how each tradition includes animals as ritual subjects while maintaining distinct boundaries between human and nonhuman beings. Barbara R. Ambros is Professor of East Asian Religions at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her research on Japanese religions focuses on gender studies, human-animal relationships, and place and space. Her publications include Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan (2012) and Animals and Religion (2024, co-edited), among others.

Dr. Barbara Ambrose

is a professor of East Asian Religions in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where her research on Japanese religions focuses on gender studies, human–animal relationships, and place and space. She has published widely in leading journals and is the author of several books, including Women in Japanese Religions (2015), Bones of Contention: Animals and Religion in Contemporary Japan (2012), Emplacing a Pilgrimage (2008), and Le donne nell’ordine monastico buddhista (2019). Ambros has held major leadership roles in the American Academy of Religion and the Society for the Study of Japanese Religions, and has received fellowships from organizations such as the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Humanities Center. Prior to joining UNC, she taught at Columbia University and International Christian University. She earned her PhD and MA from Harvard University and an MA from Columbia University.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse