faculty news & notes |

good reads

Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Simon & Schuster (2014); Kimberly Garza: The Last Karankawas, Henry Holt and Co. (2022); Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, Jason Stanford, Forget the Alamo: The Rise and Fall of an American Myth, Penguin Books (2022)

In 2015, after I moved to Texas, I hoped to learn more about this state. However, family demands and a global pandemic have left me little opportunity to explore. Thank goodness for books. This year, I’ve taken myself on a Texas book tour. Here are three highlights, for those who might want to join my journey.

Set in contemporary El Paso, Benjamin Alire Saenz’s young adult, LGBTQIA coming-of-age story, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, follows two teenaged, middle-class Latinos as they muse about life, about what it means to be Latino, about fitting in with other kids, and, of course, about parents and their hopes and dreams. The novel gently takes the reader into the boys’ adventures with grace and good humor. And while some harrowing events take place (spoiler alert) nobody dies, and the novel ends with joy and love.

Kimberly Garza sets the story of The Last Karankawas on Galveston Island in the years leading up to Hurricane Ike. The novel highlights the lives of Filipino, Latino, and Vietnamese families on the Texas coast, relating their loves and their hurts even as the storm bears down. Survival and determination mark these lives, even as those who live by the coast maintain a determination to survive.

Like Magdalena, these characters live with the power of nature, the reality that the sea will take the island algún día, someday … but not today. Exploring San Antonio’s most famous mission and battleground led me to Forget the Alamo by Bryan Burrough, Chris Tomlinson, and Jason Stanford. This rollicking non-fiction history explains Texian history under Mexico. However, its strength lies in the authors’ exploration of the growth of the “Alamo myth” through the influence of such disparate figures as the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, Walt Disney, John Wayne, and Phil Collins. The history is so engaging that my now fourth-grader insists that I read it to him at bedtime.

Books like these encourage me to consider not only what our faith says, but what it says in this particular place and time. They encourage me to listen to the stories of those who have lived on this land—life-long Texans and immigrants alike—and to connect their stories to the story of faith that we share, a story in which we are just a small part of God’s much grander narrative. What are your favorite Texas reads? How do these help you to think theologically about God’s word to this particular place in this season?

Reviewed by Margaret Aymer, Academic Dean and The First Presbyterian Church, Shreveport, D. Thomason Professor in New Testament Studies

faculty notes

Sarah Allen (advanced studies) was the worship leader for a Grace Presbytery clergywomen’s cohort retreat in November.

Patricia Bonilla (Christian education) led worship and participated in active listening sessions with pastoral leaders at “Entre Nos: A Hispanic/Latino Pastoral Gathering.” Hosted by The National Plan for Hispanic/Latino Ministry of the United Methodist Church, the gathering in Phoenix, Arizona, Oct. 30-Nov. 2, is the first of its kind. Mindful of their Hispanic/Latino constituency and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic that disproportionately impacted communities of color, participants discussed issues such as how clergy serving these communities experience burnout, exhaustion, and loss. They also considered denominational schism and how the disaffiliation of congregations has further strained communities of color.

In June, Jennifer Lord (homiletics) was an invited Consultant for the Calvin Institute for Worship in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She preached and gave the Lupberger Lectures at St. Charles Avenue Presbyterian Church in New Orleans in November. She will serve the next four years as the Worship Consultant for Worshiping with Children: Imagining and Imaging God at Phillips Seminary and as a homiletics team member for The Faithful Preaching Project (see story above). She is preparing to lead a Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trip for Austin Seminary students in summer, 2024.

This fall Melissa Wiginton (Methodist Studies) taught Sunday school at University United Methodist Church, Austin; facilitated the onboarding of the new Capital District superintendent of the Rio Texas Conference; and co-facilitated a cohort of United Methodist Clergy for the Texas Methodist Foundation and a day of reflection and visioning for the Conference Leadership Team of the Texas Conference of the UMC.

Austin Seminary receives $1.2 million grant to strengthen preaching

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary received a grant of $1,248,603 from Lilly Endowment Inc. to help establish The Faithful Preaching Project, a new initiative designed to help preachers of small mainline congregations instill deeper faith in their listeners and empower them to live out their faith more fully in worship and in the community beyond their church walls. The Reverend Dr. Carolyn Helsel, Associate Professor in the Blair R. Monie Distinguished Chair in Homiletics, wrote the grant and is charged with designing and administering the program.

The program is funded through Lilly Endowment’s Compelling Preaching Initiative. The aim of the initiative is to foster and support preaching that inspires, encourages, and guides people to come to know and love God and to live out their Christian faith more fully.

“The goal of the Faithful Preaching Project will be to identify what makes sermons faith-full and faith-inspiring, and then to coach preachers on how they can infuse their own preaching with those skills,” says Professor Helsel. “When I taught lay preachers in our Certificate in Ministry program last spring, I was struck by how the students’ sermons so powerfully demonstrated and communicated a deep faith. My hope is to help more preachers cultivate a preaching life that fosters faith in listeners.” The project is guided by three goals aimed at strengthening preaching skills for clergy and lay preachers:

• Coach preachers and lay proclaimers of small mainline congregations to inspire listeners to know and love God and live out their Christian faith in the world.

• Equip preachers to empower their congregants to create worship liturgies and testify to God’s love so all members practice being proclaimers.

• Train preachers to communicate faith-instilling messages to reach outside the walls of the church and engage the community beyond their congregation. The project’s main activities include coaching preachers, hosting cohorts of preachers, hosting preaching workshops, and creating a worship camp for worship leaders and pastors to come together and consider creative ways to reimagine faithful worship.

Lilly Endowment launched the Compelling Preaching Initiative in 2022 because of its interest in supporting projects that help to nurture the religious lives of individuals and families and foster the growth and vitality of Christian congregations in the United States. Austin Seminary is one of eighty-one organizations receiving grants through this competitive round of the Compelling Preaching Initiative. Reflecting the diversity of Christianity in the United States, the organizations are affiliated with mainline Protestant, evangelical, Catholic, Orthodox, Anabaptist, and Pentecostal faith communities.

Dr. Helsel is the author of Anxious to Talk About It: Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully About Race, and Preaching about Racism: A Guide for Faith Leaders. Together, both books earned the 2018 Book(s) of the Year Award from the Association of Parish Clergy. Dr. Helsel served on the editorial board for the commentary series Connections, published by Westminster John Knox Press, and contributed nine essays across the volumes. She authored, with Y. Joy Harris-Smith, The A.B.C.’s of Diversity: Helping Kids Embrace Our Differences (Chalice Press, 2020). She and faculty colleague Song-Mi Suzie Park published The Flawed Family of God: Stories about the Imperfect Families in Genesis (Westminster John Knox, 2021). Dr. Helsel is ordained to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). She currently administers one grant related to anisemitism and another designed to equip theological schools and students with tools to equip them for changemaking in their communities.