On Tuesday, March 5, 2024, we welcomed Covenant College associate professor of art and art history Elissa Weichbrodt to St. Louis for a lecture entitled: “The Art of Confession: Looking at and Learning from the Art We Don’t Like.” The event was hosted at Grace & Peace Fellowship.

You can watch the lecture here:

On Friday, December 8, we welcomed esteemed poets Marilyn Nelson and Christian Wiman to St. Louis for a conversation on poetry and faith, hosted by Abram Van Engen.

Watch the recording here:

On Friday, October 13, 2023, The Carver Project hosted its inaugural Faculty Forum event, featuring Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the African and African American Studies Department at Washington University in St. Louis. The conversation was moderated by TCP Executive Director Abram Van Engen. The event was graciously hosted by the Church of St. Michael & St. George in Clayton, MO.

The Carver Project’s Newbigin Fellows program joins with the Cordell Institute for Policy in Medicine & Law to welcome three members of the inaugural Newbigin class for a discussion on medicine and faith. Lydia Dugdale (Columbia University School of Medicine), Andrea Leep Hunderfund (Mayo Clinic) and Jennifer Frey (University of Tulsa) comprise a panel moderated by Carver Project founder John Inazu.

TCC 2023: GRACE & TRUTH IN THE DIGITAL MEDIA AGE

Christine Emba, Columnist for The Washington Post specializing in ideas and society

David French, Opinion writer for The New York Times

Nona Jones, Author and global thought-leader at the intersection of faith, technology and identity

Moderated by Carver Project Faculty Fellow Peter Boumgarden

Reclaiming Relationship across University, Church, and Society

Featuring Andy Crouch, John Inazu, Tish Harrison Warren, and Michael Wear

June 9, 2022
7:00

The Gathering Church 2360 McCausland, St. Louis, MO

Click here for full video of the event!

TCC 2022: Citizens & Sojourners

A Conversation with Esau McCaulley, Beth Moore, and Andrew Peterson

MODERATED BY TCP FACULTY FELLOW ABRAM VAN ENGEN

Click here for the video of the full event!

Continue exploring what it means to be sojourners and citizens with our references for discussion and reflection.

Friday, March 25, 2022 at 7:00 p.m.

THIRD BAPTIST CHURCH
ST. LOUIS, MO

How do we think of restoring relationships not only between individuals but also within and among the institutions where we live, work, play, and worship? What does it mean for a church, business, university, or culture to pursue repentance and reconciliation? What do forgiveness and justice look like at these broader levels, and what are their limits, challenges, and possibilities?

Panelists:

• Rachael Denhollander

• Dominique Gilliard

• Penina Laker (TCP Faculty Fellow)

Moderated by TCP Faculty Fellow Heidi Kolk

Thank you for joining The Carver Project for a special screening of the new documentary For Love of Neighbor followed by a dialogue with attorney and activist Justin Giboney and Washington University Professor John Inazu.

FEBRUARY 11, 2021 FROM 7-9PM CENTRAL TIME

Justin Giboney is an Atlanta-based attorney who cofounded the AND Campaign. He is the coauthor (with Michael Wear and Chris Butler) of Compassion (&) Conviction: The AND Campaign's Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement.

John Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion at Washington University in St. Louis and the Executive Director of The Carver Project.

Virtual Forum: Healthcare, Coronavirus, and the Church

The coronavirus has presented an immense challenge to our medical and public health institutions. Not only has it revealed inequity and other failures in our healthcare system, it has also revealed deep seated problems in how we understand medicine, suffering, and illness. Where medicine reaches the limits of its power, faith communities often try to attend to the patient’s deeper needs. But what do we do when medical responses to the pandemic prevent meaningful spiritual care? How should the medical and the spiritual frameworks interact? Join us for a panel discussion with Elizabeth Dias (New York Times), Ryan Antiel (Washington University – St. Louis), and Daniel Hall (University of Pittsburgh) to discuss the answers to these questions.  

This event is co-sponsored by The Carver Project and The Theology, Medicine, and Culture Initiative at Duke Divinity School.

DATES, TIMES, & LOCATION

• Friday, Sep. 25 | noon – 1 p.m.

• This group will meet virtually via Zoom (please register below).

  • https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_L967QfVbSqOIXyEd7WHt-A

• Open to all.

• Please visit this page to understand the steps we’re taking to keep the Anselm House community safe during COVID.

More About Our Panelists

 Elizabeth Dias is National Faith and Values Correspondent at The New York Times. She has an undergraduate degree in theology from Wheaton College and a Master’s in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary. In recent years, she has won the American Academy of Religion’s top prize for the best in-depth reporting on religion, and the Renner Award for Excellence in Enterprise Reporting in Religion. For a recent example of Dias’s reporting on religion and coronavirus, click here. 

Ryan Antiel, MD, MSME is a pediatric surgery fellow at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His scholarship focuses on improving the lives of children and families confronted with difficult decisions such as surgical decision-making in the face of uncertainty and end-of-life issues. He has published widely in journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, and Pediatrics.  Dr. Antiel earned his medical degree from Mayo Medical School and completed his general surgery training at Mayo. He also completed a post-doctoral fellowship in advanced medical ethics in the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

Daniel Hall (MD, MDiv, MHSc) is Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and Core Investigator at the VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion. Dr. Hall is a general surgeon with training in both moral philosophy and theology, and is interested in the ethics of surgery. Dr. Hall earned degrees in medicine and theology from Yale University before completing his surgical training at the University of Pittsburgh. He is also an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church with interests in the theology of medicine.

Christian Pluralism: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference with John Inazu, Trillia Newbell, & Michael Wear

On Friday, June 12, 2020 The Trinity Forum along with The Carver Project welcomed John Inazu, Trillia Newbell, and Michael Wear to discuss a robust vision for Christian pluralism.

The painting is Newburyport Meadows by Martin Johnson Heade, 1881

John Inazu Website—https://www.jinazu.com/

Trillia Newbell Website—http://www.trillianewbell.com/

Michael Wear Website—http://michaelwear.com/

Uncommon Ground—https://www.thomasnelson.com/p/uncomm...

Trinity Forum Report on Pluralism—https://www.ttf.org/reports (Made possible by a grant from the Democracy Fund)

Trinity Forum Readings City of God, by Augustine—https://www.ttf.org/product/city-of-god/

Democracy in America, by Tocqueville—https://www.ttf.org/product/democracy...

Long Walk to Freedom, by Mandela—https://www.ttf.org/product/long-walk...

Trinity Forum Curriculum on The Great Experiment: https://www.ttf.org/product/the-great...

Compassion (&) Conviction, The AND Campaign’s Guide to Faithful Civic Engagement—https://www.amazon.com/Compassion-Con...

Our society is more divided than ever. How can believers respectfully engage with others while staying true to the Gospel?

In 2016, Tim Keller and John Inazu posed that exact question in a thought-provoking article that laid the foundation for their book Uncommon Ground: Living Faithfully in a World of Difference (Thomas Nelson, 2020). Now they are partnering once more with Christianity Today to equip believers to walk in humility, patience, and tolerance as they engage with those whose beliefs are radically different from their own.

12 respected Christian thought-leaders, including Keller and Inazu, shared their powerful stories and perspectives on the most divisive issues of our day, including race, politics, peace-making, and so much more. The goal was to learn how to embrace the hope and confidence in the gospel while loving your neighbor in this anxious age.

More About the Featured Contributors:

• Tim Keller, founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City

• John Inazu, professor of law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri

• Tish Harrison Warren, writer, essayist, and Anglican priest at Church of the Ascension in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• Lecrae, recording artist, songwriter, and record producer

• Sara Groves, singer and songwriter

• Trillia Newbell, director of community outreach for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention

• Claude Richard Alexander Jr, senior pastor of The Park Church in Charlotte, North Carolina

• Kristen Deede Johnson, professor of theology and Christian formation at Western Theological Seminary

• Tom Lin, president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship

• Shirley V. Hoogstra, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities

• Rudy Carrasco, program officer for the Murdock Charitable Trust and past board member of the Christian Community Development
  Association.

• Warren Kinghorn, professor of psychiatry and theology at Duke University

• John Hendrix (moderator), author/illustrator of children’s books and professor of art at Washington University in St. Louis

Guest speaker Tim O’Malley, professor of theology at Notre Dame, gave a talk on the wounds of modern-day hookup culture. His lecture offered insight into how God’s plan for love serves as the antidote, teaching about the reality of love in a way that challenges us to recommit, renew, and reconceive our relationships with loved ones and with God.

This event was cosponsored by the Carver Project and the Washington University Catholic Student Center.

On November 4th, the Carver Project hosted public dialogue between author Jemar Tisby and John Inazu on Tisby’s acclaimed book The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism. Tisby’s book reveals the chilling connection between the church and racism throughout American history. A survey of the ways Christians of the past have reinforced theories of racial superiority and inferiority provides motivation for a series of bold actions Tisby asserts believers must take to forge a future of equity and justice.

Tisby serves as president of The Witness, a Black Christian Collective. He is also the co-host of the Pass The Mic podcast. He is currently completing his dissertation as part of the PhD program in history at the University of Mississippi. Prior to graduate school, Tisby served for seven years as a teacher and then principal of at KIPP Delta College Preparatory School.

Inazu is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law and Religion and holds a joint appointment in the Washington University School of Law and the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics. Professor Inazu’s scholarship focuses on the First Amendment freedoms of speech, assembly, and religion, and related questions of legal and political theory.

The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics was a cosponsor of this program presented by The Carver Project.

Photography by Kelly Park.

Carver Conversation 2019, featuring Sho Baraka, Mako Fujimura, and Sara Groves.

Moderated by John Hendrix.

On March 29, 2019, The Carver Project co-hosted with Grace & Peace Fellowship a dialogue with Dr. Nathan Hatch. Dr. Hatch is the President of Wake Forest University and serves on The Carver Project’s academic advisory council. He is also an alumnus of Washington University and a founding member of Grace & Peace.

Dr. Hatch was interviewed by The Carver Project’s managing director, Dr. Shelley Milligan, and faculty fellow Dr. Mark Valeri, the Reverend Priscilla Wood Neaves Distinguished Professor of Religion and Politics at Washington University.

TCP Faculty Fellows Abram Van Engen and John Inazu participated in a public dialogue hosted by the Study Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.  Van Engen based his remarks on his recent article, “Fear, Anger, and Finding Another Way,” and Inazu offered reflections on his article, “Why I’m Still Confident About Confident Pluralism.”  The audience included faculty and students from Duke and UNC, as well as members of the community.

On November 7th, The Carver Project welcomed Kristina Arriaga of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.  At a morning breakfast, John Inazu interviewed Commissioner Arriaga about her role in negotiations for the release of Andrew Brunson from imprisonment in Turkey.  In the afternoon, Inazu and Arriaga joined Judge Lech Garlicki, formerly a member of the European Court of Human Rights, for a discussion on international religious freedom at Washington University’s School of Law. The event was co-hosted by The Carver Project, Christian Legal Fellowship, and the Jewish Law Society. 

The calling of Christians is to be shaped and reshaped into people whose every thought and action is characterized by faith, hope, and love—and who then speak and act in the world with humility, patience, and tolerance.  How can Christians pursue this calling in a fractured age driven by fear, isolation, and selfishness?  In what ways are Christians themselves responsible for past and present shortcomings?  What are the greatest challenges and opportunities?  And how might we find common ground with others even if we can’t agree on a common good?

Featuring Tim Keller, LeCrae and John Inazu.  Moderated by Kirsten Powers.

The Carver Project hosted Andy Crouch at our law student reading group.  Andy dialogued with students about the legal profession, calling, and power, drawing from his books, Playing God and Strong and Weak.