This short course is designed to further enrich biblical interpretation skills — specifically the work of engaging difficult texts — and bring that learning into how women as leaders address equally challenging modern contexts.
In the synchronous online sessions, participants will come together to study a series of biblical passages that many refer to as “difficult” or “troubling” texts for their depiction of sexual violence or oppression. With the instructor, they will discuss why these passages trouble us now, how they have been read by various communities in the past, and what broader relevance these ancient texts might have to our own confrontations with the ongoing forms of violence and inequity we witness, face, and work to resist in the present. Together they will also consider the substantive challenges of engaging these texts in congregational or educational settings, and how to do so without reinscribing the traumas and harms they narrate.
Following the synchronous sessions, participants will be given access to pre-recorded conversations between our biblical expert and subject matter experts from fields outside of traditional theological education where they explore how church leaders can address individual experiences of trauma or harassment, and how congregations can best support and respond.
DATES
The three teaching sessions will take place September 10, 17, and 24, 2024.
Each session will run from 12 to 1:30 PM ET.
COST
$299
Don’t let money be a hurdle to participation! Scholarships are available upon request. Email ironsharpeningiron@ptsem.edu
ASHLEIGH ELSER, PhD, is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Saint Louis University in the Department of Theological Studies. She is currently working on two manuscripts: one on the reception of conflicts between biblical narrators in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and another on the reception history of the Bible’s ravens. Before coming to SLU, she taught courses on the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the history of biblical interpretation at Hampden-Sydney College, Valparaiso University, and the University of Virginia.
CONVERSATION PARTNERS
A unique aspect of this course is that all participants will have access to asynchronous sessions featuring conversations with subject matter experts from different disciplines, discerning together how to think constructively about how women—and women in leadership roles specifically—can engage modern trauma.
REV. DR. KIMBERLY WAGNER
The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner serves as the Assistant Professor of Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary. Though she has served among the Lutherans and was educated among United Methodists, Dr. Wagner is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Previous experience on the pastoral staff of a PCUSA congregation in Virginia helps fuel and inform her present scholarship and teaching. She is passionate about helping clergy and communities navigate the realities of an ever-changing world and church. Her current writing and work focus on preaching and ministry in the midst and wake of trauma, particularly thinking about collective trauma, the role of the preacher, and the resources of our Scriptures and faith to respond to these moments.
MARISOL SOLARTE-ERLACHER
Marisol Solarte-Erlacher, M.A., LPC is an award-winning trauma expert, keynote speaker and corporate consultant. She is also the creator and host of the podcast Resilience and Resistance, which features successful Black, Indigenous, and Women of Color who have overcome trauma and become resilient. The Resilience and Resistance Podcast was a finalist for the Colorado Podcast Awards for Best New Podcast.
Marisol started her work as a psychotherapist providing bilingual and culturally-resonant services to the Latine/x community. She has spearheaded research on ethnic and ego identity among Latinx adolescents, and she has presented locally and nationally. A leader in her field, Marisol was a clinical supervisor for Master of Counseling students at the University of Colorado at Denver, and continues to coach therapists whose work focuses on trauma and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapies.
CHERYL D. MILLER
Cheryl Miller is an author, consultant, and trainer and owns Quantum Circles Consulting and Training. Her newest book, Enough Silence, Creating Sacred Space for Survivors of Sexual Assault through Restorative Justice.
She provides training on topics that increase opportunities for transformation in three areas: economic development for the marginalized, effective communication focusing on the facilitation of conflict, and restorative justice. Cheryl has been a volunteer mediator for sixteen years and has over a thousand hours of experience of mediation with victims of violent crimes and their offenders. Cheryl was the Executive Director of a housing program in Victoria, TX, for eighteen years. The typical population of the home is women with long-term substance abuse, ex-offenders, and women in the sex industry. Cheryl could relate to some of the women’s experiences after being a single mom on welfare with premature twins. Cheryl used the principles in this book to create an empowerment support model for women at the home. Cheryl lives in Victoria, Texas, with her husband and chickens and travels as often as possible to see her grown children and grandchildren. .
