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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240605T130000
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DTSTAMP:20260211T170542Z
CREATED:20260209T105912Z
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UID:8969-1717592400-1717596000@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church
DESCRIPTION:Poetry has the power to enliven\, challenge\, change\, and enrich our lives. But it can also feel intimidating\, confusing\, or simply “not for us.” In his new book filled with joyful and wise reflections\, Dr. Abram Van Engen shows readers how poetry is for anyone—and how it can reinvigorate their Christian faith. \nIntertwining close readings with personal storytelling\, Dr. Van Engen explained how and why to read poems as a spiritual practice. Far from dry\, academic instruction\, his approach encourages readers to delight in poetry\, even as they come to understand its form. He also opens up the meaning of poetry and parables in Scripture\, revealing the deep connection between literature and theology. \nWord Made Fresh is more than a guide to poetry—it’s an invitation to wonder\, to speak up\, to lament\, to praise. Including dozens of poems from diverse authors\, this book will inspire curious and thoughtful readers to see God and God’s creation in surprising new ways. \nThis event was part of the CLA’s series\, Congregationalism and the Arts\, exploring Congregationalists’ artistic expressions of faith\, past and present. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Abram Van Engen is Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities and chair of the English department at Washington University in St. Louis. His other books include Sympathetic Puritans and City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. Passionate about teaching poetry to a wider audience\, he also co-hosts the podcast Poetry for All with Joanne Diaz and directs the Carver Project\, a Christian nonprofit that aims to connect university\, church\, and society.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/word-made-fresh
LOCATION:Virtual
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240612T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240612T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T184157Z
CREATED:20260209T110140Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T184157Z
UID:8971-1718197200-1718200800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:The Surprising History of a Hymn: “The Little Brown Church in the Vale”
DESCRIPTION:“The Little Brown Church in the Vale” is one of the most famous Congregational hymns\, still celebrated at the church in Nashua\, Iowa that inspired it. Yet the hymn has a surprising history. It began as a love ballad about a lost sweetheart and went on to become a celebrated gospel hymn about the rural roots of America’s greatness. \n\nTitled “The Little Brown Church\,” but sometimes called “The Church in the Wildwood\,” the song’s evolution speaks to the ways in which nostalgia became central to the social and religious imagination of those American Protestants who call themselves “evangelicals.” Though it first appeared in college songbooks after its publication in 1865\, “The Little Brown Church” eventually became a favorite of evangelists\, revivalists\, and other gospel singers at the dawn of the twentieth century. \nFor these new singers\, “The Little Brown Church” spoke to more than just the simple faith they wished to restore. It also illustrated the centrality of white Protestants to the American experience at a moment when the hold these believers had on the nation was beginning to slip. And they would alter both the lyrics and the church’s history to bring the two in line. \nIn this program\, Dr. Christopher Cantwell discussed how the evolution of this hymn not only reveals the ways nostalgia for a bygone era became vital to those who think of themselves as evangelicals in the twentieth century\, but also how evangelicalism itself is something of a historical construction. \nThis event was part of the CLA’s series\, Congregationalism and the Arts\, exploring Congregationalists’ artistic expressions of faith\, past and present. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Christopher D. Cantwell is Assistant Professor of History at Loyola University Chicago. He is a scholar of religion and former museum professional who is interested in the ways that Christianity\, capitalism\, and collective memory form and shape each other. His first book\, titled The Bible Class Teacher: Memory and the Making of Modern charts the origins of America’s white evangelical nostalgia and will be out soon. This project was preceded by an edited collection on the religious life of working-class Christians called The Pew and the Picket Line\, as well as an article on the work of printers at religious publishing houses.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/surprising-history-hymn
LOCATION:Virtual
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240619T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240619T140000
DTSTAMP:20260608T132434Z
CREATED:20260209T110341Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260608T132434Z
UID:8973-1718802000-1718805600@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:A Theology of Brotherhood: The Federal Council of Churches and the Problem of Race
DESCRIPTION:ACCESS VIDEO TRANSCRIPT + RESOURCES \nA Theology of Brotherhood explores how the national umbrella Christian organization\, the Federal Council of Churches\, acted as a crucial conduit and organizational force for the dissemination of “progressive” views on race in the first half of the twentieth century. \nDrawing on years of archival research\, Dr. Curtis J. Evans shows that the Council’s theological approach to race\, and in particular its anti-lynching campaign\, were responsible for meaningful progress on racial issues in some white Protestant churches. The book highlights the contributions that their religious vision made in expanding and propagating a civic nationalist tradition that was grounded in a “universal brotherhood” and belief in the equality of all human beings\, over and against a racial nationalist ideology that conceived of America in ethno-racial terms. \nIn this program\, Dr. Evans focused on the work of Dr. George Edmund Haynes\, an African-American Congregationalist who was the Executive Secretary of the FCC Commission on Church and Race Relations during the 1920s and 1930s. A graduate of Fisk and Yale\, Haynes was one of the first African Americans to receive a PhD from Columbia University. He co-founded and served as the Executive Director of the National Urban League before playing a pivotal role in the Federal Council of Churches. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Curtis J. Evans is Associate Professor of American Religions and the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He is also the author of The Burden of Black Religion.
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/theology-brotherhood
LOCATION:Virtual
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DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240627T130000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240627T140000
DTSTAMP:20260211T170919Z
CREATED:20260209T110547Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260211T170919Z
UID:8978-1719493200-1719496800@congregationallibrary.org
SUMMARY:The Quebec Act at 250
DESCRIPTION:In commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the Quebec Act\, Dr. Brendan McConville explored the significance of the inclusion of the formerly French province into the British North American colonies—and why it made Congregationalists so profoundly uncomfortable. \nIn June 1774\, Parliament incorporated the formerly French province of Quebec into the British Empire. With that move\, the governor and his council at Quebec continued to legislate\, Roman Catholicism could be openly practiced\, and French civil law continued. In addition\, the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers now came under the control of the governor of Quebec. \nWatch the video from this excellent discussion to learn more about how these developments\, occurring a little over a decade following the end of a major war with France\, caused alarm among British North American colonists already unsettled by other acts of Parliament. \nThis program was part of Revolutionary Stories\, New England’s Hidden Histories’ series on the American Revolution and the Congregational experience. \nSPEAKER BIO \nDr. Brendan McConville is Professor of History at Boston University and Director of the David Center for the American Revolution at the American Philosophical Society. His research focuses on the intersection of politics and social developments in Early America. He is the author of These Daring Disturbers of the Public Peace (Cornell\, 1999\, paperback University of Pennsylvania\, 2003)\, The King’s Three Faces: The Rise and Fall of Royal America\, 1688-1776 (OIEAHC-UNC Press\, 2006)\, and The Brethren: A Story of Faith and Conspiracy in Revolutionary America (Harvard\, 2021).
URL:https://congregationallibrary.org/events/quebec-act-250
LOCATION:Virtual
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