Theology on Tap Chattanooga

At the heart of Christian faith is a shocking claim: God became human and died. It is the story of a man who bore profound humiliation, exposure, and shame, placing God not in sanitized spirituality but in the raw realities of birth, desire, touch, and harm. This evening will explore how Christ's embodied life and death confront our cultural stigmas toward bodily trauma and reveal a salvation that reaches into our most fragile places, resurrecting and blessing scars rather than erasing them.

In these painful, divisive times, it is helpful to trace the reality of prophetic truth from the God-spoken messages of the Old Testament prophets to the subversive works of artists resisting the “empire.” Dr. McCampbell will use the framework provided in Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination and examples from the arts to illustrate the power of the age-old fight against cultural Christianity. Artists discussed include Frederick Douglass, Charlotte Brontë, Margaret Atwood, Banksy, Yaa Gyasi, Flannery O’Connor, Sho Baraka, and others.

The stories of great men and women throughout the history of the church can help us form a bridge between the teaching of Scripture and our embodied lives.

Mary Oliver once wrote, "Maybe the desire to make something beautiful / is the piece of God that is inside each of us." Though never espousing a Christian faith, Mary Oliver presents nature, the spirit, the body, and the divine in her simple but elegant poetry in terms that evoke the Christian mystic tradition. In our personal experiences with beauty and creativity, can we, along with Oliver, enter into a fuller appreciation of what the mystics called union with God?

An evening in partnership with Chattanoogans in Action for Love, Equality, and Benevolence (CALEB) featuring a lecture by Rev. Dr. Zac Settles and poetry from Nikki Lake.

"God and Architecture: How the Built Environment Influences Our Formation" Similar to how a fish is unaware of the influence of water, architecture shapes our lives. Though the grandeur of cathedrals and the brutality of concentration camps remind us of the profound power of the built world, most of our lives unfold in less dramatic settings, where built environments subtly but meaningfully influence us. In this lecture, Jon Jon will explore the role of how the influence of physical spaces can be used to make us more like Christ in character and conduct.

Our annual partnership with Richmont Graduate University & the Spiritual First Responders Project on the intersection of theology & psychology. The event was titled "An Evening on Trauma, Faith, & Reconstruction" and featured lectures by Dr. Hillary McBride & Dr. Preston Hill. "Growing Ourselves Up: Understanding the Long Term Impact of Spirituality Traumatic Contexts on the Development of Self" by Dr. Hillary McBride was the first lecture featured in this episode.

Evangelicalism has undergone seismic and controversial shifts in worship over the last forty years, particularly in the areas of preaching and music. In this talk, liturgical scholar Melanie Ross shares stories from her ethnographic research of congregations, discusses trends and shifts she has observed, and offers insights about what churches can learn from each other across lines of differences.

Our spiritual lives are deeply connected to bread―the bread we break with family and friends and the Bread that is Christ’s Body, given and broken for us. Kendall shares how God uses bread throughout the Bible to teach us about his character and provision for us, as well as how the chemistry of breadmaking itself reveals the beauty of our Creator.

Whether we realize it or not, our churches are full of those who have experienced and are living with the aftereffects of horror and trauma, whether as survivors, carers, or perpetrators. The central question of this book is simple: How can our churches become open to the Trinity such that they are trauma-safe environments for everyone?

Discussion of Evangelicalism is everywhere these days but rarely does the discussion go beyond theological beliefs or politics. Dr. Adkins seeks to explore the material and embodied impact of Evangelicalism, particularly its revolutionary impact during the Great Awakening. How can such an exploration of our religious past help understand and better define the current state of Evangelicalism in America?

Rev. Stacy Rector discusses theology, the church, and the social issues around the death penalty here in Tennessee.