In the Friedmann Room of Keefe Campus Center, featuring "Identity Wars: How Diversity in the Church Can Be a Force for Unity, Rather than Division" and question-answer period with Dr. Christena Cleveland. Free and open to all members of the Amherst College community and guests. Dr. Cleveland specializes in divisions in the Christian Church and is the author of Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart (Intervarsity Press, 2013). Dr. Cleveland is currently associate professor of the practice of reconciliation at Duke Divinity School and is researching and writing The Priesthood of the Privileged, which investigates power and inequality in the church, and proposes methods for addressing and reducing inequality as a pathway to reconciliation.
In Disunity in Christ, she examines and offers research-based strategies to overcome the nonconscious cognitive, emotional, and identity processes that pull Christians into homogeneous groups, fuel inaccurate perceptions of culturally-different others, contribute to an “Us vs. Them” mentality, stimulate intergroup prejudice and hostility, and ultimately inhibit reconciliation. See a review: Vineyard Justice Network. The book received the 2013 Leadership Journal Book Award.
Sponsors and participants in Dr. Cleveland’s visit to Amherst College include: Amherst College Office of Religious and Spiritual Life, Multicultural Resource Center, Christian Fellowship, Newman Catholic Club, The Schwemm Fund, Anthropology & Sociology, Black Studies, Hermenia T. Gardner Bi-Semester Christian Worship Series, Student Affairs, and local Christian leaders. Info: Sr. Chris Clark, DHM cclark@amherst.edu