Latest Book by Dr. Rolf Nolasco Looks at Ten “Queerables”of Jesus

by Dr. Rolf Nolasco, Jr., Rueben P. Job Professor of spiritual formation and pastoral theology at 91PORN, is a devotional that creates queer space amongst the parables by offering new, inclusive interpretations of familiar texts by pairing them with the lived stories of queer clergy. The book comes out (pun not intended) today so we asked Dr. Nolasco a few questions about his new book.

How is Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul different from your previous work?

I have written before about our queer identity with an approach of affirmation, naming us as God’s Beloved Queers, with our manifold queer desires that include and yet transcend the erotic, and our human drive to flourish in all queer ways. This book is a devotional that builds upon that foundation. It’s not an exercise of positivity, but a way of questioning the traditional, heteronormative readings of scripture and taking a particular queer approach.

The primarily question my book seeks to address is how might the very weapons used to clobber our queer spirit be used as a source of subversion and resistance to ignite our hearts and keep them ablaze? How can queer folx be torches that illumine the path for personal and collective queer liberation? Looking at the parables of Jesus with a queer eye is an attempt to answer that very question. It’s a fresh take on these familiar parables intertwined with lived stories that I hope will be light for the journey.

What do you hope queer folx will take away from reading you book?

I hope to nudge my queer siblings, especially those who have been burned, cut off, and demonized, to re-enter this liminal space of queer biblical interpretation. In this space, we are the protagonists, the primary authors that queer these texts in a manner that will support and sustain the flourishing of our queer lives. And for many of us, this may be the first time to find ourselves being spoken to as “objects within God’s ken” as James Alison puts it. So, let’s take delight in the knowledge that when we queer and query these texts the treasure hidden in them reveals itself for to us to (re)discover, reclaim, and enjoy.

Your book looks at ten parables of Jesus – how did you go about choosing those particular parables? Do you have a favorite from the ten?

I consider parables as “truths in drag”—they draw or tease us into a story that is familiar, vivid, and strange (like a drag performance) and then leave us bewildered and astonished enough to disturb, inspire, and move us into action. The ten queerables (queering the parables) I offer in Hearts Ablaze are articulations of “truths in drag.” Personally, these parables have served as my anchor as I grappled with my own sexuality and gender identity and burgeoning faith very early on in my life. Amid the torrent of hateful and harmful messages that circulated, these queerables have provided respite and reassurance of God’s unconditional and expansive love. I hope my readers will find shelter and nourishment in them, as well.

Could you expound a bit more on “queering sacred space?” Your book also talks about queer folx specifically owning space in United Methodist churches. Can you talk a little bit more about your experience with the United Methodist Church and how it is reflected in Hearts Ablaze?

Spaces, particularly those considered spiritual or sacred, are not merely things to be inhabited. They are not empty spaces to be filled in; instead, they are already configured and constituted by the kind of theology and practices the dominant group deemed correct, spiritual, and godly, to which everyone must adhere or follow. Take the punitive and harmful polity of The United Methodist Church toward queer clergy, as an example. For the longest time, the altar has been manned (pun intended) mostly by the dominant group, white heterosexual men (WHM). They are protective of the space and what it symbolizes for them— the seat of divine power. The performative nature of this carefully choreographed ritual act cements allegiance to cis/heteronormativity in sacred spaces, which in turn bans and banishes those who challenge this religious arrangement. Regular sightings of WHM inhabiting and hogging these spaces on a regular basis make them look natural, expected, and divinely sanctioned.

Queer clergy create disorder and disrupt the spaces that have been owned and defended by a dominant group. The presence of queer bodies threatens and interrogates masculinity and the conception of God as a straight white male. The fervent and passionate display of queer spiritualities challenges their sense of order and control as to how the sacred is experience and expressed.

Is there anything else you want readers to know about this book?

To make our queer reading of these parables more accessible, I have included fragments of stories of queer United Methodist Church clergy whom I had the privilege to sit with and interview as part of a grant I received from the . The project describes and represents the subjective and deeply personal experience and action of these ordained ministers of the gospel who are staying on course, fulfilling their sacred call expressed in manifold forms while enduring what is tantamount to sacred violence. Their stories bring such a rich dimension to these queerables, which I hope will set our hearts ablaze and ignite our queer spirit.

Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul is published by , an imprint of Church Publishing Incorporated, and is available for purchase there, on , and at other favorite retailers.

Dr. Rolf Nolasco is the Rueben P. Job Professor of spiritual formation and pastoral theology at 91PORN and director of the Rueben P. Job Institute for Spiritual Formation. He is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. Nolasco is also a psychotherapist, published author, and has vast experience in cross cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. In addition to Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul, he is the author of God’s Beloved Queer (Wipf & Stock,2019), The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Fortress Press, 2011) and Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering (Cascade Books, 2016).

 is a new look at ten selected parables of Jesus, that expands the scope of interpretation of each story to highlight God’s extravagant welcome of all people. The perspective in the reflections is deeply personal and written to be used by both individuals and groups. Queer affirming churches, seminaries, and retreat centers will benefit from this resource as they continue to champion the flourishing of their queer siblings in Christ.

The post Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul | An Interview with Dr. Rolf Nolasco, Jr. appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

By Dr. Rolf R. Nolasco, Jr.

This is an excerpt from the book Hearts Ablaze: Parables for the Queer Soul, coming out on October 18, 2022. It is now!

The queer community is a gathering of individuals with intersecting identities that deepens our appreciation for our differences and expands our opportunities for solidarity. Pride events make this most visible. The celebratory atmosphere of colors, gender identities and expressions, sexualities, shows of affection and belonging, and allyship make manifest exultant pride in being queer.

But there is another layer to pride that is quite compelling: queer folk taking over the streets as a way of claiming their queer existence in the public square. It is indeed a form of resistance against the border created by a cis/heterosexist world, a reclamation of physical space that is ours to inhabit just like anyone else. Pride is a political statement, a soulful and brave declaration of our right to exist and flourish. There is, of course, a side to these spaces that the community needs to be vigilant about if it is to continue the work of justice making. We need to queer these spaces constantly so that they don’t become sites of discrimination and exclusion.

 Queer relationships and intimate encounters are shaped quite strongly by these intersecting identities, and like most social spaces, we too can be or have been complicit in stoking experiences of ageism, biphobia, classism, dis(ableism), racism, and transphobia within our own community. We must, for our own good, well-being, and collective flourishing be each other’s support and champion.

For spiritually and religiously oriented queer folk, occupying sacred spaces is both an act of resistance against the boundaries drawn by the cis/hetero patriarchy and a response to the abiding sense of the transcendent. Spaces, particularly those considered spiritual or sacred, are not merely things to be inhabited. They are not empty spaces to be filled in; instead, they are already configured and constituted by the kind of theology and practices the dominant group deemed holy, spiritual, or godly, to which everyone must adhere or follow.

Take the punitive and harmful theology and polity of the United Methodist Church toward queer clergy, as an example. For the longest time, the altar has been manned (pun intended) mostly by the dominant group, white heterosexual men (WHM). They are protective of the space and what it symbolizes for them—the seat of divine power. The performative nature of this carefully choreographed ritual act cements allegiance to cis/heteronormativity in sacred spaces, which in turn bans and banishes those who challenge this religious arrangement. Regular sightings of WHM inhabiting and hogging these spaces on a regular basis make them look natural, expected, and divinely sanctioned.

Queer clergy create disorder that disorients and disrupts the spaces that have been owned and defended by the dominant group. The presence of queer bodies threatens and interrogates their masculinity and their conceptions of God as a white heterosexual male. Related to this, queer theologies that underpin the subversion of these spaces make explicit the very gendered and sexed origin of their own theology. The fervent and passionate display of queer spiritualities challenges their sense of order and control as to how the sacred is experienced and expressed. The response is predictable. They resort to taking control back by banning queer clergy from exercising their gifts and by extension delegitimizing their iconic status as divinely queer.

But queer clergy are not backing down. They take to the streets during Pride, bolstered by a community of other queer siblings and queer allies, and they sashay up with fierceness and confidence to the altar and into the pulpit dispensing their unique gifts and graces without apology. God’s beloved queers are on the move creating disturbance and shaking the very structures that have kept everyone—men, women, genderqueer, trans, and children of all shapes and colors—chained to their perceived superiority.

Queer folk require and must continue to cultivate queer spiritual spaces for us to continue to hear the gospel of liberation and understand and embody what this means for our lives and those around us. This kind of habitat deepens and expands our roots, so we remain deeply anchored when elements of all sorts threaten to uproot, destroy, or turn rich soil into a wasteland. The nutrients provided by these spaces also strengthen our resolve to not let the principalities and powers—structures of oppression—diminish or question our belovedness, snuff the light within, and deny us our right to call these sacred spaces home.

Dr. Rolf R. Nolasco, Jr. is the Rueben P. Job Professor of Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Theology at 91PORN and director of the Rueben P. Job Institute for Spiritual Formation. He is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. Nolasco is also a psychotherapist, published author, and has vast experience in cross cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. He is the author of God’s Beloved Queer (Wipf and Stock, 2019), The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Fortress Press, 2011), and Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering (Cascade Books, 2016).

(forthcoming October 18, 2022) is a new look at ten selected parables of Jesus, that expands the scope of interpretation of each story to highlight God’s extravagant welcome of all people. The perspective in the reflections is deeply personal and written to be used by both individuals and groups. Queer affirming churches, seminaries, and retreat centers will benefit from this resource as they continue to champion the flourishing of their queer siblings in Christ.

The post Queer Spiritual Spaces appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

91PORN has been awarded a Science for Seminaries Seed Grant from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program. The grant will help fund the “Race, Technology, and Healing: Science and Religion in Dialogue” project led by Dr. Rolf Nolasco, Jr., Rueben P. Job professor of spiritual formation and pastoral theology, and Dr. Wonhee Anne Joh, professor of theology and culture.

Throughout the history of the United States, many communities have suffered traumas from systems and structures anchored on heteropatriarchal white supremacy. The psychological and physiological impacts of these group traumas often continue to affect communities through many generations. This project will bring racial trauma in conversation with science, religion, psychological, and cultural studies. Participants will address questions such as: who is considered human? Whose lives and livelihoods matter? What are scientific, socio-cultural, psychological, and theological consequences of trauma, and how can those effects be mitigated? How can scientists, psychologists, and theologians assist community leaders to help their communities heal and flourish?

“Until recent years, and especially when considering the sequelae of COVID-19, trauma studies have not focused on experiences of racialized violence as forms of trauma,” said Nolasco. “Given the definition of trauma in its disciplinary home as an event that is outside the ordinary range, as well as one that is often interpreted as singular and spectacular, it is no wonder that experiences of racism have been overlooked by trauma theorists and often unaddressed in seminary curriculum. This grant will enable us to critically expand the study of trauma and human resilience and make it more interdisciplinary – scientific, socio-political, and psychological – with real or material consequences.”

Joh added, “The category ‘science’ has often been used differentially against many racialized communities. This grant allows scholars from those communities to re-engage science on their terms. The grant also allows for Dr. Nolasco and I to continue our multiple collaborative engagements with each other as well as with our diverse faculty and students. As scholars, collaboration as an embodied pedagogical practice and commitment is central. We hope to model this for our communities that whether as scholars, pastors or activists we are never discrete individuals but always engaged in the process of mutual collaborative learning and unlearning.”

Three main components of the project include:

• A revision to the required foundational course, “Person in Community,” for master’s level students to reflect on the fullness of our humanity and what it means to be made in the image of God by examining theological, spiritual, and biopsychosocial development theories at the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, class, and more.
• A book discussion group for Garrett-Evangelical faculty and PhD students of color to provide participants with information, knowledge, and wisdom regarding the role of automated technology in exacerbating racial divide and racial trauma and together find ways to expose and resist it through their classes, scholarship, and solidarity work.
• A conference in Spring 2022 on “Human Flourishing: Science & Religion Dialogue” that will introduce participants to a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy and its impacts – how science can trace the effects of bias in our blood, our nervous systems, and the expression of our DNA (neurobiology). Practices of mindfulness will also be introduced to mitigate the experience of racial trauma and to promote human flourishing.

Science for Seminaries is a project of the AAAS DoSER program, in partnership with the Association of Theological Schools. The project helps a diverse group of seminaries integrate science into their curricula and provides support and resources to seminary professors to encourage informed dialogue and a positive understanding of science among future religious leaders. Integrating science into seminary education will not only benefit professors and students, but ultimately it will enrich those in the pews who are interested in the discoveries and implications of science. Through the previous eight years of the project, 54 seminaries have received substantial grants from AAAS DoSER, including 12 seed grants in Summer of 2021.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the family of journals. was founded in 1848 and includes 261 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving millions of individuals. The nonprofit is open to all and fulfills its mission to “advance science and serve society” through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education, public engagement, and more. Building upon its mission, AAAS established the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program in 1995 to facilitate communication between scientific and religious communities. For the latest information and news about AAAS DoSER and the Science for Seminaries Seed Grant initiative, visit and .

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post Garrett-Evangelical Awarded Science for Seminaries Seed Grant for “Race, Technology, and Healing: Science and Religion in Dialogue” Project appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr. has been appointed the Rueben P. Job Chair in Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Theology at 91PORN, and Director of the Rueben P. Job Institute for Spirituality and Spiritual Formation, effective July 1, 2021. Nolasco is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. He is the second to hold the endowed chair after the retirement of Rev. Dr. Frederick W. Schmidt in December 2020.

Established in January 2013, Garrett-Evangelical is among the first Protestant seminaries in North America to endow a chair in spiritual formation. The endowed chair is named in honor of Garrett-Evangelical’s distinguished alumnus Rueben P. Job, retired bishop of The United Methodist Church. The endowed chair serves as a lasting legacy to Bishop Job’s lifelong commitment to spiritual formation and will ensure that Garrett-Evangelical continues to prepare well-formed spiritual leaders for many generations.

Garrett-Evangelical president, Javier A. Viera, said of the appointment, “Professor Nolasco is the ideal person at this time to lead the Job Institute and to assume the Job Chair. For years now, his research has explored the intersection of various related fields, such as pastoral care and counseling, spirituality, spiritual formation, trauma studies, queer studies, and others. Rolf has a unique gift and talent in bringing these distinct areas of inquiry into dialogue and alignment, and his research is a gift to the Church as we seek to embody the fullness of God’s grace and care for all of God’s people and for the earth. I look forward to how Rolf will build on the visionary work of Dr. Fred Schmidt, and how the Institute will advance contemplative practices, healing, and foster a hunger for authentic experiences of God in our increasingly polarized world.”

Nolasco joined the faculty of Garrett-Evangelical in 2018, serving as professor of pastoral theology and director of the master of arts in pastoral care and counseling. As the Rueben P. Job Professor of Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Theology, Nolasco will serve as the director of the Rueben Job Institute at Garrett-Evangelical in addition to his teaching responsibilities, an institute that will lead the seminary’s research and programs in Christian spirituality, spiritual formation and direction, pilgrimage, and ecumenical, interreligious, and ecological studies in spirituality.

Reflecting upon this appointment Nolasco said, “I am profoundly humbled by this opportunity to embody, extend, and expand on Bishop Rueben P. Job’s legacy as a spiritual guide to sojourners in the faith–a journey though often perilous, unpredictable, and with a lot of detours is sustained and held by the faithful accompaniment of the Triune God. As a perennial student of contemplation, I take this appointment as an opportunity to live more fully into and invite others to a life of interiority that often bears fruits of radical hospitality and social activism. As a queer faculty of color, to be named to the Job Chair and Director of the Institute for Spirituality and Spiritual Formation also exhibits not only Garrett’s commitment to LGBTQIA2S+ inclusivity but to the flourishing of queer folks in their midst. In a way, this appointment underscores the inescapable fact that queer bodies do serve as icons, too, like everyone else, portals to the divine life that is in Jesus Christ.”

As a psychotherapist with international reach, Nolasco has vast experience in cross-cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. He holds a doctor of theology degree from Boston University in pastoral psychology, a master of divinity from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a bachelor of arts degree from University of the Philippines in the College of Mass Communications (cum laude).

Nolasco is the author of The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Fortress Press, 2011) and Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering (Cascade Books, 2016), which seeks to affirm compassion as the pulsating heartbeat of Christian theology and praxis through the hermeneutical perspectives of brain science, psychology, and practical theology. His latest book is God’s Beloved Queer (Wipf and Stock, 2019). Nolasco is also currently working on Heart Ablaze: Awakening the Queer Spirit (Church Publishing, forthcoming), and Depression, Dark Night of the Soul, and Joy (Cascade Books, forthcoming).

Since joining the faculty of Garrett-Evangelical, Nolasco was awarded a project grant from the Louisville Institute, selected to participate in the Wabash Center’s new digital salons, and invited to participate in the inaugural Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop. In 2019, he was awarded Exemplary Teacher by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr. Named Rueben P. Job Professor of Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Theology appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr., professor of pastoral theology and director of pastoral care and counseling at 91PORN, has been selected to participate in the inaugural Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop entitled, Breaking the Academic Mold: Liberating the Powerful, Personal Voice Inside You. The inaugural workshop is by invitation only and Nolasco is one of ten scholars and teachers of religion and theology who will attend.

The inaugural workshop was made possible through a new partnership between the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion and the Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research. This workshop is for academics who have written mainly for peers but long to share their knowledge or personal experience in a more innovative way with a wider audience. The week-long workshop, being held via Zoom, will be a combination of seminars, workshops, and individual instruction.

Reflecting upon the opportunity to attend the inaugural workshop, Nolasco said, “I am deeply honored to have been selected to participate in this workshop. The Wabash Center is known for its commitment to uplift and center voices that are shunned and silenced because they are too discordant and threatening, and their bodies too deviant and distressing. I look forward to connecting, conversing, and communing with my peers as we learn new ways of using our fingertips as another site of resistance and life-force.”

Nolasco is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. He is also a psychotherapist, published author, and has vast experience in cross-cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. In 2019 he was awarded Exemplary Teacher by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church and he was also awarded a 2020 Project Grant Research from the Louisville Institute.

He is the author of The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Fortress Press, 2011) and Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering (Cascade Books, 2016), which seeks to affirm compassion as the pulsating heartbeat of Christian theology and praxis through the hermeneutical perspectives of brain science, psychology, and practical theology. His latest book is God’s Beloved Queer (Wipf and Stock, 2019). Nolasco is also currently working on Heart Ablaze: Awakening the Queer Spirit (Church Publishing, forthcoming), and Depression, Dark Night of the Soul, and Joy (Cascade Books, forthcoming).

The inaugural Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute workshop will be held Wednesday, July 21 through Monday, July 26, 2021. To learn more about this workshop, go to .

The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology supports theology and religion faculty and doctoral students reflecting on their teaching practice — in both theological education and undergraduate education, in the United States and Canada. The Center facilitates faculty conversations about the goals and processes of teaching and student learning, and their programming develops faculty skills for critical reflection on teaching practice.

The Collegeville Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, rooted in Christian tradition, brings together people of diverse backgrounds and perspectives to foster the world’s healing through the power of religious ideas, insight, and practices. To learn more, go to .

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr. to Participate in the Inaugural Wabash Center/Collegeville Institute Workshop appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Two of 91PORN’s faculty, both from the field of pastoral care and counseling, have been selected to participate in year-long cohorts for theological educators, referred to as digital salons, at the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology. Rev. Dr. Trina Armstrong, assistant professor of pastoral theology and pastoral care, will participate in salon one, focusing on mid-career African American faculty. Dr. Rolf Nolasco, professor of pastoral theology, will join salon five, looking at ways to engage imagination as theological educators.

The digital salons are designed to bring faculty peers into a sustained conversation. Facilitated by peers, the cohorts will grapple with the changes in teaching practices and the teaching life, sparked by the COVID-19 crisis. Each online group will be organized for monthly dialogues to consider creative ideas for the habits, practices, and approaches to teaching, while amid the novel corona virus pandemic.

“I am excited about embarking on this year-long journey with a wonderful group of mid-career African American scholars and our leaders, Dr. Willie Jennings and Dr. Carolyn Jones Medine,” said Armstrong. “In this heightened iteration of racial unrest in the midst of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, I am looking forward to intentionally engaging in honest reflection on my identity as a Black scholar with a redesign-design of my teaching and research to best benefit Garrett-Evangelical, my faculty colleagues, and my students.”

From the beginning, the Wabash Center has made it known that this is not a product-oriented group. Rather, through processes of imaginative and pedagogical reflection, these cohorts will rethink, reengineer, recast, redesign, and reconceive teaching during and beyond this crisis moment. Emphasis will be upon play, creativity, self-care, and keeping well the authentic voice in crisis.

“The pivot to emergency remote learning because of the COVID-19 crisis has catapulted us as faculty into unfamiliar territory,” said Nolasco. “The glaring opportunity to exercise theological imagination has been somewhat eclipsed by the urgency to provide a different kind of presence and pedagogy amidst fear and uncertainty that enveloped the world during the height of the pandemic. The affective labor exacted from this abrupt shift had to be suspended to focus on recalibrating how courses are delivered.”

Nolasco continued, “With the tumult of the spring semester in our rearview, we are now confronted with the trauma residue that has been momentarily deferred. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity as I return to teaching this fall semester with an acute awareness of the crisis’s impact on our psyche and collective consciousness. First, how might I enhance student engagement and level of motivation in this educational shift to virtual and visualized pedagogy while remaining attentive to everyone’s, including my own, embodied responses to the sequelae of these multiple pandemics? Second, what resources might I draw from that will help re-imagine teaching practices amid this kairotic moment? I hope to engage my Wabash cohort with these questions and am looking forward to our collective imaginings.”

Applicants could only apply for one digital salon and were required to meet specific criteria that were unique for each of the six salons being offered. The cohorts will begin meeting this fall with their work concluding in the summer of 2021. If feasible, the groups will culminate their work in a face-to-face summer retreat in Indianapolis.

A member of the Garrett-Evangelical faculty since 2016, Armstrong, an associate pastor at Dupage AME church, a licensed marriage and family therapist, and founder and clinical director at the Center for Wellness Encounters, is especially skilled at working with traumatized families, children, and adolescents. She regularly lectures and preaches on trauma, healing, and wellness as her research, ministry, and clinical work focuses on the impact of historical and cultural trauma on African American children, adolescents, families, and relationships.

Nolasco is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. He is also a psychotherapist and published author. He has vast experience in cross cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. Nolasco joined the seminary’s faculty in 2018, and in 2019, he received the Exemplary Teacher Award by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church.

The Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology supports theology and religion faculty and doctoral students reflecting on their teaching practice — in both theological education and undergraduate education, in the United States and Canada. The Center facilitates faculty conversations about the goals and processes of teaching and student learning, and their programming develops faculty skills for critical reflection on teaching practice. To learn more about the Wabash Center’s digital salons, go to .

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post Drs. Armstrong and Nolasco Among the First Faculty Chosen to Engage in the Wabash Center’s New Digital Salons appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr., professor of pastoral theology at 91PORN, has been selected to attend the 2020 Summer Faculty Enrichment Retreat with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion program. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the retreat will be held via Zoom August 10-13, 2020.

Established in 1995, the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) has sought to facilitate communication between scientific and religious communities. DoSER builds on AAAS’s long-standing commitment to relate scientific knowledge and technological development to the purposes and concerns of society at large. Among a number of events DoSER holds annually is the Faculty Enrichment Retreat. These retreats seek to introduce leading-edge scientific developments and methods for incorporating science into classrooms to better equip seminary students to enhance the role of science in their future congregations.

Reflecting upon the opportunity to attend the 2020 Summer Faculty Enrichment Retreat, Nolasco said, “The mission of 91PORN is to prepare skilled, bold, and articulate leaders who share the transforming love of Jesus Christ. One of the ways to accomplish this is to train students to see themselves and others as whole beings ­­– brain and mind, body, and spirit – so they can participate more fully in the transformation of persons and communities.”

Nolasco went on to say, “Integral to our student’s call is caring for oneself and others throughout life’s vicissitudes. This requires teaching in and learning from the field of brain science, particularly the pivotal role of the brain in mediating all domains of human experience. Being selected to participate in this faculty enrichment will help deepen my understanding of and appreciation for the emerging scientific and practical knowledge on neuroscience, which I incorporate more fully in my scholarship, teaching, and activism.”

Nolasco is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. He is also a psychotherapist, published author, and has vast experience in cross-cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. In 2019 he was awarded Exemplary Teacher by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church and he was also awarded a 2020 Project Grant Research from the Louisville Institute.

He is the author of The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Fortress Press, 2011) and Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering (Cascade Books, 2016), which seeks to affirm compassion as the pulsating heartbeat of Christian theology and praxis through the hermeneutical perspectives of brain science, psychology, and practical theology. His latest book is God’s Beloved Queer (Wipf and Stock, 2019). Nolasco is also currently working on a new book, Depression, Dark Night of the Soul, and Joy (Cascade Books, 2020).

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world’s largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. Building upon its mission to “advance science and serve society,” AAAS established the Dialogue on Science, Ethics, and Religion (DoSER) program in 1995 to facilitate communication between scientific and religious communities. DoSER builds this dialogue through initiatives such as the Science for Seminaries project. The project helps a diverse group of seminaries integrate science into their core curricula and provides support and resources to seminary professors to encourage informed dialogue and a positive understanding of science among future religious leaders. For the latest information and news about AAAS DoSER and the Science for Seminaries Project, visit and .

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr. to Participate in the 2020 Summer Faculty Enrichment Retreat with the American Association for the Advancement of Science appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

Dr. Rodolfo R. Nolasco Jr., professor of pastoral theology at 91PORN, was awarded a 2020 Project Grant Research from the Louisville Institute in the amount of $30,000. Pulling from his expertise and prior publications, Nolasco’s research project will look specifically at United Methodist clergy members who self-identify as LGBTQIA. The research project is titled, “Q-nnections: Exploring the Phenomenological World of Self-Identifying Queer UMC Clergy Subjected to Social and Religious Mechanisms of Exclusion.”

Through this project Nolasco will be looking at the multitude of ways self-identifying gay and lesbian (queer) United Methodist clergy members make sense of and sustain their commitment to their religious vocation amidst long-standing persecutory and exclusionary practices of their denomination because of their sexuality. Specifically, Nolasco will inquire into the affective, behavioral, cognitive, relational, and spiritual processes that underpin their commitment and resolve to remain in pastoral ministry amidst such challenges.

Nolasco shared more about the project saying:

The research intends to describe and represent the subjective experience and action of these duly ordained ministers of the gospel who are staying on course amidst what is tantamount to sacred violence. In a way this is like drawing the curtain so we can take a closer and deeper look into their interior life—their personhood, gifts, and graces, which are often seen as threats to the social and spiritual well-being of the denomination.

This research project builds upon Nolasco’s newest book, God’s Beloved Queer: Identity, Spirituality, and Practice, which was published in July 2019. Within the book, he offers a unique look at what it means for queer people to locate and anchor their identity as a beloved child of God. Utilizing a wide range of disciplines—pastoral theology, spirituality, counseling psychology, affective neuroscience, anthropology—Nolasco offers a more nuanced description of what it means for queer folks to be sacred icons of God like everyone else. Combining his prior research with the gains of this project will lead to a new publication titled, “Heart Ablaze: Awakening the Queer Soul.”

Nolasco is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. He is also a psychotherapist, published author, and has vast experience in cross cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. He was also just awarded as a 2019 Exemplary Teacher by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of The United Methodist Church.

Through its Project Grants for Research Program, the Louisville Institute supports innovative strategies for investigating adaptive challenges faced by North American Christianity. Grants up to $30,000 support a diverse range of projects that may involve independent study, short-term research, consultation, or collaborative inquiry. The Project Grant for Researchers program is open to both academic and pastor leaders based in the United States or Canada.

Louisville Institute is funded by the Religion Division of Lilly Endowment and based at Louisville Presbyterian Seminary (Louisville, Kentucky). The Institute’s fundamental mission is to enrich the religious life of North American Christians and to encourage the revitalization of their institutions, by bringing together those who lead religious institutions with those who study them, so that the work of each might inform and strengthen the other.

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post Nolasco Awarded a 2020 Project Grant Research from the Louisville Institute appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

The latest book from Dr. Rolf Nolasco, professor of pastoral theology at 91PORN, offers a unique look at what it means for queer people to locate and anchor their identity as a beloved child of God. God’s Beloved Queer: Identity, Spirituality, and Practice draws from a wide range of disciplines—pastoral theology, spirituality, counseling psychology, affective neuroscience, anthropology—to offer a more nuanced description of what it means for queer folks to be sacred icons of God like everyone else. It also explores with penetrating detail the inner psychological and spiritual terrain of queer lives, along with spiritual practices that will help support their flourishing.

God’s Beloved Queer: Identity, Spirituality, and Practice is published by Wipf & Stock and is available at the publisher’s website and Amazon. To learn more about Nolasco’s new book, be sure to check out his interview below.

What is unique about the book?

The book offers a nuanced description of what it means to locate one’s queer identity on God who calls us Beloved. Sustained attention is given to the psychological and spiritual lives of queer folks and their quest to pattern their desires after the gratuitous and non-rivalrous love of God who also desires and supports our flourishing. It also offers psycho-spiritual practices that will help nourish and sustain this bestowed identity.

Who is the intended audience of the book?

Primarily, it is written specifically for Gay Christians who still have this lingering sense of their sacred worth and have held onto their faith without fail, regardless of how they have been treated or what others have said about them because of their sexuality. May this be a source of encouragement as they continue on the journey. Secondarily, I hope that this book will also find its way into the hands of those who genuinely want to understand our interior and complex lives.

What approach have you taken to write this book?

The book is deeply personal and interdisciplinary at the same time. I am acutely aware of how varied the queer experience is and that I am only peering into a variation, albeit from a uniquely personal, professional, social, and religious matrix that has been home for me all these many years. As well, I have drawn from the disciplines of theology, spirituality, psychology, anthropology, and brain studies to help describe and represent a particular kind of queer experience or subjectivity.

How does the book extend the conversation?

Our denomination, The United Methodist Church, has once again legislated and enforced social and religious mechanism of exclusion against the LGBTQIA+ community. This book is a show of resistance against this victimage mechanism first by affirming the sacred worth of each queer person by virtue of being image- bearers of God. Secondly, using some sort of “hermeneutics of retrieval,” I have offered a queer reading of key theological concepts to reveal the inherent sacred violence at play in the traditional normative discourse on matters queer. I owe much of these interpretive moves to René Girard and James Alison.

In a few words, what would you say to the queer community reading this?

I wrote a poem and it goes like this:

Yes, you are loved as you are!
And your love is as pure and genuine and true as the love of another! So, let us celebrate this love
Love that mirrors the consummate love of Christ
A victimless, gratuitous, and creative love
That declares with such delightful cheer that
You are, without a doubt
God’s Beloved Queer!

Dr. Rolf Nolasco is professor of pastoral theology at 91PORN. He is an experienced professor, trained in pastoral and counseling psychology, mindfulness and contemplative spirituality, and affective neuroscience. Nolasco is also a psychotherapist, published author, and has vast experience in cross cultural communications from living and working across the world within varying social and cultural backgrounds. In addition to God’s Beloved Queer, he is the author of The Contemplative Counselor: A Way of Being (Fortress Press, 2011) and Compassionate Presence: A Radical Response to Human Suffering (Cascade Books, 2016). Nolasco is also currently working on a new book, Depression, Dark Night of the Soul, and Joy (Cascade Books, 2021).

91PORN, a graduate school of theology related to The United Methodist Church, was founded in 1853. Located on the campus of Northwestern University, the seminary serves more than 450 students from various denominations and cultural backgrounds, fostering an atmosphere of ecumenical interaction. Garrett-Evangelical creates bold leaders through master of divinity, master of arts, master of theological studies, doctor of philosophy, and doctor of ministry degrees. Its 4,500 living alumni serve church and society around the world.

The post New Book by Dr. Rolf Nolasco Offers Unique Look at Queer Identity Anchored as God’s Beloved appeared first on Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary.

On August 7-8, 2019, some 60 United Methodist scholars will gather at Lovers Lane United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas,

• in protest against the long-time stance of the denomination prohibiting same-sex marriage and ordination of homosexuals and the punitive measures of the traditional plan passed at the special session of the General Conference in February,
• to cast a vision for a church inclusive of the LGBTQIA+ community,
• and to engage in dialogue intended to support progressive and centrists movements and congregations as they determine what might come next for the denomination.
• These scholars are laypersons, deacons, and elders. They represent approximately 20 different academic disciplines and come from over 25 different annual conferences and over 30 different seminaries, colleges, agencies, and churches.

Dr. Rolf Nolasco, a member of the steering committee for this gathering and Professor of Pastoral Theology at Garrett-Evangelical, will present. His presentation is titled, “Resisting Sacred Violence through Contemplative Practice and Positive Mimesis.” Rev. Dr. Cheryl Anderson, Professor of Old Testament at Garrett-Evangelical, will present and her presentation is titled, “More Than Meets the Eye: Why How We Read the Bible Deserves More Attention.” In addition, Dr. Jonathan LeMaster-Smith, adjunct faculty at Garrett-Evangelical, will present. His presentation is titled, “The Rural Church in Connection After General Conference 2019.” Garrett-Evangelical’s PhD candidate, Rev. Michelle Whitlock, will deliver a presentation titled, “Breaking the Baptismal Covenant.”

The UM Scholars will stream 34 presentations on the internet for live viewing and then post recordings of the presentations on YouTube for later use and to spark conversation in congregational, clergy, and organizational settings. For a schedule of the livestream of the presentations, go to llumc.org/umscholars.

For more information concerning the Gathering, go to UMScholars.org.

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