Why did you decide to go to graduate school?

��Graduate school quickly emerged as the most appropriate step for me both personally and professionally after EMU. I was intrinsically motivated to apply to graduate programs because of my love of school. Throughout my studies at EMU and during my gap year, I was hungry to learn. I could not keep my hands off of theology, religion and history texts from the library. I knew that I wanted to go to a graduate program where I could continue to investigate the subtle contours of Christian thought.

Graduate school also was a smart decision for me professionally because I wanted a degree program that integrates both academic rigor and ministerial training, which is how I landed in the Master of Divinity program at Vanderbilt Divinity School (VDS).

VDS made an impression on me due to its ecumenical status and commitments to social justice. I wanted to be in an environment where I would interact with others who did not bring my same Anabaptist assumptions to the room. I wanted to be in a place where I could stretch myself and engage in conversation with a wider sample of future leaders of faith from across the Christian spectrum on some of today’s most pressing social demands.

Describe your field of study and research.

��The Master of Divinity degree is the more professional clergy-track route compared to the more research-oriented Masters of Theological Studies degree. My coursework is well-rounded with classes in homiletics, Christian theology, church history, biblical studies and pastoral care providing the foundation of my program.

My research concentration, however, is in “Religion and the Arts in Contemporary Culture.” One of my primary research interests is to critically examine how popular culture and media interface with religion. Music, film, and Internet memes have a way of raising everyday theological questions, such as the value of money or suffering, that invite a spirit of playfulness and imagination. I often look to blur the lines in what is conventionally dismissed as “secular” culture in order to see what contributions, critiques and commentaries these artistic expressions are making about religious life.

How did your academic studies and professors at EMU prepare you for graduate studies?

���ѱ�’s Bible and Religion Department is a real gem. Working closely with professors Peter Dula, Nancy Heisey, Ted Grimsrud, Linford Stutzman, Christian Early and Carmen Shrock-Hurst each helped prepare me for graduate studies in unique ways. Peter taught me that the beginning of a nuanced position means knowing how to read with charitable criticism. Nancy’s skills as a researcher and editor helped to strengthen my writing style. Ted always encouraged showing up to class ready to ask at

least one question from our weekly reading assignments. Linford modeled for me how to think more like an anthropologist and not to overlook or undervalue the interdependence of religion and culture. Christian introduced me to some of the most groundbreaking literature in philosophy and science. And Carmen stressed the importance of attending to my spiritual life in addition to my intellectual life. So much of my current program relies on knowing how to read, write and speak with efficiency. The strengths of the Bible and religion faculty became critical ingredients that laid a solid foundation for my communication skills.

What do you think made your application to graduate school stand out among others?

My letters of recommendation were the strongest part of my application, hands down. I felt confident asking my professors to write letters of recommendation for me because of our relationships both inside and outside of the classroom. I knew that they would help to paint a more complete picture of me beyond just my academic potential.

What are some of your favorite memories from your time at EMU?

Some of my favorite moments from EMU were all of the times that I stood around talking to my peers and professors after class. I love how our class discussions rarely ended with the period, but rather carried over into coffee conversations, long walks or lunch at the cafeteria. The real power of these more casual conversations is that they always seemed to invite at least one or two people from outside of the classroom to weigh in on the topic at hand. I believe EMU embraced a culture that encouraged both a natural curiosity and a spirit of collaboration, which makes all of these little moments and side conversations stand out in my memory.

What is your advice to undergraduates?

Don’t sell yourself short on the college experience. Everything that you do is an ingredient to help you grow and mature and be a more thoughtful person in the world. Building strong relationships with your classmates, going to special lectures, and getting involved in the broader Harrisonburg/Rockingham area are all invaluable parts of sharpening your perspective. Most of all, take time to review your perspective regularly and document how it is changing in light of these new experiences. I believe it is important to be upfront with ourselves about how we have changed and appreciating the processes that have contributed to our growth.

Now a graduate student at Kutztown University, Joshua works as a success coach with the , which partners with ChildPromise, Inc. to provide support for students who are current or former members of the foster care system.

Joshua notes that out of more than 400,000 foster care children in the United States, less than 10 percent decide to pursue any type of college degree, and that it is a privilege to hear their stories and offer support as they work towards their goals.

What attracted you to attend EMU as an undergraduate?

At first, I just wanted to move away. I lived outside of Philadelphia my whole life and I wanted to be anywhere else. Then I fell in love with Harrisonburg because it has a very unique environment of a half-urban/half-rural area. They have an exciting downtown area that always has great events, and lots of open space and vistas.

You majored in liberal arts and focused in business. Why did you choose that combination and what skills did you gain from that interdisciplinary emphasis?

I began my journey as an accounting major. I loved the work, but realized that the career of an accountant wasn’t quite what I needed in life. I thrive off of relationships and knew that I needed to work more directly with people.

My experiences working with the Campus Activities Council and Residence Life affirmed that notion and I knew that I needed to change my path. I spoke with an academic advisor, Amy Springer Hartsell, who discussed a possible future in student affairs. It was too late to switch majors without having to extend my studies a couple years, so I decided on a liberal arts major, with a focus in business knowing that I could use that degree anywhere life took me.

What did you do after graduation?

I worked full-time as an assistant hall director at the University of Colorado to affirm my passion for higher education and student affairs. I loved everything about my job: the residents, my student staff, my daily work and my boss who turned out to be a great mentor. Unfortunately the position was terminated after one year.

I am pursuing my master’s degree in higher education at Kutztown University. Some of my goals here are to learn about opportunities to bring restorative justice to common student conduct processes, and how to find resources that help our students with financial, housing and food insecurities.

Can you talk a bit about your current work at Kutztown? What are its joys and challenges?��

I am currently a graduate assistant working in a new aid program called the Providing Resources for Future Standouts program (PROFS). It focuses on giving aid to students who grew up in the foster care system who have decided to pursue a college education. I administer this program that provides financial aid, free on-campus summer and winter housing, and free off-campus trips to places like Washington D.C. or New York City or Philadelphia. I coach them through the challenges they face as students who may not have a network of�� support.

Because this is such a new program, I have had the opportunity of creating the program’s foundations. This includes policy creation, event organization, case management and relationship building. I also go to group homes to encourage foster care children to pursue a college degree.

I love all of my students and their unique personalities. Each has a story unlike anybody else’s and I get to watch them overcome all of that negative history that might have held them back. The hardest part is knowing that, although I provide a lot for them, I will never be able to give what a family would. One student sat in my office crying. She was trying to get a loan to buy a car, but had no credit. The dealership told her to get her parents to co-sign, but since neither are a part of her life, she had to let it go.

Have you found any of your experiences or coursework at EMU helpful in your current work?

EMU challenged me and helped me grow in every way I needed to best support my students. Through my philosophy classes with Christian Early and sociology classes with Carolyn Stauffer and Jenni Holsinger, I was challenged to see the privileges I live with as a white, middle-class male with a supportive family.

More than that, the most important lesson I learned was with Residence Life: I am a community builder, both in my personal and work life. Our motto was Learning to live together, and I keep that motto to this very day. We are all discovering ourselves and how we relate to others day by day, and it’s a process we experience together.

What do you think makes EMU graduates distinctive?

EMU offers a view of the world that I did not experience anywhere else. There is a clear focus on community, both locally and globally. Many of my coworkers have a very success-driven mindset because their schools taught them how to get ahead of the curve.

EMU taught me that success means nothing if I use it to put others down. It is that care for community, which EMU instilled in me, that made me the perfect leader for a program like no other.

What are some favorite memories of your time at EMU?

I was very active as a student and made many memories. From winning the variety show two , to my adventures to Cookout with friends, it is difficult to pick only a few memories because so many come to mind. I often check back to the EMU social media pages and websites to find that the residents I served as an RA are now in leadership positions.

I was able to experience many different adventures, and participated in a couple of harmless hijinks in my time, but I will always remember my time as an Community Assistant. Scott Eyre and Micah Hurst, my two residence directors, were two of the most influential people in my life. They encouraged me when I was feeling hopeless. They guided me with wisdom when I felt lost. They gave me the strength to do hard things when challenges appeared in my hall. I will always be thankful for the Res Life community at EMU.

Other influential people:��Christian Early changed the way I think about the world, and there is no going back! Take a class with him. The reading is worth it. And Kristen Beachy inspired me to write again in her non-fiction creative writing class.

What are your plans for the future?

Next year, I will graduate with my MEd degree in higher education and student affairs. I want to work on the frontlines with students and help them succeed. My dream would be to move back down to Harrisonburg to be with my pseudo-family and friends, but I will go wherever God leads.

In the meantime, I am getting as involved as possible. I will be advising a couple student organizations, going to national conferences, building mentorships, and organizing presentations to inspire others with the success of my PROFS program.

What advice to you have for current undergraduates?

GET INVOLVED! And do so early. The CAC Barn Dance isn’t overrated, and your RA’s floor events aren’t stupid. These events are a time to get to know the people who will change your life over the next four years. If what you’re interested in isn’t available on campus, make it happen. The faculty and staff at EMU love to support the students and want to be involved (why else would they let you call them by their first names?).�� If you want to make an anime club, or knitting club, or even a drum circle club, go to the Student Life office and make it happen.

Describe your field of study and research at the University of Virginia and Duke.

I am now enrolled in a Master of Arts in Religious Studies, specifically in the Theology, Ethics, and Culture track.

At Duke, I wrote my thesis with the theologian Willie Jennings (now of Yale) and the chair of the English department, Sarah Beckwith. My thesis looked at the modern concept of race as a way of knowing that judges the meaning, value, and humanity of a body simply based upon skin color and other physical features. My research brought the resources of critical race theory into conversation with Wittgenstein and Cavell’s account of other-mind skepticism as resulting from dissatisfaction with the conditions of knowledge in order to argue that the modern concept of race represents a rejection of ordinary understandings of what it means to know another human being. I then argued that knowing according to race makes it impossible to recognize a raced other to be Christ for oneself.

My research at UVa builds upon my previous research. I am interested in how Christian theology purports that we know and understand our bodies, the natural world, and language. How would understanding the interconnection between bodies, nature, and language change how we think about what it means to be human beings in world created by God? My theological way of thinking is influenced by other disciplines such as linguistic anthropology and cultural geography. My hunch is that because we do not see the connections between our bodies, the natural world, and our ways of knowing and speaking, we are inclined to instrumentalize nature and other human beings. Given the history of theological rationales for violence done to the earth and the callousness with which Christians have displaced countless peoples from their lands, I believe how we think about these subjects matters a great deal.

How did your academic studies and professors at EMU prepare you for your graduate studies/current work?

I came to EMU as a transfer student from Arizona State University, having been out of school for a number of years. When I arrived at EMU, I knew that my goal was to use my time there to prepare for graduate studies in theology and I expressed this to the Bible and Religion department faculty. Having the chance to work closely with�� professors Peter Dula, Ted Grimsrud, Christian Early, and Nancy Heisey prepared me for graduate work not only because they were generous with their time, but also because they were willing to offer the rigorous critiques I needed to help hone my academic skills. The Bible and religion faculty were immensely helpful in directing me to critical texts I needed to familiarize myself with–even above and beyond their syllabi–and they were also very amenable to arranging independent studies on specific areas of interest.

I should also mention that EMU does a great job of bringing in important lecturers in a variety of fields. Between the university colloquia, the Justice Lectures, and various other conferences and events, I grew comfortable engaging with top scholars.

What do you think made your application to graduate school stand out among others?

This is a really hard question to answer. First, it strikes me how well-connected the Bible and Religion Department faculty is with the broader academic world. At the American Academy of Religion, Peter Dula seems to know everyone. Many people I met at Duke knew Peter Dula from his time there, and quite a few people had read (at least) one of Ted Grimsrud’s books at some point. Many people in the academic and church world knew Nancy Heisey either from her work with Mennonite Central Committee or Mennonite World Conference.

Second and most importantly, I have been told that many letters of recommendations sound very generic because the constraints of academic life often don’t allow professors to get to know students particularly well. I was confident when I asked for letters from my professors at EMU that they knew my particular interests as well as my strength and weaknesses.

What attracted you to attend EMU as an undergraduate?

I had started my undergraduate studies at another university, but focused most of my time and attention working for a couple of Christian nonprofits. Around the time that I was looking to go back to school to finish my bachelor’s degree, I had become very influenced by peace-church theology. I was not personally familiar with the Mennonites, but I had a friend who went to James Madison University and had attended Community Mennonite Church while there. He encouraged me to look into EMU and after chatting with Peter Dula–who I learned had studied with Stanley Hauerwas, a major influence of mine–I decided to apply and commit to EMU. I was looking for a program with a strong faculty in the areas of Biblical studies and theology, but I also did not want to be in a large school. EMU, then, was a perfect fit.

What are some favorite memories of your time at EMU?

Most of my favorite memories from EMU involve time spent with professors, usually in their offices after class talking about this or that book. Probably my favorite memory though, was going on the Quebec cross-cultural with Nancy Heisey. Montreal was such an amazing city to live in for almost a month, and the topics we studied such as secularism and Quebecois class struggles were fascinating. This also afforded me the opportunity to get to know Nancy Heisey better; I took two or three classes with her at EMU, but she we also quite busy as the interim dean.

What do you think makes EMU graduates distinctive?

EMU graduates always have a passion for something interesting and important. I think the combination of academic rigor, commitment to justice and environmental sustainability, and Anabaptist convictions shapes students who care for the broader world but also about the local community. This is why you have EMU grads who go work for Mennonite Central Committee in Iraq as well as those who live in intentional communities and work for neighborhood development organizations. In the academic world, I can say that the EMU grads I’ve known have always had a passion for interesting and important topics. They bring not only their intellects to the academy, but their commitment as activists and educators.

Proposals from tenured faculty are selected by the Faculty Status Committee, comprised of chair Fred Kniss, provost; Deirdre Smeltzer, undergraduate dean; Michael King, dean of the School of Graduate and Professional Studies and of Eastern Mennonite Seminary; and five elected faculty members who have professor status.

, professor of philosophy, during fall 2016. Early will use his sabbatical to begin working on a book that will build upon claims originating with Dr. Nancey Murphy about the tension between “conceptions of biology that highlight competition and a vision of human life guided by love and peace.” Early cites deep interest and relevant reading in this subject over the past couple of years as the starting place for his writing.

, professor of teacher education, during spring 2017. Smeltzer Erb will focus on scholarship and professional development activities. She plans to engage in activities aimed at supporting the development of beginning teachers and subsequent production of a scholarly article, engagement with an innovative public middle school program, and extension of her personal knowledge of instructional technology.

, associate professor of economics, during spring 2017. Leaman will work on a book project, co-authored with two local business leaders. His book subject will be identifying and analyzing the process of designing and building a climate-neutral residential home. The process and book connects with Leaman’s deep personal convictions around sustainability, links to his classroom teaching, and will become a hands-on learning opportunity for students.

, professor of theology at Eastern Mennoite Seminary, during spring 2017. Thiessen Nation will do extensive research and write several essays as preparation for a future book. Essay topics may include Bonhoeffer’s pacifist/conscientious objection beliefs in the context of Nazi Germany/World War II; the way in which virtue formation was the project of the seminary in Finkenwalde; and engagement with Bohoeffer’s book, Ethics, which will likely include a discussion of his notion of “two kingdoms.” He plans to visit several Bonhoeffer-related sites in Germany.

, professor of history, during spring 2017. Sawin will work on researching, editing and reissuing books by 19th century authors through a self-run publishing company, Emu Editions.�� Sawin will develop Emu Editions more fully: constructing its web page, developing a marketing program, and setting up a formal editorial board of other 19th-century literary scholars. The project will enable Sawin to provide EMU students the opportunity to work on real publishing projects.

, associate professor of English, during both fall and spring semesters. White plans to outline and write at least three chapters of a book on the experience of Quakers in the Seven Years’ War and their subsequent embrace of pacifism. Out of this initial work, he anticipates giving at least one conference presentation, incorporating his learnings into the courses he teaches at EMU, and contemplating connections between the Anabaptist and Quaker peace traditions. White believes this area of research aligns well with the EMU mission.

The conference is hosted by the (PJSA), dedicated to bringing together academics, K-12 teachers, and grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice and social��change.

“PJSA is an important bi-national alliance for peacebuilding research, scholarship, training and activism,” says , executive director of ���ѱ�’s . “It is a great honor that so many CJP and EMU faculty, staff and graduates will be featured in prominent conference roles this year, and allows a rare opportunity to highlight our distinctive contributions to the peacebuilding field.”

Those “distinctive contributions” include both conceptual and practical dimensions to the fields of , , , peace and justice studies pedagogy and the pedagogy of practice within the field, experiential education, reflective pedagogy and the arts and peacebuilding.

Catherine Barnes offers keynote address

Dr. Catherine Barnes, affiliate professor at CJP, will share from more than 30 years of experience working with deliberative dialogue processes in places as varied as the UN General Assembly Hall to village gathering places. Her address is titled “Engaging together: exploring deliberative dialogue as a path towards systemic transformation.”

“Deliberative dialogue” is a process that can empower participants to foster collaborative relationships and perceive the underlying mental models that maintain the status quo with the goal of fostering new approaches to complex challenges.

For the past seven years, Barnes has been working in support of transitional processes in Burma/Myanmar. She has worked and lived in more than 30 countries as a teacher, trainer, researcher, policy advocate and consultant with the focus of helping civil society activists, diplomats and politicians, and armed groups to build their capacities for preventing violence and using conflict as an opportunity for addressing the underlying causes giving rise to grievance. Barnes has worked with numerous peacebuilding and human rights organizations, including Conciliation Resources and Minority Rights Group International.

Focusing on education

���ѱ�’s on peace and justice guides its educators, many of whom are sharing their pedagogical practices and discussing ways to educate future peacebuilders in the “educator’s strand,” designed for personal and professional development of K-12 teachers, undergraduate and community educators. Themes include pedagogy, curriculum development, building a culture of peace in your classroom or school, alternative education programs, and restorative��practices.

On the undergraduate level, professor , who leads the in the department of applied social sciences, leads a roundtable discussion for faculty and administrators of peace and justice studies programs.

, the with CJP’s , joins professor and graduate students in a session on mentoring student peacebuilders and the importance of those mentors being experienced practitioners themselves.

Restorative practices are highlighted by professors and in a “relational justice” workshop on how mindful teachers can prepare and prime “their best selves” in preparation for inviting students into models of restorative justice. Mullet also joins , professor of education at Bridgewater College, for a workshop on relational literacy in multicultural K-12 classrooms.

Cheree Hammond, professor of counseling, leads educators in a workshop on contemplative pedagogies and the cultivation of a just and peaceful self.

Restorative justice, trauma healing, playback theater featured

The conference offers an opportunity to highlight ���ѱ�’s unique peacebuilding initiatives. The brings together practitioners from EMU and JMU, as well as local law enforcement. Collaborators in the initiative will speak: , co-director of the; education professor ; Harrisonburg Police Department lieutenant Kurt Boshart; , restorative justice coordinator at the ; and , director of JMU’s Office of Student Accountability and Restorative Practices.

Another definitive CJP program, (Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience), will be introduced in a workshop by professor and program director .

troupe co-founders and lead a workshop on playback theater as qualitative research. Vogel is a professor of theater; Foster instructs in the applied social sciences department and with CJP. The applied theater method invites dialogue and healing through community-building, as audience members share stories and watch as they are “played back” on the stage. Among other settings, Inside Out has performed on campus with college students returning from cross-culturals, among international peacebuilders and in workshops for and research about trauma and sexual abuse survivors.

, professor of applied social sciences, speaks about social capital networks as forms of resistance among battered undocumented Latinas, sharing just one strand of a .

, assistant professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding, leads a discussion on the film “Vision is Our Power,” a film about black youth ending violence in all its forms. The documentary was created by four young filmmakers participating in a multi-year arts and leadership Vision to Peace Project led by Turner; the film debuted in 2008 at the National Museum of Women in the Arts.

And more…

, professor of English, presents on life narratives and identity issues in the Balkans with his wife Daria, a CJP graduate who teaches in the counseling department at JMU. The two lived and taught in the Balkans.

, professor of philosophy and theology, explores the recent work in philosophy and science on theory of emotion.

, a new faculty member coming to EMU next semester after concluding his PhD research at American University, participates several panels, with a diversity of topics including transnational solidarity and police brutality and racism in the contested areas of Palestine and Ferguson, Missouri. Seidel is a board member of PJSA.

Among the alumni presenting: Vesna Hart, Sue Praill and Tom Brenneman join a panel discussion on justice and the nature of human nature. Ted Swartz presents the satire with Tim Ruebke and JMU professor of theater Ingrid DeSanctis.

View the . Registration��fees will be covered for attendees��from the Shenandoah Valley who are affiliated with or sponsored by Bridgewater College, James Madison University, ��ݮ����, or Mary Baldwin College. For more information, click .

Each year at ��ݮ����, dozens of expert scientists visit campus to share their insights. Some focus on their cutting edge research and work in the field, and some share perspectives on social reform and sustainability in the context of science. See more at: http://www.emu.edu/science-seminars

Psychiatrist Curt Thompson shattered this notion during a recent at ��ݮ����. “New, emerging data that we see in this world of interpersonal neurobiology… points us to this world of goodness and beauty,” said Thompson, the founder of , an LLC that produces educational materials that relate interpersonal neurobiology with Christian faith.

Rather than encroach upon religion, science embellishes it, said Thompson, citing Romans 1:20, a verse that claims God can be understood through creation. Still, one must start with a Biblical narrative, not a scientific one, he added.

The scientific field of interpersonal neurobiology studies how the human nervous system responds physically and chemically to human relationship. Thompson uses the findings from research in this area to reinforce his understanding of the Biblical narrative. He pointed out, for example, that “the brain does something very different when it seeks to know something than when it has the experience of being known.” In the same way, knowledge of God is entirely distinct from being known by God. He cited 1 Corinthians 8:3: “He who loves God is known by God.”

Thompson, who practices in Falls Church, Virginia, referenced his 2010 book Anatomy of the Soul (Tyndale) frequently during his Feb. 13 lecture.

When the human mind does not experience being known, it becomes isolated and ashamed, he said. In response, these factors contribute to a disintegration of the mind that reduces creativity and hinders growth. Thompson said that connection to a community is vital to fighting the hindrance from shame.

Thompson offered challenging questions during his lecture: What am I called to do?; If we’re going to work with the mind, what is it that we’re working with?; How well are you paying attention to what you’re paying attention to?; and Could you give me the names of three people who… could tell me everything there is to know about you?

Panelists , a professor in ���ѱ�’s , and , director of , offered formal responses. Early emphasized the mind-body connection Thompson hinted at. Science increasingly informs the field of philosophy that the mind and body are not as distinct as they seem, he said. Byler asked how reintegration can proceed if injury happens to an entire community rather than to an individual, to which Thompson responded that community members can be reintegrated by sharing stories.

Five lectures remain in the Suter Science Seminar Series. The next lecture, which is free and open to the public, features Gregory Koop, professor of psychology. He will speak about memory research Feb. 23 at 4 p.m. in SSC room 104.

As the first session of ��ݮ����’s (SPI) comes to a close this week, guest lecturer reflected warmly on the past 10 days among fellow international peacebuilders.

In more than 20 years of participating in interfaith dialogue, Shomali has travelled widely. He is the director of international affairs at the world’s largest Shi’a Islam seminary for women, Jami’at al-Zahra, as well as director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies (IIIS). He resides in Qom, Iran.

“I feel at home in many places in the world,” Shomali said, “but ��ݮ���� is one of those places where I really feel at home.”

Shomali has met Mennonites in a variety of contexts in both North America and around the world, and has developed friendships with many of them. “The Mennonites are people who are loyal to their faith, and they want to live the gospel, but not in a rigid way,” he said. “They don’t just want to live this on Sunday, but throughout the week, they want to be like Jesus. I respect this. I love this. They are interested in being forces of good in the world, whether it is in helping people with development or peacebuilding or relief.”

Peace and peacebuilding, along with interfaith dialogue, is one of the core Quranic principles, Shomali says. This was one reason why nine female students, staff, and graduates from Jami’at al-Zahra are studying at SPI this summer, escorted by Shomali and his wife, Mahnaz Heidarpour, who also teaches at the seminary. In prior years, SPI has hosted a total of 10 students from Iran, but never a group of this size all at once.

The nine women have joined 130 international students until May 24 to learn concepts and practices of peacebuilding, trauma, conflict analysis and resolution, and restorative justice. The students are being co-hosted by ���ѱ�’s (CJP), as well as its , both based on ���ѱ�’s main campus in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Shomali was a guest lecturer in the Faith-based Peacebuilding course, facilitated by , a Mennonite pastor who has lived in the Middle East. The interfaith course helps participants identify sources of conflict and resources for peacebuilding found in various faith communities and traditions. Five of the Iranian seminarians chose to take this course.

Interactions with SPI students from around the world provide a practical complement to required seminary coursework in comparative peace studies, Shomali said. “Theoretical knowledge can come through books, but when the students eat and talk together and go to churches, this is different. They learn about the way people think, live, behave, and plan. This is very valuable.”

In addition to daily classes, the group made two special trips dedicated to interfaith dialogue. One weekend, they visited the (MCC) headquarters in Akron, Pennsylvania, met with an Amish bishop, and attended a service and Sunday school class at James Street Mennonite Church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A later day trip to Washington D.C. included a meeting with MCC Washington office staff and a visit to the , which promotes understanding of Islamic values of peace and respect for diversity. At the El-Hibri office, they met with the leaders of . In the evening, the group had a meeting at , organized by CJP graduate Rasoul Naqavi.

Most of the women in the group had participated in previous trips, led by Shomali in 2011 and 2012, to study Anabaptist and Christian theology at in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The exchange continues later this month in Qom with the 6th Mennonite-Shi’a dialogue. A delegation from EMU includes professor , Center for Interfaith Engagement director and several students.

Shomali has also cultivated friendships and dialogue with other faith communities, most notably the Catholic Church. He has been a key contributor to five Shi’a-Catholic dialogues, the first taking place in England in 2003 and the most recent in Qom in 2012.

His interest in interfaith dialogue grew from his religious and philosophical studies as a seminary student in Qom. He holds a B.A. and an M.A. in western philosophy from the University of Tehran, as well as a doctorate in philosophy from the in the United Kingdom. While in the U.K., Shomali developed an interest in the , an organization devoted to encouraging unity and brotherhood among the practitioners of Christian religions, among followers of other world religions, and, more broadly, among all of humanity.

The unity of God and of man is also an important Quranic principle, Shomali says. “God has created you from one man and one woman, but made you into different tribes and nations so that you know each other, not that so you fight each other. We should not see these differences as barriers, but extra reasons to know each other.”

Those of the Abrahamic faiths have a “joint responsibility for brotherhood,” he said. “Muslim-Christian dialogue for me is a way to reunite or unite a family which is unfortunately sometimes broken. Sometimes you have cousins that you stop communication with or who you lose touch with. Muslim-Christian dialogue is a reunion of the family of Abraham and the children of God.”

Shomali is also resident Imam and director of the . His books have been published in a number of languages, including Malay, Kiswahili, Spanish and Swedish.

“We don’t electric shock children. Even I wouldn’t do that,” Coan reassured the audience, with an infectious laugh.

At , Coan delivered a .” That presentation was published as a chapter in the conference book, (Cascade Books, 2013).

On March 10, 2014, Coan brought his chock-a-block Powerpoint slides back to EMU for another entertaining, anecdote-filled lecture about his neuroscience research on how simply holding a loved one’s hand can regulate stress in threatening situations.

Research shows calming effect of companionship

In his lab, Coan shows subjects threat cues on a screen that indicate a one-in-five chance of receiving a small electric shock to the ankle. Using an MRI scanner and cutting-edge brain-mapping tools, he and his colleagues observe blood flow through various regions of their brains when exposed to this threat of pain.

These threat cues and shocks are administered under three conditions: with the subjects alone, while holding the hands of strangers and while holding their spouses’ hands.

Coan and his team of researchers found that holding a loved one’s hand during stressful and threatening situations causes a big decrease in the response to threat when compared to being alone or holding a stranger’s hand.

In cases when their subjects, reassured by a spouse’s presence, showed a decreased threat response, Coan and other neuroscientists expected an alternate sector of the brain to “light up.” Curiously, however, they found that no other area of the brain was doing this. This suggests, Coan says, that an expected function of the test subject’s brain was being “outsourced” to another person.

“In traditional psychology, we see the individual – the single person – as our unit of analysis. But what if that isn’t the case?” asks Coan. Accordingly, he and his fellow researchers have proposed an alternative perspective, which they call “social-baseline theory.”

Interdependence as a survival strategy

Humans are not designed to efficiently solve problems alone, Coan continues. “We are designed to be interdependent, always and constantly to be placed in a social frame,” he says. Alone, we have to devote more of our brain’s resources to solving problems and responding to threats. “If you are by yourself, the world is a more daunting place.”

He saved the “weirdest” (his descriptor) bit for last as he postulated what folks from the world’s religious traditions will readily affirm: The “self” is extendable and dynamic, distributed and malleable, and most at home when connected to a healthy community.

The significance of Coan’s research, says , professor of , is its suggestion that life “is much less daunting … in a community in which you can trust that people are there for you in a moment of need.” The bright side of community in the Anabaptist tradition – “sending help to a far corner of the world or a sign-up list for bringing meals to someone who has fallen sick” – is, however, not the complete picture.

Early points to “the shadow-side of community: betrayal, conflict and histories of abuse. If we want to take seriously our mission to bring healing to the world, we will need to accept that that includes the inner world as well.”

Coan’s work has been featured in the New York Times, Time, BBC News, Discovery Channel and other major media outlets, and his groundbreaking research with John Gottman appeared in Malcolm Gladwell’s bestseller Blink. He also has about . (Interestingly, his first paper describing the hand-holding research was rejected by six journals prior to its 2006 publication.)

His visit was co-sponsored by Shenandoah Anabaptist Science Society and ���ѱ�’s .

Byler, who is executive director of the at ��ݮ����, last visited Iran in 2009, before Iran severely restricted visas for visitors from the United States and Canada for an extended period.

With the 2013 election of president Hassan Rouhani and subsequent diplomatic talks between Iran and the West, Iran’s doors have opened again.

Byler was among a 10-member group in Iran from Feb. 19 to Feb. 25, sponsored by . The delegation spent a whirlwind six days in Iran on a tightly managed schedule of workshops, meetings with religious and academic officials, and visits to sites of cultural and religious significance with the purpose of exploring “if this is indeed a new time in which MCC work in a country often perceived as the enemy can and should be reinvigorated or even expanded,” according to an MCC press release.

The delegation headquartered in Qom, a conservative-religious center of more than 1 million residents and home to more than 70,000 seminary students. From Qom, they made day-trips to Isfahan and Tehran.

Itinerary packed with fruitful conversations

The itinerary was so packed that Byler, scrolling though photos back in his CJP office, has trouble recalling what happened on which day. He pauses between a photo of female scholars, dressed in flowing black chadors, talking in a university hallway, and a meeting room, where the delegation sits across from bearded ayatollahs in traditional turbans and black cloaks.

“This was Sunday. No, this was Monday,” he says, then laughs. “Wait, I take that back. It was Sunday.”

Before becoming executive director of CJP, Byler and his wife Cindy Lehman Byler represented MCC in Palestine and Israel, Iran, Iraq and Jordan from 2007 to 2013.

With only a few days in Iran on this trip, every opportunity to connect and to share with Iranians in face-to-face contacts was potentially precious, beneficial, and rejuvenating to MCC’s goals of promoting “understanding, friendship, and interfaith connections between the people of Iran, Canada, and the U.S.”

The MCC-Iran relationship has been growing and changing since MCC first reached out to Iran after a devastating earthquake in 1990, offering relief supplies in partnership with the Iranian Red Crescent Society. Two more relief efforts followed in 2004 and 2012, as MCC’s outreach has focused and strengthened into “ through shared knowledge,” according to an MCC press release.

Relationship maintained amid absence of state-level interactions

This work continues in spite of the dissolution of formal diplomatic relations with Iran by both the United States, since the Islamic Revolution in 1979, and Canada, which closed its Tehran embassy and expelled Iranian diplomats from its borders in 2012.

MCC has facilitated and supported many student exchanges, sending American and Canadian students to study in Qom, and Iranian students for advanced studies in Canada and the U.S. Ten Iranian students have attended the on ���ѱ�’s main campus, and two have gone on to earn their master’s degrees in conflict transformation.

MCC also started a series of academic dialogues between Mennonite and Shi’a scholars, the sixth of which will take place in May. These dialogues are now led by a network of Mennonite institutions of higher education in North America, with support from MCC. One of those scholars who has been involved in both dialogues and exchanges played an important role in this latest trip.

Dr. Mohammad Shomali, who helped secure visas, set the itinerary, and escorted the delegation on their travels, is director of the International Institute for Islamic Studies (IIIS) in Qom and also director of international affairs at Jami’at al-Zahra, the world’s largest women’s seminary for Shi’a Islam.

10 female students from Islamic seminary at EMU

Ten female students from Jami’at al-Zahra are expected to come to SPI this summer, escorted by Shomali and his wife, Mahnaz Heidarpour, who also teaches at the seminary.

On the first full day in Iran, the MCC delegation met seven of these women, already experienced international travelers who studied in 2012 at CMU in Winnipeg, Man. Also in the audience for a day-long workshop about peacebuilding were some of Shomali’s male students from IIIS. The students are all fluent in English and with the equivalent standing of doctoral students at North American universities, said Byler. Members of the delegation spoke on topics ranging from theological understandings of peacebuilding to church-state relations, to peacebuilding within the family and restorative justice.

During the trip, the delegation also visited with three of the 10 Iranian SPI alumni, all of whom are in prominent roles: Mohsen Ghanbari Alanagh (SPI ’11), president of Al-Mustafa Open University; Mohsen Danesh Pajouh (’12), completing his PhD in philosophy of religion; and Seyed Mostafa Daryabari (’13), deputy of education at the International Institute for Islamic Studies.

Appreciation expressed for Summer Peacebuilding Institute

For Byler, reconnecting with SPI alumni in his new role as CJP director was a special experience, as each of these attendees said they had been deeply affected by the peacebuilding concepts shared at SPI and appreciated exploring the application of these concepts and dialogue in Iran.

“As the MCC representative, I was involved in the selection process for most of these students, so in that capacity, I knew them already,” Byler said. “As with most relationships in the Middle East, you start with one friendship and you build on that work. Those friendships continue in their importance to help us build bridges.”

Subsequent days were spent in a number of introductory meetings with ayatollahs, the powerful Shi’a religious leaders who are experts in various aspects of Islamic studies.

“There were a lot of pleasantries and some theological conversations,” Byler said. “A lot of what we were doing was shaking hands and making basic introductions with powerful religious leaders, so that they could see us as who we are theologically, as Mennonites, as people who stand for peace, and then we could move forward from there.”

4 EMU alumni among 10 in delegation

With Byler (’79 and MA ’85) on the delegation were ’97, EMU professor and MCC U.S. board chair; Rachelle Lyndaker Schlabach, MDiv. ’07, MCC U.S. Washington Office director; J. Ron Byler, MCC U.S. executive director; Amela Puljek-Shank (’00 and MA ’04), MCC area director for Europe and the Middle East; Cheryl Zehr Walker, MCC U.S. director of communications; Ruth Keidel Clemens, MCC U.S. program director; Harry Huebner, Canadian Mennonite University professor emeritus of philosophy and theology; and Carolyne Epp-Fransen and Gordon Epp-Fransen, MCC representatives to Jordan, Iraq, and Iran.

In Tehran, the delegation met with Armenian Orthodox Archbishop Sebouh Sarkissian, who leads the largest Christian minority in Iran, as well as other supporters of interfaith dialogue: Hawnah Sadr, daughter of the late Imam Musa Sadr (known for his ecumenical outreach); Dr. Rasoul Rasoulipour, a professor at Kharazami University; and Dr. A.M. Helmi, director of the Center for Interreligious Dialogue at the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization.

Byler says MCC’s return visit to Iran is a “hopeful sign” that the deep foundations of interfaith dialogue and friendship can continue to grow despite sometimes frosty diplomatic relations between Iranian and American governments.

“We have to be witnesses to the beauty of peace”

Shomali, too, shares this hope: “We have to be witnesses to the beauty of peace,” he told the delegation. “If it can be done by people of different faiths, it can be very effective.”

Though EMU has regularly hosted students and visiting professors from Iran, the last EMU visitor to Iran was , who was part of an MCC-led delegation in October 2008.

Byler hopes that will change this spring. In May, EMU professor is scheduled to present at the 6^th Mennonite-Shi’a dialogue in Qom. He’ll be accompanied by director and several EMU students.

“If the Iranian government also grants visas for this entire group, it will be a strong signal that we are indeed in a new day of U.S.-Iranian relations,” he said.

, the conference featured renowned researchers and practitioners – including Sue Johnson, the developer of Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy and author of Hold Me Tight; neuroscientist James Coan of the University of Virginia; and psychiatry professor Daniel J. Siegel of the University of California-Los Angeles.

Their presenters summarized and interpreted decades of research, with paradigm-shifting implications, as the editors of Integrating the New Science of Love and a Spirituality of Peace observe in the book’s introduction and conclusion.

“The confirmation of attachment theory puts us in a position to say that we are fundamentally relational and emotional beings, not rational and calculating individuals as modern Enlightenment theorists thought,” write co-editors and in the opening pages of the 151-page book.

“Now we can begin to understand with theoretical specificity the devastating consequences of disconnection: its influence not only in the makeup of a human being, but also on the large scale of the social tragedies and traumas that plague our world today.” Both editors are professors at EMU – Annmarie of counseling and Christian of philosophy and theology – and both were key players in organizing the 2011 conference.

In his foreword, of points out that understanding humans to be “fundamentally relational and emotional“– embedded in a web of relationships comprised of love and support, if we’re to be healthy – has large implications for his own field of . It confirms that harmful acts usually emerge from (and contribute to) brokenness that needs to be addressed in community-based relationships.

The book underscores that “the brain expects, and is fundamentally shaped by, relationships,” writes Zehr. “We are not expected to grow and develop alone, and we are not designed to solve problems by ourselves.”

The seven book chapters, based on presentations by the five keynote speakers at the conference – with an additional commentary by Janel Curry, professor of environmental science at Calvin College – basically argue that a critical task for humans is to learn how to form healthy attachments, with each other, with the earth, and with God. The other two keynote speakers were John Paul Lederach, professor of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, and Nancey Murphy, professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary.

In the first half of the book, Siegel and Coan set forth the findings of researchers in psychology and neuroscience over the last 60 years, which strongly suggest that the human brain functions optimally when a person has supportive relationships with others. Conversely, if a person feels socially rejected, it registers in the same part of the brain (the anterior cingulate cortex) as physical pain does.

In her chapter, Johnson elaborates on this theme in regard to marital relationships, where “love” means having an emotional bond with others with whom we form a safe haven from the storms of life.

“In your spiritual tradition, Anabaptism,” Johnson told her audience (and repeats in her chapter), “you talk about the need for community and connection. This resonates with attachment theory in psychology.

“As a developmental theory, the new attachment science tells us the essence of a human being is not aggression, inquisitiveness, or sexuality. The essence of man is his need to connect with others; this heart connection is essential to survival and to growth, to being fully and optimally alive to the soul.”

In Integrating the New Science of Love and a Spirituality of Peace, the contributors highlight what it really means to be human, and how understanding this will propel us toward a better tomorrow. They also make the point that insecure, controlling, judgmental and otherwise unhealthy relationships will have the opposite effect.

In his five end-of-chapter commentaries and concluding book chapter (co-authored with Annmarie), Christian Early links the new science of love to the kingdom of God as preached by Jesus of Nazareth. “[A]t its deepest, truest, and most basic, the human story is a love story. Attachment theory is really a theory of love; the gospel is really a story of love,” say the editors in their conclusion.

, EMU associate professor of chemistry and former chair of the , provided the preface where she explains that SASS received funding from the Metanexus Institute and John Templeton Foundation “to begin a transdisciplinary exploration of attachment theory using an Anabaptist lens,” which led to several speakers in 2009-10 and early 2011, culminating in the 2011 attachment conference.

The book can be ordered for $16.40 in print ($9.99 on Kindle) through or other online booksellers. Links to podcasts, blogs and downloads of power point presentations from the conference are .

“A gold medal is a wonderful thing,” the coach says. “But if you’re not enough without one, you’ll never be enough with one.”

In church, lessons like these are often taught about all sorts of worldly accomplishments: the dream job, the big raise, the right friends. This week at EMU, an influential theological writer in the emergent church movement, Peter Rollins, delivered a similar message about God, who, Rollins argued, is too often (and falsely) imagined as an idol capable of providing true wholeness and fulfillment.

Sin – from denying pain of life?

Rollins, originally from Northern Ireland and now living in New York, argued that sin is the result of everyone’s relentless drive to escape the pain of being alive, regardless of whether relief is sought in drink, in friends or in the church. Salvation, then, doesn’t come from attaining closeness to God and relief from pain, but rather by embracing that pain of being alive and letting go of our drive to heal it.

“Religion helps us avoid facing up to our brokenness and troubles … [and] that is devastating,” said Rollins, during his chapel presentation. “We need to have spaces where we can be open about the places where we’re suffering.”

Rollins, whose most recent book is titled The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction, also hosted a “talk back” at the , spoke at the year’s first University Colloquium, visited classes and led an evening conversation hosted by ���ѱ�’s Freethought Coalition.

At the colloquium, Rollins criticized contemporary religion’s tendency to place itself right beside competing products in a “vending machine” that purports to offer people various paths to fulfill our primal desire for wholeness. What the church should be doing, he said, is taking a sledgehammer to that vending machine and disabusing us of the idea that we’ll ever be whole. (During chapel, Rollins criticized the church for getting people “drunk on sermons” and on God to distract them from the reality that everyone “will die and never be again” and everyone we love “will die a cold death.”)

Community based on love

During his coffeehouse talk, Rollins said he finds hope in building a community in the present – not in some next world or afterlife – where love exists among people who embrace their collective and individual hurts.

Rollins’ ideas have become influential in the emergent church movement, which offers critiques of religious institutions and traditions that cut across denominational and ideological lines. This criticism can be as applicable to seemingly counter-cultural religious institutions like EMU as they are to mainstream Christianity.

, professor of , noted that Rollins’ “version of being counter-cultural would be different from the ones we are most used to hearing.”

While Anabaptist traditions may emphasize alternative ways of living and thinking about God, they often still reinforce the notion of longing for wholeness.

“Rollins argues that you instead learn to live with being human, being broken, being, in a sense, unfulfilled. And in the shared humanity of that, you find true fulfillment,” said Early. “The move that needs to happen is not that you abandon being a Mennonite or being an Anabaptist, but that you hold it differently…. It’s something that’s really important for us to wrestle with.”

The value of the “light of inquiry”

Thomas Millary, a junior and co-president of the Freethought Coalition, said he admires Rollins’ call to embrace, rather than trying to escape, the brokenness that everyone experiences in life, and hopes Rollins’ visit will spark wider conversation on campus about finding joy and community in the midst of pain.

“This campus could really benefit from dialogue about faith and [Christianity] from a perspective like Peter’s,” said Millary, who founded the Freethought Coalition to provide a space for honest exploration and discussion of difficult or controversial topics.

When introducing Rollins at the University Colloquium, said that inviting Rollins to present his provocative ideas at EMU offered the university the opportunity for self-reflection.

“It’s important that our basic assumptions are not just taken for granted, but that they are held up to the light of inquiry, that they are examined,” Kniss said.

“There are more options out there for today’s students,” says Dula. “Rather than joining a traditional church structure, they sometimes choose to search for something even more Anabaptist.”

The emerging church movement and New Monasticism have created alternatives to traditional church that draw from and can inform an Anabaptist perspective, says Dula, a 1992 graduate.

“New Monasticism focuses on prayer, communal life and reaching out to the poor… Ideas that are rooted in the Christian tradition, but in a way Anabaptists can recognize as their own. It is an interesting time to teach and think about Anabaptism.”

Embracing the change

Instead of resisting alternatives to traditional worship, Dula and , a 1981 EMU graduate and Bible and religion instructor, see an opportunity to embrace alternatives and use them to engage and inform students.

“Our goal is to equip students to engage in shaping the future of the church,” said Schrock-Hurst, who also serves as co-pastor at Immanuel Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg, Va. “All these ideas are available to this generation and we can create space for them to explore and figure out what works in their faith journeys.”

���ѱ�’s Bible and religion department tries to continually learn from students, says Dula. “Many of them are way out ahead of us as teachers.” We want to be a “meeting place,” he notes, where Mennonite and students from diverse backgrounds can share ideas on faith and God’s calling in their lives.

“Some of our best students enter EMU without a background in Anabaptism or the Mennonite church,” said Dula. “They find here, however, a space to own, appropriate and transform what they learn in our classrooms in ways that manage to be thoroughly Anabaptist.”

, professor of Bible and religion added, “I find that sometimes the students who are not from Mennonite backgrounds add a kind of new-discovery freshness when they embrace the peace position. Other times, we get challenges to pacifist assumptions born out of different ways of thinking about the Bible and Christianity.”

More than a classroom

���ѱ�’s provides an alternative classroom for many Bible and religion students with profound results. The experience, led by , professor of culture and mission and his wife, , showcases the history of the Bible while exploring current conflicts. Students are immersed in language and cultural studies while living in Palestine and Jerusalem.

After spending a semester in the Middle East, senior Jamie Hiner, from Culpeper, Va., observed, “I can connect to the stories [of the Bible] on a completely different level. I understand who Jesus was on a human level, and I have a connection to the land, people and cultures.”

In addition to the Middle East cross-cultural program, EMU is the only higher-education institution offering a major in . , associate professor of , says that while Catholics and Protestants have a long academic tradition in philosophy, Anabaptists are important contributors “because our own history of having been marginalized, our understanding of concrete embodied community, and our commitment to peace and reconciliation.”

Senior Ben Bailey, from Simsbury, Conn., found his knowledge of the Bible to be “limited compared to my peers at EMU.” A double-major in and , Bailey says his studies have provided him with a “comprehensive base knowledge to build upon.

“I continually feel the need to understand and question the Bible and theology on a deeper level.”

Hiner, a major with a minor in , added, “I’ve learned so much from personal relationships with my professors. I love having real conversations with them outside the classroom.”

Looking ahead

Bible and religion department faculty envision their department’s influence expanding across campus and in the community through dialogue with campus ministries and local churches. Interest in the department’s is growing as opportunities to explore internships outside of “traditional” pastoring arise. The very definition of “pastor” and “church” is changing; students are interested in how they intersect with these concepts.

“Students have an advantage with on campus, in addition to and numerous Mennonite churches nearby to integrate and connect with pastors, leaders and teachers,” Schrock-Hurst says.

Dula agrees, adding, “The goal is to make the discussion and debates that occur in our classrooms become the heart and soul of campus. This will encourage growth not only in the department and across campus, but in the broader church.”

“We are designed to live in community and in close relationships,” Johnson explained in an interview with a reporter at a coffee break. “Love is not an intoxicating mixture of sex and infatuation.”

Instead love is having an emotional bond with others with whom we form “a safe haven from the storms of life,” she said. Johnson and several other internationally recognized speakers at the conference stressed that this type of love actually enables us to live longer, with less pain and sickness.

“Contact with a loving partner literally acts as a buffer against shock, stress, and pain,” Johnson said in Hold Me Tight. Conversely, “emotional isolation is a more dangerous health risk than smoking or high blood pressure,” she wrote, citing sociologist James House at the University of Michigan.

Of the five keynote speakers, Johnson and two others cited the results of several decades of research to support their assertions that caring relationships are as necessary to human life as air, food and water. The others referencing this research were neuroscientist James Coan, PhD, of the University of Virginia, and Dr. Daniel J. Siegel, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Los Angeles.

“The brain is a social organ, and our relationships with one another are not a luxury but an essential nutrient for our survival,” wrote Siegel in his latest book, Mindsight – The New Science of Personal Transformation, to which he referred frequently in his presentation. Siegel also described how our minds work in synchronicity with those around us.

Throughout the conference, which began the evening of March 31 and ended at noon on April 2, 2011, EMU philosophy professor , offered brief, heartfelt responses following the major speeches, often tying modern scientific insights into love with the 2,000-year-old teachings of Jesus. “It is good for us to live in community,” said Early. “It is exhausting for us to live in isolation from each other.”

Early added, however, “Community can also be harmful.” Strangers cannot betray us – it is those closest to us who can betray us, he noted. As a result, we must cultivate “habits of repair,” in order to heal harms that have been done, in addition to learning how to love healthily.

Cult of Individual Questioned

The conference served to challenge the mythic image in the United States of strength being embodied in a lone individual making his or her way self-sufficiently through life, pretending not to need long-term, committed relationships.

“We are seeing a paradigm shift away from the cult of the individual and back to nurturing relationships,” said , a professor in ���ѱ�’s counseling department. “This will be world-changing.”

Conference organizers expected about 700 participants, mostly from EMU, but attendees from the community inflated the total to 1,200. Filling much of the University Commons arena, the audience included retirees, church personnel and health-care providers from the community (Rockingham Memorial Hospital was a co-sponsor).

As the developer of Emotion Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), Johnson led a day-long, pre-conference training on EFT for 300 people in the mental health field.

“Forget about learning how to argue better, analyzing your early childhood, making grand romantic gestures, or experimenting with new sexual positions,” Johnson said in her book and paraphrased in her speech. “Instead, recognize and admit that you are emotionally attached to and dependent on your partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection.”

In the conference, Johnson, Coan and Siegel all made reference to the parent-child attachment studies begun after World War II by British psychologist John Bowlby. His Canadian assistant, Mary Ainsworth, continued this research through the 1990s, becoming a renowned psychologist in her own right. This research has now has been replicated and expanded by hundreds of other researchers; it demonstrates a child’s critical need for resonating with at least one caring adult in order to develop healthily.

Using MRI imaging of the brain, Coan and other researchers have found that interpersonal relationships, particularly secure ones, have a measurable impact on brain activity. If someone feels threatened – resulting in a fight-flight-freeze response – this can be monitored via the “signal change” in his or her right amygdala, said Coan in his keynote speech. This signal increases to a high level when the threatened person is alone. The signal is attenuated by having a stranger present. It registers lowest – meaning,�� fewest signs of stress – when a partner is present.

This new research by Coan and others is revolutionizing the field of psychology. It�� strongly suggests that humans are intended to live in relationship with others (that is, in families and communities), not as isolated individuals – in short, our brains function optimally when we have supportive relationships with others.

Conversely, if someone feels socially rejected, it registers in the same part of the brain (the anterior cingulate cortex) as physical pain does, according to research cited in Siegel’s book.

Underlying Spiritual Message

As he was wrapping up his presentation, Coan said with a smile, “I’ve never been invited to speak about spirituality at any conference, or about God.” In that respect, the EMU conference was “uncharted territory,” he added.

Johnson told a reporter than when she was growing up in England, “my sense of spirituality got stuck in rules, dogma and dictums.” After Johnson included the words to a classic hymn “Abide with Me” in her presentation – noting that the words spoke of the need for attachment – ���ѱ�’s veteran choral conductor, , surprised Johnson by leading the audience in singing “Abide with Me.” She later said the singing touched her deeply, bringing tears to her eyes.

In Mindsight, Siegel spoke of the importance of social “integration” by describing a choir in which “each member of the choir has his or her unique voice, while at the same time they are linked together in a complex and harmonious whole. One is never quite certain where the choir will take the song, but the surprises simply highlight the pleasure of a familiar, shared melody.”

Illustrating Siegel’s words, Nafziger and his student choral group, the Chamber Singers, performed a series of songs, with audience participation, including one that the entire audience of many hundreds was coached to create out of a spoken poem. The music seemed to transcend the boundaries between secular scientists, international students, devout Christians, and equally devout skeptics. Siegel publically summed up a feeling no doubt shared by many: “It’s incredible to be here.”

The two other keynote speakers – John Paul Lederach, PhD, professor of international peacebuilding at the University of Notre Dame, and Nancey Murphy, PhD, professor of Christian philosophy at Fuller Theological Seminary in California – offered insights into building relationships to emerge from conflict situations (Lederach) and into the links between Christian theology and the findings explored at the conference (Murphy).

The proceedings of the conference are to be edited for publication in the coming year. In the meantime, interested people can download PDFs of presenters’ PowerPoints at the .

and , a married couple with three young boys, conceived of the conference topic more than two years ago. They were two of the four EMU professors and one staff member who spearheaded the conference. The others were biology professor , whose grant-writing yielded major funding from the John Templeton Foundation, and chemistry professor , who collaborated with Suter Science Center office coordinator Cheryl Doss in organizing the conference and ensuring that it ran smoothly.

Dr. Francis Collins, a renowned geneticist and a Christian, surprised the audience with a touching hymn near the end of his lecture on the intersection of science and faith.

Like many young doctors, Francis Collins sometimes found himself at the bedsides of patients he could no longer help.

But always curious, Collins sat by their side listening and marveling at how many patients didn’t despair but found comfort in religion.

Then in his mid-20’s, a dying woman asked Collins what he believed on the subject. And the young man who was embarking on a career that would tackle some of the natural world’s toughest puzzles was stumped.

For all his training, Collins says, he had no answers for life’s basic questions: Why am I here? What will happen after I die? Is there a God?

On Saturday, Collins, 57, now a renowned geneticist and a Christian, spoke to a packed crowd at EMU’s Martin Chapel.

His message: that science and religion, two ways of explaining the world we live in, are not incompatible.

“Truth can be found in scientific exploration and religious exploration; It’s all God’s truth,” Collins said. “Some people are saying you have to pick one or the other. I would say that would be an impoverished outcome.”

‘The Language Of God’

Raised near Staunton, Collins, is the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

And he coordinated the Human Genome Project. Genomes, he says, are like books contained inside every living organism, which hold the secrets of life.

In 2003, Collins and other scientists finished “mapping” the human genome, a landmark achievement that, he says, was like figuring out each letter in a book. His leadership on the genome project and work overall work on genetic research has catapulted him to the top tier of scientific researchers and earlier this month earned him the Medal of Freedom.

President Bush awarded him the medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, in a ceremony on Nov. 7 in Washington.

Faith Bolstered By Science

Although scientists have yet to grasp the full meaning of the human genome, doing so could lead to advances in the fights against diseases such as cancer, diabetes and asthma.

But on Saturday, Collins focused on how decades in science has encouraged, not dampened, his religious faith.

It’s an experience described in his 2006 book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence For Belief.

Known And Unknown

By studying fossils and DNA, scientists have achieved a greater understanding of life and found support for the theory of evolution, Collins said.

And most scientists now agree that the universe began about 13.7 billion years ago, he says, and that people share more than 98 percent of their DNA with chimpanzees.

Still science, Collins said, can’t answer how life began or the mystery of why 15 mathematical constants show up over and over in nature like a well-designed pattern.

Those questions, Collins says, are part of what has led him and about 40 percent of scientists to a belief in some God.

But Collins’ said his Christian faith led him a step further, to belief in a God who cares about people and has instilled in them a sense of right and wrong.

“We all have written in our hearts what is good and holy and the desire to reach out and find it,” he said.

Tricky Subject

Christian Early, a philosophy and theology professor at EMU says Collins’ message is important in a society where science and religion often seem at odds.

Still, aspects of Collins speech, especially evolution, can be difficult for Mennonites and other Christian denominations to accept, Early said.

Victoria Clymer, 15, and Malinda Bender, 14, both freshman at Eastern Mennonite High School said that Collins’ world-view is different from theirs.

“Coming from a Mennonite background, you take what the Bible says,” Bender said. “It was a little bit different, but interesting,” she said. “I’m glad I came.”

Becky Horst, a 22-year-old EMU student from Somerset, Pa., said that in his book and his speech Collins succinctly expresses an idea that will be important to her when she graduates and begins teaching high school science.

“My vocation can’t be disconnected from the faith part of my life,” said Horst, a Mennonite. She also said that while she wants science and religion in her life, she expects to be allowed to take only one of them into her science classes.

Dan McSweeney, 71, of Augusta County, says he’s an atheist who has no trouble with religious people, unless they tell him to be religious.

After the speech, he said he admired Collins as a scientist, but that the logic of his religious arguments doesn’t add up.

“What we have is the world around us, that’s what exists,” McSweeney said. But “a personal God? That’s a leap of faith,” he said. “Not science.”