Videos of Interfaith Scholar Weekend 2022, with Elaine Enns and Ched Myers presenting on “Sabbath Economics: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Crises” are now available. 

REVISITING OLD COVENANTS IN A TIME OF PLAGUES

• The “hockey stick curves” of social and ecological indicators of historical crises
• The old story of plagues of and on Egypt
• Exodus 16 as an archetypal blueprint for survival and sustainability
• Huldah, a mysterious prophet who exhumes buried covenants to animate justice and sustainability (2 Kgs 22:14; 2 Chr. 34:22)

MANNA VS. MAMMON:
ARE WE BUILDING CAPITAL OR COMMUNITY?

• Breaking taboos of silence around economics in our houses of worship
• The Levitical Tradition of Jubilee and the shmitta year (Leviticus 25 and 27)
• Its preservation by the African American Church
• The Muslim notion of riba-free banking; (Surah Al ‘Imran verses 13-132)
• Tonnies’ classic articulation of Gesellschaft (capital) vs. Gemeinschaft (community)
• The structural economic disparities of indebtedness, homelessness and impoverishing work
• The gospel parable of the “De-fective Manager” (Luke 16: 1-9)
• A Sabbath Economics covenant for personal and political transformation (first three steps), with a nod toward the current.

PUBLIC ADDICTION, ECOLOGICAL ULTIMATUMS:
A CALL TO RECOVERY

• Twelve Step Spirituality and public addiction
• Looking at our production/consumption habits through the addiction-recovery lens
• Our ecological footprint and Wendell Berry’s golden rule
• Solidarity as defection from the social architecture of isolation
• Demonstration projects in communities of color
• Compulsive work and the Green Sabbath Project

SABBATH AS REPARATIVE JUSTICE

• How to address historical inequities
• Healing Haunting Histories and decolonization work
• Jesus and the Rich Man (Mt. 19:16-30; Mk.10:17-31; Lk.18:18-30) as a call to reparative justice
• How to sustain Sabbath Economics Covenant work in our communities of faith

ISW’s Chair, Jim Grant, interviews one of our 2021 Guest Scholars, Dr. Malik Simba, about “Critical Race Theory” on “Looking At Social Justice,” #162.

Also, see Dr. Simba’s recent essay on the “Valley Voices” page of The Fresno Bee: 
Fresno State professor taught Critical Race Theory for more than 40 years to no one’s harm

Link to Dr. Simba’s recent article on Blackpast.org website:
Critical Race Theory: A Brief History

In case you missed the Closing Roundtable when our three guest scholars returned from the Opening Panel to have a conversation with our four faith representatives from our Book Study, here is the recording:

Week 6: Closing Roundtable: “Guiding Lights for a Shared Antiracist Future”

In case you missed Week 5, here is the recording featuring Veena Howard, PhD, guiding our interfaith conversations for Chapters 6 and 7.

Week 5: “Ruins” and “Begin Again” with Veena Howard, PhD

In case you missed Week 4 in our Webinar Series, here is the recording featuring Hajj Reza Nekumanesh guiding our interfaith conversations for Chapters 4 and 5.

“The Reckoning” and Chapter 5, “Elsewhere” with Hajj Reza Nekumanesh

In case you missed Week 3 in our Webinar Series, here is the recording featuring Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer guiding our interfaith conversations on Chapters 2 and 3.

Week 3: “Witness” and “The Dangerous Road” with Rabbi Dr. Laura Novak Winer

Did you miss our first interfaith conversation last week about Glaude’s best-selling book, Begin Again, with Rev. Dr. Paul Binion Jr.? Here is the recording.

Did you miss our “Opening Panel with Three Guest Scholars”? You can watch the recording below to catch up.

Dear Friends, Scholars, Sponsors, Donors, and Advocates:

As alternative to our usual in-person weekend program, Interfaith Scholar Weekend is so pleased to offer you our very substantive ISW 2021 Webinar Series! It is entitled, “Bearing Witness from Fresno’s Mason-Dixon Line.” See attached “Invitation” below. A two-page flyer highlighting the whole series is forthcoming.

Join us: Our six interfaith “every Monday” conversations begin on President’s Day, February 15th at 4 pm. In this 90-minute “Opening Panel,” our three guest scholars will consider what it means to “Bear Witness” to Fresno’s history of racism and redlining. 

Registration: It has already begun! Register on Eventbrite. Save the dates for every Monday from February 15th to March 22nd. You won’t want to miss any of our six plenary sessions! 

Note: There are opportunities for you to create your own Independent Zoom study group–tailoring it to your own needs for conversational learning. After you and your guests “attend” our plenary sessions, you can follow-up and plan your own Zoom meetings with friends, family members, or students. Keep watch on our Study Support page where you will find this forthcoming information as we update it.

Melinda Marie Pitarre, Spiritual Director
ISW 2021 Project Coordinator

PS: Bear with us as our ISW website pages and our Eventbrite landing page are still under construction. Updates and some corrections are forthcoming! 

Make sure you register today for this year’s virtual Interfaith Scholarship Weekend.

This year all registration will take place on Eventbrite.

Find out more about:

• Our Master Schedule
• Speaker Bios