FTE’s podcast on meaning, purpose and vocation is back starting September 10. Subscribe today on the platform you enjoying listening to. New to our podcast? We have 10 episodes ready for you to binge! https://fteonline.org/sotg
Read More »September 08, 2021
Sound of the Genuine is the Forum for Theological Exploration’s podcast exploring meaning and purpose. In each episode, we’re invited into the vocational journey of leaders of the church and academy. In the first episode of our limited audio series, Rev. Dorlimar Lebrón explores her call to ministry from suburban churches in New England to her current congregation in New York, the People’s Church, once home to the Young Lords.
Read More »May 28, 2021
The Forum for Theological Exploration’s family reunion is something not to be missed. It brings together generations of scholars who were mentored into and through our family networks. It takes place at conferences, on campuses, on Sundays, over coffee, and online. The FTE family reunion has a long history, one steeped in the sacred relationship known as mentoring.
Read More »March 16, 2021
On April 22, 2020, Earth Day turns 50. During that first celebration in 1970, more than 20 million people, including many religious leaders and young adults, went outside to demand a better world. In that same year, the National Environment Protection Act went into effect establishing the Environmental Protection Agency.
Read More »April 21, 2020
Design is about meaning and purpose. Design is about calling and vocation. Design is taking seriously our own agency, power, and responsibility to create the conditions for future generations to thrive.
Read More »January 28, 2020
In FTE’s video celebrating 50 years of doctoral fellowships, Rev. Dr. Gregory C. Ellison II, reminds us of the importance of the work of scholars of color. He states that in 1968, “we needed scholars of color to live boldly in that moment.” The images in the video remind us of the many events of that year: the death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Juan Carlos and Tommie Smith lifting their black-gloved fists at the Olympics in Mexico, and César Chávez leading the UFW and his first spiritual fast. During that same year, we remember there were only 18 doctoral students of color in religion.
Read More »April 02, 2019
In 1968, Executive Director of the Fund for Theological Education (FTE), C. Shelby Rooks looked at the landscape of theological education. There were only 18 African American Ph.D. students in religion in the US and only 40 African American professors held Ph.D.s in the field. Building on the legacy of the Rockefeller Brothers Doctoral Fellowship, FTE began awarding the Special Opportunity for Doctoral Study of Religion for African Americans. In 1976, while looking at similar data for the Latinx community, FTE begins offering the Special Opportunity for Doctoral Study of Religion for Hispanic Americans
Read More »April 20, 2017
What is excellence in theological education? During FTE’s annual Mentoring Consortium, a gathering of organizations who support scholars of color, we asked this very question.
Read More »April 06, 2017
A flower farmer went out to his lily fields to see how they were growing. He looked over his acreage and saw the lilies swaying in the wind. He thought to himself, “What a beautiful field of lilies.” He saw out in the corner of his fields a small rose rising just above the rest of the lilies. He marched over to pull the colorful rose from the ground.
Read More »October 04, 2016
I explored theology for one reason: Christians had saved my life. From the Christian Brothers, who took the time to be fully present with me during times of deep pain and sadness, which I hinted at in my last postpat, to Grandma Reyes, a devout Mexican Catholic, who held all the pains and joys of our incredible family, I was formed by those who had deep theological convictions.
Read More »April 19, 2016
One gray afternoon surrounded by rows of lettuce fields, I ventured onto one of the main streets in my neighborhood in Salinas, California. A car pulled up next to me on the curb. Slowly the rear passenger window rolled down. A young man showed his face. He pointed, what I would later call “God’s judgment,” a .45 in my direction and yelled “WHAT DO YOU CLAIM?”
Read More »February 03, 2016