Paul S. Chung’s Interview with Prof. Lois Malcolm
Paul Chung takes the opportunity to interview Prof. Lois Malcolm at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. Our International Public Theology in Forum is excited to work together with Prof. Malcolm as we promote the links between public theology and democracy by way of attention to practices that cultivate civil society, interreligious engagement, and the integrity of our life-worlds.
I am delighted to introduce to Lois Malcolm (Ph.D., University of Chicago), the Olin and Amanda Fjelstad Reigstad Chair of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary. Her approach to theology involves deep engagement with the Bible and Scriptural hermeneutics, the history of Christianity, and contemporary philosophy, culture, and ethics. Given her own life experience (which includes being raised in the Philippines), such engagement is informed not only by world Christianity and interreligious dialogue, but also by interdisciplinary perspectives including the sociology and anthropology of religion, cultural and political theory, colonial and post-colonial discourse, and women, gender and sexuality studies. In addition, she has a strong interest in pedagogy, particularly teaching and learning across differences, both psychological and cultural.
Influenced by an exegesis of Scripture (especially Paul’s letters) and Paul Tillich’s systematic theology, Prof. Malcolm’s theological work centers on how such classic biblical and theological themes as forgiveness, reconciliation, and new creation—alongside mercy, justice, and righteousness—address the dysfunctional, destructive, and, indeed, tragic and demonic systems and patterns that often affect our contemporary lives, both personally and communally.
Her approach to research and teaching is rooted in a bottom-up reading of biblical and other classical texts that engages these texts by way of critical and creative reflection, and a range of spiritual practices, in order to rethink not only inherited theological categories (academic and popular) but also one’s broader assumptions for interpreting and responding to life’s varied dimensions, from the familial to the political and economic.
More specifically, she is interested in ways classic biblical and theological themes foster the cultivation of mature and ultimately self-dispossessing identity in individuals and communities, and especially in how this takes place across difference—not just between religious traditions, or between the religious and secular, but also within particular communities. In our time, it is often intra-communal difference that is the most difficult to address, especially as these are related to other differences (e.g., race, class, or gender as in Gal 3:28 or below for a longer list).
She is convinced that such work is essential to the call of Christian communities in our time, especially as they seek to contribute to a sense of the common good so essential to democratic societies, alongside the other networks, associations, and even religious traditions that constitute civil society (beyond the government or business). Such work is especially crucial in a time when the global expansion of capitalism, along with science and technology, can have an ambiguous effect on individuals and communities—as it creates wealth alongside inequality, on the one hand, and innovation alongside environmental degradation and communal disruption, on the other.
Contribution
Prof. Malcolm hopes to contribute to this forum on “International Public Theology” as a professor at Luther Seminary. As a learning community committed to training Christian public leaders both within North America and throughout the world, the seminary’s Lutheran confessional commitment to the gospel of Jesus Christ undergirds a commitment to radical hospitality that includes but is not limited “to differences of race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic circumstance, dis/ability, political perspective, ecclesial tradition, and theological commitments” (see Luther Seminary’s “Welcome Statement”).
Given this institutional affiliation and the emphases in her own research and teaching, Prof. Malcolm’s contributions to this forum will revolve around highlighting ways that the grassroots pedagogies and practices of local Christian communities—especially as they relate to cultivating community across differences of various kinds—can have profound reverberations throughout the globe for civil society, democracy, and even the possibility of living within sustainable social and natural life-worlds.
PUBLICATIONS
Second Corinthians, Belief Theological Commentary Series (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, forthcoming).
Sophia Cries Out in the Street: Wisdom in Christian Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, forthcoming).
The Holy Spirit’s Generative Grammar, Cascade Series: Reconstruction in Lutheran Doctrinal Theology (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, forthcoming).
God, The Westminster Collection of Sources of Christian Theology, ed. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012).
Holy Spirit: Creative Life and Power (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2009).