Rev. Rob Schenck Miller Center Sr. Fellows Learn and Collaborate Across America
When I joined the Hebrew College faculty, I did not come alone. With me were 22 scholars, academics, clergy leaders, and advocates for various causes who were senior fellows of the Washington, DC-based Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute. Named for the young, brave, and brilliant World War II-era pastor, moral theologian, and Nazi resister, the Institute selected fellows because their expertise intersected with Bonhoeffer’s life, times, interests, and work.
My departure from the Institute’s presidency signaled the end of its five-year run, and the fellows needed to find a new home. They did, at the generous invitation of Miller Center executive director Or Rose. Today, the same collection of outstanding religious professionals, well-known and admired in their respective fields, constitute the Bonhoeffer cohort of Senior Interreligious Leadership Fellows at the Miller Center.
The group meets regularly to discuss topics of common interest, advise on programming, and exchange knowledge and resources. They recently convened online to hear from Dr. Reggie Williams, Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University and a scholar of the American Black Church and Harlem Renaissance.
Reggie spoke to the fellows about his research on Bonhoeffer’s time at New York’s Union Theological Seminary in 1931 and 39. During this time, he interned at Harlem’s famed Abyssinian Baptist Church under the pastoral direction of Adam Clayton Powell. Reggie explores this transformative experience for Bonhoeffer in his book, Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, published by Baylor University Press.
An informative and entertaining part of Reggie’s presentation was his story of advising Angel Studios on the making of the recently released feature-length dramatic film Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Spy, Assassin. His incisive criticism of the final product, “The tropes that birth the hero,” was featured in the November issue of The Christian Century.
The cohort’s long collegial interaction has yielded friendships and many collaborations. Last month, Fellow Simran Singh Stuelpnagel of Albuquerque hosted Or Rose and me at a vigil for peace in the Washington National Cathedral. Fellows Michelle Warren of Denver, and Michael Austin of Knoxville will join Or, Marilyn Stern, Rabbi Lenny Gordon, and me for the New Jewish-Evangelical Dialogue, which launches this month at Washington Hebrew Congregation in Washington, DC. Fellow Elizabeth Dickey, a hospital chaplain in Chicago, will visit the Hebrew College campus in Newton in early spring. We look forward to more of our fellows making visits in the days ahead!
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