Episode 142 - After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging: Willie James Jennings

The Wabash Center's Dialogue On Teaching

This conversation, dappled with Dr. Jennings’ readings of original poetry and prose, examines the destitution of faculty when the only legitimate expression of scholarship is to perform the values of being a white, self-sufficient, and male. Individualism, competition, and arcane merit standards have fundamentally distorted theological education. Jennings asserts that the generative aim of education ought to be belonging. He challenges us to muster the courage and creativity for the discovery of our genuine contributions to the production of knowledge. Without this risk we fail our students and one another. What is the collective sound of your faculty? When the faculty plays together - what is original tune? In what kinds of improvisation does your faculty revel? How does the music of the faculty inspire students to join in?