希瑟·杜波依斯助理教授, 左, 和副教授Jaime水域(摄影:Lee Pellegrini)
痛苦和创伤是人类生活中不可避免的一部分. Interdisciplinary scholar 希瑟·杜波依斯 and Scripture scholar Jaime水域 are two new School of Theology and 部 faculty members whose teaching and research are connected to the study and understanding of 痛苦 and its theological and ministerial implications.
杜波依斯, 和平电子游戏正规平台的助理教授, 创伤, 和精神, says it is critical for people doing ministry work to have an understanding of 创伤 because they are dealing with other people at their most vulnerable, 融入他们的身份, 希望, 和梦想. “如果你是一位部长, 你是怎么接近讲坛的, 咨询环节, 电子游戏正规平台小组, 当你意识到创伤是如何起作用的时候，稍微改变一下?”
杜波依斯’s expertise in 创伤-informed theology and peace studies has roots in her early professional experiences in the nonprofit sector at the local and international levels. 从杜兰大学毕业后, 杜波依斯在她的家乡为路易斯安那州暴力预防联盟工作. “这让我对社会工作者等人的日常工作有了深入的了解, 老师, 心理健康专业人员, 以及以直接或间接方式处理暴力事件的急救人员. 我对他们与人合作的方式感到敬畏. 所以见证他们的工作对我来说真的很有力量, 我继承了他们的经历, 他们的问题, 他们的挣扎在我的脑海里.”
After earning a master’s degree in conflict resolution from the University of Bradford (UK), she worked at the global organization Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, 总部设在纽约, which brought her in contact with peacebuilders from various religious traditions—Muslim, 犹太人, 佛教, 和基督教.
“他们从和平教育无所不包, 调解武装组织之间的争端, 创伤愈合, 组织农民维护他们的权利. 和平电子游戏正规平台吸引我的部分原因是它可以是如此的广泛, 因为人类在很多方面都存在冲突. I wanted to understand how to think like them, feel like them, talk like them, and be like them. 他们的工作激励我回到学校学习神学.”
杜波依斯 obtained a master’s degree in theology and ethics from Fordham University 和Ph值.D. 圣母院大学和平电子游戏正规平台和神学专业. 在去年秋天加入STM之前，她曾在斯通希尔学院任教.
杜波依斯对建设性应对冲突的兴趣, 创伤, 暴力是由她想要避免痛苦的欲望驱使的. “我从事司法工作是因为我对苦难有一颗同情的心. 苦难的问题总是激励着我. 如果你对痛苦感兴趣，你会学到一些关于创伤的知识. 因此，创伤电子游戏正规平台是通过为和平与正义而工作而来到我身边的. 当我把这些东西结合在一起, 我看到我们的一些灵性是如何解决深层痛苦的, 位移, 流亡, 和背叛. We use the language of 创伤 as a contemporary reality, but it's an old experience.”
That’s where Associate Professor of Old Testament Jaime水域’s study of 痛苦 is centered: more than two thousand years ago.
她在一个关于旧约先知耶利米的研讨会上授课, 谁也是她即将出版的新书的主题. 耶利米, 被称为“哭泣的先知”,” lived from the late seventh century BCE to mid-sixth century BCE and wrote about events of his time, 其中包括犹大沦陷于巴比伦人手中.
沃特斯说:“他生活在一个动荡和痛苦的时代. 他的预言生涯持续了大约40年. 他批评人们的生活和崇拜方式. 他看到了犹大王国的灭亡, 所罗门神殿的毁灭, 人们被流放. 在耶利米和他的书后来的编辑们看来, 人民的苦难是自己造成的, 所以他们应该做好准备，而不是抵制它.”
他的批评信息没有得到很好的回应, 说水, 和耶利米经历的阻力, 痛苦, 和攻击. “他觉得自己在社区里是个笑柄. He is attacked by a priest; he's thrown in a cistern to die.”
沃特斯补充说，耶利米也批评上帝. “他觉得自己被抛弃了，因为他经历了太多的痛苦. 所以他感觉不到上帝所说的保护他的方式.
"I also think they [the hopeful chapters of the Book of 耶利米] can resonate well with people today when thinking about our modern chaos and the 痛苦 we are experiencing, 例如COVID-19大流行以及争取种族正义和平等的斗争.”
“[The Book of 耶利米] flips back and forth between narratives about 耶利米's life and then prophetic statements that he might have delivered to different communities. It reads a little bit messy, but I think it beautifully expresses the chaos of its time.”
沃特斯指出，耶利米书也有章节谈到希望, 祷告的重要性, 还有一种开放, 包容的治疗愿景. “Those texts I think were important for people at the time to get through the war and chaos,沃特斯说, “but I also think they can resonate well with people today when thinking about our modern chaos and the 痛苦 we are experiencing, 例如COVID-19大流行以及争取种族正义和平等的斗争.”
It was her undergraduate experience at 电子游戏软件 that set Waters on the path to becoming a biblical scholar.
她跟随克里·克罗宁学习《电子游戏软件》. 她说在那堂课之前，她没有读多少圣经, but soon discovered exploring the Bible appealed to her theological devotion and her intellectual curiosity. “I really loved the idea of reading texts and thinking critically about them and trying to see what they meant in antiquity and what they might mean to me today.”
沃特斯还参加了大卫·范德胡夫特的神学课程, 约翰·达, and Pheme Perkins that examined the historical and 文化 realities surrounding when the Bible was written. 她回忆说，那时她就想:“我想把这个作为我的职业. 我觉得自己被召唤去当教授.”
她于2006年毕业于BC大学，获得神学和哲学双学位. 她得了个M.A. 在耶鲁大学专攻圣经，主修宗教. 她拿的是M。.A. 和Ph值.D. in Near Eastern studies with a focus in Hebrew Bible/Old Testament from Johns Hopkins University. 在加入STM之前，她曾任教于DePaul University.
“如果你是一位部长, 你是怎么接近讲坛的, 咨询环节, 电子游戏正规平台小组, 当你意识到创伤是如何起作用的时候，稍微改变一下?”
本项目
杜波依斯正在写一本书，书名是 走出僵局在书中，她使用了十字架上的圣约翰的灵性，公元16年th世纪修道士, 以及朱迪思·巴特勒的当代批判理论, 美国著名的哲学家和性别理论家, 提出一种穿越僵局的愿景.
而不是想象自己站在一座山的前面, 杜波依斯认为，最好把自己想象成一个网络.
“我们是有关系的生物，”她说. “我们正, 不管是好是坏, 这是结构关系的复杂网络的一部分, 文化, 人际关系. They are part of our biology, shaped by our spiritualities and our religious traditions. And all of these different relationships are dynamic so they can move in different ways over time. 如果我们能把它们理解为动态的, we have a lot more opportunities to reconfigure our situation and move through what is experienced as an impossible impasse.”
Waters’s book on 耶利米 is going to be published by Liturgical Press as part of its Wisdom Commentary series, 为圣经的每一卷书提供女权主义的解释. That means that Waters is reading and commenting on the text with an eye to the ways that women are found in the text and how they might be impacted by the text.
“Some of the imagery in 耶利米 is graphic and honestly kind of offensive towards women,沃特斯说. “My commentary tries to wrestle with some of those issues and come up with reading strategies and different ways of interpreting texts that are true to what the text meant historically, 但也关注当今女性的现实.”
教学
除了关于耶利米的研讨会, 沃特斯在秋天教授旧约的核心叙事:创世记到列王记. She is teaching Introduction to Old Testament and Women in Scripture this semester. 后一种方法, 说水, 调查了《电子游戏正规平台》和《电子游戏软件》中形形色色的女性, 有名字的和没有名字的, 为了理解他们在文本中被描述的方式. 这门课程与困难的描述作斗争, 将段落置于其历史中, 文学, 以及神学背景, and offers ways of reading ancient women in a variety of pastoral and academic settings.”
杜波依斯教授绝境和精神转化, for which students write about contemporary impasses from which people are 痛苦, 比如美国的移民或气候变化.
她的另一门课程是“冲突解决与转型”. 杜波依斯 says that conflict can be understood as neutral—a difference or friction—and that “if we can deal constructively with conflict, 我们可以防止它演变成暴力.
“我试图帮助学生改变他们的参考框架, 创造性地思考冲突,杜波依斯说, 谁列举了创伤是如何阻止这种情况发生的. “当我们受到创伤或压力时, 我们转向了一种专注于生存的模式, 这让我们无法创造性地解决问题.”
她的其他课程是社会精神关怀和创伤治疗与预防.
STM的使命和社区
“I find it exciting to work with the STM students because many of them will be in a ministerial setting, 广泛的定义,杜波依斯说, 这与我自己在非营利组织工作的背景有关. 所以我觉得它完成了一个圆.”
杜波依斯 said that she has found that her time in Simboli Hall has pushed her to be better in her theological thinking. “(学生们的)问题来自于帮助别人的愿望. 这让我更加努力地思考对我的职业很重要的问题. 因为如果我对防止痛苦感兴趣，我必须成为一个好老师.”
她自己就是一个桥梁建造者, 杜波依斯 likes that 电子游戏软件 is a place that puts value on building bridges across communities. “如果你想有效地应对痛苦, 你需要愿意去考虑它, 并从不同的角度来看待它. 没有任何一种纪律能解决我们的痛苦. 我们必须共同努力. 这是一件显而易见的事情，但我们并不总是这样做.”
Waters said she was particularly drawn to teach in the STM because she liked the idea of helping people who are preparing for ministry.
“It was really exciting to have an opportunity to come back [to BC] as a faculty member,沃特斯说. “我爱这个社区. 我喜欢这个任务. 我爱耶稣会天主教徒的身份. 我真的很喜欢这里的人.”
凯瑟琳·沙利文|大学传播| 2023年4月