Presenters

Peter Rollins is a widely sought after writer, lecturer, storyteller and public speaker. He is also the founder of ikon, a faith group that has gained an international reputation for blending live music, visual imagery, soundscapes, theatre, ritual and reflection to create what they call ‘transformance art’.

Peter gained his higher education from Queens University, Belfast and has earned degrees (with distinction) in Scholastic Philosophy (BA Hons), Political Theory (MA) and Post-Structural thought (PhD). He is currently a research associate with the Irish School of Ecumenics in Trinity College, Dublin and is the author of the much talked about How (Not) to Speak of God. His most recent work is entitled The Orthodox Heretic and Other Impossible Tales. He was born in Belfast but currently resides in Greenwich, CT.

John D. Caputo, Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion and Humanities at Syracuse University, is a hybrid philosopher/theologian intent on producing thoughts which circulate between philosophy and theology, short-circuits which deny fixed and rigorous boundaries between philosophy and theology. Caputo treats “sacred” texts as a poetics of the human condition, or as a “theo-poetics,” a poetics of the event harbored in the name of God. His past books have attempted to persuade us that hermeneutics goes all the way down (Radical Hermeneutics), that Derrida is a thinker to be reckoned with by theology (The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida), and that theology is best served by getting over its love affair with power and authority and embracing what Caputo calls, following St. Paul, The Weakness of God. He has also addressed wider-than-academic audiences in On Religion and What Would Jesus Deconstruct? and has an interest in interacting with the working church groups like Ikon and the Emergent Church. He is currently working on a book on our frail and mortal flesh, probably to be entitled The Fate of All Flesh: A Theology of the Event, II.




Karen Ward, an ordained Episcopal priest, is the founder of Anglimergent.org (a relational network of Anglicans engaging emerging church and mission), and cofounder of Episcopalvillage.org (companioning parishes and leaders in emerging/ fresh expressions of church and mission). She is Abbess of Church of the Apostles (Seattle, Washington), an influential emerging mission in North America. She is coauthor of Listening to the Beliefs of Emerging Churches: Five Perspectives (Zondervan, 2007), and contributor to Rising from the Ashes: Rethinking Church (Seabury, 2007), and Ancient Faith, Future Mission: Fresh Expressions in the Sacramental Tradition (Canterbury Press, 2009).




Emily Bowen is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and coauthor of Toward a Hopeful Future: Why the Emergent Church is Good News for Mainline Congregations. Emily is a graduate of Chapman University, Christian Theological Seminary, and Phillips Theological Seminary, and she currently serves as a pastor at Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield, Missouri, where she lends leadership to the Awakening, an emerging community rooted in Brentwood Christian Church.




Jeffrey W. Robbins is Associate Professor of Religion and American Studies at Lebanon Valley College in central Pennsylvania where he has been honored with the Thomas Rhys Vickroy Award for outstanding teaching. He is the author of three books, Radical Democracy and Political Theology (forthcoming from Columbia Press), Between Faith and Thought and In Search of a Non-Dogmatic Theology, as well as being the editor of After the Death of God and The Sleeping Giant Has Awoken: The New Politics of Religion in the United States. Each of these works seek to apply a postmodern deconstructive analysis to the contemporary practice and understanding of theology, and as such, continue in the proud tradition of American radical theology. He also co-edits a book series on religion, politics and culture for Columbia University Press and is associate editor for the online Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. He is a member and supporter of organizations such as the American Academy of Religion and Americans United for Separation of Church and State, both of which attest to the importance our faith traditions play in our private and public lives while also honoring and seeking to understand the diversity of beliefs and practices.




Christopher Rodkey is Pastor of Zion “Goshert’s” United Church of Christ in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and teaches at Lebanon Valley College. He holds doctorates from Drew University (Ph.D.) and Meadville Lombard Theological School (D.Min.). His work as pastor and scholar focuses upon a forced intersection of the pastoral with the philosophical, with particular interests in radical expressions of the Christian faith. His forthcoming book, The Synaptic Gospel, engages phenomenology and neuroscience to offer a pastoral theology of pan-generational worship. He lectures often on the practice of youth ministry and is an occasional contributor to the blog, An und fur sich.




Katharine Sarah Moody earned her PhD in Religious Studies in April 2010 from Lancaster University, UK, which used an examination of how the notion of truth is conceptualised in emerging Christian discourse to assess the viability of Radical Orthodoxy and deconstructive theology as theoretical frameworks for the emerging church milieu. She is now working on her first book, and seeking funding to further investigate how theological engagements with European philosophy might supply insights for a radical ethico-political sociality. She is particularly interested in working at the intersection of philosophical thought and the empirical study of religion to explore how contemporary theo-philosophies might be enacted in practice by religious collectives. Katharine is engaged to her partner, Sim, and together they are trying to work out how to have an “a/theistic” wedding ceremony!




Carl Raschke is an internationally known writer and academic who in the past decade has been concerned with postmodern Christianity and its significance in a global context. His most recent book GloboChrist (Baker Academic, 2008) examines the most recent trends in globalization, particularly religious ones, in light of what he calls “the planetary postmodern moment.” The book explores the shift in Christianity’s center of gravity from the West to the “global south” as well as the impact of the new “rhizomic” and “relational” (i.e., “incarnational”) church on Christianity as a whole, including its confrontation with a revived Islam. His previous book The Next Reformation (Baker Academic, 2004) examines the impact of postmodern thought on current Christianity. He is the author and co-author of approximately 20 books, hundreds of articles, and a frequent news commentator on religion and contemporary culture as well as higher education. He is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Denver and adjunct faculty at the Mars Hill Graduate School in Seattle. He is co-founder and senior editor of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University.




VOID is an experimental faith collective that utilizes a live mix of music, art, spoken word, personal reflections, and ritual to creatively engage questions of faith and doubt. A provocative and experiential event, VOID is marked by the religious question but remains radically open and non-confessional. VOID finds its home at Treff’s Bar in Waco, Texas.




Laura Fregin is a member of the Emergent Village Council and the minister of National Avenue Christian Church in Springfield, Missouri, which is a progressive faith community with a heart for social justice that is housed in a traditional framework. She is also a wife, mother, and grandmother and loves working at the intersection of faith, art, and justice. She has gratefully been a part of the emergent conversation for about six years.




Matthew Gallion is a graduate student at Missouri State University where he is pursuing an M.A. in Religious Studies. Matt studies responses to American evangelicalism in postmodern contexts, particularly the emerging church and the emergent conversation, and the intersection of faith and culture, particularly in crossing the “digital divide.” He is the author of “The Price of Freedom: Bribery, the Philippian Gift, and Paul’s Choice in Philippians 1:19-26,” which won the prize for best graduate paper at the annual meeting of the Central States Society of Biblical Literature. He received his B.A. from Southwest Baptist University and currently serves as Pastoral Resident at National Avenue Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Springfield, Missouri.




Phil Snider is a writer, speaker and pastor who pays attention to the intersections between religion and postmodernism, particularly the way they play out in community practices and rituals. He is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) who presently serves as a pastor of Brentwood Christian Church in Springfield, Missouri. He is the coauthor of Toward a Hopeful Future: Why the Emergent Church is Good News for Mainline Congregations and editor of Re-Traditioning: How Emergence Christianity is Shaping Mainline Practices (forthcoming). He holds degrees from Missouri State University (B.S.), Phillips Theological Seminary (M.Div.) and Chicago Theological Seminary (D.Min.).




Lindsey Arnold is a graduate student at Missouri State University, pursuing an M.A. in Religious Studies. Stemming from her love of Jesus films, she has focused her research on the intersection of religion and popular culture. Lindsey holds a B.A. in religion and philosophy from Drury University.










Julie Kennedy, self-described dancer with God, continually finds herself in dips, turns, slow, and fast dances with the Trinity. Sometimes it is messy but mostly it turns out beautiful. Julie encourages others around her to take on the dance in all its beauty and not to let a single boundary stand between the dance with the Trinity. Julie blogs for [D]mergent, guest contributes to Queermergent and writes on her personal blog The Wonderer. Julie works with special needs students in Kennett, MO where she resides. She is also full time student at Southeast Missouri State University in pursuit of a Masters in Social Work.




Travis Cooper is a graduate student in religious studies at Missouri State University. As a master’s student, much of his research has been geared towards the study of American Pentecostalism and its broader Evangelical context, specifically through ethnographical, sociological, and historical lenses. Travis is fascinated by the intersections of religion with studies in embodiment, everyday life, ritual(ization), and materiality. Currently, he is doing ethnographic research in Springfield-area congregations that will culminate in his master’s thesis, titled, “Ecstasy and the Kinesthetic Body: A Case Study of Pentecostal-Charismatic Contemporary Worship.” As a corollary to his studies of Evangelical religion, post-modern and post-Evangelical shifts in religious praxis have recently joined his burgeoning list of interests. Travis lives with his wife and two daughters in Springfield. He is a full-time stay-at-home-dad and part-time researcher, and is currently applying for doctoral programs in American religion.




David Weiss is a theologian, writer, poet and hymnist committed to doing “public theology” around issues of sexuality, justice, diversity, and peace. After a decade of teaching religion at the college level David presently devotes his primary time and energy to writing for and speaking in communities of faith about faith, sexuality, and welcome. He is the author of To the Tune of a Welcoming God: Lyrical reflections on sexuality, spirituality, and the wideness of God’s welcome. He holds degrees from Wartburg College (B.A.), Wartburg Seminary (M.A.) and the University of Notre Dame (M.A.). David and his wife, Margaret, live in St. Paul, Minnesota where they have a blended family of five children, three grandchildren, and assorted animals that approximate a peaceable kingdom.




Gary Black is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Exeter whose research interests include the effects of postmodern epistemology and theology within American Evangelicalism and the Emerging Church. He comes to the study and practice of theology after a successful twenty-year career as a partner in a large international investment firm. His experience has been in the areas of leadership development and management, strategic planning, trend analysis and organizational dynamics. In 2006 Gary retired from the corporate world and decided to focus his attention on the leadership future of the Christian church. He graduated Summa Cum-Laude with a Masters degree in Divinity from the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary before beginning his studies at Exeter.