A few years ago, the idea of 3-D printing a major body organ like a kidney was unthinkable, but now scientists eye North Carolina as a national hub for human organs partly due to regenerative medicine research at Wake Forest University.  Medical advances in biotechnology seem to be coming faster than the public can understand them all or even discuss how society should handle ethical, legal and moral considerations.

To spark the national conversation, Wake Forest has partnered with Baylor University to host “After the Genome: The Language of our Biotechnological Future” April 12-13. Fourteen scholars from across North America with expertise in medicine, science, religion and communication will present, including:

• Baylor University President Ken Starr;
• Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine Dr. Anthony Atala;
• Cohen Professor for the Study of Ethics and Human Values at Dartmouth Ronald M. Green;
• Ezra E.H. Griffith, Professor of Psychiatry and African-American Studies, Emeritus and Senior Research Scientist at Yale School of Medicine 

“There is a rising awareness that the way we talk about science, biotechnology and medical miracles is not neutral, but suggests agendas,” Michael Hyde, Distinguished Professor of Communication Ethics at Wake Forest and conference organizer said. “And this national conversation will help shape public expectations regarding medical science. How far can we stretch science to give us longer or better lives through medical miracles? And if we use the word miracle, should we consider the religious implications of biotechnological advances?”

In many conferences, the papers presented are compiled into a publication afterward, but in this case, the book comes first. Wake Forest and Baylor University Press have worked for nearly two years to produce a book of essays containing the scholarship of the thought leaders who will present at the conference. That book will be available at the conference. 

“Everybody is a moral agent,” said Nancy King, co-director of the Center for Bioethics, Health and Society. “Academics don’t have any special corner on figuring out what the right thing to do is, but we can help to deepen and broaden public discussion. Science is extremely important and medicine is extremely important, but they’re not going to solve all the world’s problems. What’s going to solve all the world’s problems is how society makes use of science.”

The conference will end with a debate between Wake Forest and Baylor’s collegiate debate teams, using the presentations given over the two-day event as evidence and materials for discussion. Both schools trace their debate team histories back to the 1850s and have national titles under their belts, so it should be a spirited conversation.

Beyond the language, biotechnology has enormous economic implications. North Carolina is third in the nation behind California and Massachusetts when it comes to the life-science industrial sector and it generates $59 billion in economic activity, according to a recent study.

The Office of the Provost, Department of Communications, Humanities Institute and the Center for Bioethics, Health and Society at Wake Forest University, along with the Provost’s Fund, Baylor University Press and the Institute for Faith and Learning at Baylor University have organized the event. 

Melissa Rogers, who teaches in Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity, has been named the new director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Rogers has led the Center for Religion and Public Affairs at Wake Forest University School of Divinity since 2004. The Center has promoted research, study and dialogue regarding the intersection of religion and public affairs.

Rogers has taught courses on church-state relations. In the fall, she taught “Christianity and Public Policy” with divinity school faculty member James Dunn. Perry Dixon, a divinity school student in the class, wrote about his experiences in this blog.

“The context she has given our students in D.C. has been invaluable,” said Gail O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity. “Every year, they get to meet with the ‘A’ list of movers and shakers in D.C., and it has had a lasting impact on our students. They are much more sophisticated about the ways religious leadership and politics intersect. Melissa has been a good guide for them for the important issues of church and state that are often so complicated in the U.S.”

Because of her teaching at Wake Forest, Rogers has a lot more experience with what “religion on the ground looks like,” O’Day says. “The questions that School of Divinity students ask have given her a glimpse into what is important to today’s religious leaders.”

In a statement posted March 15 on the White House web site, Rogers says, “I’m honored to be appointed s the director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. … It is a privilege to serve President Obama and my fellow Americans by forging and promoting a wide range of effective partnerships to help people in need.”

Rogers also serves as a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Institution and has held other leadership roles focused on religion and public policy. She previously served as the executive director of the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. In 2009, President Barack Obama appointed her chair of the first Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. She has testified before the Constitution Subcommittees of the Judiciary Committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.

In 2010, Wake Forest’s Center for Religion and Public Affairs released a statement titled Religious Expression in American Life:  A Joint Statement of Current Law.

“As happy as we are for her and for the country, it will be a great loss for us,” O’Day says.  “We will look for new ways to partner with her in her new role.”

Nearly a billion people on the planet don’t have enough to eat and more than half a billion are obese. In response to growing food-related challenges, the Wake Forest University School of Divinity has established the Food, Faith and Religious Leadership Initiative.

With a focus on providing current and future religious leaders with the knowledge and skills to lead their congregations and religious communities around food issues, it is the first of its kind in the country.

“Food – food access, food quality, food production – is one of the defining issues of this generation,” says Gail O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity.  “The rapid growth of local food and farm-to-table movements has sparked a creative and essential conversation that links the revitalization of rural economies, food access for urban neighborhoods and the health and well-being of all our communities.”

O’Day says the initiative, launched this fall, has the potential to redefine theological education, reenergize the church and transform how we understand service.

Fred Bahnson, director of Food, Faith and Religious Leadership

“Food is an important frame for faith issues,” says Fred Bahnson, who was appointed director of the program. “Over the past seven years, I’ve witnessed the rise of a new faith-based movement, and I believe this renewed interest in food, justice and sustainability is driven by an even deeper hunger to see embodied what the biblical writers call Shalom, that graced state of being that results from the right relationships between God, people and the land.” Bahnson co-founded Anathoth Community Garden in Cedar Grove, N.C., and is the co-author of “Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation.” He has been invited to present a TED X talk in Manhattan Feb. 16 on “Changing the Way We Eat.”

While churches have often focused on food in terms of food aid, many are now thinking outside the food pantry/soup kitchen model to recreate local food economies and address food issues beyond “filling bellies,” Bahnson says.

The Initiative will train religious leaders to look beyond emergency-based responses and begin to address the root causes of hunger, obesity, food injustice and damaged ecosystems.

Third-year divinity student Nathan Peifer has a strong interest in environmental and faith issues. But, he has a particular passion for gardening and is excited about the food and faith initiative. “I think faith communities have the right combination of social capital and financial capital to manage healthy and productive community gardens,” says Peifer, who plans to be a Presbyterian minister. “I will certainly be involved in the local community garden movement and in equipping congregations to produce food for those who experience food insecurity as a daily reality.” He is looking forward to taking Bahnson’s course, “Food, Table, Communion” in the spring and has already taken “Faith, Food Justice and Local Communities,” a course taught this fall by Mark Jensen, associate professor of pastoral care and pastoral theology, and Sara Quandt, professor of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

“Food is the way we celebrate, the way we connect, the way we care for one another,” Jensen says. “It is at the spiritual and ethical core of faith communities to help hungry people.”

Caleb Pusey, a third-year divinity student who is also earning a joint degree in counseling, sees the value of making food and faith issues an important part of theological education. “The food most of us eat creates distance from our tables, distance from our farmers and distance from our fields. This is as much a crisis of the spirit as it is a crisis of practical insight and public resolve. This is why future faith leaders have a vital role to play.” Pusey co-founded the student group, Eco-Theo, three years ago.

Wake Forest School of Divinity Dean Gail O'Day

The Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative works with current students at the School of Divinity, but has also created a continuing education program for religious leaders and congregations. The program will focus on two geographic areas: Winston-Salem and Asheville. “The geographic, agricultural and religious richness of central/western North Carolina creates a living laboratory for engaging the crucial issues of food insecurity, food deserts and the attendant health disparities that confront the region,” O’Day says.

The initiative’s first event, a seminar and lecture on “The Spirituality of Eating” in Asheville this month, drew more than 130 people aged 19 to 82. “Its success pointed to the urgency of the topic and the incredible all-generational appeal of these issues,” she says.

“Paula read Psalm 94 in English, Hannah read it in Hebrew, and Muhammad sang a few verses from the Quran,” said Bob Stillerman, a School of Divinity student describing a scene from Wake Forest’s recent Interfaith Pilgrimage to the Holy Land.

The group of 13 divinity school and undergraduate students and their leaders—School of Divinity Professor Neal Walls and Associate Chaplain for Muslim Life Khalid Griggs—gathered at a spot overlooking the Sea of Galilee during the University’s winter break.

“All at once we were connected to an ancient tradition of looking upon the hills and mountains of Israel and giving thanks to God,” Stillerman wrote in the blog chronicling the journey to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Masada and other places of religious and historical significance in the region.

Participants discussed the trip at a public presentation on campus Jan. 26.  The two-week experience was the beginning of a semester-long class devoted to the history and religious traditions of Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.

Sophomore Avalon French, a religion major and co-president of the University’s Interfaith Council, was among the undergraduates who traveled on the Interfaith Pilgrimage.

“With Professor Walls and Imam Griggs, we would visit one place, like the Temple Mount, and get two different perspectives,” French said. “It opened our minds to different points of view and helped us understand the value of interfaith dialogue.”

As the participants visited sites in Israel and looked at them from Christian, Jewish and Islamic perspectives, Griggs said he saw many of them become energized about interfaith work.

Divinity School Professor Neal Walls and Associate Chaplain for Muslim Life Khalid Griggs visit the fortress city of Akko with the group.

“Nowhere else in the world is the message clearer of why interfaith cooperation is so important,” he said. “They developed a greater appreciation of others’ faiths, the necessity of cooperation and how that directly impacts society. It humanizes us all when we take the time to understand that the common space we all share is much larger than we thought it was. There are many more issues of common concern. When we take the opportunity to understand people of other faiths in our community, we realize there is so much we can do together.”

Griggs and Walls have worked, along with the Office of the Chaplain and other members of the campus community, to encourage interfaith connections overseas and closer to home.

“Our group returned from this pilgrimage with an increased awareness of the diverse religious sensitivities that claim Israel and Palestine as ‘holy land,’ the difficult position of minority religious communities and the value of interfaith cooperation,” Walls said. “Our conversations about religious pluralism will continue throughout the spring semester as we reach out to the larger religious community at Wake Forest and in the local area.”

As part of the course, students will be asked to engage members of local mosques, churches and synagogues in interfaith dialogue.

In recognition of Griggs’ longstanding interfaith outreach work, he was appointed in January to the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, the largest interfaith forum in the world. The organization’s mission is promoting “harmony and cooperation among the world’s religious and spiritual communities and fostering their contribution to a more just, peaceful and sustainable world.”

Wake Forest Chaplain Tim Auman said, “Wake Forest’s commitment to interfaith dialogue is reflected in academic programs like the Interfaith Pilgrimage and in the day-to-day life of the University. We seek to create an environment where people of all spiritual and philosophical traditions are welcomed and supported.”

Noted Harvard University theologian Harvey G. Cox Jr. spoke at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the School of Divinity’s Spring Convocation in Wait Chapel and joined in Wake Forest’s celebration of the establishment of the School of Divinity’s first endowed chair, the James and Marilyn Dunn Chair of Baptist Studies.

Cox, the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, is the author of “The Future of Faith,” and several books on religion, culture and politics.  An American Baptist minister, he addressed the significance of the new chair for the education of the next generation of church leaders.

“The Dunn Chair will inspire variations and new harmonies of what it means to have religious freedom and bring continuity to the great traditions of Baptists,” Cox said.

Established in honor of James and Marilyn Dunn, influential Baptist leaders for more than half a century, the Dunn Chair positions the School of Divinity as a leader in the ongoing conversation about the future of Baptist life.

Bill J. Leonard, the founding dean of Wake Forest’s Divinity School, was named the first Dunn Chair in the fall and was installed during Convocation.

Wake Forest President Nathan Hatch, who also spoke at Convocation, emphasized the importance of the faculty position, “This occasion, being celebrated in Wait Chapel, named for the first president of Wake Forest University and his wife, Samuel and Sarah Wait, celebrates the heritage of embodying learning and excellence the Dunn Chair represents.”

Wake Forest will celebrate the 400^th anniversary of the King James Bible with a concert performed by six Winston-Salem churches and a library exhibition of rare and historic Bibles.

“The King James Bible was first published in 1611, and remains one of the most influential books in the English-speaking world,” said Gail R. O’Day, Dean of Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity. “It has shaped Christian piety and practice for centuries, yet its influence also extends beyond the religious sphere. Hundreds of English idioms, more than any other single source including Shakespeare, were popularized in the King James Bible and are still used today. ‘Feet of clay’ and ‘reap the whirlwind’ are two examples.”

For the first time ever, choirs and organists from Augsburg Lutheran Church, Centenary United Methodist Church, First Baptist Church, First Presbyterian Church, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, United Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church and the Wake Forest School of Divinity will perform together in a celebration of psalms.

The concert, titled “Singing Our Faith: A Choral Celebration Honoring the 400th Anniversary of the King James Bible,” will take place at 4:30 p.m. Oct. 30 in Wait Chapel at Wake Forest University. The concert is sponsored by the University’s Office of the President and coordinated by the School of Divinity. Admission is free and open to the public.

“Winston-Salem is uniquely blessed with incredibly talented organists and choir directors,” said Wake Forest University Organist Don Armitage. “I am excited to bring so many of them together for a celebration of this magnitude.”

To mark the 400^th anniversary, the Special Collections Department of the Z. Smith Reynolds Library has curated an exhibit of 30 historic Bibles from its collection. The exhibit, titled “God’s Sacred Word Amongst Us,” is currently on display in the Library’s Special Collections Reading Room and will remain available until January 2012.

The exhibit includes bibles dating to 1546 and features a 1611 first edition folio King James Bible; some of the first Bibles printed in North America; and examples of artistic and technological innovation inspired by the Bible’s publication and representative of milestones in book design.

To coincide with the choral celebration, the Special Collections Department and the School of Divinity will co-sponsor a travelling exhibit of historic Bibles from the private collection of Michael Morgan during the last week of October. Morgan has assembled one of the most comprehensive private collections of English Bibles, New Testaments, and Psalters in the United States.

Morgan is organist at Atlanta’s historic Central Presbyterian Church and seminary musician at Columbia Theological Seminary. He has played recitals and worship services across the country, and throughout Europe.  He will be the featured speaker at a Library Lecture Series event Oct. 28 at 3 p.m. His lecture, titled  ”The King James Bible: Its Legend and Legacy,” is open to the public and will take place in the ZSR Library Special Collections Reading Room.

For more information about the international 400^th anniversary celebration of the King James Bible, visit http://www.kingjamesbibletrust.org/

Professor of Church History Bill J. Leonard has been named the first James and Marilyn Dunn Chair of Baptist Studies at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Established in honor of the Dunns, influential Baptist leaders for more than half a century, the chair positions the School of Divinity as a leader in the ongoing conversation about the future of ministry in Baptist churches.

“The chair in Baptist studies focuses the school’s Baptist heritage and enables us to harness the strengths of that heritage for the education of leaders who will shape the present and future of Baptist life,” said Gail R. O’Day, dean of the School of Divinity.

Leonard, a scholar of church history and ordained Baptist minister, has dedicated much of his career to the study of the Baptist church. He was the founding dean of the Wake Forest School of Divinity.

“I am thrilled Bill has accepted the invitation to become the James and Marilyn Dunn Chair in Baptist Studies,” O’Day said. “Bill’s teaching, writing and public engagement with Baptist life will insure that the Dunns’ commitment to the preservation of individual liberty and freedom in Christ will continue at Wake Forest University School of Divinity as we educate a new generation of women and men for religious leadership.”

After retiring as dean in 2010, Leonard has continued to teach church history in the divinity school and the religion department.

“The Dunn Chair offers the University a tangible opportunity to celebrate its origins even as it moves toward greater inclusion of religious diversity and identities,” Leonard said. “In this position, particularly because it is named for the Dunns, I hope I will be able to explore that progressive Baptist identity and the role of conscience and dissent in shaping the relationship between faith and culture.”

Among Leonard’s most recent books are “Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers” (Westminster/John Knox, 2009) and “Baptists in America” (Columbia University Press, 2005). Prior to joining the faculty at Samford University in 1992, he taught for nearly 20 years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He earned a bachelor of arts degree from Texas Wesleyan College, a master of divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a doctoral degree from Boston University.

James and Marilyn Dunn have been important partners in the work of the divinity school. This chair also honors their life’s work. James Dunn, who joined the School of Divinity faculty in 1999, is internationally known for his leadership of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty and his expertise on church and state issues. Marilyn Dunn, a soprano, is a well-known Baptist musician.

“In the classroom, the pulpit and the public square, James has spoken out for Baptist ideals of separation of church and state, as well as Baptist theology and history,” O’Day said. “Over the past decade, James has helped to prepare dozens of new ministers for the challenges they will face as religious leaders, not only within congregations and non-profit agencies, but in the political and social issues of their communities.”

James Dunn served as executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty in Washington, D.C., from 1980 to 1999 and has served as president of their endowment. Dedicated to defending and extending religious liberty for all people, the organization deals with issues of religious liberty and separation of church and state for 14 Baptist conventions and conferences in the United States as well as for several hundred churches. For 12 years, Dunn was the executive director of the Christian Life Commission, the social action agency of Texas Baptists. He is a past president of Bread for the World and a former chairman of the Ethics Commission of the Baptist World Alliance. He serves on the boards of Baptists Today and the T.B. Maston Foundation.

Marilyn Dunn is the daughter of Edwin and Polly McNeely, longtime professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. She has performed at various musical events in North Carolina, and performed with the divinity school choir.

“Marilyn and I are genuinely humbled and immensely gratified with the announcement of the chair,” Dunn said. “It is a high honor to be identified with the Baptist heritage of the divinity school at Wake Forest University. “We rejoice also that the first occupant of the chair is to be Dr. Bill J. Leonard, the preeminent historian of Baptists in the United States today. He is an incomparable participant observer of Baptist faith, life and practice.”

Mention religion and some people become armchair preachers who pepper their conversations with popular Christian words and trendy theological phrases. Bill Leonard, professor of church history at the School of Divinity, discusses “speaking Christian” in a CNN story.

Nine professors — in art, counseling, divinity, economics, history, religion, journalism, classical languages and East Asian languages — are retiring this year, after leaving an indelible mark on generations of students dating back to the 1970s.

Wake Forest Professor of Church History Bill Leonard and Divinity School graduate Rev. Yvonne Hines (MDiv. ’04) each received the Lifetime Achievement Award for Community Service at The Chronicle’s 26^th annual Community Service Awards on March 19.

The Chronicle is a Winston-Salem newspaper focused on the African-American community.   The awards were presented at a ceremony held in downtown Winston-Salem. The Rev. Dr. Sir Walter Mack Jr., pastor of Union Baptist Church, was the keynote speaker for the event that drew more than 500 community members.

In addition, Wake Forest Baseball Coach Tom Walter received a Special Recognition Award for “selflessly donating a kidney to a player.”

“It is wonderful for a faculty member and a graduate of the School of Divinity to be honored at the same time in this way,” said Wake Forest Divinity School Dean Gail O’Day.  “Community engagement is key to theological education at Wake Forest, and these awards confirm the value of our common work.”

Leonard was the founding dean of the Wake Forest School of Divinity, which began in 1999.  He retired from that role in the spring of 2010. He has served on the board of the Appalachian Ministries Educational Resource Center and the editorial board of the Journal of Religion, Disability and Health.  An ordained Baptist minister, Leonard has also served as interim pastor of more than 25 congregations.  Leonard is the author of more than 15 books and 400 articles.

Hines serves as Senior Presbyter of the Mount Sinai Full Gospel Deliverance Center in Winston-Salem. She was recognized for doing significant work in response to neighborhood development, poverty and gang violence.