by Monica A. Coleman | Dec 16, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” I learned Psalm 23 by heart in the King James Version before I could read it in the Bible. Many young people raised in Christian families memorized this psalm for one of the Christian education events of a local church:...
by Monica A. Coleman | Dec 11, 2011 | Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
On December 1, 2011 the full professors of Claremont School of Theology rendered a unanimous vote to recommend that the Board of Trustees award me tenure. In the academic world, tenure is a significant accomplishment to which many aspire from the early days of...
by Monica A. Coleman | Dec 11, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
How can we have peace in the Middle East When there’s none at home? These are the opening lines to one of my favorite songs by jazz vocalist Rachelle Ferrell. The capstone to her self-titled 1992 album, “Peace on Earth,” speaks before and beyond the time of its...
by Monica A. Coleman | Dec 6, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
“Life is robbery.” I re-read this Alfred North Whitehead quotation to my students in the last weeks as we read through Adventures of Ideas. We were taking a welcome break from the philosophically demanding Process and Reality. I explained that this is one of...
by Monica A. Coleman | Nov 21, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
Since the Civil Rights era, many communities with which I affiliate have been “looking for the next King.” In some ways, this sentiment is a direct reference to the legendary leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., recently commemorated in the memorial on the National...
by Monica A. Coleman | Nov 8, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I love teaching in theological education because I loved being a student. When I was in college, I was an active lay Christian. I didn’t major in religion and had no plans to be a minister or professor of religion. But I had some questions that weren’t answered in...
by Monica A. Coleman | Oct 31, 2011 | Media, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
I’m talking about religious pluralism and Jesus with Homebrewed Christianity. Listen to my thoughts here
by Monica A. Coleman | Oct 19, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
A couple of years into my career as a minister, I learned a short phrase about the sounds of church from another minister. There’s an awkward space of time at the beginning of a sermon when the preacher indicates the biblical passage from which the sermon will draw...
by Monica A. Coleman | Oct 15, 2011 | Blog, Media, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
Writer and mental health advocate Therese Borchard interviewed me and it made it to the Huffington Post. Check it out. According to Raymond DePaulo, Jr. M.D., Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, African-American populations do not...
by Monica A. Coleman | Oct 9, 2011 | Blog, Monica's Blog, The Beautiful Mind Blog
When I was a teenager, I liked a boy who attempted suicide. I remember calling his home on an ordinary day. His mother answered the phone and told me a harrowing story of how she came home, and found his tall lanky body in the bathtub with blood spilling into the...
