News
Press Releases » Author Diana Butler Bass Heads Conference Line-Up at Montreat Conference Center
Author Diana Butler Bass Heads Conference Line-Up at Montreat Conference Center
Diana Butler Bass, author of six books on American religious practice, including Christianity for the Rest of Us and The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church, will head a world-class slate of preachers and teachers at this year’s Reclaiming the Text conference, May 26-30, at Montreat Conference Center. The conference theme for 2008, “New Life Emerging from Ancient Texts: Breathing New Life Into the Lectionary,” will focus on connections between ancient texts and emerging contexts.
“Diana Butler Bass is the soft-spoken prophet many of us have been waiting for,” said author Barbara Brown Taylor in praise of Christianity for the Rest of Us. “What is more, she assures us that what we hope for is already underway.”
“An emergent church is a congregation that is trying to speak to a new set of cultural conditions,” Bass said. “It’s not any longer assuming that American culture is a Christian culture or a protestant culture. Instead it’s trying to speak the old truths of the Gospel in new ways that respond to a post-Christian setting.” Bass speaks about “a quiet revival” happening in American religion today among moderate and liberal mainstream Christian congregations. “These Christians practice their faith with renewed enthusiasm, are experimenting with new forms of worship and service, and are, by their insistence on friendship, justice, and diversity, reforming the structures and traditions in which they find themselves.” She is quick to say, however, that this is neither the religious right nor the religious left. Bass calls it “a new, generous, practicing sort of postmodern Christianity, a kind of Christianity that is embracing and redefining tradition while enacting justice in the world.”
In addition to Bass, “Reclaiming the Text” features Brian Blount, President of Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, VA; Robert Brawley from McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL; Thomas Currie, dean of Union Theological Seminary, Charlotte, NC; Jaqueline Lapsley from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ; Jaqui Lewis, a senior minister at Middle Collegiate Church, New York, NY; Ched Myers, co-founder and program director of Bartimaeus Cooperative Ministries, Oak View, CA; Agnes Norfleet, pastor of Shandon Presbyterian Church in Columbia, SC; Nora Tubbs Tisdale from Yale Divinity School in New Haven, CT; Edna Banes from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, VA; and Barry Oliver, director of music ministries at Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church, Asheville, NC.
A book signing with Diana Butler Bass will be hosted by Montreat Books and Gifts on Wednesday, May 28, at 1:30 PM. To order books online, visit www.montreatbooksandgifts.org. Learn more about the Reclaiming the Text Conference online or call 800.572.2257 or 828.669.2911, ext. 339.