Скачать или смотреть What Counts as a Charism? Discerning Signs of Grace in the Life of Pauli Murray

Should we think of charisms as a specific set of spiritual gifts demarcated in scripture? Or might certain human lives expand our understanding of what counts as a spiritual gift? Pauli Murray (1910-1985) was a path-breaking activist, attorney, poet, and scholar who was celebrated as the first African American woman ordained to the priesthood in the Episcopal Church, USA. Murray is also best described as genderqueer or nonbinary. Due to the coalescing effects of race and gender bias, personal and professional barriers abounded throughout her life. Cultivating a vibrant spiritual life required that she re-imagine what counted as a spiritual gift and nurture virtues that would help her thrive on the social and political frontier. This lecture will explore the eclectic, often-contested charisms that enabled Murray to engage in faithful risk-taking and maintain dialogue with people holding opposing views about human difference.

Donyelle C. McCray is Associate Professor of Homiletics at Yale Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut. Her scholarship focuses on African American preaching, sermon genre, and modes of authority. She examines the relationship between embodiment and authority in The Censored Pulpit: Julian of Norwich as Preacher (Lexington/Fortress Academic 2019). A forthcoming volume, Is it a Sermon? (Westminster John Knox Press), explores genre fluidity in African American preaching. For several years Donyelle has studied the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray and is currently writing a book about Murray’s preaching and spirituality, The Apostle Pauli. Deeply concerned about the workings of race in the church, she is collaborating on a documentary film with the Louisville Institute’s Clergy-Scholar Research Team on Race, Church, and Theological Practices.