News

TMTC Senior Fellow, Lydia Neufeld Harder, has recently published The Challenge is in the Naming: A Theological Journey, which is now available from CMU Press and/or Wipf and Stock. The volume is built around a collection of previously published essays over the course of thirty years and is supplemented by current reflections and personal narratives that place these essays into a broader and engaging theological journey. Former TMTC PhD graduates, Suzanne Guenther Loewen and Kimberly Penner, describe this collection as "a rich blending of personal, church, and academic narratives and contexts. . . . [that] has the potential to become a pivotal resource for the next generation of Mennonite theologians, scholars, and pastors."

We are pleased to announce the appointment of Sarah K. Johnson as a Visiting Fellow at TMTC! Sarah is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Notre Dame and is writing a dissertation at the intersection of liturgical studies and sociology of religion investigating the ongoing roles of Christian ritual in increasingly nonreligious and religiously diverse social contexts. Sarah is also a member of the editorial team for the new worship and song collection, entitled Voices Together, that is intended to serve Mennonite congregations in Canada and the United States. We will have occasion to welcome Sarah formally at our annual Welcome Dinner in the Fall but, in the meantime, welcome to the TMTC community, Sarah!

The planning committee for the Eighth Biennial Graduate Student Conference being held at the Toronto School of Theology from June 14–16, 2018 is pleased to announce that the full conference schedule is now available!

Isaac Friesen is the 2017 winner of the A. James Reimer Award. He is a PhD candidate in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Isaac’s interdisciplinary research examines cultures of interfaith coexistence and everyday ethics in provincial Egypt. He is currently in the process of writing his dissertation which is titled “Navigating Tradition in Provincial Egypt: The Avenues and Ethics of Muslim Crossing into Coptic Spaces”.

Isaac became passionate about the Middle East during his three-year service term with Mennonite Central Committee in Egypt. He is a member at his hometown Waterloo North Mennonite Church, and now attends Toronto United Mennonite Church. Isaac is an associate at TMTC and has presented at two TMTC Scholars Forums in recent years. He looks forward to a lifelong collaboration between his academic work and the institutions of the Mennonite Church.