A Space but Not a Place: The Convocation Live at Theology Beer Camp

The Convocation came to Theology Beer Camp, minus one sociologist. Robbie Jones picked a tux and an induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences over hanging out with us in Kansas City, so his chair sat empty on stage, Passover-style. That left three historians. Diana Butler Bass, a camp veteran, hosted. Kristin Du Mez and Jemar Tisby, at their first camp, were fresh off panels that were somehow scheduled at the same time. (We have received the complaints.)

Diana opened with a question she'd been chewing on since her conversation with Bill Leonard: what if American religion is being restructured again? Robert Wuthnow argued in 1989 that it had sorted itself into liberal and conservative political camps. All four Convocation hosts think that map is now wrong. From there it's pyramid versus table, how high-control systems turn ordinary people into enforcers, and Jemar's challenge to the deconstruction crowd: why does the reconstruction still look so segregated? Then they get practical. Can progressives build coalitions with people they don't fully agree with? What can white Christians, feeling powerless for the first time, learn from communities that have resisted state power for centuries? Jemar ends with what that takes: grief, lament, healing, and doing justice because it's right, not because you'll win.

Subscribe to the Convocation and our hosts

The Convocation is the shared Substack and podcast (The Convocation Unscripted) from Diana, Jemar, Kristin, and Robbie: convocation.substack.com

Diana Butler Bass, historian of American religion and author of Freeing Jesus, writes The Cottage, including her Sunday Musings on the lectionary.

Jemar Tisby, historian and author of The Color of Compromise and The Spirit of Justice, writes Footnotes, current events with historical context, including the History Rhymes series he discusses here.

Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Professor of History at Calvin University and author of Jesus and John Wayne and Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made, writes Du Mez Connections.

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