Daily Reading: Isaiah 11: 1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,
    and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,
    the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the spirit of counsel and might,
    the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.
He shall not judge by what his eyes see,
    or decide by what his ears hear;
but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,
    and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.
Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,
    and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb,
    the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
    and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall graze,
    their young shall lie down together;
    and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,
    and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
They will not hurt or destroy
    on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

Questions for Reflection:

In today's reading, Isaiah foretells of a messiah who will be the "Prince of Peace."  Enemies will come together and live in peace; justice will be brought to the poor of the earth; the lion and the lamb will lie down together.

Christians celebrate Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ Child who fulfills this prophesy from Isaiah. But looking around , it seems as though we have a way to go before all nations will come together to live in peace. Political leaders, religious groups, and even neighbors struggle to find compromise on the critical issues of our time. It can be hard to imagine a world in which total enemies could come together as peaceful fiends. 

And yet, this is the Messiah we celebrate at Christmas. Today we ask:

• As Christians, what is our obligation to help usher in the peace  proclaimed by Isaiah's prophesy and the Christmas story?
• What, in your own life, would you like to find peace with this season? Perhaps there's a broken relationship with a friend, family member, or colleague you've been avoiding. Maybe you are looking for financial peace in what can feel like an "expensive time of year."" What can you do between now and Christmas to find that peace (or get closer to it).

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Focus on Justice and Peace Studies:
Earlham School of Religion

Learn More about Earlham

​Whether pursuing an MA or an MDiv, ESR students can concentrate their studies on questions of peace and justice. Courses in this area include: Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies; the Bible and Violence and Nonviolence; Liberation Theologies; Process Theology, Conflict Resolution; History of Friends’ Peace Witness; and a Spirituality of Peacemaking. Students are encouraged to supplement their course work with involvement in their peace and justice concerns outside class. Students interested in writing as a way to address these questions can pursue that focus through our Ministry of Writing emphasis.

ESR Courses Integrating Faith and Service

In addition to the courses available through Earlham School of Religion, ESR students have full access to all of Bethany Theological Seminary’s courses, including “Feminist Theology and Thought”; “Bonhoeffer, War, and Peace”; and “Religion as a Source of Terror and Transformation,” among others. 

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Bible, Violence, and Nonviolence This course examines key biblical texts on such issues as warfare, nonviolence, gender, race, and ecology. Both those passages that present varieties of peacemaking efforts and the difficult texts presenting various forms of violence will be explored. In addition to the usual historical-critical tools, literary approaches will also be applied to these texts.

Bible in Global Context This course focuses on approaches to biblical interpretation from contexts outside of the dominant white, North American context. Students will engage with the writings of biblical interpreters from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, as well as liberation and post-colonial readings of the text. In addition to understanding the point of view of the interpreter and the role of context in their interpretation, students will critically consider the role of their own context in interpretation.

History of Friends Peace Witness This course studies the responses of the Society of Friends to peace and justice issues past and present. What is sought is the history of the actual Quaker practice during such conflicts as well as what Quakers said about their practice. Examples of such issues would be war, slavery, sexism and oppression of women and people of color. We will also look at the methodological issues present in the historical analysis of those practices, as presented by Quaker historians such as Rufus Jones, Hugh Barbour, John Punshon, Peter Brock, and Wilmer Cooper.

Church’s Mission in World Community This course focuses on how the church understands and undertakes its mission in the world. Historical and contemporary models will be examined with careful attention given to problems relating to the conversion experience, cross-cultural ministry, religious pluralism, and church growth.

Introduction to Peace & Justice This foundational course in the Peace and Justice program explores contemporary conflict by applying each of ESR’s four core areas of religious studies: Bible, Theology, Church History, and Spirituality. This course serves as the introduction to the three core courses in the Peace and Justice program.

Christian Reconciliation: Conflict Resolution in Church and World This course combines the theoretical and practical study of reconciliation. We will study a variety of models in conflict resolution and begin to construct our own models of reconciliation. Students will also be introduced to practical experience in seeking to resolve conflicts. In this way, we seek to address theoretical issues with practical concerns.

Interfaith Dialog This is an introduction to concepts and practices of world religions and to theological reflection upon the relationship of Christianity to other faith traditions. As such, the course will touch upon Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese traditions, Judaism, Islam, and primal traditions. There will be some introduction to how these faith traditions express themselves in the United States.

Liberation Theologies The Liberation Theologies course investigates various theologies of liberation, such as African-American, Latin American and Latina/o, feminist/womanist, LBGT/Queer, ecological, and nonviolent. Students engage personally with the challenges of these theologies, visit organizations engaged in social justice advocacy, analyze the arguments of these theologies and then begin to construct their own theology in dialog with this tradition of theology.

Spirituality of Peacemaking This course first explores the autobiographies of selected figures who have connected their spiritual life with work for social transformation, including people such as Thomas Merton, Malcolm X, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoefffer, and Peace Pilgrim. Next, theological models for putting together spirituality and social change are examined in such figures as Latin American liberation theologian Jon Sobrino and womanist theologian Emile Townes.

Theology in Context This course introduces students to the role of context and culture in theology and in the practice of ministry through a first hand cross-cultural experience and careful reflection upon it. Locations will vary each year and will range from international, to border site, to US rural, to US intercity. Selected readings and discussions will raise questions such as otherness, enculturation of faith, communication, theological diversity, and so on. Travel will reinforce this learning and place it in demonstrable context.

Public Theology This course focuses on bringing faith and seminary education into critical engagement with culture and society.  It introduces students to theologies of public engagement but primarily offers them practice in several relevant genres.  These may include editorial writing, advocacy journalism, cultural criticism, reviews, interviews, and other means of taking seminary learning into the public square.