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When I started planning my sabbatical, I thought, “Ooh, I’ll have all this time. I could take two classes at United rather than my usual one per term.” I quickly realized that this would soak up a great deal of the time freed by sabbatical, that there is no hurry to move through my program, and that I should stick with just one course. So I did: The Arts for Leadership (the course description and syllabus is probably viewable on one of the lists here, though maybe not when you read this, since the course lists change with each semester). Assuming that the final project I turned in a couple of weeks ago was satisfactory, I have completed three credits, putting me 1/3 of the way to the DMin degree. The last three credits are the dissertation and, immediately preceding it, the DMin Practicum and the Research Tools and [Dissertation] Proposal. So I have only three more courses before that process begins, which feels rather sad since there are at least half a dozen courses I am itching to take. (One of United’s perks for its graduates is that we can audit courses for free, so I can carry on that way.)
The purpose of the DMin degree is highly pragmatic, as a rule: while one’s dissertation must be academically rigorous, the aim is less to produce original scholarship and more to learn something that one can apply in one’s ministry. This semester’s course was organized the same way, with the final project being the outline of a plan (integrating the arts and leadership, of course) that we could then implement in our setting. My plan is to facilitate the creation of a mural by guests of three programs for unhoused people that UUCPA hosts, literally putting their vision for the wider community before everyone’s eyes. So this course was a perfect fit with the sabbatical, since it sends me back to UUCPA with a plan in hand for a project that I think will work really well in our congregation. The fact that this was my course this semester was a happy accident; it is required for the DMin in Theology and the Arts, and this was my first opportunity to take it. I’d heard that the professor (Rev. Dr. Cindi Beth Johnson) was top-notch, and the rumors were spot on.
Since I had so many other things I wanted to do, reported in my “Sabbatical activity” posts here, I’m glad I decided to take only one course this term. And I’m really glad it was this one.
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If fortune favors me, I am about midway along the journey of my ministry, and this awareness, plus a growing preoccupation with my own mortality and the dangers facing our planet, has caused me to reflect on what I want to do and be during the second half of my career. I’ve found the answer over the past couple of years: I want to be more bold in making the religious community into a prophetic force for justice.
Aside from ministry itself, art is my main spiritual practice, and re-incorporating art into my life over the past dozen years has made me a more effective minister. I am quite sure that my path to my goal of turbocharging my social and environmental justice work leads through art. So I was delighted to learn that there is a D.Min. program in Theology and the Arts at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, that it is conducted entirely online, and that United is a progressive seminary with a strong focus on social transformation. The school also gives a lot of attention to public theology, which appeals to me and is likely to be part of the mix.
I investigated via a few video calls with admissions staff, a professor, and a current student; leapt into applying; and have just gotten the word: I’ll be starting my doctoral program with United in September! I’m so excited.
Although the dissertation for the Theology and the Arts degree has to be solidly grounded in scholarship, it can be a work of art (or a body of work), and it is expected to be deliberately geared toward honing one’s professional abilities. That’s the purpose of a D.Min.
My ideas for my dissertation will undoubtedly keep shifting over the next few years as I take courses and learn from my cohort and professors. But if I had to choose my topic today, it would be to map out a practical path to using art to “reenchant” Unitarian Universalist congregational life “without supernaturalism” (to quote a title by a theologian who’s been important to me). Our movement is frequently beset by a tension between head-wisdom and heart-wisdom, with body-wisdom taking a distant third place, and I believe that this knot of tension has often kept our worship flat, and our action for transformation timid.
For me personally, making art can untie the knot and let the power flow, so I’m excited to figure out how to channel what I learn through that process (which is essentially solitary, and often private) into congregational ministry. Is it September yet?
Sermons in Stones 
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