Joy: Community, Inclusion, and Social Justice ​| A GTU Interfaith Conference

Wednesday, April 26th 2023, 9:00am to 5:00pm
GTU Dinner Board Room, 2400 Ridge Road Berkeley, CA 94709

Joy: Community, Inclusion, and Social Justice

This interfaith conference will feature plenary speakers Amy Hollywood (Harvard Divinity School) and Mary Clark Moschella (Yale Divinity School). There will be a number of presentations from the GTU community speaking from their different traditions and disciplines on the place of joy in religious thought and practice. This will be a hybrid event with in-person attendees in the Dinner Board Room at 2400 Ridge Road and online attendees on Zoom.

Register to attend in-person here.

Register to attend remotely via Zoom here. 

The schedule is as follows:

Welcome & Introduction to Conference Theme: 9:00-9:10 am

  • Jen Davidson–Welcome
  • Deidre Green–Opening Remarks

Panel 1: Joy in Community and Tradition: 9:10 - 10:30 AM

  • Sam Shonkoff – “Joy as Self-Transcendence in Hasidism” 
  • John Klentos – “Joy from an Orthodox Christian Perspective: Byzantine Liturgical Hymn-Texts”
  • Laurie Garrett-Cobbina – “Let’s Do What We Do”

10 minute break

Panel 2: The Transformative Power of Joy: 10:40-12 PM

  • Jess Jones – “The Joy of the Saints: A Christological Approach to Joy From a Latter-day Saint Perspective” 
  • Elizabeth Peña – “Looking with Wonder: The Slow Art Movement” 
  • Valerie Miles-Tribble – “The Joy of Knowing Amid the Unknown”

Lunch Break 12:00-1:00 pm 

Plenary 1

  • 1:00-1:35 Plenary: Amy Hollywood, Harvard Divinity School - "Novel Theology"

Panel 3: Joy and Justice: 1:35-2:55 PM

  • Rebecca Esterson – “Helen Keller on Optimism, Activism, and Her Swedenborgian Faith”
  • Mahjabeen Dhala – “Joy in the Qur’an: Faith, Community, and Social Justice” 
  • Nancy Lin – “Qualities of Joy: Some Buddhist Examples” 

10 minute break 

Panel 4: Exploring the Mysteries of Joy: 3:05-4:25 PM

  • Chris Hadley – “The Pain of the Cross and Trinitarian Joy: Reconstructing Balthasar's Childbirth Metaphor”
  • Arthur Holder – “'Likeness is the chief delight': Meister Eckhart on Metaphysics of Joy”
  • Rita Sherma – “Ananda: When the Name of God is 'Joy' - A Hindu Ecofeminist Perception of Existential Joy” 

Plenary 2 

  • 4:25-4:55 pm Plenary: Mary Clark Moschella, Yale Divinity School - "Justice and Joy"

Closing Remarks: 4:55-5:00 pm

  • Deidre Green