Kwok ’n’ Roll

Dr. Deanna Ferree Womack is Associate Professor of history of religions and interfaith studies at Candler School of Theology at Emory University. In this episode, she discusses how missionary discourses and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims contributed to the rise of American Islamophobia in the late twentieth century. In addition to texts, she examines the portrayals of Muslims in postcards, photos, and material culture in Protestant missionary archives. She points out why previous studies have often neglected the gender dimension, focusing on texts written by men and theological arguments. She shows that the missionary women have participated in discourse about Islam through children’s books and material culture. As a scholar of Middle Eastern Christianity, she sheds light on Muslim-Christian relations and helps us understand tensions and conflicts in the Middle East. She points out how Christians can reach out to their Muslim neighbors and build strong communities.

 

Dr. Deanna Ferree Womack's book is Re-Inventing Islam: Gender and Protestant Roots in American Islamophobia

 

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Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ernst-Auga is a German Protestant theologian and a scholar of cultural and religious studies. She is also the President of the International Association for the Study of Religion and Gender. In this episode, she discusses how she uses postcolonial, postsecular, and queer perspectives to study religion and gender across different contexts. As Christian nationalism has grown, she explains how nationalist ideology constructs a “proper family,” based on heteronormality and patriarchal authority as the foundation of a nation. Women’s bodies become the symbol of purity and reproductive obligation. Neo-nationalism promises a return to a mythic past of moral clarity and racial homogeneity. Christian nationalism is tied to whiteness, patriarchy, and state power. But religious performances can also subvert this formation, such as Black liberation theology and queer activism. In the U.S., scholars of gender and religion respond to religious fundamentalisms and postcolonial and postsecular debates. In Europe, scholars work in a more secular, anti-clerical context and are influenced by poststructuralism, Marxism, and existentialism. Religion is generally ignored, and scholars have only recently engaged postcolonial approaches. As 2025 comes to an end, she shares her reflections on changes in world politics over the last year and highlights what religion scholars must pay attention to.

Prof. Dr. Ulrike Ernst-Auga’s book is An Epistemology of Religion and Gender

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Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock is a noted Asian American feminist theologian, activist, and world authority on moral injury. She was Senior Vice President for Moral Injury Recovery Programs at Volunteers of America. In this episode, she explains what moral injury is and the difference between moral injury and PTSD. She describes how moral injury affects her family, especially in her relationship with her father, who came back from the Vietnam War as a different person. Churches and faith communities can help people with moral injury by organizing supportive and non-judgmental groups. She says that traditional atonement theories are not helpful and explains it through the lens of moral injury. As a pioneer in Asian American theology, she uses the concept of interstitial integrity to describe multilayered, complex identities that defy simple characterizations of victims and oppressors. Many Asian American scholars have cited the concept to discuss their own identities. As a longtime activist, she says people need to form coalitions to resist the Trump administration's policies. She sees hope in the fact that more and more people are fighting back and resisting.

Dr. Rita Nakashima Brock’s coauthored book Soul Repair: Recovering from Moral Injury after War.

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Bishop Ian T. Douglas is the retired Bishop Diocesan of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut and the former Agnes Dun Professor of Mission and World Christianity at the Episcopal Divinity School. With Kwok Pui-lan, he has coedited Beyond Colonial Anglicanism (2001) and Living Postcolonial Anglicanism (2025). In this episode, he discusses the historical backgrounds of these two books. In the past two decades, we have increasingly seen postcolonial Anglican structures and realities across the Anglican Communion. Yet, the postcolonial Anglican church is always a church becoming. As the Anglican demographic has shifted toward the Global South, the Anglican Communion is increasingly polycentric. Douglas has participated in many commissions and council meetings of the Anglican Communion. He argues that we can’t use a politics of containment to uphold authority and instead must celebrate differences among churches, including racial, cultural, and linguistic differences.

Ian T. Douglas’s book Living Postcolonial Anglicanism

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Dr. Traci C. West is Professor Emerite of Christian Ethics and African American Studies at Drew University Theological School. She is known for her scholarship and activism around gender-based violence, particularly against Black women. In this episode, she uses the lens of gender-based violence to examine the moral compass of the U.S. society. She shows how public morality has shifted when sexual violence and abuse are not disqualifying factors for people who hold high positions in government, including the presidency. As a Christian ethicist who has done research work internationally, she discusses the challenges of learning from and standing in solidarity with global activists as a citizen of the U.S. At a time when American imperialism is on the rise, Dr. West encourages the upcoming generation of ethicists and activists to use an intersectional approach and combine theory with praxis, paying attention to institutional, personal, and intimate violence.

Dr. Traci C. West's book Solidarity and Defiant Spirituality

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Dr. Cody J. Sanders is a queer Baptist minister, pastoral theologian, and Associate Professor of Congregational and Community Care Leadership at Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Previously, he served as pastor of Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In this episode, he responds to the taking away of trans rights and the Supreme Court decision not to reconsider the legality of same-sex marriage. He argues that the affirming of LGBTQ people by churches is only the first step. Churches must publicize LGBTQ stories and learn from how LGBTQ lives have become sources of theological wisdom. Despite the rejection and violence LGBTQ Christians have experienced, they have been practicing faith at the margins of religious communities. Dr. Sanders shares why he wrote the first book on the intersection between religious and spiritual narratives and LGBTQ suicide and interviewed LGBTQ people who had attempted suicide. He analyzes the stories that came out from the survivors and learned about their inspiring refashioning of Christian faith and queer theology. In our precarious times, churches and faith communities must take risks to stand in solidarity with this marginalized community in the public square.  

Dr. Cody J. Sanders’s books include Christianity, LGBTQ Suicide, and the Souls of Queer Folk and A Brief Guide to Ministry with LGBTQIA Youth

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Julian Davis Reid is the founder of the ministry Notes of Rest®, which invites the weary into the rest of God practiced in the Bible and Black music. He is a musician, speaker, writer, and a Black artist-theologian of Chicago, who graduated from Candler School of Theology. In this episode, he discusses his upbringing in the church, immersed in both Black and classical music. He has studied and appreciated contemplative spirituality in the Black tradition, influenced by the works of Barbara A. Holmes, Howard Thurman, and Barbara L. Peacock. Reid has released the album Vocation, which includes the single “Moan.” He plays a short excerpt in the episode. In addition to music, Reid has published chapters in books and is writing a book, Notes of Rest. His Substack newsletter is entitled “Julian’s Notes.”

Julian Davis Reid’s Website

His Substack

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Dr. Sharon A. Suh is a professor of Religious Studies at Seattle University, a practicing Buddhist, and a yoga teacher. In this episode, she shares why she edited the book Emergent Dharma, inviting Asian American Buddhist scholar-practitioners to share their practices. American Buddhist scholarship has focused on white Buddhist communities. This book intervenes by introducing the lives and practices of Asian American women. Suh has also published Occupy This Body: A Buddhist Memoir, in which she discusses eating disorders, family dynamics, and trauma. She discusses the journey behind writing this moving book. She teaches yoga through a trauma-informed lens, helping women of color reconnect with their bodies. As we face uncertain and anxious times, Suh discusses how Buddhist practices can nurture a spirituality of resilience.

Dr. Sharon A. Suh's books Emergent Dharma and Occupy This Body

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