The Zohrab Information Center is excited to announce its next Summer 2020 Enrichment Evening, a talk by Dr. Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, Recovering Truth postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict (Arizona State University), titled In Theory and Practice: Engaged Theology of the Anthropocene. Originally scheduled for earlier this Spring, her talk continues the Zohrab Information Center’s recent focus on the environment and environmental theology. The talk will take place via Zoom on August 20, 2020 at 7 PM EDT. We will be using the same Zoom Meeting ID and Password that were used for Fr. Garabed Kochakian’s recent event. Please note that there are separate Zoom IDs for Enrichment Evenings and Գրաբար եւ Գինի. If you would like to receive the Zoom information, please email zohrabcenter@armeniandiocese.org.

In Theory and Practice: Engaged Theology of the Anthropocene continues the Zohrab Information Center’s work with environmental theology. In recent years, the idea of environmental theology or “eco-theology” has been developed by many of the major Christian denominations. Though the emergence of this eco-theology could feel like a trendy response to the current moment, both Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I (known as the “Green Patriarch” for his environmental initiatives) have argued for the deep roots of “creation care” in the Catholic and Orthodox Christian traditions. Theologically, Orthodox Christianity is one of the “greenest” forms of Christianity, but ideas about conservation and repair often do not translate into on-the-ground practices. This lecture will think through the disconnect between theology and praxis, focusing on how theological ideas of the body, earth, and cosmos can be activated in our everyday lives.

By considering the adjacent Eastern Orthodox churches, their environmental theology, and the application of that theology to our everyday lives, Dr. Riccardi-Swartz will help us to enter into existing Christian conversations about God’s creation and eco-theology in order to propel the possibility of Armenian environmental theology forward.

Dr. Sarah Riccardi-Swartz (PhD, New York University) is a sociocultural anthropologist who works on American religion and politics. Currently, she is the Recovering Truth postdoctoral fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict (Arizona State University), where she is working on how media and theology are complicit in the expansion and/or demise of democracy. In 2018-2019, Riccardi-Swartz was a Louisville Institute Fellow in the study of North American Christianity, and in 2019-2020 she held both the Charlotte W. Newcombe Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Humanities-Orthodox Christian Studies Dissertation Fellowship (Fordham University). A trained documentary filmmaker, she is committed to interdisciplinary research and methodologies that are collaborative and public facing.