Book Launch and Panel on Todd Whitmore's "Imitating Christ in Magwi: An Anthropological Theology"

What accounts for the extraordinary, life-risking witness of many Catholic priests, nuns, and catechists during the Lord's Resistance Army conflict in northern Uganda and South Sudan? Todd Whitmore's 18 months of fieldwork in the region yields the insight that traditional devotions like Eucharistic Adoration funded the conviction among Acholi Catholic leaders that the spirit of Jesus Christ was with them, thus enabling them to imitate him in the willingness to risk their lives for the most vulnerable. Whitmore then asks the question of whether an analogous imitatio Christi is possible, and even required, for the researcher in such settings.

Panelists:

Emmanuel Katongole, Professor of Theology and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame

Janna Hunter-Bowman, Assistant Professor of Peace Studies and Christian Social Ethics, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Brian Howell, Professor of Anthropology, Wheaton College

Respondent: Todd Whitmore, Associate Professor, Department of Theology, Concurrent Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, Kroc Faculty Fellow

Moderator: Marie-Claire Klassen, Department of Theology, University of Notre Dame

Co-Sponsored with the Department of Theology