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Faculty

Amanda Kaminski

  • Assistant Professor, Social Innovation & Social Entrepreneurship Program
  • Theology, Philosophy, & Classical Language

Contact

Biography

EDUCATION

  • Ph.D. Religious and Theological Studies, Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley
  • M.A. in Community Development, Campolo College of Professional Studies, Eastern University
  • M.Div. Palmer Theological Seminary, Eastern University
  • B.A. Christian Spirituality and Formation, Wheaton College

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION

Social Innovation, Global Feminist Theology, Trauma-Informed Spirituality, Mysticism, Conflict Transformation, and Nonprofit Management

RESEARCH

Coediting a 15-volume series through Fordham University Press called Past Life for Present Life. These volumes are offered to the academic community of teachers and learners in the fields of Christian history, theology, ethics, and spirituality. They introduce classic texts by authors whose contributions have markedly affected the development of Christianity, especially in the West. The texts are accompanied by an introductory essay on context and key themes and followed by an interpretation that dialogically engages the original message with the issues of ethics, theology, and spirituality in the present. View Current Volumes

In the summer of 2023, with Dr. Luigi Peñeranda and in collaboration with students in the SISE and THEO departments, I led “Heuristic Education for Social Change and Transformational Learning: A Research Project in Contemplative Pedagogy,” with fieldwork and interviews conducted at two sites: Baltimore Urban Studies, Baltimore, MD, and Asociación Casa Adobe, San José, Heredia, Costa Rica.

In the summer of 2022, three undergraduate researchers in THEO and SISE worked with me to launch a multi-pronged research and praxis initiative funded by the Bogisch Student Faith Formation and Leadership Endowment and the Vice President of Academic Affairs’s Creative Research Grant to utilize digital affordances to create theological content and virtual interactive spiritual exercises to supplement the digital diet of Gen Z students.

From 2021-24, I participated in a National Science Foundation Grant project to create and deliver a three-day module for intro to theology students based on the Baylor Religion Survey that investigates the correlation between God-images and attitudes, practices, and beliefs by surveying students and teaching them to analyze, visualize, and narrativize their own data sets using basic quantitative and qualitative methods.

PROFESSIONAL RECOGNITIONS

  • 2023-26 Hugo and Georgia Gibson Endowed Professorship for academic and spiritual potential and cultivation of the integration of faith and learning
  • 2023-24 TLU Piper Professor Nominee
  • 2020-24  The Association of Theological Schools (AST) Women in Leadership (WIL) Mentoring Program, granted by the Lilly Endowment Inc.  
  • 2021 Alpha Lambda Delta Honors Society Teacher of the Year2021 National Society of Leadership and Success Excellence in Teaching Award

BOOKS

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Finding God in a World Come of Age: Karl Rahner and Johann Baptist Metz. Past Light on Present Life: Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality. New York: Fordham University Press, 2024.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Enlightened Spirituality: Immanuel Kant, Paul Tillich, and Reinhold Niebuhr. Past Light on Present Life: Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality. New York: Fordham University Press, 2024.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. A Civic Spirituality of Sanctification: John Calvin. Past Light on Present Life: Theology, Ethics, and Spirituality. New York: Fordham University Press, 2024.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. From the Monastery to the City: Hildegard of Bingen and Francis of Assisi. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. The Spiritual Teaching of Jesus: Sandra Schneiders, William Spohn, and Lisa Sowle Cahill. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Mysticism and Politics: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Dorothee Soelle. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Spiritualities of Social Engagement: Walter Rauschenbusch and Dorothy Day. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Spirituality of Creation, Evolution and Work: Catherine Keller and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2023.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Western Monastic Spirituality: Cassian, Caesarius of Arles, and Benedict. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2022.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. On the Medieval Structure of Spirituality: Thomas Aquinas, Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2022.

Roger Haight, Al Pach, and Amanda Avila Kaminski. Grace and Gratitude: Spirituality in Martin Luther. Past Light for Present Light: Theology, Spirituality, and Ethics. New York: Fordham University Press, 2022.

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS

“Spiritual Practices for Discerning Prophetic Action in the Context of Empire: A Trauma-Informed Reading of the (Dis)Obedience of Esther.” In Jesus and Empire: Christian Witness in the Context of Power,” edited by Marcel Măcelaru. Oxford: Oxford Press, forthcoming.

“Teresa of Avila and Mary Ward: Spirituality and Re-imagining Mission.” In Sixteenth-Century Mission: Global Mission in the Age of Reformations, edited by Robert L. Gallagher and Edward L. Smither, 285-303. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2021.

“Scandalous Prayer: Lament as Protest in an Intertextual Reading of Lamentations 1-2 and Pray the Devil Back to Hell.” In Theological Resources for Combating Sexual Exploitation. Edited by Glenn Miles. Oxford: Regnum Press, 2021.

“Lament, Religious Imagination, and Racial Consciousness: The Prayers of Black Women as Keys to Understanding Jesus Christ Today.” In Study Guide to The Cross and the Lynching Tree by James Cone. Edited by LMDJ. Evangelical Covenant Church, 29-31. Chicago: IL, Evangelical Covenant Church, 2018.

ARTICLES

“Conversion, Apostasy, or Hybridity? The Terrible, Troubled, Transformative Experience of Paul as Exemplar for Missiology in an Age of Multiplicity,” Missiology: An International Review 50(1): 91-104.

BOOK REVIEWS

Book Review of Learning in a Musical Key: Theology in a Performative Mode by Lisa Hess. Spiritus 14 no. 2 (Fall 2014): 265-67.

Book Review of Common Prayer: Liturgy for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne, Jonathan Wilson Hartgrove, and Enuma Okoro. PRISM Magazine (Mar/Apr, 2011): 42.

WEB-BASED RESOURCES

“Reflection for December 16, 2018.” In Waiting in Joyful Hope: Daily Advent Prayer from the Jesuit School of Theology. Edited by Caroline Read and Drew Roberts. https://www.scu.edu/jst/resources/waiting-in-joyful-hope-an-advent-prayer/