TLU’s Victory Bell rang loud and clear this past December—because Selah Flores, who’d been waiting until she’d completed her very last final to ring it, finally got her chance. “It was a very celebratory and nostalgic moment for me!” A few days later, Flores officially received her BA in Theology.
But what leads a classically trained pianist studying music performance to decide to seek a degree in theology—and what do the two pursuits have in common? Flores holds the answer to that question.
She was a competitive pianist on the national level by age twelve—has even performed at Carnegie Hall—and has a deep love for the way a musician can infuse her own personality into a piece, taking the listener into the story and evoking a range of emotions. Her love of music led her to double major in piano performance and theology early in her college career. But that path soon evolved. “During my Intro to Theology class with Dr. Amanda Kaminski, I quickly learned that the work of theology can be a profoundly non-discursive and non-dogmatic practice, often relying on techniques like question-asking, contemplation, music, and stillness.” That realization led Flores to focus solely on theology as her major, “because it combines both passions in my pursuit of justice, expression, and thoughtful re-narrativization.”
Flores has a gift for connecting the timeless truths within a piece of music to ministry. “What I love most about music and theology is the art of painting classics with the colors of today: from painting Chopin's nocturnes as an ode to the sleepless nights of displaced families across the world to painting the story of the Samaritan woman in light of increasing sexual abuse cases within faith communities.”
Her senior capstone project stands as a perfect example of this mingling of her own passions with the important work of ministry. After caring for her grandmother, who was also her dearest friend, in the months before she passed away, Flores was inspired to study the idea of trauma-informed spiritual care for institutionalized older adults. “I proposed the integration of lament prayer into pastoral palliative care services.” In the midst of what she calls an unrecognized epidemic of toxic positivity in these settings, Flores observed that, "For patients experiencing spiritual distress, the Book of Lamentations breathes the same air of destruction, uncertainty, sorrow, and pain—thereby providing the ideal grounds for patients to receive empathy, guidance, and reminders of God's solidarity with sufferers." Rather than denying the pain and grief of the situation, those who are suffering are allowed to feel it all—and to find comfort in the fact that they are not alone.
During her years at TLU, Flores found the small class sizes to be especially helpful, allowing professors to become mentors and lifelong colleagues, and inspiring community-building between classmates “who are now family.” Flores adds that, “the theology department is unmatched; their insight, curiosity, scholarship, and kindness have blessed me profoundly these last few years.”
So where will she go from here? She’s been awarded a scholarship to attend the Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University, where she will pursue her master’s degree in divinity beginning next fall. But that’s only the beginning. Inspired by her grandmother, Flores plans on training to
become a hospital chaplain, focusing on palliative care settings. “I plan to collaborate alongside healthcare staff to create effective spiritual care practices for patients experiencing spiritual distress near the end of life.” Flores is already reimagining how the Christian faith can be utilized “as a vehicle for healing, restoration, mutuality, and compassion in these spaces that hear the most unabashed expressions of sorrow.” Then one day, she hopes to go a step further, transforming her experiences as a chaplain into a curriculum designed to help other theology and healthcare professionals to learn the same important lessons. “I am passionate about cultivating creative avenues for discussing and contemplating God, and I can't wait to see all the ways I will be able to do this in the future!”