Register now to participate online
The United Thank Offering (UTO) and Bexley Seabury are moving The Theology of Gratitude Conference online in order to ensure the health and safety of all involved as well as to include more people in participating in the conference. The one-day live webinar conference will take place on April 24.
Join online
Please register here to receive the login code. The Theology of Gratitude Conference is now free. Participants who paid to register previously will receive a reimbursement. However, all participants will need to register in order to ensure there is enough space on Zoom to accommodate everyone who wants to attend.
Join later
The main sessions will be recorded and made available to watch later for those who cannot attend the live webinar conference. Those videos will be available here.
The Scholars Conference will feature speaker Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., Duke University, who will identify two ways in which gratitude is defined: as an exchange and as abundant grace given by God which all are called to share. Butler Bass will serve as keynote speaker and will unpack ways that gratitude is a radical practice that is needed now. Butler Bass is an award-winning author and internationally known public speaker and thought leader on issues of spirituality, religion, culture, and politics.
Six scholars from a wide-ranging set of disciplines, generations, and cultural groups will also present their diverse perspectives and experiences on “The Theology of Gratitude: Human Expressions While Living in a Complex World.” The scholars and their topics are:
- The Reverend Thomas Bohache, D.Min., Ingratitude Is Not an Option: Gratitude as Imago Dei
- The Rev. K.D. Joyce, For What Shall We Give Thanks? On Gratitude, Justice, and the Gospel of Christ
- The Rev. Armand E. Larive, Ph.D., Gratitude as a Performative
- The Rev. Hillary D. Raining, DMin., Miigwech & Blood Memory: Gratitude as a Multi-Lineage Spiritual Practice
- Stephanie Townes, A Theology of Gratitude for Rising Generations
- The Rev. Nathaniel A. Warne Ph.D., Institutional Justice and The Virtue of Gratitude
Gratitude has become a phenomenon in popular culture and is written about in books ranging from self-help to the Harvard Business Review. Scholarly engagement has developed primarily in the psychological community, which has demonstrated the correlation between gratitude and improvement in personal health and the development of strong, healthy relationships. There is far less scholarship arising within the theological community.
For more information, please visit UTO or Bexley Seminary, or email the Rev. Canon Heather Melton, staff officer for the United Thank Offering.