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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice

@religionandjustice.bsky.social

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Investigate. Educate. Organize. Working at the intersection of religion, economics, and ecology. Chaired by Joerg Rieger @ Vanderbilt Divinity School https://linktr.ee/religionandjustice

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Joerg Michael Rieger is a German and American professor of Christian theology whose work emphasizes economic justice and political movements. Rieger is also an ordained minister of the United Methodist Church. .. more

Political science 30%

Sociology 23%

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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · 27d

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice celebrates the warm Pasifika welcome for our founder Joerg Rieger & Rosemarie Henkel-Rieger by the Pacific Conference of Churches.

Honored in a traditional ceremony, they join a week of lectures, workshops & talanoa on justice, faith & community.

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Sep 11

Rieger reads scripture as God’s solidarity with the oppressed. In creation, God “getting divine hands dirty,” Exodus where God “joins the struggle on the side of the oppressed,” and Jesus “born into the working class [who] never moves up and out."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSGy...

Prof. Dr. Joerg Rieger – Does Religion Still Matter in the Twenty-First Century?

YouTube video by Evangelická teologická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy

www.youtube.com

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Aug 25

We are excited to share the launch of The Journal of Contemporary Pasifika Theologies (CPT), a peer-reviewed, open-access journal amplifying theological scholarship rooted in the Pasifika region.

cpt.pcu.ac.fj/index.php/cp...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Aug 20

It is time to re-think religion. Since January 6, 2021, Christianity in the United States has predominantly been associated with white Christian nationalism and the politics of neoliberal capitalism. How can we re-think religion to be part of the solution?

youtu.be/ZRKpSHZDF9g

Re-Thinking Religion | Labor Day 2025 with Joerg Rieger, Cassandra Gould, and Aaron Stauffer

YouTube video by Religion and Justice

youtu.be

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Aug 7

Northey Lecture – Joerg Rieger

Considering the multiple relations of religion and power, what difference does religion make, for good and for ill, and what might be the constructive contributions of theology be in fostering global solidarities?

REGISTER HERE: events.humanitix.com/northey-lect...

Northey Lecture - Joerg Rieger

Get tickets on Humanitix - Northey Lecture - Joerg Rieger hosted by Monica Melanchthon. Centre for Theology & Ministry, 29 College Cres, Parkville VIC 3052, Australia. Thursday 4th September 2025. Fin...

events.humanitix.com

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Aug 3

Was Pope Francis a “Marxist Pope,” or something more nuanced? Fr. Bruce Morrill helps us sort faith, economics, and ecology—Jesuits, Vatican II, liberation theology, Pope Francis’s critique of “an economy that kills” from Laudato Si’ to Fratelli Tutti.

Out now: www.buzzsprout.com/2237315/epis...

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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Aug 2

Faith, labor & democracy meet Aug 18 in our Labor Day webinar “Re-thinking Religion.” Panel: Joerg Rieger, Cassandra Gould & Aaron Stauffer. Take on Christian nationalism, capitalism & solidarity economies. Free RSVP: linktr.ee/religionandj...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Aug 1

Throwback to 2022, when Richard Wolff and Joerg Rieger discussed the troubling history of how Christianity in the U.S. is used to promote capitalism and conservatism.

Reposted by Joerg Rieger

Institute for Christian Socialism (The Bias Magazine) @smashmammon.bsky.social · Jul 23

Now Live: On mourning and the transformation of suffering into solidarity.

christiansocialism.com/2025/07/23/f....

@religionandjustice.bsky.social

From Mourning to Solidarity - Institute for Christian Socialism

How Dorothee Soëlle’s theology of suffering helps draw out mourning’s political possibilities.

christiansocialism.com

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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Jul 11

On July 2, Joerg Rieger delivered the keynote “Christian Nationalism in the United States: History, Power, and Alternatives” at an ecumenical consultation in Seoul.

Check out the conference's joint communique: www.oikoumene.org/resources/do...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Jul 11

“Building strong community relationships is essential for any genuine social change.” — Aaron Stauffer

Hear more on @trippfuller.bsky.social's Homebrewed Christianity: democratic practice, class analysis & Solidarity Circles.

podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a...

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Reposted by Joerg Rieger

Institute for Christian Socialism (The Bias Magazine) @smashmammon.bsky.social · Jun 28

Live at The Bias. Gab Lisi reflects upon the urgent need for power analyses—clear, honest accounts of who holds power, how they wield it, and at whose expense.

christiansocialism.com/2025/06/20/f...

Freedom’s False Promises - Institute for Christian Socialism

At its core, what we are lacking is a power analysis—a clear, honest account of who holds power, how they wield it, and at whose expense. Without this analysis, we are left to blame ourselves for the ...

christiansocialism.com

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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Jun 22

What happens when we read theology through the lens of power, capital, and everyday labor?

Rieger traces the long arc from the Roman Empire to today’s “Capitalocene,” arguing that empires may shift forms, but grassroots creativity keeps breaking through.

LISTEN: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVQU...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Jun 21

Decolonizing Development and Religion examines how economic initiatives, grassroots theologians, and Indigenous perspectives unsettle the colonial assumptions that still shape global “development.”

tr.ee/HRbYcaT1F7

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Jun 11

In a new Religion & Justice blog, Gab Lisi traces Pride from Stonewall to top-surgery scars to Catholic social teaching—showing why solidarity, not branding, is the heart of liberation. Read here → www.religionandjustice.org/blog/pride-p...

Pride, Power & Collective Liberation | Deep Solidarity — The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice

Queer, working-class, and Catholic, Gab Lisi engages with Pride through Joerg Rieger's deep solidarity—exposing false freedoms and calling for collective liberation for all.

www.religionandjustice.org

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Jun 2

Rieger’s WCC keynote argued U.S. slavery created an economy wherein elites maintain control through divide-and-conquer racism that pits Black and white workers against each other and unite-and-conquer tactics that lures poor whites into identifying with elites.

Watch: linktr.ee/religionandjustice

Reposted by Joerg Rieger

Institute for Christian Socialism (The Bias Magazine) @smashmammon.bsky.social · May 27

Joerg Rieger argues that true democracy would not only require political power, but economic power.

Image: Victor Dubreuil, “Safe Money,” c.1898 or later. U.S. National Gallery of Art. Common Domain

Link in bio.

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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · May 18

Leadership grows from “relational power”—trust woven in shared struggle and rooted in sacred value, says Aaron Stauffer.

Reflect, then schedule one intentional 1-on-1 this week to listen for what’s sacred.

Applications for the next Solidarity Circles cohort are open. Link in bio.

Reposted by Joerg Rieger

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · May 14

"Labor organizations with Muslim majority workplaces must engage with their members in their faith and as workers." @profhuq.bsky.social

scholarship.law.slu.edu/lj/vol69/iss...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · May 8

UPCOMING LECTURE | The God of Jesus and the God of Caesar - Christian Faith, Empire and Resistance

May 14, 2025, 7:00 PM–until 8:30 PM
Lecture Hall of the Faculty of Theology, Beethovenstraße 25, 04107 Leipzig (@unileipzig.bsky.social)

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · May 6

Join Solidarity Circles, a 9-month virtual peer-network designed to help align your institution or community with the solidarity economy.

🔗 Learn more and apply today: tr.ee/bxPEC55K-o

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Apr 23

As industrial forces continue to extract and exploit not just natural resources but also human labor, Joerg Rieger explores how religion and theology can play a crucial role in envisioning alternatives.

Read it here: linktr.ee/religionandj...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Apr 20

What if “justice” isn’t enough?

In this episode of Religion and Justice, theologians David True and Tom James argue that love — not as sentiment, but as desire — might be the force that breaks systems open.

We talk eros, capitalism, and the politics of longing.

religionandjustice.buzzsprout.com

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The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Apr 10

"Addressing the ongoing legacy of slavery and systemic racism requires not only economic solutions but also improving labor relations and protecting workers.

Reparations that fail to pay attention to improving labor relations may not achieve economic equality."
theconversation.com/slavery-was-...

Slavery was the ultimate labor distortion – empowering workers today would be a form of reparations

Rebalancing labor relations so that workers are empowered would be an effective way to address racial wealth disparities and atone for the legacy of slavery, a scholar argues.

theconversation.com

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Apr 9

ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR OUR 2025-26 COHORT!

Broadly understood, the cooperative and solidarity economy are ways of addressing longstanding economic inequalities within our society, including white supremacy and gender and sex inequities.

🔗 Apply Now: us4.list-manage.com/survey?u=d12...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Apr 2

REGISTER NOW | We've organized an eco-justice teach-in titled "Liberating People, Planet, and Religion." being held on April 12, 2025 (virtual option) at Second Presbyterian Church in Nashville!

REGISTER: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Mar 30

WORKSHOPS ANNOUNCED led by Jeremy Posadas, Dan Joranko, Joerg Rieger, and Terra Schwerin Rowe.

Join us April 12, 2025, for an eco-justice teach-in: “Liberating People, Planet, and Religion.”

REGISTER: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Mar 27

Joerg Rieger and Cliff Sekowe unpack how capitalism shape not just economies—but faith, identity, and the planet. From the illusion of "rising tides" to the hidden apartheid built into economic systems, they challenge us to rethink privilege, power, and solidarity.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzD9...

Theology, Economics, and Labour

YouTube video by Pholoso Ministries

www.youtube.com

The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice @religionandjustice.bsky.social · Mar 17

"There is no path to economic power, justice, or security that does not contest for control with organized capital." - Kevin Simowitz

From Policy to Power: Centering People by Supporting Tenant Unions - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

Too often housing focuses on the what—more buildings, new zoning rules. It’s time to focus on the who, and empower renters to take charge through tenant unions.

nonprofitquarterly.org

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