Ruthann Johansen, visiting associate professor in the Program of Liberal Studies and fellow of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, has been selected president of Bethany Theological Seminary by its board of trustees.
Johansen, whose appointment becomes effective July 1, has taught at Notre Dame since 1990. A fellow of the Kroc Institute since 1993, she is the author of “The Narrative Secret of Flannery O’Connor: The Trickster as Interpreter” and “Listening in the Silence: Reconstructing Life after Brain Injury.” In addition to past service on the adjunct faculty of Bethany Seminary, she has been a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School and Princeton Theological Seminary. In accepting her new appointment, Johansen will become a professor emerita at Notre Dame.
Johansen, a member of the Crest Manor Church of the Brethren in South Bend, described Bethany Seminary as “not simply an instiutution charged with educating professional clergy, but also an inspirational resource for study and empowerment for all believers within and beyond the denomination who seek to embody the love, justice, mercy and peace of Jesus Christ in an often fearful and violent world.”
Bethany Theological Seminary, established in 1905 as the graduate school and academy for theological education for the Church of the Brethren, is located on the Earlham College campus in Richmond, Ind., and operates in partnership with the Earlham School of Religion, a graduate school of the Society of Friends.
Contact: Professor Johansen at 574-631-7190 or Johansen.9@nd.edu
Originally published by at newsinfo.nd.edu on June 27, 2007.