Stanley Grenz Lecture Series with Dr. Chelle Stearns

The Stanley Grenz Lecture Series is offered in honor of former Professor Stanley Grenz, a prolific Christian scholar with a pastoral heart and deep intellectual presence. In his memory, each year The Seattle School hosts theological leaders and thinkers to advance theological discourse in a public setting.

We are honored to feature our own Dr. Chelle Stearns as keynote speaker. Chelle will be engaging a lecture entitled “‘My Heart Flows on in Endless Song’: Lament and Hope Through a Trauma-Informed Theology” and joined for discourse by a panel of speakers.

An old hymn declares, “Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing?” The problem is that if the song is not substantive enough, it cannot contain the complexity of sorrow of a traumatized person, yet if a person does not have songs to move the heart and expand the imagination, the process of healing cannot begin. Only through grief and practices of lament can hope ever take root in the human heart. This lecture will explore how a trauma-informed theology can help us find new paths toward hope and restoration, even in the midst of fragmentation.

About Dr. Chelle Stearns
Dr. Stearns has a PhD in Systematic Theology from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, an MA in Christian Studies from Regent College, and an undergraduate degree in music from Pacific Lutheran University. Her academic work has focused on the interaction between theology and music, and she loves to talk about the Christian imagination. This lecture follows the release of her new book, Handling Dissonance, in June of this year.