Advent Study: What are We Waiting For? Christ and the Earth

December 04, 2025, 7:30pm Eastern US Time

What Are We Waiting For? Scriptural and Social Justice Approaches to Christology

Jim Perkinson and S. Lily Mendoza will explore eco-spiritual and indigenous perspectives crucial to understanding Christ.

Starting with the invocation of the Big Waters contained in Matthew’s “Little Apocalypse,” James Perkinson and S. Lily Mendoza will explore how the promise of Christ is repeatedly linked to the unleashing of a kaleidoscope of wild, natural, beyond-human earth-based powers. Looking at ancient indigenous lore that is woven into the Hebrew scripture, they will unravel the linkages between the Storm Deity, the water cycle incarnate, and the repeated assertion of the imminent coming of the Son of Man. What does it mean to understand that this is the nature of the One that will “break in thief-like,” disrupting our carefully laid plans and our well guarded storehouses? How shall we read for our hour of upheaval just now — as seas rise, floods rage, drought burns, and society quakes in violence? What does it mean to eagerly, devoutly await this Little Babe who is also an Eco-Force?

Please Note! Registration closes one half hour prior to the start of the event.

Image: Cosmic Christ by Sr. Annett Hanrahan

Speaker Bios:

James W. (Jim) Perkinson is longtime activist, spoken-word poet, and teacher of Social Ethics at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary and Intercultural Communication at the University of Oakland (Michigan). He holds a Ph.D. in theology from the University of Chicago, is the author of five books on theology/spirituality and two poetry chap books. He has also written extensively in both academic and popular journals on questions of race, class and colonialism in connection with religion and urban culture.

S. Lily Mendoza is Professor of Culture and Communication at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, USA and Director of the Center for Babaylan Studies, a non-profit organization committed to decolonization and indigenization among diasporic Filipinos on Turtle Island. She hails originally from the Philippines, the traditional homeland of the Ayta and other indigenous peoples.