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BROCK'S STORY
A Brief Sketch
Brock was born in the Southwest (Oklahoma), to an entrepreneurial father and a feminist mother. He grew up playing sports, including soccer and football, which he went on to do in college. During his late teens, Brock encountered God in a startling and profound manner, and consequently devoted his life, energies, and studies to exploring theology, philosophy, and Christian mysticism.
After working in the church for a decade and launching a business in San Francisco, Brock and his wife (and two children) moved to Chicago. In May 2009, Brock completed his Ph.D. in constructive theology at Loyola University Chicago, where he was a fourth-year fellow and instructor. In August 2009, Brock began teaching at Wesleyan College (Macon, GA), the first college chartered to give degrees to women. As assistant professor of religious studies and chair of the honors program, he is actively involved in teaching and mentoring students, interdisciplinary and interreligious scholarship, and publishing current research.
His current research includes the Orthodox Philokalia, Maximus the Confessor, theological anthropology (the Christian understanding of human being), Native American theology, pneumatology, and Christian mysticism. Undergirding his research is a methodological commitment to interface classical theology with pressing contemporary issues. Accordingly, he is engaged in theologizing that attends to the marginalized, to the empowerment of women, and to the promotion of peace between religious traditions. He has presented research at the American Academy of Religion, North American Patristics Society, Wesleyan Theological Society, Orthodox Theological Society in America, and the Kellogg Institute for International Studies at the University of Notre Dame. His recent work has been published in Anglican Theological Review, Christian-Muslim Relations, and the book, Spirit and Nature (eds. Hessel-Robinson and McNamara, 2010). He is currently co-editing and contributing to an ecumenical collection on the Philokalia, which is under contract with Oxford University Press (forthcoming 2011).
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The Longer Version
Beginnings and Family
Brock was born in 1970, in Norman, Oklahoma, a college-town where football is religion and tornadoes are common. While Oklahoma is the “buckle of the Bible belt,” his unconventional parents (an entrepreneurial father and a feminist mother) often lived life against the grain of the more conservative culture. They modeled a spiritual life that highlighted freedom and fun, reached out to those on the fringes, encouraged engagement with culture, embraced denominational and religious diversity, and celebrated the love and generosity of God.
Growing up in a family like this gave him room to experiment, learn, and discover things on his own, without being force-fed. During his younger years he grew to love soccer, which eventually led him to take-up placekicking during college. Before taking off for college, Brock had a spiritual awakening – at a Billy Idol concert! In short, at the show (which was outstanding!) Brock says he was “ambushed by God,” and from that night on he began seeking God like a hungry man in search of food.
College, Mystics, Chicago, the World
During college Brock was able to interact with people from a wide variety of life-backgrounds. This exposure to different kinds of people – ethnic, religious, socio-economic, etc. – deepened Brock’s appreciation for diversity and the Maker’s panoramic beauty that is reflected in all peoples and places.
It was also in college that Brock began a life-long journey into the world of prophets, mystics, seers, and saints. After having an encounter with God at age nineteen, which left him profoundly changed, Brock decided to get his B.A. in religious studies and devoted himself to studying the Bible, spirituality, philosophy, and the lives of saints, monks, nuns, and mystics. His studies had such an impact on him during these formative years that his mother refers to them as his “monk years” - when he practiced many of the ascetic exercises he read about in the lives of these mystics and prophets.
After completing his B.A. studies, he moved from Oklahoma to Chicago where he did graduate studies (M.Div.) in theology. During his time in Chicago, he devoted himself to studying, mentoring, leading community groups, and teaching. He also connected with a local pastor who took him under wing, mentored him, and brought him along on trips all over the world. Seeing the world (places like England, Turkey, Ireland, Tajikistan, Latvia, Canada, and all over the US) was life-changing. It was on these trips that Brock’s heart was stirred for Christian-Muslim relations, the plight of the world’s poor, and the multitudes of urban orphans, many of whom live alone on the streets. Further, in Chicago Brock and his mentor established an intensive two year internship for leaders from around the globe in which emerging leaders were trained and equipped in practical leadership skills for service in the marketplace, church, and society. Additionally, while leading this internship, Brock and some of the interns launched an outreach to those dying of AIDS in a Chicago hospice. Over the course of several years this outreach deeply impacted his life and his outlook on AIDS-related issues.
Amanda, Bridgeway, San Francisco
After completing his M.Div., serving on a church staff for several years, and directing the internship for emerging leaders, Brock met Amanda, and they were married a year later. He moved back to Oklahoma City, where Amanda was completing her final year of studies, and served in the church his parents planted (Bridgeway Church of OKC), where he played an active role in the leadership of the church and led the college ministry.
Over the course of several years, Brock felt a growing desire to spend the majority of his time with people outside the church. So, being the shoe-lover that he is (and having the pipe dream of owning a shoe boutique), he and his wife, along with his brother and sister-in-law, moved to San Francisco’s Mission District where they started Subterranean Shoe Room on the well-known Valencia Street corridor. It was the perfect place to launch a business, interact with interesting people, and learn the ins and outs of entrepreneurship.
Ph.D., Pedagogy, and Publishing
In 2004, Brock sold the business and decided to go back to graduate school and get his Ph.D. in order to teach and mentor university students. At Loyola University Chicago, where Brock was a teaching fellow, he completed his dissertation (on the theological anthropologies of Maximus the Confessor and Jürgen Moltmann) under the supervision of Mark A. McIntosh. Currently Brock is assistant professor of religious studies at Wesleyan College (GA), where he is actively involved in teaching and mentoring students, ecumenical and interdisciplinary scholarship, training young leaders, and presenting and publishing research on theological anthropology, mysticism, leadership, and Christian-Muslim relations. He is also currently working on three books: the publication of research based on his dissertation regarding the theological anthropologies of Maximus the Confessor and Jürgen Moltmann; a book on Black Theology's engagement of classical theology; and a text on the Philokalia, the Eastern Orthodox collection on the spiritual life (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2011).
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