{"id":5,"date":"2014-09-30T14:50:15","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T18:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/midst\/home\/"},"modified":"2016-04-27T13:36:04","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T17:36:04","slug":"home","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/midst\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Barry<\/a>
Barry Alter, Landour, c.1960<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIn the Midst\u201d is an audio autobiography of Barbara Beach Alter.\u00a0 Alter and her husband James served the American Presbyterian Church as missionaries.\u00a0 They spent 35 years in Northern India and never converted anyone \u2013 on purpose.\u00a0 When the mission board commissioned Alter, its members charged her to \u201clive in the midst\u201d of the people, wherever she was stationed.\u00a0 Her job was to be of service to those around her, rather than to proselytize or evangelize.<\/p>\n

The series of short audio pieces that make up this project explore Alter\u2019s understanding of herself as a Christian committed to social justice. She explains the influences on her decisions to practice an ecumenical form of liberal Protestantism, from early childhood through retirement.\u00a0 She counts among these influences her family, Connecticut College, the New England Student Christian Movement, and the works of American theologians Paul Tillich, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Walter Rauschenbusch.\u00a0 Her theology evolved by interacting with and reading the books of Indian nationalist Mahatma Gandhi and the French Benedictine priest Abhishiktananda.<\/p>\n

Alter and many other missionaries of her generation served as foreign missionaries interested in pacifism, ecumenism, and cultural pluralism.\u00a0 Their influence reaches from their work in a variety of international settings to their own children and grandchildren, many of whom have chosen to continue working in the midst of poverty and injustice to enact positive social change.\u00a0 They want their stories heard at a moment when they believe fundamentalist evangelicals dominate the history of Christianity around the world.\u00a0 This series of stories serves as a memorial to the life, work, and spirit of one woman.\u00a0 It is intended also to serve as a memorial to the beliefs and energies of a generation whose actions are overlooked, if not forgotten.<\/p>\n

Catherine \u00a0A. Corman, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

Start Exploring<\/a><\/h4>\n

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