Emmanuel Faculty

Bio coming soon!

• BA         University of Toronto
• MA        St. Michael’s University
• MDiv     Emmanuel College
• PhD       University of Saskatchewan

Contact

Email: david.kimcragg@utoronto.ca

Teaching and Research Interests

David Kim-Cragg received his PhD in history from the University of Saskatchewan with a major in Modern East Asian history and two minors in Indigenous and Canadian history.  His soon-to-be-published book entitled Water from Dragon’s Well: The History of a Korean-Canadian Church Relationship (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022) covers the story of the Canadian church’s early mission to Korea and the resulting influence of Korean Christian leadership upon the United Church of Canada.  His research interests include historical intercultural encounters with and within the United Church and its predecessors.  David has taught Modern Canadian History and has published articles in Touchstone, Historical Papers and the Journal of World Christianity.  He is a contributor to Broadview Magazine and a member of the Canadian Society for Church History.  He serves as an ordained minister to St. Matthew’s United Church in Richmond Hill.  David is excited about teaching that draws out the full range of expertise and experience within a group of learners and about sharing the journey of discovery with others.

Contact 

Email: christina.labriola@mail.utoronto.ca

Teaching and Research Interests

Dr. Christina Labriola combines the practice of sacred music as a choral conductor, alto and keyboardist with theological scholarship in the area of Christian spirituality and music. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree with honours from the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Music (2010) and a Performer’s A.R.C.T. certificate in piano from the Royal Conservatory of Music (2012). Following this, she undertook a Master’s degree in Sacred Music from Emmanuel College (2013), with a choral conducting specialization, supported by a prestigious SSHRC scholarship. Most recently, she earned a doctoral degree in Pastoral Theology (Th.D.) from the Jesuit theological school at U of T, Regis College (2018) with a thesis on music’s sacramental potential through the lens of theological aesthetics, from a Roman Catholic perspective. 

Christina's academic work focuses on the intersection of music and the arts, liturgy, beauty and spirituality. She has lectured on sacred music, Western music history, medieval women mystics, and theology and the arts. She has presented her work at various symposia, workshops, and conferences in Toronto, at Durham, UK, and online. She has published on Hildegard of Bingen’s musical theology, the work of renaissance composer Costanzo Festa, theological engagements with music and visual art, and served as co-editor for the recent volume, Music, Theology, and Justice (Lexington, 2017). She is co-convenor, with Professor Michael O’Connor, of the Music and Theology Reading Group at the St. Michael’s College.

Christina is the Director of Music for the Office of Campus Ministry at the University of St. Michael’s College, where she directs the St. Michael’s Schola Cantorum and Campus Ministry Mass Choir. As a practising church musician, she serves as cantor and organist for the NCBC Daily TV Mass and at St. Peter’s Catholic Parish in Toronto. 

• PhD Candidate Emmanuel College 
• MSW University of Melbourne 
• ThM Calvin Theological Seminary - Systematic Theology  
• ThM Calvin Theological Seminary - Pastoral Care  
• MDiv Anyang Theological Seminary  
• BA Sejong University 

Contact

Email: jinseok.lee@utoronto.ca  

Teaching and Research Interests 

Jinseok Lee is a PhD candidate in Theological Studies at Emmanuel College. He is an ordained minister and pastoral counsellor who works with local Christian churches in Toronto. As a pastoral counsellor and narrative practitioner, he serves individuals and diverse faith communities. His research specialties involve collective trauma studies and Narrative Therapy. He teaches the Narrative Therapy course at Emmanuel College in the Master of Pastoral Studies program and currently focuses on writing in the areas of his specialties. His great passion is bringing healing to people who are collectively traumatized under the influence of social injustice, such as structural injustice and political unjust practices. For collective healing, he proposes Collective Narrative Practice as therapeutic methodologies for local communities and social movement initiatives.  

Education:  

BaH Queen's University

MTS Knox College, Toronto

ThM Knox College, Toronto

PhD Candidate, Emmanuel College, Toronto

Contact: amy.panton@mail.utoronto.ca

Teaching and Research Interests:

Amy is a Mad Theologian who has gotten involved in practical theological research as she wants to contribute to change. Her research explores the intersections between mental illness and spirituality. Amy is currently writing her dissertation which looks at the recent rise in self-harm (cutting and burning one's own skin) amongst young people all over the world. Amy is interested in better understanding the lived spirituality of people who self-harm so that faith communities can respond and provide care. Amy's research interests include: mental health and spirituality, mad studies, disability theology, crip theory and mad people's history.

In July of 2020, Amy co-launched The Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability with her friend Rev. Miriam Spies. The journal is committed to breaking new ground at the intersection of theology and mental health, exploring disability using an interfaith theological lens, publishing work by people with lived experience of mental illness and other disabilities. 

Selected publications:

Fisher, Elizabeth, and Amy Elizabeth Panton. “Transformation & Resistance in the Interfaith Classroom: Reflections on Teaching in the Canadian Context.” The Wabash Center Journal on Teaching 2, no. 2 (May 28, 2021). https://doi.org/10.31046/wabashcenter.v2i2.1761.

Panton, Amy Elizabeth and Miriam Spies. "A Deep Desire for Transformative Justice: A Reflection on the Birth of the Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability" Mad Students Zine, McMaster University, Fall 2021 (forthcoming).

Panton, Amy Elizabeth. “Christian Perspectives on Self-Harm.” Centre for Peadiatric Spiritual Care, Birmingham Children’s Hospital, February 2019.

Panton, Amy Elizabeth. “Spiritual Care for Youth Who Self-Injure.” Mandate, the United Church of Canada, Spring 2019.

Panton, Amy Elizabeth. Spiritual Care for Self- Injury Project. https://www.spiritualcare4selfinjury.com.

Xiong, Jianhui (Jane), Nazila Isgandarova, and Amy Elizabeth Panton. “COVID-19 Demands Theological Reflection: Buddhist, Muslim and Christian Perspectives on the Present Pandemic.” International Journal of Practical Theology 24, no. 1 (March 2020): 5–28.

Professional Memberships:

International Society for the Study of Self-Injury

International Association for the Study of Youth Ministry

American Academy of Religion

Editors Canada
 

Selected Courses:

EMP2523H - Mental Health and Christian Theology

• MDiv, Fuller Theological Seminary
• PhD, Candidate, Emmanuel College, University of Toronto

Contact

Email: jessie.yum@mail.utoronto.ca

Teaching and Research Interests

Hyejung Jessie Yum is a PhD candidate in Theological Studies at Emmanuel College. Her research focuses on decolonizing peace in multicultural and transnational contexts. Specifically, her dissertation constructs a postcolonial peace theology in the multicultural contexts of North America, which addresses the complexity of intersectional violence built upon the colonial legacy and discriminatory norms and policies. She also conducted research at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and has been invited to speak at various institutions such as Universität Hamburg in Germany, as well as several institutions in North America.

Her rich background, having been born and raised in Seoul, spending years in Los Angeles, and currently living in Toronto, has ignited her passion for promoting equity and understanding across different cultures and walks of life. She serves as an editor for The Korean Anabaptist Journal and a co-founder of Sowing for Peace, a peace centre. She has also served on academic and church committees.

Selected Publications

• Book Chapters and Journal Articles

Néstor Medina and Becca Whitla eds., “Seeking Decolonizing Peace Across Intersecting Colonial Memories,” Decolonizing Church, Theology, and Ethics in Canada, Montreal: McGill–Queen’s University Press, Forthcoming.

Rose Ann Torres, Ian Liujia Tian and Coly Chau eds., “Vulnerable Resisters: Decolonizing Voices of Asian Migrant Women in a Settler Colonial and Religious Context” in Asian Canada Is Burning: Theories, Methods, Pedagogies and Praxes, Black Point: Fernwood Publishing, Forthcoming.

Review of A Postcolonial Leadership: Asian Immigrant Christian Leadership and its Challenges (Albany: SUNY Press, 2020), by Choi Hee An, Toronto Journal of Theology Issue 39, no.1 (Spring 2023).

Review of Liberating the Politics of Jesus: Renewing Peace Theology through the Wisdom of Women, Edited by Darryl W. Stephens and Elizabeth Soto Albrecht (New York: T&T Clark, 2020). The Conrad Grebel Review 39, no 1 (Winter 2021)

“The Myth of Happiness: A Commentary on Racism and Mental Health in Canada” in In Our Own Words Commentary Section, The Canadian Journal of Theology, Mental Health and Disability, Volume 1, No. 1, (April 2021): 3-7.

“Unsettling the Radical Witness of Peace: A Decolonizing Investigation of Mennonite Migration from Russia to Manitoba in the 1870s,” Anabaptist Witness, Volume 7, Issue 2 (October 2020): 93-113.

“A Postcolonial Response to Felipe Hinojosa’s Latino Mennonites,” Anabaptist Witness, Volume 7, Issue 2 (November 2020): 193-197. (The Special Edition for Panel Presentations at Mennonite Scholars & Friends Meeting at AAR/SBL in 2019)

“Human Beings as Co-Creators with God: The Search for Workers’ Dignity in Capitalist Society,” Asian Journal of Religion and Society, 6/2 (July 2018): 1-27.

“Peace for Whom? Reconsidering Peace Theology After John H. Yoder’s Sexual Violence,”

Korean Anabaptist Journal, Volume 16. (Spring 2018): 43-52.

“Who is Jesus Christ Today?: A Theological Response to the Sewol Ferry Disaster Based on the Theology of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,” Korean Anabaptist Journal, Volume 12. (Fall 2016): 48-66.

• Translation from English to Korean

Korean Anabaptist Journal, Volume 12. (Fall 2016): 112-121. By permission of the publisher translated from Heggen, Carolyn Holderread. “Sexual Abuse by Church Leaders and Healing for Victims.” The Mennonite Quarterly Review 89, no. 1 (2015).

Korean Anabaptist Journal, Volume 14. (Spring 2017): 52-61. By permission of the publisher translated from Loewen, Susanne Guenther. “Hearing Every Voice: Communal Discernment and Gendered Experience.” Vision: A Journal for Church and Theology 17, no. 1 (Spring 2016).

• Popular Articles

“Unleashing the gift of peace,” On the Reimaging Road, Leader Magazine (Fall 2023), 29-30.

“Everyday Practices for God’s Intercultural Vision,” Embracing Jesus’ Church, Leader Magazine, (Spring 2023).

“Atypical: Courage to Step into Ministry Less Traveled,” The Rhythms of Church Life, Leader Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 1 (Fall 2022), 27-28.

Co-author with Michael Pahl, Katie Doke Sawatzky, and Doug Klassen, “Bearing Witness to the Gospel of Peace,” A Study Guide for Gathering 2022 in Edmonton, Alberta, Mennonite Church Canada, February 2022.

“Wisdom from The Jerusalem Council: Toward Becoming an Intercultural Church,” Leader Magazine, Vol. 14 No. 3 (Spring 2022), 33-34.

Co-author with Melanie Kampen, “Canadian Mennonites: A Tale of Conflicted Multiculturalism,” Leader magazine, Volume 18, No. 5 (Spring 2021): 8-11.

Course

EMT2671F – Social Justice and Theology in Context