Cummings Conversations at Maryville College

Margaret McClure Cummings was born in 1903 and first came to Maryville College in 1935 with her husband, John, and their three children, when John was called to be the director of personnel and a teacher of Bible at the College. After John’s untimely death just over a year later, Margaret went to seminary in New York to prepare herself for collegiate teaching.

In 1940, she joined the Maryville College faculty as instructor in Bible and religious education, and she continued to teach at the College for 29 years. Since Bible was a required course, every student in those years was reached by “Ma Cummings,” as she was affectionately known. In 1968, she led the first international study trip for Maryville College’s new Interim Term, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, to the Middle East. In addition to her college teaching and raising three children (all of whom are Maryville College alumni – Jim Cummings ’56, Janet Cummings Martin ’51 and Peggy Cummings Campbell ’50), she was very active at New Providence Presbyterian Church in Maryville, ordained in 1953 as its first woman elder, and teaching an adult Sunday School class and Women’s Bible Studies for many years. She died in 2004, at the age of 101, leaving a legacy of faith, service and life-long learning.

It is fitting that her name will live among us, doing what she loved – sparking conversation, inquiry and faithful action – through The Cummings Conversations for years to come.

Dr. Lucia Hulsether, author and religious studies professor at Skidmore College, will be this year’s guest speaker for “The Margaret M. Cummings Conversations on Faith, Learning and Service,” held March 9-10.

The theme for this year’s lecture series is “Buying, Selling and Doing the Right Thing: Life Under Capitalism.”

During two presentations on campus, Hulsether will use her scholarly research on social responsibility projects such as fair trade, microfinance and impact investing to reflect on what it means to be ethical in a context that is framed by capitalism.

On Mon., March 9, Hulsether will present “Woke Capitalism” at 7 p.m. in the Clayton Center for Arts’ Harold and Jean Lambert Recital Hall. On Tues., March 10, Hulsether will give a talk titled “Total Depravity” at 1 p.m. in the Samuel Tyndale Wilson Center for Campus Ministry. Both events are free and open to the public.

Hulsether is a scholar of religion with particular interests in feminist and queer theory; critical race and ethnic studies; and the history of capitalism and labor. She is an assistant professor of religious studies at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She grew up in Maryville, Tenn., and holds a B.A. from Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Ga. She also holds a Master of Divinity from Harvard University and a Ph.D. from Yale University. Her first book, Liberated Market: On the Cultural Politics of Capitalist Humanitarianism, explores projects to reform capitalism from within — tracking formations like fair trade, microfinance and impact investing — since 1945. She is also pursuing projects on the history of citizenship pedagogies in the United States and on the cultures of competitive college debate.

Dr. Todne Thomas is a sociocultural anthropologist and assistant professor of African American Religions at Harvard Divinity School.

The theme for this year’s February Meetings is “The Tie That Binds,” and Thomas gave a presentation titled “On Faithful Families and Families of Faith: The Collective Spirituality of Black Evangelicals.”

In collaboration with Afro-Caribbean and African American congregants, Thomas conducts ethnographic research on the racial, spatial, and familial dynamics of black Christian communities in the U.S. Conceptually, her work integrates critical race and kinship theories to understand the racial and moral scripts of evangelicalism and neoliberalism.

She has authored peer-reviewed articles for the Journal of Africana Religions, Anthropology and Humanism, and the Journal of African American Studies. She has also co-edited New Directions in Spiritual Kinship: Sacred Ties across the Abrahamic Religions (2017) with Asiya Malik and Rose Wellman. Her current research examines the familial and spiritual experiences of black evangelicals and the neoliberal displacement of black sacred space.

“Sometimes big social problems are so overwhelming that it seems impossible to make any progress, on racism, poverty, the intractable dilemmas around immigration, political disagreement and religious differences,” said the Rev. Dr. Anne McKee, former campus minister at Maryville College. “So it may help us to focus on particular communities and what has sustained them in difficult passages. By learning their stories, we may find examples to follow in our day. Todne Thomas, by studying the strength of the Black church in the face of great adversity, helps illuminate the strength that can help people both survive difficult times and also make positive contributions to the world. I am confident that her words will both inspire and illuminate our journeys, no matter where our roads might lead.”