Caring for the Commonweal: Education for Religious and Public Life

Parker J. Palmer was born in 1939 in Chicago. He attended Carleton College where he studied Philosophy and Sociology and graduated in 1961. He then went on to complete his Phd in Sociology at UC Berkeley. After graduation, he took a teaching position at Georgetown University and became involved with the Religious Society of Friends at Pendle Hill. He is the founder and Senior Partner of the Center for Courage and Renewal which operates the "Courage to Teach" program for K-12 educators across the country. He has published over one hundred essays and eight books. He has also been recognized with thirteen honorary degrees, two Distinguished Achievement Awards from the National Educational Press Association, and grants from the Danforth Foundation and the Lilly Endowment. Parker Palmer's title's include: The Promise of Paradox: A Celebration of Contradictions in the Christian Life, To Know As We Are Known: Education as a Spiritual Journey, and On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old. James W. (Jim) Fowler was born in Reidsville, North Carolina, on October 12, 1940, the son of a Methodist minister. Fowler received a B.A. from Duke University in 1962, a B.D. from Drew Theological Seminary in 1965, and a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1971. Fowler is the author of To See the Kingdom: The Theological Vision of H. Richard Niebur. He has also written several books on faith development, including Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian: Adult Development and Christian Faith; Stages of Faith: The Psychology of Human Development and the Quest for Meaning; and Faithful Change: The Personal and Public Challenges of Postmodern Life. He has contributed to numerous other books, and is co-author of Life Maps: Conversations on the Journey of Faith; Trajectories in Faith: Five Life Stories; and Toward Moral and Religious Maturity. Faith development, an area Fowler became interested in early in his career, has become a central focus not only in his writing, but in his research and teaching. He taught at Harvard Divinity School and Boston College before moving to Emory University, in Atlanta, where he is the director of the Center for Faith Development.