“Can you have an experience of faith in Christ without having an intellectual concept of who Christ is?”
This question lies at the heart of Dr. Calli Micale’s theological project. Dr. Micale, who wrote her dissertation on intellectual disability and the experience of God’s grace, observes that in the church and in theological education, we talk about faith in a way that implies individuals need a cognitive understanding or concept about Christ before they can experience faith in Christ. We speak as if theoretical knowledge must precede encounter. How then, do intellectually disabled persons experience faith in Christ?
Dr. Micale grew passionate about this work after hearing a theologian speak on it at Yale when starting her doctoral work. The speaker implied that in the fullness of the New Creation, disabled persons would have full cognitive and physical ability. During her undergraduate studies, Dr. Micale worked at summer camps with kids with autism, and continued to work with individuals with autism as a therapist. The theologian’s comments left her asking, “What is our eschatology saying about the humanity of disabled persons in this age?”
The theologian’s comments, in light of her experience working with individuals with autism, lead to an approach to theology that asks serious questions about how our theologies shape the perception of our bodies, and how our bodily experience shape our theologies. Encountering Christ is no mere intellectual exercise; worship is not only sensory but extends to the whole of human life. Dr. Micale emphasizes that God came down and became incarnate in the person of Jesus. God meets us in our circumstances through Christ to draw us to the Word.
Palmer Theological Seminary welcomed Dr. Micale in Fall 2023 as Assistant Professor of Theology and Ethics and Director of the MDiv Program. She immediately fell in love with Palmer’s motto, The Whole Gospel for the Whole World through Whole Persons. “It was the kind of Christian life I was trying to capture in my writing.” Theology and the Practice of Worship, one of the seminary courses she teaches, seems a perfect fit–a course with a unit devoted to sensation and worship. She describes the unit as where “we get to experience the Holy Spirit in our midst and live out what we have been learning.”
When asked what she has found to be unique at Palmer, Dr. Micale does not hesitate. “Staff, faculty, and students, in every interaction, seek to live their faith in Christ… They’re always aspiring to grow in their Christ likeness.”
Dr. Calli Micale is currently a candidate for Ordination in Word and Sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. Having grown up in and been formed in the ELCA, she is adamant that her work at Palmer is contiguous with her service and future ordination. “I hope my teaching and writing offers a kind of opening for all the ways Christ and the Holy Spirit encounters us in our daily lives.”
To learn more about Dr. Micale’s writing and background, read her full bio at https://palmerseminary.edu/calli-micale.