Desire, Darkness, and Hope

M. Shawn Copeland, professor of systematic theology emerita at Boston College, is an internationally recognized and award-winning scholar. She is the author and/or editor of six books, including Knowing Christ Crucified: The Witness of African American Religious Experience and Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, and Being, as well as articles and essays on spirituality, theological anthropology, political theology, social suffering, gender, and race.

Laurie Cassidy, PhD, is a theologian and spiritual director currently teaching in the Christian Spirituality Program at Creighton University. An award-winning author and editor, her books include Interrupting White Privilege: Catholic Theologians Break the Silence, edited with Alex Mikulich. Her latest book, The Scandal of White Complicity in US Hyper-Incarceration: A Non-Violent Spirituality of White Resistance, is co-authored Alex Mikulich and Margaret Pfeil. As well as being an anti-racist activist, she has ministered in the area of spirituality for the past thirty years and provided spiritual direction, retreats, and workshops across the United States. Her research and writing explore the political and cultural impact of Christian mysticism in personal and social transformation.