Resume – Therese DesCamp
Box 452, New Denver, British Columbia V0G 1S0
250-358-7904
descamp@heartrest.com
Education
Ph.D. Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USA, 2004:
Hebrew Bible, with a concentration in Intertestamental Literature and Cognitive Linguistics.
M. Div. Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA, USA, 1992.
B.S. Portland State University, Portland, OR, USA, 1978.
Fellowships and Awards
2010 The Rev. Ralph Watson Award for Denominational Studies, The United Theological College, Montreal, Quebec.
2000-2001 Newhall Research Fellowship with Prof. Eve Sweetser, UC-Berkeley:
Using cognitive linguistics to analyze biblical metaphors for God.
1999-2000 Newhall Teaching Fellowship with Prof. John Endres, S.J., JSTB:
The Status of Jewish Women in Greco-Roman Judea.
Other Training
Trained in 2004 by Rev. Francis Geddes in healing prayer (“The Gift of God’s Healing Love”); trained in 2005 to teach healing prayer.
Selected Publications, Retreats, and Teaching
2012
Private retreats and spiritual direction for individuals; group retreats currently scheduled include “Falling in Love with the Holy,” “Convergence Writers’ Retreat: Writing for Social Justice,” “Transitions,” “Introduction to Healing Prayer.”
Keynote address—Looking for Dracula: Brains, Frames, and Ethical Swamps in Healing Practices—and workshop leader—No Apology: No Exclusivism: Reclaiming Christian Depth—at “The Reality of Healing” Conference, San Rafael, CA, April 2012.
Currently working on a book, This is Your Brain on Prayer.
Co-author of Embodied Minds Reading Biblical Texts, a primer on the use of cognitive linguistics in biblical study; De Gruyter, available fall 2012.
Paranormal is the New Normal, United Church Observer.
I write a regular column on lived spiritual practice entitled “Still Points,” distributed via our website http://www.heartsrest.com/still-points/
2011
Private retreats and spiritual direction for individuals; group retreats include: “Practices for Living Deeply,” “11th-Step Workshop for 12-Step People,” “Healing in Ministry: Healing Ourselves, Healing Others,” “Introduction to Healing Prayer.”
Keynote speaker and workshop leader at “The Reality of Healing” Conference, Berkeley CA March 2011.
To Be Christian is to Speak Christian, United Church Observer.
Ongoing articles at http://www.heartsrest.com/still-points/.
2010
Go Forth and Multiply, Can We Prove the Existence of God?, Where People Feast, Eating Gimpy, United Church Observer.
Adjunct faculty, July, Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, B.C., CA: “This is Your Brain on Prayer.”
Adjunct faculty, July, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA, USA: “Sustaining Vocation.”
Private retreats for individuals; group retreats including: “Body and Soul: A Retreat of Physical Presence and Prayer,” “Labyrinth: Walking a Sacred Path,” “Practices for Living Deeply,” “11th-Step Workshop for 12-Step People,” and “The Way of Pilgrimage.”
Ongoing articles at http://www.heartsrest.com/still-points/.
2009
The Big Question: Why did God Forsake Jesus on the Cross?, Does God Change Over Time?, Three Truths and a Half-Lie, This is Your Brain on Prayer, United Church Observer.
Private retreats and spiritual direction for individuals; group retreats including: “Walking Our Lives,” “Practices for Living Deeply,” “This is Your Brain on Prayer,” “Pilgrimage.”
2008
Private retreats for individuals; group retreats including: “The Gifts of the Magi,” “God of Land and Water,” “Build Your Own Prayer Practice,” and “Build Your Own Prayer Practice.”
Metaphors We Kill By: Primary Metaphor in the Bible. Response to presentation by Dr. Joe Grady, Society of Biblical Literature. Boston, MA, USA: November.
Keynote speaker, University Congregational UCC Annual Lecture Series, “Cognition and Prayer,” in Seattle WA, USA.
Cognitive Linguistics for Biblical Scholars, three-day workshop sponsored through the Graduate Theological Union and UC-Berkeley Linguistics Department, June. Co-taught with Professor Eve Sweetser, UC-Berkeley, and Professor Bonnie Howe, Dominican University. Berkeley, CA, USA.
Bear Scat and Public Prayer, Rocks, Attention, Love, Cosmic and Particular, Doing the Footwork, The Ring, Holy Innocents and the Environment, http://www.heartsrest.com/still_points.htm.
2007
Ideology and Metaphor: Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum and Literary Methods through a Cognitive Lens. Published by E.J
Cognitive Linguistics in Contemporary Biblical Analysis: A Response to Lyn Huber. Presentation to the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. San Diego, CA, USA.
Private retreats; group retreats including “Build Your Own Prayer Practice,” “Faithful Practice, Not Perfection,” “The Gifts of the Magi.”
Repetitive Prayer and Cognition, Chicory, Into the Depths, It’s not over ‘til it’s over, http://www.heartsrest.com/still_points.htm.
2006-2000
Blessed Are the Baby Killers: Cognitive Linguistics and The Text of Psalm 137. Presentation to the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Washington, DC, USA, 2006.
Metaphors for God: Why and how do our choices matter for humans? The application of contemporary cognitive linguistics research to the debate on God and metaphor. Co-authored with Eve Sweetser. Journal of Pastoral Psychology, 2005.
Sustaining a Marriage: Or, Does PhD Have to Mean ‘Partner Has Departed’? Religious Studies News, 2005.
Whose Momma? The status of women in Pseudo-Philo’s Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum. Presentation to the Catholic Biblical Association. 2004.
“Ambiguity and Metaphor in Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum,” in Distant Voices Drawing Near: Essays in Honor of Antoinette Clark Wire, editor H. Hearon. Collegeville: Liturgical Press. 2004.
Those Evil Other Women, Then and Now: Intermarriage in the Popular Culture of the 1st and 20th Centuries. Invited presenter at “Bodies Crossing Borders: Intermarriage and Miscegenation in Historical and Contemporary Perspective,” UC-Davis. Davis, CA, USA: 2004.
The Book of Esther. Lecture and retreat day for the Annual Conference of the San Francisco Theological Seminary Auxiliary. San Anselmo, CA, USA: 2001.
Metaphors for God: Why and How Do Our Choices Matter? Featured presenter at the Spring GTU Colloquium. Berkeley, CA, USA: 2001.
Numerous retreats for congregation and other clergy.
1999-1992
Manipulating Metaphor: Protecting God in an Ungodly World. Presentation to the West Coast Society of Biblical Literature. Claremont, CA, USA: 1999.
Why Are These Women Here? An Examination of the Sociological Setting of Pseudo-Philo through Comparative Reading. Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha 16. 1997.
A Novel Approach: Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum in the Greco-Roman World. Presentation to the West Coast Society of Biblical Literature. Berkeley, CA, USA: 1997.
Numerous retreats for congregations, as well as Women and Power, a three-day preached retreat for the women of the Northern California/Nevada Conference of the UCC. Burlingame, CA, USA: 1995.
Employment
2007-Present
Self employed retreat leader, author, and lecturer. Co-owner and host, Heart’s Rest House of Hospitality, providing individual private retreats as well as programmed retreats for groups. Adjunct faculty at Pacific School of Religion (2009, 2010) and Vancouver School of Theology (2010).
Jan. 2001 – Jan. 2007
Associate (2001-2003); Co-Pastor (2004-2006); Pastor (2006-2007). Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula, Carmel, CA, USA.
1999-2001
Newhall Teaching Fellow (1999-2000); Newhall Research Fellow (2000-2001). Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, CA, USA.
1995-1997
Research Assistant (1995); Teaching Assistant (1996); Adjunct Faculty (1997-1998). Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA, USA.
1993-1994
Director, Adopt-A-Caseworker Program, Sacramento, CA, USA.
1989-1992
Various positions (breakfast chef, kitchen staff, office support staff) at Pacific School of Religion while studying for MDiv. Summer employment included pulpit supply in Portland, OR and consulting for Oregon Department of Education, USA.
1978-1989
Volunteer Coordinator (1978-1980); Director of Governmental Affairs (1981-1989). Association for Retarded Citizens of Multnomah County, Portland, OR, USA. During this time I also served as a consultant to the University of Oregon Department of Education, Specialized Training Program (1986) and was appointed by Governor of Oregon to serve as member, and then chairperson, of the State Training Center Review Board (1983-1986).
Activities
I am a founding member and current president of the Slocan Lake Stewardship Society. I served as a founding member and co-chair of the Society of Biblical Literature Section on Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation for four years. I am a member of Spiritual Directors International and the Slocan Lake Chamber of Commerce.
I was ordained in the Northern California/Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ, and hold my ministerial standing in the United Church of Canada, British Columbia Conference.
I served as a member and then the co-chair of the Northern California/Nevada Conference of the United Church of Christ Ethics Committee from 1999 through 2001. After my term of service expired, I developed training materials for new committee members, co-led a training, and served as on-call investigator for the committee through 2006.
I have been an active member of a Twelve Step program for twenty-five years. I have a daily meditation and healing prayer practice.
I live and work at Heart’s Rest, a house of hospitality jointly conceived and built by the Rev. George Meier and myself in New Denver, BC. At Heart’s Rest, we provide contemplative space and a discerning ear for persons of faith.
