About

Hi there,

Thanks for taking interest in my blog.  My name’s Marvin Lance Wiser. This blog has recently undergone renovations. Formerly, known as “Stories of Expatriation & Maturation,” it chronicled my life and interests (particularly of US & Latin American Relations) while living in Mexico City. Now, it will focus on similar threads I imagine, but with a more intentional spiritual and faith bend.  I thought it apropos to change the name as I am now a seminarian and have embarked on yet another adventure of life in attempt to slay the dragons of discontent. I’m currently an MDiv student at Andover Newton Theological School (ANTS), part of the Boston Theological Institute in none other than Boston, MA. I am the founder and President of the Society for the Advancement of Biblical Scholarship (SABS) and am a fellow of CIRCLE, Center for Interreligious and Communal Leadership Education, a joint endeavor of  ANTS and Hebrew College in which part of my duties entails being an interfaith peer group facilitator. As of recent, I have had the great privilege of being selected to be one of many young Contributing Scholars  for State of Formation, a joint effort of the Journal of Interreligious Dialogue and Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions. I aspire to continue my studies after my current program, entering a PhD program within a department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations- I love the Ancient Near East — especially late Bronze and Iron Age Levant — Hebrew Bible, Sociology, Hermeneutics, Biblical Theology, Process & Relational Theology, Continental Philosophy, and Postcolonial Criticism.  I’m particularly interested in the archiving of human consciousness, the similarities and differences between oral and literate cultures, how we construct “the other/stranger,” and how that construction defines ourselves; the construction of and later dismantling of monotheism in Israel and subsequent Judahism, comparative cosmologies, Creation theologies, and Sapiential Literature; the books of Exodus, Jeremiah, “Second Isaiah,” Jonah, Job, Qohelet, and Song of Songs fascinate me, the needs of hispanic immigrant communities, Interfaith dialogue, Ecumenism, social justice action, as well as the biblical hermeneutics of particular subcultures- just how do we read the Bible?- just how do you read the Bible? All matters of biblical discussion in ecclesiastical settings- in virtually any setting for that matter, come back to this one question. There are madnesses to our methods. I long to be a part of settings that foster the co-development of responsible shared hermeneutical practices.

I’ve gone through many phases in my life. I’m quite passionate. One of the latest is one of academic rigor.- I guess it’s cool, and offers me more prestige and what not, but mostly because I just love it and want to teach. However of late, thanks to a good philosopher and minister, Jimmy Buffet, I’ve decided to calm down a little bit, bring the sails in for a time. There’s no sense in pretending that I’m in a PhD, when I still have 2 years of a Master’s to go, right? I’ve been reading ahead for far too long. There’s a lot of life in between now and then, I for one would hate to miss the now because of the then. Here’s a little about me:

I hail from a small town of <6,000 constituents in rural southern middle Tennessee, smack dab in the middle of the Bible belt. The closest town of any reputable size was Huntsville, AL. There I spent the first 18 years of my life. If you’re from a small town, you can imagine doing what, but I loved it; everything was simple, so concrete, absolute, black & white- yes, it was still black & white. . . I grew up in the denomination Churches of Christ, a conservative branch of evangelicalism that was birthed out the frontier American Restoration movement (for those unfamiliar, think conservative SBC). I attended college in Arkansas, where I meet my beautiful wife. We both majored in Psychology (I doubled in Biblical Studies, and she in Youth Ministry). While there I had many opportunities to travel. Latin America is a jewel. Upon graduating college I started an ESL program in Tennessee and then I moved to Mexico City and taught for various companies while my wife completed her Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy/Narrative and Postmodern Therapies at the Mexican National Autonomous University (UNAM). While there I also contributed as a lay teacher of Bible for a house church. In 2006 I underwent an existential crisis and slowly began disassociating from the Christian denomination that I grew up in and started a journey that would lead me to more mainstream expressions of Christianity. As of October 2010, and after a lovely therapeutic stay with wonderful UCC congregations in Santa Rosa, CA and Somerville, MA, my wife and I have landed in an “emerging” Disciples/UCC congregation, Hope Central in Jamaica Plain, Boston, where I have been accepted into the “in care” process in seeking ordination with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Now I am learning to reclaim some of my Restoration heritage and evangelical roots and spirituality (though with slight alteration and redefinition/rebranding), and in doing so I hope to break down some of the all too pervasive Mainline/Evangelical dichotomies that have smothered the Christian landscape for far too long, reject the “either/or” category and embrace a “both/and” perspective. [Many thanks are being interjected here for the long-suffering of my wonderful life partner who has been with me every step of the way, whom without I would likely not have started my journey back to become integrate and whole again].

Right now, I’m wishing that I was in Margaritaville, though at times I wish I were on a dig in Israel, but I’m loving life. I look forward to using this blog as an outlet for seminary/Interfaith experiences, spiritual & Christian formation, expanding on in-class tasks, and as another form to investigate the intersection of biblical studies/hermeneutics and sociology, and on a broader level, religion and society in general.

I love music- especially Jimmy Buffet, Bob Dylan, U2, Arvo Pärt, Classical & Latin music, and jazz (i.e. Dave Douglas, Donny McCaslin, Michael Brecker, Branford Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Joe Lovano, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Wayne Shorter, Brad Mehldau, Pat Metheney, Dave Holland, Enrico Rava, Béla Fleck, Jaco Pastorius, Jim Black, John Zorn, and Chris Potter)

I love dark robust espresso, a nice macchiato, and french press-brewed coffee, and I also take enjoyment in sipping yerba mate from a gourd among friends.

I love my wife, I miss Mexico, and I long to teach. . .

Kierkegaard