Matt Shafer

Personal Information

Blog Name
Sword and Cross
Blog Link
http://blog.mtshafer.com
Bio

I am Matthew Shafer. I originally hail from Atlanta. I now reside for most of the year in New Haven, CT as a student at Yale University (Class of 2013), and spend most of the rest of the year with my family in Augusta, GA. In the summer of 2008 I attended the Youth Theological Initiative at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, one of the most transformative experiences of my life. After college, I hope to continue my studies through the master’s and doctorate levels, and then go into either academia or ministry, with an emphasis on social justice and peace work either way.

My interests (which guide much of the material here) include nonviolence, LGBTQ issues, academic philosophy and philosophical theology, postmodernity, and interfaith issues. Specific areas of political policy that I am particularly passionate about are war and peace, Palestine, LGBTQ rights and equality, nuclear disarmament, immigration, and health care. Influences on my thought (in no particular order) include Walter Wink, Hannah Arendt, John Howard Yoder, Immanuel Kant, Shane Claiborne, Stanley Hauerwas, N. T. Wright, the Catholic Worker movement, the Anabaptist tradition, the emergent church, etc.

I helped found the Stategic Global Prayer Initiative, and served as the coordinator of its War, Peace, and Nonviolence Issues group until the organization ceased to be active later in 2009. I work as a Peer Liaison in the Yale Chaplain’s Office, and I am involved in student leadership in Salt of the Earth (Christians for Social Justice at Yale) and Global Zero – Yale College Student Chapter.

History

Member for
1 year 21 weeks