The Perkins School of Theology honored an SMU faculty member last month that the administration says they hope will create more recognition for the school and for the issues that it represents.
Rebekah L. Miles, an associate professor of ethics at the SMU engineering school, was named a Henry Luce III Fellow in Theology for 2003-2004.
“We are delighted with her achievement and wish her luck with the rest of her project,” said Marjorie Procter-Smith, associate dean at the Perkins school.
This prestigious fellowship is administered by the Association of Theological Schools to junior and senior scholars whose research projects offer significant and innovative contributions to theological studies. Each fellowship provides up to $70,000 of salary replacement, as well as research funds for the recipient.
Miles received recognition for her current work in the area of Christianity and Contemporary Culture.
Her project, entitled Good Kids, Good Society, Good God: Theological and Ethical Reflections on Raising Good Children, is centered on the issues that American society faces when raising moral and ethical children.
Miles argues that although many scholars, educators and parents agree that children need to be trained in the way they should go, these same individuals do not always agree about what particular way that is, much less how they may be trained to live a certain way.
She says that her research topic is not only important to theological studies, but that it applies to the community we live in as well.
“So many parents, uncles and teachers have told me that they are very much interested in the close link between church and family. They relate to the issue because they are faced with these questions every day,” she said.
Miles feels a special connection with the topic. As a mother of two young children, she says her questions and research began at home.
“My children have been my main source of inspiration all along. The issue is both personal and professional,” she said.
Professor Miles also added that without the support of SMU and the Perkins School of Theology, this honor would have not been possible.
“This not only reaffirms SMU’s high academic standards; it also upholds the reputation of Perkins School of Theology as a prominent seminary in the United Methodist Church,” Miles said.
Both students and staff of Perkins are very happy with the distinction.
Students in Professor Miles’ ethics courses were not surprised by the recognition.
“She is a brilliant woman who has a unique capacity of relating the theoretical concepts we learn in class to contemporary society,” said Ellie Knott, a sophomore graduate student at the school. She has been a student of Miles for the past two semesters.
“Professor Miles once said, ‘Some people make things happen, some watch things happen, and other just wonder what happens.’ I think she wonders what happens in order to make things happen.”