the founding ideologies with Dr. Todd J. Stockdale.
the underview, an exploration in the shaping of our place.
about this episode.
From Enlightenment ideals to the myth of the American frontier, the founding ideologies of the United States have long shaped how we define humanity, progress, and belonging. In this episode, Dr. Todd Stockdale invites us to trace how these ideologies, especially the Western liberal view of the autonomous individual, intersected with Protestant theology and national identity. Drawing on the work of John Locke, Max Weber, and Karl Marx, we explore how these frameworks have informed what counts as good and bad, civilized and savage, included and excluded, preserved and erased. And we ask what it would mean to reimagine our shared future not through domination, but through a deeper vision of what it means to be fully human.
Dr. Stockdale challenges us to examine how our ideas of justice, freedom, and selfhood have been formed by settler colonial logics, and how healing might begin by telling a different story. This conversation builds a bridge between earlier episodes exploring Indigenous erasure and theological complicity, and the final arc of this season, which seeks to confront systems of race, class, and gender that continue to shape our country and Northwest Arkansas today.
our guest.
about.
Todd Stockdale is a teaching fellow at Seton Hall University. He earned his Ph.D. in Practical Theology from the University of Edinburgh. Todd teaches in the Department of the Core, and is the curriculum coordinator for the Second Signature Course—Christianity and Culture in Dialogue. He is co-author of the book Making Connections: Exploring Methodist Deacons' Perspectives on Contemporary Diaconal Ministry, and has articles and reviews published in journals such as Theology and Ministry, Practical Theology, and the International Journal of Public Theology.
Area of Specialization: Practical Theology
Professional Interests: As a practical theologian, I find myself drawn to the complexities present in lived Christianity and therefore I seek to investigate theological themes through the particularities of concrete situations. This means that much of my own work has been cross-disciplinary in nature and I routinely draw upon various qualitative research methodologies from the social sciences—such as participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups—in order to explore a range of theological issues.
Full bio available at https://www.shu.edu/profiles/toddstockdale.html