When Ken first knew Rick Axtell, he was a high school student. Ken, a seminarian in his early 20s, was his Youth Pastor at a church in the northern suburbs of Chicago. Rick was a leader in the youth group. When Rick moved to Mississippi and Ken graduated, they bid farewell - turns out, for fifty years. Just in the past few months, they have become re-acquainted, chatting on video calls with two other members of the long-ago youth group. Rick has had an extraordinary career as a college professor and chaplain, serving on the same Kentucky campus (the highly regarded Centre College) for three decades. Ken and Rick share their journey and their profound awakenings. Rick shares his experience in war-torn Bangladesh and how it set the course of his life. His coursework, his travels (with students), and his engagement with homelessness, poverty, and hunger have enormously impacted his life and career. His commitment to addressing the needs of the marginalized and the neglected, including LGBTQ+, has earned him the respect and admiration of his students, fellow faculty, and colleagues. On retirement, the college established an Endowment in Rick’s name. It reflects his passion and his remarkable contribution to the college community - advancing “religion, peace, and social justice.”
SHOW NOTES (learn more about Dr. Axtell)
Become a Patron | Ken’s Substack Page
Become a Patron - Click on the link to learn how you can become a Patron of the show. Thank you!
The Podcast Official Site: TheBeachedWhiteMale.com
The Axtell Endowment for Religion, Peace, and Social Justice will allow us to create a student prize and support programming, internships, research, curricular and co-curricular community-engagement initiatives related to the study of religion, peace, and social justice, and/or fund an annual scholar/activist-in-residence to teach and work with students on issues of religion, peace, and social justice.
Rick Axtell is Emeritus H. W. Stodghill, Jr. and Adele H. Stodghill Professor of Religion and College Chaplain at Centre College. Axtell initially taught at Centre during 1992-93 and returned to the college in 1995. He was named a Centre Scholar in 2003 and 2008, and received the Kirk Award for excellence in teaching in 2000 and 2015. In 2012, he was included in The Princeton Review’s The Best 300 Professors. Axtell received the Presidential Award for Excellence in 2022.
Concerned about issues of hunger and homelessness, he has served as director of Louisville United Against Hunger and also was a case manager working with homeless men through the St. Vincent DePaul Society. He was a founder of the Natchez Stewpot soup kitchen in Natchez, MS where he served in a congregation for three years.
Axtell’s travels in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Ireland, Mexico, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Serbia, and Thailand have informed his teaching on issues of hunger, human trafficking, sustainable development, and peacemaking. In 2006, he taught in the UNESCO International M.A. Program in Peace and Development Studies at Universitat Jaume I in Castellon, Spain. At Centre, he was instrumental in the development of Centre’s Shepherd Poverty Internship Program and its Social Justice minor.
Rick took eleven groups of students to Cuba, England, Ireland, Mexico, and Nicaragua, and accompanied other groups to China and Guatemala.
Rick’s retirement send-off – June 2024
EDUCATION
BA: Mississippi College
MDiv: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
PhD: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Advanced Studies at the University of Notre Dame
EXPERTISE
Expertise on issues of hunger and homelessness; former director of Louisville United Against Hunger and case manager working with homeless men. Has guided students to first-hand understanding of homeless shelters. Research on day laborers; public housing residents displaced by HOPE VI. Travel and study in Bangladesh, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua focused on sustainable development, human rights, and poverty. Honored as a teacher and a hunger activist
More Pending
