The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner

Denomination: Presbyterian Church (USA) (PCUSA)
Organization: Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ

The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner serves as the Assistant Professor of Preaching at Princeton Theological Seminary. She received a B.S. in Secondary Life Science Education from Miami University (OH), a M.Div. from the Candler School of Theology at Emory University, and her Ph.D. from the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University.

Though she has served among the Lutherans and was educated among United Methodists, Dr. Wagner is ordained as a Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Previous experience on the pastoral staff at Green Acres Presbyterian Church, a PCUSA congregation in Virginia, helps fuel and inform her present scholarship and teaching. She is passionate about supporting students’ formation and helping clergy and communities navigate the realities of an ever-changing world and church. Her current writing and work focus on preaching and ministry in the midst and wake of trauma, particularly thinking about collective trauma, the role of the preacher, and the resources of our Scriptures and faith to respond to these moments. Dr. Wagner’s book, Fractured Ground: Preaching in the Wake of Mass Trauma (Westminster John Knox Press, 2023), offers guidance for preaching in the aftermath of communal trauma, including mass violence, natural disasters, and public health crises.

When not teaching, preaching, or writing, Dr. Wagner loves traveling, attending Broadway musicals, and hiking and kayaking with her sweet dog, Toby.

Day1 Weekly Programs by The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner

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Wilderness Memory - Episode 4141

Tuesday July 30, 2024
The Rev. Dr. Kimberly Wagner draws her sermon “Wilderness Memory” from Exodus 16:1-4, 9-15. This passage tells of the Israelites in the wilderness where water is scarce and they are hungry. Questioning the whole exodus plan, they ask if their leaders have brought them into the wilderness to die. Their memory of Egypt is distorted by their panic. “And we, too, like the exodus Israelites, may find ourselves inclined to distorted memory—to remembering a golden age that never was or a gilded recollection that is not quite true. How many times have you, like me, found yourself referring back to the good old days?” she says. “And, friends, the danger of such gilded or distorted memory is not only that it is untruthful or makes us feel like we have fallen further than we have. Most significantly, such false memory shuts us out from being attentive to God’s work in the present and closes down the possibility of any imagination for the future.”