
Aizaiah Yong - Swimming Against the Stream: How Contemplation Fuels Justice Work
Homebrewed Christianity
Outro
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In this conversation with Aizaiah Young, we dove deep into what it means to live a contemplative life in our hyperaccelerated culture. Aizaiah, who works at the Collegeville Institute and draws from thinkers like Raimon Panikkar and Howard Thurman, made a compelling case that contemplation isn't passive navel-gazing—it's about bringing your full self to every moment, whether you're protesting injustice or wiping your kid's bottom. We talked about how the monastery's vow of stability offers a radical alternative to our culture's obsession with speed and productivity, how Internal Family Systems can help us dialogue with different parts of ourselves instead of just trying to fix what's "broken," and why swimming upstream with elegance might be the key to sustainable social action. Tim and I both confessed how drawn we are to this approach, even as we wrestle with the tension between needing to combat misinformation online and recognizing that real transformation happens in those slower, face-to-face conversations where we can actually see each other's humanity.
You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube
Aizaiah G. Yong is an ordained Pentecostal Christian minister and practical theologian who has served in leadership roles in religious and higher education for over a decade, devoting his energy to healing and advocacy work that centers on QTBIPOC communities. His recent book, Multiracial Cosmotheadrism: a Practical Theology of Multiracial Experiences, received the internationally acclaimed 2022 Raimon Panikkar Prize.
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