For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

"So here's a fact of human life. We have sorrow and, in many ways, That's neither here nor there, neither good nor bad, but we know intuitively that there are ways in which our sorrow can become excessive or misplaced.What the virtue of patience does is it moderates sorrow or constrains it, so it doesn't go beyond its proper limit. When we become too absorbed in trouble and woe, a lot of other things start to go wrong and that's why someone like Gregory the Great called patience the guardian of the virtues, because sorrow, if it's not checked, can easily devolve into anger, hatred, and fear. ... What it means to moderate sorrow isn't to suppress it, or to develop some kind of affected callousness or disenchanted, jaded relation to the things that one actually really loves.""You'll discover really quickly that you can't think about patience—you can't experience patience—without thinking about and experiencing joy.  Joy is the antithesis of sorrow—its remedy."Though it's tempting to think patience is a correction for hurry, busyness, scarcity of time, and haste, it's ultimately about managing your sorrow. Adam Eitel is an ethicist at Yale Divinity School who specializes in the thought of Thomas Aquinas. In this episode, he reflects on the human side of the virtue of patience and its place in the moral life—examining how it moderates our passions and responses to sorrow, finding surprising connections between patience, joy, and contemplation, and opening up toward an experiential theology that must comment on patience only from inside the struggle to receive it.Part 4 of a 6-episode series on Patience, hosted by Ryan McAnnally-Linz.Show NotesThe context for Thomas Aquinas and his friars"The friars are on the verge of being canceled."What is a virtue? "To have them is to have a kind of excellence and to be able to do excellent things."Where does patience fit in the virtues?Matter and ObjectThe matter of a virtue is the thing it's about, and the matter of patience is sorrow.Sorrow can have right or wrong objects and can be excessive or deficient.Sorrow is elicited by evil, that is, the diminishment of good.Patience is a moderating virtue for the passions, similar to courage.Patience is connected to fortitude or courage in moderating our response to "the saddest things.""Patience moderates or constrains sorrow, so that it doesn't go beyond its proper limit. When we become too absorbed in trouble or woe, alot of other things start to go wrong. That's what Gregory the Great called patience the guardian of the virtues. .... deteriorate." (or to ... guardian of the virtues in that sense.")What does it feel like to be patient on this account?You can't experience patience without experiencing joy."Joy is the antithesis of sorrow. Its remedy."Remedies: Take a bath, go to sleep, drink some wine, talk to a friend ... and at the top of the list is contemplation of God.Contemplation for Aquinas: prayer, chanting psalms, drawing one's mind to the presence of God.Experientia Dei—taste and see"This is scandalous to most virtue theorists ... but you can't have patience, or at least not much of it, without contemplation.""Moderating sorrow is not to suppress it or develop an affected callousness or disenchanted, jaded relation to the things one really loves.""Patience never means ignoring or turning away from the thing that's genuinely sorrowful."Diminishment of sorrow by nesting it among the many other goods.Modulate one's understanding of the thing that's sorrowful.The sorrow of losing a childYou can only write about it from inside of it.What is it? "Beneath the agitation, some kind of low grade anger, is there some sorrow? What has been lost? What have I been wanting that is not here? What's beneath the anger? What is it?"What scripture anchors you? "Find that scripture that anchors you in patience, and let it become yours. Let God speak to you through it.About Adam EitelAdam Eitel is Assistant Professor of Ethics at Yale Divinity School. He focuses his research and teaching on the history of Christian moral thought, contemporary social ethics and criticism, and modern religious thought. Dr. Eitel has roughly a dozen books, chapters, edited volumes, and articles published or in progress. These include an ethical analysis of drone strikes and a theological account of domination. His current book project explores the role of love in the moral theology of Thomas Aquinas. A 2004 Baylor University graduate and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Fribourg, Dr. Eitel received his M.Div. and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary, completing the latter in 2015.Production NotesThis podcast featured theologians Adam Eitel and Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give 

"God's patience empowers us to act. ... Human beings are called to respond to God's patience. Human beings are called to make good on God's patience. The covenant of grace, which is fulfilled in Christ and which is animated by the spirit, makes that a possibility. It's not an easy possibility of real life. I mean, not just because of sin and finitude, but because of the complexities of the world that we live in. But learning how to respond to God's patience, both through forms of waiting, through forms of activity, and sometimes through moments of intemperate resistance is I think at the heart of Christian life."Theologian Paul Dafydd Jones comments on the bearing of God's patience on human experience and action. The patience of Christ-incarnate means that Christ is patience-incarnate. This makes it possible to "live otherwise"—contesting the reign of sin and resisting evil by responding to God's patience. Jones emphasizes the togetherness and solidarity of God with creation. And suggests the importance of appreciating the complexity of Christian faith.Part 3 of a 6-episode series on Patience, hosted by Ryan McAnnally-Linz.About Paul Dafydd JonesPaul Dafydd Jones is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and the Co-Director of The Project on Religion and its Publics at the University of Virginia. He is a theologian specializing in Karl Barth, Christology, political theology, and religion in public life; and is author of the forthcoming research project: Patience: A Theological Exploration. Show NotesGod's patienceApostle Peter: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you.” (2 Peter 3)Patience series recapEpisode summaryTertullian and Cyprian"You need to think about who God is, and what God is doing before you think about who human beings are, and what we're called to become."Augustine: "God is patient, without any passion."Patience: Creation, providence, incarnation, TrinityCreatures are given time and space to "reward God's patience"This is not God getting out of the way; it's non-competitive between God and world.Colin Gunton: for the problem of evil, God's patience is a good place to start."God's patience occurs at a pace that is rarely congenial to us ... the world's history is not unfolding at the pace or the shape we would like.""God gives ancient Israel the time and space to accuse.  God is patient with expressions of trauma, expressions of guilt, expressions of deep anguish. And God is so patient with them that they get included in the Canon.""Some of the most powerful, skeptical, doubtful, angry moments, are found in the psalms.""God patiently beholds the suffering of God's creatures, particularly with respect to ancient Israel, that somehow the traumas of creaturely life are present to God, and God in some sense has to bear or endure them."Beholding Suffering vs Enduring SufferingGod's responsibility for the entirety of the cosmos: "There's no getting God off the hook for things that happen in God's universe."And yet God doesn't approve of everything that occurs.Confident expectancy: "Moving to meet the kingdom that is coming towards us.""God's patience empowers us to act."The patience of God incarnate; Christ is patience incarnate"Israel is waiting for a Messiah."We cannot understand Christ as savior of the world without understanding him as Messiah of ancient Israel.God's solidarity with us"The pursuit of salvation runs through togetherness with creation in the deepest possible sense."Letting Be vs Letting Happen"Jesus has to negotiate the quotidian."Crucifixion as the one moment of divine impatience with sinTheology of the cross as an imperative"Christians often are not comfortable with complexity. We want to think in terms of assurance. And we want that assurance to be comforting in a fairly quick-fire away. I think theologians have the task of exposing that as an ersatz hope and insisting that faith includes complexity. It involves lingering over ambiguity. Trying to fit together. multi-dimensional beliefs that are this lattice work—none of which can be reduced to a pithy, marketing quip.""Theologians need to be patient in order to honor the complexity of Christian faith. ... That's called intellectual responsibility.""Christianity is not going to cease to be weaponized by snake-oil salespeople." Staying with complexity and ambiguity"The capacity to tell the truth is in short supply.""Human beings are called to respond to God's patience. Human beings are called to make good on God's patience. The covenant of grace, which is fulfilled in Christ and which is animated by the spirit, makes that a possibility. It's not an easy possibility of real life. I mean, not just because of sin and finitude, but because of the complexities of the world that we live in. But learning how to respond to God's patience, both through forms of waiting, through forms of activity, and sometimes through moments of intemperate resistance is I think at the heart of Christian life.""People should not get in the way of human flourishing ... brought about by the empowering patience of the Holy Spirit. ... That's a gospel moment. That's a kairos moment."Production NotesThis podcast featured theologians Paul Dafydd Jones and Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

What does patience have to do with money? It's much more than timing the market just right. The economic factors of our market economy hold great sway over our relationship to the past, present, and future. Theologian Kathryn Tanner reflects on the ways finance-dominated capitalism controls our experience of time, and offers insights for a Christian approach to living in the present, informed by an economy of abundant grace. Part 2 of a 6-episode series on Patience hosted by Ryan McAnnally-Linz.Show NotesListen to Patience Part 1 on Time, Acceleration, and Waiting, with Andrew Root (July 24, 2021)What does patience have to do with money?Is time money?What is finance dominated capitalism?Viewing economy and our relationship to time through past, present, and future"Chained to the past”—debt is no longer designed to be paid off, and you can’t escape it“Urgent focus on the present”—emergencies, preoccupation, short-term outlook, and anxietyWorkplace studiesPoverty, Emergency, and a Lack of Resources (Time or Money)Lack of time and resources makes you fixated on the presentA Christian sense of the urgency of the presentSufficient supply of God's graceThe right way to focus on the present"Consideration of the present for all intents and purposes collapses into concern about the future."The future is already embedded and encased in the present value of things.Stock market and collapsing the present into future expectationsPulling the future into the presentGamestop and making the future present, and the present futurePatience and "elongating the present"Fulsomeness, amplitude, expansiveness of God’s grace Race, savings, and dire circumstancesPatience as a means to elongating the presentStability, volatility, and waiting“There’s no profit in waiting."God's steadfast love and commitmentKierkegaard's Works of LoveAugustine’s unstable volatile world and the implication of investing only in God's love and stability"Something has to hold firm in order for you to take risks."About Kathryn TannerTheologian Kathryn Tanner is the Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School. Her research relates the history of Christian thought to contemporary issues of theological concern using social, cultural, and feminist theory. She is the author of God and Creation in Christian Theology: Tyranny or Empowerment? ; The Politics of God: Christian Theologies and Social Justice ; Theories of Culture: A New Agenda for Theology ; Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology ; Economy of Grace ; Christ the Key; and most recently Christianity and the New Spirit of Capitalism.Production NotesThis podcast featured theologians Kathryn Tanner and Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Modern life presents a crisis of time, bringing the value of patience into question. Andrew Root joins Ryan McAnnally-Linz to provide some context for our modern patience predicament. As a professor of youth ministry at Luther Seminary, he has years of both experience and careful thinking about what it means for kids, families, churches, and communities to flourish in an impatient world, cultivating the mindset, the virtues, and the community we need to wait well. Part 1 of a 6-episode series on Patience hosted by Ryan McAnnally-Linz.Show NotesDoubling down and the temptation to make up for lost timeHartmut Rosa and Modernity as AccelerationAcceleration across three categories: technology, social change, and pace of life"Decay rate” is accelerating—we can sense that things get old and obsolete much faster (e.g., phones, computers)Riding the wave of accelerated social change"We’ve become enamored with gadgets and time-saving technologies."“Getting more actions within units of time"Multi-taskingExpectations and waiting as an attack on the self"Waiting feels like a moral failure."Give yourself a break; people are under a huge amount of guilt that they’re not using their time or curating the self they could have."You’re screwing up my flow here, man."When I’m feeling the acceleration of time: “Get the bleep out of my way. My humanity is worn down through the acceleration."Busyness as an indicator of a good life“To say that I’m busy is to indicate that I’m in demand.""Stripping time of its sacred weight."Mid-life crises and the hollowness of timePatience is not just "go slower”Eric Fromm's "having mode" vs "being mode" of actionWaiting doesn’t become the absence of somethingPixar’s Soul, rushing to find purpose, failing to see the gift of connectedness to othersNot all resonance is good (e.g., the raging resonance of Capitol rioters)How would the church offer truly good opportunities for resonanceBonhoeffer and the community of resonant realityLuther's theology of the cross—being with and being for—sharing in the momentReceiving the act of being with and being forInstrumentalization vs resonanceBearing with one another in weakness, pain, and sufferingEncountering each other by putting down accelerated goals to be with and for the otherFlow or resonance in one’s relationship to timeArtists, mystics, and a correlation with psychological flowAbout Andrew RootAndrew Root is the Olson Baalson Associate Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary. He teaches classes on youth ministry, young adults, family, church, and culture; he has lately been writing about issues surrounding the intersection of faith and science, including a project called Science for Youth Ministry. He is author of several books, including The End of Youth Ministry?, The Congregation in a Secular Age, The Pastor in a Secular Age, and Faith Formation in a Secular Age.Production NotesThis podcast featured theologians Andrew Root and Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

"Be with me, Madam Jazz, I urge you now, / Riff in me so I can conjure how / You breathe in us more than we dare allow." (Micheal O'Siadhail, The Five Quintets)Irish poet Micheal O'Siadhail and theologian David Ford discuss the improvisational jazz that emerges in the interplay of poetry and theology, riffing on life and love, the meaning of covenant, retrieving wisdom from history, and imagining a future by letting go in communion with Madam Jazz. Interview by Drew Collins.About Micheal O'SiadhailMicheal O'Siadhail is a poet. His Collected Poems was published in 2013, One Crimson Thread in 2015 and The Five Quintets in 2018, which received Conference on Christianity and Literature Book of the Year 2018 and an Eric Hoffer Award in 2020. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Manitoba and Aberdeen. He lives in New York.About David FordDavid F. Ford OBE is Regius Professor of Divinity Emeritus in the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Selwyn College. He is a renowned theologian and leader in inter-faith relations and is author of Christian Wisdom: Desiring God and Learning in Love and the forthcomingThe Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary.Show NotesBook: The Five Quintets, Micheal O'SiadhailJazz, poetry, improvisationReading: Epigraph to The Five QuintetsMadam Jazz, Improvisation, syncopated peace, "Let there be"Modernity, science, and historySecular supersessionismDeep conversation from your own tradition, with othersThe formation of historical figuresSecond sight and recovering history and wisdom from the past"Some of things we thought we have surpassed, we need to retrieve."History in service of the present and the futurePaul Ricoeur50 years of friendshipReading: "Covenant"One of the most important words of life: covenantUnity across generations: family, friend, and institutional covenants"Loving God for nothing"Unity, trust, and interdependence, even across difference and pluralismCulture of suspicionWithout trust you have nothingEnora O'Neil on trust in the public sphereSusan Highland: belief and trust in John's GospelO'Siadhail on "a life worth living"—decency and "bringing talents back"Ford on "a life worth living"—delighting in God and each otherTaking roads not normally takenProduction NotesThis podcast featured poet Micheal O'Siadhail, theologian David Ford, and theologian Drew CollinsEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

"The artist has the ability to direct the attention of the audience. If you agree to engage with their work, then they will show you something. And you agree to pay attention to that thing. And I think the act of attending to things is basically the act of love. And when I look at the life of Christ, he's forever drawing people's attention to things as lessons or just things they wouldn't have seen otherwise: a person they would have passed by, or a lesson from nature, or something that they would have missed. That discipline and virtue of attention flies directly in the face of everything that we experienced today."What is the role of entertainment in human flourishing? Vox film critic Alissa Wilkinson reflects on how her early life formed her critical and cultural sensibilities, the role of entertainment in a flourishing life, how biblical interpretation lends itself to the attentive task of the critic, the challenge of boredom and seeing entertainment as mere consumption, and how creating art and watching film well cultivates the virtues of attention and hospitality. Not to mention: The saddest song ever to score a film, why film is not a storytelling medium, how Jesus and Terrence Malick direct our attention, and much more. Interview by Drew Collins.Show NotesAttention economy (introduction by Evan Rosa)About Alissa WilkinsonArt and the shared experience of attention by artist and audienceArt and propagandaHow Alissa's upbringing cultivated her cultural sensibilitiesReading a text, understanding it and being able to reinterpretHow to watch vs. what to watchRemaking our visual vocabularyThe communal, public nature of entertainmentThe public nature of artCatharsis and emotion as a public act"Learning to perform my emotions...""The experience we have together"Compare religious liturgy to public entertainmentEntertainment and the life of JesusTelling stories and singing songs"Singing is such a useless thing."The saddest song in the world: Max Richter's "On the Nature of Daylight"The discipline and virtue of attentionDirecting the attention of the audienceTerrence Malick helping viewers "see"Film is not a storytelling medium; it's primarily visual. You can have no sound, no characters, but you can't have no video."Good artists are hospitable"Young Adult Movie Ministry and the ministry of attentionChristian engagement with filmA.O. Scott and Hail, Caeser!"A bad movie can instruct you as much as a good one. ... Every movie critic knows it's more fun to write about a bad movie"Apocalyptic pop cultureThe Daniel Option: The prophet Daniel as an exemplar of public engagementResponsibility and authorshipHand it over to the audience to making meaning togetherThe share-ability of artWe're all getting hit differently by the movies we seeJean Luc Marion's Idols and IconsBoredom and entertainment in a life worth livingMichael Chabon's reclaiming entertainment in "The Pleasure Principle" (LA Times)C.S. Lewis's An Experiment in CriticismBoredom"A lot of what passes for criticism is just cultural amnesia."The role of entertainment in a life worth livingAbout Alissa WilkinsonAlissa Wilkinson is Vox's film critic; she also writes about culture more generally. She's been writing about film and culture since 2006, and her work has appeared at Rolling Stone, The Washington Post, Vulture, RogerEbert.com, The Atlantic, Books & Culture, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Paste, Pacific Standard, and others. Alissa is a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics, and was a 2017-18 Art of Nonfiction writing fellow with the Sundance Institute. Before joining Vox, she was the chief film critic at Christianity Today.Alissa is also an associate professor of English and humanities at The King's College in New York City, where she's taught criticism, cinema studies, and cultural theory since 2009. Her book Salty: Lessons on Eating, Drinking, and Living from Revolutionary Women is forthcoming from Broadleaf Books. She is also the co-author, with Robert Joustra, of How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, and Politics at the End of the World. Alissa regularly gives lectures around the world on film, pop culture, postmodernity, religion, and criticism. She holds an MA in humanities and social thought from New York University and an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Seattle Pacific University.Read Alissa's articles on Vox.comListen to Alissa's podcast Young Adult Movie MinistryProduction NotesThis podcast featured critic and journalist Alissa Wilkinson and theologian Drew CollinsEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Is it possible for anyone to change their mind anymore? Matt Croasmun welcomes theologian and ethicist Nichole Flores (University of Virginia) onto the show for a discussion of changing our minds in political and religious contexts. They discuss the meaning of intellectual, political, and religious conversion; how aesthetic and emotional experience of beauty is often the key ingredient in changing one's mind and behavior; the value of open-mindedness and intellectual humility as well as the value of a firm sturdiness and courageous conviction; and the role of changing one's mind in a life worth living.About Nichole FloresNichole Flores is a social ethicist who is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. She studies the constructive contributions of Catholic and Latinx theologies to notions of justice and aesthetics to the life of democracy. Her research in practical ethics addresses issues of democracy, migration, family, gender, economics (labor and consumption), race and ethnicity, and ecology. Visit NicholeMFlores.com for more information.Show NotesRecovery mode from 2020 general election538 Podcast and Nate Silver as original demographic deterministIs it possible for us to change our minds?"I'm a Christian and I believe that conversion is possible.""I live in the world as if it were possible to change one's mind."Political conversion and mind-changingChanging one's mind can be the result of a conversionPolitical conversion focuses as much on a profound experienceAnecdote: A Catholic student who voted for Donald Trump because of abortionRegistering for a political party is a little like getting married..."Catholics like to think of ourselves as politically homeless... maybe political misfits is the better category."A political party should not be a place of comfort.Charles Taylor, hypergoods, and the impossibility of reasoning oneself into a "firmer grip"Changing your mind about American Football: "Young men shortening their lives for my entertainment.""I remember when I quit football ... I knew the shift happened when I turned on a game and I felt sick ... This shift was on the affective level."Treating students like "brains on a stick" or "free floating rationalities"How does the importance of affective emotional role in conversion shape an approach to teaching?"Learning is a version of changing your mind."Community of the beautiful: gathering around a shared aesthetic experienceSocial-political commitments that can change theological commitmentsMutual encounter with the world and the other"The church is the light of the world. The church is bringing joy and hope to our society. But also the church is being chastened by what we encounter in society. And we are seeing where we can more fully image the body of Christ."The open-mindedness of an annoyingly sturdy Christian. "I want to get that knowing eye-roll."The value of intellectual humilityWhat is the role of changing one's mind in seeking a life worthy of our humanity.Compromise: Negative or Positive"The unassailable value of human life created in the image of God: That's a value worth fighting for, worth holding onto."Production NotesThis podcast featured Matt Croasmun and Nichole FloresEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin ChanA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

In celebration of Juneteenth, Jamal-Dominique Hopkins and Angela Gorrell offer appreciation Old Testament scholar Charles B. Copher and Christian Educator Anne Streaty Wimberly. About Charles B. CopherCharles Buchanan Copher (1913-2003), a United Methodist minister and Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Scholar, held an illustrative academic career at his alma mater, Gammon Theological Seminary, which later became part of the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) consortium. A respected educator and beloved by his students, he was Professor for Biblical Studies and Languages from 1958-1978.  Following his death in 2003, ITC honored his life work by creating the Charles B. Copher Annual Faculty Lectures. He was author of Black Biblical Studies: Biblical and Theological Issues on the Black Presence in the Bible.About Anne Streaty WimberlyAnne E. Streaty Wimberly, Professor Emerita of Christian Education at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), is a renowned African American researcher, scholar, professor, advocate, and champion of black youth. A leading Christian educator rooted in the United Methodist Church, she has inspired students, colleagues, pastors, church leaders, and countless admirers to pursue education with a “zest to know.” For Wimberly, education centers on the big questions of life’s meaning and purpose, and she has enthusiastically pursued these questions throughout her spiritual and educational journey in light of her embrace of the generating theme of hope. While her teaching and scholarship encompass a wide range of ministerial and educational themes, she is most passionate about youth and family ministry in the black church. She currently serves as the Executive Director of the Youth Hope-Builders Academy at ITC and founder and coordinator of the Annual Youth and Family Convocation. Her passion for learning has undergirded her educational ministry and life-long vocation.Production NotesThis podcast featured biblical scholar Jamal-Dominique Hopkins and theologian Angela GorrellEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

"It's not just internal peace. It's internal healing. Healing of your memory."  (Kevin Lau)After suffering a brutal knife attack that nearly killed him, journalist Kevin Lau, then editor-in-chief of Ming Pao, chose to forgive his two attackers. Since then, he has continued to support social participation through deep Christian spirituality. In this episode, he is joined by theologian Andrew Kwok of Hong Kong Baptist University. Together they reflect on the spirituality of social participation in a society that is experiencing censorship, political disagreement and disenfranchisement that leads to violence, increasing polarization, and tribalized media consumption curated only to confirm the views you already hold.Interview by Evan Rosa.Show NotesLearn more about the 2014 attack on Kevin Lau: South China Morning Post /  BBC / NYTRead more from Kevin Lau in his address at the 2015 Human Rights Press AwardsAbout Kevin LauKevin Lau Chun-to is the former editor-in-chief of Ming Pao, a moderate Chinese-language news outlet based in Hong Kong and known for its commitment to journalistic freedom and reporting integrity. In 2014 he was viciously attacked in a premeditated slashing for his work. The attack was an international news event that sparked protests and demonstration for freedom of the press. Since then, he has spoken widely about his forgiveness for his attackers and remains an advocate for freedom of the press and Christian spirituality of social participation in Hong Kong and beyond.About Andrew KwokWai Luen (Andrew) Kwok is Associate Professor in the Department of Religion & Philosophy in Hong Kong Baptist University. His research includes Chinese Christianity, public theology, and Christian doctrine and hermeneutics. He has written and taught about religious discourse, social participation, and identity construction of Hong Kong Protestant Christians from 1970 to 1997; as well as the concept of social justice in the periodicals of foreign religions in China 1911 to 1949. He is currently working on a reconciliation project between Christians occupying different ends of the political spectrum in Hong Kong.Production NotesThis podcast featured journalist Kevin Lau and theologian Andrew KwokEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

"Jesus is the great kintsugi master." "Something that's broken is already more valuable than when it's whole." "The imagination creates, through the fractures, a river of gold, a mountain of gold." Makoto Fujimura joins Miroslav Volf to discuss Art & Faith: A Theology of Making. Fujimura is a painter who practices the Japanese art of nihonga, or slow art. His abstract expressionist pieces are composed of fine minerals he grinds himself and paints onto several dozens of layers, which take time and close attention both to make and to appreciate.Mako and Miroslav discuss the theology and spirituality that inspires Mako's work, the creative act of God mirrored in the practice of art, the unique ways of seeing and being that artists offer the world, which is, in Mako's words "dangerously close to life and death." They reflect on the meaning of Christ's humanity and his wounds, the gratuity of God in both creation from nothing and the artistic response in the celebration of everything.Show NotesMakoto Fujimura's Art & Faith: A Theology of MakingIlluminated Bible by Makoto FujimuraMary, Martha, & LazarusGenesis Creation NarrativeArt follows in the footsteps of the creatorThe reasons for God's creationWhy would an all-sufficient God create anything?God as "a grand artist with no ego and no need to create."Communicating about art and theology outside the boundaries of the institutional churchReconciliation between art and faithGod's gratuitous creation doesn't need a utilitarian purposeCreating vs makingIn artistic creation, something new does seem to emerge"God is the only artist"The scandal of God's incarnation: In becoming incarnate, God's utter independence is flipped to utter dependence.Psalmist's cry to GodHow art breaks the ordinaryThe artist's way of seeing and beingSeeing as survivalSeeing with the eyes of your heart"Artists stay dangerously close to death and life"Getting beyond the rational way of seeingLetting the senses become part of our prayerWilliam James on conversion: everything becomes new for the convertedSeeing with a new frame of beautyFaith and the authenticity of seeing with the eyes of an artistEmily Dickenson on the "tender pioneer" of JesusHartmut Rosa on resonance—in modernity, the world becomes dead for us, and fails to speak with us, but we need a sense of resonanceKandinsky and Rothko—artists' intuitive sense of resonance that has escaped the church in the wake of mid-century destructionMary's wedding nard oil and the gratuitous cost of artThe non-utilitarian nature of artUsing precious materials in artTear jarsMiroslav's mother regularly weeping and crying: "I wonder why God gave us tears? Only humans are the animals who cry."Helmut Plessner's Laughing and Crying: Weeping as relinquishing self-possession and merging the self with the flesh (as opposed to reason/ratio or technique/techne)N.T. Wright—the greatest miracle is that Jesus chose to stay human.Jesus's remaining woundsCo-mingling our tears with Christ's tearsKintsugi and Japanese Slow ArtAccentuating the fracture"The imagination creates, through the fractures, a river of gold, a mountain of gold."This is the best example of new creation."What would happen to our scars? That's a question with no answer."Through his wounds, our wounds would look differentJesus is the great kintsugi master, leading a path of gold along the fractures of lifeThe permanence of scarsIs it possible to be in the good and be truly joyous?"God is not the source of beauty. God is beauty."Fundamental "new newness": So new that it evades understandingGoodness, truth, and beautyGod loved the world so much, it wasn't enough to merely admire it—he had to join it.What is a life worthy of our humanity?Fujimura's practice of art as an attempt to answer that question."Our lives as the artwork of God, especially as a collaborative community in the Body of Christ."About Makoto FujimuraMakoto Fujimura is a leading contemporary artist whose process driven, refractive “slow art” has been described by David Brooks of New York Times as “a small rebellion against the quickening of time”. Robert Kushner, in the mid 90’s, written on Fujimura’s art in Art in America this way: “The idea of forging a new kind of art, about hope, healing, redemption, refuge, while maintaining visual sophistication and intellectual integrity is a growing movement, one which finds Makoto Fujimura’s work at the vanguard.”Fujimura’s art has been featured widely in galleries and museums around the world, and is collected by notable collections including The Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, The Huntington Library as well as Tikotin Museum in Israel. His art is represented by Artrue International in Asia and has been exhibited at various venues including Dillon Gallery, Waterfall Mansion, Morpeth Contemporary,  Sato Museum in Tokyo, Tokyo University of Fine Arts Museum, Bentley Gallery in Phoenix, Gallery Exit and Oxford House at Taikoo Place in Hong Kong, Vienna’s Belvedere Museum, Shusaku Endo Museum in Nagasaki and Jundt Museum at Gonzaga University. He is one of the first artists to paint live on stage at New York City’s legendary Carnegie Hall as part of an ongoing collaboration with composer and percussionist, Susie Ibarra.  Their collaborative album "Walking on Water" is released by Innova Records. As well as being a leading contemporary painter, Fujimura is also an arts advocate, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural influencer. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2009, Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. His book “Refractions” (NavPress) and “Culture Care” (IVPress) reflects many of his thesis on arts advocacy written during that time. His books have won numerous awards including the Aldersgate Prize for “Silence and Beauty” (IVPress). In 2014, the American Academy of Religion named Fujimura as its 2014 “Religion and the Arts” award recipient. This award is presented annually to professional artists who have made significant contributions to the relationship of art and religion, both for the academy and a broader public. Previous recipients of the award include Meredith Monk, Holland Cotter, Gary Snyder, Betye & Alison Saar and Bill Viola. Fujimura's highly anticipated book "Art+Faith: A Theology of Making" (Yale Press, with foreword by N.T. Wright, 2021) has been described by poet Christian Wiman as "a real tonic for our atomized time".Fujimura founded the International Arts Movement in 1992, now IAMCultureCare, which over sees Fujimura Institute. In 2011 the Fujimura Institute was established and launched the Four Qu4rtets, a collaboration between Fujimura, painter Bruce Herman, Duke theologian/pianist Jeremy Begbie, and Yale composer Christopher Theofanidis, based on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets. The exhibition has travelled to Baylor, Duke, and Yale Universities, Cambridge University, Hiroshima City University and other institutions around the globe.Bucknell University honored him with the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2012.Fujimura is a recipient of four Doctor of Arts Honorary Degrees; from Belhaven University in 2011, Biola University in 2012, Cairn University in 2014 and Roanoke College, in February 2015. His Commencement addresses has received notable attention, being selected by NPR as one of the “Best Commencement Addresses Ever”. His recent 2019 Commencement Address at Judson University, was called “Kintsugi Generation”, laying out his cultural vision for the next generation.Production NotesThis podcast featured artist Makoto Fujimura and theologian Miroslav VolfEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Martin Chan & Nathan JowersA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give