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

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

How should we respond to the pain of others? We are too often quick to justify God's permitting horrendous evils, answering why, and talking too much. In this episode, theologian David Kelsey reflects on Human Anguish and God's Power, noticing the anomaly of evil and its wild and inexplicable grip on creatures, the constant temptation of such creatures to talk and explain evil in the face of others' pain, and finally the analogously wild and inexplicable nature of God's grace in his immediate, if silent, presence among human anguish. Interview by Ryan McAnnally-Linz.Show Notes“When you're consoling somebody who’s in deep anguish, let them raise the why questions”“As people of faith, we don't know the answer. What we do affirm is that God is present in the situation of the people who are anguishing and the people who are suffering”“God is affirming the value of that life, even as it suffers”“And God is as offended at the suffering as you are”“You don't have to talk. Better to acknowledge what's there, witness to the presence of God's grace in the midst of it and be silent”David was one of Ryan’s professors at Yale Divinity School What to do about the pain of others? Observing human suffering when it is not our ownPeople who have lost loved ones in the Pandemic, what do you say to them? What do you do? How to live in that sacred yet difficult place? Isaiah 6, “I’m a man of unclean lips”David Kelsey: “The main problem is that we seek explanations where there are in fact two mysteries”the positive mystery that is God cannot be graspedthe negative mystery, which is evilAnd the two make no sense together"Look, when you look for an explanation there, you're going to get God wrong and you're going to hurt people. There's a better way and it starts and ends with silence”David Kelsey, Imagining RedemptionDavid Kelsey, Eccentric Existence: A Theological AnthropologyDavid Kelsey, Human Anguish and God's PowerHuman Anguish and God's Power – what made you interested in this? Clergy are appalled about the rhetoric that people would say to those in anguish in the hospital. “This was sent for a purpose,’ ‘there is a plan here.’ It makes grief more complicated. So why do people say those things? The Abrahamic traditions asserted that God created the Earth out of nothing, which implies that God can do anything He wants. That leads to people think God wants people to sufferInitially the title was Human Anguish and Divine Power, but he realized that was wrong God so exceeds our capacity to get our minds around what it is to be God that everything we say about God should be "God is kind of like someone who loves," "God is kind of like someone who is focused on justice" We don’t really know what justice, in God’s case, really means“When people talk very fluently about God, I get very uneasy. It's too slick”Reading scripture in light of the text The drive to want an explanationLutheran theologian, Deanna Thompson, has written about this in experience as a cancer victim“Christians have trouble with this: God did not create evil, and yet evil is there. It’s absurd, and it’s real.”“How it came to be that way, we don’t know. Presumably God knows, but I’ m not God”“Not short-circuiting the mysteriousness of evil and yet affirming somehow the priority of what you call ‘the positive mystery that is God’”Christians often think evil and grace are reconcilable if you think hard enough The wildness of God's grace: "why in the world would God love us this way?”Don’t try to talk, be a witness to the mystery “The wildness of evil is parasitic because it’s a deep distortion of God’s created good”Evil as distortion“Disease is a distortion of the dynamics of a healthy organism, but not some other sort of dynamic. It's just that gone awry”“And so it's that asymmetry where the mystery of evil is parasitic on the mystery of what grace produces”Where does silence land in a person’s life? “Worship: it's praying; it's singing; it's asking for help; it's confessing our sins; it's helping our neighbors”Praise of God’s glory as foundation of worshipFirst silence, then praiseAbout David KelseyDavid Kelsey is Luther A. Weigle Professor Emeritus of Theology at Yale Divinity School. He is author of several works of theology, including Imagining Redemption, Eccentric Existence: A Theological Anthropology, and most recently Human Anguish and God's Power.Production NotesThis podcast featured David Kelsey & Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited by Evan RosaCo-produced by Evan Rosa & Ryan McAnnally-LinzHosted 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

"I am because they were." Lisa Sharon Harper joins Miroslav Volf to discuss the significance of narrative history for understanding ourselves and our current cultural moment; the sequence of repeated injustices that have haunted America's past and directly impacted Black Americans for hundreds of years; the Christian nationalist temptation to hoard power; the necessary conditions for true repair, the role of reparations in the pursuit of racial justice, and the goodness of belonging.About Lisa Sharon HarperFrom Ferguson to New York, and from Germany to South Africa to Australia, Lisa Sharon Harper leads trainings that increase clergy and community leaders’ capacity to organize people of faith toward a just world. A prolific speaker, writer and activist, Ms. Harper is the founder and president of FreedomRoad.us, a consulting group dedicated to shrinking the narrative gap in our nation by designing forums and experiences that bring common understanding, common commitment and common action.Ms. Harper is the author of several books, including Evangelical Does Not Equal Republican…or Democrat (The New Press, 2008); Left Right and Christ: Evangelical Faith in Politics (Elevate, 2011); Forgive Us: Confessions of a Compromised Faith (Zondervan, 2014); and the critically acclaimed, The Very Good Gospel: How Everything Wrong can be Made Right (Waterbrook, a division of Penguin Random House, 2016). The Very Good Gospel, recognized as the “2016 Book of the Year” by Englewood Review of Books, explores God’s intent for the wholeness of all relationships in light of today’s headlines.A columnist at Sojourners Magazine and an Auburn Theological Seminary Senior Fellow, Ms. Harper has appeared on TVOne, FoxNews Online, NPR, and Al Jazeera America. Her writing has been featured in CNN Belief Blog, The National Civic Review, Sojourners, The Huffington Post, Relevant Magazine, and Essence Magazine. She writes extensively on shalom and governance, immigration reform, health care reform, poverty, racial and gender justice, climate change, and transformational civic engagement.Ms. Harper earned her Masters degree in Human Rights from Columbia University in New York City, and served as Sojourners Chief Church Engagement Officer. In this capacity, she fasted for 22 days as a core faster in 2013 with the immigration reform Fast for Families. She trained and catalyzed evangelicals in St. Louis and Baltimore to engage the 2014 push for justice in Ferguson and the 2015 healing process in Baltimore, and she educated faith leaders in South Africa to pull the levers of their new democracy toward racial equity and economic inclusion.In 2015, The Huffington Post named Ms. Harper one of 50 powerful women religious leaders to celebrate on International Women’s Day. In 2019, The Religion Communicators Council named a two-part series within Ms. Harper’s monthly Freedom Road Podcast “Best Radio or Podcast Series of The Year”. The series focused on The Roots and Fruits of Immigrant Labor Exploitation in the US. And in 2020 Ms. Harper received The Bridge Award from The Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth and Reconciliation in recognition of her dedication to bridging divides and building the beloved community.Production NotesThis podcast featured Lisa Sharon Harper and Miroslav VolfEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaSpecial thanks to Lisa Sharon Harper and Katie Zimmerman at FreedomRoad.usProduction 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

In this enlightening discussion, Miroslav Volf, a theologian specializing in forgiveness, shares personal insights shaped by his family's response to tragedy. Joined by Laurie Santos, a Yale psychologist, they explore forgiveness not just as a duty, but as a liberating practice that creates space for healing. Volf emphasizes the transformative power of viewing forgiveness as a gift, while contrasting it with conventional attitudes toward justice and resentment. Together, they illuminate how forgiveness can profoundly impact personal well-being and strengthen communal bonds.