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

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.

"The tears were always there. / You just didn’t recognize my face." Author, artist, and theologian Sarah Shin reads her poem "Beyond Invisible"—a response to the March 2021 Atlanta shootings that left six Asian women dead—a crescendo of increasing anti-Asian violence.Sarah's poem and her husband Shin Maeng's accompanying illustration ask the pointed question, "Can you see me now?"—dealing with the recognition not just of grief over recent events, but the generational tears that have flowed unseen, unacknowledged, and unaddressed.American 한 (Han)Click here to view "American 한 (Han)," illustrated by Shin Maeng.Beyond Invisibleby Sarah ShinThe tears were always there.You just didn’t recognize my face.Nor did you see behind the hunched back of the one doing your nailsThe steel frame of a mother feeding her family with 14 hour work days.Instead of seeing in our bodies and our faceThe altar of the broken faithful awaiting resurrectionYou make them instead into a graveyard for your sins.But some habits just die hard, huh?Inconvenient convenience it would beTo behold in a flattened storyThe freedom-fighters who battled war, demagogues, oceans, and despairAnd tore themselves from everything they knew to be homeThe heartache of sacrificing family past to give family future a chance.Anchors they have served to be as we strive to make this homeBut cut into them and you’ve cut looseEverything that told us to bear itEverything that said hope was worth itTo swallow tears and keep our heads down.No more now.Our dams are broke and now they floodAll around you, all around me.Do you see beyond just my face now?Do you see beyond what you didn’t see in my eyes now?Do you see meCan you see meCan you see me now?To read more of Sarah's thoughts on the Atlanta shootings, read her piece, "Honoring the Lives of Women Who Refuse to Be Scrubbed Away" (MissioAlliance.org).About Sarah ShinSarah Shin is author of Beyond Colorblind: Redeeming Our Ethnic Journey. She is currently studying at the Logos Institute for Analytic and Exegetical Theology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Prior to that she served as Associate National Director of Evangelism for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. She regularly trains leaders and speaks at the intersection of evangelism, ethnic reconciliation, justice, beauty, and technology.About Shin MaengShin Maeng is an artist and illustrator. Make sure to check the show notes to examine his illustration, "American 한 (Han)" which was a direct response to Sarah's poem, "Beyond Invisible." Follow him @ShinHappens on Instagram.

Which is greater: action or contemplation? Which is more excellent and therefore more central and determinative in human flourishing? A life of action—focused outward in service of humanity and exterior, public, practiced love? Or a life of contemplation—focused inward in reflection and meditation and communion with God, a private, interior castle of wisdom?You might be quick to point out that it's a false dilemma and of course we need both. But this is quite an old conundrum in both the history of philosophy and the history of Christianity and it continues to find expression in contemporary life as we struggle with the idea of personal morality and social justice.The world today is as broken a place as ever; individual people are as broken as ever—and what will heal us? Meditation and mindfulness and prayer? Or doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly?If the answer is in fact both, what unites the contemplative life with active life in your life?Today on the show, Sameer Yadav joins us for a conversation on mysticism, activism, and wonder. He explains the history of thinking about these jointly necessary elements of human flourishing, understanding the terms in relation to spirituality and contemporary activism, and drawing together two thinkers from different cultures and times: the Cappadocian Father Gregory of Nyssa and the spiritual father of the American Civil Rights movement, Howard Thurman. They share fascinating perspectives on what it means to be human, the need for cooperative caretaking as a reflection of God's relation to the world, and an attentiveness to wonder as a hinge between the contemplative and active life, with lasting implications for everything from interpersonal relationships, to democracy, to ecological care. Show Notes“The basic consideration has to do with the removal of all that prevents God from coming to Himself in the life of the individual”The ‘altar of the heart’ and Thurman’s theology “Social action is never an end in and of itself. It is for the sake of God's life manifest in oneself”Which is better, action or contemplation?Public love? or inwardness, communion with God?It’s a false question: we need bothThe state of the world today: what will heal us?“Is it meditation and prayer, or doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly? And if the answer is in fact both, what unites contemplative life with active life?”Mysticism, activism, and wonderReflecting on Gregory of Nyssa and Howard ThurmanCooperative caretaking and attention to wonderHow attention affects everything from relationships, to democracy, to ecological careThe mystic versus the prophet, according to history “Dispell the idea that they’re at odds”Luke 10:38, Mary and Martha sitting at the feet of Jesus in contemplation and active service These have always been seen as two necessary components of a whole Christian life The relationship between imagining life and responding to itGregory of Nyssa, a Christian thinker influenced by Greek philosophy, emphaisized virtue. The way we engage with the world is the way we engage with God.Howard Thurman, remove all “that prevents God from coming to himself within, in the life of the individual, whatever there is that blocks this, that's what calls for action."Social work enriches the individual The alter to God in the community is linked to the alter to God in the individualDirect experience versus experience mediated by God “Be a mirror of God’s own relationship to creatures. It’s a form of caretaking”Seeing humanity as one, as the mystics do, motivates the way we care for the world“In self-help, attention is getting a lot of attention. The economy of our attention, how what we pay attention is driving our experience of the world”How do you understand spiritual attention versus social attention? Attention is not just emotion, it’s virtue. The way we perceive is shaped by the kind of person we areWonder versus attention“Wonder is a kind of interest directed on the final value of a thing, not its usefulness. Final value appears to us as mysterious. It’s also attractive.”“Wonder is like a hinge between contemplation and action” Epistemic humility, what can we know about each other? Wonder as a moral emotion Martha Nussbaum, Upheavals of Thought: the Intelligence of EmotionsJeremy Bendik-Keymer, "our ecological responsibility is unlikely to be met purely out of a sense of duty"To wonder at the natural order actually makes us responsible to itWonder creates sacredness, and that gives rise to a need for preservation and care“Wonder and be drawn to it, before rushing into judgment” Wonder and dangerAlex Nava, Wonder and Exile in the New WorldLorraine Daston and Katherine Park, Wonders and the Order of Nature, 1150-1750What does it look like to see the world of injustice through the attentiveness of the mystic?“Seeing God manifest through the oppressor, not just the oppressed. How the oppressor’s own humanity is distorted and disfiguredThe oppressor as morally injuredForming a moral disposition requires forming a practice. What are some of those practices? “The formations of dispositions is not a flash of light and insight, but rather a long slow life of contemplation”“Cultivation of wonder requires engagement with each other and the natural world. People who work on ecological ethics, it’s through positive engagements with the natural world, through exposure”Attending to the natural world, rather than getting something done by it” “Sometimes activism is geared towards creating the opportunity for the attention and engagement that makes contemplation possible”About Sameer YadavSameer Yadav is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Westmont College and specializes in systematic and philosophical theology, theology and race, and mysticism and religious experience. He is the author of The Problem of Perception and the Experience of God (Fortress Press, 2015), and has published in various journals including The Journal of Analytic Theology, Journal of Religion, Faith and Philosophy and Pro Ecclesia. Dr. Yadav has reading competency in biblical Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, French and German.  He is a member in American Academy of Religion, Society of Christian Philosophers, Society of Christian Ethics, and Society of Scriptural Reasoning.Production NotesThis podcast featured Sameer YadavEdited 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

"Kumain ka na ba?”—Have you eaten yet? (Tagalog) This beautiful phrase of welcome and care and intimacy evokes and offers more than just the pleasure and nourishment of a meal. It calls out to the hunger, the thirst, and the need for love that we can greet in one another. David de Leon joins Matt Croasmun for a discussion of hospitality and solidarity and justice, applying the parable of the Great Banquet to cultures of inhospitality, and especially to the context of the increased targeting, discrimination, marginalization, and violence against the Asian American community over the past year. Show Notes“I think it can be really easy to believe that joy and justice, or even our grief--that expressing that comes at the expense of other people, that there isn't enough space for all of our joy to be together”“Life together in the family of God, at the banquet of God is…a radical conviction that God has enough for us all”Luke 14, the parable of the great banquet"Kumain ka na ba?”—a greeting and an invitation  - have you eaten yet? “‘Kumain ka na ba?’ Is the lavish invitation of Christ to a banquet that sustains our weary, divided, broken and lonely selves”“I miss hosting people”Jesus says, "Don't invite people to your parties who can pay you back. Invite the people who never get invitations. Then you'll have it good"“The racial justice uprisings of this past year remind us that this country still remains inhospitable to black and brown lives”The increase in violence towards Asian American and Asian American elders since the beginning of the PandemicThe legacy of inhospitality towards Asian people in America“It rears its head in our internalized hatred and the loss of memory and story, the separation of our families, and then the incomprehension of our heart languages”“The pressure to present yourself in ways that display your competence, your control, the need to check their whole self at the waiting room of your zoom calls, leaving pieces of yourself off the pages of the papers you write”Justice is not scarce There’s room for all of our joy at this banquet “Perhaps Jesus is inviting us to partake in the feast of rest, the feast of vulnerability and community, to entrust our imperfections and limitations to one another”“The food that tastes like home” – how expansive home can be“I think there's something about the deep vulnerability of inviting somebody into something that feels very ordinary for you, but it's very comfortable, and then having people enjoy that thing with you”Sharing the most unglamorous parts of ourselves Unphotogenic food How gendered racial violence can be “It just seemed like yet another moment where we're not woken up until there's loss of life”“Our shared life together should be our orienting hope and dream, as opposed to just the quite proper anger that we might experience in response to death?”“It can be really easy to believe that joy and justice, or even our grief – that expressing that comes at the expense of other people”A radical conviction that God has enough life for us allAre you going to come to the banquet? Are you going to turn away?About David de LeonDavid de Leon is a graduating Master of divinity candidate at Yale Divinity School, and is an incoming PhD student studying Systematic Theology at Fordham University. He’s a child of Pilipino immigrants and was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and for the last 12 years has worked in college campus ministry, leading Pilipino American focused ministries, and working to mobilize Asian Americans to pursue racial justice.Production NotesThis podcast featured David de Leon and Matt CroasmunEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan Rosa & Matt CroasmunProduction 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

"Without living theologically, there can be no theology." (Jürgen Moltmann) Miroslav Volf interviews his mentor, German theologian Jürgen Moltmann, who reflects on the meaning of joy and its connection to anxiety, fear, wrath, hope, and love.Moltmann tells his story of discovering (or, being discovered by) God as a 16-year-old drafted into World War II by the German Army, enduring the bombardment of his hometown of Hamburg, and being held for 3 years in a Scottish prison camp, where he read with new eyes the cry of dereliction from Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”This cry would lay a foundation that led to his most influential book, The Crucified God. Moltmann explains the centrality of Christ, the human face of God, for not just his theological vision, but his personal faith—which is a lived theology.Ryan McAnnally-Linz introduces the episode by celebrating Jürgen Moltmann's 95th birthday and reflecting on his lasting theological influence.Show NotesHappy 95th Birthday, Jürgen Moltmann!Find the places of deepest human concern, and shine the light of the Gospel there.“Without living theologically, there can be no theology."Jürgen Moltmann’s Theology of Joy (1972)—“How can I sing the Lord’s song in an alien land?"Joy today: Singing the Lord’s song in the broad place of his presence"Hope is anticipated joy, as anxiety is anticipated terror.""How does one find the way to joy from within anxiety and terror?"Seeing the face of God as an awakened hopeJesus Christ as the human face of God: “Without Jesus Christ, I would not believe in God."God is present in the midst of sufferingDiscovering and being discovered by GodMoltmann’s story of being drafted to the Germany army at 16 years old (1943)In a prison camp in Scotland, Moltmann read the Gospel of Mark and found hope when there was no expectation.The Crucified God, the cry of dereliction, and the cry of jubilationContrasting joy with American optimism and the pursuit of happinessChristianity as a unique religion of joy, in virtue of the resurrection of ChristJoy versus fun—“You can experience joy only with your whole heart, your whole soul, and all your energies.""You cannot make yourself joyful… something unexpected must happen."Love and joy"The intention of love is the happiness of the beloved.""We are not loved because we are beautiful… we are beautiful because we are loved."Joy and gratitudeLove comes as a gift and surprise, and therefore leads to joy.Blessed, therefore grateful—receiving the gift as gift“Anticipated joy is the best joy.”The Passion of God as the foundation of joyPassionate God of the Hebrew Bible or Absolute God of Greek Metaphysics?An apathetic God makes apathetic people; the compassion of God makes compassionate peopleA Feeling God or an Apathetic God? God’s participation in suffering and joy“God participates in the joy of his creation."Luke 15: “There is more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 just…"Lost coin, lost sheep, prodigal son...The wrath of God is God’s wounded love“My wrath is only for a moment, and my grace is everlasting.""Joy, in the end, wins."Watch a video of this interview here.Production NotesThis podcast featured theologians Jürgen Moltmann, Miroslav Volf, and Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan Rosa & Ryan McAnnally-LinzProduction 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

"Once a person has done evil, they have destroyed a significant part of themselves. They have made that turn towards non-being, non-existence, chaos, disorder, and loss. And so when you execute a person who has already done that kind of moral damage to themselves, not to mention all the damage they've done to other people, but at that point, the only thing remaining in them is the good, which is that this is a human being, alive and made in the image of the living God. And so at that point, that's all they have. And you're destroying it."Ryan McAnnally-Linz is joined by Elizabeth Bruenig (New York Times) to discuss the theological, moral, and political implications of the death penalty, best summed in her bracing piece released days after the execution of Alfred Bourgeois, which she witnessed in person. Show NotesEvan Rosa, Holy Saturday ReflectionElizabeth Bruenig, "The Man I Saw Them Kill”—Liz Bruenig witnesses the execution of Alfred BourgeoisMark Oppenheimer, "A Death Row Inmate Finds Common Ground With Theologians”—Jurgen Moltmann’s relationship with death row inmate Kelly GissendanerElizabeth Bruenig, "The Government Has Not Explained How These 13 People Were Selected to Die”—Liz Bruenig: "The federal death penalty cannot be fixed. It’s time to end it."Elizabeth Bruenig, "Witness to an Execution: A Chilling Account”—Readers react to Elizabeth Bruenig’s essay about the recent federal execution of Alfred Bourgeois."Execution as theater” What does the death penalty do to us?Hoping for the destruction of another person“I think anytime you’re sitting around hoping someone is destroyed, that’s a morally compromising position to be in. It’s certainly the case that people can commit crimes that make me feel like they should be themselves wiped off the face of the earth and eliminated from the cosmos, but I know that those impulses are not the best in me.”The impulse to destroyRationality, irrationality, and the extremity of the death penaltyMoral loss and moral injuryThe question of accidentally executing innocent people versus the impulse to destroyDeserted islandIntense revulsion at evilThe VVitch (The Witch, 2015)St. Augustine on the death penalty. Hate the sin, love the nature."Nothing was restored, nothing was gained. There isn’t any justice in it, nor satisfaction, nor reason: There was nothing, nothing there.” Agnes CallardThe permanence of harm“Harm can’t be undone… What can we do about the fact that harm is so permanent. … It may seem symmetrical in a literary sense but it doesn’t actually do anything to undo the harm."“What can we preserve? What can we prevent from being destroyed any further?"Wounds of the martyrsMiroslav Volf’s view that the sins, harms, and wounds of life will not come to mind in heaven; social reconciliation that goes along with the settling of accounts in judgmentThe Prodigal Son and the moral damage done to oneself“You were always with me. Why are you complaining? Everything I have is yours. Why are you upset about that?"Hen Meme: “Sorry my mom said no”“Hiding in God’s wing and feeling like, whatever else anyone does, however angry anyone else makes me, I am here with the Lord. He has me. I’ll be okay. I have it in me to forgive because I have everything my Father has, which is everything there is."Public policy and the death penalty abolition movement; states will slowly trail off in the use of the death penaltyFederal death penalty, Trump and Barr’s abuse of federal executionsThe role of the SupremeWhat to expect and the range of possibilities for the future of federal capital punishmentJürgen Moltmann and death row inmate Kelly GissendanerThe political calculation of commuting sentences or abolishing the death penalty.“They don’t want to spend political capital on criminals, people who’ve done terrible things."Capital punishment and public policyAbout Elizabeth BruenigElizabeth Bruenig is an American journalist and opinion writer for the New York Times.Production NotesThis podcast featured journalist Elizabeth Bruenig and theologian Ryan McAnnally-LinzEdited 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

Enroll now for our 7-week Life Worth Living Course through Grace Farms: http://gracefarms.org/life-worth-living. The course runs from May 4 to June 15, and we expect it to fill up quickly, so don’t wait to sign up!One of the most prominent visions of the good life present in Disney films could be called "expressive individualism," perhaps best captured by the phrase "you do you." In this episode Ryan McAnnally-Linz and Matt Croasmun interpret and unpack the ethics of the authentic self, belonging, and the implicit visions of flourishing life in two contemporary classics from Disney: Frozen and Moana.Support the For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give Show NotesWho is my most authentic self? How can I become who I truly am? Matt Croasmun’s course at Grace Farms: http://gracefarms.org/life-worth-livingHow would your life change if the idea you were reading about were true? “Aim to become indigenous to a place” Robin KimmererWhat way of being human is particular to you?Disney and the quest for the self Charles Taylor: “Our most essential responsibility is our responsibility to ourselves to become our most authentic self “If we strive for uniqueness, what happens to universal values?Moral relativity in Charles Taylor What if we hurt each other on the way to becoming ourselves?‘Let It Go,’ the anthem that’s everywhereReading the song to mean ‘you do you’ is a shallow readingOur values run deep in our culture, entertainment, and mythology Elsa’s hidden, dangerous powers: ‘conceal don’t feel’ The disciplined, buffered self “But freedom as ruleless-ness is too shallow a reading”In becoming her authentic self, Elsa knows she is at risk of hurting AnaElsa is saved by Ana’s love, which allows her to have her powers without hurting anyone Resolution is not isolationEvery child belting ‘Let It Go’ is missing part of the resolution Our society tells the movie: “just be yourself, other people be damned,” missing the emphasis on love and acceptance of each other Frozen stands in a line of post-modern reinterpretations of fables that celebrate the villain Elsa was supposed to be the villain, but ‘Let it Go’ was so humanizing they changed the story The Nietzschean impulse to discard moral framework Elsa is expressing her ‘will to power’ when she sings, " No wrong, no right, no rules for me" By making the villain the hero, the writers get beyond good and evil The recovery of the pre-modern moralist villain Turning to Moanna: Moanna discovers that her true self is in tension with the way of her people. She wants to travel, but her people say, “The island gives us what we need”When she learns that her people are actually voyagers, it draws her into relationship with her grandmother We know what she means when she belts, ‘I am Moanna” Taylor calls it ‘The Horizon of Significance:’ he wants to celebrate particularity, without an overemphasis on difference What matters can’t just be random. You must give an account The cosmology of Moanna: taking the power of nature and giving it to humansMoanna provides an account for how magic relates to its cosmology, where Frozen’s magic comes out of nowhereOur choices should be free and also meaningful Frozen highlights the dignity of the return to ordinary life, whereas in Moanna, all of life is transformed into adventure. This is the heroic life. “To be truly human is to aim for something that is beyond the ordinary life”  - Matt Croasman“But what about the Hobbits!” – Ryan McAnnally-LinzHow these stories charm and influence our theology must include a critical look at the culture we are inside of “None of us are in a vacuum.” Film as a stream of meaning that we’re already swimming in “At the end of the day, ‘you do you’, is the thin way of finding our way into a ‘thicker meaning:’ how to live as the individual whom God created”

Thinking of the Christian church as a field hospital is a wonderful thought, but what happens when the very place you go to for healing becomes the locus of trauma? What happens to faith and flourishing when the hospital becomes a battlefield? For all the media attention given to cases of spiritual abuse, there is very little by way of psychological research. Dan Koch, host of the podcast You Have Permission and a doctoral student in counseling psychology at Northwest University, explores the tragic and damaging phenomenon of spiritual abuse; its impact on the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual life; and identifies some of the most important factors in understanding its underlying causes and developing approaches to healing for victims. Interview with Evan Rosa.Show Notes"Religion is like nuclear fission. When done well, nuclear fission can give us free electricity indefinitely with a little bit of care and a little bit of grooming. It's this tremendously powerful source of energy and flourishing. But it also, when done poorly, can melt a reactor, kill tens of thousands of people, and irradiate land for a million years.""What we do when we spiritually abused someone, not only do we harm them, we cut them off from what may have been their primary healing source. In the same move, we make it harder for them to use their faith, use their spirituality to heal from the harm we just did to them."“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”For our purposes, "spiritual abuse" means any form of physical, mental, sexual, or spiritual harm or trauma that occurs in a religious context.About You Have PermissionTheology and psychology—TheoPsych and Blueprint1543How Dan Koch  got interested in spiritual and religious abuseEnd-times terror as a form of spiritual abuseSpiritual and religious abuse has scant literature, but covers a variety of species of abuse and harm.A Venn diagram with other kinds of abuse and harm, in religious contextsControlling and narcissistic pastorsConditionalityViolence, horror, and terrorDeveloping a God imageRestricting negative emotions and unhappinessThe prevalence of spiritual abuse—Liz Oakley's study of the U.K.Jean Vanier and Ravi Zacharias—celebrity, fame, and power dynamics that lead to spiritual and sexual abuseThe power of religious leaders in American lifeConflating the religious leader with GodThe impact of spiritual abuse on the plausibility of faith: rationality, emotion, and the holistic response of a person to abuseResponding to spiritual abuseStanding in solidarity with victimsAbout Dan KochDan Koch is host of the podcast You Have Permission and a doctoral student in counseling psychology at Northwest University. Follow him on Twitter @DanKoch.