Kwok ’n’ Roll

Does AI need religion? Franciscan scientist-theologian Ilia Delio says yes — and responds to Pope Leo on AI. Kwok Pui Lan interviews Ilia Delio on ai and religion, evolution, transhumanism, and what Pope Leo gets right — and misses — about safeguarding the human person. Ilia Delio, OSF, is a Franciscan sister, former Chair at Villanova, Executive Director of the World Institute for Science, Religi...

How can Christian sexual ethics move past shame-based rules? We explore wisdom for navigating the digital age. Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan talks with ethicist Kate Ott about the impact of technology on our intimate lives. From the prevalence of dating apps to the challenges posed by virtual reality and deepfakes, many traditional faith communities struggle to provide guidance that fosters...

Who rules China — and who decides what makes power legitimate? Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan talks with Peng Yin, Assistant Professor of Ethics at Boston University School of Theology, on Chinese political theology after Xi's visit to Washington. In this interview, we move beyond trade and security headlines from the Xi Jinping Trump meeting to ask a deeper question about US-China relations...

Why can't our schools teach us to flourish? Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan talks with Rev. Dr. Patrick B. Reyes about becoming good ancestors for the next generation. Rev. Dr. Patrick B. Reyes is a Chicano theologian, writer, and Dean and Executive Vice President at Auburn Theological Seminary. His new book Pedagogy of the Ancestors: Practices for Mentoring and Teaching Future Generations (W...

Is Christian Zionism a heresy? South African theologian Dr. Thandi Gamedze explains what Kairos means from Soweto to Gaza. In this Faithful Provocations conversation, I talk with Dr. Thandi Gamedze, Senior Researcher of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Religion and Social Justice at the University of the Western Cape, about the connection between Kairos South Africa and Kairos Palestine. We discuss why...

What did Trump's Faith Advisory prayer calls sound like between the 2020 election and January 6th? Pentecostal theologian Amos Yong looked at the transcript of 25 calls and co-wrote Trump and the Politics of Prayer about what he found. In this Faithful Provocations conversation, host Kwok Pui Lan traces how Yong became the theologian — growing up Asian American and Pentecostal, working on science...

This Faithful Provocations conversation explores the historical connection between the British Empire and the Anglican Church to understand how these institutions shaped each other. Kwok Pui Lan sits down with Canon Dr. Sanjee Perera, Lecturer in Mission and Evangelism at Cranmer Hall, Durham University, to discuss her forthcoming book, Church of Empire: The Church of England and Race in Global Pe...

What happens to faith after a dictatorship threatens the church and society? Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan talks with Dr. Agnes M. Brazal — Filipina feminist theologian, activist under martial law, and author of A Theology of Southeast Asia: Liberation-Postcolonial Ethics in the Philippines — on how women reclaimed faith after the Marcos dictatorship and why Bai theology, rooted in the baba...

Can artificial intelligence serve Black people — or is it building a future that leaves Black communities behind? Dr. Philip Butler breaks down black transhumanism, AI bias, and his vision for the Seekr Project: a distinctly Black conversational AI designed for mental health and critical Black consciousness. 📖 In this conversation: • Why AI is not neutral — how bias gets built into the models • B...

"You need to shake the status quo." Rev. Dr. Fadi Diab, Palestinian Anglican priest and co-author of Kairos Palestine II, speaks with postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan about the seismic moment when the Church of England voted to hear Palestinian voices — and why "hearing" is only the beginning. Six provocations: •What it meant to sit in the gallery at York Minster as the synod voted. •Why Kairo...

Why does Korea embrace AI while the West sounds the alarm? Practical theologian Dr. Boyung Lee reveals how East Asia's communal worldview transforms AI from a threat into an extension of family — and what that means for the future of pastoral care. In this episode: ▪️ Why Koreans say "our mother" and "our husband" — and why it matters for AI ▪️ How Korea's "I Met You" program reunited grieving par...

In the span of two weeks, two major Christian denominations — the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Church of England — took historic stands on Palestine. One used the word "genocide." The other finally decided to listen to Palestinian Christian voices. Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan unpacks both decisions, shares her personal experience crossing the border into Jerusalem, and explains why s...

AI isn't magic. Behind every chatbot and search result is a hidden chain of human exploitation — and Pope Leo XIV just called it out in the first papal encyclical on artificial intelligence. In this episode, Dr. Susan Reynolds — Catholic Studies professor at Candler School of Theology, Emory University — breaks down Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV's groundbreaking document on AI and human dignit...

In this July 4th special, U.S. Army veteran, former attorney, and Villanova theologian Byron Wratee shares his journey from a small South Carolina town to the battlefields of Afghanistan — and what he learned about faith, citizenship, and the America worth believing in. He traces his family's military service back to the Civil War. He recounts the peacebuilding work that doesn't make headlines: bu...

Most people who talk about AI and theology have read about AI. Alexander Chow actually studied it — he holds a degree in computer science and spent a decade as a software engineer before becoming a theologian. Last week, he launched the Oxford Handbook of Digital Theology — the most comprehensive academic reference on this field ever assembled. I wanted to know: what does someone who has stood on...

The Pope issued a sweeping warning about artificial intelligence — but what does it actually say, and was he right? In this first episode of the AI & Theology series, I sit down with Dr. Tracy Trothen, professor of ethics at Queen's University, Canada, to unpack the Vatican's intervention, the rise of grief bots, and what AI means for how we make meaning, face death, and define what it means t...

What does it mean to practice erotic justice in a time of political crisis? Christian social ethicist Marvin M. Ellison joins Faithful Provocations to explore the intersection of faith, sexuality, and public life — from his upbringing in the American South wrestling with his family's history in slavery, to his critical work on same-sex marriage activism, to what his congregation in Maine has done...

Can you search for life on Mars — and still believe in God?  An Episcopal priest and NASA astrobiologist, Pamela Conrad spent years working on rover missions designed to look for signs of life on Mars. In this conversation with Kwok Pui Lan, she makes the case that faith and science are not enemies — they are two different lenses pointed at the same reality. Topics covered: Why curiosity is at the...

Postcolonial theologian Kwok Pui Lan dialogues with Indian ecofeminist theologian Aruna Gnanadason — former director of the Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation program of the World Council of Churches — to ask the question no one in faith circles wants to answer: Is India sliding toward authoritarianism, and what does the church do about it? From the uncanny parallels between Modi and Trump,...

Peter Carlson grew up evangelical — fluent in scripture, certain of God's love, but told by his church a very different story. Today he's a queer theologian and editor of the Queer Lectionary, inviting queer people — and everyone — to reclaim the Bible on their own terms. In this conversation, Peter shares what it means to read scripture through a queer lens, why Zacchaeus may be the queerest stor...

In this episode of Faithful Provocations, theologians Kwok Pui Lan and Mary E. Hunt take on one of the most urgent questions of our time: What happens when the boundaries between church and state collapse? Drawing on theology, history, and contemporary politics, they examine the roots of Christian nationalism, the dangers of a state-sponsored faith, and what faithful resistance looks like in today...

What does the Bible really say about the tyrants — and what happens when a world-class biblical scholar has lived the abuse of power herself? Gale A. Yee — the first Asian American and first woman of color to serve as president of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) — joins Kwok Pui Lan for a conversation that spans scripture, power, racism in academia, and the urgent question of tyranny in o...

In this episode of Faithful Provocations, Kwok Pui Lan and Mary E. Hunt dissect the DOJ's new report on "Eradicating Anti-Christian Bias" — and reveal what it's really doing: imposing white Christian values on everyone. They discuss: • The DOJ report's three chilling next steps — Christian sermons at the Pentagon, faith-based housing discrimination against LGBTQ people, and churches endorsing poli...

#LiberationTheology #LatinAmericanTheology #PostcolonialTheology #DecolonialFaith #Theology #Christianity #SocialJustice #ChristianThought Is liberation theology still a radical force — or has it been domesticated? Nicolás Panotto, theologian, human rights activist, and director of the civil society organization Otros Cruces, argues that the real gift of liberation theology isn't a set of doctrine...

What happens when the people who preach peace practice violence? From the Washington Hilton assassination attempt to the hidden abuses of celebrated religious leaders, Kwok Pui Lan and Mary Hunt ask the hard questions faith communities don't want to face. In this episode of Faithful Provocations, Kwok Pui Lan and Mary Hunt begin with the moral shock of gun violence at the White House Correspondent...