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

In this episode, Miroslav Volf and Drew Collins discuss home as a source of joy and humanity; the way we organize and order our homes for hospitality; and the homelessness of God and what that means for humanity. For many, the first thought of home is the threat of its negation: homelessness. Still others think of the stress and anxiety—sometimes even at life-threatening levels—of being at home. F...

Matt Croasmun interviews the U.S. Army Chief of Chaplains: Major General Thomas Solhjem about whatever transferable wisdom we might apply from armed conflict to our war with Covid-19. They discuss how to cultivate courage, human fragility and loss of control, stories of bravery and love when life is on the line, and how to support the spiritual lives of the men and women of the armed forces. Chapl...

Jazz pianist Julian Reid on music, theology, and improvisation. The keys element of The JuJu Exchange uses the history of blues, gospel, and jazz to discuss how we communicate emotionally and spiritually through music, teaching an important lesson in how to live and long for home while we remain exiles. Features score from The JuJu Exchange's latest release, The Eternal Boombox . Interview by Ryan...

Miroslav Volf and David French discuss economy, morality, and human flourishing—looking in particular at the questions of whether capitalism and conservative moral values can coexist, and how the demands of Jesus’s ethics implicate free market economy. David French is a conservative political commentator for The Dispatch, known for his opposition to Donald Trump, his commitment to religious libert...

Theologian Natalia Marandiuc explores the meaning of home and the authenticity of self in a world of both beautiful and toxic difference. She is Assistant Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Methodist University's Perkins School of Theology, and author of The Goodness of Home: Human and Divine Love and the Making of the Self. Show Notes Natalia Marandiuc, The Goodness of Home: Human and Di...

The current presidential administration has linked federal violence against largely peaceful protests in the name of law, order, and defending God. E.g., deploying tear gas for a Bible-holding photo opp. Does the melding of Christianity with the Nation produce violence and war? What's the relation between Christian Nationalism and fascism? Miroslav Volf asks sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samue...

Elizabeth Bruenig (New York Times) joins the podcast to discuss the ethical and theological commitments that underlie her political and cultural commentary; work, labor, and employment; and how to be opinionated and very online at a time when most Americans are afraid of what other people think of their beliefs. Show Notes “If you’re someone who sits between two well-defined ideological modes, it'...

In this conversation, Miroslav Volf and David French discuss the politically and culturally polarized America; the resurgence of cultural struggle, if not outright culture war; seeing fundamentalist political religion on both the right and the left; forgiveness versus cancellation and how our view of human persons affects that public conversation; personal morality and social justice; and finally...

Miroslav Volf interviews N.T. Wright about his latest book, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath . They discuss: Jesus, the God who weeps; the problem with focusing on rational responses to the problem of evil rather than empathic presence and action; the proper translation of Romans 8:28 (hint, it’s not “All things work together for good to those who l...

Jemar Tisby, author of the NYT bestseller The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism , joins Ryan McAnnally-Linz for a conversation on how American Christian history has failed us. In this episode, Jemar explains the complicity and compromise of American Christians; the narrative war that confederate monuments wage (and how they were erected much later than...

For our Fourth of July episode, Miroslav Volf interviews Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry, sociologists and authors of Taking America Back For God: Christian Nationalism in the United States . What is Christian Nationalism? Why does it matter? How powerful is it in American life? Who counts as a Christian Nationalist? They discuss the tendency of Christian Nationalism to use Christianity as a tri...

Miroslav Volf presents a previously unreleased clip of his conversation with Yale philosopher John Hare, focusing on the treatment of essential workers, the meaning of dignity and respect, and the incommensurable value of human life. Miroslav offers extended commentary on capitalism, Christianity, and economic values in the midst of pandemic. Reference: David Brooks, "America Is Facing 5 Epic Cris...

"Religion is most dangerous when it is superficial—when it serves to mark my identity as belonging to a different group than you. And when it's a tool in a politician's hands to legitimize their power. Then they just use religion to mark and to validate what they want to do in any case. And that ends up being really a kind of desacralization of faith. That which is holy has been completely turned...

Matthew Croasmun interviews Pastor Josh Williams (Elm City Vineyard, New Haven, CT) about being a black pastor of a multi-ethnic church in New Haven. In this conversation, Williams provides a window into the incarnational theology that truly makes a difference in the world; he reflects on how increased attention to police involved violence against black life has impacted his life and vocation; he...

Theologian Keri Day shares her experience as a black woman and a theologian, not only of the past week, but the long history of racism in America, stemming from the racially inflected roots of America’s founding and emerging even from history that has been erased. She and Miroslav Volf discuss her whole vision of individual and social justice through the lens of Christian faith and practice. Keri...

Guest contributor Willie Jennings (Yale) offers a response to the death of George Floyd and the black experience of racism and police brutality. In order to practice the discipline of hope, he suggests that we must take hold of a shared anger, hate what God hates, reshape communities with attention to the violence of segregation, and rethink the formation of police officers and our understanding o...

"Before speaking about victims and to victims I need to listen. We all who are not victims need to listen." In a follow-up to his May 30 response to the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd, Miroslav Volf speaks frankly about the necessity of listening to black perspectives about racism, police brutality, and the history and continuous experience of black suffering. faith.yale.edu Show Notes P...

Miroslav Volf responds to the recent killing of unarmed black men, Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd. Exclusion takes many forms, but  is marked by both a pursuit of false purity and a failure to see the other as fully human.  Visit faith.yale.edu for more information. Show Notes A brief response to the recent killings of unarmed black men, Ahmad Arbery and George Floyd. Exclusion’s many forms are al...

Miroslav Volf investigates the darker side of hope, explaining what it means to “hope against hope” (Romans 4:18) and “hope in what we do not see” (Romans 8:25). He concludes with hope’s connection to patient endurance. This is the second of a two-part series on hope. For comments, questions, suggested topics, or just to say hello, email faith@yale.edu. Visit faith.yale.edu for more information. S...

Theologian Miroslav Volf and philosopher John Hare  (Noah Porter Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale Divinity School) discuss Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s fundamental question behind reopening the economy from COVID-19 lockdown, “How much is a human life worth?” Why we should go to such great lengths, sacrificing so much, to save a single human life? What about humans gives us dignity? How should w...

Show Notes “Perhaps, we just need to say it. This is not exactly a hopeful time” “But hope is for the no exit scenario. Hope is for the life teetering on the edge” Fear is more characteristic of our time than hope is Optimism in the late 60s gave way to increasing pessimism in 21st century  Theologies of hopelessness are on the rise  How Covid has shaped our fear  Even before the pandemic, we fear...

Willie Jennings is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology, Africana Studies, and Religious Studies at Yale University; he is an ordained Baptist minister and is author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race and  Acts: A Commentary, The Revolution of the Intimate . Show Notes Willie Jennings wrote in Acts: A Theological Commentary on the Bible: "The crowd is always susce...

For the Life of the World is produced by the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. For more info, visit faith.yale.edu Dr. Lydia Dugdale, MD is a New York City internal medicine primary care doctor and medical ethicist. She is Associate Professor of Medicine and Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at Columbia University . Prior to her 2019 move to Columbia, she was the Associate Director...

Warning:  Hello friends, during a part of this episode on the complicated nature of home during a pandemic, the topic of domestic violence comes up. This is a serious and sensitive matter. If you or someone you know is suffering from abuse, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or if you’re unable to speak safely, you can log onto thehotline.org or text LOVEIS to 22522. Fo...

For the Life of the World is produced by the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. For more info, visit faith.yale.edu Follow Miroslav Volf on Twitter: @ MiroslavVolf -1:37  Introductory summary of the Podcast -3:35 A diagnosis of the role of fear in our culture today and how we should respond to it--pulling from an earlier podcast . -5:50 Miroslav reflects on how Christians should respond to fear.  -6...