Personalist Manifesto(s)

Initially, my childhood friend Jeff Wheeldon thought he was going to be a pastor. Then, he thought he was going to be a theology professor. But then, he ended up in politics. Some of you may be excited to hear I’m interviewing a Christian who happens to be in politics. Some of you might get a little skittish. If you’re in the latter category, stick with us. I think you’ll find that Jeff is breakin...

*trigger warning* / *take care of yourself*Karen O'Donnell has written a lot on theology, feminism, trauma, and so much more. We got together to talk about her latest book, Survival: Radical Spiritual Practices for Trauma Survivor s. If you're journeying with trauma, or journeying with people who are, I hope this conversation helps you in that journey. Bio Dr Karen O'Donnell is a theologian with p...

Conspiracy. Conspiracy theories. Fake news. Fake media. Disinformation. Misinformation. Propaganda. Such words, and words like them, have entered the mainstream, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult for the average person to navigate the choppy waters of on and offline truth and lies. How did we get here, sensible people are asking? And what do we do about it, is their follow-up question. Ente...

Jon Coutts is a polymath theologian. He's written and presented on Karl Barth, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the church, film, and a whole lot more. So when Jon emailed me to ask if I'd be interested in reading some work he did on artificial intelligence (AI), my response was of course! and, we should have a conversation about this . Here is that conversation. Bio Jon Coutts is theologian in wester...

Ryan Turnbull is a Canadian theologian, and I’m a Canadian theologian, so we talk about a lot of Canadian stuff in this episode. But you don’t have to be Canadian to engage in or get something out of this conversation. Because what we talk about functions like a case study of what it looks like to be a theologian who lives in a particular place and is thinking critically and constructively (theolo...

This is a recording of a recent presentation I gave titled "Creative Processes in a World with Artificial Intelligence (AI), or Why and How God Uses The Work of Artists." Normally, Personalist Manifesto(s) features dialogues throughout, but this one is a little bit different. It starts with a presentation and ends with a Q&A dialogue. Because I only had one mic, and the mic was my phone, the a...

When I started Personalist Manifesto(s), everyone told me I needed to talk to two people: Daniel Cérézuelle and Christian Roy. I agreed with their suggestions. I spoke to Daniel in the first ever Personalist Manifesto(s) conversation, so you can check that out through the link below if you haven’t already. In this conversation, I speak with Christian. His research focuses not only on Personalism,...

The origin story of this dialogue is a bit of a complex one. It started when a directed study I am doing with a master’s student named Ruby collided—in the best way possible—with an online exchange I had with scholar Lisa Powell. This was brought about by the recent conversation I had with Daniel Rempel about Barth, witness, and intellectual disability (link below if you haven't seen it yet). When...

The other day, my colleague Joel Korytko started talking about Genesis, Cain, and the city. Right away, I asked him: Have you read Jacques Ellul's Meaning of the City? Joel hadn't read it, so I sent him some sections. After that, we decided it made sense to start talking about it and hit record. What resulted was a three-part conversation on Genesis, Civilization & The City. This is the third...

The other day, my colleague Joel Korytko started talking about Genesis, Cain, and the city. Right away, I asked him: Have you read Jacques Ellul's Meaning of the City? Joel hadn't read it, so I sent him some sections. After that, we decided it made sense to start talking about it and hit record. What resulted was a three-part conversation on Genesis, Civilization & The City. This is the second...

The other day, my colleague Joel Korytko started talking about Genesis, Cain, and the city. Right away, I asked him: Have you read Jacques Ellul's Meaning of the City? Joel hadn't read it, so I sent him some sections. After that, we decided it made sense to start talking about it and hit record. What resulted was a three-part conversation on Genesis, Civilization & The City. This is the first...

Jacques Ellul regularly cited three primary influences upon his work: Karl Marx, Søren Kierkegaard, and Karl Barth. The latter two influences disclose a fair amount about Ellul’s approach to theology and ethics, but the mention of Marx in this trio may complicate matters for some people. Ellul was not a Marxist per se. He taught courses on Marx, he wrote about Marx, and he was a fine reader of Mar...

This conversation started with an apology sent to me via email from a friend, and former office mate, named Allen Calhoun. Allen’s apology concerned certain tensions existing between the United States and Canada. Part of my reply to Allen’s apology email was that he is not the one that needs to be saying sorry, but there was something about the motivations behind his heartfelt gesture that prompte...

If you have been a regular, or even semi-regular, participant in what Personalist Manifesto(s) is up to, chances are you’ve heard the name Brian Brock mentioned by me and/or by people I’ve had conversations with. Because Brian was my PhD supervisor—and an excellent one at that—he’s a big influence, just as he is for so many other people I know. As far as Brian’s influence on me goes, he walked wit...

The conversation with Natalie Carnes that you are about hear, picks up where a previous conversation I had with iconographer Kelly Latimore left off—we talk about iconography, iconoclasm, theology, Christology, and a whole lot more. So, I’ll avoid giving you a long preamble, and simply revisit a quote from Jacques Ellul’s 'Humiliation of The Word' to frame what’s ahead: "I am not tryi...

As I was preparing for the conversation with John Swinton that you are about to hear, I was reminded of a quote from one of Jacques Ellul’s first books, 'Presence in the Modern World,' published in 1948. There, Ellul writes “we no longer know where we are heading. We have forgotten our common purposes, we have enormous means at our disposal, and we put into operation prodigious machines in...

Every conversation is an experience, but every conversation with Carlos L.S. Thompson is a REAL experience. Carlos is, quite simply, the kind of person who speaks from his heart to your heart. As you’ll hear in this episode, Carlos and I first met when we were doctoral students in Aberdeen, waiting for our coffee orders on campus. It was an instant friendship. Because of that, it makes total sense...

It was only a matter of time for the topic of race to come up on Personalist Manifesto(s), and when the time came, I wanted to have a conversation with someone who approaches the topic with a critical and constructive perspective; a prophetic and pastoral voice. Enter Grace Ji-Sun Kim, who consistently offers such a perspective and voice in her work, and made some time in her busy schedule to spea...

Søren Kierkegaard heavily influenced Jacques Ellul’s work, so like Kierkegaard, Ellul has been criticized for a hyper-focus on the individual and an apparent lack of interest in communities, institutions, and societies. But as it is for Kierkegaard, so it is for Ellul: appearances can be deceptive. Both thinkers focus on the status of the individual within communities, institutions, and societies...

Jacques Ellul advocates for non-violent resistance to evil throughout his writings, but there were moments in his life when he considered violent action. How, then, does one reconcile Ellul’s stated commitments to non-violence with what he shares in these interviews? The answer to this question is, well, as it usually is… complicated. And to try to simplify the answer is not only theoretically que...

For many of the people listening and watching, David Gill requires no introduction. But for the uninitiated, let me tell you why David was at the top of the “people I need to talk to” list when we started the Personalist Manifesto(s) project. Not only is David the founding president of the International Jacques Society—a role he served in for 25 years—he’s been instrumental in introducing Ellul to...

*Trigger warning* There is a lot of talk about trauma in this interview. We don’t get too graphic at any point, but I am nevertheless conscious that discussions like these can be difficult for people. I want to make sure everyone listening and watching is given the opportunity to avoid this one or press pause at points to reflect and practice self-care. The word 'trauma' as it is used toda...

Whether you identify as a Christian or not, my hope is that Christmas conversations like this one will be encouraging for you. For a lot of people, this time of year is anything but easy. It can be really hard for a number of reasons. Especially this year. Likewise, for a lot of other people, it can be like Seinfeld, where the characters invent their own holiday—festivus for the rest of us —to fil...

Depending on the person using them today, words like 'secular' and 'secularism' tend to be proclamations of triumph or cries of alarm. But for thinkers like Jacques Ellul and Charles Taylor, more measured and contemplative approaches to whatever secularism is and does are required to get a clear understanding of where we have been, where we are, and where we are going socially, cul...

Figures like Jacques Ellul and Bernard Charbonneau are known primarily for their extensive and heavy critiques of technology’s scope and power in the modern world. As a part of such critiques, they studied and were concerned by the ways modern technologies shaped the perception and production of art. Ellul elaborates these critiques at lengths in books like Empire of Non-Sense and Humiliation of t...