What In God's Name

What In God’s Name talked with Sarah Drummond, Founding Dean of Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School, last winter, before the pandemic changed our lives. The insights that Sarah offers from her book “Dynamic Discernment: Reason, Emotion, and Power in Change Leadership” are helpful to us all, as we negotiate change in these challenging times. Reason, emotion, and power map onto a three-f...

Estrangement and care: lifting the veil to reveal our common vulnerability, our common humanity. As What In God’s Name partners with Project Home (NH) to raise funds for 4 families in southwest New Hampshire in the US asylum process, we wonder about the basic moral choice between accompaniment and abandonment. Is the truth of the human condition so terrifying, that we can’t bear to look? Does the...

This is a replay of a show that dropped in October 2019, nearly a year ago. Listen to see how it has aged. Bonds of affection in American democracy: did Walt Whitman have insights into what will make American democracy work into the future, or is he hopelessly out of touch with the modern world? Shayna and Chris discuss Whitman’s theology, his vision of the human being, and his vision of human con...

Shayna says that the death of RBG means we're screwed. Chris says it’s worse than that. George Washington’s warnings against faction couldn’t be more timely in these days. What is faction? How does faction erode self-governance? Do we expect cycles of revenge to continue? How will they stop? What are the teachings from religion and moral philosophy that help us understand the dynamics of revenge a...

What In God’s Name asks: What moves us to act publicly, with courage? Does knowing what is good automatically move us to do what is good? Or are there human complications that interrupt the exercise of virtue? What becomes of a society where being morally outrageous is entertaining and titillating, rather than blameworthy? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we...

What In God’s Name builds into Season Three with an examination of history. Particularly, American history. Particularly, how we tell our history now. What is “harmless” history? Chris and Shayna bounce this back and forth—how would you define harmless history? Is there such a thing? What dimensions does the lens of theology open up, when we use it to look at current controversies and current even...

What In God’s Name builds into Season Three with an examination of renewal, AND a fun excursion into the realm of spinny wheels. When is renewal necessary? And what makes it necessary? We’re talking about both personal and communal renewal. How is vocation related to renewal? How does examining the past help us in the process of renewal? When examining the past is contentious, what skills do we ne...

What In God’s Name begins Season Three! Chris and Shayna update what it means “to gird one’s loins” for today. What In God’s Name isn’t usually in the prediction business, but we foresee added stress and strain in the upcoming months: people are tired from months of pandemic uncertainties, and an upcoming presidential election will heighten people’s anxieties. How does hyper-individualism manifest...

This show originally aired September 5, 2019

This show originally aired on May 28, 2020

This show originally aired on December 5, 2019

This show originally aired on October 17, 2019

This show originally aired on October 10, 2019

This show originally aired on October 3, 2019

This show originally aired on February 13, 2020

This show originally aired on February 6, 2020

This show originally aired on January 30, 2020

Season Two comes to a close. We look back, and then ahead to Season Three. Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing tha...

Racism. If it’s a social construct, can we re-define what it means to be “black” and “white?” Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of hu...

This is a special 5-minute Tuesday edition of What In God's Name

So much is current events now; so much is the original sin of racism through our history. So much is new ways of using religious items as props; so much is age-old hypocrisy.  Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narr...

What can we learn about Trumpism, using Christian theological reflection? It’s important to understand the spiritual dimension of this political ideology.  Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political...

Can a marriage and family counseling model help bridge political divisions, or are there deeper forces at work that require us to re-think American identity and the unmoored self of post-modernity? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who ar...

What’s the difference between centering down, and zoning out? Pandemic time means we are by ourselves more, so how do we assess our alone time? Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic...

This is a special 5-minute Tuesday edition of What In God's Name.