We’re honored to learn from Dr. Matthew Ichichashi Potts about his book, Forgiveness: An Alternative Account, which is focused on understanding the practice of forgiveness in an unforgiving world.
You can get this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or YouTube. You can also download or listen to the full podcast episode here.
In this week’s podcast, we’re honored to learn from Lore Ferguson Wilbert about her new book entitled “A Curious Faith: The Questions God Asks, We Ask, And We Wish Someone Would Ask Us.“
Her book explores the powerful ways our faith and doubt can impact our understanding of God. Lore invites us all to embrace curiosity in our faith journey, and to get comfortable with not always finding all the answers. Most importantly, she encourages readers to find their comfort and ultimate answers in Christ.
You can get this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or YouTube. You can also download or listen to the full podcast episode here.
In this episode, Lore talks about:
• Asking vs. Answering
• Feeling vulnerable and insufficient
• When you’re not in control
• Asking questions, but not expecting answers
• A crisis of faith
• Believing with our mind, but feeling faithless in our heart
• Processing painful emotions and finding healing
• Dark nights, despair, and getting angry at God
• How emotional pain affects our bodies
• Internal processing and bottling up our emotions
• What the humanity and emotions of Jesus teach us
• How the Psalms give us permission to question God
• What the staff of Moses teaches us (and how God uses our weakness)
• One of the toughest chapters to write
• Rilke: On embracing uncertainty and living in the questions
You can watch the full conversation on embracing curiosity in the journey of faith.
Lore Ferguson Wilbert is the founder of Sayable.net and the author of Handle with Care, winner of a 2021 Christianity Today Book Award. She has written for Christianity Today, Fathom magazine, and She Reads Truth and served as general editor of B&H’s Read and Reflect with the Classics. Wilbert reaches an audience of more than 40,000 through email and social media. She is currently pursuing an M.A. in Christian spiritual formation and leadership from Friends University.
It’s been a tragic and painful year for many of us.
We’re watching a suffering world in the midst of a global pandemic, while also seeing the increased visibility of violence, discrimination and hate towards Black, Indigenous and people of color.
And, most recently, we’ve been witnessing increased violence toward our Asian communities, which has disproportionately hurt Asian women and elders.
It’s a troubling and sad reminder of the many systemic sins in our society, and that we (the Christian church) have a responsibility to be actively involved in the healing process.
As a quick reminder, we discussed ways for Christians to get involved in racial justice and care for our Asian American communities with Dr. Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, in episode 21.
In the midst of all the pain and tragedy around us, it can be very difficult to pray.
Sadly, it’s much easier for me to get angry and resentful, rather than moved to silence before God. It’s a sinful struggle for me, which results in prolonging my own pain and sadness.
So how do we pray when in pain?
Well, I have found much-needed spiritual insights on how to pray during dark and difficult seasons from the writings of Reverend Tish Harrison Warren.
Reverend Warren is the author of the book entitled “Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep” — and she addresses ways to pray when we’re grieving, lamenting or angry at God.
It’s a helpful and honest book on ways to navigate our darkest seasons. Those times when we doubt. Those times when we feel uncared for by God. Those times when we’re angry, overwhelmed with grief, and possibly even feeling hopeless.
Tish Harrison Warren teaches us how to pray through sharing her personal stories of deep pain and traumatic experiences. She honestly discusses her personal feelings during these periods, along with the struggle of needing to be a priest, comforter and spiritual director for others. This book is an inside look at how a spiritual leader copes with pain and trauma, and filled with practical insights to help guide us during our own dark seasons.
A few months ago, I had an opportunity to take a course on evangelism taught by Rev. Dr. James Choung on SeminaryNow.
Dr. Choung does a fantastic job describing the difficulties of sharing the gospel message, ways to address some of the key spiritual questions asked by different generations of people, and he outlines a simple and effective way to explain the gospel story to anyone.
I was so moved by his course that I reached out to him to learn more about his ministry work, his academic background, and how he determined his calling.
I had such a fun time getting to know Dr. Choung that our conversation moved into a lot more areas like mentorship, ways he cultivates self awareness, why he pursued doctoral work on postmodern leadership development at Fuller Theological Seminary, the ways his parents modeled spirituality, and advice for parents who are raising children of color during COVID-19, amid the increased visibility of racism and violence toward minorities.
You can subscribe or download this two-part podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe to the video series on YouTube.
We’re honored to learn from Dr. Alister E. McGrath about his latest book on the life, theology and faith of J.I. Packer in this week’s podcast.
J. I. Packer was one of the most influential evangelical theological and spiritual writers of the twentieth century, best known for his classic work Knowing God. In the 1990s Christianity Today readers named him one of the most influential theologians of the twentieth century, second only to C. S. Lewis.
Dr. McGrath’s biography “J.I. Packer: His Life and Thought” focuses on J.I. Packer’s thinking on theology, spirituality and vocation to serve the church.
Alister McGrath is a scholar and writer who is presently the Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University.
After initial work in the natural sciences, McGrath moved into the field of Christian theology. He is best known for his definitive and widely used textbooks on Christian theology and his authoritative biography of C. S. Lewis. As a former atheist, McGrath is fascinated by the interaction of faith, science, and atheism, and writes regularly on these themes.
You can subscribe or download this show on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe to the video series on YouTube.
We’re honored to learn from Makoto Fujimura about his book “Art and Faith: A Theology of Making,” published by Yale University Press.
Art and Faith is a theological and poetic book that explores the ways art and spirituality interplay.
Fujimura reveals how creative acts — and making art can help us understand more about God’s work in our lives and how our own creativity can mirror divine creative acts.
Ranging from the Bible to T. S. Eliot, and from Mark Rothko to Japanese Kintsugi technique, Fujimura shows how unless we are making something, we cannot know the depth of God’s being and God’s grace permeating our lives.
You can subscribe or download this show on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe to the video series on YouTube.
Here’s an overview of the our conversation:
We’re grateful for the opportunity to learn from N.T. Wright about his latest book “Broken Signposts: How Christianity Makes Sense of the World,” which provides us insights into seven ways to read the Gospel of John through the lenses of justice, beauty, love, freedom, truth, power and spirituality.
In the book, Dr. Wright shares ways how each of these themes have become fractured in society (and in ourselves) and ways for us to find healing and redemption amid our brokenness.
We had a chance to talk with Dr. Wright about his motivations for writing this book — as well as a focused discussion around broken spirituality, contemplative prayer practices, the benefits of having a spiritual director, and steps for reading the Bible critically and devotionally.
You can subscribe or download this episode on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also watch or subscribe to the video series on YouTube.
Overview of the podcasts:
In this episode, N.T. Wright discusses his motivations for writing “Broken Signposts” and shares insights into ways spirituality has become fractured in society, along with a rise in gnosticism and narcissism. He also discusses ways to practice healthy forms of spirituality — and the importance of regular prayer. At the end of the episode, Wright provides insights into ways to understand our Bible and the need for prayer and guidance from the Holy Spirit.
Listen or download episode:
Spirituality & Social Justice
