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What Matters Most
Miroslav Volf suggests: "The most important political question of our time is the one we tend not to think is political at all. Who are we—you, I, and the nations to which we belong? What kind of human beings and what kind of nation should we aspire to become?"
Episode Summary
"You can be, at least according to Christian thought, the only sinless person in human history, and you can still be tortured and crucified in your early thirties." What kind of flourishing do we envision when we follow Christ toward that flourishing? Matt Croasmun and Katie Grimes (Villanova University) discuss the social context of theology, trying to make sense of the role of Christ in approaching theology from the perspective of flourishing.
"You can be, at least according to Christian thought, the only sinless person in human history, and you can still be tortured and crucified in your early thirties."
From the perspective of Christian theology, it's probably not going too far to say that both the moral exemplarity and the suffering life of Jesus should be central to the Christian understanding of flourishing. Here's another way to put it. Jesus was morally perfect and sinless, but encountered immense suffering, poverty, marginalization, and eventual torture and death. Tempted, yet without sin. But also counted among the sinners, according to Isaiah 53's "Suffering Servant" theme. He is acquainted with grief, familiar with sorrow, anguished in his soul.
And so the big question here is: What kind of flourishing do we envision when we follow Christ toward that flourishing?
Today, we're sharing a conversation between Matt Croasmun and Katie Grimes, Assistant Professor of Theological Ethics at Villanova University. Together they discuss the social context of theology, trying to make sense of the role of Christ in approaching theology from the perspective of flourishing. For Katie, thinking about flourishing means thinking about virtues and vices, and that means thinking about the habits that pull us along toward the fully realized human good. But it also means pursuing a theological vision that accounts for the most troubling social realities.
Show Notes
- Katie describes how she shares that she teaches theology as a profession
- What is there to be grateful for in theology these days?
- What gives pause in the state of theology?
- Teachers and all people have an obligation to structural justice within universities
- Human flourishing, and the things that impede flourishing, as a starting place for change
- Intellectual knowledge of flourishing is gained through experience
- Jesus was denied flourishing and was subject to oppression
- Moral perfection may not inherently equate to flourishing.
- The resurrected Jesus still had his wounds, becoming vehicles for intimacy and recognition
- How do we speak to a pluralistic context versus speaking in it?
- Hope for theology's future
Production Notes
- This podcast featured Katie Grimes & Matt Croasmun
- Edited and Produced by Evan Rosa
- Hosted by Evan Rosa
- A Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/about
- Support For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give
Transcript
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