What does it mean to be a Christian and a person of faith in today’s challenging world? How can we have meaningful dialogue across racial, cultural, religious, and political differences to address the urgent needs of our time? Join Kwok Pui Lan, a pioneering postcolonial theologian, in her conversation with leading intellectuals, courageous religious leaders, fearless activists, and inspiring artists and roll along.
Episodes
10 hours ago
10 hours ago
Dr. Yii-Jan Lin became the first person of Asian descent to receive tenure at Yale Divinity School in 2024. She discussed gender, race, and biblical studies in this episode. She has used innovative approaches to studying the Bible. Her first book, The Erotic Life of Manuscripts, discusses New Testament criticism and the biological sciences, while her second monograph, Immigration and Apocalypse, explores how the image of the new Jerusalem in the Book of Revelation shaped American immigration. Dr. Lin offers advice to students who want to pursue biblical studies and shares her observations of the changing climate in American higher education.
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Wednesday May 07, 2025
Wednesday May 07, 2025
Dr. Jonathan Tran, a Vietnamese American Christian ethicist at Baylor University, argues that race and racism must be understood in the larger political economy that gives rise to it. He draws on Augustine and Aquinas and contemporary scholars such as Michel Foucault, Stanley Hauerwas, Vincent Lloyd, and Kwok Pui Lan to develop his theological ethics. The changing U.S. political landscape requires new thinking about politics on the left and the organization of social life. Asian Americans have particular contributions because of their adaptability to change and their increasing participation in politics.
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Wednesday Apr 30, 2025
Wednesday Apr 30, 2025
Dr. Catherine Keller recently published No Matter What: Crisis and Planetary Possibility. She discusses her theological trajectory from focusing on gender to making the connections with race, class, species, and the whole planet. Influenced by John Cobb’s process theology, Keller has written groundbreaking theology on the apocalypse, creation, intercarnation, and our last chances to save ourselves and the planet. She explains how her upbringing influences her theology and why the Bible provides her with inspiration and root metaphors for her creative thinking.
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Saturday Apr 26, 2025
Saturday Apr 26, 2025
Since he started learning from the environment, Dr. Claudio Carvalhaes, professor of worship at Union Theological Seminary in New York, has changed his teaching, research, and preaching. In one class, he asked students to wait till they heard a bird sing before the class started. He wrote the play, When Wajcha Meets Pachamama, which won the most creative production award from the New York Theater Festival. Dr. Carvalhaes works at the intersection of art, ritual, and religion and performs a song about the bees at the end of the episode.
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Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Tuesday Apr 22, 2025
Dr. Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, who teaches at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union, asks us to wake up to the climate crisis on Earth Day 2025. She has worked at the intersection of climate justice, economy, and race and is a leader about the environment in ecumenical circles. She offers wisdom from the Bible about human beings’ relationships with the environment and describes faith-based activism. She has launched a new book series, “Building a New Moral Economy,” and introduces the upcoming volume, Climate Justice, Climate Hope.
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Saturday Apr 19, 2025
Saturday Apr 19, 2025
Dr. Clifton Clarke, a Pentecostal church leader, theologian, and global empowerment strategist, discusses race, Black history, and the current suppression of Critical Race Theory. He explains why Pentecostalism appeals to people worldwide and the importance of developing Black Pentecostal theology. As a coach for global leadership, he argues that future leaders need to be globally competent, able to navigate Western and global South models of leadership, and develop a deep spirituality to avoid burnout.
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Wednesday Apr 16, 2025
Wednesday Apr 16, 2025
Dr. Gabrielle Thomas, who teaches early Christianity and Anglican Studies at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, discusses what we can learn from early theologians, such as Gregory of Nazianzus, to face our tumultuous time. She talks about how she combines her role as an Anglican priest and a scholar. She has interviewed women serving in ministries from different denominations in Britain and discusses gender inequality in the church. She also highlights the book she is working on about the devil.
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Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Tuesday Apr 08, 2025
Dr. Atalia Omer, Professor of Religion, Conflict, and Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, discusses why the Esther Project appropriates the Jewish Story of Esther and weaponizes antisemitism. She discusses the roots of Jewish solidarity with Palestinians and her comparative study of religion and conflict in Palestine Israel, Kenya, and the Philippines. She shares her vocation as a teacher and researcher and how she uses films to teach about Palestine Israel to help students understand the lenes, representation, and framing of complex issues.
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