For the Life of the World / Yale Center for Faith & Culture

By: Miroslav Volf Matthew Croasmun Ryan McAnnally-Linz Drew Collins Evan Rosa
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  • Summary

  • Seeking and living a life worthy of our humanity. Theological insight, cultural analysis, and practical guidance for personal and communal flourishing. Brought to you by the Yale Center for Faith & Culture.
    2020-2028 Yale Center for Faith & Culture
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Christianity Ministry & Evangelism Philosophy Social Sciences Spirituality
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Episodes
  • Remembering Pope Francis / Nichole Flores and Ryan McAnnally-Linz

    Remembering Pope Francis / Nichole Flores and Ryan McAnnally-Linz
    Apr 23 2025

    Pope Francis died on Monday April 21, 2025. And to remember and celebrate his life, we’re bringing out an episode from our archives featuring social ethicist and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, Nichole M. Flores. Ryan McAnnally-Linz interviewed her in early 2021 about Fratelli Tutti, an encyclical teaching he published 6 months into the COVID-19 pandemic. From that encyclical he writes:

    “Here we have a splendid secret that shows us how to dream and to turn our life into a wonderful adventure. No one can face life in isolation… We need a community that supports and helps us, in which we can help one another to keep looking ahead. How important it is to dream together… By ourselves, we risk seeing mirages, things that are not there. Dreams, on the other hand, are built together. Let us dream, then, as a single human family, as fellow travelers sharing the same flesh, as children of the same earth which is our common home, each of us bringing the richness of his or her beliefs and convictions, each of us with his or her own voice, brothers and sisters all." (Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti)

    Last year, in the midst of a global nightmare, Pope Francis invited the world to dream together of something different. He released Fratelli Tutti in October 2020—a message of friendship, dignity, and solidarity not just to Catholics, but "to all people of good will"—for the whole human community. In this episode, social ethicist Nichole Flores (University of Virginia) explains papal encyclicals and works through the moral vision of Fratelli Tutti, highlighting especially Pope Francis’s views on faith as seeing with the eyes of Christ, the implications of human dignity for discourse, justice and solidarity, and finally the language of dreaming together of a different world.

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    Show Notes

    • Read the entire text of Fratelli Tutti online here
    • What is a papal encyclical? For “All people of good will”—not just Catholics
    • Examining the signs of the times, e.g., Fratelli Tutti will always be connected to its global context during a pandemic.
    • What is Fratelli Tutti? What does its title mean?
    • Brothers and Sisters All: Using Italian, a particular language, as a pathway to the universal, rather than traditional Latin title
    • Pope Francis’ roots in Latin America: How his particularity as Latin American gives him a universal message; local and communal belonging; neighborhoods contributing to the common good
    • Seeing/Gazing: Faith as seeing with the eyes of Christ (Lumen Fidei)
    • Undermining human dignity in social media discourse; the failure of grandstanding rather than encounter
    • Solidarity as a dirty word: conflicts within Catholicism about how to understand and apply justice and solidarity in real life
    • Solidarity requires encounter with the other
    • Social friendship and fraternity
    • Human dignity in the tradition of Catholic social ethics
    • Dreaming together: fighting against the temptation to dream alone, inviting us to imagine; cultivating a conversation that forms collective imagination and aesthetic reality.

    About Nichole Flores

    Nichole Flores is a social ethicist who is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. She studies the constructive contributions of Catholic and Latinx theologies to notions of justice and aesthetics to the life of democracy. Her research in practical ethics addresses issues of democracy, migration, family, gender, economics (labor and consumption), race and ethnicity, and ecology. Visit NicholeMFlores.com for more information.
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    35 mins
  • Art and Sacred Resistance: Art as Prayer, Love, Resistance and Relationship / Bruce Herman

    Art and Sacred Resistance: Art as Prayer, Love, Resistance and Relationship / Bruce Herman
    Apr 17 2025
    “Art is a form of prayer … a way to enter into relationship.”Artist and theologian Bruce Herman reflects on the sacred vocation of making, resisting consumerism, and the divine invitation to become co-creators. From Mark Rothko to Rainer Maria Rilke, to Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” and T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, he comments on the holy risk of artmaking and the sacred fire of creative origination.Together with Evan Rosa, Bruce Herman explores the divine vocation of art making as resistance to consumer culture and passive living. In this deeply poetic and wide-ranging conversation—and drawing from his book *Makers by Nature—*he invites us into a vision of art not as individual genius or commodity, but as service, dialogue, and co-creation rooted in love, not fear. They touch on ancient questions of human identity and desire, the creative implications of being made in the image of God, Buber’s I and Thou, the scandal of the cross, Eliot’s divine fire, Rothko’s melancholy ecstasy, and how even making a loaf of bread can be a form of holy protest. A profound reflection on what it means to be human, and how we might change our lives—through beauty, vulnerability, and relational making.Episode Highlights“We are made by a Maker to be makers.”“ I think hope is being stolen from us Surreptitiously moment by moment hour by hour day by day.”“There is no them. There is only us.”“The work itself has a life of its own.”“Art that serves a community.”“You must change your life.” —Rilke, recited by Bruce Herman in reflection on the transformative power of art.“When we're not making something, we're not whole. We're not healthy.”“Making art is a form of prayer. It's a form of entering into relationship.”“Art is not for the artist—any more than it's for anyone else. The work stands apart. It has its own voice.”“We're not merely consumers—we're made by a Maker to be makers.”“The ultimate act of art is hospitality.”Topics and ThemesHuman beings are born to create and make meaningArt as theological dialogue and spiritual resistanceCreative practice as a form of love and worshipChristian art and culture in dialogue with contemporary issuesPassive consumption vs. active creationHow to engage with provocative art faithfullyThe role of beauty, mystery, and risk in the creative processArt that changes you spiritually, emotionally, and intellectuallyThe sacred vocation of the artist in a consumerist worldHow poetry and painting open up divine encounter, particularly in Rainer Maria Rilke’s “Archaic Torso of Apollo”Four Quartets and spiritual longing in modern poetryHospitality, submission, and service as aesthetic posturesModern culture's sickness and art as medicineEncountering the cross through contemporary artistic imagination“Archaic Torso of Apollo”Rainer Maria Rilke 1875 –1926We cannot know his legendary head with eyes like ripening fruit. And yet his torso is still suffused with brilliance from inside, like a lamp, in which his gaze, now turned to low, gleams in all its power. Otherwise the curved breast could not dazzle you so, nor could a smile run through the placid hips and thighs to that dark center where procreation flared. Otherwise this stone would seem defaced beneath the translucent cascade of the shoulders and would not glisten like a wild beast’s fur: would not, from all the borders of itself, burst like a star: for here there is no place that does not see you. You must change your life.About Bruce HermanBruce Herman is a painter, writer, educator, and speaker. His art has been shown in more than 150 exhibitions—nationally in many US cities, including New York, Boston, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Houston—and internationally in England, Japan, Hong Kong, Italy, Canada, and Israel. His artwork is featured in many public and private art collections including the Vatican Museum of Modern Religious Art in Rome; The Cincinnati Museum of Fine Arts print collection; The Grunewald Print Collection of the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; DeCordova Museum in Boston; the Cape Ann Museum; and in many colleges and universities throughout the United States and Canada.Herman taught at Gordon College for nearly four decades, and is the founding chair of the Art Department there. He held the Lothlórien Distinguished Chair in Fine Arts for more than fifteen years, and continues to curate exhibitions and manage the College art collection there. Herman completed both BFA and MFA degrees at Boston University College of Fine Arts under American artists Philip Guston, James Weeks, David Aronson, Reed Kay, and Arthur Polonsky. He was named Boston University College of Fine Arts Distinguished Alumnus of the Year 2006.Herman’s art may be found in dozens of journals, popular magazines, newspapers, and online art features. He and co-author Walter Hansen wrote the book Through Your Eyes, 2013, Grand Rapids, Wm. B. Eerdmans ...
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • The Fear to Hope: Ukrainian Pastor on Democracy, Fear, and Abundant Life in the Midst of War / Fyodor Raychynets

    The Fear to Hope: Ukrainian Pastor on Democracy, Fear, and Abundant Life in the Midst of War / Fyodor Raychynets
    Mar 13 2025
    "Do not be afraid of your fears, but cope with them—learn how to deal with them—because unless you do, you cannot live your life abundantly and fully." (Fyodor Raychynets)Evoking courage, resilience, and faith in the face of overwhelming uncertainty, Ukrainian pastor and theologian Fyodor Raychynets returns to For the Life of the World three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In conversation with Evan Rosa, Fyodor shares his reflections on fear, freedom, and the emotional and spiritual challenges of living fully in a time of war. He discusses his response to recent global political developments, the struggle of holding onto hope, and the importance of confronting fear rather than suppressing it. Drawing from the Gospel of Mark’s iteration of Jesus walking on water, his own personal grief and therapy, and the lived experience of war, Fyodor sees fear not as something to be avoided or gotten rid of, but as something to understand and face with courage."We are in a situation where we are scared to hope.""Do not be afraid of your fears, but cope with them—learn how to deal with them—because unless you do, you cannot live your life abundantly and fully.""If I want to say to someone, ‘I love you,’ I say it. If I want to forgive, I forgive. If I want to do something meaningful, I do it now—because tomorrow is never guaranteed.""The enemy wants us to live in fear, to be paralyzed by it. But to live fully is to resist.""When Jesus scared his disciples on the water, he was bringing their fears to the surface—so that they could face them and find true freedom."Show NotesImage: “Walking on Water”, by Ivan Aivazovsky, Russia, 1888Episode SummaryUkrainian pastor and theologian Fyodor Raychynets reflects on faith, fear, and hope after three years of war.The role of fear in spiritual and personal transformation.A biblical perspective on confronting fear, drawn from the Gospel of Mark.Political and emotional reactions to recent global events impacting Ukraine.Living fully in the present as an act of resistance against fear and oppression.Faith, Fear, and FreedomFyodor Raychynets returns to discuss Ukraine’s ongoing struggle and his evolving faith."Fear to hope"—the challenge of holding onto hope when the world is falling apart.Why fear should be faced rather than suppressed.The spiritual wisdom of encountering fear: “When Jesus scared his disciples, it was for their good.”The difference between being reckless, cowardly, or courageous—all of which share the common state of fear.The Ukrainian Perspective on Global PoliticsHow Ukraine perceives the shifting stance of U.S. foreign policy.The impact of Zelenskyy’s visit to the Oval Office and international reactions.The challenge of fighting for democracy when global powers redefine the terms of war.The fear that democratic values are no longer upheld by those who once championed them.Biblical and Psychological Perspectives on FearMark’s Gospel and the fear of encountering God in unexpected ways.Fyodor quotes Carl Jung: "Where our fears lie, that is where change is most needed."Facing fear as a practice of faith and emotional resilience.The importance of naming fears, localizing them, and even “inviting them in for tea.”How unprocessed fear can lead to paralysis or aggression.Living in the Present: The Antidote to FearWhy Fyodor refuses to postpone life until after the war."We don’t know what tomorrow brings. So I live today, fully."A powerful response to fear: doing good, loving openly, and forgiving freely.The lesson of war: never get used to abnormal things.Holding onto humanity in the face of devastation.Linked Media ReferencesMark 6L: 45-52 Jesus Walks on WaterEpisode 110 of For the Life of the World A Voice from KyivEpisode 138 of For the Life of the World / Ukrainian Pastor Speaks Out: Resist Evil, Be Present, and Remember How Little You ControlUkraine War Updates - BBC NewsAbout Fyodor RaychynetsFyodor Raychynets is a theologian and pastor in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is Head of the Department of Theology at Ukrainian Evangelical Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses in Leadership and Biblical Studies, particularly the Gospel of Matthew. He studied with Miroslav Volf at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Osijek, Croatia.Follow him on Facebook here.Production NotesThis podcast featured Fyodor RaychinetsEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Macie Bridge, Alexa Rollow, Zoë Halaban, Kacie Barrett & Emily BrookfieldA Production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World podcast by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give
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    54 mins
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