A much needed forum for restoring the increasingly thin and superficial public theology or our times. How can we know what is right & how we should live without wrestling with the tenets of our faith in real time? Listening to these thoughtful discussions give me hope.

They cover topics of faith and culture today that are nuanced and important. Actually this podcast gives me a model for how to how to think at a deeper level and discuss tricky things more patiently.

The Podcast is Fabulous. Beautiful people there. Thank you so much. ——————— D D H

I’m distracted by the claim that the DSM labels some emotions as bad things to be treated. I’m a licensed therapist and don’t know specifically what’s behind this claim.

I have been seeking a new theology for understanding of my second widowhood. Listening to the podcast on the Virgin of the Passion introduced me to the icon and the Virgin herself as a source of connection and of inspiration. Her suffering love brought me a sense of solidarity but also of hope. Not only am I understood but I have an ongoing ministry.

I found this podcast through an interview between Miroslav Volf and N. T. Wright.I was particularly interested in that conversation, but soon realized how how vast a treasure trove this podcast library was. I am constantly challenged by this content, and always look forward to tuning in to the next episode. I have yet to be disappointed.

Thoughtful discussion and insights for life’s most challenging questions

So much is happening and our society has rules where we often check our deepest meaning systems at the door. This works until a year like this year when we need to draw on much deeper resources, and we want a way to connect as a community. This group seems committed to softening those isolating norms, and showing us all what that could look like to do so with love and respect.

I have listened to every episode of this podcast and look forward to the next one each week. Many other reviewers have commented on the strengths of the series. I agree and will not repeat them here except to summarize that I find Christian soul nourishment here. I want to instead comment on a couple aspects that I find not so great. The first is that it is sometimes too cautiously unwilling to make definite statements. The most extreme example of this is the episode following the first presidential debate. It felt to me like a much too intellectualized response to an appalling spectacle. It also projected a weird naivety, almost as if the Trump on display was something new. The second is that as an older listener the language “tics” of the hosts and many guests in every episode are grating to my ears. I’m referring to the near constant use of “sort of”, “kind of” and other similar fillers. I understand that is how even highly intelligent and educated people speak today and I just have to accept it. Filtering out or just ignoring all the empty fillers is mental work I wish I did not have to do while listening. But it’s worth it for an otherwise great podcast.

In the time of Covid there is time for much thought. This series feeds that thought.

This is the only podcast that I have felt compelled to go back to and listen to every episode. I find it consistently compelling and evocative. It dives headlong into the pain and brokenness of our current situation and addresses it with an almost ruthless commmitment to the beauty of truth and the truth of beauty. And though it does not resolve on the superficial, frequently saccharine, Bflat, but the counterintuitively more satisfying Bflat7 (thank you Julian Reid for the theory behind the heartbreaking longing driving blues/jazz), yet I am lead out, stumbling into hope --against hope, as Miroslav reminds us in the episodes by that name. Julian's description of the haunting exilic nature of blues reminded me of the Hebrew genius of Lamentations, written, so I am told, so as to evoke the limping gait of the exiled Jew being led from Israel to Babylon, weeping all the way. And yet in the lament -- hope. Can't thank you all enough.

I’ve been helped, encouraged, stimulated. I’ve found it to be consistently interesting and thoughtful. Best podcast for Christian interest.

Nuanced, wise, and encouraging. This podcast is important for Christians and non-Christians alike. The hosts do a great job selecting great topics, listening, and adding relevant wisdom to relevant conversations. No time listening to this is wasted!

The stated purpose of this podcast is to help listeners to live a life that is worthy of our humanity. They accomplish this (and more). If you want a podcast that is informed, rigorous, has an ear to the human condition, and is profoundly Christian, this is your podcast! Good good stuff!

I have read 3-4 of Miroslav Volf’s books and appreciate these interviews and talks. I have purchased a couple books from authors interviewed or mentioned. And I have passed on a couple of the episodes to friends that Were particularly good. The interviews I tend to like most because they combine different thinking together and get some interesting responses. I think the episodes with Willie James Jennings, the authors of Taking America Back for God and Jemar Tisby have been my favorite so far.

I read my first book by Miroslav Volf in high school and have followed his work ever since. Now I’m in seminary and can’t describe how much I’m thankful for his writing and now for this excellent podcast. It’s worth the listen every Saturday! Thank you all for making it available!

I just recently started listening. Thoroughly enjoying the podcast. Recently I have really benefitted from listening to the Vineyard pastor from New Haven . Touched my heart to hear of the struggles Black Folk routinely have. I have heard and know this but he does a very good job describing it in terms that a middle class white man can understand. He is in the trenches leading a multi-ethnic church in New Haven. This is a great interview. Also just listened to Willie Jennings’ episode about the righteous anger of God. Great sermon. Smart, eloquent man. Amazed by his perseverance and hope and loving spirit. His parents sound absolutely wonderful. Would love to hear more of his stuff. He is spot on. Makes me sad to hear of the hard times they have had. This should not be. I need to help change it. And Miroslav’s comments are edifying and good for me to hear. I want to read his books. Loving people. Loving the other. Not dehumanizing people. This is great stuff. These podcasts make me think and touch my heart. And point to Christ and the Gospel. And the Kingdom of God. Thank you.

Thank you for this podcast! Densely and efficiently packed with theology and perspectives that offer nutrients, sweetness, and umami every week.

This has been such a profound source of wisdom and reflection and hope in these dark times. I very much appreciate all the thought and effort you put into these. Thank you so much!

Dr. Volf’s conversations with other great thinkers of our faith has been very intriguing and inspiring to listen to. I only wish I knew about this podcast earlier. I found out through Dr. Volf tweeting about his podcast on twitter. So I’m happy I found it. Keep up the good work!

As a pastor serving a now cloistered congregation, this podcast helps me think about and work through important issues.

Consistently engaging.

My thanks to Miroslav (whom I met in NYC many years ago on a consultancy meeting on education at the Yale Club) and John (who taught me Kant & Kierkegaard on his first semester in 2000). Very impt and timely questions. However, if I may make a gentle prod, it is that I felt the discussion stopped just when it got to the salient point. I was especially hoping for a soul searching discussion on the value of death in following Christ in celebration of the afterlife with God. I was hoping for a response to how much and to whom $1M for 40 days of ICU should be granted in the name of life extension. I was hoping for the awkward question of whether a post-Covid 19 theology is forthcoming as it exposes the reality of financial resources among Christians and how our answers can survive fair scrutiny. Perhaps another podcast with firm commitments to get to the meat? Thanks and blessings

I have really enjoyed the depth of discussion and the variety of voices that the podcast brings into the practical issues of our time.

May 2nd was a critical conversation for opening ourselves to all that life can be--including loss and pain--if we would recognize that G-d is with us and shares in our struggle for the courage to let go of life preservers in a dark time.

I appreciate what is said, but criticize what is left unsaid. For example, the Church failed to prevent this pandemic and its impact on America, despite many experts warning for many years that what is happening - an animal virus mutating to become human inflectious - would happen, anytime and probably in next decade. What does the bystanding of the Chuch and resultant (at least in part) shameful lack of preparation in America, particularly after December 2019, imply about the adequacy of theology and praxis in 2020? quite a bit, I think, but I don't think this topic can be considered on this show - too risky, apparently. Perhaps it's more risky 'for the life of the world" not to though.

The team at the Yale Center for Faith

What an exceptional - and exceptionally timely - podcast! From the first century, on, Christians have been able to turn to the theologians of their time - their “doctors of the faith” - for insight and guidance on the great questions of their lives and time. Within our living memory, we can recall the great light that Reinhold Niebuhr, Paul Tillich, and Jurgen Moltmann shared to illuminate the central issues of shared and individual life in the 20th century. As this podcast series confirms, Miroslav Volf, the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale University, offers us such gifts as one of the great public theologians of our time. The founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Professor Volf has devoted much of his career to reflecting deeply on the vision of life offered by Christ and what it means for a human to live fully. This podcast brings those insights out of the realm of the Yale classroom or scholarly books and journals and delivers engaging theological reflection (tuition free!) on the issues of our day in an accessible style.

This podcast addresses an urgent need: to look deeply at the current context, using the wisdom of the ages. The perspective of these three gifted teachers is rooted in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testatment but will be valuable to people of all faiths, and of none. I particularly appreciated the observation that there are many kinds of fear, and that in the West we have moved into a period of catastrophising, even before COVID-19, and therefore are ironically less prepared for this genuine threat. It was also helpful to be reminded of the wide spectrum of ways in which people are experiencing the pandemic, and than many people are unable to flee from danger as easily as are wealthy residents of the West. Excellent job -- I'm eager to hear more! Thank you.

Croasmun and Volf are fantastic together. Their book of the same name as the podcast is worth a read too -- a theological manifesto for our time that adroitly identifies how Jesus Christ is revealed in the 21st century.

Few would dispute that this is a period of unprecedented fear and trembling over the uncertainty of the ultimate impacts of the current global and national pandemic (the Covid-19 virus). I find it refreshing and uplifting to listen to the Yale Podcast by world-respected and renowned theologian and author Miroslav Volf (together with his team at the Yale center of Faith and Culture) as they discuss the current situation from a cultural, biblical, historical and theological perspective. In a country that has been mired in political and religious divisiveness, it is encouraging to listen to their analysis that gives me hope that this crisis will cause us as a nation to heal, to prevail and to unite against a common foe. A foe who knows no race, gender, religion or political affiliation.

Miroslav’s work has always inspired me. Excited to hear more from him.