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

Mortality, fragility, forgiveness, and peace. Journalist and author Stan Grant offers a genre-bending work of prayer, memory, and theology shaped by fatherhood, Aboriginal inheritance, masculinity, and mortality.“I see this as a gift from God, a creator that allows us to find each other again.”In this conversation with Evan Rosa, Grant reflects on his 2025 book, Murriyang: Song of Time—his philosophical and spiritual exploration of the human place in the world and faith as lived experience rather than abstraction. He looks closely at his father’s life in order to come to terms with his own, the meaning of fatherhood and how to understand and forgive our fathers, masculinity and vulnerability, Aboriginal history and identity, masculinity and vulnerability, forgiveness and sacrifice, prayer and poetry, and the whole human experience of time and eternity.Episode Highlights“We inherit our father’s cups.”“We must forgive our fathers. It is the only way that we can forgive ourselves.”“We cannot survive without each other.”“Man is not made for history. History is made for man.”“ … to confront the beauty of that mortality—my father’s final gift to me is his death.”About Stan GrantStan Grant is an Australian journalist, author, and public intellectual of Wiradjuri, Kamilaroi, and Dharawal heritage. A former international correspondent and broadcaster, he has written widely on Indigenous identity, history, faith, and moral responsibility. Grant is the author of several acclaimed books, including Talking to My Country and Murriyang: Song of Time, which blends prayer, memoir, poetry, and theology. His work consistently resists abstraction in favor of embodied human experience, emphasizing forgiveness, attention, and the dignity of the human person. Grant has received national honors for journalism and cultural leadership and remains a leading voice in conversations about history, masculinity, faith, and what it means to live lives worthy of our shared humanity.Helpful Links and ResourcesMurriyang: Song of Time https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460763827/murriyang/Talking to My Country https://www.harpercollins.com.au/9781460752210/talking-to-my-country/Stan Grant official website https://www.stangrant.com.auShow NotesFathers and sons; inherited burden, sacrifice, and responsibility“We inherit our father’s cups”Christ in Gethsemane as archetype of father-son sufferingMasculinity as physical burden, scars, toughness“We must forgive our fathers. It is the only way that we can forgive ourselves and live in a world of forgiveness with the other.”Yindyamarra: respect, gentleness, quietness, forgivenessImprovisation and rehearsal; jazz as spiritual and artistic model“I have never written a second draft.”Second thought as artifice, hiding, dishonestyForgiveness of self before speaking; imperfection and risk“If silence is violence, then we have redefined the very nature of violence itself.”Giftedness of life; what is given and receivedGift exchange versus transaction in modern society“We offer the gift of ourselves to each other.”Murriyang as Psalter, prayer, song, contemplation of time and GodReading slowly; opening anywhere; shelter from modern noise“We cannot survive without each other.”One-person performance; no script, immediacy, intimacyMusic, poetry, time, mortality woven togetherFather’s body as history; sawmills, injuries, exhaustionChildhood memory of bath; “the water is stained black with blood”Mother’s touch; tenderness amid survivalLate-life renaissance; language recovery, teaching, honorsMurriyang (heaven) and Babiin (father) liturgical, prayerful, dialogical alternation throughout the textSt. Augustine: “What was God doing before he made time? He was making hell for the over-curious.”Is God in time? Or out of time?Speaking of eternity or timelessness still imputes the concept of time.“ The imaginative space of time itself, it reaches to an horizon. But what is beyond the horizon? For modernity, of course, time is the big story. To be modern is to reinvent time. It's to be new. Modernity and technology is all about taming time.”“Man is not made for history. History is made for man.”Attention, affliction, abstraction, and the loss of human touch“My father’s gift to me is his death.”Mortality as meaning; resisting transhumanismTime, modernity, instant life, collapsing spaceFragility, love, forgiveness, and beginning againEnding where we began#StanGrant#Murriyang#Fatherhood#Masculinity#Forgiveness#TimeAndFaith#HumanFlourishing#AustraliaProduction NotesThis podcast featured Stan GrantEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Noah SenthilA 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

Slavery did not end in the nineteenth century—it persists today, hidden in global supply chains, religious justifications, and systems of power. Kevin Bales and Michael Rota join Evan Rosa to explore modern slavery through history, psychology, and theology, asking why it remains so difficult to see and confront.“It’s time some person should see these calamities to their end.” (Thomas Clarkson, 1785)“There are millions of slaves in the world today.” (Kevin Bales, 2025)In this episode, they consider how conscience, power, and religious belief can either sustain enslavement or become forces for abolition. Together they discuss the psychology of slaveholding, faith’s complicity and resistance, Quaker abolitionism, modern debt bondage, ISIS and Yazidi slavery, and what meaningful action looks like today.https://freetheslaves.net/––––––––––––––––––Episode Highlights“There are millions of slaves in the world today.”“Statistics isn’t gonna do it. I need to actually show people things.”“They have sexual control. They can do what they like.”“Slavery is flowing into our lives hidden in the things we buy.”“We have to widen our sphere of concern.”––––––––––––––––––About Kevin BalesKevin Bales is a leading scholar and activist in the global fight against modern slavery. He is Professor of Contemporary Slavery at the University of Nottingham and co-founder of Free the Slaves, an international NGO dedicated to ending slavery worldwide. Bales has spent more than three decades researching forced labor, debt bondage, and human trafficking, combining academic rigor with on-the-ground investigation. His work has shaped international policy, influenced anti-slavery legislation, and brought global attention to forms of enslavement often dismissed as historical. He is the author of several influential books, including Disposable People and Friends of God, Slaves of Men, which examines the complex relationship between religion and slavery across history and into the present. Learn more and follow at https://www.kevinbales.org and https://www.freetheslaves.netAbout Michael RotaMichael Rota is Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, where he teaches and researches in the philosophy of religion, moral psychology, and the history of slavery and religion. His work spans scholarly articles on the definition of slavery, the moral psychology underlying social change and abolition, and the relevance of theological concepts to ethical life. Rota is co-author with Kevin Bales of Friends of God, Slaves of Men: Religion and Slavery, Past and Present, a comprehensive interdisciplinary study of how religions have both justified and resisted systems of enslaving human beings from antiquity to the present day. He is also the author of Taking Pascal’s Wager: Faith, Evidence, and the Abundant Life, an extended argument for the reasonableness and desirability of Christian commitment. In addition to his academic writing, he co-leads projects in philosophy and education and is co-founder of Personify, a platform exploring AI and student learning. Learn more and follow at his faculty profile and personal website https://mikerota.wordpress.com and on X/Twitter @mikerota.––––––––––––––––––Helpful Links And ResourcesDisposable People by Kevin Baleshttps://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520281820/disposable-peopleFriends of God, Slaves of Men by Kevin Bales and Michael Rotahttps://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520383265/friends-of-god-slaves-of-menFree the Slaveshttps://www.freetheslaves.netVoices for Freedomhttps://voicesforfreedom.orgInternational Justice Missionhttps://www.ijm.orgTalitha Kumhttps://www.talithakum.info––––––––––––––––––Show Notes– Slavery named as a contemporary moral crisis obscured by twentieth-century abolition narratives– Kevin Bales’s encounter with anti-slavery leaflet in London, mid-1990s– “There are millions of slaves in the world today … I thought, look, that can’t be true because I don’t know that. I’m a professor. I should know that.”– Stories disrupting moral distance more powerfully than statistics– “There were three little stories inside, about three different types of enslavement … it put a hook in me like a fish and pulled me.”– United Nations documentation mostly ignored despite vast evidence– Decades of investigation into contemporary slavery– Fieldwork across five regions, five forms of enslavement– Kevin Bales’s book, Disposable People as embodied witness with concrete stories– “Statistics isn’t gonna do it. I need to actually show people things. There’s gonna be something that breaks hearts the way it did me when I was in the field.”– Psychological resistance to believing slavery touches ordinary life– Anti-Slavery International as original human rights organization founded in U.K. in 1839– Quaker and Anglican foundations of abolitionist movements– Religion as both justification for slavery and engine of resistance– Call for renewed faith-based abolition today– Slavery and religion intertwined from early human cultures– Colonial expansion intensifying moral ambiguity– Columbus, Genoa, and enslavement following failed gold extraction– Spanish royal hesitation over legitimacy of slavery– Las Casas’s moral conversion after refusal of absolution– “He eventually realized this is totally wrong. What we are doing, we are destroying these people. And this is not what God wants us to be doing.”– Sepúlveda’s Aristotelian defense of hierarchy and profit– Moral debate without effective structural enforcement– Power described as intoxicating and deforming conscience– Hereditary debt bondage in Indian villages– Caste, ethnicity, and generational domination– Sexual violence as mechanism of absolute control– “They have sexual control. They can beat up the men, rape the women, steal the children. They can do pretty much what they like.”– Three-year liberation process rooted in trust, education, and collective refusal– Former slaves returning as teachers and organizers– Liberation compared to Plato’s allegory of the cave– Post-liberation vulnerability and risk of recapture– Power inverted in Christian teaching– “The disciples are arguing about who’s the greatest, and Jesus says, the greatest among you will be the slave of all… don’t use power to help yourself. Use it to serve.”– Psychological explanations for delayed abolition– The psychological phenomenon of “motivated reasoning” that shapes moral conclusions– “The conclusions we reach aren’t just shaped by the objective evidence the world provides. They’re shaped also by the internal desires and goals and motivations people have.”– Economic self-interest and social consensus sustaining injustice– Quaker abolition through relational, conscience-driven confrontation– First major religious body to forbid slaveholding– Boycotts of slave-produced goods and naval blockade of slave trade– Modern slavery as organized criminal enterprise– ISIS enslavement of Yazidi women– Religious reasoning weaponized for genocide– “They said, for religious reasons, we just need to eradicate this entire outfit.”– Online slave auctions and cultural eradication– Internal Islamic arguments for abolition– Restricting the permissible for the common good– Informing conscience as first step toward action– Community sustaining long-term resistance– Catholic religious sisters as leading global abolitionists– Hidden slavery embedded in everyday consumer goods– “There’s so much slavery flowing into our lives which is hidden… in our homes, our watches, our computers, the minerals, all this.”– Expanding moral imagination beyond immediate needs– “Your sphere of concern has to be wider… how do I start caring about something that I don’t see?”– “It’s time some person should see these calamities to their end.” (Thomas Clarkson, 1785)––––––––––––––––––#ModernSlavery#FaithAndJustice#HumanDignity#Abolition#FreeTheSlavesProduction NotesThis podcast featured Kevin Bales and Michael RotaEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Noah SenthilA 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

Poet and essayist Carol Ann Davis (Fairfield University) joins Evan Rosa for a searching conversation on violence, childhood, and the moral discipline of attention in the aftermath of Sandy Hook. Reflecting on trauma, parenting, childhood, poetry, and faith, Davis resists tidy narratives and invites listeners to dwell with grief, healing, beauty, and pain without resolution.“I don’t believe life feels like beginnings, middles, and ends.”In this episode, Davis reflects on how lived trauma narrows attention, reshapes language, and unsettles conventional storytelling. Together they discuss poetry as dwelling rather than explanation, childhood and formation amid violence, image versus narrative, moral imagination, and the challenge of staying present to suffering.Episode Highlights“Nothing has happened at Hawley School. Please hear me. I have opened every door and seen your children.”“And that was what it is not to suffer. This is the not-suffering, happy-ending story.”“I’m always narrowing focus.”“I think stories lie to us sometimes.”“I think of the shooting as a nail driven into the tree.”“I’m capable of anything. I’m afraid I’m capable of anything.”“I tried to love and out of me came poison.”About Carol Ann DavisCarol Ann Davis is a poet, essayist, and professor of English at Fairfield University. She is the author of the poetry collections Psalm and Atlas Hour, and the essay collection The Nail in the Tree: Essays on Art, Violence, and Childhood. A former longtime editor of the literary journal Crazyhorse, she directs Fairfield University’s Low-Residency MFA and founded Poetry in Communities, an initiative bringing poetry to communities affected by violence. An NEA Fellow in Poetry, Davis’s work has appeared in The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, Image, Agni, The Georgia Review, and elsewhere. Learn more and follow at https://www.carolanndavis.orgHelpful Links and ResourcesThe Nail in the Tree: Essays on Art, Violence, and Childhood https://www.tupelopress.org/bookstore/p/the-nail-in-the-tree-essays-on-art-violence-and-childhoodSongbird https://www.weslpress.org/9780819502223/songbird/Psalm https://www.tupelopress.org/bookstore/p/psalmAtlas Hour https://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Hour-Carol-Ann-Davis/dp/1936797003Carol Ann Davis official website https://www.carolanndavis.orgShow NotesCarol Ann Davis recounts moving to Newtown, Connecticut just months before Sandy Hook, teaching a course at Fairfield University when news of the shooting first breaksHer young children attended a local elementary schoolConfusion, delay, and the unbearable seconds of not knowing which school was attackedA colleague’s embrace as the reality of the shooting becomes clearParenting under threat and the visceral fear of losing one’s children“Nothing has happened at Hawley School. Please hear me. I have opened every door and seen your children.” (Hawley School’s Principal sends this message to parents, including Carol Ann)Living inside the tension where nothing happened and everything changedWriters allowing mystery, unknowing, and time to remain unresolvedNaming “directly affected families” and later “families of loss”Ethical care for proximity without flattening grief into universalityThe moral value of being useful within an affected communityNarrowing attention as survival, parenting, and poetic disciplineChoosing writing, presence, and community over national policy debatesChildhood formation under the long shadow of gun violence“I think of the shooting as a nail driven into the tree. And I’m the tree.” (Carol Ann quotes her older son, then in 4th grade)Growth as accommodation rather than healing or resolutionIntegration without erasure as a model for living with traumaRefusing happy-ending narratives after mass violence“I don’t believe life feels like beginnings, middles, and ends.”Poetry as dwelling inside experience rather than extracting meaningResisting stories that turn suffering into takeawaysCrucifixion imagery, nails, trees, and the violence of embodiment“I’m capable of anything. I’m afraid I’m capable of anything.”Violence as elemental, human, animal, and morally unsettlingDistinguishing intellectual mastery from dwelling in lived experienceA poem’s turn toward fear: loving children and fearing harm“I tried to love and out of me came poison.”Childhood memory, danger, sweetness, and oceanic smallnessBeing comforted by smallness inside something vast and terrifyingEnding without closure, choosing remembrance over resolution#CarolAnnDavis#PoetryAndViolence#TraumaAndAttention#SandyHook#SandyHookPromise#FaithAndWriting#Poetry#ChildhoodAndMemoryProduction NotesThis podcast featured Carol Ann DavisEdited 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

“Our longings are much more powerful than our logic, and our desires are stronger than our reason.” (Graham Tomlin on the thought of Blaise Pascal)The Rt. Rev. Dr. Graham Tomlin (St. Mellitus College, the Centre for Cultural Witness) joins Evan Rosa for a sweeping exploration of Blaise Pascal—the 17th-century mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and theologian whose insights into human nature remain strikingly relevant. Tomlin traces Pascal’s life of brilliance and illness, his tension between scientific acclaim and radical devotion, and his deep engagement with Descartes, Montaigne, and Augustine. The conversation moves through Pascal’s analysis of self-deception, his critique of rationalism and skepticism, the transformative Night of Fire, his compassion for the poor, and the wager’s misunderstood meaning. Tomlin presents Pascal as a thinker who speaks directly to our distracted age, revealing a humanity marked by greatness, misery, and a desperate longing only grace can satisfy.This episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale House Foundation. Visit tyndale.foundation to learn more.Episode Highlights“Our longings are much more powerful than our logic, and our desires are stronger than our reason.”“The greatness and the refuse of the universe—that’s what we are. We’re the greatest thing and also the worst thing.”“If everybody knew what everybody else said about them, there would not be four friends left in the world.”“Only grace can begin to turn that self-oriented nature around and implant in us a desire for God.”“The reason you cannot believe is not because of your reason; it’s because of your passions.”Show NotesGraham Tomlin introduces the Night of Fire and Pascal’s meditation on “the greatness of the human soul”Evan Rosa frames Pascal as a figure of mystery, mechanics, faith, and modern technological influence.Tomlin contrasts Pascal with Descartes and Montaigne—rationalism vs. skepticism—locating Pascal between their poles.Pascal’s awareness of distraction, competition, and “all men naturally hate each other” surfaces early as a key anthropological insight.Evan notes Nietzsche’s striking admiration: “his blood runs through my veins.”Tomlin elaborates on Pascal’s lifelong tension between scientific achievement and spiritual devotion.The story of the servant discovering the hidden Night of Fire parchment in Pascal’s coat lining is recounted.Tomlin reads the core text: “Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy… Let me never be separated from him.”Pascal’s distinction: “God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not of the philosophers.”Discussion of Jansenism, Augustinian anthropology, and the gravity of human fallenness.Tomlin sets the philosophical context: Pascal as a counter to both rationalist optimism and skeptical relativism.Pascal’s core tension—grandeur and misery—is presented as the interpretive key to human nature.Quote emerges: “the greatness and the refuse of the universe—that’s what we are.”Tomlin describes Pascal’s political skepticism and the idea that politics offers only “rules for a madhouse.”Pascal’s diagnosis of self-deception: “If everybody knew what everybody else said about them, there would not be four friends left in the world.”Evan raises questions about social hope; Tomlin answers with Pascal’s belief that only grace can break self-love.They explore Pascal’s critique of distraction and the famous line: “the sole cause of man’s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.”Tomlin ties this to contemporary digital distraction—“weapons of mass distraction”.The conversation turns to the wager, reframed not as coercion but exposure: unbelief is driven by passions more than reasons.Closing reflections highlight the apologetic project of the Pensées, Pascal’s brilliance, and his ongoing relevance.Helpful Links and ReferencesSpecial thanks to the Center for Christian Witness and Seen and Unseen https://www.seenandunseen.com/Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World, by Graham Tomlin https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/graham-tomlin/blaise-pascal/9781399807661/Pensées, by Blaise Pascal https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18269Provincial Letters, by Blaise Pascal https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2407Why Being Yourself Is a Bad Idea, by Graham Tomlinhttps://www.amazon.com/Why-Being-Yourself-Bad-Idea/dp/0281087097Montaigne’s Essays https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3600Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/23306Augustine’s Confessions https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3296About Graham TomlinGraham Tomlin is a British theologian, writer, and church leader. He is the former Bishop of Kensington (2015-2022) in the Church of England and now serves as Director of the Centre for Cultural Witness and President of St Mellitus College in London. He is widely known for connecting theology with cultural life and public imagination. Tomlin is the author of several books, including Looking Through the Cross, The Widening Circle, and Why Being Yourself Is a Bad Idea: And Other Countercultural Notions. His latest book is an intellectual and spiritual biography, Blaise Pascal: The Man Who Made the Modern World.Production NotesThis episode was made possible in part by the generous support of the Tyndale House FoundationThis podcast featured Graham TomlinProduction Assistance by Emily Brookfield and Alexa RollowEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaA production of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School https://faith.yale.edu/aboutSupport For the Life of the World by giving to the Yale Center for Faith & Culture: https://faith.yale.edu/give

Loneliness seems to be part of what it means to be a relational being. Does that mean loneliness can never really be “solved”? Here’s one way to think about loneliness: As a gap between relational expectation and social reality—something that signals our essentially relational, reciprocal nature as human beings.This episode is part 6 of a series, SOLO, which explores the theological, moral, and psychological dimensions of loneliness, solitude, and being alone.In this reflective conclusion to the series, Macie Bridge and Ryan McAnnally-Linz explore loneliness not as a pathology to solve but as a universal, creaturely experience that reveals our longing for relationship. Drawing on insights from conversations throughout the series, they consider how loneliness emerges in the gap between what we desire relationally and what we actually have, and why this gap might be intrinsic to being human. They discuss solitude as a vital space for discernment, self-understanding, and listening for God; how risk is inherent to relationships; why the church holds unique potential for embodied community; and how even small interactions with neighbors and strangers can meet real needs. Together they reflect on grief, social isolation, resentment, vulnerability, and the invitation to turn loneliness into attentiveness—to God, to ourselves, and to our neighbors, human and non-human alike.Episode Highlights“Loneliness is just baked into our creaturely lives.”“There really is no solution to loneliness—and also that’s okay.”“We invite a certain level of risk because we invite another person closer to our own human limits.”“There’s no blanket solution. We are all experiencing this thing, but we are all experiencing it differently.”“I realized I could be a gift to her, and she could be a gift to me, even in that small moment.”About Macie BridgeMacie Bridge is Operations Coordinator for the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. Macie is originally from the small town of Groton, Massachusetts, where she was raised in the United Church of Christ. As an undergraduate at Trinity College in Hartford, CT, Macie studied English literature, creative writing, and religious studies. She spent a year in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with the Episcopal Service Corps after receiving her B.A. There, she served as Events & Communications Coordinator for L’Arche North Carolina—an emerging L’Arche community, and therefore an incredible “crash course” into the nonprofit world.About Ryan McAnnally-LinzRyan McAnnally-Linz is Associate Director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and a theologian focusing on flourishing, meaning, and the moral life. He is co-author of Public Faith in Action and The Home of God with Miroslav Volf, and Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most with Miroslav Volf and Matt Croasmun.Show NotesLoneliness as Creaturely ConditionLoneliness as “baked into our creaturely lives,” not a sign of brokenness or failureThe “gap between what we want and what we have” in relationshipsLoneliness as a universal human experience across ages and contextsSolitude and DiscernmentSolitude as a place to listen more clearly to God and oneselfTime alone clarifies intuition, vocation, and identity.Solitude shapes self-knowledge outside societal expectations.Community, Church, and EmbodimentChurches can be embodied spaces of connection yet still feel lonely.Hospitality requires more than “hi”; it requires digging deeper into personal encounter.Embodied church life resists technological comforts that reduce vulnerability.Grief, Risk, and VulnerabilityDistinguishing grief-loneliness from social-isolation lonelinessRelationships inherently involve risk, limits, and potential hurt.Opening oneself to others requires relinquishing entitlement.Everyday Encounters and Ecological AttentionSmall moments with neighbors (like taking a stranger’s photo) can be meaningful.Loneliness can signal attention toward creaturely neighbors—birds, bugs, landscapes.Turning loneliness outward can widen our capacity for care.Production NotesThis podcast featured Macie BridgeEdited and Produced by Evan RosaHosted by Evan RosaProduction Assistance by Alexa Rollow, Emily Brookfield, and Hope ChunA 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