You Tube Theology

Poet Christian Wiman and theologian Miroslav Volf wrote each other letters in which they wrestled honestly with the big questions: what does it mean to love God? What is faith? 

Letter writing deepened the friendship between these two intellectuals as they wrestled with their questions about faith and the nature of God.  The longings they discuss speak to our deepest needs for transcendence and connection.  If we’re going to transcend muffled lives and cut through the noise, we need a sharp, almost brutal honesty.

These letters were published in Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian (http://harpercollins.com/products/glimmerings-miroslav-volfchristian-wiman) . The book is named after a Seamus Heaney line (https://harpers.org/archive/2024/08/music-and-mystery-christian-wiman-seamus-heaney/) : “glimmerings are what the soul’s composed of”. 

Miroslav Volf (https://faith.yale.edu/people/miroslav-volf) is a Croatian-American theologian Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and founder and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. Christian Wiman (https://ism.yale.edu/people/christian-wiman) is a poet, translator, and essayist from West Texas. He served as editor of Poetry magazine from 2003 to 2013.

Discussed in this episode:
• Jewish theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel (https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/heschel-abraham-joshua)

• Veni Creator by Czesław Miłosz (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49460/veni-creator-56d22b9156ae2)

• Zero at the Bone by Christian Wiman (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374603458/zeroatthebone/)

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Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and Fuller Seminary’s School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy. The podcast was made possible through the support from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the host and guests, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.