I was about a minute into the podcast when Elias mentioned William Stringfellow’s understanding of principalities and powers. That diverted me for a good hour. I ended up buying two of Stringfellow’s books and was taken with a great article about Stringfellow’s thought, written by one Fr. John Dear.
Which brought me back to this episode.
Interesting to hear Father John speak of being in a time of permanent warfare now. I’ve been listening over and over to a few sections of Arendt writing about Thomas Hobbes. She sees him as a prophet for the k
Pete and Elias, thank you for putting this episode out. Father John’s anecdote about receiving a letter from Bill Moyer gave me pause. Moyer told John that he’d be his favorite interviewee, but Moyer would be fired if he had him on the show because he preached against war, which pays the bills. So much of the media giants I enjoyed are being compromised and being made irrelevant today, but the Moyer letter reminds me that they were compromised in less obvious but in equally significant ways for a very long time. You guys, on the other hand, let the prophets rip. Consequently, the episodes are challenging. This one for me is the most challenging to date.
For what it’s worth, here are five things that particularly spoke to me:
Father John’s (and Pete’s) emphasis on responsibility. John’s story about the time soft-spoken Dan boiled it all down to one word, and the word wasn’t peace but responsibility. Remarkable.
Fascinating remarks about the relationship between brothers Phil and Daniel growing up and during the 1960s. Daniel’s remark that Phil got him to follow Jesus well into Daniel’s Christian service was a remarkable moment in the interview. The fact that the brothers were each other’s confessors speaks to something powerful. Daniel, it seems, couldn’t have been Daniel without Phil.
Father’s John’s emphasis on community, epitomized by his line from Fr. Daniel: close your eyes to the culture and open them to your friends. It’s remarkable that Dan Berrigan did that on various levels — local and trans local, and stayed with the same local group meeting biweekly since 1977.
I wonder what Father John meant toward the end of the interview about not seeking a church movement, per se. I think he means being open to building a prophetic community without regard to church affiliation. The time is short seemed to be part of his rationale.
I’m beginning to coalesce around the idea that the world is a kingdom of death. Father John’s remark about a “slight edge over death” in the form of resurrection seems exactly like Walter Benjamin’s “Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak Messianic power . . .” in his Theses on the Philosophy of History.
The opening segment of this episode is extraordinary.
I can’t say enough about the chemistry you two bring to this podcast. Thank you for all of the reading, prayer, and administrative work (setting up interviews, etc.) that goes into making these feasts.
I was about a minute into the podcast when Elias mentioned William Stringfellow’s understanding of principalities and powers. That diverted me for a good hour. I ended up buying two of Stringfellow’s books and was taken with a great article about Stringfellow’s thought, written by one Fr. John Dear.
Which brought me back to this episode.
Interesting to hear Father John speak of being in a time of permanent warfare now. I’ve been listening over and over to a few sections of Arendt writing about Thomas Hobbes. She sees him as a prophet for the k
Pete and Elias, thank you for putting this episode out. Father John’s anecdote about receiving a letter from Bill Moyer gave me pause. Moyer told John that he’d be his favorite interviewee, but Moyer would be fired if he had him on the show because he preached against war, which pays the bills. So much of the media giants I enjoyed are being compromised and being made irrelevant today, but the Moyer letter reminds me that they were compromised in less obvious but in equally significant ways for a very long time. You guys, on the other hand, let the prophets rip. Consequently, the episodes are challenging. This one for me is the most challenging to date.
For what it’s worth, here are five things that particularly spoke to me:
Father John’s (and Pete’s) emphasis on responsibility. John’s story about the time soft-spoken Dan boiled it all down to one word, and the word wasn’t peace but responsibility. Remarkable.
Fascinating remarks about the relationship between brothers Phil and Daniel growing up and during the 1960s. Daniel’s remark that Phil got him to follow Jesus well into Daniel’s Christian service was a remarkable moment in the interview. The fact that the brothers were each other’s confessors speaks to something powerful. Daniel, it seems, couldn’t have been Daniel without Phil.
Father’s John’s emphasis on community, epitomized by his line from Fr. Daniel: close your eyes to the culture and open them to your friends. It’s remarkable that Dan Berrigan did that on various levels — local and trans local, and stayed with the same local group meeting biweekly since 1977.
I wonder what Father John meant toward the end of the interview about not seeking a church movement, per se. I think he means being open to building a prophetic community without regard to church affiliation. The time is short seemed to be part of his rationale.
I’m beginning to coalesce around the idea that the world is a kingdom of death. Father John’s remark about a “slight edge over death” in the form of resurrection seems exactly like Walter Benjamin’s “Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak Messianic power . . .” in his Theses on the Philosophy of History.
The opening segment of this episode is extraordinary.
I can’t say enough about the chemistry you two bring to this podcast. Thank you for all of the reading, prayer, and administrative work (setting up interviews, etc.) that goes into making these feasts.