What Divides Us
The Light in Every Thing is a podcast of the Seminary of The Christian Community in North America. Learn more about the Seminary at our website or become a friend and supporter with access to more content at our Patreon.
Our thanks to Elliott Chamberlin who composed the opening music, "On the Road" and the closing music, "Seeking Together". You can find more of his music here.
Episode 1: The Two Edged Sword of Truth
As the first of four sections to this entire season of the Light in Every Thing, this series explores a core moral challenge that has emerged with increasing strength recently: How do we find community even as we find our individuality? How can I come to a truth that doesn't simply negate yours? How can we generate unity with our fellow humans - including our many conflicting perspectives - without negating the other's freedom? How can the 'sword of truth' become something that unites, not divides us?
Episode 2: The Beggar and the King
This second episode in our series takes us further into the mystery of human selfhood and its longing to be in relationship to the living Truth. Using the pictures of the beggar and the crowned king, Patrick and Jonah explore ways to free the human ego from the traps of comfort and isolation, so that it can take its rightful place, gifted to humanity by Christ, in the throne of every human heart.
Episode 3: No Exit?
The third episode in our series delves further into the dual nature of the human self or ego. Jonah and Patrick consider the dynamics between oneself and an Other; the landscape of human desire. the tendency to dominate, and the selfhood and inner freedom that is so precious to the modern human being. How do we reconcile these different parts of ourselves? Do the mysteries of Christianity offer us a way forward - a way in which we can overcome the forces of division and cultivate true community, without losing the sovereignty of the self?
Episode 4: The Seed-Medicine
The fourth episode in our series leads further into a description of the medicine being offered us - medicine uniquely designed to overcome deep divisions, both within the human constitution and across every human relationship. Our illnesses as individuals and communities are calls to what we are meant to become. What is the seed-medicine we are meant take in and nourish as it unfolds?
Episode 5: For Love's Sake, Division Comes
In this final episode of our first series of the new podcast season, Patrick and Jonah take up a confronting quote from the gospel that states that Christ himself has come to bring division and separation to humanity; that he brings a sword and sets one against the other, even within our own households (Matthew 10: 34-36) If Christ is bringing this division among human beings, how can we understand the Good in it? How does the sword serve the Story of Love unfolding in humanity?
In this episode, Jonah and Patrick refer to their own spiritual "conflict" that began back in 2009. To learn more about the content of that conversation, please see the very first episode of the podcast.
