speaking of faith

One of my favorite NPR/APM shows is “Speaking of Faith.” Krista Tippett hosts a lot of interesting guests and approaches the issue of “faith” from unusual and varied angles. As an interviewer, she rarely seems forced, dogmatic, or aggressive to guests with whom she might disagree. Even better, she also avoids the other extreme—common among politically-correct society—of benign approval.

“Speaking of Faith” has a done a couple different episodes/events on Reinhold Niebuhr recently. I’m behind the curve on him and his thought (despite the best intentions of a certain college professor) and I enjoyed this “Niebuhr Rediscovered” compilation episode.

Here’s a great excerpt from Jean Bethke Elshtain, speaking about Neibuhr on reality and the morality of war: “What comes to mind is a person of great seriousness of purpose who ongoingly engaged the struggles of his time, didn't retreat from them, immersed himself fully in them without becoming entirely reconciled to them. So I think that insistence that we confront the harsh realities of our time, that we think seriously about them as Christians, that insistence is really the heart of the matter. And I would add here also the recognition that human beings are finite, incomplete, frail creatures, and that the politics that we create is bound to be marked by our own finitude.”

Another episode, focusing on Niebuhr and Obama, stems from a live interview with E.J. Dionne and David Brooks … I need to listen again!