It was an interesting day, because our times are, well, interesting.
Jerry taught on the Politics of Embrace. One guest reflected, “This was huge for me. I needed to get a handle on how to hold up over the holidays with my family who has very divergent political views.” Starting with the events of the day, which was the contentious Senate election in Alabama, Jerry helped us to see that the line between sides is a temporal, not an eternal one, and that as followers of Christ, it’s possible to hold a higher perspective while still contributing positively to the conversation.
He finished up with this:
"The arc of my thinking has taken me from common grace ['transformation'] to antithesis ['separation'] and back to an emphasis on our common life ['restoration'], but with what Paul Ricoeur would call a 'second naïveté': attentive to the deformative power of our political participation ['accommodation'] but not willing to give up on the call to love our neighbor by building healthy, just, shared institutions conducive to flourishing." James K. A. Smith (2017), Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology (Cultural Liturgies, Vol. 3), Baker Publishing Group, p. xii.
(Jerry inserted the bracketed words, terms Ricoeur uses to describe and critique the different ways Christians have engaged in public life.)
