N.T. Wright on Weeping, Waiting, and Working with God in the Pandemic / Miroslav Volf and N.T. Wright

Miroslav Volf interviews N.T. Wright about his latest book, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath. They discuss: Jesus, the God who weeps; the problem with focusing on rational responses to the problem of evil rather than empathic presence and action; the proper translation of Romans 8:28 (hint, it’s not “All things work together for good to those who love God"); waiting for God through the crises of human life; the patience of unknowing; lament as a way of hoping in the dark; Friedrich Nietzsche on our tendency to misinterpret the pain and secret sorrows of others; and finally, the resurrection of Jesus as the center for conquering suffering even in the midst of suffering. This episode also includes a brief remembrance of Congressman John Lewis (1940-2020). N.T. Wright, God and the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and Its Aftermath John Lewis speaking at the March on Washington, D.C. (1965): Video Yale Center for Faith & Culture: faith.yale.edu Miroslav Volf Twitter Show Notes How do we flourish when we are in the dark wood, no clearing in sight? John Lewis’s legacy N.T. Wright, Research Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews and Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, God in the Pandemic: A Christian Reflection on the Coronavirus and its Aftermath Is God also in a lockdown? Elie Wiesel’s Night John 11, Jesus weeps at Lazarus’s tomb. Jesus’s weeping is a sign that he is indeed God with us, Emmanuel. A world with an explicable place for evil is a world with a dark corner, which is not what was created in Genesis 1. Theodicy The innocent sufferer synergei, God working with us. The church’s attempt to gain more power then needing to give it away. Facing the wait God’s patience is woven into the life and prayer and sacraments of the church. The sorrow of God in the Old Testament. Making room for the garden of Gethsemane The resurrection of Jesus is the launching of new creation. T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets