“I try to cultivate the holy ordinary … [by] nurturing a sense of wonder and awe, because I don’t think we renew the earth until we cherish it, I don’t think we save the earth until we savor it. And that sense of being in awe about the ordinary is the path.” —Larry Rasmussen
The guest of this podcast episode is Larry Rasmussen, a longtime Christian environmental ethics teacher, and the Reinhold Niebuhr Professor Emeritus of Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary. In 2022, he released the marvelous book “The Planet You Inherit,” which is a series of letters to his grandchildren about the planetary crises we all face. I’ve long been impacted by Rasmussen’s work, from his book “Bonhoeffer: Reality and Resistance,” to his hefty manifesto “Earth Honoring Faith.” He has mentored and taught a generation of theological and ecological ministers, thinkers, and activists. We cover many topics in this interview, from climate change to cultivating a practice of recognizing the holy in the ordinary. Larry indulges me by sharing a couple of stories of student activism in the 1960s, and we take a fairly deep dive into what we can learn today from the German theologian and Nazi resistor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Listen until the end, if you have the time, to hear Larry reflect upon how Bonhoeffer’s understanding of Christ became cosmic. As always, I welcome your thoughts!
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