Hunger for Wholeness

12/26/2024

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Center for Christogenesis!

11/11/2024

In our final interview of the season, Ilia sits down with philosopher-theologian and friend of the Center, John D. Caputo (Jack). Ilia asks Jack about how he got from Continental Philosophy to what he calls weak theology, and theo-poetics. Then they tackle the big, enduring question Jack and Ilia like to often ask—what is going on “in the name of God?” and why it might benefit us to stop talking about “God.”

“The name of God is the name of the impossible, and the love of God transports us beyond ourselves and the constraints imposed upon the world.”

–John D. Caputo

Listen online at www.christogenesis.org/podcast

11/04/2024

Ilia and Bayo continue their conversation about the legacy of modernity and our journey into the future as a species. Bayo shares his perspective on the legacies of ingenious thought—particularly how it’s seen from the West. They ask, whether we ever arrive at wholeness? And what, if anything, does politics have to do with it?

“Politics is like the soul. For me, the soul is not a thing we have. The soul is the erotic, desiring, always fluid processuality of a world in its becoming. It interrupts, it gets in the way of a paradigm of selfing and becoming. It seems that we've become so viscous as to be impervious to what the world is doing. Our politics is no longer responsive to desires, to needs. It has excavated the self from the soul. It has torn apart knowers and the condition of their knowing.”

–Bayo Akomolafe (From Hunger for Wholeness, part 2)

10/28/2024

Prolific writer and activist Bayo Akomolafe joins Ilia on Hunger for Wholeness. Bayo shares with us about his Christian background, growing up as the son of a diplomat in Nigeria. In this episode, Ilia asks Bayo about how he has uniquely wrestled with the legacy of modernity and Western thought and his own unique approach to process and post-humanist thought.

“The idea of slowing down is not about getting answers, it is about questioning our questions. It is about staying in the places that are haunted.” –Bayo Akomolafe



Bayo Akomolafe

Listen online at: https://christogenesis.org/podcast/how-post-humans-evolve-with-bayo-akomolafe-part-1/

10/21/2024

In the final part of our four-part series, Kevin asks Ilia to propose a catechism for AIs. Likewise, they discuss what our relationships with the AIs of the future might look like—love? Friendship? Companionship? Ilia asks what these new relationships teach us about ourselves, the cosmos, or even, God. Plus, Kevin imagines what would happen if AIs contact other than human beings.

“Intelligence is not a single dimension, consciousness is not a single dimension, life is not a single dimension. These are high, dimensional continuums. They’re large spaces, so you can have something that’s a little bit alive and something that’s more alive in different ways. You have something that’s a little bit conscious or more conscious in many different ways.”

–Kevin Kelly (From Hunger for Wholeness, Part 4)

10/14/2024

Finally, in part three with Kevin Kelly, Ilia brings religion into focus. Ilia outlines her own, cutting-edge Teilhardian perspective to get Kevin’s views on Teilhard, diversity, and the possibility of global convergence or even new religions. They discuss whether we need a new, global myth, and Kevin imagines how he thinks AIs and religion might help make us better humans.

“We're trying to imagine the space of the possible but I could imagine a future with AIs that promises better humans.”

–Kevin Kelly (From Hunger for Wholeness, Part 3)



Listen online at:
https://christogenesis.org/.../can-ais-and-global-myths.../

Hunger for Wholeness (October, 2024): Ilia Delio brings religion into focus in the third of her four-part series with futurist Kevin Kelly. Ilia outlines her own, cutting-edge perspective to get Kevin’s views on Teilhard, diversity, and the possibility of global convergence or even new religions. ...

10/11/2024

Could there be a way to look at both cosmos and psyche that promotes wholeness rather than separation?

Register today for our November Workshop Series with Dr. Sheri Kling at https://christogenesis.org/event/healing-our-collective-pain-with-sheri-kling/

10/07/2024

In part two of four, Ilia and Kevin discuss the potential social and economic impacts of AIs–whether these fears are founded, and where there is hope it will enhance our global unity. Plus, Kevin answers why he helped found Wired magazine, and how he’s learned to face the future.

“In the past three, 400 years, technology has expanded our ability to solve problems faster than it has expanded the problems. I'm optimistic, but not because I think our problems are smaller than we thought, but because our abilities to solve them are larger than we thought.”
–Kevin Kelly (On Hunger for Wholeness)



https://christogenesis.org/podcast/how-to-face-the-future-with-kevin-kelly-part-2/

09/30/2024

We’re thrilled to kick off this special four part series with Kevin Kelly. Ilia learns more about Kevin’s story with technology—it begins with his world travel in the 70s seeing impacts and possibilities of computer technology on human life. Plus, Kevin shares with us his theory of technology—what is technology and can we survive without it?

“Humans are the reproductive organs of technology.”

–Kevin Kelly

09/23/2024

Don’t miss our October Webinar with Swami Padmanabha on October 1, 2024.

Register here: https://christogenesis.org/event/evolution-in-divine-love-with-swami-padmanabha/

In advance of our October webinar, consider listening to Swami’s podcast conversation with Ilia Delio (Sept. 11th & 18th, 2023). Many of their talking points share themes with this event, such as the relationship between evolution, divine love, and wholemaking, the consonance between Franciscan spirituality and Vaishnavism, and more.

Listen online at https://open.spotify.com/episode/2UQlXwriz3AiLQJKiDc7yX?si=528VXF5nR_qbqojBvZrk4w&t=7

09/23/2024

In part two, Ilia goes deeper with Dr. Reggie Williams into black theology. From her Teilhardian perspective, Ilia asks Reggie about the interaction between faith and science, and in particular, how evolution, diversity and technology work together in his theology—and what role, if any, AI plays in social change.

“...even the very notion of racialization, different races, is related to a particular way of understanding human and human difference.”

–Dr. Reggie Williams in Hunger for Wholeness

09/18/2024

Don’t miss our October Webinar with Swami Padmanabha on October 1, 2024.

Register here: https://christogenesis.org/event/evolution-in-divine-love-with-swami-padmanabha/

In advance of our October webinar, consider listening to Swami’s podcast conversation with Ilia Delio (Sept. 11th & 18th, 2023). Many of their talking points share themes with this event, such as the relationship between evolution, divine love, and wholemaking, the consonance between Franciscan spirituality and Vaishnavism, and more.

Listen online at https://open.spotify.com/episode/2UQlXwriz3AiLQJKiDc7yX?si=528VXF5nR_qbqojBvZrk4w&t=7

09/16/2024

Ilia welcomes Dr. Reggie Williams, the newly appointed Associate Professor of Black Theology at St Louis University. Together, they unpack the life, work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bonhoeffer’s legacy continues to touch today’s major issues—racism, religious nationalism, political action, and human suffering. Ilia and Reggie discuss these topics, “religionless christianity,” suffering and more.

“Bonhoeffer’s experience in Harlem demonstrates that a Christian interpretation of the way of Jesus must be connected to justice for a Christian to see beyond primary loyalties to self and kind, to recognize the needs for justice in another’s context, and to ‘love neighbor as self.”

–Dr. Reggie Williams



Listen online at https://christogenesis.org/podcast/

09/10/2024

In the second part of their very special conversation, Ilia and Rabbi Bradley S. Artson tackle everything from life after death, to concerns about technology and AI. Rabbi Artson shares with us how everyone could benefit from a Sabbath practice, and how Judaism offers ancient insights uncoupled from Western assumptions.

“...The loneliness that's so pervasive in contemporary culture is in part because people don't know what community feels like anymore, and so they're all trying to make it up on their own. And it's not the same thing as friends. It's not the same thing as family, both of which are beautiful. But there is something about community that also fills a vital need.”

–Rabbi Bradley S. Artson

09/02/2024

In our next conversation of the season, Ilia Delio speaks with Rabbi Bradley S. Artson, writer and Jewish process thinker. Rabbi Artson tells us about his journey from atheism to a love for God and describes how process theology helped to reawaken his appreciation for science, shedding light on religious experience. Plus, Ilia and Rabbi Bradley discuss his prayer practice, “God” and consider a more positive spin on tribalism.

“The world and God are expressions of continuous, dynamic relational change. We label that process as creativity. The mutual commitment to that process is faithfulness, which rises above any faith.”

–Rabbi Bradley S. Artson

Listen online at https://christogenesis.org/podcast/what-we-mean-when-we-talk-about-god-with-rabbi-bradley-s-artson-part-1/

08/26/2024

In the second part of their conversation, Ilia asks Francis “what values we need to guide this global transformation?” Then, Professor Heylighen tells us why he’s optimistic about AI, and “why” synergy exists in our universe at all.

“Synergy means that you have two agents doing things on their own, not achieving that much. Doing it together, they achieve more. So what drives different elements to come together is precisely the fact that at some moment they achieve more together than alone.”

–Francis Heylighen

08/26/2024

In the second part of their conversation, Ilia asks Francis “what values we need to guide this global transformation?” Then, Professor Heylighen tells us why he’s optimistic about AI, and “why” synergy exists in our universe at all.

“Synergy means that you have two agents doing things on their own, not achieving that much. Doing it together, they achieve more. So what drives different elements to come together is precisely the fact that at some moment they achieve more together than alone.”
–Francis Heylighen