Memoir, biography, and even confession: when we tell our stories, just who do we hope is listening?
“We feel this impulsion to tell our story, to share our story, to bear witness to the mystery that is us, and to give it away. And that itself is a deeply risky venture, because it makes us so vulnerable.”
What are we doing when we tell the stories of our lives?
In this Life & Faith, Simon Smart and Justine Toh explore memoir, biography, and the desire to explain ourselves to others.
Simon also talks to James K. A. Smith, Professor of Philosophy at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the author of On the road with St Augustine: A real world spirituality for restless hearts.
Yes, Augustine. According to Smith, regardless of what you think about God, you tread in the footsteps of the fourth-century bishop whenever you tell the story of your life. Augustine’s Confessions - part spiritual autobiography, part memoir, part prayer to God - looms over the genre of memoir today.
--
Read:
James K. A. Smith’s On the road with St Augustine: A real world spirituality for restless hearts
Anna McGahan’s Metanoia: A memoir of a body, born again
Lisa Taddeo’s Three women and Justine Toh’s article on ABC Religion & Ethics
C.S. Lewis’ Till we have faces
Brian Rosner’s Known by God: A biblical theology of personal identity, and revisit our Life & Faith interview about the book
Watch:The Good Place on Netflix, or sample the episode we discuss in this episode here
A full life found in the world’s trouble spots
The Vanishing
How CPX Writes About Easter
Being a chaplain in the ICU ... and prison
The Return of Religious Belief
Rebroadcast: To Change the World
Birth Days
Lent for Dummies
The Social Media Age
Christmas in a place of war
Brexit, Trump ... and the Voice? Australia’s political divides
Seen & Heard V: Getting disenchanted with disenchantment
Coming to Faith Through Dawkins
“Mere Christianity”: why does C.S. Lewis’s unlikely classic continue to hold such appeal?
Andrew Hastie: Lessons from the combat zone
The psychology of hope
Down the Rabbit Hole
REBROADCAST: The “Christian” Classroom
The wounds you can’t see
Gabriel Bani’s life in the Torres Strait
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
The Hello Heaven Podcast
Devoted To Prayer
Cast The Word
Let Me Be Frank | Bishop Frank Caggiano’s Podcast | Diocese of Bridgeport, CT
The Bible Recap
BardsFM