Liam James Doyle/University of St. Thomas

Research and Opinion: Imitating Divine Interruption

Jen Sanders of the Theology Department in the College of Arts and Sciences published "Imitating the Divine Interruption of Deteriorating Human Conversations: Speaking the Gospel in a New Language" in Volume 81, Issue 4 of Theological Studies. 

From the article: Recent scholarship uses the metaphor of language to articulate why, even with good intentions, we Christians can hand on meanings and values at odds with the Christian message. Our “native” languages foreground our worlds, readily conforming our minds to the very realm we are called to transform (Rom 12:2). Related to the problem of “languages” is the brokenness of our conversations, themselves. Conversation can become a tool of destruction rather than a means of transformation. We Christians need a “new foundational language” in which to communicate the kerygma. This language is capable not only of communicating meanings and values that are faithful to the Christian message, but it is also capable of healing the very conversations we have by healing “the conversation that we are.” This article suggests how we Christians can learn a new foundational language by unfolding the radical consequences of our Trinitarian belief.