Diana Butler Bass: American Saints in a Cynical Age

This is the first session with me and Diana’s Lenten class Empty Altars: American Saints in a Cynical Age. We hope you enjoy it and consider joining the group.

If you enjoy this, check out the upcoming lent group with Diana and me – Empty Altars:American Saints in a Cynical Age.

We live in iconoclastic times. All around us, saints and heroes are being knocked off or taken down from public altars. It seems that nearly everyone we once admired or held in esteem has failed us. We’ve stripped the altars of both state and church. America’s spiritual landscape is now marked by empty altars everywhere.

Taking down statues is nothing new, especially in Christian history. Cynicism and anger at failed institutions and flawed heroes is nothing new. But human beings rarely leave altars empty very long — there’s almost a pressing need to re-sanctify the geographies we inhabit. People always put statues back up.

But of who? And to commemorate what? How do we move ahead with new saints and a less troublesome iconography? What “saints” can inspire us to address the hurts of our hearts, the brokenness of our communities, and the pressing issues of our times?

Shouldn’t we just give up on the whole idea of saints anyway? Why bother?

Join Diana and Tripp this Lent as they explore “sainthood” for an American — and global — future. We’ll share stories that need to be told of “saints” you know and those you need to know in a quirky learning journey through American religious history.

Previous Episodes with Diana & Tripp

• Ruining Dinner… and Date Nights
• Welcome to the Post-Christian Century
• Ruining Christmas Dinner
• Ruining Election Night Dinner
• The Over-Rated Genie God
• Bad Blood, Civil War, and other Soothing Topics
• Shall the Fundies (Keep) Winning?, Abortion, and Black Holes
• Theology and Spirituality in a Time of Rupture
• White Evangelical Theopolitics, John Shelby Spong, & Jesus
• 20 Years of Religious Decline
• Jesus After Religion and Beyond Fear
• Ruining Dinner with Diana Butler Bass and Robyn Henderson-Espinoza
• Evangelical Decline, the Supreme Court, and the Horizon of Possibility
• Debating, Praying, and Living with Tyrants
• Religion, Politics, & the Elephant in the Room

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