At our June 13, 2026 Second Saturday Conversation we had guests Brandon Scott and Jack Caputo. They talked about Resurrection.
Brandon contrasted two ways the ancient world addressed the dilemma of the martyrs, Where was God when needed most? Where was God in the midst of injustice? What emerged was two ways to story this angst. Apotheosis and resurrection. In brief, Apotheosis raises up the righteous individual in mystification. Resurrection is rather a collective response to injustice. The distinction between the two is important. Most of us mix them together. And in so doing take the edge, the call, out of resurrection. I will let Brandon explain this to you! It is important. Jack puts this discussion in a framework of how we story situations that do not play out the way we would like. Injustice a case in point. We are confronted with the limits of our efforts and intentions. With the limits of the name of God, if you will. And yet “something is going on.” Amidst our limit experiences we continue to imagine what might be possible. (Or seemingly impossible. Whatever it is has not yet arrived.) I think the emphasis here is don’t give up on the unexpected. Hope is constitutive of the possible. (Or impossible.) Apotheosis and resurrection are two examples of how we story our limit experience, how we respond to injustice. But let Jack explain this to you! (I may not have it quite right yet.)
Brandon locates the idea of resurrection as an historical development. Jack sets the idea of resurrection in a framework of human limit in a realm of imaginative possibility. Why does this matter? We are responsible for how we respond to injustices. What we imagine and then how we act has great import. We can kick the can down the road. Or off to the next life. Or we can risk life for life’s sake. Risk love for love’s sake. But don’t take my word for it. Listen to Brandon and Jack. And ponder why this conversation matters. And matters in our time.
This session was our last Second Saturday Conversation for this program year. We begin again September 12, 2026. I will draw some threads from this session with Brandon and Jack as we move into another year where so much is at stake.
Have a good summer. And don’t forget what our closing music for this session calls to us: feed the birds.
See you in September.