In this episode we’re joined by Franciscan sister and theologian Ilia Delio. Ilia guides us through the intersection of science, spirituality, and love. We explore the concept of God’s love as a fundamental force in the cosmos, existing at the heart of everything, connecting us to God, each other and the physical structures of the universe.

After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Anna Robinson ponder the place of love in their evolving faith.

Interview begins at 18m 25s

Image used with permission

BOOKS

My Theology: The Primacy of Love

Birth of a Dancing Star: My Journey from Cradle Catholic to Cyborg Christian

The Hours of the Universe: Reflections on God, Science, and the Human Journey

The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love

PODCAST

Hunger for Wholeness

WEBSITE

The Center for Christogenesis

QUOTES

“I do think that love is our core reality. Every single person seeks to love and to be loved, no matter their colour, race, language, gender – wherever they are in the universe – I think love is the core reality of our lives. And God is that love.”

“When the inner presence of love becomes stronger than the outer reality of the world’s forces, then we begin to live from that inner centre.”

“I try to make all of life a prayer,…to make prayer a way of life.”

“Stop controlling. Just live into the flow of life.”

Disclaimer

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  1. Peter Schrock Oct 28, 2023

    Brilliant episode. I’m very curious about “reclaiming love as the highest good” and as “unitive, creative, and transcendant” rather than our narrow and small modern understanding of the concept. In this context, to love one another means something much more robust and expansive. I’ll be pondering.

    Also, a thought on the post-conversation about the brutality of the evolutionary process. The common understanding of “survival of the fittest” imagines fitness as power, as the ability to survive by outcompeting others through violence, strength, intelligence, etc.

    But there is another way to understand “fit” which, as I understand, came to Darwin later in his career. This alternate understanding says that survival comes through adaptation, through the ability to find an organism’s fit within its greater community. Evolution, by this understanding, leads to balance, rather than violence, and happens when I find my right place in my environment. This is what leads to the stunning diversity of the world—every creature, every plant, every being, finding its place in the greater whole.

    The first understanding has brought much violence and destruction in the world. The second speaks of something better that we can become.

    Robin Wall Kimmerer writes about this in many of her essays. One beautiful expression of it is captured in her essay “Ancient Green”. You can find it online at https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/ancient-green/

    • Hi Peter,
      Thanks so much for sharing these thoughts. I love the idea of species finding their ‘fit’ in their environment. It’s a much more hopeful and inspiring view of things.
      Another listener got in touch to share the idea of ‘radical cooperation’ in nature which apparently some biologists now view as more significant than the traditional competition model.
      I don’t think either of these ideas solve the problem of the predator/prey dynamic that is so prevalent in nature, but they are two really interesting and inspiring ideas that I’ll certainly be pondering.
      Thanks for taking the time to get in touch.
      Tim

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