John Behr: A Theology of Joy

Last updated on: July 3, 2019 at 1:38 pm by Eric Stein

John Behr: A Theology of Joy 2019-07-03T13:38:38-07:00 Eric Stein

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

In this interview at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, Father John Behr discusses the implications of a theology of joy for our living today. Indeed, joy, for Behr, is ultimately joy of life, the joy of being alive, a comprehensive intellectual, physical, psychical, and spiritual mode of being. As such, joy is much more than a matter of acquisition; it requires a work of cultivation, a work eminently figured in the life of Christ. God is the giver of life, and Jesus claims that he is life. Life is, therefore, not something we possess or try to grasp, but something to receive in joyous thankfulness, something in which we can dwell, the highest expression of which is to give life in return. We enjoy life by giving life, in living for others.

For Behr, this sacrificial way of living was instituted in Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection. The feast of Easter celebrates Jesus’s radical inversion of life, wherein true life, true human living, comes through death. All humans are thrown into life; all humans die. We have no choice. But in Christ, we are shown a different way of living in which we take up death and reclaim it, and in so doing become truly human. Only in voluntary and joyous self-sacrifice can Jesus finally respond to the Father’s creation project—“Let us make man”—and say, “It is finished.” By following Jesus in his work of sacrificial love we in turn take up our end and let it be so that God’s redemptive work might be fulfilled.

You can watch the entirety of this joyful conversation below.

Photo by Robert Collins on Unsplash

Uncategorized

frontpage

Previous Post

April 24, 2018

Celia Deane-Drummond: Life and Resurrection

Next Post

May 3, 2018 Robert Doede: The Neo-Gnostic Flight from What Matters

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 2018-conference 2019-conference lectures Uncategorized

Select a Month January 2021 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 December 2019 October 2019 August 2019 March 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 February 2018

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz