Richard Rohr: Post-doom with Michael Dowd

Richard Rohr interviewed by Michael Dowd in an episode of Dowd's "Post-Doom Conversations," filmed November 2019. Title: "Finding Meaning in the Dark." Time-coded table of topics:

00:17 - PREVIEWS

02:03 - MD (Michael Dowd): Introduces the idea of "post-doom" and these conversations

02:55 - RR (Richard Rohr): summarizes his life work (and founding Center for Action & Contemplation) and "The Living School."

05:03 - RR: his book, "The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective," which was "a doorway for many people to the inner world." (also, his books for men's spirituality)

06:11 - RR: as a Franciscan monk and priest, his Order has protected him from Vatican pushback.

07:31 - MD & RR: on language, "post-doom" is in accord with the radical language of the gospel (apocalyptic); Rohr is now using it in his teachings

09:15 - MD: tells the story of how the term "post-doom" was born

11:17 - RR: Shedding the myth of progress was "slow because I held onto my Franciscan optimism and romantic sentimentality about the beauty of the Earth." For Americans, to let go of the myth of progress is "a letting go of something that is probably held at the lizard-brain level; it's so basic, so fundamental."

12:36 - RR: His newest book is "Universal Christ," which celebrates panentheism.

13:38 - MD: Importance of language in structuring worldviews and actions. Promotes "ecotheism."

16:10 - RR: How the big picture, the full evolutionary story "worked for me, to give me hope" and it is the basis of his new book, "The Universal Christ." This big story "holds the other two stories (our story and my story) in context." "The 3 domes of meaning."

18:26 - MD: Tells story of coming out of his techno-optimism, which he now views as a human-centered form of "Big History." He no longer promotes his own book, "Thank God for Evolution." Human technology must align with Nature's technology, else it creates problems over the long-term.

21:31 - RR: agrees with MD; changing the frame and language is necessary — to be more honest. How clinging too strongly to tradtional Christian language can be a mistake for clergy.

22:10 - MD: tells story of speaking to clergy at "Wild Christ, Wild Earth, Wild Self"

23:12 - MD Q: How does the past look different now, and do you have any "if only's"?

24:09 - RR: Franciscan origin story is a kind of if-only: If only Francis had been listened to at the cusp of the trade-industrial revolution. "It's very hard to heal individuals in an unhealed culture."

26:00 - MD: His new dvd course: "Pro-Future Faith: The Prodigal Species Comes Home." Image of the 3 essays MD has published in Rohr's journal, "Oneing". Examples of reframing Christian terms and concepts: The "trinity" reframed as Creator=Past; Christ=Future; HolySpirit=Present. "Grace limits."

29:52 - MD Q: How has a sacred understanding of impermanence and death helped you with these chaotic times we are living into?

30:37 - RR: Having cancer: "Each time I felt I came out larger, freer, happier, more grateful." By limiting the Christian understanding of death and resurrection to the body of Jesus, "we lost the transformative message. He was the archetype of what is happening everywhere, all the time."

34:10 - MD: An ecocentric worldview.:"I see doom as the midpoint between denial and regeneration."

36:05 - RR: "... finding meaning in the dark,"

36:47 - MD: Climate change in the arctic. Importance of working through stages of grief, then going through the post-doom doorway, opening to "spheres of gratitude."

40:49 - RR: How facing cancer personally brings forth "predominant emotion of gratitude." Then one finds the same arising when contemplating the winding down of the human journey. The importance of being able to give this trajectory "meaning — and yet for much of secular America, there is no meaning to this."

44:21 - RR: "My hope is more people seeing the need for friendship and community." Advice to "serve the world" has changed to "find someone different from you and enter into honest solidarity with them."

48:32 - MD Q: "What is your heart wisdom for somebody in their senior years, and also what is your heart wisdom for someone in their early 20s?

49:04 - RR: For seniors, "We have a lot of elderly people, but not a lot of elders." For the young ... "there is an opening, unless they are already building their tower of success."

52:34 - RR: Post-doom should not be written off as doom... "Love must include death; the Christian method is death and resurrection."

Youtube playlist of all Post-Doom video conversations:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcAlqMeyeaW91q0fUuOWHKEaGTCL41ItE

Post-Doom Conversations website (videos, audios, and resources):
https://www.postdoom.com/

Richard Rohr's organization and website:
Center for Action and Contemplation - https://cac.org/

Видео Richard Rohr: Post-doom with Michael Dowd канала thegreatstory