Spirited Renewal

Spirituality for the Contested Public Square 1 - Why This, Why Now?

Those of you who have seen my initial Spirited Sojourners post a few days ago will know some of the reasons for my launching the Spirited Transformation Substack this month. This Spirited Renewal thread, however, will run biweekly on Fridays instead of following the every-Monday Sojourners rhythm. This does not mean that these considerations devoted to a spirituality for our contested public square is less important. In many ways, they are much more urgent. So why proceed in this more measured pace and for what purposes?

Post 1 - Why This, Why Now?

Many of us cannot keep up with the news cycle, in many ways, designed to distract us from the many important political, economic, social, ethnic/racial, religious, legal, technological, and variously global issues of our times that need discernment, discussion, and adjudication. Full disclosure: I voted in 2016 and 2024 for the presidential candidate who came up short, and, readers who have followed my academic work will know about my dismay in the wake of the former election almost a decade ago (e.g., in an essay in this edited book), and also about my cautious, but by now proven to be misguided, optimism in the wake of the 2020 election (e.g., in another essay in this other edited book). Now, however, having just submitted to Bloomsbury Academic a manuscript co-authored with University of Georgia anthropologist J. Derrick Lemons, tentatively titled, Evangelical Christianity before and after January 6: The (New Apostolic) Reformation of the White House Faith Office during the First Trump Administration (the final title will probably be different, hopefully to be available before the 2026 midterm elections), I am more convinced than ever that the actions of the current administration are as much a symptom than the main driver of our social and cultural polarization. More to the point, given my own theological location and commitments, there are serious divides in our churches in North America and also across our multicultural and multireligious society.

In other words, while presidents and their administrations come and go, underlying cultural fissures have persisted and will continue to catalyze implosions at home and internationally. We have to figure out how to learn to listen to and talk with one another, in order to nurture the fragility of our public spaces, and this is a process that will churn along over a much longer haul, one that not only extends through my children’s millennial generation but may need to be resolved by my (six and counting) grandchildren’s alpha cohort. In short, into the second half of the 2020s, we all need resiliency and resources for the long run. Multiple news developments each day will draw forth reactions, many justified and even requiring more immediate prophetic responses. Spirited Renewal, however, will seek to carefully (not rush to) discern and slowly (rather than too quickly) cultivate the postures and practices that can fortify what is essential not only for surviving but for engaging with and flourishing amid the challenges of our times.

And whereas Spirited Sojourners will be more theologically focused, Spirited Renewal seeks to engage a broader audience. The former will appeal generally to my theological readers, while this one intends to integrate especially two sets of constituents I have addressed over time: those concerned with the political and public square matters of our current milieu and those for whom issues of religious multiplicity and plurality beg ongoing care and attention. I started my theological vocation three decades ago now in theology of religions and interfaith dialogue and relations, and then later, started working on a political theology. These are distinct domains, particularly as carved out in the theological academy, although in reality, they overlap. For various reasons over the last decade, I have been focused on other endeavors and themes. As I have not sought so far to bring my ideas more fully into the public realm; Spirited Renewal takes concrete steps in this direction. Doing so, however, means at least in part shedding some of the technical theological nomenclature and adopting a more accessible approach. In truth, the polarization of our public spheres are due not only to political differences but also to divergent religious (and post-secular) visions. That means that we have to learn to listen to and speak with each other across religious and ideological lines. Spirited Renewal hopes to engage with people of all and even no faith, and those located across the political spectrum.

And I believe it is possible and even timely for Spirited Renewal musings precisely because we will need to draw from and engage the multitude of spiritualities and spiritual traditions available and operative across the public squares of the global – and our nation’s – metropolises in order to undergird the kind of long-haul approach to the political needed for the foreseeable future. Yes there is religious diversity, but also, increasingly (as I urge in ch. 3 of one of my recent books), non-religious and also spiritual-but-not-religious groups of people. The public square belongs to all of us, not just those in one of these “camps.” Robust, and constructive approaches, rather than those that deepen polarities, will require being rerooted in our spiritual sensibilities and practices. As a Christian, I will continue to excavate what belongs to my tradition’s resources for our purposes; however, as one who believes every person is created in the divine image and that the great spirit has been given equally to those from every cultural-language group, I hope to do so in ways that not just recognize and acknowledge but also engage and dialogue with those who might draw from other nurturing wells.

2026 started off, among other anxiety-laden developments, with an American intervention on Venezuelan soil. The arguments for and against this have and will continue to run in multiple directions, including from and within Venezuela. This is neither the last dictatorial government leader that will need to be reckoned with (regardless of whether we are politically red or blue), nor, unfortunately given the fragility of the global geopolitical order, will it be the last such inter- or trans-national intervention, imperialistic or otherwise, perhaps even this month, much less calendar year.

Then, earlier this past week, mayhem has broken out an hour from us (visiting our son and his family in central Minnesota over the new year) with the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good at the hands of ICE agents deluging (unjustifiably IMHO) the Twin Cities, and then, thirty-plus hours later, two others were shot by federal agents in Portland, Oregon (where our three children were born and where I began graduate studies in the first half of the 1990s). Again, I wish we could find a way forward tomorrow so that no one else’s life will be cut short because of immigration enforcement activities across this nation. Yet it seems like the widely-agreed upon brokenness of our immigration system now manifests itself through our law enforcement activities, thus deepening further the pain from out of which the cry, “How long O Lord?” persists.

Closer to the heart of our daily lives, it is likely that each of us will each have to navigate their feelings about all of these international, domestic, and neighborhood matters alongside developing real life circumstances personally, communally, ecclesially, and otherwise, which will all feel agonizing in multiple directions. If January 1 was the World Day of Peace, each day for us will need the Prince of Peace to channel the spirit of peace to bring about shalom, not that of the surface that simply subjugates some of us under others, but that which will resound through the many tongues – even contestations – of those from every nation, tribe, and language. For these various skirmishes through these many criss-crossing domains, we will need the great spirit’s elevation of our better spirits. Spirited Renewal represents my own commitment to accompanying my readers during these tumultuous days.