Rev. Dr. Stephen G. Ray Jr. is the President of Chicago Theological Seminary. In addition, he is the President of the Society for the Study of Black Religion. Having written and lectured broadly in the areas of Systematic Theology, African American religion, human rights and the intersection of religion and politics, President Ray’s current work focuses on reinvigorating the public square as a place for all and reclaiming a vital expression of progressive religion in that project. Read his blog, View From The Corner, here. You should also follow his Facebook page.

* how Dr. Ray understands the constructive theological task

* how Paul Tillich’s theological method can function today

* big-time love for Howard Thurman’s Jesus and the Disinherited

* thinking through social and structural sin after Trump

* the challenge of making moral judgments about the people we love

* the most necessary act of systemic evil is making it quotidian and everyday

* when we become obsessed with our own guilt we begin to tend to our own actions and not the system we are embedded in

* if our eschatological identity before God is unrelated to our identity as oppressors and oppressed, then one’s location and participation in structural evils like white supremacy are ultimately inconsequential

* the need for historians to look at the evangelical debate over slavery and the legacy of an abolitionist evangelical identity

* what it is like to be a “dye in the wool Calvinist”

* why we can’t soft-pedal what Trump represents for the church and the country

* how the progressive protestant hesitation to embrace a tradition undercuts the power of an authoritative voice for justice

* what can we do with the privilege we have to help save the world?

Check out Dr. Ray’s previous visit to the podcast here.