Season 5 | Episode 85: The Necessity of Liberation with Danté Stewart

Upside Down Podcast

What does a liberated faith look like? Writer and speaker Danté Stewart talks with co-hosts Patricia Taylor and Lindsy Wallace about the meaning of liberation and how it impacts how we view God, ourselves, and the world.

In this episode, we:

• Reflect on the complex, beautiful, and terrible journey of liberation, the changes we make along the way, and how we look at the world within ourselves and the world around us
• Discuss the influence of writer and activist James Baldwin and the invitation from Baldwin to wrestle deeply and truthfully
• Talk about the influence of Black womanist theologians and how they shape Danté’s understanding of liberation
• Go in depth about how liberation asks us to look at the story of Jesus and see the ways in which he invites us into a better story of God and ourselves than the stories many of us are offered
• Discuss the symbols, myths, and metaphors about God that we have inherited, and how those have oftentimes been incredibly limited

Join us for this deep conversation with Danté about the significance of the word liberation and how it gives us the ability to narrate our story and have eyes to see an enlarged view of the world.

News, Notes, and Links:

• Keep up with Danté’s work by checking out his website, following him on Instagram, and following him on Twitter. You can find the Instagram post we referenced here.
• The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin is essential reading.
• We can’t wait to read World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments by Aimee Nezhukumatathil.
• Add these books to the stack: Critical Terms for Religious Studies by Mark C. Taylor, In Search of Our Mothers’ Garden by Alice Walker, and Said I Wasn’t Gonna Tell Nobody: The Making of a Black Theologian by James Cone.
• Support more conversations like this on Upside Down Podcast! Please visit us, where you can pledge a few dollars of monthly support to help us pay our bills and keep the conversations going.
• Learn more at Upside Down Podcast.
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