Jesus Within the Other - A Conversation with Carlos Thompson

Every conversation is an experience, but every conversation with Carlos L.S. Thompson is a REAL experience. Carlos is, quite simply, the kind of person who speaks from his heart to your heart. As you’ll hear in this episode, Carlos and I first met when we were doctoral students in Aberdeen, waiting for our coffee orders on campus. It was an instant friendship. Because of that, it makes total sense I’d have Carlos on Personalist Manifesto(s) to talk about his work at the Henri Nouwen Friendship House at Western Theological Seminary. As we talk about Carlos’ work and the Friendship house, we talk a lot about personhood and Jesus—what it means to be a person, and what Jesus has to do with that.While Jacques Ellul tended to avoid lengthy accounts of personhood in his writing—his history background caused him to be more of a nominalist than essentialist—when he did talk about what makes the human being human, relationship and adaptability come to the fore. As a part of this, Ellul’s theology of the image of God is a mysterious mixture of love, language, limits, and Christology. So, I think Ellul would appreciate what Carlos has to say on the topics. I know I did, and my guess is you will too.BioDr. L.S. Carlos Thompson is Assistant Professor of Christian Ministry and Disability Theology and Director of the Friendship House at Western Theological Seminary. His research centres on inviting the Church, and those who are called to shepherd her members, to be more faithful to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Within this general call, he draws attention to particular ways that the Church can practice more faithfully in the midst of hardships—suffering, the lived experience of chronic illness, and/or the reality of enduring bodily impairments (disability).LinksWestern Theological Seminary Faculty page: https://www.westernsem.edu/faculty/thompson/Disabling the Church (Podcast): https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disabling-the-church-from-the-center-for/id1800737392“The Beauty of Belonging” (Essay): https://comment.org/the-beauty-of-belongingAdditional ResourcesAdditional ResourcesKosuke Koyama, "Three Mile an Hour God": https://scmpress.hymnsam.co.uk/books/9780334061472/three-mile-an-hour-godPaul Virilio, "Administration of Fear": https://mitpress.mit.edu/9781584351054/the-administration-of-fear/