Beyond Consolation: The Significance of Failure for Faith

Christopher Morse, the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor Emeritus of Theology and Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, teaches how to “test the spirits,” not only of the tradition, but also of we ourselves, as theology witnesses our transformation into who God made us to be.1 The following presentation, which I gave on April 25, 2013 at Columbia University’s Teacher’s College for non-theologians engaged in an interdisciplinary seminar series, shows how Morse’s work influences theology and theology’s engagement with other disciplines, so we can best find what it means to be human, or, as Bonhoeffer emphasized, following the apostle Paul, that “God is for us.”2 In gratitude for all Morse has taught me about doing dogmatics as a “theology of freedom”—each one of us invited to test the evidence presented because God, as “the One who loves in freedom,” can be trusted to confirm or convict what we conclude—I write as a witness to what God is doing and the difference it makes in our lives and communities as my mentor has so faithfully done for decades.3