Amos: Messenger to the Collective with Rabbi Or Rose

Everything Belongs: Living the Teachings of Richard Rohr Forward

Center for Action and Contemplation

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 723 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do we confront systemic injustice without falling into despair or self-righteousness? That's what we're exploring in this episode as we dive into Chapter 2 of Richard Rohr's new book, The Tears of Things, titled "Amos: Messenger to the Collective." Mike and Paul begin by talking with Richard about Amos's unique approach: critiquing the collective culture rather than scapegoating individuals, and turning anger over injustice into fuel for change. Following the conversation with Richard, co-hosts Mike and Carmen are joined by Rabbi Or Rose, founding director of the Miller Center of Hebrew College and author. Together in conversation, they explore Abraham Joshua Heschel's understanding of the prophet, the challenge of holding righteous indignation without self-righteousness, the power of teshuvah (return), and practical ways to remain spiritually grounded and committed to justice and peace work in overwhelming times. Rabbi Or Rose is the founding Director of The Miller Center of Hebrew College, and serves as a senior consultant to Interfaith America. Among his recent publications is the award-winning, co-edited volume With the Best of Intentions: Interreligious Missteps & Mistakes (Orbis Books). His forthcoming book, My Legs Were Praying: A Biography of Abraham Joshua Heschel for teen readers will be published in May 2025 (Monkfish Book Publishing). Resources: Grab a copy of The Tears of Things here, where you can get a free reader's guide, discover a new course, and other offerings related to the book. Read more from Rabbi Or Rose here The transcript for this episode can be found here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to a podcast by the Center for Action and Contemplation.
0:04.0	To learn more, visit cac.org.
0:07.6	Welcome back, friends, to the Everything Belongs podcast with Father Richard Rohrer.
0:12.6	Regardless of when you're listening to this, I'm recording this on the 20th of March,
0:16.8	and today is Richard's 83rd birthday.
0:20.8	So from all of us, happy birthday, Richard.
0:24.7	Friends, each season, we've explored one of Richard's books.
0:27.9	It's been so great to get together with you episode by episode and take you with us as we go to Richard's house to sit in his living room with Paul Swanson and Richard's faithful dog,
0:39.6	Opie, and unpack these amazing books one chapter at a time.
0:44.5	You know that after we get a chance to talk with Richard, each episode we then invite in a special guest
0:49.5	who helps us live the teachings forward, which means we're thinking about Richard's teaching in new ways.
0:55.0	We're asking new questions in this rapidly changing world that we're all living in together.
1:01.6	Now, you know, this season is extra special because we're exploring Richards next,
1:07.5	and he keeps telling us his last brand new book, The Tears of Things. As a reminder,
1:14.0	you don't have to read the tears of things to follow along with us, but it is that much more
1:18.2	fun if you're reading along to join the conversation. Today, we're going to head over to
1:23.1	Richard's house and jump into Chapter 2, Amos, the messenger to the collective. In this chapter,
1:30.3	Richard looks at his first prophet, the prophet Amos. And in the book, Richard uses Amos as an example
1:36.0	to show us two crucial things. First, the prophets, just like you and I, are angry when they look at
1:43.9	the cruelty and injustice of the world.
1:45.8	How could you not be? But the thing is, they don't stay there and just stew in their anger.
1:51.8	They turn it into generative and creative energy. So one of the things that we can think about
	...

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