Jean Vanier’s Faith Convicts All of Us

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Christianity Today

Religion, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality

4.3 • 622 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2019

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Last week, the Canadian Catholic leader Jean Vanier died at the age of 90. Born into a privileged family, Vanier’s life took an unexpected turn when he founded L’Arche, an international network of communities for people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. As Bethany McKinney Fox, the founding pastor of a church inspired by L’Arche wrote for CT: “While many ministries involving people with intellectual disabilities began with a clear separation between those being helped and those doing the helping, slowly the paradigm has shifted toward Vanier’s approach at L’Arche, where all are called to share their gifts as members of one body of Christ, doing the work of the gospel together.” In addition to his legacy of work with intentional communities, Vanier was also a prolific author. “The themes that constitute those books—peace, peacemaking, community, community building, communion—are pretty consistent,” said Michael Higgins, the author of Jean Vanier: Logician of the Heart. “They undergo various kind of elaborations if you like, various more sophisticated iterations, but they are fundamentally the same themes built on the radical simplicity of the gospel that calls for us to live lives for others.” Higgins joined digital media producer Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss the counterculturally private personal life of Jean Vanier, his relationship with Henri Nouwen, and what evangelicals should learn from this deeply Catholic intellectual and practioner. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode is brought to you in part by The Apologetics Guy Show, the podcast that helps you find clear answers to tough questions about Christianity.
0:11.1	Learn to explain your faith with courage and compassion. Join Moody Bible Institute professor Dr. Mikhail del Rosario at apologeticsky.com.
0:22.1	This episode of Quick to Listen is brought to you in part by the Truce Podcast.
0:27.3	Truce dives deep inside church history and culture to explore how we got here and how we can do better.
0:33.5	Download Truce anywhere you get podcasts or at trucepodcast.com.
0:38.1	That's t-r-u-c-e-podcast.com.
0:42.6	Today is May 15th, and you're listening to Quick to Listen, where each week we go beyond hashtags and hot takes discuss the major cultural events.
0:51.3	This week on the show, we will be talking about the life and work of Jean Vanier.
0:56.8	And if you don't know who he is, you're in for a treat.
1:07.5	My name is Morgan Lee. I'm an associate digital media producer here at Christianity.
1:12.7	Today, I'm joined by my co-host, Mark Alley.
1:16.0	Hey, Mark.
1:16.6	Hey, how are you?
1:18.3	Mark, I think you rode your bike into work today.
1:20.3	Yep, spring has finally begun.
1:22.1	May 15th, and we finally had a decent day.
1:25.1	It's a little exaggerating.
1:26.2	So I got all my bike commuting gear in working order, so I'll probably
1:31.3	be commuting by bike most days until the late fall. Yeah, and it's great, right? It is great.
1:38.0	Well, who is joining us today? Joining us today is Michael Higgins. Michael Higgins is
1:43.0	Distinguished Professor of Catholic Thought at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, Connecticut,
1:47.5	and also more to the point, author of Jean Vanier, Logician of the Heart, a biography of the
	...

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