Remembering Desmond Tutu

On Being with Krista Tippett

On Being Studios

Society, Spirituality, Society & Culture, Sociology, Culture, Science, Religion & Spirituality, Krista Tippett, Social Sciences, On Being, Arts

4.7 • 10.2K Ratings

🗓️ 6 January 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The remarkable Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town and Nobel Laureate died in the closing days of 2021. He helped galvanize South Africa's improbably peaceful transition from apartheid to democracy. He was a leader in the religious drama that transfigured South African Christianity. And he continued to engage conflict well into his retirement, in his own country and in the global Anglican communion. Krista explored all of these things with him in this warm, soaring 2010 conversation — and how Desmond Tutu's understanding of God and humanity unfolded through the history he helped to shape.

Transcript

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0:00.0	On being is brought to you by the John Templeton Foundation,
0:03.6	harnessing the power of the sciences to explore the deepest and most
0:07.5	perplexing questions facing humankind.
0:10.5	Learn about the latest discoveries in the study of hope and optimism,
0:14.3	intellectual humility, and free will at Templeton.org.
0:19.7	Archbishop Desmond Tutu died on December 26, 2021 in Cape Town at 90 years old,
0:27.2	and we remember him this hour.
0:29.6	The warm and personal conversation I had with him in 2010 was one of the highlights of all my years in radio.
0:36.5	Tutu helped galvanize South Africa's improbably peaceful transition from a partay to democracy.
0:43.0	He was also a leader in the religious drama that transfigured South African Christianity.
0:48.5	Yet he continued to face challenges well into his retirement,
0:52.0	the ongoing inequity and violence in his country,
0:55.2	and his own Anglican Communion becoming part of a global conflict around sexual orientation and leadership.
1:02.2	We explored all these things in our conversation,
1:05.0	including how Desmond Tutu's understanding of God and humanity unfolded through the history he helped shape.
1:28.3	I'm Christa Tippett, and this is on being.
1:31.2	I interviewed Desmond Tutu in the woods of Southern Michigan, where he was on retreat just months before he announced his retirement from public life.
1:39.9	He disarmed me from the outset with his famously mischievous humor.
1:44.3	I'd brought along a bowl of dried mangoes,
1:46.8	having been told by his staff that he is, quote, mad about dried mango.
1:51.6	And he noticed them as we were finding our seats before I could say anything.
1:55.6	There we go. And I noticed, I mean, you've put a glass of water, I've put a glass of water.
	...

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