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Aziz and Maoz were born and raised in Israel/Palestine. They have both suffered incredible loss of family members because of the conflict. Yet they both strive to create businesses that help people reach across the divide to understand the "other". We also discuss their amazing TED talk that is challenging, compelling, and hopeful. This is a conversation about what it means to truly listen to one another, the courage it takes to choose peace when grief gives you every reason not to, and how two men from opposite sides of one of the world's most entrenched conflicts became chosen brothers. Find out more about Aziz and Maoz and read about the impact of their book The Future is Peace HERE Watch the TED talk HERE Travel through Israel and Palestine with Aziz and Maoz! Find out more HERE Explore the vast resources available through their organization InterAct HERE View their speaking schedules HERE Read about the good work of The Parent Circle HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

Todd Deatherage who is the Co-Founder of Telos, a Washington D.C. based nonprofit dedicated to the formation of communities of American peacemakers across lines of difference to bring healing to conflict at home and abroad. Telos’ primary area of focus has been on America’s relationship to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, so he has had to explain the history of this conflict many times. It is complex, with each step from European nationalism to secular Zionism and then to religious Zionism adding more layers of hardship and disagreement. That is not the final conclusion, however. This conversation closes with a look at peacemakers on the ground – from the Parents Circle bereaved families to Palestinian Christian theologians — who, despite immense suffering, offer a hopeful path forward through solidarity, reconciliation, and deeper faith. Find out more about Telos and explore their rich resources HERE Explore Peacemaking Immersive Experiences to Ireland/Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, the American South, and South Africa HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

Todd Deatherage is the Co-Founder of Telos, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit dedicated to the formation of communities of American peacemakers across lines of difference to bring healing to conflict at home and abroad. Today, Todd helps us see the value of curiosity to move beyond religious and political divides toward a shared pursuit of human dignity and common good. After all, that curiosity led him to travel to the Middle East, listen to a multiplicity of voices, and sit with the discomfort of stories that don't converge. He discovered that simplicity comes only after doing the hard work of understanding, and that curiosity, not certainty, is what opens the door to real peacemaking. Find out more about Telos and explore their rich resources HERE Explore Peacemaking Immersive Experiences to Ireland/Northern Ireland, Israel/Palestine, the American South, and South Africa HERE Listen to previous conversations with Father David Neuhaus  Part 1 and Part 2 Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

In today's conversation, Dr. Felicia helps us understand how technology shapes not just what we do, but what we long for. In reality are our devices creating "burdens of choice" and are they training us to crave all that is possible instead of being present with other humans? What questions do we need to be mindful of when we determine how to use technology: What are we really living for? Where does our worth come from? What if freedom isn't about unlimited access to everything, but the freedom to be fully, messily ourselves and still be loved?And what does a Christian worldview have to contribute to the way we train our imaginations for what is good? Find out more about Dr. Felicia Wu Song HERE Find her book Restless Devices HERE and her previous book Virtual Communities HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

Dr. Felicia Wu Song is a writer and speaker and cultural sociologist who studies the place of digital technologies in contemporary life. In this episode we trace American technological utopianism that optimistically believes every new invention will finally set us free. In reality, technology can lead to a psychological cocktail of pleasures, anxieties, and felt expectations that leave us feeling exhausted. What if we can learn to see the human finiteness as a gift, not a flaw? What if our need for rest, our limits, our embeddedness in time and place, aren't problems to be solved by the next app, but part of what makes us whole? What if the friction we're tempted to automate away is exactly where growth and creativity live? Find out more about Dr. Felicia Wu Song HERE Find her book Restless Devices HERE and her previous book Virtual Communities HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

In Part 2 of the conversation Dr. Warren Kinghorn continues his conversation with Cyndi, unpacking the ideas behind his book on mental health in dialogue with Thomas Aquinas. He challenges modern medicine's tendency to treat people as broken machines to be fixed or bundles of symptoms to be reduced and instead, offers Aquinas's image of the human as a wayfarer on a journey from God to God. This reframes care as accompaniment rather than repair, a shift Warren argues matters for clinicians, pastors, and everyday companions alike. Read more about Dr. Kinghorn HERE Read more about what is available through Duke's  Theology, Medicine, and Culture HERE Explore Dr. Kinghorn's book Wayfairing published with @eerdmans  Explore The Sanctuary Course - a free resource designed for small groups to explore mental health Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

What does Peacemaking have to do with mental health? Dr. Warren Kinghorn is an excellent guide through the journey of discovery. Dr. Kinghorn challenges modern medicine's tendency to reduce people to "buckets of symptoms" or broken machines to be optimized. Instead he calls for a Christian vision of mental healthcare rooted in the belief that every person matters simply because they are made in the image of God -- not for their productivity and consumption which leads to increased levels of anxiety.  Read more about Dr. Kinghorn HERE Read more about what is available through Duke's  Theology, Medicine, and Culture HERE Explore Dr. Kinghorn's book Wayfairing published with @eerdmans  Explore The Sanctuary Course - a free resource designed for small groups to explore mental health Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

In Part 2 of the conversation ]about her book Hesed, the Seed of the Biblical Story, Dr. Matheny walks through her own working definition of hesed, describing it as both something God does and a way of being that God's people are invited to embody. She and Cyndi unpack how two-thirds of the word's biblical uses point back to God's character, and how that opens up space for humanity, as image-bearers, to reflect that same quality back into the world. Explore the book Hesed the Seed of the Biblical Story from @bakerpublishinggroup Here Read more about Dr. Jennifer M. Matheny HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

Ever tried explaining a word that shows up 250+ times in the Bible... and still can't quite pin it down? That's exactly the puzzle Old Testament scholar Jenny Matheny sits down to unpack with Cyndi this episode. Using her own growing up context in Napa Valley and the French wine concept of terroir to help people explore the concept of the Hebrew term hesed. This word defies easy translations because it is so thick with meaning.  Explore the book Hesed the Seed of the Biblical Story from @bakerpublishinggroup Here Read more about Dr. Jennifer M. Matheny HERE Listen to Dr. Megan Roberts talk about a trauma informed reading of Isaiah: Part 1 and Part 2 Listen to Dr. Ericka Dunbar talk about reading Ruth as Horror: Part 1 and Part 2 Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

How does prayer fit into the formation and healing of our imagination? As we continue our conversation with Dr. Justin Bailey, he addresses prayer as reorienting our attention, priorities, and requests within Jesus' story. We also contrast cheap, clichéd hope with costly hope shaped by confession, suffering, and the Spirit’s reminder of the larger biblical story. Find out more about Dr. Bailey and his book HERE See his chapel talks that started the whole book project HERE (scroll to the bottom of the page) Contact Dr. Bailey HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

In our recent conversations about spiritual formation, the use of the imagination has come up several times. Why is the imagination so significant in spiritual formation? Don't we simply need to learn more data about the Bible? Out of early misgivings about the models of discipleship we often use in the church, Rev. Dr. Justin Bailey decided to focus his work on discipleship and the imagination. Today Justin joins us to talk about his newest book titled Disciplining the Diseased Imagination: Spiritual Formation and the Healing of Our Hearts. Find out more about Dr. Bailey and his book HERE See his chapel talks that started the whole book project HERE (scroll to the bottom of the page) Contact Dr. Bailey HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

This is a re-edited broadcast of a conversation with Dr. Michael Rhodes from 2024. Is it possible that Western Christianity and modern American life is shaping us to become people who are NOT good at doing justice, and loving mercy, and showing kindness? We know of such concepts but do we embody such concepts in the world around us? This week kicks off a several week conversation with scholars about different aspects of discipleship. We start today with a fellow Old Testament scholar, Dr. Michael Rhodes. He is a professor in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College in Aukland, New Zealand. He is the author of Formative Feasting and Practicing the King's Economy.  We start with the impetus for his new book Just Discipleship, which you can find HERE.   What is biblical justice? Is it different from other forms of justice?  Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Learn more about me and sign up for upcoming tours of Israel/Palestine. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

This is a re-edit conversation from 2024 with Dr. Lanta Davis. Her book Becoming by Beholding is a wonderful conversation partner with some of the recent podcast episodes. Her book will prompt you to think about the connection between art, imagination, and theology. How did the historic church think about the imagination and spiritual formation, and can we do a better job of that in today's environment? Are we aware enough of what we "behold" and how that creates an impression on our lives? And how did the Protestant church lose its ability to gaze on images and allow them to stoke our imagination? You can find Lanta Davis' book HERE Read more about Dr. Davis HERE Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

Today we continue the conversation with Arrabon's founder, David Bailey. We talk about what the "Gospel of the Kingdom" means along with several of Arrabon's resources to equip all kinds of audiences for understanding Scripture and spiritual formation. There are so many tools  available to help a diverse group of Jesus followers, despite their differences, learn to grow and mature as God's people.  Find out more about Arrabon HERE Download Arrabon's free Lent resource The Winding Road Explore Arrabon's resources on Spiritual Formation Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!

David Bailey is the Founder and Chief Vision Officer of Arrabon. As a public theologian, David helps to bring wisdom, theological imagination, and moral imagination to the way that Christians show up in the world. He created Arrabon as a way to equip Christ's followers to actively, creatively pursue healing in their communities, to be a foretaste of the kingdom of God, an agent of healing, and an agent of reconciliation in their community.  Find out more about Arrabon HERE Download Arrabon's free Lent resource The Winding Road Explore Arrabon's resources on Spiritual Formation Contact Cyndi Parker through Narrative of Place. Join Cyndi Parker's  Patreon Team!