L'Abri Fellowship - Southborough

What Does It Mean to be a Man?

A lecture given for L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Phillip Johnston

Since the rise of the MeToo movement in the mid-2010s, masculinity has reentered the cultural conversation with force. On the left, masculinity is often seen as a problem and rarely referenced without "toxic" as a descriptor. Men simply need to shape up and stand down. On the right, a pro-male movement has bubbled up in response. Men simply need to own their dominance and take charge. Does Christianity have anything different--or better--to say?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

Ambiguity as Hospitality in Art

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Ben Keyes

The most moving and powerful art usually does not tell us exactly what to think. Many of the best paintings, songs, poems and short stories leave us with questions that linger in our minds. This does not necessarily indicate that these works have no intended meaning. Rather, the artist, by leaving our questions unanswered and requiring our engagement, has left us room to enter into their creative space. Because it "leaves room," ambiguity in art can function as a kind of hospitality to the audience. How can we make art that leaves more room for our viewers and listeners? What are some of our misgivings about allowing a piece to remain ambiguous?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

Tasting Goodness: The Integration between Subjectivity and Objectivity

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Josue Reichow

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

The Baptized Imagination 5: Prophet, Poet, Seer, Sage

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Esther Dalton

This final part of the baptized imagination series attempts to bring together some of the threads developed in earlier parts, including baptism, the image of God, story and seeing, with a deeper look at idolatry, prophecy, and the Holy Spirit, to address what some have called a crisis of imagination in the evangelical church today.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

Birds of the Kingdom Part 1: Life on the Wing

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Ben Keyes

The first of a series, this lecture will kick off an extended exploration of the life of birds. We will reflect on the importance of going deeper in our investigation of God's created world, both for our own delight and for the purpose of knowing Him better. We will investigate what it is about a bird's anatomy that makes flight possible, and we will explore the diversity of bird behaviors that flight enables, including migration. Lastly, we will reflect on the connection between our wonder at creation and our motivation to care for it.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

Burned But Not Consumed: Thinking through Divine Action and Human Action

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Joshua Chestnut

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

Understanding C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters, Part 1: A Bureaucracy of Hunger and Fear

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Ben Keyes

The Screwtape Letters, a series of fictional letters from one demon to another, is one of C.S. Lewis's most widely read books. While the diabolical correspondence was a figment of Lewis's imagination, we can still learn many true things about the nature of evil, of human self-deception, and, I will argue, of God himself. This lecture begins a three-part series that will cover different aspects of the book.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

To Need is Human: Receiving, Yielding, Depending and Other Uncomfortable Postures

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Esther Dalton

If it is true that to need is human and that dependence is not a flaw of human existence but a God-designed feature, then why is it so often difficult for us to admit our neediness? This lecture will examine some of the reasons dependence on God and others frequently feels uncomfortable or even shameful and look for a resolution by examining the postures of need we find in the Gospels.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

To Respect Oneself as a Creature: Finitude, Dependence, and Letting God Love Us

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Joshua Chestnut

Learning to live within our creaturely limitations is neither easy nor intuitive but can be a path to our flourishing. This lecture is the first in a series of reflections on our creatureliness and will look at the beauty of human dependence as well as the delight that we as humans, in all our particularity, can bring to God.

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023

An Imagination for the Good: Can Art make Righteousness Plausible?

A lecture given at L’Abri Fellowship in Southborough, Massachusetts. For more information, visit https://southboroughlabri.org/

by Ben Keyes

The desire to make art is, in part, a desire to connect meaningfully with others, to communicate some aspect of reality with which other people can identify. There are many reasons why our art can either succeed or fail in making this kind of meaningful contact. One particular challenge for Christians is that our attempts to portray beauty and goodness are often dismissed as saccharine and sentimental. Sometimes this is a fair criticism! How can we "bear witness to the light" while still being honest about the brokenness of the world? What are some examples of art in which goodness is portrayed as both attractive and plausible?

The Copyright for all material on the podcast is held by L'Abri Fellowship. We ask that you respect this by not publishing the material in full or in part in any format or post it on a website without seeking prior permission from L'Abri Fellowship. ©Southborough L'Abri 2023