How You Respond To Jerks Makes A Difference: Conversation with Mark Heim, part one
Season 2, Episode 228, Mar 12, 2020, 09:00 AM
How you respond to jerks matters: theology and evolutionary biology shed light on forgiveness as a society-wide, rather than interpersonal, dynamic.
Our show pushes back against the unexamined, often unconscious ways that we frame public questions using political or economic modes of thinking. We aim to be part of a growing movement of people who are critical of the narrowness of political and economic categories, and who want to revive a vision of human flourishing that is grounded in the wisdoms of theological and moral philosophical tradition. We see these habits and ways of thinking as being pre-political, and foundational to a healthy and civil shared life in families, communities, economies, and polities.
In short, we want to create a community that is grounded in curiosity, going deep, and shining light.
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Here are timecodes to help you navigate through today’s show:
00:52 A brief coronavirus diversion.
05:35 Mark begins to explain his interest in forgiveness, and traces how forgiveness has been studied in recent years. What are the insights that evolutionary biology can offer to an understanding of forgiveness in groups? Is altruism possible?
11:17 What are the implications for our common life, of the insight that, in the long run, injections of graciousness and forgiveness help life go better for everyone? What are we to do with those who take advantage of generous, forgiving people?
14:00 Tit for tat locks us into a death spiral. Is that where we are in America today?
18:29 Is the religious teaching of forgiveness for all just a way to make sure my forgiveness extends to all in my group, or is the religious teaching of forgiveness for all serious in its universality?
21:47 Could we map times of generosity and times of tit for tat, onto a historical timeline?
24:20 Can spiritual practices and humility help us be people more disposed to acting with generosity and forgiveness, even to people we don’t know?