Tradition in Practice: Encounters With the Living God with Amy Oden

Academy Podcast

In this month’s episode we hear from Amy Oden on the topic of tradition and what we are handing over to those who follow. Born and raised on the prairies of Oklahoma, Amy has found her spiritual home under the wide-open sky. She earned her PhD in Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University, writing her dissertation on Augustine. Over the last 30 years, she has served on the faculties of Oklahoma City University, Saint Paul School of Theology and Wesley Theological Seminary where she also served as Dean. She now is an itinerant professor, teaching at several schools in the areas of theology and history of Christianity and spiritual formation. She is also a spiritual director, companioning people as they listen for God in day-to-day life. Amy is committed in her scholarship to illuminating ancient voices for Christian life today, introducing spiritual practices that can ground and nourish lives of following Jesus into the world. Her most recent book is Right Here, Right Now: The Practice of Christian Mindfulness. Amy speaks of tradition: not a treasure chest sealed shut and unchanged but an openhanded gift that stays alive precisely because its practices and teaching adapt to a new time place and context. The advent season is here now and the season of Christmas will soon follow after that. There will be much handing down, handing over of gifts. There will be rituals that have been on pause that perhaps this year can finally be resumed. will we revel in the sameness? in the treasure chest that finally gets unlocked after 20 months of a pandemic? Or will it look look and feel different now as it is handed over and shared after so much of our communal and global life has changed?