Session 2 – The Job of the Public Intellectual
Session 2 of 4 in “The Role of the Public Intellectual in a Just Society”
- Offered as a USB Flash Drive.
- 19:52 runtime
- Includes transcript & detailed participant questions
Sr. Joan Chittister issues a call to all of us to become public intellectuals.
“And so, if our institutions are to remain valid, we must learn to reflect thoughtfully on the calls within them and around them to change. And we must be willing to consider ourselves imagining what the changes might be that would make us a people again.”
Sr. Joan describes in this lecture the job of the public intellectual – to keep an awareness of tradition, but to never let that tradition become stale or to suppress fresh ideas. Ideas have the power to stir the pot, which is good. Intellectuals can present fresh, outsider ideas but must do so within the public sphere, finding ways to involve all voices. She says:
“An institution that is valid and authenticdoes not die still born, they live from age to age, they adapt to every age so that the best of that wisdom can liveon in every age even when you cut off the old translations, the old liturgical formats, the old blessings.”
“The Role of the Public Intellectual in a Just Society” will inspire church groups and individual learners to push in their everyday lives—as Jesus did—for transformative change that lifts up those who are left out of our society.
Note: This product contains video material that’s also appeared on Joan Chittister’s Spirituality, Self, & Society – presented in a fresh context with a new PDF resource guide.
