The Luminous Cloud of Unknowing: A Conversation with James K.A. Smith about Mysticism, Anxiety, and Love
How do we live when we don’t know what to believe, or who to believe, or how we could even know?
Join Wayfare Editor Zachary Davis in a conversation with philosopher James K. A. Smith about how the ancient traditions of contemplation and contemporary creative work can offer liberation from anxiety and solace to our soul’s deepest yearnings.
Drawing on the writings of St. Teresa of Ávila, St. John of the Cross, and the author of The Cloud of Unknowing, Smith’s book invites us to a deeper truth beneath distraction, anxiety, and fear: love.
PARTICIPANT BIOS
James K. A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University. He is the award-winning author of a numerous books, including You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit and On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. He lives in Grand Rapids, MI.
Zachary Davis is the Executive Director of Faith Matters and the Editor of Wayfare Magazine. He is also the host of the podcasts Article 13, Writ Large, and Ministry of Ideas. He is the recipient of two John Templeton Foundation grants. He is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Harvard Divinity School and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts with his wife, Mariya and their three children.
James K. A. Smith is professor of philosophy at Calvin University. He is the award-winning author of a numerous books, including You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit and On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts. He lives in Grand Rapids, MI.
Charles M. Stang is professor of Early Christian Thought and the director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. He leads an initiative at the CSWR called “Transcendence and Transformation,” which includes a series on “Psychedelics and the Future of Religion.” His research and teaching focus on philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean world, especially Eastern varieties of Christianity. More specifically, his interests include the development of asceticism, monasticism and mysticism in early Christianity; ancient philosophy, especially Neoplatonism; the Syriac Christian tradition, especially the spread of the East Syrian tradition along the Silk Road; other philosophical and religious movements of the ancient Mediterranean, including Gnosticism, Alchemy, Hermeticism and Manichaeism; and modern continental philosophy and theology, especially as they intersect with the study of religion.
Rachael Givens Johnson is an assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Brigham Young University. She received her Ph.D in history from the University of Virginia and focuses on themes of religious materialism, embodiment, and transatlantic cultural history, particularly peninsular and viceregal Spain, in the early modern period.
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