Episode 9: The privilege of contemplation | A conversation with Anthea Butler
"The word ‘contemplative’ at this moment is a word that says ‘privilege.’ It means that you have time, and most people don’t have time.”
In this episode, Anthea Butler tells me about the ways in which contemplation can often insinuate privilege, and reminds me of the everyday ways in which we can yield to contemplation and activism: “We tend to think about contemplation or activism on a big scale, I think we have to think about them as the everyday quotidian things that we do that can engender hope.”
Dr. Anthea Butler is Chair of the Department of Religious Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Her latest book is White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America. Her other books include Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making A Sanctified World. She is also a contributor to the forthcoming book, A New Origin story, The 1619 project out November 2021.
