Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf | Created In The Image of God 256

Life Worth Living with Miroslav Volf | Created In The Image of God 256

Miroslav Volf’s theology was born not in an ivory tower, but in the cracks of a fractured world. Raised in post–World War II Yugoslavia by a Pentecostal pastor father and a Bible‑soaked mother, he spent his earliest years in a tiny apartment shared with a Serbian nanny, Milica Branković—“the angel of my childhood,” as he calls her. In a country still marked by violence between Croats (largely Catholic) and Serbs (largely Orthodox), that little household quietly embodied a different possibility: people from groups taught to distrust one another living together in love, prayer, and mutual care. It was, in hindsight, a living parable of reconciliation.As a teenager, Volf resisted the weight of his parents’ faith, only to encounter Christ for himself at sixteen—unexpectedly, in a Swedish tent meeting where he barely understood half the sermon. The change was profound enough that when he returned home, his emotionally astute mother simply looked at him and said, “What happened to you? You’re a different person.” From there, his path wound through underground theological study in communist Yugoslavia, philosophy at the University of Zagreb, a master’s degree at Fuller Theological Seminary in California, and advanced work in Tübingen, Germany on the deepest questions of God, self, and other. All of it unfolded against the backdrop of a homeland sliding into ethnic war.In this episode, Volf and Wade explore how those experiences gave rise to the themes that now define his work: exclusion and embrace, identity and otherness, and the possibility of a life “worth living” in a deeply divided age. Volf explains why he sees the gospel’s heart not in withdrawal or domination, but in the crucified Christ who absorbs enmity and opens his arms in welcome—a pattern he famously unpacked in Exclusion and Embrace, and has continued to develop through the Yale Center for Faith & Culture’s work on flourishing and public faith. They discuss how theology must be tested in the “laboratory” of real life—war, injustice, politics, and everyday relationships—and why cheap calls to reconciliation that ignore justice are as dangerous as justice pursued without any hope of reconciliation.Drawing on insights from Flourishing and Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, Volf invites listeners—believers and skeptics alike—to wrestle with questions modern life often pushes aside: What is a good life? What are we for? How do we live with our enemies, our neighbors, and even ourselves without being consumed by resentment? Throughout, he returns to the conviction that a truly Christian vision of life is both deeply realistic about evil and radically hopeful about God’s power to create a future of joy, justice, and embrace.For anyone struggling to make sense of faith in the face of violence, culture wars, or personal hurt, this conversation offers more than abstract answers. It traces the journey of a man who has seen exclusion up close and still dares to imagine—and work for—a world shaped by reconciliation rather than revenge. Get full access to Created in the Image of God at wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe [https://wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

You’re Only Human with Kelly Kapic | Created In The Image of God 255

Many Christians live with a quiet, relentless pressure: be everywhere, know everything, do it all—then feel guilty when they can’t. Kelly Kapic has spent much of his life gently dismantling that lie. A theologian and long‑time professor at Covenant College in Georgia, Kelly was raised in a Catholic home in northern California, drifted from church as a kid, and then came to a lively faith through a Baptist youth group. Over the years his path took him from Wheaton College to seminary, then to doctoral work in London on the 17th‑century theologian John Owen and the doctrine of the Trinity. Since 2001 he has taught courses in doctrine, the Trinity, Christology, and faith and suffering, helping students see that theology is not an abstract hobby but a way of understanding how to live well before God.In this episode, Kelly and Wade explore themes from his books You’re Only Human, Embodied Hope, and Christian Life: what it really means that God is God and we are not. Kelly points out that when Scripture calls us to “be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect,” the word “perfect” has more to do with fullness and maturity than sinless performance. Hebrews can say that Jesus “was made perfect” through suffering—not because He was ever sinful, but because, as truly human, He entered the full range of human experience, including pain, loss, and obedience under pressure. That same passage opens up the mystery of a God who, in Christ, doesn’t just know our temptations in theory, but has borne them experientially from the human side.From there, the conversation turns practical: How do we distinguish God’s attributes—omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence—from our own calling as limited creatures? What happens to our souls when we try to imitate the wrong things about God, living as if we, too, must be everywhere, know everything, and fix everyone? Drawing on his work with college students and his collaborations with psychologists and pastors, Kelly argues that learning to accept our finitude—our need for sleep, our local bodies, our incomplete knowledge—is not a lack of faith but an act of trust. It frees us from frantic busyness and perfectionism, and it changes how we respond to suffering: not as a glitch in an otherwise “normal” life, but as a place where God meets us, matures us, and knits us into community.Throughout the episode, Kelly keeps theology tethered to everyday reality: burnout, family expectations, church life, and the quiet shame many believers carry about their limitations. He and Wade also touch on ritual and practice—why even informal churches are full of habits and “liturgies,” and how those can either help or hinder real intimacy with God.For anyone who feels crushed by spiritual to‑do lists, confused about how a perfect God relates to imperfect people, or hungry for a more humane vision of the Christian life, this conversation offers both clarity and relief. Kelly’s message is simple and liberating: you were never meant to do it all—and your limits, received in faith, can become places where grace, joy, and genuine holiness take root. Get full access to Created in the Image of God at wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe [https://wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Serving Two Masters? Faith, Business & the Poor with Peter Greer | Created In The Image of God 254

Peter Greer grew up on a historic street in Concord, Massachusetts—home of the “shot heard round the world”—in a house where faith, hospitality, and global curiosity were simply normal. His dad pastored a local church, his mom served in the schools, and Sunday lunch almost always included an extra guest at the table. Those early lessons in welcoming the stranger and learning from other cultures became the quiet foundation for a very public vocation.In this episode, Peter shares the pivot moment that shaped his life’s work: a college trip studying international business across Europe and the former Soviet Union, capped by a lunch in Moscow with a man doing economic development as Christian mission. In that conversation, faith, global poverty, and business snapped into a single calling. From there, Peter went on to serve with World Relief in Cambodia, lead a microfinance institution in post‑genocide Rwanda, wrestle with hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, and eventually become CEO of HOPE International, a global ministry that equips families in poverty to start and grow businesses.Together we explore how to rethink charity, why dignity and partnership matter, and what it looks like to hold together Jesus’ warnings about “serving two masters” with a robust, hopeful vision of business and entrepreneurship as tools for justice, restoration, and honoring the image of God in the poor. Get full access to Created in the Image of God at wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe [https://wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Songs, Stories & a Kinder God with Andrew Peterson | Created In The Image of God 253

Before he was writing fantasy novels, founding the Rabbit Room, or penning modern hymns, Andrew Peterson was a pastor’s kid who felt like he didn’t belong. Born in Illinois while his Southern parents were in seminary, his early years looked like a Norman Rockwell painting: John Deere tractors, cornfields, and an Andy‑Griffith innocence. At seven, everything shifted. His family moved “home” to North Florida—a place he describes as “like South Georgia, but weirder”—and the cultural whiplash left him feeling like an outsider overnight. In a town where everyone belonged to one of a few extended families, the kid with the non‑Southern accent was “the yankee,” and a low‑grade ache to find home settled in.Through all of it, stories and songs were his refuge. He devoured comic books (especially Batman), drew constantly, and soaked up everything from hair‑metal ballads to Jim Croce, Pink Floyd, and the quiet singer‑songwriters his dad piped in through the easy‑listening station: James Taylor, Simon & Garfunkel, Van Morrison. He believed God was real—but in the Southern church world he knew, the gospel felt mostly like bad news. God existed, but He was mostly angry and disappointed. Heaven seemed reserved for the people who behaved; Andrew knew he wasn’t one of them.Everything began to change when he stumbled into the music of Rich Mullins. Learning “If I Stand” for a friend cracked open a door he didn’t know was there. Here was someone writing honestly about doubt, sin, grace, and a Jesus who actually loved people like him. Rich’s wonder‑soaked lyrics gave Andrew permission to see the created world—not as disposable fuel for the end times—but as his Father’s world, pulsing with God’s presence and goodness. Slowly, almost imperceptibly, the God who’d felt cold and condemning began to look more like the God revealed in Jesus: holy, yes, but also kind, patient, and full of affection.In this episode, Andrew and Wade wander through that journey—the dislocation of childhood, the haunted beauty of the South, early bands and batman sketches, and the slow healing of his imagination. They touch on how those experiences eventually gave rise to the Wingfeather Saga, Adorning the Dark, The God of the Garden, and the Rabbit Room community: all born from a desire to help others see that faith and art aren’t enemies; that stories can carry truth in ways arguments can’t; and that our longing to belong is, at its core, a longing for Christ.For anyone who grew up in church afraid of God, for artists wondering how their gifts fit in the Kingdom, or for those who quietly feel like they’ve never quite belonged anywhere, this conversation offers gentle, grounded hope. Andrew’s story is a reminder that God often meets us in the very places we feel most out of place—through songs, stories, and the slow realization that the world, and our lives, are more haunted by grace than we ever imagined. Get full access to Created in the Image of God at wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe [https://wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Haunted Plantation, Holy Authority with Eric Davis | Created In The Image of God 252

Some people talk about spiritual warfare in theory. Eric Davis had to live it. A lifelong lover of antiques and old homes, he visited a plantation in South Carolina, fell in love with the idea, and asked God for one of his own. In 2016, that prayer seemed to be answered when he acquired Springhill Plantation. The joy didn’t last long. Almost immediately after moving in, Eric and his family began to encounter unnerving phenomena: strange noises, flashes of light, and, most chillingly, a fog‑like form taking shape outside that carried a palpable sense of evil. The house, they realized, was haunted.In this episode, Eric recounts how what began as a dream quickly became a test of faith. He could have run. Instead, he stayed—and discovered that survival would require more than casual Christianity. He talks about the escalating oppression, the fear that pressed in on his family, and the ways he initially responded that, in hindsight, left doors open to the enemy. Then, step by step, he describes how God began to teach him his true identity in Christ and the authority believers have in Jesus’ name. Over the course of several years, through prayer, repentance, wise counsel, and persistent spiritual warfare, Eric learned to stand his ground, confront the entities in the house, and see his home and family set free.With humility and raw honesty, Eric doesn’t just tell ghost stories; he unpacks the spiritual lessons behind them—how bitterness, occult curiosity, generational sin, or unexamined compromises can create footholds for darkness, and how the cross and resurrection of Jesus provide real power to close those doors. For anyone battling unexplained fear, oppression, or a sense that “something is wrong” they can’t quite name, this conversation offers both sober discernment and solid hope. Eric’s story is a reminder that the unseen battle is real—but so is the authority of Christ to bring peace, protection, and freedom. Get full access to Created in the Image of God at wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe [https://wadefransson.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]