The Wrong Kind of Social Distance / Ryan McAnnally-Linz

"Social distancing" isn't just a term we learned in 2020—it became a global human habit, practice, and way of life, all in a matter of weeks. How should we understand the Christian call to love given the need for physical distance? Ryan McAnnally-Linz (Associate Director, Yale Center for Faith & Culture) offers a reflection on human vulnerability, the response of Stoicism, and the call to Christian love. From the episode: "Fortress building and Stoic detachment are tempting in times like these. But they are fundamental failures to acknowledge the full scope and depth of our relationships to each other. Human beings are made for communion, for loving interchange and connection. Stoicism denies the profound goodness of our material and emotional relationships with others. It is social distancing of the soul—which, from a Christian perspective, would be a quite fitting description of hell."