Haunted & Held: A Christian Theology of Place - A Conversation with Ryan Turnbull

Ryan Turnbull is a Canadian theologian, and I’m a Canadian theologian, so we talk about a lot of Canadian stuff in this episode. But you don’t have to be Canadian to engage in or get something out of this conversation. Because what we talk about functions like a case study of what it looks like to be a theologian who lives in a particular place and is thinking critically and constructively (theologically) about that place. So hopefully Ryan and I’s conversation helps you do that—in your own place, wherever that happens to be.

Ryan is not only a great scholarly thinker, he actually cares about the places he finds himself in and the people who are there. And, in the spirit of Personalism, it captures one of the core sayings of Ellul, Charbonneau, and others, which was: think locally, act globally. So I hope this conversation helps you do that.

Bio

Ryan holds a BA and MA in Theology from Providence University College and Theological Seminary and just completed the defence of his PhD in Theology and Religion in December 2023, at the University of Birmingham, entitled “Haunted and Held: A Christian Theology of Place.” Ryan is currently a Visiting Fellow at St John’s College and serves as the Diocesan Discipleship Developer in the Diocese of Rupert’s Land. In addition to his day job with the diocese, Ryan serves on the executive of the Canadian Theological Society and teaches theology as an adjunct instructor at a number of universities and seminaries across Canada.

Links

Website

BlueSky

Additional Resources

Val Plumwood, Shadow Places and The Politics of Dwelling

Paul Virilio, Bunker Archaeology

Stanley Hauerwas, Prayers Plainly Spoken

Elaine Enns and Ched Myers, Healing Haunted Histories

Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx The State of the Debt, the Work of Mourning and the New International

Doreen Massey, A Global Sense of Place

Michael Schneider, ‘Reservation Dogs’ Uses 1970s Horror Motifs to Tell the Cruel History of Native Boarding Schools

Shelly Rambo, Resurrecting Wounds

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Canada’s Residential Schools: Missing Children and Unmarked Burials

David Graeber, Debt: The First 5000 Years