Tom Krattenmaker is a USA Today columnist, spokesperson for Yale Divinity School, author of Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower, and former leader of the Yale Humanist Community, which recently closed up shop. In this, our second conversation on Reasonably Catholic, we unpack, among other topics, the concept of ‘horizontal transcendence’ ; the ‘tough gig’ of humanism; meaningful conversation as essential to ‘the good life’; the importance of doing our part to reverse climate change because ‘even if the ship’s going down, at least we did what we could.’
This is the final episode of Reasonably Catholic: Keeping the Faith, because I need to complete some long-unfinished projects. Also — full disclosure — I need to take a breather from religion. I hope to be back in the fall of ’20 with an arts-and-culture-themed program, to be called The Left Bank. I welcome your suggestions of potentially interesting guests and topics. Contact me at mjohnson@wesufm.org.
I can’t say goodbye to Reasonably Catholic without thanking certain key people, even as I realize with a shudder that I’m bound to leave some of you out! I beg your forgiveness in advance! You know that I love you; it’s just that my memory is shot! Thanks, first, to the WESU-FM board of 2012, which — counterintuitively — approved my proposal to have an even marginally Catholic radio show! Relatedly, thanks to WESU-FM General Manager Ben Michael for encouragement and technical support beyond the call of duty. Thanks to Program Manager Rick Sinkiewicz for dealing with my last-minute emails about needed tweaks to my show. Thanks to goddess Marianne O’Hare, producer of Conversations on Health Care, for teaching me how to plant a garden of sound waves, and also for showing me it’s possible to remain cheerful while technology explodes around us. Thanks to faithful donors to the station who didn’t stop being my friends even though I kept asking you for money! BIG thanks to my husband Leith for the theme music and for constant patient help; you are a saint.
Finally, thanks to everyone involved in my Catholic education — my parents; the Catholic school nuns and teachers who formed my conscience; certain good priests, especially the late, great Fr. John Baptist Pesce. Though I’m stepping away from practicing Catholicism, everything you’ve taught me is in my bones.
Reasonably Catholic: Keeping the Faith 