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Life Worth Living is an initiative of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture at Yale Divinity School.
How does a good life feel?
Willie Jennings on Righteous Indignation
Life Worth Living Team
"What keeps anger from touching hatred is not the cunning of reason or the power of will. It is simply Jesus."
Think of the last time you were angry; the last time you were really, truly, boiling with rage. Was that experience a part of your vision of a good life? Now think of what it was that made you angry. Should it have made you angry?
In his reflection “My Anger, God’s Righteous Indignation” recorded in June of 2020, Willie James Jennings speaks to his own anger in the face of racial violence and police brutality.
[.alt-blockquote]“God wants us to hate what God hates. God invites us into a shared fury, but only the kind that we creatures can handle. You all know that anger is frightening because it is not easily controllable. Anger can easily touch hatred, and if anger enters into hatred, then we will be drawn into violence, and way too many people in this world have been drawn deeply into violence. What Christian faith knows is that the way to keep anger from hatred is not to deny anger, to pretend that it is not real. No, we can't do that. What keeps anger from touching hatred is not the cunning of reason or the power of will. It is simply Jesus.[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote]For the Christian, Jesus stands between anger and hatred, prohibiting the reach, blocking the touch and saying to us, 'Don't go there. There is nothing there but death.' Anger, bound to God's righteous indignation has a different purpose for us. It points us to the change that must happen, that is the overturning of an unjust world order, this racial order. […][.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote]So what must be done? Well, first, take hold of the anger. Take hold of the anger. Respecting the differences between people, different cultures, different contexts, does not mean denying what must be shared. Do not confuse the Black experience with what so many of us are experiencing right now. Step into it and into God's own righteous indignation, knowing that God will also invite you to turn away from hatred even as you enter the anger.”[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote-attribution]—Willie Jennings, "My Anger, God’s Righteous Indignation” (2020)[.alt-blockquote-attribution]
Questions
- Have you experienced the tension between anger and hatred before? What has prevented your anger from slipping into hatred?
- What might taking hold of anger look like in your life?
- How might someone discern what things God hates? What would distinguish that discernment process from simply experiencing one’s own anger?
- How does anger provoked by injustice differ from other angers you experience? Is anger provoked by injustice the only type of anger humans share with God?
- Jennings speaks about sharing our anger with others. Have you ever shared your anger with a community?
- Are we responsible for sharing anger with God over the world’s injustices? Is it possible to lead a Christian vision of the good life without feeling anger where God feels angry?
Context
Listen on
Think of the last time you were angry; the last time you were really, truly, boiling with rage.
Pairings
Our responses to life's big questions are meant to form a coherent whole—a vision of life worth living. A response to one question will fit well with certain responses to other questions, but it will be incompatible with others. We've provided the "Pairs Well With" and "Pairs Poorly With" sections for this article to help you consider these questions of coherence.
Think of the last time you were angry; the last time you were really, truly, boiling with rage. Was that experience a part of your vision of a good life? Now think of what it was that made you angry. Should it have made you angry?
In his reflection “My Anger, God’s Righteous Indignation” recorded in June of 2020, Willie James Jennings speaks to his own anger in the face of racial violence and police brutality.
[.alt-blockquote]“God wants us to hate what God hates. God invites us into a shared fury, but only the kind that we creatures can handle. You all know that anger is frightening because it is not easily controllable. Anger can easily touch hatred, and if anger enters into hatred, then we will be drawn into violence, and way too many people in this world have been drawn deeply into violence. What Christian faith knows is that the way to keep anger from hatred is not to deny anger, to pretend that it is not real. No, we can't do that. What keeps anger from touching hatred is not the cunning of reason or the power of will. It is simply Jesus.[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote]For the Christian, Jesus stands between anger and hatred, prohibiting the reach, blocking the touch and saying to us, 'Don't go there. There is nothing there but death.' Anger, bound to God's righteous indignation has a different purpose for us. It points us to the change that must happen, that is the overturning of an unjust world order, this racial order. […][.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote]So what must be done? Well, first, take hold of the anger. Take hold of the anger. Respecting the differences between people, different cultures, different contexts, does not mean denying what must be shared. Do not confuse the Black experience with what so many of us are experiencing right now. Step into it and into God's own righteous indignation, knowing that God will also invite you to turn away from hatred even as you enter the anger.”[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote-attribution]—Willie Jennings, "My Anger, God’s Righteous Indignation” (2020)[.alt-blockquote-attribution]
Questions
- Have you experienced the tension between anger and hatred before? What has prevented your anger from slipping into hatred?
- What might taking hold of anger look like in your life?
- How might someone discern what things God hates? What would distinguish that discernment process from simply experiencing one’s own anger?
- How does anger provoked by injustice differ from other angers you experience? Is anger provoked by injustice the only type of anger humans share with God?
- Jennings speaks about sharing our anger with others. Have you ever shared your anger with a community?
- Are we responsible for sharing anger with God over the world’s injustices? Is it possible to lead a Christian vision of the good life without feeling anger where God feels angry?
Context
Pairings
Our responses to life's big questions are meant to form a coherent whole—a vision of life worth living. A response to one question will fit well with certain responses to other questions, but it will be incompatible with others. We've provided the "Pairs Well With" and "Pairs Poorly With" sections for this article to help you consider these questions of coherence.
Think of the last time you were angry; the last time you were really, truly, boiling with rage. Was that experience a part of your vision of a good life? Now think of what it was that made you angry. Should it have made you angry?
In his reflection “My Anger, God’s Righteous Indignation” recorded in June of 2020, Willie James Jennings speaks to his own anger in the face of racial violence and police brutality.
[.alt-blockquote]“God wants us to hate what God hates. God invites us into a shared fury, but only the kind that we creatures can handle. You all know that anger is frightening because it is not easily controllable. Anger can easily touch hatred, and if anger enters into hatred, then we will be drawn into violence, and way too many people in this world have been drawn deeply into violence. What Christian faith knows is that the way to keep anger from hatred is not to deny anger, to pretend that it is not real. No, we can't do that. What keeps anger from touching hatred is not the cunning of reason or the power of will. It is simply Jesus.[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote]For the Christian, Jesus stands between anger and hatred, prohibiting the reach, blocking the touch and saying to us, 'Don't go there. There is nothing there but death.' Anger, bound to God's righteous indignation has a different purpose for us. It points us to the change that must happen, that is the overturning of an unjust world order, this racial order. […][.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote]So what must be done? Well, first, take hold of the anger. Take hold of the anger. Respecting the differences between people, different cultures, different contexts, does not mean denying what must be shared. Do not confuse the Black experience with what so many of us are experiencing right now. Step into it and into God's own righteous indignation, knowing that God will also invite you to turn away from hatred even as you enter the anger.”[.alt-blockquote]
[.alt-blockquote-attribution]—Willie Jennings, "My Anger, God’s Righteous Indignation” (2020)[.alt-blockquote-attribution]
Questions
- Have you experienced the tension between anger and hatred before? What has prevented your anger from slipping into hatred?
- What might taking hold of anger look like in your life?
- How might someone discern what things God hates? What would distinguish that discernment process from simply experiencing one’s own anger?
- How does anger provoked by injustice differ from other angers you experience? Is anger provoked by injustice the only type of anger humans share with God?
- Jennings speaks about sharing our anger with others. Have you ever shared your anger with a community?
- Are we responsible for sharing anger with God over the world’s injustices? Is it possible to lead a Christian vision of the good life without feeling anger where God feels angry?
Context
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