Show Notes
In this episode of Peaceable and Kind, host Derek Vreeland sits down with Alex Sosler for a thought-provoking discussion on the Advent season, spiritual formation, and the role of Christian community in shaping a meaningful faith journey. Alex shares his personal story, from his beginnings in a nominally Catholic environment and time in the Southern Baptist tradition to his embrace of Anglicanism and the profound influence of liturgy and beauty in his spiritual growth.
The conversation delves into the power of Advent as a season of waiting and reflection, exploring how spiritual practices like the daily office lectionary can deepen one’s Bible reading experience. Alex discusses the transcendentals of truth, goodness, beauty, and community, highlighting how these concepts foster a balanced and fulfilling spiritual life. Together, they examine ideas like eudaimonia (human flourishing) and shalom (peace), connecting them to Jesus’ teachings on the good life and the importance of virtue, character, and habit formation in growing towards Christlikeness. This episode encourages listeners to cultivate a holistic approach to faith, rooted in grace and the transformative power of community.
Books mentioned in this episode:
Daily Office Lectionary by Derek Vreeland
A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation: Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community by Alex Sosler
Learning to Love: Christian Higher Education as Pilgrimage by Alex Sosler
The Artistic Vision: Cultivating a Sacramental Imagination for Artistic Practice by Alex Sosler
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome to Peaceable and Kind, the podcast where we explore the transformation. Each week your host, Derek Vreeland, will delve into the stories, scriptures, and practical steps that help us embody these essential Christian virtues.
Derek Vreeland: Welcome back to another episode of Peaceable and Kind. I am your host, Derek Vreeland. Thank you for joining me for this episode. And if you haven’t already, let me invite you to rate, review, and subscribe to Peaceable and Kind. And if you enjoy Christian content like this, let me invite you to share this episode or a previous episode with others. That’s how the podcast grows And here we are. December is here. We have entered into the season of Advent where we pause. on four Sundays before Christmas to build in anticipation and to wait on the coming of Jesus We wait on Christmas, even though this is such a busy season for us, but Advent helps us to wait And to reflect a bit on the brokenness in our world and our ongoing need for the Savior to come. And I love this season. I love the season of Advent. It’s where the Christian calendar gets started. You know, in the liturgical calendar in the church year, we are telling the story of Jesus over and over. And the birth of Jesus that we celebrate on Christmas and through the Christmas season is so important that we have four weeks to get ready for it. And so Advent kicks off the Christian year, and it’s a wonderful time to start something new. to start something new in your devotional life. So let me ask you, what do you do for Bible reading? Last year I released A revised and updated daily office lectionary, which is a two-year Bible reading plan that follows along with the church calendar. We’ve just entered into year one. So if you are looking for a Bible reading plan or a different Bible reading plan and you’re unfamiliar with the lectionary tradition, get a hold of my Daily Office Lectionary. The lectionary approach to Bible reading provides us with daily passages of scripture from the Psalms, Old Testament, from the Epistles. from the Gospels. Now my lectionary is drawn from the Book of Common Prayer and it’s revised somewhat. It doesn’t include a daily psalm reading, but it does Provide readings from the Old Testament epistles, and the last reading is always from the Gospels And I love that because in my morning Bible reading, the last thing I read from Scripture is something from Jesus or something about Jesus. So we will put a link to my Daily Office lectionary in the show notes. Go get a hold of it and let it guide you through a two-year. reading through scripture with the church calendar and it all gets started this month here in the season of Advent. Well that’s enough of a commercial. I am ready to get into today’s conversation I have a guest with me today, Alex Sossler. He is Assistant Professor of Bible and Ministry at Montree College. He earned both an MDiv and Doctor of Education from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of several books, including Learning to Love Christian Higher Education as Pilgrimage, a new book, The Artistic Vision, Cultivating a Sacramental Imagination for Creative Practice, and The book we’re going to talk about today, A Short Guide to Spiritual Formation, Finding Life in Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and Community. In addition to his work as a professor and author, Alex is an assistant priest at Redeemer Anglican Church An ACNA church in Asheville, North Carolina. And most importantly, he and his wife Lauren have three children. Alex, welcome to Peaceable and Kind.
Alex Sosler: So good to be here and what a great podcast name.
Derek Vreeland: Thanks, man. I have been reading your book here for the last couple of months, revisiting it, and am surprised that our paths haven’t crossed until now.
Alex Sosler: Yeah. I’m uh I’m a late bloomer to the scene, so I’m I’m happy to come across you.
Derek Vreeland: Yeah, I’m so glad to meet new friends that I sense a little bit are on a similar spiritual journey. And uh so perhaps we can get started there. I’d love to hear more about your spiritual journey, your theological education um at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary gives me the indication that perhaps you started in the Baptist world and and are now an Anglican priest. So yeah, tell me a little bit about your spiritual journey.
Alex Sosler: Yeah, I’m uh a little bit of a mutt. Um so it well it’s not as straightforward as, you know, I was a Cradle Baptist. Um I was actually born into a family that was Catholic. Um and kind of nominally Catholic. I don’t remember kind of any experience of Jesus’ presence or um really any kind of devout, faithful life. It was more of small Midwest Rust belt town that people went to church on Sundays when it was convenient for them And it wasn’t all that often and it didn’t mean all that much. Right. Um, and so I actually kind of had I would call it maybe a an encounter with Jesus in uh a church of the Nazarene. I had a friend who my dad coached uh soccer at the local high school. I was I always tagged along with with him and this um older guy who’s probably a junior when I was in sixth grade He was kind enough to talk to me, a sixth grade little snotty-nosed kid, and he made the Mutz Kutz Shaggin Wagon From Dumb and Dummer for his soapbox car derby that his youth group is doing, and I don’t know if I invited myself and he invited me. I ended up there And then just kind of kept going back for a year and the language of being saved is something I I honestly had never heard. And that’s maybe hard for people in the Bible Belt to know, but uh where I was from like This guy was talking about being saved. And I had I didn’t know what that meant. So this is probably the second time I asked my friend um what’s it what’s it mean to be saved? It was as simple as that question. Uh, and at first he kind of shoes it away, maybe he didn’t think I was ready for it, but then he he just told me the impact that Jesus had on his life and I didn’t know all that that entailed, of course, but I knew that he had something that I didn’t have and I wanted what he had. And so that was kind of the start of my spiritual journey. Um, I ended up going to a Christian high school, mainly to play soccer, but at that point I was a Christian, so it was also uh a bonus, maybe that it was Christian, but it was mainly to play soccer And then yeah, I had a lot of great influences in my life then. So at this high school I had a a lot of great mentors and friends and it was kinda it was mainly a non-denominational, bigger, let’s call it mega church seeker friendly at least. And that’s where I really kind of landed and kind of started ministry in this in this church where I grew up in in Ohio And um then graduated college and they wanted me to do seminary and that’s where I ended up at at Southern Baptist because I was working at the church and they uh this online program. Um I could do, and so that’s what I did through the kind of guidance of a mentor. And I was pretty happy in My sphere of Southern Baptist life. Um I didn’t leave because I’m um one one of our members here at the Anglican church used to call Anglicans Anglicans because they were angry um and just like reactive and responsive. And I was really happy in my life. I think I always wanted I didn’t know this word, but polity is what I desired, which is like the way to do things that is intentional And in this Baptist stream of life I I think I had it. And then I moved from pastoral ministry to academic life at at Montreat, where I’m at now, and we were just church shopping. But in the evening Um, I was sympathetic already to the liturgy and to kind of a sacramental life and the the Eucharist and um a Eucharistic kind of emphasis. And so it was just brought a lot of rest while we were searching. And the liturgy and the beauty of the liturgy, I think, just weighed on me. And um I usually tell the story that we were talking about, you know, I was in a meeting at about something mundane in my department, and I was kind of lamenting the ills of evangelicalism. It’s consumeristic, it’s pragmatic, it’s nationalistic, and and then so I was like, well, I’m there’s not things in Baptist life that make you that way, consumeristic, pragmatic, nationalistic, but there are things that maybe nudge you that way. And so then I was like, okay, well I’m just gonna do my own Baptist thing and I’m gonna, you know, wear vestments and do the liturgy and wish I had a bishop but still baptize believers or something like that. But then I realized like I’m doing what I’m lamenting of evangelicalism, which is like a pick and choose your spirituality. Like I I can just kind of smorgasboard my way through a spiritual life. And so then I just said, okay, I don’t have all my questions answered, but I’m gonna submit to the tradition that I’m a part of and work out my questions in hindsight. And really I think when beauty leads your life, which is what I I think I kind of argue for at the end of the book and what I think about a lot now is that I thought like in my reformed Baptist tradition, you needed all the right answers. And once you got all your right answers, you saw the beauty of it But I think the way that Jesus works is that we see the beauty of Jesus and we’re compelled to him, and he doesn’t answer all our questions. But in submission to Jesus, our questions start getting talked about. And I think with Anglicanism, for me, it was the same thing. Like the beauty of the liturgy, the aesthetic of it really drew me in. And I’m submitting to the tradition and working my questions out in the meantime.
Derek Vreeland: And how counter-cultural to submit to a tradition? Yeah. I I I I I share in that love of Anglican liturgy, of the centrality of Eucharist. And people have asked, you know, why I haven’t full-blown gone down this road. And I g I guess for me it it’s just still is a little bit like David wearing Saul’s armor. It’s just it it’s not I don’t think I’d be true to myself. You you mentioned being a theological mutt and an ecclesiological mutt, and I I so share in that. And it’s one of the reasons why I loved your book, A Short Guide. to spiritual formation because I saw the confluence of various theological streams Which I find so deeply valuable. I think when I emailed you, I had said that um I was just seven or eight pages in and you’re already quoting Stanley Howerwas, and I thought, well an Anglican reading Howerwas that you had me hooked.
Narrator: Yeah he’s uh but not just that.
Derek Vreeland: I mean i right in the very beginning of your book you’re bringing in the best from Augustine and Chesterton and C. S. Lewis and I I want to talk a little bit about uh your book because I am a discipleship pastor and have focused on uh spiritual formation through study groups and small groups and I’m always looking for resources and for years I have considered Dallas Willard’s renovation of the heart to be somewhat of like the quintessential textbook for spiritual formation. But Alex, I have to say, I think you have taken Willard’s spot. I think this is a fantastic um textbook for for spiritual formation and you structured it around the transcendentals And uh you added one, which I think is great. Talk to us a little bit just about the the structure of the book.
Alex Sosler: Yeah. Well, first of all, that is um very kind, too kind probably, and uh Yeah, Willard is is the man and so to be put in in the same league as him is is an honor. And I think just to to your your former point about, you know, n not quite fitting in the Anglican tradition or I can’t remember how you put it, I don’t think I’d ever be Anglican if it didn’t move. Like The catalyst for me being Anglican was the move and the search. I think I would have been bad and I think people should remain in their tradition. I was talking to somebody else. last month about like I’ve been kinda you know thinking about Anglinism and and I was like if you’re committed to a local community stay there You can, you know, you don’t need to change traditions because you like something more. Just, you know, I think what I’m trying to do in the book is like, there’s a broader use other traditions. Like if you’re not using the other traditions, you’re really lacking formative power, I think.
Derek Vreeland: So that’s such great pastoral counsel, by the way. I say the same thing because I have friends in just about every uh tradition and I always want them to stay. Like if you’re Methodist, stay, if you’re Presbyterian, stay, if you’re Lutheran, stay, if you’re Pentecostal, stay.
Alex Sosler: But yeah, the transcendentals, truth, goodness, beauty, I add, I kind of take unity, which is sometimes lumped in with the transcendentals, and make it community. Jesus praying for oneness and the communal kind of unity. I mean I think the way I use them, I mean I get them from Greek philosophy, but the way I use them I talk about God being the transcendent one in whose image we’re made So God is the transcendent. He is the all-good, all-true, all-beautiful, united one. And if we’re made in his image then we have elements of truth, goodness, beauty, unity that we ought to grow in. And if we neglect one of those streams of formation, we’re neglecting the fullness of the image of God, which is Christ Himself embodied. Right. So To grow into these streams is to grow into the image of God, which is Christ Himself, who is, you know, the exact imprint of his nature. And so to neglect beauty, for example, because we’re truth people, is to neglect a formative aspect of your soul that needs formation. And so yeah, that’s where I get the from kind of Greek philosophy and then imaging God in our broadest sense. And this is even Going back to my first book, Learning to Love and kind of education and is kind of my gateway in some ways to these things. Like we ought to be the most interesting people in the room because we care about what God cares about, which is everything. And so to say, you know, you don’t care about beauty because whatever is, or you don’t care about contemplation or ascetic practices or reading your Bible because you s encounter God somewhere else. I want to say, you know, encounter God in those ways that He invites you into. But also if you don’t have these other kind of balanced formations Um maybe I could use these like going to the gym and only doing bicep curls in chest press and you got skinny legs. Like you’re going to be misformed. if you neglect one of these streams. Major in one, fine. But be a rounded uh I don’t like to use well-rounded. Saints aren’t well-rounded, but be full. Be whole
Derek Vreeland: Well, the balanced approach, I I like that because I think often people look at spiritual formation purely as an intellectual exercise. So they’re just looking at truth. And they haven’t seen the value of beauty. And I appreciate that you emphasize the contemplative practices because beauty Because beauty in a popular cultural sense is all about the exterior. But what we’re talking about here is a beautiful heart, a beautiful soul, a beautiful being. And so if we’re going to be formed in the likeness of Jesus, we need not only our minds transformed by truth, but our souls to grow in beauty. And I love that.
Alex Sosler: Yeah, I think on that note too, I mean I think that’s in many ways, like all the books I’ve written are the books that I wish I would have had. in my kind of youth. And I think like when when people talked about discipleship, spiritual formation, it was, hey, I’m having this problem. Well you need what you need to do is read your Bible. And Yes, I do, right? I read your Bible and pray, right? Join another Bible study. That’ll really solve it. Like if you just know enough about the Bible, you’ll be mature. And I think I graduated seminary thinking, I know more than all of my congregation about the Bible. Yet I know there are more spiritually mature people who know less. Truth is not the problem. Right. But it’s the posture towards my the truth. And it’s the practices, the maturity, the the other things that I need developed in that I knew people in my congregation had and other friends had. And so I yeah, I just wanted to expand. Like when you’re struggling, when you want to grow, there’s more tools in your tool belt than read like a quiet time.
Derek Vreeland: Right. So the Transcendentals, what is true, what is good, what is beautiful, and what unifies the community aspect that you added Let’s talk a little bit about goodness. I’m very interested these days in having conversations about goodness. the good life, the way that we live. I appreciate in this book you talk about our common shared faith in Christ is not just about doctrine, what we believe, but it is a way of living. That Jesus is leading us into the good life. So let me ask somewhat of a linguistic, philosophical, theological question. Um, what do you think about the Greek concept of eudaimonia? Right, we see that in Aristotle, and then the Hebrew concept of shalom. And then I’d even throw in there when Jesus talks about eternal life. Do you see any kind of interrelatedness between the Greek concept of eudaimonia, Hebrew concept of shalom?
Alex Sosler: and what Jesus talked about when he talked about eternal life. Yeah, that’s a great question. I mean, I think the first thing that comes to mind in terms of Umanonia and the idea of that we’re made in a certain way. and that we then flourish when we’re made into what we’re purposed for. So in Aristotle’s language, right, flowers, yudmanoia, it’s it’s flourishing is comes a seed and it makes a flower. Human being fully alive is a fully alive human being, the glory of God. And so I think I I would connect maybe Uda Manoia and eternal life In the sense of like the Sermon on the Mount, the the blesseds. Blessed are those who mourn, blessed are those who thirst for righteousness, blessed are those who hunger That’s actually the way of flourishing in the kingdom of God. The world says if you are comfortable and happy and financially secure, you’ll that’s blessedness. And Jesus comes, said, In my kingdom, this is a different kingdom. And so I would say, yeah, that there’s an internal If God makes us, there are elements of goodness that we live into. So like the I think the Greek concept of like there’s so there’s a seed in us that needs cultivated, that needs grown, that drawn out. And I think in the eternal life, I think if I could say, maybe if if the Greek concept there’s something good in us that needs drawn out In the eternal life, there’s also rough edges around us that need molded. And so to cast off the eye, or to cut off the eye that causes you to sin, the hand that causes you to sin. is preparing us for eternal life that isn’t some goodness in us, which I think is true, but some badness in us that needs cultivated And if I were to bring in the shalom piece, I may say like there’s a harmony that then exists, not just in ourselves and our own flourishing. and our own eternal life and quality and quantity, but there’s a harmonious relationship with all the world that is also A blessedness that Jesus calls on in the fullness of goodness. So it’s not just you having some eternal security But it’s you at one with God and with another and with all of creation. That was me spitballing, rambling, maybe, but yeah, those are some thoughts.
Derek Vreeland: No, it’s very very very helpful, very helpful because I’m still wrestling with with those things. But for for the ancient ancient Greeks and Aquinas brings this into the church, making it popular. Uh there is this concept of a a good whole life and existence And the way that we live a good life is through the practice of virtue And so in your goodness section, you have a chapter, chapter five, how do we become virtuous? And again, I appreciated the emphasis on virtue. Because it seems to me that conversations about virtue and character formation have certainly declined. in American culture, but even in the church. I’ve been concerned that when I hear people talk about moral decision making, it’s rooted in consequences, in ends. Where in the virtue tradition it’s much more about one’s character. Um and so uh you say in in this chapter, in answering the question of the chapter title, How Do We Become Virtuous? You talk about habits, which is what in in virtue ethics has traditionally been described. And use the word uh participation. Uh in chapter five, you write, as Christians, we grow through participation. and the regular means of grace. Sometimes we sense our growth and it’s exciting like lightning. Other times the same growth can seem like a carrot growing, underground, unseen, unnoticed, undetected. And I see this as the heart of spiritual formation is our participation in the very work that God is doing. And when I was reading that part of the chapter, I thought, yeah, and that makes Protestants really nervous, which then you describe. Why do some Protestants, particularly those who lean heavily reformed, Why does that make them nervous when we talk about participation?
Alex Sosler: Yeah, because it it seems like, oh, you’re asking me in some ways to like do a works righteousness. Like my my righteousness doesn’t depend on Christ. Now you’re saying it depends on me in some sense. Because I’m participating it’s not it’s not fully grace, it’s part me. Um which you know, I am reformed, I am Protestant, I am I am, you know, Solar Gracia, um by the gr by the grace of God alone. Yeah, there is a um I think Wesley maybe has this distinction of orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthopathy. Where it’s right belief, orthodoxy, right um practice, orthopraxis, and then right feeling, orthopathy. And habits in virtue are working on that final layer of right feeling so that It will, I mean, in the prasamine, and Luther would Luther said this: that the reason why virtue or habits or rituals are bad is because it is inauthentic. Hmm. Like when you start a habit, it is inauthentic, right? In our modern age, right? Like, is there anything worse than being inauthentic? But when you fast for the first time, let’s say, and if I could be maybe maybe more try, go on a run. Nobody goes on a run the first time and says, man, I really enjoyed that. That was a great time. Or facts, right? Nobody says, you know, I’m going to not eat. And And that was really enjoyable. Thank you, Father, for allowing me to not eat today. Yet those practice, those right practices Get us to a feeling. So, like, runners have this experience that if you’re a trained runner, there’s these this idea of runners high Where for miles it can feel like you just get lost in the rhythm and you’re going fast and it doesn’t even feel like anything. Your your passions have caught up to the practice. Right. And I think in many ways that’s the hope for the Christian, is that our passions will catch up to our practices, but until then it’s going to be inauthentic. And you may wake up the next day in the running analogy. You may wake up the next day and it’d be a total grind. It doesn’t come naturally. It hurts to get through a run, no matter how good you are, because sin and fallenness and All the things, bot embodiedness. Yet the goal is that we participate in such a life that it becomes easier. It becomes the nudge is towards righteousness through our habits. rather than to apathy or unrighteousness.
Derek Vreeland: That makes no much sense. We’re we’re we’re catching up. So when we have become the righteousness of Christ and God through Jesus’ sacrifice for us. That is true. That is who we are. But our our our passions, our desires haven’t caught up to who we are.
Alex Sosler: Right.
Derek Vreeland: And so I love that. That’s like it’s a great way to describe uh just to describe the the habits because I I don’t know of how we grow in Christlikeness without Christ-like habits. I just I know no other way. I Told people in our congregation, if I had uh a magic wand or magic fairy dust to make you Christ-like, I would wave it and sprinkle it upon you. Yeah. Uh, but it’s only through the habits. Yeah. Well, this is only just a few of the nuggets in your book. I have appreciated it so much, and I do hope it finds a wide audience. Uh so thank you for this contribution to the world of spiritual formation. Uh we’re running out of time today. Um how can people People find you online?
Alex Sosler: I am on very not a lot social media, so I am I have a profile for X, formerly known as Twitter, uh, Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn, and I have a website that I’m updating currently, so that’s something. Um, but yeah, those are some ways to connect with me through social media. I check them some, um, but I’m not a very exciting presence, I’m sorry to say.
Derek Vreeland: Well, I thought people may be interested in just following you, following your journey. And uh I want to encourage you if you’re listening today, go get a copy of a short guide to spiritual formation by my guest today, Alex Sossler. I can’t recommend this book enough. Alex, wonderful to meet you. Thank you for joining us today.
Alex Sosler: Absolutely. Thanks for having me. It was great.
Derek Vreeland: This is such a lively conversation about theology and Bible and philosophy and spiritual formation. I hope you have enjoyed it today. And that’s it for this episode. Thanks for joining us. Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.