The Gravity of Joy: A Theologian on Finding Joy in the Midst of Grief, Loss, and Suffering

She was hired by Yale University to study joy. Then she lost three family members in four weeks.

There is perhaps no more honest setup for a conversation about what joy actually is, and what it is not.

In this episode of Good Is In The Details, Gwendolyn Dolske and Rudy Salo sit down with Dr. Angela Gorrell (theologian, author, speaker, and former research scholar at the Yale Center for Faith and Culture) for one of the most moving, honest, and genuinely profound conversations this show has ever had. Gwendolyn read Dr. Gorrell's book in one sitting. She cried. This episode will help you understand why.

Shortly after being hired at Yale to work on the Theology of Joy and the Good Life project, Dr. Gorrell received word that a close family member had died by suicide. Less than a month later, she lost her father to fatal opioid addiction and her nephew — only twenty-two years old — to sudden cardiac arrest. Three deaths in four weeks. The theoretical joy she was being paid to research suddenly felt shallow, distant, and completely unreachable.

But joy, it turned out, was closer than it seemed, and it arrived from the most unexpected direction. As Dr. Gorrell began volunteering at a women's maximum-security prison, she met people who had suffered enormously and yet still showed a tremendous, unmistakable capacity for joy. What she discovered changed everything she thought she understood about what joy is, where it comes from, and what it requires of us.

The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found — called "searingly honest, devastatingly painful, profoundly wise, and beautiful" by reviewers, and described by Booklist as a book anyone can connect with regardless of faith background — is the record of that discovery. And this conversation brings it to life.

What we explore in this episode:

• What joy actually is, and what it definitively is not (it is not happiness, not the absence of pain, and not something you manufacture through positive thinking)
• Why joy doesn't obliterate grief, and why it has a mysterious capacity to be felt alongside sorrow, and even most especially in the midst of suffering
• What Dr. Gorrell found at a women's maximum-security prison that she couldn't find anywhere else, and what incarcerated women taught a Yale theologian about resilience, community, and joy
• The philosophy and theology of joy as a "counteragent to despair" and why America's crises of addiction, suicide, and isolation make this one of the most urgent questions of our time
• What the simple things, the ones we overlook, have to do with the most profound experiences of joy
• The difference between seeking joy and becoming postured toward it, open to its possibility even in the unlikeliest places
• What community has to do with joy, and why we can drink from each other's wells when our own runs dry
• How to find meaning when grief has taken hold, and what it looks like to keep going anyway

This is the episode for anyone who has ever wondered whether joy is still available to them. The answer, Dr. Gorrell argues with her whole life, is yes.

Guest: Dr. Angela Gorrell — theologian, author, speaker, and consultant. Former research scholar, Yale Center for Faith and Culture. Author of The Gravity of Joy: A Story of Being Lost and Found and Always On: Practicing Faith in a New Media Landscape. Her research has been highlighted in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and NPR. She has provided thought leadership for organizations including the US Army and the NBA.

Good Is In The Details is hosted by Gwendolyn Dolske, Ph.D. and Rudy Salo — a philosophy, books, and ideas podcast exploring the examined life in the spirit of Socrates.

Learn more about Angela's work: https://www.angelagorrell.com

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