Episode 24
Love Your Enemies: Cancel Culture, Suffering & Faith
Featuring Dr. Cornel West
August 18, 2026
Philosopher and public intellectual Cornel West joins Cornerstone University President Gerson Moreno-Riaño on the Wisdom and Influence podcast for a conversation on faith, moral formation, and the challenges of contemporary culture. West, who holds the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary and is Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, reflects on the moral and spiritual foundation he received from his family and Shiloh Baptist Church in Sacramento, tracing how it shaped his understanding of the Bible’s role in American public life. The discussion explores a Christian theology of suffering and its redemptive power, the conviction required to follow Christ in a comfort-driven culture, and the dangers artificial intelligence poses when it displaces a rich human anthropology grounded in the Imago Dei. Best known for Race Matters and Democracy Matters, West draws on figures from Plato to Dostoevsky to Bonhoeffer, offering listeners a profound meditation on how Christian faith, philosophical wisdom, and cultural engagement intersect.