Dreaming Together: Dealing with Conflict, Finding Belonging, and Doing Justice with Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra
Dreaming Together: Dealing with Conflict, Finding Belonging, and Doing Justice with Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra  
Podcast: With and For hosted by Dr. Pam King
Published On: Mon Mar 11 2024
Description: Wellbeing begins with we. “If your community is not well, then you are not well.” Thriving is collective. But our atomic individualism and narrow focus on ourselves is constantly pulling us away from the mutual belonging, reciprocity, and vibrant flourishing that can only be found by seeking the good of the wider human community—the neighbor, the stranger, the migrant, the farm worker, and the poor. Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra is a scholar, organizer, activist, and pastor, and is Academic Dean of the Centro Latino as well as the Assistant Professor of Integral Mission and Global Transformation at Fuller Theological Seminary. She offers a healing message for those who wrestle with the pain and suffering caused by structural and systemic injustice, calling for listening, empathy, and action. Alexia’s faith is rooted in community and kinship. She affirms the wisdom of the body and cautions against over-intellectualization, offering instead a larger emotional vocabulary, emotional attunement, and the ability to hold and live with complex feelings. The power of community is on display in our ability to celebrate and suffer together. And in Alexia’s work as an activist, she shows how fractured communities can reconcile through the power of a shared dream. In this conversation with Alexia Salvatierra, we discuss: The unique wisdom that Latin- a/o culture brings to spiritual and theological conversations about thriving and spiritual health The complex, communal, and collective nature of thriving How her theology as a Lutheran pastor was formed by compassion and concern for the poor The challenge of Western Christians to see beyond individualistic rationality and the atomic unit of the self when thinking about wellness and thriving The transformative potential of a common dream to unify and reconcile The power of beautiful stories that are deeply connected to truth and goodness Seeing relationships as not just an end goal of thriving, but a means to thriving. About Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra is the Academic Dean of the Centro Latino at Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as the Assistant Professor of Integral Mission and Global Transformation. Her work is a beautiful mosaic of immigration reform, faith-rooted organizing, cross-cultural ministry, and building vital holistic Christian community. Throughout her career, she’s played a central role in founding and convening communities for social justice, including the New Sanctuary Movement, the Guardian angels Project. Matteo 25 a bipartisan Christian network to protect and defend families facing deportation, the Evangelical Immigration Table, and the Ecumenical Collaboration for Asylum-Seekers. She is co-author of God's Resistance: Mobilizing Faith to Defend Immigrants and Buried Seeds: Learning from the Vibrant Resiliency of Marginalized Christian Communities. About the Thrive Center Learn more at thethrivecenter.org. Follow us on Instagram @thrivecenter Follow us on X @thrivecenter Follow us on LinkedIn @thethrivecenter   About Dr. Pam King Dr. Pam King is Executive Director the Thrive Center and is Peter L. Benson Professor of Applied Developmental Science at Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.  Follow her @drpamking.   About With & For Host: Pam King Senior Director and Producer: Jill Westbrook Operations Manager: Lauren Kim Social Media Graphic Designer: Wren Juergensen Special thanks to the team at Fuller Studio and the Fuller School of Psychology & Marriage and Family Therapy.