Rob Lorenz was a National Park Ranger who spent time working at places Arches National Park in Utah and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. One of his favorite things to do was to give tours and ranger talks to groups, explaining the extraordinary places of natural beauty in ways that were accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. During a post in Washington, DC, where he worked near the National Mall at places like the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, he started feeling like God might be calling him to something else.
Long story short, Rob joined the USA East Coast province of the Jesuits in 2019. Today, he’s in the stage of formation called regency, which is typically two or three years of active ministry that falls in between periods of philosophy and theology study. Rob is spending his regency as the outreach coordinator for the Vatican Observatory. Founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, the Vatican Observatory is led by Jesuit astronomers who are doing high-level scientific research in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and Tucson, Arizona. Rob’s job is to speak with groups about the wonders of the cosmos and the work the observatory – a job not too dissimilar from what he was doing as a National Park Ranger. He stopped by our Washington, DC, studio recently for a conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey.
Rob Lorenz, SJ: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/profile/rob-lorenz-s-j/
The Vatican Observatory: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/
AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.
www.jesuits.org/
www.beajesuit.org/
twitter.com/jesuitnews
facebook.com/Jesuits
instagram.com/wearethejesuits
youtube.com/societyofjesus
www.jesuitmedialab.org/
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Rob Lorenz was a National Park Ranger who spent time working at places Arches National Park in Utah and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. One of his favorite things to do was to give tours and ranger talks to groups, explaining the extraordinary places of natural beauty in ways that were accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. During a post in Washington, DC, where he worked near the National Mall at places like the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, he started feeling like God might be calling him to something else.
Long story short, Rob joined the USA East Coast province of the Jesuits in 2019. Today, he’s in the stage of formation called regency, which is typically two or three years of active ministry that falls in between periods of philosophy and theology study. Rob is spending his regency as the outreach coordinator for the Vatican Observatory. Founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, the Vatican Observatory is led by Jesuit astronomers who are doing high-level scientific research in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and Tucson, Arizona. Rob’s job is to speak with groups about the wonders of the cosmos and the work the observatory – a job not too dissimilar from what he was doing as a National Park Ranger. He stopped by our Washington, DC, studio recently for a conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey.
Rob Lorenz, SJ: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/profile/rob-lorenz-s-j/
The Vatican Observatory: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/
AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.
www.jesuits.org/
www.beajesuit.org/
twitter.com/jesuitnews
facebook.com/Jesuits
instagram.com/wearethejesuits
youtube.com/societyofjesus
www.jesuitmedialab.org/
How To Embrace a Theology of Flourishing with Dr. Paul Schutz
AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast
51 minutes 16 seconds
2 months ago
How To Embrace a Theology of Flourishing with Dr. Paul Schutz
What does it mean to flourish? What does it mean for you to flourish? Have you ever really thought about it?
Too often, we’re forced to focus on mere survival. We limit our gaze to that which will get us through this moment and into the next. Too often, we obsess on all the things we’ve done wrong; we’re haunted by mistakes, fearful we’ll repeat past errors. Too often, we embody a disposition of scarcity, assuming there’s not really enough to go around and anything we’ve got must be protected at all costs.
What does it mean to flourish? None of that, that’s for sure. But do we dare dream about abundance? Do we even remember that Jesus told us that he came so that we may have life and have it abundantly?
God desires that we flourish. That’s why God created a good world. And that’s why today’s guest, Dr. Paul Schutz, has written a new book from Orbis Press called “A Theology of Flourishing: The Fullness of Life for All Creation.”
Paul is an associate professor of religious studies at Santa Clara University. He received his B.A. in English from Boston College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Fordham University. His research focuses on the meaning and significance of creation in the Christian tradition, with an emphasis on how scientific research might inform religious accounts of humanity's relationship with other-than-human creatures.
As you’ll hear, his book is a great resource to anyone looking to reimagine and reorient our relationship to creation.
About Paul: https://www.scu.edu/cas/religious-studies/faculty--staff/paul-schutz/
Get his book: https://orbisbooks.com/collections/new-titles-spring-2026/products/creaturely-flourishing-a-new-theology-of-creation?variant=49699836920109
AMDG: A Jesuit Podcast
Rob Lorenz was a National Park Ranger who spent time working at places Arches National Park in Utah and Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. One of his favorite things to do was to give tours and ranger talks to groups, explaining the extraordinary places of natural beauty in ways that were accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds. During a post in Washington, DC, where he worked near the National Mall at places like the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, he started feeling like God might be calling him to something else.
Long story short, Rob joined the USA East Coast province of the Jesuits in 2019. Today, he’s in the stage of formation called regency, which is typically two or three years of active ministry that falls in between periods of philosophy and theology study. Rob is spending his regency as the outreach coordinator for the Vatican Observatory. Founded in 1891 by Pope Leo XIII, the Vatican Observatory is led by Jesuit astronomers who are doing high-level scientific research in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and Tucson, Arizona. Rob’s job is to speak with groups about the wonders of the cosmos and the work the observatory – a job not too dissimilar from what he was doing as a National Park Ranger. He stopped by our Washington, DC, studio recently for a conversation with host Mike Jordan Laskey.
Rob Lorenz, SJ: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/profile/rob-lorenz-s-j/
The Vatican Observatory: https://www.vaticanobservatory.org/
AMDG is a production of the Jesuit Media Lab, which is a project of the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States.
www.jesuits.org/
www.beajesuit.org/
twitter.com/jesuitnews
facebook.com/Jesuits
instagram.com/wearethejesuits
youtube.com/societyofjesus
www.jesuitmedialab.org/
