Jesus the Yanker
Free Radicals and Antioxidants
A friend, a chemist by training, asks me what I think about free radicals. At first, I think he is talking about figures like Jesus, Dorothy Day, Mohandas Gandhi, or Rosa Parks. However, I quickly realize he is referring to molecules—those unstable particles that lack paired electrons and destabilize other molecules by yanking electrons away. Many of them are dangerous and cause disease. I worry about that. Then he reminds me of antioxidants - molecules that donate electrons to free radicals, neutralizing them and preventing potential damage. I feel a bit better.
Many Christians I know often think of Jesus as a kind of self-giving antioxidant, one who protects and preserves established orders. But as I reflect more deeply, I realize that Jesus is, at the very least, a free radical as well. He disrupts established norms, challenges the status quo, and, in doing so, destabilizes the old order of wealth and entitlement. He hopes to set off a chain reaction, just like free radicals, too. My friend explains that free radicals have positive functions, too. I feel better. I find myself thinking that Jesus might have been a free radical and an antioxidant, but troubled by the fact that so many Christians forget the radical side of Jesus.
I want to lift up the possibility that Jesus is a disruptor, a "yanker," whose mission is to bring forth a new social order filled with equality and love but also to destabilize the old order of hatred and hierarchy. And to highlight the idea that God, particularly as understood in process theology, is a lure toward novelty who requires disruption as well as construction for a necessary balance in life, not only for individuals but for societies. This page is that exploration, with thanks to biochemistry for the imagery.
Many Christians I know often think of Jesus as a kind of self-giving antioxidant, one who protects and preserves established orders. But as I reflect more deeply, I realize that Jesus is, at the very least, a free radical as well. He disrupts established norms, challenges the status quo, and, in doing so, destabilizes the old order of wealth and entitlement. He hopes to set off a chain reaction, just like free radicals, too. My friend explains that free radicals have positive functions, too. I feel better. I find myself thinking that Jesus might have been a free radical and an antioxidant, but troubled by the fact that so many Christians forget the radical side of Jesus.
I want to lift up the possibility that Jesus is a disruptor, a "yanker," whose mission is to bring forth a new social order filled with equality and love but also to destabilize the old order of hatred and hierarchy. And to highlight the idea that God, particularly as understood in process theology, is a lure toward novelty who requires disruption as well as construction for a necessary balance in life, not only for individuals but for societies. This page is that exploration, with thanks to biochemistry for the imagery.
Part I: Jesus as a "Free Radical"
Jane Marvel is a chemistry major at a local liberal arts college, with aspirations of becoming a pharmacist. Recently, in a course in biochemistry, she's been diving into the study of free radicals and antioxidants. Her teacher explains that free radicals are highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons, known for their ability to cause cellular damage by initiating chain reactions that disrupt normal functions. They yank electrons from other stable molecules, destabilizing them. However, these same free radicals also play crucial roles in essential physiological processes, such as immune response and cell signaling, acting as catalysts for necessary changes within the body. Antioxidants, on the other hand, are molecules that neutralize free radicals, preventing them from causing harm and maintaining the balance necessary for cellular health. They are stabilizers, not destabilizers.
As a Christian, Jane begins to wonder if these chemical interactions might offer half-playful but half-serious images Jesus. Initially, she thinks of Jesus as an antioxidant—a protective and stabilizing force, bringing peace, harmony, and healing to the world. But as she reflects further, she starts to reconsider. Could Jesus, with his revolutionary actions and teachings, be more akin to a free radical? Like free radicals, which challenge and provoke change in biological systems, could Jesus' role in the spiritual and societal realms be one of disruption, challenging the status quo, and driving transformation?
Jane begins explore the idea, made clear in the New Testament, that Jesus might be seen not just as a preserver of peace but as a catalyst for radical change, urging people to move beyond complacency and embrace a deeper, more dynamic relationship with God and each other. Jesus, with his radical love and teachings, challenged the established norms of his time. He disrupted the comfortable complacency of religious and societal structures, compelling people to re-examine their lives and relationships with God and each other.
Jesus' actions—healing the sick, befriending the marginalized, and challenging the powerful—can be seen as spiritual "oxidative stress." Just as free radicals can cause temporary damage in their quest to provoke a response, Jesus' words and deeds sometimes led to conflict, misunderstanding, and even hostility. However, these disruptions were not without purpose. They were necessary to awaken a deeper awareness, provoke spiritual growth, and ultimately bring about transformation. Jesus did not come to maintain the status quo; he came to bring about a radical change—a new covenant between God and humanity.
In contrast, antioxidants in the spiritual realm could be likened to the forces that maintain stability and continuity within the community—traditions, rituals, and practices that preserve the faith. These are not to be undervalued, as they provide the structure and support necessary for the community to thrive. Yet, without the challenge of a "free radical" like Jesus, these practices can become stagnant, more focused on preservation than on the dynamic, evolving relationship with God.
It is important to note that Jesus was not merely a disruptive force for the sake of chaos. Like free radicals in the body that also play essential roles in immune defense and signaling, Jesus' actions were always directed towards a higher purpose—bringing healing, revealing truth, and restoring the broken. His radical approach was necessary to cleanse and renew, much like how free radicals can trigger vital biological processes that keep us alive and healthy.
Part II: Divine Guidance
In process theology, God is often understood as a lure, gently guiding creation toward greater harmony, complexity, and fulfillment. This divine lure is an invitation to find the right balance between stability and disruption—a balance crucial for both personal and communal growth. When a society or spiritual community becomes too entrenched in its ways, resistant to necessary change, God’s lure may manifest as a call to embrace new ideas, question the status quo, and open up to transformation. Conversely, when disruption becomes too overwhelming, threatening to destabilize the community or lead to chaos, God’s lure guides the community back toward a place of balance, urging a return to foundational values and structures. Through this dynamic guidance, God helps navigate the dance between continuity and innovation, ensuring that both individual and collective growth are nurtured in a healthy, sustainable way.
This balance, however, is never static; it must always be in process. Just as the conditions within the human body continuously change, requiring constant adjustment between free radicals and antioxidants, so too must societies and spiritual communities remain fluid and adaptable. The balance between stability and disruption is not a fixed state to be achieved once and for all, but a dynamic equilibrium that must be continuously maintained and recalibrated in response to changing circumstances and new challenges.
This ongoing process of adjustment is essential for preventing stagnation and ensuring that growth is both sustainable and responsive to the evolving needs of the community.
The biological need for equilibrium between free radicals and antioxidants illustrates this concept well.
Free radicals are reactive molecules that, in excess, can cause damage to cells, proteins, and DNA, potentially leading to diseases and accelerating aging. However, free radicals also play essential roles in processes like immune response and cell signaling, helping the body defend against pathogens and adapt to changes. To prevent free radicals from causing excessive harm, the body relies on antioxidants, which neutralize these radicals by donating electrons without becoming reactive themselves. This balance between free radicals and antioxidants is crucial for maintaining health, but it is a balance that must be constantly adjusted as the body responds to internal and external changes.
Societies and spiritual communities function similarly to the human body in that they require a balance between stability and disruption to thrive. Stability provides the foundation that allows societies to function smoothly, offering a sense of order, continuity, and security. Social norms, traditions, laws, and institutions help maintain this stability, ensuring that communities are cohesive and predictable. In spiritual communities, stability is found in shared beliefs, rituals, and practices that provide a sense of identity and continuity. However, disruption—like the role of free radicals—is equally important. Disruption comes in the form of radical ideas, social movements, and challenges to the status quo. These forces are necessary for growth and evolution because they question established norms, highlight injustices, and push for progress. Without such disruptions, societies and spiritual communities can become stagnant, stuck in outdated practices or oppressive structures that no longer serve the common good.
Throughout history, transformative figures like Moses, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Prophet Muhammad, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai, and Malala Yousafzai have acted as "free radicals," challenging entrenched systems and norms to bring about profound spiritual, social, and cultural change. These leaders, from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, have inspired movements for justice, compassion, and human rights, shaping the moral and ethical frameworks of societies across the world.
The challenge, then, is to find the right balance between stability and disruption, while recognizing that this balance itself is an ongoing process. Just as the body maintains health through a delicate, ever-shifting balance of free radicals and antioxidants, societies and spiritual communities must continuously navigate the tension between stability and disruption to grow and evolve. Too much radicalism can lead to chaos, eroding trust in institutions and destabilizing social bonds. On the other hand, too much stability can lead to rigidity, resistance to change, and eventual decay. A healthy society or spiritual community welcomes radical ideas and movements as catalysts for growth while maintaining a stable foundation that allows for constructive dialogue and integration of new perspectives.
In short, just as the body needs a balanced, dynamic equilibrium of free radicals and antioxidants to maintain health, societies and spiritual communities require an ongoing balance between stability and disruption to thrive. This balance, constantly in process, ensures that change is both meaningful and sustainable, leading to an environment where individuals and communities can grow, adapt, and evolve without descending into chaos or becoming stagnant. Through the divine lure, God gently guides this process, helping us navigate the delicate, ever-changing dance between continuity and innovation.
Jane Marvel is a chemistry major at a local liberal arts college, with aspirations of becoming a pharmacist. Recently, in a course in biochemistry, she's been diving into the study of free radicals and antioxidants. Her teacher explains that free radicals are highly reactive molecules with unpaired electrons, known for their ability to cause cellular damage by initiating chain reactions that disrupt normal functions. They yank electrons from other stable molecules, destabilizing them. However, these same free radicals also play crucial roles in essential physiological processes, such as immune response and cell signaling, acting as catalysts for necessary changes within the body. Antioxidants, on the other hand, are molecules that neutralize free radicals, preventing them from causing harm and maintaining the balance necessary for cellular health. They are stabilizers, not destabilizers.
As a Christian, Jane begins to wonder if these chemical interactions might offer half-playful but half-serious images Jesus. Initially, she thinks of Jesus as an antioxidant—a protective and stabilizing force, bringing peace, harmony, and healing to the world. But as she reflects further, she starts to reconsider. Could Jesus, with his revolutionary actions and teachings, be more akin to a free radical? Like free radicals, which challenge and provoke change in biological systems, could Jesus' role in the spiritual and societal realms be one of disruption, challenging the status quo, and driving transformation?
Jane begins explore the idea, made clear in the New Testament, that Jesus might be seen not just as a preserver of peace but as a catalyst for radical change, urging people to move beyond complacency and embrace a deeper, more dynamic relationship with God and each other. Jesus, with his radical love and teachings, challenged the established norms of his time. He disrupted the comfortable complacency of religious and societal structures, compelling people to re-examine their lives and relationships with God and each other.
Jesus' actions—healing the sick, befriending the marginalized, and challenging the powerful—can be seen as spiritual "oxidative stress." Just as free radicals can cause temporary damage in their quest to provoke a response, Jesus' words and deeds sometimes led to conflict, misunderstanding, and even hostility. However, these disruptions were not without purpose. They were necessary to awaken a deeper awareness, provoke spiritual growth, and ultimately bring about transformation. Jesus did not come to maintain the status quo; he came to bring about a radical change—a new covenant between God and humanity.
In contrast, antioxidants in the spiritual realm could be likened to the forces that maintain stability and continuity within the community—traditions, rituals, and practices that preserve the faith. These are not to be undervalued, as they provide the structure and support necessary for the community to thrive. Yet, without the challenge of a "free radical" like Jesus, these practices can become stagnant, more focused on preservation than on the dynamic, evolving relationship with God.
It is important to note that Jesus was not merely a disruptive force for the sake of chaos. Like free radicals in the body that also play essential roles in immune defense and signaling, Jesus' actions were always directed towards a higher purpose—bringing healing, revealing truth, and restoring the broken. His radical approach was necessary to cleanse and renew, much like how free radicals can trigger vital biological processes that keep us alive and healthy.
Part II: Divine Guidance
In process theology, God is often understood as a lure, gently guiding creation toward greater harmony, complexity, and fulfillment. This divine lure is an invitation to find the right balance between stability and disruption—a balance crucial for both personal and communal growth. When a society or spiritual community becomes too entrenched in its ways, resistant to necessary change, God’s lure may manifest as a call to embrace new ideas, question the status quo, and open up to transformation. Conversely, when disruption becomes too overwhelming, threatening to destabilize the community or lead to chaos, God’s lure guides the community back toward a place of balance, urging a return to foundational values and structures. Through this dynamic guidance, God helps navigate the dance between continuity and innovation, ensuring that both individual and collective growth are nurtured in a healthy, sustainable way.
This balance, however, is never static; it must always be in process. Just as the conditions within the human body continuously change, requiring constant adjustment between free radicals and antioxidants, so too must societies and spiritual communities remain fluid and adaptable. The balance between stability and disruption is not a fixed state to be achieved once and for all, but a dynamic equilibrium that must be continuously maintained and recalibrated in response to changing circumstances and new challenges.
This ongoing process of adjustment is essential for preventing stagnation and ensuring that growth is both sustainable and responsive to the evolving needs of the community.
The biological need for equilibrium between free radicals and antioxidants illustrates this concept well.
Free radicals are reactive molecules that, in excess, can cause damage to cells, proteins, and DNA, potentially leading to diseases and accelerating aging. However, free radicals also play essential roles in processes like immune response and cell signaling, helping the body defend against pathogens and adapt to changes. To prevent free radicals from causing excessive harm, the body relies on antioxidants, which neutralize these radicals by donating electrons without becoming reactive themselves. This balance between free radicals and antioxidants is crucial for maintaining health, but it is a balance that must be constantly adjusted as the body responds to internal and external changes.
Societies and spiritual communities function similarly to the human body in that they require a balance between stability and disruption to thrive. Stability provides the foundation that allows societies to function smoothly, offering a sense of order, continuity, and security. Social norms, traditions, laws, and institutions help maintain this stability, ensuring that communities are cohesive and predictable. In spiritual communities, stability is found in shared beliefs, rituals, and practices that provide a sense of identity and continuity. However, disruption—like the role of free radicals—is equally important. Disruption comes in the form of radical ideas, social movements, and challenges to the status quo. These forces are necessary for growth and evolution because they question established norms, highlight injustices, and push for progress. Without such disruptions, societies and spiritual communities can become stagnant, stuck in outdated practices or oppressive structures that no longer serve the common good.
Throughout history, transformative figures like Moses, Gautama Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, Prophet Muhammad, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Nelson Mandela, Wangari Maathai, and Malala Yousafzai have acted as "free radicals," challenging entrenched systems and norms to bring about profound spiritual, social, and cultural change. These leaders, from diverse religious and cultural backgrounds, have inspired movements for justice, compassion, and human rights, shaping the moral and ethical frameworks of societies across the world.
The challenge, then, is to find the right balance between stability and disruption, while recognizing that this balance itself is an ongoing process. Just as the body maintains health through a delicate, ever-shifting balance of free radicals and antioxidants, societies and spiritual communities must continuously navigate the tension between stability and disruption to grow and evolve. Too much radicalism can lead to chaos, eroding trust in institutions and destabilizing social bonds. On the other hand, too much stability can lead to rigidity, resistance to change, and eventual decay. A healthy society or spiritual community welcomes radical ideas and movements as catalysts for growth while maintaining a stable foundation that allows for constructive dialogue and integration of new perspectives.
In short, just as the body needs a balanced, dynamic equilibrium of free radicals and antioxidants to maintain health, societies and spiritual communities require an ongoing balance between stability and disruption to thrive. This balance, constantly in process, ensures that change is both meaningful and sustainable, leading to an environment where individuals and communities can grow, adapt, and evolve without descending into chaos or becoming stagnant. Through the divine lure, God gently guides this process, helping us navigate the delicate, ever-changing dance between continuity and innovation.
Free Radicals
from BBC's In our Time with Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the properties of atoms or molecules with a single unpaired electron, which tend to be more reactive, keen to seize an electron to make it a pair. In the atmosphere, they are linked to reactions such as rusting. Free radicals came to prominence in the 1950s with the discovery that radiation poisoning operates through free radicals, as it splits water molecules and produces a very reactive hydroxyl radical which damages DNA and other molecules in the cell. There is also an argument that free radicals are a byproduct of normal respiration and over time they cause an accumulation of damage that is effectively the process of ageing. For all their negative associations, free radicals play an important role in signalling and are also linked with driving cell division, both cancer and normal cell division, even if they tend to become damaging when there are too many of them. With Nick Lane, Professor of Evolutionary Biochemistry at University College London; Anna Croft, Associate Professor at the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nottingham; and Mike Murphy Professor of Mitochondrial Redox Biology at Cambridge University
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Videos on Molecular Free Radicals
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