The #1 Theology podcast on planet earth with Dr. Tripp Fuller.
Each episode features an extended interview with a different scholar from a variety of perspectives. Enjoy.
The #1 Theology podcast on planet earth with Dr. Tripp Fuller.
Each episode features an extended interview with a different scholar from a variety of perspectives. Enjoy.
Copyright: © Homebrewed Christianity 2008-Tomorrow
Brian Zahnd returns to the podcast to discuss his fresh book The Wood Between Worlds. In the conversation, we discuss his kaleidoscopic theopoetics of the cross, the glorious metaphor of the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings, Trump’s ability to channel the speech of Mordor, and his mission to evangelize Christians smitten with empire religion. After you hear this, you will want to grab your ticket to Theology Beer Camp so you can hang out with BZ in the flesh!
Renowned for his intellectually stimulating sermons and his deep-rooted respect for the church’s rich history, Brian Zahnd provides a platform for pastors to interact with leading theologians and is a sought-after conference speaker. His literary contributions, including When Everything’s on Fire, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, A Farewell to Mars, and Beauty Will Save the World.
Check out his new book The Wood Between Worlds
If you haven’t heard Andy Serkis read The Lord of the Rings, do yourself a favor and be transformed by peak narration.
Previous Episodes with BZ
In this episode of Homebrewed Christianity’s Process This series on Artificial Intelligence, Tripp is joined by Noreen
Herzfeld, a professor of science and religion, about the intersections of AI, ethics, and theology. They discuss the relational aspects of human existence often overlooked by technology, the theological perspectives on embodiment and relationship in the context of AGI, and the ethical challenges AI poses in caregiving and military decisions. Additionally, the episode highlights the significant environmental costs of AI technologies, with startling statistics about server farm energy consumption, and examines the Vatican’s stance on ecological issues and AI’s sustainability. Religious wisdom is emphasized as crucial in navigating the ethical and ecological questions posed by AI.
Noreen L. Herzfeld is Reuter Professor of Science and Religion at St. John’s University and senior research associate with ZRS Koper. A theologian and computer scientist, she is the author of several books, including The Artifice of Intelligence: Divine and Human Relationship in a Robotic Age and In Our Image: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Spirit.
Step into the interactive world of the inaugural ‘Process This‘ series, a journey into the realm of Artificial Intelligence and the human future. Kester Brewin returns to the podcast to set up a series of interviews with scholars across the disciplines, all helping us wrestle with the reality of AI and how it is reshaping humanity and our future. This episode dives into the technological, ethical, spiritual, political, and economic questions surrounding AI. Unearth the historical evolution of societal views on slavery, the implications of AI on the workforce, and the significant role of films, literature, and myths in shaping our perception of technology and social issues. Engage in lively discussions with renowned scholars and experts and contribute to the conversation through shared resources and suggestions for future topics.
To listen to the series of interviews and participate, engage, and get extra content along with a growing collection of related resources, head over to our new substack – Process This!
Kester Brewin is an author, speaker, 25-year veteran of the classroom, and now Head of Communications at the Institute for the Future of Work, a research charity exploring how AI impacts the UK labour market. His most recent book, God-Like: a 500-year History of AI, is not only a powerful telling of humanity’s ongoing relationship with technology and a reflection on the current questions surrounding AI, but it is also a powerful and compelling work of radical theology.
Adult VBS with Walter Brueggemann, Kester Brewin, and Kristen Howerton
Plundering Religion with Kester Brewin, Peter Rollins, & Barry Taylor #Mutiny
Philip Clayton was my PhD advisor and remains a mentor and friend. We scheduled a live stream session where we planned to explore contemporary options for the doctrine of God by developing a typology of live options, but when we learned of Moltmann’s passing, it seemed fitting to pivot our plan and reflect on the life, thought, and impact of Moltmann for Christian Theology.
As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization. As a disciple of Jesus, he finds himself energized by the Spirit in the Quaker community.
Practical Theologian and friend of the pod, Andrew Root, is back on the podcast to discuss the most contentious parts of his newest book Church in an Age of Secular Mysticisms. Our conversation delves deep into some tenuous topics: secular mysticisms, identity politics, spiritual memoirs, the politics of recognition, Rousseau’s anthropology, post-COVID parties in Paris, the modern moral order, JK Rowlings, tribal politics, and the intersections of practical theology with contemporary social and cultural philosophy. So, buckle your safety belts because this will be a provocative journey.
Join us for the online Bonhoeffer Salon! You can sign up here.
You can also join us ONLINE or at Princeton Theological Seminary for The Church, The Pastor, And Resonance In An Accelerated Age Theological Conversations With Hartmut Rosa.
Andrew Root is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, USA. He writes and researches in areas of theology, ministry, culture, and younger generations. Some of his most recent books are The Congregation in a Secular Age (Baker, 2021), The End of Youth Ministry? (Baker, 2020), The Pastor in a Secular Age: Ministry to People Who No Longer Need God (Baker, 2019), Faith Formation in a Secular Age (Baker, 2017), and Exploding Stars, Dead Dinosaurs, and Zombies: Youth Ministry in the Age of Science (Fortress Press, 2018). Andy has worked in congregations, parachurch ministries, and social service programs. He lives in St. Paul with his wife Kara, two children, Owen and Maisy, and their dog. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Andy spends far too much time watching TV and movies.
Brian Kaylor and Beau Underwood, authors of Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism, joined me for a live-streamed conversation where we discussed the book and a bunch of listener questions inspired by their recent lectures linked below.
Lecture One: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism
Lecture Two: How Mainline Protestants Still Perpetuate Christian Nationalism
In the face of a rising threat to both church and democracy, “Baptizing America” provides an urgent examination and an enlightening critique exposing the dangerous undercurrents of Christian Nationalism. How can Mainline Protestants spot such practices in their own activities? A crucial call to reckon with influences before it’s too late.
Brian Kaylor is a Baptist pastor with a Ph.D in Political Communication. He serves as President & Editor-in-Chief of Word&Way, a Christian publication founded in 1896.
Beau Underwood is senior minister at Allisonville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis, Indiana, and a Senior Editor with Word&Way. He is also pursuing a doctorate in Public Affairs. Adriene Thorne is the senior pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City.
In this episode, Tripp is joined by Dr. Benjamin Chikca. They delve into the intriguing intersection of theology, ethics, and video games, spotlighting Chicka’s book, ‘Playing as Others: Theology and Ethical Responsibility in Video Games.’ The discussion spans topics such as the impact of cultural and ethical narratives within indie video games, the relevance of figures like Paul Tillich and Emmanuel Levinas, and the evolving representation of diversity in gaming. In the conversation, we discuss:
Benjamin J. Chicka is Lecturer in Philosophy and Religious Studies at Curry College in Milton, MA. He is a philosophical theologian whose work connects classical American pragmatism, process theology, and ground-of-being theology. Such bridge-building between supposedly incompatible positions reflects his conviction that intrareligious pluralism is as important as interreligious pluralism for the future of theology.
Tripp & Diana were pumped to have Tim Whitaker from The New Evangelicals join us for this edition of Ruining Dinner and our upcoming open online class – Faith and Politics for the Rest of Us. Our contemporary public square is increasingly chaotic, toxic, and repulsive. Yet, our challenges as a people, nation, and species are growing. The rise of Christian Nationalism repulses a growing number of Christians who have a hard time thinking and speaking from a more vibrant theological vision. We are bringing together several alternative theo-political visions to introduce a multiplicity of vibrant, yet neglected traditions in public theology. With the help of some of the most powerful voices in the academy, participants will be introduced to these traditions and get to put them into action as we wrestle with our present moment, discovering the potential for an alternative public Christian witness. In a time where the public square is increasingly tribal and algorithmically addicted to outrage, over-simplification, and performative politics, a tour of these rich yet neglected theological traditions can inspire and fund a more vibrant Christian voice in the public square as we seek to embody the love of neighbor to which we are called. This class is donation based (including 0), so join the fun and tell your friends:) www.FaithAndPolitics.net
Come hang out with us at Theology Beer Camp, Oct. 17-19 in Denver. Yse the code HOBBITCOTTAGE for a discount
If you want to join our regular online hangs, head over to Diana’s substack community, the Cottage, or the Homebrewed Community.
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
In this exhilarating discussion with Ilia Delio, we are taken on a profound journey through the intersection of theology, science, and the future of humanity in the shadow of burgeoning technological advancements. Delio, known for her insightful work on integrating science and religion, shares invigorating ideas from her latest book, “The Not Yet God,”delving into how our traditional understanding of divinity must evolve in the face of our rapidly changing world.
In this conversation, we cover…
Check out her new book The Not-Yet-God here.
Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, and American theologian specializing in science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics, and neuroscience and the import of these for theology.
Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and is the author of twenty books, including Care for Creation (coauthored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods) which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009, first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book The Emergent Christwon a third-place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her recent books include The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third-place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015 and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.
Ilia’s previous visit to the podcast:
In this episode, I am joined by philosopher Tad Delay to discuss his new book, The Future of Denial: The Ideologies of Climate Change. We dive into the critical need for humanity to confront and adapt to the climate crisis. The discussion explores the intricate connections between psychoanalysis, religion, and climate denial across the ideological spectrum. It critiques the inadequacy of current mitigation efforts and emphasizes the urgency of adopting adaptation strategies. The narrative delves into the role of renewable energy, novel legal and grassroots activism, and the importance of preparing for climate migrants, while also considering the socio-economic and psychological impacts of climate-induced migrations.
You can get the book from the publisher Verso discount link 25% off or use promo code DENIAL at checkout.
Check out Tad Delay’s podcast, which explores the book on Apple or Spotify.
In this conversation, we discuss…
Check out Tad’s previous visit to the podcast: God Is Unconscious: Psychoanalysis & Theology
Tad DeLay, PhD is a philosopher, religion scholar, and interdisciplinary critical theorist. His books include Against: What Does the White Evangelical Want?, The Cynic & the Fool, and God Is Unconscious. He is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy in Baltimore.
Tad on Social media: Twitter: @taddelay Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/taddelayauthor Website: taddelay.com Join our upcoming class, FAITH & POLITICS FOR THE REST OF US!Brian McLaren joins me in this episode to discuss his new book Life After Doom. In it, we wrestle with redefining faith, civilization, and ecological consciousness. We delve into theological reflections, reinterpreting religious practices to align with Jesus’s teachings, advocating for a paradigm shift in societal structures, and emphasizing the urgent need for sustainable living. Moreover, we discuss creating inclusive spaces for spiritual growth and action.
Here’s Brian’s new book, Life After Doom: Wisdom & Courage for a World Falling Apart
In the conversation, we discuss Kim Stanley Robinson’s provocative book Ministry for the Future.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English
teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim and Susan Shaw are back on the podcast to discuss their newest co-authored book Surviving God: A New Vision of God through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors. In the conversation, they discuss how traditional ways of thinking about God are highly problematic, contribute to the problems of sexual abuse, and are not reflective of the God of love and justice at the heart of the gospel. We also find out about their next partnership.
Susan M. Shaw is professor of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Oregon State University. Grace Ji-Sun Kim is a professor of theology at Earlham School of Religion and host of the Madang podcast.
The Book: Surviving God: A New Vision of God through the Eyes of Sexual Abuse Survivors
I recently returned to my old hometown, Winston-Salem, NC, for a live podcast at Lot63 in Old Salem. There, I was joined by two of my old Profs at Wake Forest University Divinity School, Dr. Bill Leonard and Dr. Craig Atwood, the brand new Dean of the Divinity School, Dr. Corey Walker, and music from a fellow alum Kyle Caudle.
In this half of the live show, I talk with my former Church History Professor, Bill Leonard, and the new Dean of Wake Forest University Divinity School, Corey Walker. It was one epic live show and a powerful and provocative conversation!
Corey D. B. Walker is Dean of the School of Divinity at Wake Forest University. As a scholar, he’s committed to a broad vision of human flourishing. His research, teaching, and public scholarship span the areas of African American philosophy, critical theory, ethics, and religion and American public life. An accomplished scholar and academic leader, Dean Walker has held faculty and academic leadership appointments at Brown University, University of Virginia, Virginia Union University, and Winston-Salem State University and visiting professorships at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Union Presbyterian Seminary, and the University of Richmond. Dean Walker is the 2023-2024 Phi Beta Kappa Frank M. Updike Scholar. He is author and editor of several books and has published over sixty articles, essays, and book chapters in a wide variety of scholarly journals and publications. A much sought after speaker, Dean Walker engages congregations and communities across the nation and has appeared on a variety of media programs in the United States and abroad.
Bill Leonard is the Founding Dean and Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Wake Divinity. Leonard’s research focuses on Church History with particular attention to American religion, Baptist studies, and Appalachian religion. He is the author or editor of some 25 books including Christianity in Appalachia (1999); Baptist Ways: A History (2003); The Challenge of Being Baptist (2010); Can I Get a Witness?: Essays, Sermons and Reflections (2013); and A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the U.S., (2014). In March 2015 he delivered the William James Lecture on Religious Experience at Harvard Divinity School and in February 2017 he gave the William Self Lectures on Preaching at McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University. His newest book, The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Church History: Flaming Heretics and Heavy Drinkers, was published by Fortress Press in July 2017. Leonard is on the board of the Journal of Disability and Religion, The Baptist Quarterly (England), the Day1 Preaching Network, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and the Governing Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Leonard writes a twice-monthly column for Baptist News Global, is an ordained Baptist minister, and a member of First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue (American Baptist Churches, USA) in Winston-Salem.
If you live in Winston-Salem, you can join us LIVE at Lot 63 for a zesty podcast recording. Info here.
If you’re considering a future in theological education, Wake Forest University’s Divinity School is a top choice. My family and I are proud alumni, and we all cherish the education and experiences we gained there. With the dynamic leadership of Corey Walker as the new Dean, the future of the school is bright!
I recently returned to my old hometown, Winston-Salem, NC, for a live podcast at Lot63 in Old Salem. There, I was joined by two of my old Profs at Wake Forest University Divinity School, Dr. Bill Leonard and Dr. Craig Atwood, the brand new Dean of the Divinity School, Dr. Corey Walker, and music from a fellow alum Kyle Caudle.
In this half of the live show, I talk with my former historical theology Professor, Craig Atwood. Not only did I take historical theology with him, but he facilitated one of the most fun and intense independent studies on the thought of Friedrich Schleiermacher. Dr. Craig Atwood is the premier Moravian historical theologian. He is best known for his books Community of the Cross: Moravian Piety in Colonial Bethlehem, which won two major awards, and Theology of the Czech Brethren from Hus to Comenius. He is also the author of over 50 academic articles, chapters in books, encyclopedia articles, book reviews, and church publications.
If you live in Winston-Salem, you can join us LIVE at Lot 63 for a zesty podcast recording. Info here.
If you’re considering a future in theological education, Wake Forest University’s Divinity School is a top choice. My family and I are proud alumni, and we all cherish the education and experiences we gained there. With the dynamic leadership of Corey Walker as the new Dean, the future of the school is bright!
A few weeks ago, I partnered with the Center for Open and Relational Theology & St. Andrew UMC to put on the first preaching conference for Open and Relational Preachers! It was TONS of fun and I got to meet some amazing clergy.
In the first segment, I am joined by Dr. Casey Sigmon & Dr. Nichole Torbitzky to give a process theological reflection of the liturgical shape of worship. Then Jeff Wells, Tom Oord, and Vikki Randall join Nicole and I to discuss their new book Preaching the Uncontrolling Love of God.
For decades, millions of Christians have been leaving church behind. Among those who have stayed, not only individuals, but entire congregations are rejecting traditions that fail to address the challenges of our contemporary world. They yearn,
instead, for a profound relationship with the ever-present God who is loving, inclusive, persuasive, and uncontrolling.
This rich and diverse collection of sermons, essays, and worship elements explores how to preach, teach, and practice Open, Relational, and Process theological perspectives in local faith communities. It is a powerful resource for pastors, ministers of worship arts, lay church leaders, professors of preaching, worship, and practical theology, and anyone seeking a deep understanding of God that aligns with the Bible, science, and inclusive love and justice for all life on Earth.
The most influential academic text arguing against the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ divine image bearers into the life of the Church is Richard Hays’ “The Moral Vision of the New Testament.” He has changed his mind and has a new book developing a theological framework for the full inclusion of LGBTQ people in Christian communities.
In this live stream, Daniel Kirk joined me to explore his former professor’s evolution on the issue, why it’s about time for Richard (and lots of other faith leaders) to say so publicly, and how to think ethically with scripture. Those familiar with Daniel’s previous visits to the podcast will know that he has argued publicly for full inclusion based on the logic of scripture for years, even to the point of being denied tenure in evangelical spaces that demand silence. When this new book was announced, I wanted to have him back on to unpack things and hopefully lure more straight allies to find their voice.
Daniel Kirk (Ph.D., Duke University) is an award-winning New Testament scholar whose work takes place at the intersection of history, biblical interpretation, and real life. He is currently broadening his intellectual and vocational horizons by studying to be a Physician Assistant. Look for upcoming work to have a robust dose of science and politics mixed into the biblical conversations.
Here are some resource links from Daniel:
Lexington Theological Seminary is a pioneer in online theological education. Both the Doctoral and Masters programs are designed with the flexibility and contextual focus needed for the working student. You can learn more by heading here.
Here are a few episodes with a couple of their Profs
Barry Taylor and Tripp Fuller discuss the changing religious and spiritual space and how it shows up in culture. They reflect on the shift in the Western conversation in the last 25 years. Barry raises a growing awareness in how the concept of religion people thought they were updating, reorienting, and morphing, wasn’t ultimately finding traction in the historic religious institutions.
Barry Taylor‘s work is focused on the intersections between religion, theology and culture, with a particular emphasis on the impact and interplay of contemporary digital life on religion and belief (particularly Western Christianity). He is particularly interested in religion where it is least obvious and in cultural clinamens- the behavior and phenomena that escape our categorizing and thus provide opportunity for re-framing how we think and approach life. Barry works with GCAS as the Chair of the Theology department. Check out his books: Sex, God, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: Catastrophes, Epiphanies, and Sacred Anarchies & Entertainment Theology: New-Edge Spirituality in a Digital Democracy
Previous Episodes w/ Barry
In this episode, Bo reflects on his own deconstruction story, the pace of spiritual change in America, and drops a sweet audiological image. Tripp pitches his deconstruction typology and gets Bo to power rank 3 different theologians’ definition of theology.
Check out Bo’s webpage and his podcast with Randy Woodley, Peacing it All Together.
Bo’s new podcast exploring the legacy of his Father Dr. Martin Sanders can be found here.
JOIN our next class, GOD AFTER DECONSTRUCTION with Thomas Jay Oord
Kristian Smith is joining Tripp to unpack the intersection of cigars, spirituality, and community. Kristian is a pastor, stylist, theologian, spiritual director, host of the Holy Smokes podcast, and minister of an online faith community. https://www.holysmokesmovement.com & https://www.kristianasmith.com
We have all been talking about AI of late and I have been on a bit of a reading deep dive about it. I am thrilled to have my friend Kester Brewin back on the podcast to talk about Artificial Intelligence & the future of religion. His new book, God-like: A 500-Year History of Artificial Intelligence in Myths, Machines, Monsters is out and 100% zesty. It is way too good for y’all not to check it out. It is not only a powerful telling of humanity’s ongoing relationship with technology and a reflection on the current questions surrounding AI, but it is also the most compelling radical theological text I have read. It demonstrates the symbolic starvation of a marketized public square, the wisdom of what has been harbored in religious reflection, and the need for the return of theology beyond religion. It is also practical theology at its best. It ends with a compelling call to community without an addiction to nostalgia or an allergy to the sacred. I would say more, but you can listen to our conversation.
In the year 1600 a monk is burned at the stake for claiming to have built a device that will allow him to know all things.
350 years later, having witnessed ‘Trinity’ – the first test of the atomic bomb – America’s leading scientist outlines a memory machine that will help end war on earth.
25 years in the making, an ex-soldier finally unveils this ‘machine for augmenting human intellect’, dazzling as he stands ‘Zeus-like, dealing lightning with both hands.’
AI is both stunningly new and rooted in ancient desires. As we finally welcome this ‘god-like’ technology amongst us, what can learn from the myths and monsters of the past about how to survive alongside our greatest ever invention?
Adult VBS with Walter Brueggemann, Kester Brewin, and Kristen Howerton
Plundering Religion with Kester Brewin, Peter Rollins, & Barry Taylor #Mutiny
I have been friends with Tony Jones for a long time. For over 12 years, he has been working on his memoir, and it was worth the wait. The God of Wild Places: Rediscovering the Divine in the Untamed Outdoors is now out in the world and we got to sit down in his living to record this conversation about it. Longtime listeners will be familiar with Tony since he has been on the podcast over 30 times in the last 16 years, but this visit is different. You will hear a vulnerable conversation between two friends, including challenging stories, laughter, and reflection on faith in life’s darkest moments.
If you aren’t following our new podcast, Emerged: an Oral History of the Emerging Church Movement, you won’t want to miss the latest episode. In it, we are joined by Nadia Boltz-Weber, Brian McLaren, and Doug Pagitt as we dig into all the backlash the emerging church movement generated. We laughed quite a bit while creating it
Tony Jones is the author of The God of Wild Places and contributing writer to several outdoors periodicals. He’s written a dozen books, including Did God Kill Jesus? and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, hosts the Reverend Hunter Podcast, and teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary and The Loft Literary Center. He writes a weekly newsletter on Substack.
JOIN our next class, GOD AFTER DECONSTRUCTION with Thomas Jay Oord
On this edition of the Theology Nerd Throwdown, Tripp & Bo nerd out about…
Check out Bo’s webpage and his podcast with Randy Woodley, Peacing it All Together.
Bo’s new podcast exploring the legacy of his Father Dr. Martin Sanders can be found here.
JOIN our next class, GOD AFTER DECONSTRUCTION with Thomas Jay Oord
In this live session, Tom Oord and Tripp Fuller will joined by Josh Patterson of the (re)Thinking Faith podcast to discuss the nature of faith after certainty and the role of scripture for a faith in transition.
You can access all 10 videos now by joining the class at www.GodAfterDeconstruction.com
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.
James McGrath is back and we have some serious fun geeking out about theology and Science Fiction!!
What is the difference between a god and a powerful alien? Can an android have a soul, or be considered a person with rights? Can we imagine biblical stories being retold in the distant future on planets far from Earth? Whether your interest is in Christianity in the future, or the Jedi in the present–and whether your interest in the Jedi is focused on real-world adherents or the fictional religion depicted on the silver screen–this book will help you explore the intersection between theology and science fiction across a range of authors and stories, topics and questions.
James F. McGrath is Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature. His PhD from the University of Durham became the basis for his first book, John’s Apologetic Christology, published by Cambridge University Press in the SNTS Monograph Series. He has also written a “prequel” about the broader context of monotheism and Christology in ancient Judaism and Christianity, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, published by University of Illinois Press. More recently, he has published What Jesus Learned from Women, which explores the topic of the historical figure of Jesus and the influence the women mentioned in the Gospels had on him.
In addition to his work on the New Testament and early Christianity, Dr. McGrath also researches the Mandaeans (the last surviving Gnostic group from the ancient world) and their literature. The two-volume critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Mandaean Book of John (which he produced together with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) represents the first such academic edition of the complete work in English based on all known manuscripts. Another area of specialty is the intersection of religion and science fiction. On that subject, he is the author of Theology and Science Fiction and The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos (Black Archive #52), editor of Religion and Science Fiction and co-editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who. He blogs at Religion Prof.
I am excited to share this conversation with Thomas Jay Oord. In it, we discuss what we’ve learned from surveying thousands of people in faith transition – the reasons, the process, and the possibilities after faith deconstruction.
Are you navigating the challenging landscape of faith deconstruction, seeking a path that affirms your deepest intuitions and values?
Join theologians Dr. Thomas Jay Oord and Dr. Tripp Fuller for a transformative online class, “God After Deconstruction.” This six-week journey is designed to embrace the uncertainty, explore profound topics, and offer a constructive, hope-filled vision of God grounded in open and relational theology. In this course, we aim to foster a thoughtful and inclusive space where participants can explore a variety of topics crucial to the journey of reconstructing their spiritual beliefs.
This week, we are joined by Diana Butler Bass as we discuss the historical Jesus, the resurrected Christ, and a host of questions from members of the online class.
To join the class, head over to www.CrossanClass.com
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Historical Jesus, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, God and Empire, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Greatest Prayer, The Last Week, and The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida.
I’m excited to announce that tickets for Theology Beer Camp are now on sale! This year, we’ll be hanging out October 17th to 19th in Denver, Colorado. Grab your calendar and save the dates to join 20+ scholars, 20+ God-Pods, and over 500 people like yourself.
As always, this year promises to be filled with enlightening discussions, delicious brews, and the opportunity to connect with like-minded theology enthusiasts. This year’s confirmed keynote speakers include Ilia Delio, Brian McClaren, John Thatamanil, and Diana Butler Bass!! We will be announcing more speakers, podcasters, musicians, and more over the next few months, including several exciting additions to the camp expereince.
To learn more about the event, our lineup of speakers, and what’s in store for you at Theology Beer Camp, check out the event website at theologybeer.camp. We will keep updating the site as we reveal more details and contributors.
I love Theology Beer Camp and spend all year planning and thinking about how to level up the fun each year. My favorite part is getting to meet so many of you in person. Take advantage of this certified zesty opportunity to dive deep into theological nerdom while enjoying tasty beverages and building lifelong connections with other great nerds!
Presale tickets end soon! Get your tickets today.
People often ask me, “Tripp, in 17 years of podcasting, what’s your favorite interview?” I can never answer the question because there are so many different kinds of interviews. I love episodes with my scholarly friends who repeatedly return to the podcast, but for this nerd, I am thrilled to introduce listeners to scholars who rocked my world. In this episode, I talk with a legend in science and religion, Dr. Robert McCauley. He is a pioneer in the cognitive science of religion, and his work has greatly impacted the academic community. It was an honor to unpack so many themes in his work and I can’t wait for y’all to hear it!
Robert N. McCauley is William Rand Kenan Jr. University Professor of Philosophy at Emory University and the founding Director of Emory’s Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture. He is the author of Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not and Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion. He is also the co-author, with E. Thomas Lawson, of Rethinking Religion and Bringing Ritual to Mind. With George Graham, he co-authored Hearing Voices and Other Matters of the Mind: What Mental Abnormalities Can Teach Us About Religions. He has been elected president of both the Society for Philosophy and Psychology and the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion, and he will serve as a Gifford Lecturer at the University of Aberdeen in 2021.
Are you new to the cognitive science of religion? If so, you won’t want to miss Bob’s regular columns at Psychology Today.
In this conversation, we discuss…
This week, we are joined by Dr. Jennifer Garcia Bashaw as we discuss how historical Jesus scholarship can challenge and shape Christian practice, along with a host of questions from members of the online class.
To join the class, head over to www.CrossanClass.com
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is Associate Professor of New Testament and Christian Ministry at Campbell University in North Carolina. She is an ordained Baptist minister and has a passion for teaching the Bible and training pastors. Jennifer is a Nerd-in-Residence for the Bible for Normal People and is the author of Scapegoats: The Bible through the Eyes of Victims & The Gospel of John for Normal People.
Jennifer’s Previous Visit to the Podcast
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Historical Jesus, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, God and Empire, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Greatest Prayer, The Last Week, and The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida.
John Caputo is back on the podcast! If you are new to Homebrewed Christianity, you may not be familiar with Jack. Still, he is a longtime friend of the pod, a top-tier postmodern philosopher who radically returned to his theological roots. In his new book What to Believe? , he gives a beautiful introduction to his articulation of radical theology inspired by a Tillichian departure.
If you no longer “believe in God,” the Supreme Being of classical theology, or you never did in the first place, is there anything you still ought to believe, anything you should cherish unconditionally, no matter what? In this lively and accessible book, addressed to believers, “recovering” believers, disbelievers, nonbelievers, and “nones” alike?to anyone in search of what they really do believe?the acclaimed philosopher and theologian John D. Caputo seeks out what there is to believe, with or without religion.
John David Caputo (born October 26, 1940) is an American philosopher who is the Thomas J. Watson Professor of Religion Emeritus at Syracuse University and the David R. Cook Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Villanova University. Caputo is a major figure associated with postmodern Christianity and continental philosophy of religion, as well as the founder of the theological movement known as weak theology. Much of Caputo’s work focuses on hermeneutics, phenomenology, deconstruction and theology.
Previous Episodes with Jack
This week, Brian McLaren and John Dominic Crossan join us as we discuss Jesus’s civilizational significance, hear his teachings in their historical context, examine the habit of interpreting Jesus against his intentions, and answer a host of questions from members of the online class.
To join the class, head over to www.CrossanClass.com
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English
teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Historical Jesus, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, God and Empire, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Greatest Prayer, The Last Week, and The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida.
Tripp and Bo nerd out and discuss preaching the atonement, liturgical frames, baking bread with kids, theological shoewear, and a Styper-themed show-and-tell.
Check out Bo’s webpage and his podcast with Randy Woodley, Peacing it All Together.
Bo’s new podcast exploring the legacy of his Father Dr. Martin Sanders can be found here.
JOIN our next class, GOD AFTER DECONSTRUCTION with Thomas Jay Oord
Ryan Burge returns with a stack of charts as we explore the changing shape of theological education and ministry. Check out the video below to see the charts with your eyes.
Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.
Previous Visits from Ryan Burge
In this episode, we are joined by Rev. Brian Zahnd & John Dominic Crossan. Brian kicks things off by sharing how Dom’s work on the historical Jesus and his conflict with Rome challenges us today. We end up tackling a host of questions from members of the online class and end with a conversation on the resurrection.
To join the class, head over to www.CrossanClass.com
Brian Zahnd is the founder and lead pastor of Word of Life Church in St. Joseph, Missouri. Known for his theologically informed preaching and his embrace of the deep and long history of the church, Zahnd provides a forum for pastors to engage with leading theologians and is a frequent conference speaker. He is the author of several books, including When Everything’s on Fire, Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God, A Farewell to Mars, and Beauty Will Save the World.
John Dominic Crossan, professor emeritus at DePaul University, is widely regarded as the foremost historical Jesus scholar of our time. He is the author of several bestselling books, including The Historical Jesus, How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian, God and Empire, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, The Greatest Prayer, The Last Week, and The Power of Parable. He lives in Minneola, Florida.
Enjoy this panel discussion on “Deconstructing Divinity & Embracing Diversity” featuring Catherine Keller and John Thatamanil with Tripp Fuller at the “God After Deconstruction” live event at Drew University in February 2024.
ONLINE CLASS: Register now for the “God After Deconstruction” online class with Tripp Fuller and Thomas Jay Oord now available at http://www.GodAfterDeconstruction.com.
LIVE EVENT: Don’t miss the next “God After Deconstruction” live event on April 12-13, 2024 at St. Andrew UMC in Highlands Ranch, CO, with the Persuade preaching conference being held April 11-12, 2024 at the same venue. Register now at http://www.GodAfterDeconstruction.com.
Catherine Keller is George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in The Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University. If you are new to Catherine Keller and Process Theology this is the book to start with – On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity In Process.
Previous Podcast visits from Catherine
In this thought-provoking conversation with Freya Mathews, we delved into the depths of panpsychism, nature, and eco-philosophy. Freya illuminated the interconnectedness of these ideas, emphasizing how our current ecological crisis demands a profound reevaluation of the very assumptions that gave rise to modernity.
Panpsychism, the view that consciousness is a fundamental aspect of the universe, became a central theme. Freya articulated how recognizing the sentience within all things challenges the human-centric perspective that has led to environmental exploitation. She passionately argued that a shift towards an eco-philosophy rooted in panpsychism can help us cultivate a more respectful and reciprocal relationship with the natural world.
As we explored these concepts, it became clear that responding to our ecological challenges requires more than just surface-level solutions. Freya urged us to rethink our place in the world, to question the Cartesian dualism that separates mind from matter, and to embrace a holistic understanding of existence.
In this enlightening conversation, Freya Matthews inspired a call to action—to not only address the symptoms of our environmental crisis but to fundamentally transform our worldview, recognizing the intrinsic value and agency of all life forms on this planet.
Freya Mathews is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Philosophy at Latrobe University. Her books include The Ecological Self (1991, 2021), Ecology and Democracy (editor) (1996), For Love of Matter: a Contemporary Panpsychism(2003), Journey to the Source of the Merri (2003), Reinhabiting Reality: towards a Recovery of Culture(2005), Ardea: a philosophical novella (2016), Without Animals Life is not Worth Living (2016) and The Dao of Civilization: a Letter to China (2023). She is the author of over a hundred essays, chapters and articles in the area of ecological philosophy. Her current special interests are in ecological civilization; indigenous (Australian and Chinese) perspectives on “regenerativity” and how these perspectives may be adapted to the context of contemporary global society; panpsychism and the critique of the metaphysics of modernity; and conservation ethics. In addition to her research activities she helps to care for a private conservation reserve in northern Victoria. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
It is time for a Theology Nerd Throwdown! That’s right, the original TNT co-host is back! We have some fun catching up on the world of Bo Sanders, his moves to Portland, and his new Methodist appointment in Idaho. Next week, we will be back live to nerd out with our geeks out. Get ready.
Are you ready for some theological fun? Watch one of the greatest living Biblical scholars tell 450 day-drinking progressive Christians how cool the Biblical Paul was. This is a live podcast with John Dominic Crossan from Theology Beer Camp. It was a ton of fun and will give you a taste of what goes down at camp. If you want to hang with us this year in Denver, head over here and get your info. If you want some more time with Dom Crossan, then join our upcoming class on the Historical Jesus.
Over the last few years, I have returned more often than I could have imagined to the work of Reinhold Niebuhr and his vision of Christian Realism. Between the rise of Trump, growing disappointment in Biden, and inaction on the most pressing issues… to name a few… my inherent optimism in the democratic experiment has waned. So, I decided to have Dr. Kevin Carnahan on the podcast to unpack Christian Realism and how this particular theological lens could help me wrestle with my growing disease.
Kevin Carnahan is Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Central Methodist University in Fayette, MO. He recently stepped down after five years of service as co-editor of the Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics, is the former president of The Niebuhr Society, and author of multiple books and articles on religion, ethics,
and politics. He lives in Columbia, MO with his wife and two daughters.
For more fast, nerdy fun hot takes from Kevin, check out his TikTok:)
Kevin’s recommendations for those wanting to get into Niebuhr are Langdon Gilkey’s On Niebuhr and Reinhold Niebuhr and Christian Realism by Robin Lovin.
You can also check out these two previous episodes with Scott Paeth on Niebuhr: On Reinhold & Richard Niebuhr and Why Go Niebuhr?
What happens when a progressive Christian historian and theologian talk about everything you aren’t supposed to discuss at dinner? Let’s find out:)
If you want to join our regular online hangs, head over to Diana’s substack community, the Cottage, or the Homebrewed Community.
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
Lexington Theological Seminary is a pioneer in online theological education. Both the Doctoral and Masters programs are designed with the flexibility and contextual focus needed for the working student. You can learn more byheading here.
Here are a few episodes with a couple of their Profs
I am thrilled to have Dr. Scott MacDougall back on the podcast. He recently published The Shape of Anglican Theology Faith Seeking Wisdom, which explores the distinctiveness of Anglican theology. The book describes its boundaries and names its particular characteristics, finally concluding that Anglican theology is a wisdom theology that seeks to build the capacity for faithful Christian discernment in belief and practice. You will hear a brilliant theologian reflecting on his tradition and the deep joy of his faith. Talking with Scott is always a pleasure, and I hope you enjoy it.
Scott MacDougall was born and raised in Central New York. He attended college in the greater New York City area, receiving his B.A. from Hofstra University. Following a career in the not-for-profit sector, he undertook the formal study of theology. MacDougall received his M.A. in theology from the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church in 2007 and his Ph.D. in systematic theology from Fordham University in 2014. At the American Academy of Religion, he co-chairs the Anglican Studies Seminar and serves on the steering committee of the Ecclesiological Investigations Unit. MacDougall has served as Co-Editor in Chief of the?Anglican Theological Review and was the inaugural Theologian to the House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church.
Philip Clayton and Diana Butler Bass joined me for a livestream exploration of different Christologies. This was part of our recent class, The Cosmic Christ, but after so many class members wanted to share it, I decided to go ahead and post it on the podcast.
If you enjoy the conversation, you can grab the rest of the class by heading over here.
As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization. As a disciple of Jesus, he finds himself energized by the Spirit in the Quaker community.
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality.
God After Deconstruction: @Drew Feb 9-10 @Denver April 11-13
A long-time friend of the podcast, Doug Pagitt, returns to the podcast! He’s been a regular guest since episode 2… 15 years ago. In this episode, Tony Jones joins me as Doug reflects on the end of the church he planted Solomon’s Porch and the ongoing legacy of the Emerging Church Movement.
Doug Pagitt is an American author, pastor, social activist and executive director of Vote Common Good. A leading voice for progressive Christianity, Doug makes frequent national media and speaking appearances. A proud, concerned and hopeful American, Doug Pagitt is a social activist. He is Co-founder and Executive Director of Vote Common Good, a national political non-profit dedicated to inspiring, energizing, and mobilizing people of faith to engage in civic life.
Pulling from his experience as an author, pastor and business owner, Doug consults for and trains churches, denominations, politicians, businesses and non-profits throughout the United States on issues of culture, leadership, social systems, Christianity and Progressive Evangelicalism.
Doug has authored 10 books on spirituality, Christianity and leadership, including: Flipped (Random House 2015), The Inventive Age Series (SparkHouse 2012), and A Christianity Worth Believing (Jossey-Bass 2008). His latest book, Outdoing Jesus: Seven Ways to Live Out the Promise of Greater Than (Eerdmans 2019), is a hopeful and provocative commentary on biblical good news exemplified through present-day ordinary people making extraordinary contributions.
In 2000, Doug was founding pastor of Solomon’s Porch, a Holistic Missional Christian Community in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also founded and remains active with the Greater Things Foundation, a charitable non-profit for empowering and fostering more beautiful, inclusive, and life-giving communities.
One of the ongoing tensions for Biblical scholars is the gap between the shared knowledge within the academy and the need for more awareness among the larger public. Most ministers are aware of the tension this creates in the congregation, but the public square is no better. A friend and New Testament scholar, Dr. James McGrath, is back on the podcast to discuss his new book to tackle this problem. You will not want to miss The A to Z of the New Testament: Things Experts Know That Everyone Else Should Too!
James F. McGrath is Clarence L. Goodwin Chair in New Testament Language and Literature. His PhD from the University of Durham became the basis for his first book, John’s Apologetic Christology, published by Cambridge University Press in the SNTS Monograph Series. He has also written a “prequel” about the broader context of monotheism and Christology in ancient Judaism and Christianity, The Only True God: Early Christian Monotheism in Its Jewish Context, published by University of Illinois Press. More recently, he has published What Jesus Learned from Women, which explores the topic of the historical figure of Jesus and the influence the women mentioned in the Gospels had on him.
In addition to his work on the New Testament and early Christianity, Dr. McGrath also researches the Mandaeans (the last surviving Gnostic group from the ancient world) and their literature. The two-volume critical edition, translation, and commentary on the Mandaean Book of John (which he produced together with Charles Haberl of Rutgers University) represents the first such academic edition of the complete work in English based on all known manuscripts. Another area of specialty is the intersection of religion and science fiction. On that subject, he is the author of Theology and Science Fiction and The Battle of Ranskoor av Kolos (Black Archive #52), editor of Religion and Science Fiction and co-editor of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who. He blogs at Religion Prof.
Previous Episodes w/ James
Thomas Jay Oord is back on the podcast! This episode has two different parts. The first is a live QnA from ORTcon23. The wide-ranging God questions came from the event attendees and were inspired by some fantastic conversations throughout the gathering. In the last bit, Tom and I discuss all the nerdy fun that went down at the Open & Relational stage at Theology Beer Camp.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.
I am thrilled to have Dr. Hanna Reichel on the podcast for the first time! Our conversation centers around their newest book After Method.
Hanna Reichel is Associate Professor of Reformed Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. Reichel is an internationally recognized Barth scholar and constructive theologian.
After Method assumes the impossibility of doing theology right–and moves beyond it. Organized as a conversation in two voices—with systematic-theological commitments represented by Karl Barth and constructive-theological commitments represented by Marcella Althaus-Reid—this book calls the redemptive potential of any methodological program into question. Indeed, the search for a full and complete theological account of reality has only further fragmented theological discourse. Thus, Hanna Reichel argues that method cannot “save” us—but that does not mean that we cannot do better. After Method harnesses the best insights systematic and constructive theologies have to offer in their mutual critique and gestures toward a “better” theology.
Utilizing architectural metaphor, Reichel pulls from systematic and constructive approaches to develop an understanding of theological work as conceptual design, responsibly ordering and structuring given materials for a purpose. This necessitates a more realistic adaptation to reality for theology, expanding its standards to encompass the experiences and perceptions of people and speaking the truth available to it. The honesty, humility, and solidarity generated through the failure of method liberates theology to a more playful and tentative cruising of different approaches and redirects its attention to “misfits” and outsiders. Equally demanding and self-relativizing, the resultant ethos is better able to do justice to the reality of the world and the reality of God than doctrinal orthodoxy or methodological orthopraxy.
I hope that no matter where you are in life, you have been able to enjoy the holiday season by eating good food, spending time with friends and family, or at least getting some rest. If the holidays don’t tend to provide comfort, then you can escape and take shelter in The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy with Nick Polk from Tolkien Pop! as well as Tolkien Scholar Dr. Craig Boyd!
As we enter the eye of the storm that is the holiday season, we will kick off our run of Christmas movies with The Lord of the Rings (the extended editions, of course). Because, in fact, The Lord of the Rings are Christmas movies. The Fellowship is led by a supernatural man with a white beard, the company departs from Rivendell to begin their quest on December 25th (Christmas Day), and there are plenty of Elves to go around! To solidify the argument even further, Tolkien wrote his children Letters from Father Christmas (Santa Claus) every year during the Christmas season in their adolescence. In these letters, Tolkien told of Santa and his elves fighting off a goblin army. We even see glimpses of Tolkien’s invented Elvish language script in the letters. The legendarium was partly developed in and through a Christmas fantasy world sandbox.
We talk about all these things and more as a sort of “pregame” into our Christmas Movie Marathon and will come back with another “postgame” livestream with Dr. Craig Boyd and some other special guests that you won’t wanna miss. So, with all that said, let’s go on a Middle-earth Christmas adventure!
Craig A. Boyd is Professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Saint Louis University. Among the books he has published are The Virtues: A Very Short Introduction, with Kevin Timpe (Oxford University, 2021), Virtues and Their Vices, co-edited with Kevin Timpe (Oxford University Press, 2014), and A Shared Morality: A Narrative Defense of Natural Law Ethics (Brazos Press, 2007). His scholarly articles have appeared in such venues as The Heythrop Journal, Christian Scholar’s Review, Christianity & Literature, New Blackfriars, and American Catholic Philosophical Quarterly.
Nick Polk (Tolkien Pop!) is the production editor for Mallorn, the academic journal of The Tolkien Society. His most recent research includes his essay entitled “Middle-earth in South Park: The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers as Parody.” Other than Tolkien, his other loves include his wife Kelly, coffee, and punk. Nothing sounds better than starting the day reading a Tolkien book with a cup of coffee and ending it in a moshpit with loved ones.
One Stream to Rule them ALL: Prepping for a LOTR Christmas Movie Marathon https://t.co/xCDvZ3ZIHv
— Theology Nerd (@HomebrewedXnty) November 30, 2023
This is a fun conversation with Thomas Jay Oord & Philip Clayton. We have a good time digging into some of the biggest theological questions surrounding Christmas and the Incarnation. Enjoy & then join our upcoming online class, The Cosmic Christ.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.
As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization. As a disciple of Jesus, he finds himself energized by the Spirit in the Quaker community.
Throughout the Theology for Normal People series, we have featured interviews with theologians from different parts of the church. In this episode, Dr. Ryan Duns, a Jesuit priest and theologian at Marquette University, returns to the podcast to share how he thinks in and with the Catholic tradition. It was a beautiful and enlightening conversation that blends his narrative, exploration of the Catholic tradition, and wisdom he’s gained, introducing it to students in the classroom. I had so much fun we went on a Tolkien excursion at the end, which is a sign I’m having fun.
Ryan G. Duns, SJ, (twitter) is a Jesuit priest and an assistant professor of theology at Marquette University. His locates his work the intersection of philosophy and systematic theology and is
interested in regarding theology as practice or “way of life.” He has published on Karl Rahner, Jean-Luc Marion, René Girard, and his most recent work has involved a sustained engagement with William Desmond’s metaphysics. His monograph “Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age: Desmond and the Quest for God” argues that, when read as a form of spiritual exercise (Pierre Hadot), Desmond’s philosophy can re-awaken a sense of the Transcendent.
You can check out our previous conversation here: Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age.
Ryan Burge is back and he has a bunch of charts to get us chatting! To stay up to date with Ryan’s regular release of graphs about religion, follow his substack here, IG here, and formerly twitter here.
Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.
Previous Visits from Ryan Burge
My friend, Dr. Bethany Sollereder, is Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh. She received her PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter and an MCS in interdisciplinary studies from Regent College, Vancouver. She specializes in theology concerning evolution and the problem of suffering. Her current work is about the theological possibilities and human vocation in the light of irreversible changes in ecological degradation.
She is also interested in the intersection between psychology and faith, particularly how different approaches to theology can affect people’s experience of suffering. This interest led to the publication of “Why is There Suffering? Pick your own theological adventure” (Zondervan 2021), the first pick-your-own-ending theology book. Dr Sollereder is working in a broader research program in what she has called “Compassionate Theodicy.”
Here’s two of Bethany’s Books to checkout
Check out Bethany’s previous visits to the podcast
I am thrilled to have my friend Dr. Adam Clark back on the podcast. This conversation captures so many of his most potent observations about the task of thinking theologically in the key of liberation. Enjoy
Dr. Adam Clark is Associate Professor of Theology at Xavier University. He is committed to the idea that theological education in the twenty-first century must function as a counter-story. One that equips us to read against the grain of the dominant culture and inspires one to live into the
Ignatian dictum of going forth “to set the world on fire.” To this end, Dr. Clark is intentional about pedagogical practices that raise critical consciousness by going beneath surface meanings, unmasking conventional wisdoms and reimagining the good. He currently serves as co-chair of Black Theology Group at the American Academy of Religion, actively publishes in the area of black theology and black religion and participates in social justice groups at Xavier and in the Cincinnati area. He earned his PhD at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was mentored by James Cone.
When I started the podcast over 15 years ago, Elgin was an infant, and today he is here hosting the podcast! Elgin decided to join the upcoming class, Live Before You Die, and has been collecting a stack of questions as he read through Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be. Yesterday, we were tailgating at the Wake Forest vs Florida State football game with Arron Simmons and his family. What does a podcaster do when their teenager has a bunch of questions about existentialism, and you are tailgating with an existentialist philosopher? You hand them mics!
Dr. Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University.
I was in Minneapolis speaking at the Festival of Homiletics and ended up at a bottle release party at Surly Brewing with my friend Tony Jones. There, we shared stories from our time in the Emerging Church Movement, what we learned, all the friends we made, and where we’ve all ended up. We decided then to do a class exploring the movement and process our learning with a bunch of its participants. From there, the idea took off, and we decided it would be best to turn it into a podcast series and invite people to contribute to a more significant oral history. In this episode, you will hear about the project, what we’ve been doing, and how you can be a part of it.
EMERGED:A Crowdfunded Podcast to Preserve an Oral History of the Emerging Church Movement – For a decade at the beginning of the 21st century, a small group of pastors, missionaries, and theologians set out to change the church. They were mostly GenXers, mostly men, mostly white, mostly evangelical. They planted churches and wrote books and ran conferences. They were quoted in the New York Times and Time Magazine, and they landed on the cover of Christianity Today and the Christian Century. And then, almost as quickly as it appeared, the emerging church movement disappeared. In this multi-part series launching January 2024, Tony Jones and Tripp Fuller will journey through the electrifying, tumultuous, ever-evolving years of the ECM through interviews, stories, and opinions from some of the movement’s pivotal figures.
WE’LL TACKLE QUESTIONS LIKE:
GET ACCESS: http://www.emergedpodcast.com
Everyone doesn’t have to be a theology nerd, but if you want to know what it sounds like when we have fun, this conversation with John Thatamanil is exhibit A. Over the years, John and I have had multiple conversations on and off the podcast, and everyone is a complete joy. I am always wholly hyped when it is over and have a stack of ideas brewing in my head for weeks. This episode is no exception! Not only do we go deep into an adequate ontology for the breadth of religious experience, explore some Tillichian connections with Whitehead, and transformative explorations across religious pluralism, but we get personal about how the activity of thinking theologically is an intimate form of engagement with God. Relistening to this episode made me excited about my next conversation with John.
Dr. Thatamanil is Professor of Theology & World Religions at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.
Dive into a transformative, four-week online course that seeks not just to answer eight of the most poignant God questions, but also to unravel the very fabric of theological thought.
Guided by renowned theologians, the course invites participants into the heart of Christian tradition, exploring the diverse schools of thought and the nuances that define them. Hosted by Dr. Tripp Fullerand Dr. Pete Enns, this journey transcends simple answers, beckoning participants to engage with the methodology and complexity of theological thinking. INFO TO JOIN HERE
How do liberal Protestant Christian theologians think? Few people are as capable as our guest, Dr. Paul Capetz, at
articulating the heart of liberal Protestantism. Paul has been a friend for a long time. We first met at Claremont School of Theology when he was on sabbatical and we quickly realized how much we enjoy getting nerdy together. In this episode, we discuss his new book, Recovering Protestantism’s Original Insight and how liberal Protestantism inherited Luther’s critical theology.
In the conversation, we discuss…
Paul E. Capetz is professor of historical theology emeritus at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and is currently minister at Christ Church by the Sea in Newport Beach, California. He is the author of God: A Brief History and co-editor of James Gustafson’s Moral Discernment in the Christian Life.
Dive into a transformative, four-week online course that seeks not just to answer eight of the most poignant God questions, but also to unravel the very fabric of theological thought.
Guided by renowned theologians, the course invites participants into the heart of Christian tradition, exploring the diverse schools of thought and the nuances that define them. Hosted by Dr. Tripp Fullerand Dr. Pete Enns, this journey transcends simple answers, beckoning participants to engage with the methodology and complexity of theological thinking. INFO TO JOIN HERE
Have you ever read a book that you loved because it was uncomfortable? One that extended questions you’ve raised and challenged the answers you were attracted to? Maybe a book that, when you got done, you knew you needed to reread it? That happened when I finished Dr. Clark’s Reclaiming Stolen Earth: An Africana Ecotheology. So, I imagine you can guess how excited I was when he agreed to join the podcast!
Jawanza Eric Clark is professor of global Christianity at Manhattan College, NY. He holds a BA from Morehouse College, an MDiv from Yale Divinity School, and a ThM and PhD from Emory University. He is editor of Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna and Child, and author of Indigenous Black Theology: Towards an African-Centered Theology of the African-American Religious Experience. He is currently co-chair of the Black Theology unit of the American Academy of Religion.
Kelly Brown Douglas won the 2023 Grawemeyer Award in Religion for her newest book, Resurrection Hope, and she is here on the podcast to talk about it!
The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas is Interim President of the Episcopal Divinity School and Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral. From 2017 to 2023, she was Dean of the Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary and Professor of Theology. She is considered a leader in the field of womanist theology, racial reconciliation, and sexuality and the black church. Her Orbis books include The Black Christ, What’s Faith Got to Do with It? and Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God.
Dan Koch is one of my favorite people. He reached out to connect in person when hewas thinking of starting a podcast, and since then, he has not only produced several quality podcasts, but I have grown to love having him in my life. Like all good elder millennials, nothing says, “dude, I love being your friend,” like a quality mixtape. In this episode, we make a playlist centered on our existential dread
If you liked this, check out his music podcast – Pretty Good Vibrations analyzes and celebrates pop and rock music and its crucial role throughout our lives. Dan hosts the You Have Permission podcast and has seven years of podcasting experience, including previous shows Depolarize!
(politics/psychology) and Reconstruct (theology). He holds a Master’s of Counseling Psychology and has completed doctoral coursework at Northwest University in Kirkland, WA. His research focuses on spiritual abuse, and his “Development of the Spiritual Harm and Abuse Scale” was published in 2022 by the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. In his clinical therapy practice, Dan specializes in working with religious issues, including religious trauma, and utilizes a cognitive-existential modality. He is skilled in making academic research accessible to a broad audience, keeping things interesting while responsibly maintaining the right amount of nuance.
You can check out my previous convos with Dan here
It is impossible to tell my own story without sharing about Philip Clayton. Not only have I read all of his books, many multiple times, but his guidance in graduate school and continued friendship have been a deep blessing. On top of that, Philip is a brilliant theologian. In this unique conversation, you will hear how a deep personal faith in Christ animates this philosophical theologian and leading scholar of Religion & Science. This is just the first episode in a series exploring how to think theologically. To get the entire series, hear Philip answer the 8 big God questions, and join thousands of others in conversation, join the class Theology for Normal People.
As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization. As a disciple of Jesus, he finds himself energized by the Spirit in the Quaker community.
Dive into a transformative, four-week online course that seeks not just to answer eight of the most poignant God questions, but also to unravel the very fabric of theological thought.
Guided by renowned theologians, the course invites participants into the heart of Christian tradition, exploring the diverse schools of thought and the nuances that define them. Hosted by Dr. Tripp Fuller and Dr. Pete Enns, this journey transcends simple answers, beckoning participants to engage with the methodology and complexity of theological thinking. INFO TO JOIN HERE
I am THRILLED to have Reggie Williams back on the podcast! This is a powerful conversation exploring Bonhoeffer and his critique of religion. Dr. Williams is the Associate Professor of Christian Ethics at McCormick Theological Seminary and author of Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance.
This was one of the live stream sessions from the online class Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith. To access Dr. Williams and all the other contributor’s excellent lectures head over here. These live streams were inspired by the contributor’s address, their reading selection from Bonhoeffer, and class member questions.
Here’s Reggie’s previous visits to the podcast:
Nothing says friendship like permission to dabble in heresies together. In this episode, a group of friends who happen to be scholars of philosophy, psychology, science, and religion try to make each other uncomfortable by sharing a heresy. This podcast format was inspired by Kevin Kelly, who got Tim Ferris to try it on his show. We all had some fun. Let us know what you think about the format and how we might change it up in the future.
Dr. Myron Penner is a professor of philosophy at Trinity Western University and director of the Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre for Faith and Learning. On top of being a stellar scholar, he is a dear friend and the coolest Mennonite Canadian philosopher on planet earth.
Dr. Sarah Lane Ritchie received her B.A. in Philosophy & Religion from Spring Arbor University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an M.Sc. in Science & Religion from the University of Edinburgh. She obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in Science & Religion with a thesis on divine action and the human mind, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews. She has published a book with Cambridge University Press and numerous articles in academic journals, and continues research in the field of science and religion.
Dan Koch is one of my favorite people. He reached out to connect in person when he was thinking of starting a podcast, and since then, he has not only produced several quality podcasts, but I have grown to love having him in my life. Pretty Good Vibrations analyzes and celebrates pop and rock music and its crucial role throughout our lives. Podcast veteran and host Dan Koch (You Have Permission Podcast) has been a professional musician for most of the last 20 years: songwriter for the emo-pop band Sherwood, then as a commercial composer since 2012. Multiple episode styles include bracket-style tournaments, chronological walk-throughs, and deep dives into genres, artists, and eras. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sarey Martin Concepción is a writer, podcast producer, and filmmaker with roots in L.A. and Portland, OR. She has an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary and works as communications director for Blueprint 1543, which cultivates integration between theology and the psychological sciences. Currently, she’s working on a feminist, sci-fi short film (winemakermovie.com). Before pursuing independent fiction and nonfiction projects, she worked for 10 years as part of Rob Zombie’s production and management team. More at secretartproject.com.Dr. Aaron Simmons is here to discuss his new book, “Camping with Kierkegaard: Faithfulness as a Way of Life.” It’s a banger! Ohhh and listen close to the episode to learn how to score a sweet incentive when you grab the book
Dr. Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University.
In this episode, I am joined by chief mycelium enthusiast and advocate, Merlin Sheldrake. We recorded in person at the Center for Process Studies’ 50th Anniversary event in Claremont, CA. Come dive beneath the forest floor as we venture into the intricate and mesmerizing realm of fungi. Dr. Merlin Sheldrake, renowned biologist and author of the critically acclaimed book “Entangled Life,” pulls back the curtain on the hidden networks that underpin our ecosystems, nourish our trees, and have the potential to reshape our understanding of the world around us. Not only that, but we unpack the ways his research has inspired a larger process-relational vision.
Merlin Sheldrake is a biologist, writer, and speaker with a background in plant sciences, microbiology, ecology, and the history and philosophy of science. He received a Ph.D. in tropical ecology from Cambridge University for his work on underground fungal networks in tropical forests in Panama, where he was a predoctoral research fellow of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute. He is a research associate of the Vrije University Amsterdam, works with the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN), and sits on the advisory board of the Fungi Foundation.
Merlin’s research ranges from fungal biology, to the history of Amazonian ethnobotany, to the relationship between sound and form in resonant systems. A keen brewer and fermenter, he is fascinated by the relationships that arise between humans and more-than-human organisms. He is a musician and performs on the piano and accordion.
In the conversation, we discuss…
You may remember when Merlin’s Dad, Rubert Sheldrake, was on the podcast. You can listen to it here: From the Science Delusion to Psychedelic Religion.
Dr. Willemien Otten is the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology and the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
In this conversation we discuss:
How Dr Otten became a medievalist
What is missed by skipping church history between Augustine, Aquinas, to Luther
What Augustine gets right about sex and bodies
How it took to the 12th century before Priests were really celibate
The role of scripture in Medieval culture
The origin of the doctrine of Creation out of Nothing
How the revival of Bonaventure and the Franciscan tradition is generating a more lively account of nature
How theology changes when the doctrine of nature is more than the canvas of salvation history
Why Dr. Otten finds the Barthian rejection of natural theology unconvincing
The role of nature for theological reflection in a secular age
The problem of Protestantism doctrine of “stewardship”
How to talk about books you haven’t read and become a strategic non-reader
Returning to Schleiermacher without Barthian blinders
The unique gift of the American philosophical tradition and its religious naturalism
Why more theologians need to read Emerson
What’s the role of the received tradition for contemporary constructive theology?
Willemien Otten studies the history of Christianity and Christian thought with a focus on the medieval and the early Christian intellectual tradition, especially in the West, and an emphasis on the continuity of Platonic themes. She analyzes (early) medieval thought and theology as an amalgam of biblical, classical, and patristic influences which, woven together, constitute their own intellectual matrix. Within this matrix the place and role of nature and humanity interest her most. She has worked on the Carolingian thinker Johannes Scottus Eriugena, on twelfth-century humanistic thinkers including Peter Abelard and, most recently, has ventured into the thought of R.W. Emerson and William James.
Her co-edited volume Religion and Memory (Fordham, 2013; with Burcht Pranger and Babette Hellemans) addresses how best to conceive the pastness of religion. Her co-edited volume Eriugena and Creation (Turnhout: Brepols, 2014; with Michael I. Allen), brings together selected papers on medieval nature. Besides her medieval work Otten maintains an active interest in Tertullian, Augustine, and the broader patristic tradition. With Editor-in Chief Karla Pollmann, she edited the three-volume Oxford Guide to the Historical Reception of Augustine (430–2000) (Oxford, 2013) and with Susan Schreiner she co-edited Augustine Our Contemporary. Examining the Self in Past and Present (Notre Dame, 2018).
Reflecting her interest in natural theology beyond the medieval period, Otten’s latest study Thinking Nature and the Nature of Thinking: From Eriugena to Emerson (Stanford, 2020) approaches ideas of nature and human selfhood across a wide array of thinkers, from Augustine to William James and from Maximus the Confessor to Schleiermacher. Deconstructing the notion of pantheism in the Western religious tradition, Otten draws attention to a more elusive idea of nature in which nature is an ally and co-worker of the divine
The good doctor Daniel Kirk joined me for some live QnA as we spread the word about our upcoming OPEN ONLINE CLASS – Romans: A Guide to the Most Misused, Problematic, & Prooftexted Letter in the Bible.
Daniel Kirk (Ph.D., Duke University) is an award-winning New Testament scholar whose work takes place at the intersection of history, biblical interpretation, and real life. He is currently broadening his intellectual and vocational horizons by studying to be a Physician Assistant. Look for upcoming work to have a robust dose of science and politics mixed into the biblical conversations.
I am THRILLED to have two remarkable philosophers join me to unpack philosophical deconstruction and how it can help reframe the ongoing process of deconstruction. Bruce Benson and Aaron Simmons are both accomplished postmodern philosophers, with a bunch of books on my bookshelf. This episode was even better than my high expectations! After you listen, I hope you feel the lure to come hang out with all three of us at Theology Beer Camp this October.
Dr. Bruce Benson teaches Philosophy of Religions and Continental Philosophy at the University of Nottingham, as well as being Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the University of Vienna, as part of the project ‘Revenge of the Sacred: Phenomenology and the Ends of Christianity in Europe.’ Prior to that, Bruce was Senior Research Fellow at the University of St Andrews. Over the years, he has taught and engaged in research at Loyola Marymount University, Wheaton College, the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and Union Theological Seminary (NYC). He also serves as the Executive Director of the Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology, Philosophy of Religion editor for Syndicate Journal, editorial board member for Faith and Philosophy and the Journal of Continental Philosophy and Theology, and co-editor for the Eerdmans series ‘Prophetic Christianity’.
Dr. Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University.
What a fun conversation! Ilia Delio and Bruce Epperly joined me for an in-person conversation at ORTCON23. Since Ilia wrote a book on Bonaventure and Bruce is in the middle of writing one, it was the perfect time to get to know the 13th Century philosopher, theologian, and Saint.
Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, and American theologian specializing in science and religion, with interests in evolution, physics, and neuroscience and the import of these for theology.
Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University and is the author of twenty books, including Care for Creation (coauthored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods) which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009, first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book The Emergent Christ won a third-place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her recent books include The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third-place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015 and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.
Ilia’s previous visit to the podcast:
Bruce Epperly has served as a congregational pastor and university chaplain, university and seminary professor and administrator, and is a prolific author and lectionary commentator. With over forty years joining pulpit and classroom, Bruce recently retired from congregational ministry after serving eight years as Senior Pastor of South Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Centerville, MA . He has relocated from Cape Cod to the Washington DC suburbs to be closer to his family. He continues to teach as Adjunct Faculty at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington DC. Ordained in the United Church of Christ and Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), he is the author of more than sixty books in theology, spirituality, healing and wholeness, scripture, and clergy wellbeing, including
A Bible scholar and a theologian answer a bunch of really important questions while having some fun.
Pete Enns joined me live on the HBC YouTube channel (that you should follow) to tackle some fun nerdy questions.
If this experience isn’t painful and you think it would be fun to hangout with us, then join us in person at Theology Beer Camp October 19-21!
Peter Enns (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He has written numerous books, including The Bible Tells Me So, The Sin of Certainty, and How the Bible Actually Works.
Earlier this week I spent three days in Springfiled, MO preparing and planning Theology Beer Camp. I was joined by Tim Whitaker from the New Evangelicals, as we visited a number of the breweries and food trucks bringing the goods to camp and spent some time with the amazing team at The Venues, our hosting congregation. Right before we headed back home, Tim and Bren (our local coordinator) recorded this short episode where we share more details about the event, what to expect, and a few suprising new details!
Feel the lure and grab your ticket for Theology Beer Camp.
Dr. Matthew Thiessen is associate professor of religious studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is the author of Contesting Conversion: Genealogy, Circumcision, and Identity in Ancient Judaism and Christianity (awarded the
Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise), Paul and the Gentile Problem, and Jesus and the Forces of Death. Soon he will release a new book, A Jewish Paul: The Messiah’s Herald to the Gentiles.
Matt wants you to troll him on twitter
How does the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer help us think ethically about Christian Nationalism? What is the task for a public theologian given the rise of fascist religion? In this conversation, my co-host Dr. Jeff Pugh and I are joined by Dr. Lori Brandt Hale to discuss her
work on Bonhoeffer and its application to the political moment.
This was one of the live stream sessions from the online class Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith. To access Dr. Hale and all the other contributor’s amazing lectures head over here. These live streams were inspired by the contributor’s address, their reading selection from Bonhoeffer, and class member questions.
Lori Brandt Hale is professor and chair of the Department of Religion and Philosophy at Augsburg University in Minneapolis, MN.
She is the Vice President of the International Bonhoeffer Society – English Language Section and a Westar Institute Scholar.
Brandt Hale is co-editor of and contributor to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Theology, and Political Resistance(June 2020), the second volume in a new series on faith and political theology by Lexington Books. Her chapter in this book, a constructive read of Bonhoeffer’s work, is titled, “The Interfaith Imperative: How Bonhoeffer Compels Interfaith Action.” She is also the co-author of Bonhoeffer for Armchair Theologians(Westminster John Knox, 2009). She has written numerous articles and book chapters on Bonhoeffer’s political resistance, understanding of vocation, and relevance in contemporary times – including the now perennial question, “Is this a Bonhoeffer moment?”
Are you discerning a call to ministry or leadership? Christian Theological Seminary understands you can’t put your life on pause to complete your Master of Divinity degree. Thanks to new remote learning technology and their redesigned MDiv, you no longer have to. Their redesigned MDiv program now offers remote learning options for completing classes without eliminating the traditional in-person classroom experience. With consistent course offerings and individualized degree mapping, students can complete the required credit hours at their own pace with minimal on-site intensive days, creating an equitable experience from anywhere. They’re bringing CTS to you and opening access to excellent preparation for ministry and ordination. Learn more at www.CTS.edu
How does the work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer help us think ethically about the climate crisis? What is the shape of theology in the Anthropocene? In this conversation my co-host Dr. Jeff Pugh and I are joined by Dr. Dianne Rayson to discuss her
work on Bonhoeffer and ecology.
This was one of the live stream sessions from the online class Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith. To access Dr. Rayson’s and all the other contributor’s amazing lectures head over here. These live streams were inspired by the contributor’s lecture, thier reading selection from Bonhoeffer, and class member questions.
Di Rayson is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Ethics at Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji and is an ecotheologian and Bonhoeffer scholar, having published widely. Her first book was Bonhoeffer and Climate Change: Theology and Ethics for the Anthropocene.
Di is co-convenor of the upcoming XIV International Bonhoeffer Congress in Sydney, Australia in January 2024.
Prior to becoming a theologian she had an extensive career in public health and social policy in Australia and the Pacific. Di is an Anglican lay preacher, singer and cellist. When in Australia she lives on a small farm between the mountains and the sea.
Are you discerning a call to ministry or leadership? Christian Theological Seminary understands you can’t put your life on pause to complete your Master of Divinity degree. Thanks to new remote learning technology and their redesigned MDiv, you no longer have to. Their redesigned MDiv program now offers remote learning options for completing classes without eliminating the traditional in-person classroom experience. With consistent course offerings and individualized degree mapping, students can complete the required credit hours at their own pace with minimal on-site intensive days, creating an equitable experience from anywhere. They’re bringing CTS to you and opening access to excellent preparation for ministry and ordination. Learn more at www.CTS.edu
I am thrilled to have my friend and Barthian Travis McMaken back on the podcast. This time we are joined by his co-editor for the Karl Barth volume in the Classics of Western Spirituality volume, Ash Cocksworth. I really enjoyed this volume of one of my favorite series, and I hope this conversation communicates what a stellar job they did putting it together. The selections were excellent, their introductory comments are clarifying, and this conversation is fun and lively for all your theology nerds. PLUS we let you know that Travis will return to Theology Beer Camp this year!
For Karl Barth, all dogmatic work is spiritual. Thus, like Aquinas and other renowned theologians, Barth did not write an independent spiritual theology, but integrated spirituality into his dogmatic work. Nevertheless, specific texts within Barth’s corpus are dedicated to spiritual matters and they form the basis of the material in this volume. The selections draw widely from Barth’s commentary on Romans, Church Dogmatics, sermons, lectures, speeches, seminars, and his own prayer life. They illumine for researchers, students, and the general reader the distinctiveness of Barth’s theology of Christian spirituality and the important contribution he makes to the wider traditions of Christian spirituality. To augment the primary sources, this volume also contains an introductory essay that comments on the selection of texts, sets Barth in his historical context, charts the development of his thought, and indicates the significance of spirituality to his theology (including drawing out the distinctively christological shape of his spiritual theology).
Ashley Cocksworth is Senior Lecturer in Theology and Practice at the University of Roehampton. He studied theology at the University of Edinburgh and then undertook doctoral work at the University of Cambridge. Previously he was Assistant Professor in Theology and Ministry in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University (2017-18) and Tutor in Systematic Theology at the Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham (2012-17).
W. Travis McMaken, PhD, is the Butler Bible Endowed Professor of Religion and Associate Dean of Arts and Humanities at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, MO. He is a Ruling Elder in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
McMaken’s writing engages primarily with 20th century theology (esp. Protestant theology, with specialization in Karl Barth, Helmut Gollwitzer, and T. F. Torrance) while working constructively on the subjects of sacramentology, ecclesiology, and political theology.
Previous Episodes with Travis include:
Are you discerning a call to ministry or leadership? Christian Theological Seminaryunderstands you can’t put your life on pause to complete your Master of Divinity degree. Thanks to new remote learning technology and their redesigned MDiv, you no longer have to. Their redesigned MDiv program now offers remote learning options for completing classes without eliminating the traditional in-person classroom experience. With consistent course offerings and individualized degree mapping, students can complete the required credit hours at their own pace with minimal on-site intensive days, creating an equitable experience from anywhere. They’re bringing CTS to you and opening access to excellent preparation for ministry and ordination. Learn more at www.CTS.edu
Adam Clark is back on the podcast! Adam is not only a dear friend, a brilliant theologian who taught two previous HBC classes on Black Theology and the legacy of James Cone, but Adam is the first theologian we are announcing for Theology Beer Camp 2023!! In this episode, we will hear Adam reflect on his recent pilgrimage to Ghana, the origin of Black Theology, the relationship of contemplation and liberation, and the struggle of those trying to stay Christian when the church testifies against it.
Dr. Adam Clark is Associate Professor of Theology at Xavier University. He is committed to the idea that theological education in the twenty-first century must function as a counter-story. One that equips us to read against the grain of the dominant culture and inspires one to live into the Ignatian dictum of going forth “to set the world on fire.” To this end, Dr. Clark is intentional about pedagogical practices that raise critical consciousness by going beneath surface meanings, unmasking conventional wisdoms and reimagining the good. He currently serves as co-chair of Black Theology Group at the American Academy of Religion, actively publishes in the area of black theology and black religion and participates in social justice groups at Xavier and in the Cincinnati area. He earned his PhD at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was mentored by James Cone.
This podcast was recorded LIVE at Petty Thieves Brewing Co in Charlotte, North Carolina. We were celebrating the release of Leah Robinson’s new book Bad Theology: Oppression in the Name of God. Obviously Leah would need to be there, but we were also joined by nerdy friends of the podcast, Sarah Lane Ritchie and Ben Boswell.
Dr. Leah Robinson is Associate Professor of Religion at Pfieffer University. You should also check out her brand new podcast and Theology on the Rocks and follow her on twitter.
Here’s my endorsement for this awesome new book:
“What do the leaders of the KKK, Jonestown, apartheid South Africa, & the Massachusetts Bay Colony have in common? A Christian theology they lived out. It may be ugly, repulsive, and vile, but it was theology nonetheless. In this timely and poignant new book, Leah Robinson refuses to set aside these oppressive visions of God as theological exceptions. They must be addressed! As a practical theologian, she reminds us that all theology, the good and the bad, the oppressive and the salvific, is a human work and has consequences. By expanding the narrow boundaries of practical theology as a field, she pioneers new ground and demonstrates how stimulating this new vision can be.”
What happens when a progressive Christian historian and theologian talk about all the things you aren’t supposed to discuss at dinner? When Diana and I get together each month we call it ‘Ruining Dinner. ‘
What happens when right before your scheduled live stream Donald Trump is indicted on seven counts related to the documents case with violations of the Espionage Act? Well this episode is the answer.
Diana and I love doing these each month with our community members. If you want to join our regular online hangs head over to Diana’s substack community the Cottage or the Hombrewed Community.
The dominant Religion & Science conversation in America is deeply shaped by American Christianity. In his new book Dr. Cootsona invites us beyond a Christian-centric perspective. What he reveals is a much more lively conversation that is enhanced by a deep religious pluralism. I was pumped to talk to him about it!
Greg Cootsona is a speaker and writer in science and faith, emerging adults, C. S. Lewis, and Christian life and thought. He teaches in religion, humanities, philosophy, and sociology at California State University, Chico and co-directs Science for the Church. Here’s the book.
When one of your heroes writes a book to share the wisdom they have collected in life and you have a podcast… this episode happens.
Kevin Kelly is Senior Maverick at Wired magazine. He co-founded Wired in 1993, and served as its Executive Editor for its first seven years. His newest book is Excellent Advice for Living, a book of 450 modern proverbs for good living. He is co-chair of The Long Now Foundation, a membership organization that champions long-term thinking and acting as a good ancestor to future generations. And he is founder of the popular Cool Tools website, which has been reviewing tools daily for 20 years. From 1984-1990 Kelly was publisher and editor of the Whole Earth Review, a subscriber-supported journal of unorthodox conceptual news. He co-founded the ongoing Hackers’ Conference, and was involved with the launch of the WELL, a pioneering online service started in 1985. Other books by Kelly include 1) The Inevitable, a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, 2) Out of Control, his 1994 classic book on decentralized emergent systems, 3) The Silver Cord, a graphic novel about robots and angels, 4) What Technology Wants, a robust theory of technology, and 5) Vanishing Asia, his 50-year project to photograph the disappearing cultures of Asia. He is best known for his radical optimism about the future.
Loading…
John Dominic Crossan returns to the podcast to discuss the connection between human evolution and Christian resurrection. It was a blast! In the conversation, we mention some Dom’s books, including The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now and How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Is God Violent? An Exploration from Genesis to Revelation.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
Ryan is back with some fresh graphs and data for us to unpack. It was a bunch of fun, and the takes got spicer throughout. Since he’s got a new edition of The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going coming out, we decided it would be fun to have a teach-in and spend three hours digging into the most up-to-date research. With his precise and accessible descriptions, backed up by a multitude of charts and graphs, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the nones and their impact on American society. Plus, we will have a bunch of fun. Info and Join up HERE.
Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of
numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.
Previous Visits from Ryan Burge
This is one special episode! I had the privilege of talking to Hugh Howey, the author behind the new post-apocalyptic show Silo on Apple TV+. It was one wonderful conversation about a fantastic new series. I can’t exaggerate how much I enjoyed Silo. The first two episodes are now available for your streaming pleasure.
Hugh Howey is a literary explorer, venturing into the uncharted territories of science fiction and dystopian fiction with the same curiosity and fearlessness as a space-faring adventurer. When he’s not busy crafting intricate and gripping tales of survival and rebellion, you can find him sipping on a cup of coffee and dreaming up new worlds to conquer.
Hugh is the New York Times bestselling author of WOOL, SAND, BEACON 23, MACHINE LEARNING, and HALF WAY HOME. The SILO drama series, based on Hugh Howey’s trilogy, premiered on Apple TV+ in May 2023. A series based on BEACON 23 will release in 2023 on AMC. Hugh is attached as Executive Producer on both of these projects, and co-created AMC’S upcoming EVERGREEN with Matt Mikalatos. His works have been translated into dozens of languages and have been published in over 40 countries.
Get ready to be transported to a post-apocalyptic world where the air is toxic, the ground is barren, and society is confined to a massive underground silo. Join a band of rebels as they fight against the oppressive ruling class and uncover the dark secrets that threaten to destroy everything they hold dear. With stunning visuals and heart-pumping action, “Silo” is a thrilling ride you won’t want to miss. So buckle up, put on your gas mask, and get ready to journey deep into the unknown.
Join Dr. Ryan Burge, a leading expert in American religion, for an online teach-in exploring the fascinating world of “The Nones” – the increasingly significant group of Americans who claim no religious affiliation.
In this interactive session, Dr. Burge will take you on a journey through his newly updated book, “The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going.” With his precise and accessible descriptions, backed up by a multitude of charts and graphs, you’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of the nones and their impact on American society.
Discover how the nones have grown from just 5 percent in 1972 to a staggering 23.7 percent in 2018, making them as numerous as both evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics. Get an inside look into the different subgroups of nones, such as atheists and agnostics, and learn about the factors that lead an individual to return to religion.
Whether you’re a student, scholar, or just someone who wants to know more about America’s changing religious landscape, this online teach-in is for you. With an ever-growing collection of statistical and demographic information, this learning opportunity is more compelling than ever.
Andrew Root is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, USA. He writes and researches in areas of theology, ministry, culture, and younger generations. Some of his most recent books are The Congregation in a Secular Age (Baker, 2021), The End of Youth Ministry? (Baker, 2020), The Pastor in a Secular Age: Ministry to People Who No Longer Need God (Baker, 2019), Faith Formation in a Secular Age (Baker, 2017), and Exploding Stars, Dead Dinosaurs, and Zombies: Youth Ministry in the Age of Science (Fortress Press, 2018). Andy has worked in congregations, parachurch ministries, and social service programs. He lives in St. Paul with his wife Kara, two children, Owen and Maisy, and their dog. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Andy spends far too much time watching TV and movies.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
Michael DeJonge is Professor and Chair of the Religious Studies department, where he teaches about the history of Christian thought, theories and methods in religious studies, and religion in modern society. He holds the endowed Chair named in memory of James F. Strange, who was a respected colleague and beloved teacher in the department for forty years. He’s been teaching at USF since earning a Ph.D. in Religion from Emory University in 2009. He has been a Fulbright Scholar, a Fellow of the Berlin Program for Advanced German and European Studies, a Volkswagen/Mellon Fellow at the Leibniz-Institute for European History in Mainz, Germany, and Visiting Dietrich Bonhoeffer Professor of Theology and Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
A Bible scholar and a theologian answer a bunch of really important questions while having some fun.
Pete Enns joined me live on the HBC YouTube channel (that you should follow) to tackle some fun nerdy questions.
If this experience isn’t painful and you think it would be fun to hangout with us, then join us in person at Adult Vacation Bible School this summer June 30 – July 2.
Peter Enns (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He has written numerous books, including The Bible Tells Me So, The Sin of Certainty, and How the Bible Actually Works.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
John Dominic Crossan returns to the podcast to discuss the presence of empire throughout scripture and how recognizing the divine struggle against its oppression can reframe our understanding of Easter then and today. In the conversation, we mention some Dom’s books, including The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now and How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian: Is God Violent? An Exploration from Genesis to Revelation.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
Marjorie Suchocki is one of my favorite theologians. I absolutely love each of her books and have recommended them over and over. We got to connect in person for this conversation while in Claremont celebrating the 50th Anniversary for the Center for Process Studies. Our conversation touches a bunch of different topics including the doctrine of God, religious pluralism, prayer, eschatology, the incarnation, the Psalms, and preaching. As you will hear, I beyond excited and ended up giving multiple testimonies of my affection and felt like that one Chris Farley skit
Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki is professor emerita at Claremont School of Theology, where she held the Ingraham Chair in Theology and also served six years of her tenure as academic dean.
Here’s her new book, 21 Psalms for the 21st Century. When I read it I dropped this endorsement on my social media: Marjorie Suchocki is one of the most beautiful theologians. When she writes as a philosophical theologian it is brilliant & compelling. When she invites curious Christians into a deeper theological journey she’s alluring & encouraging. When she reflects on actions like prayer or preaching, she gives you the practice back as a treasure with a deeper significance.
In this book she makes the Pslams simultaneously a reservoir of ancient wisdom and timely honest invitations into the heart of the divine.
If you read this book you will thank me. If you don’t I’ll buy your copy and gift it without judgement.
If you are new to Suchocki or Process Theology this brief PDF intro is a good place to start.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting-edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting-edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
Dr. Pugh is joining Tripp for a conversation about the timely work of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We will pull out 5 different reasons the return to Bonhoeffer is needed from his essay “Ten Years After,” in which Bonhoeffer wrote to the conspirators and resisters to Nazi rule in 1943. In this one short piece, ample grounds for reflecting on a society in which black bodies are under attack, bodies of all people face the specter of death and disease, and we are slipping into a global oligarchy where the wealthy will determine for us how we live our lives.
This is not the end of the conversation, but an invitation to join us and 5 other Bonhoeffer scholars as we dig into his texts and address our moment’s most pressing questions. You can join this donation-based class (including 0) by heading to www.riseofbonhoeffer.com
Previous Episodes with Dr. Pugh
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting-edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
Rolf Jacobson is back on the podcast, and we have some serious fun. In our conversation, we discuss several things seminarians learn that could be triggering to the church they grew up in. I also drop a few exciting announcements in the intro like Rolf and I will tag-team a keynote together at the Festival of Homiletics in Minneapolis this May. Plus, there will be a live Homebrewed Christianity podcast on Tuesday, March 16th, in Minneapolis, open to everyone. In the fall semester, I will start a stint as Visiting Professor of Theology at Luther Seminary, where nearly all MA and MDiv students get a full-tuition scholarship.
Dr. Rolf A. Jacobson is the Professor of Old Testament and the Alvin N. Rogness Chair of Scripture, Theology, and Ministry at Luther Seminary.
Known for his humor and faithful biblical interpretation, Jacobson is an in-demand preacher and teacher. With Craig Koester, he developed and supports the Narrative Lectionary. He enjoys collaborating with other teachers and pastors. His collaborative projects include The Book of Psalms (NICOT; with Beth Tanner and Nancy deClaissé-Walford), Invitation to the Psalms (with Karl Jacobson), Crazy Talk: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Theological Terms (with five fellow Luther Seminary graduates), and Crazy Book: A Not-So-Stuffy Dictionary of Biblical Terms(with Hans Wiersma and Karl Jacobon). He is also the author of The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to the Old Testament: Israel’s In-Your-Face, Holy God. His scholarly interests include the Psalms, prophets, biblical theology, biblical narrative, and preaching the Old Testament.
His voice can be heard on two weekly preaching podcasts, “Sermon Brainwave” and “The Narrative Lectionary,” as well as singing the high lonesome with a Lutheran bluegrass band, “The Fleshpots of Egypt.”
A childhood cancer survivor, he is a double, above-the-knee amputee who generally wears a bicycle and a smile. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with his beloved wife Amy, their children Ingrid and Gunnar, and a cat who thinks he is a dog. He is a loyal friend, a lifelong sufferer of Minnesota sports, and a committed board-game geek.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
John Dominic Crossan returns to the podcast to discuss how the death of John the Baptist reshaped Jesus’ own vision and how the death and resurrection of Jesus changed Paul’s eschatological hope. In the conversation, we mention some Dom’s books, including The First Paul: Reclaiming the Radical Visionary Behind the Church’s Conservative Icon, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Final Days in Jerusalem and Resurrecting Easter.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD is a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC and American theologian specializing in the area ofscience and religion, with interests in evolution, physics and neuroscience and the import of these for theology.
Ilia currently holds the Josephine C. Connelly Endowed Chair in Theology at Villanova University, and is the author of twenty books including Care for Creation (coauthored with Keith Warner and Pamela Woods) which won two Catholic Press Book Awards in 2009, first place for social concerns and second place in spirituality. Her book The Emergent Christ won a third place Catholic Press Book Award in 2011 for the area of Science and Religion. Her recent books include The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution and the Power of Love (Orbis, 2013), which received the 2014 Silver Nautilus Book Award and a third place Catholic Press Association Award for Faith and Science. Ilia holds two honorary doctorates, one from St. Francis University in 2015, and one from Sacred Heart University in 2020.
You can check out Ilia’s previous visit to the podcast here: the Entangled God of My Heart
Why does a theologian like Dietrich Bonhoeffer still excite our theological imagination? What is it about his work in a different era that still engages some of the most cutting edge theological work done today? Join us for the new Homebrewed Christianity class, “Bonhoeffer and the Future of Faith” as we listen to and learn from internationally known scholars working in areas such as climate change, prison reform, racial tensions, pastoral care, and Christian Nationalism. These scholars, generations removed from Bonhoeffer’s day, find inspiration in him for the continuing task of theology to interpret and respond to global challenges in our day. Together this class will think about Bonhoeffer’s enduring question to the church of his day, “What is Christianity for us today?” How we are responding in our time to this question will determine the shape of faith for our day and beyond.
John Dominic Crossan returns to the podcast to discuss how Jesus the parable teller became the parable of God. You will hear him describe the nature of parables and their role in the kingdom ministry of Jesus. This parabolic framework helps him unpack the nature of the four Gospels and how they function to make space for God today. In the conversation, we mention some Dom’s books, including The Power of Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus The Dark Interval: Towards a Theology of Story, and Resurrecting Easter.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
Jeffrey D. Sachs is a world-renowned economics professor, bestselling author, innovative educator, and global leader in sustainable development. I am thrilled to welcome him to the podcast as we discuss ethics, economics, ecology, and our global future. In a new edited volume, Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development, Sachs brings together leaders from different religious and moral traditions from across the globe to wrestle with our collective task expressed in the UN’s sustainable development goals. This ground-breaking text served to inspire our conversation!
Sachs is widely recognized for bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges, including the escape from extreme poverty, the global battle against human-induced climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, where he holds the rank of University Professor, the university’s highest academic rank. Sachs was Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, academician of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences at the Vatican, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development, Tan Sri Jeffrey Cheah Honorary Distinguished Professor at Sunway University, and SDG Advocate for UN Secretary General António Guterres. From 2001-18, Sachs served as Special Advisor to UN Secretaries-General Kofi Annan (2001-7), Ban Ki-moon (2008-16), and António Guterres (2017-18).
Sachs has authored and edited numerous books, including three New York Times bestsellers: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). Other books include To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013), The Age of Sustainable Development (2015), Building the New American Economy: Smart, Fair & Sustainable (2017), A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism (2018), The Ages of Globalization: Geography, Technology, and Institutions (2020), and most recently, Ethics in Action for Sustainable Development (2022).
Sachs is the 2022 recipient of the Tang Prize in Sustainable Development and was the co-recipient of the 2015 Blue Planet Prize, the leading global prize for environmental leadership. He was twice named among Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders. Sachs has received 41 honorary doctorates, and his recent awards include the 2022 Tang Prize in Sustainable Development, the Legion of Honor by decree of the President of the Republic of France, and the Order of the Cross from the President of Estonia.
Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, most recently as the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at Harvard.
Lexington Theological Seminary is a pioneer in online theological education. Both the Doctoral and Masters programs are designed with the flexibility and contextual focus needed for the working student. You can learn more by heading here.
Here are a few episodes with a couple of their Profs
the BoDaddy Returns + I battle Tony Jones in au contraire mon frère + Longtime listeners & friends in the chat = EPIC 15th Birthday Party for Homebrewed Christianity.
I am so extremely grateful for the community around the podcast and the wonderful people who have become friends over the last 15 years. You can keep up with the fresh stuff Bo Sanders is doing here and follow Tony Jones’ work here.
The last 15 minutes of this episode are very important to me. There I give a toast to my original co-host Chad Crawford and then give a tipsy sermonic reflection on friendship. It wasn’t planned, but it does capture my love for
John Dominic Crossan returns to the podcast to discuss how a historian thinks about Jesus. You will hear him outline the basic framework he operates from before tackling several different topics and questions sent in by members of the Easter Stories group. In the conversation, we mention some Dom’s books including The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant, Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography, and Resurrecting Easter.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
Are you discerning a call to ministry or leadership? Christian Theological Seminary understands you can’t put your life on pause to complete your Master of Divinity degree. Thanks to new remote learning technology and their redesigned MDiv, you no longer have to. Their redesigned MDiv program now offers remote learning options for completing classes without eliminating the traditional in-person classroom experience. With consistent course offerings and individualized degree mapping, students can complete the required credit hours at their own pace with minimal on-site intensive days, creating an equitable experience from anywhere. They’re bringing CTS to you and opening access to excellent preparation for ministry and ordination. Learn more at www.CTS.edu
This is the first session with me and Diana’s Lenten class Empty Altars: American Saints in a Cynical Age. We hope you enjoy it and consider joining the group.
If you enjoy this, check out the upcoming lent group with Diana and me – Empty Altars:American Saints in a Cynical Age.
We live in iconoclastic times. All around us, saints and heroes are being knocked off or taken
down from public altars. It seems that nearly everyone we once admired or held in esteem has failed us. We’ve stripped the altars of both state and church. America’s spiritual landscape is now marked by empty altars everywhere.
Taking down statues is nothing new, especially in Christian history. Cynicism and anger at failed institutions and flawed heroes is nothing new. But human beings rarely leave altars empty very long — there’s almost a pressing need to re-sanctify the geographies we inhabit. People always put statues back up.
But of who? And to commemorate what? How do we move ahead with new saints and a less troublesome iconography? What “saints” can inspire us to address the hurts of our hearts, the brokenness of our communities, and the pressing issues of our times?
Shouldn’t we just give up on the whole idea of saints anyway? Why bother?
Join Diana and Tripp this Lentas they explore “sainthood” for an American — and global — future. We’ll share stories that need to be told of “saints” you know and those you need to know in a quirky learning journey through American religious history.
You can earn 3.75% interest on a new 18-month term investment in faith-based and socially responsible investments. Check out the United Church of Christ’s Cornerstone Fund to invest in and build Community across the country. Visit www.cornerstonefund.org or call 888-UCC-FUND to learn more. Their staff is available to assist you on your investment journey.
What do we know about the last week of Jesus’ life? Why was Jesus executed?
In this visual lecture, renowned Historical Jesus scholar John Dominic Crossan will walk us through a historical reconstruction of Jesus’ last week, ending in his crucifixion. Attending to the historical matrix of Jesus helps provide a rich context for exploring the challenge and meaning the execution of Jesus could have for us today.
You can access the online visual lecture series “Easter Stories” and join the five live QnA sessions by going to www.EasterWithCrossan.com
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
I got to join Diana Butler Bass at the Southern Lights festival over MLK weekend where we recorded this live edition of Ruining Dinner. To be a part of future zoom sessions of the series and get access to past gatherings, join Diana’s newsletter community, the Cottage &/or the Homebrewed Community.
If you enjoy this, check out the upcoming lent group with Diana and me – Empty Altars: American Saints in a Cynical Age.
We live in iconoclastic times. All around us, saints and heroes are being knocked off or taken
down from public altars. It seems that nearly everyone we once admired or held in esteem has failed us. We’ve stripped the altars of both state and church. America’s spiritual landscape is now marked by empty altars everywhere.
Taking down statues is nothing new, especially in Christian history. Cynicism and anger at failed institutions and flawed heroes is nothing new. But human beings rarely leave altars empty very long — there’s almost a pressing need to re-sanctify the geographies we inhabit. People always put statues back up.
But of who? And to commemorate what? How do we move ahead with new saints and a less troublesome iconography? What “saints” can inspire us to address the hurts of our hearts, the brokenness of our communities, and the pressing issues of our times?
Shouldn’t we just give up on the whole idea of saints anyway? Why bother?
Join Diana and Tripp this Lent as they explore “sainthood” for an American — and global — future. We’ll share stories that need to be told of “saints” you know and those you need to know in a quirky learning journey through American religious history.
Philip Clayton returns to the podcast! We recorded this LIVE at the 50th Anniversary conference for the Center for Process Studies. What better time than to figure out the meaning of life…. As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection points of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization.
When Phil and I got done, Sarah Heath was joined by Thomas Jay Oord and Mason Mennenga for a timely exploration of love advice from a process-relational perspective. This is what nerds do late at night on Valentine’s Day:)
John Cobb is a Christian Theologian. Yet, he is just as likely to be known to economists, scientists, philosophers, environmentalists, educators, and activists. Some could say he left behind his task as a Christian theologian venturing across so many fields, but as this collection of Cobb’s theological writing will demonstrate, it is precisely his passion for the one Jesus called Abba that animated his powerful and prophetic intellectual and movement invest in so many of the most pressing and challenging centers of intellectual inquiry. Yes, Cobb is a Christian theologian, but more than that, a model of just what kind of theologian is needed in our age and beyond. This selection of essays was compiled from John B. Cobb, Jr.’s writings over the decades to celebrate his 98th birthday.
If you have wanted to learn about Process theology and philosophy, but wondered where to begin, check out this one-day teach-in I helped put together. It brings together some amazing speakers for a hybrid event. You will be guided into the Process vision by some of the best communicators during this one-day teach-in. This event is donation based (including 0), so join the nerdy fun and tell your friends!
This episode was recorded live in Napa, CA at the ‘Love and the Power of God‘ conference. It was a complete blast! You will hear from a bunch of regulars on the podcast, as well as a few first timers.
If you have wanted to learn about Process theology and philosophy, but wondered where to begin, then check out this one-day teach-in I helped put together. It brings together some amazing speakers for a hybrid event. You will be guided into the Process vision by some of the best communicators during this one-day teach-in. You can join online or in person and watch the sessions live or on your schedule. This event is donation based (including 0), so join the nerdy fun and tell your friends!
Get some info and sign-up HERE for the Process Party.
You can earn 3.75% interest on a new 18-month term investment in faith-based and socially responsible investments. Check out the United Church of Christ’s Cornerstone Fund to invest in and build Community across the country. Visit www.cornerstonefund.org or call 888-UCC-FUND to learn more. Their staff is available to assist you on your investment journey.
This is a special episode with two friends. Pete and Tony had a spectacular conversation at Theology Beer Camp where Pete shared a bit about his BRAND NEW BOOK – Curve Ball: WHen Your Faith Takes Turns You Never Saw Coming – and baseball. Since Tony’s podcast, The Reverend Hunter, is not about theology and baseball, I decided to release it here and remind you about Pete’s new book. Before they get going, Tony joins me for a full-throated HBC intro… like 15 minute style:) Enjoy.
Peter Enns (Ph.D., Harvard University) is Abram S. Clemens professor of biblical studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania. He has written numerous books, including The Bible Tells Me So, The Sin of Certainty, and How the Bible Actually Works.
Tony Jones is the author of Did God Kill Jesus? (HarperOne, 2015) and contributing writer to several outdoors periodicals. He’s written a dozen books, including The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, developed the iPhone app, hosts the Reverend Hunter Podcast, and teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary. Tony is a sought-after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality, writing, and the outdoors. He served as a consultant on the television show, The Path, and he owns an event planning company, Crucible Creative. He holds an A.B. from Dartmouth College, an M.Div. from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary.
In this episode, two of my favorite Church Historians join the podcast for a tricky but needed conversation on the changing shape of American religion. It is so much fun!
If you enjoy this, check out the upcoming lent group with Diana and me – Empty Altars: American Saints in a Cynical Age.
We live in iconoclastic times. All around us, saints and heroes are being knocked off or taken
down from public altars. It seems that nearly everyone we once admired or held in esteem has failed us. We’ve stripped the altars of both state and church. America’s spiritual landscape is now marked by empty altars everywhere.
Taking down statues is nothing new, especially in Christian history. Cynicism and anger at failed institutions and flawed heroes is nothing new. But human beings rarely leave altars empty very long — there’s almost a pressing need to re-sanctify the geographies we inhabit. People always put statues back up.
But of who? And to commemorate what? How do we move ahead with new saints and a less troublesome iconography? What “saints” can inspire us to address the hurts of our hearts, the brokenness of our communities, and the pressing issues of our times?
Shouldn’t we just give up on the whole idea of saints anyway? Why bother?
Join Diana and Tripp this Lent as they explore “sainthood” for an American — and global — future. We’ll share stories that need to be told of “saints” you know and those you need to know in a quirky learning journey through American religious history.
Dr. Bill Leonard is Founding Dean and Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Wake Forest University’s School of Divinity. Leonard’s research focuses on Church History with particular attention to American religion, Baptist studies, and Appalachian religion. He is the author or editor of some 25 books including Christianity in Appalachia (1999); Baptist Ways: A History (2003); The Challenge of Being Baptist (2010); Can I Get a Witness?: Essays, Sermons and Reflections (2013); and A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the U.S., (2014). In March 2015 he delivered the William James Lecture on Religious Experience at Harvard Divinity School and in February 2017 he gave the William Self Lectures on Preaching at McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University. His newest book, The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Church History: Flaming Heretics and Heavy Drinkers, was published by Fortress Press in July 2017. Leonard is on the board of the Journal of Disability and Religion, The Baptist Quarterly (England), the Day1 Preaching Network, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and the Governing Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. His sabbatical research focuses on a new book, tentatively entitled: “Security or Idolatry?: A History of Religion and Firearms in the U.S.” Leonard writes a twice-monthly column for Baptist News Global, is an ordained Baptist minister, and a member of First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue (American Baptist Churches, USA) in Winston-Salem.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Are you discerning a call to ministry or leadership? Christian Theological Seminary understands you can’t put your life on pause to complete your Master of Divinity degree. Thanks to new remote learning technology and their redesigned MDiv, you no longer have to. Their redesigned MDiv program now offers remote learning options for completing classes without eliminating the traditional in-person classroom experience. With consistent course offerings and individualized degree mapping, students can complete the required credit hours at their own pace with minimal on-site intensive days, creating an equitable experience from anywhere. They’re bringing CTS to you and opening access to excellent preparation for ministry and ordination. Learn more at www.CTS.edu
Sarey Martin Concepción is a writer, podcast producer, and filmmaker with roots in L.A. and Portland, OR. She has an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary and works as communications director for Blueprint 1543, which cultivates integration between theology and the psychological sciences. Currently, she’s in preproduction on a feminist, sci-fi short film (winemakermovie.com). Before pursuing independent fiction and nonfiction projects, she worked for 10 years as part of Rob Zombie’s production and management team. More at secretartproject.com.
Dr. Adam Clark is Associate Professor of Theology at Xavier University. He is committed to the idea that theological education in the twenty first century must function as a counter-story. One that equips us to read against the grain of the dominant culture and inspires one to live into the Ignatian dictum of going forth “to set the world on fire.” To this end, Dr. Clark is intentional about pedagogical practices that raise critical consciousness by going beneath surface meanings, unmasking conventional wisdoms and reimagining the good. He currently serves as co-chair of Black Theology Group at the American Academy of Religion, actively publishes in the area of black theology and black religion and participates in social justice groups at Xavier and in the Cincinnati area. He earned his PhD at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was mentored by James Cone.
Cancel Culture, Rogan, Whoopi, Chappelle, & the NFL
Gary Dorrien & Adam Clark: James Cone and the Emergence of Black Theology
Serene Jones & Adam Clark: Theology Matters and the Legacy of James Cone
The Crisis of American Religion & Democracy: 1/6 a year later
Christmas, BLM, Abortion, & the War on White Evangelicalism
Jan 6th Theological Debrief: Adam Clark and Jeffrey Pugh
Adam Clark: What is Black Theology?
From Lebron James to the Black Panther: Black Theology QnA w/ Adam Clark
Adam Clark: James Cone was right
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral programat Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Dr. Myron Penner is a professor of philosophy at Trinity Western University and director of the Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre for Faith and Learning. On top of being a stellar scholar, he is a dear friend and the coolest Mennonite Canadian philosopher on planet earth
Dr. Sarah Lane Ritchie received her B.A. in Philosophy & Religion from Spring Arbor University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an M.Sc. in Science & Religion from the University of Edinburgh. She obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in Science & Religion with a thesis on divine action and the human mind, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews. She has published a book with Cambridge University Press and numerous articles in academic journals, and continues research in the field of science and religion.
Dan Koch is one of my favorite people. He reached out to connect in person when he was thinking of starting a podcast, and since then, he has not only produced several quality podcasts, but I have grown to love having him in my life. Pretty Good Vibrations analyzes and celebrates pop and rock music and its crucial role throughout our lives. Podcast veteran and host Dan Koch (You Have Permission Podcast) has been a professional musician for most of the last 20 years: songwriter for the emo-pop band Sherwood, then as a commercial composer since 2012. Multiple episode styles include bracket-style tournaments, chronological walk-throughs, and deep dives into genres, artists, and eras. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Sarey Martin Concepción is a writer, podcast producer, and filmmaker with roots in L.A. and Portland, OR. She has an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary and works as communications director for Blueprint 1543, which cultivates integration between theology and the psychological sciences. Currently, she’s in preproduction on a feminist, sci-fi short film (winemakermovie.com). Before pursuing independent fiction and nonfiction projects, she worked for 10 years as part of Rob Zombie’s production and management team. More at secretartproject.com.Legendary Bible Scholar, John Dominic Crossan, is back on the podcast! In this episode, we tackle some listener questions and let everyone know about an upcoming class – Easter Stories.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
Dr. Leah Robinson is Associate Professor of Religion at Pfieffer University. You should also follow her on twitter. Her previous visits to the podcast include Bad Theology & Jager Bomb Fountains and When a Practical Theologian talks about God.
Rev. Sarah Heath is a Methodist minister who left the ministry behind. She hosts several podcasts, including REVcovery. Her previous visits to the podcast include The Theology Beer Camp Debrief and The Gift of Being a Minister.
Sarey Martin Concepción is a writer, podcast producer, and filmmaker with roots in L.A. and Portland, OR. She has an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary and works as communications director for Blueprint 1543, which cultivates integration between theology and the psychological sciences. Currently, she’s in preproduction on a feminist, sci-fi short film (winemakermovie.com). Before pursuing independent fiction and nonfiction projects, she worked for 10 years as part of Rob Zombie’s production and management team. More at secretartproject.com.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
This is the kick-off live stream for our newest online class – Experiencing God Discerning the Divine in Human Experience. Check it out and join the fun!
Dr. Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University.
Tim Whitaker runs the New Evangelicals and all its outputs. He was also “let go” as a drummer for asking too many questions. The gateway to their stuff is on IG ?
Sarey Martin Concepción is a writer, podcast producer, and filmmaker with roots in L.A. and Portland, OR. She has an MA in Theology and the Arts from Fuller Theological Seminary and works as communications director for Blueprint 1543, which cultivates integration between theology and the psychological sciences. Currently, she’s in preproduction on a feminist, sci-fi short film (winemakermovie.com). Prior to pursuing independent fiction and nonfiction projects, she worked for 10 years as part of Rob Zombie’s production and management team. More at secretartproject.com.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Dr. Ryan Burge is back on the podcast with his most popular charts of data on religion. The graphs we discuss are the 5 most popular he shared over the last year on his nerdy twitter.
Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of
numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.
Previous Visits from Ryan Burge
In 1991, 87% of people aged 18-35 years old were Christians. 8% of them identified as religiously unaffiliated.
By 1998, 73% of young people were Christians (a 14 point drop) and 21% of young people identified as nones (a 13 pt. increase).
America lost its religion in 1990s. pic.twitter.com/oPL2UYzswY
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) April 4, 2022
The drop in fertility over the last decade is primarily among Democrats.
Peak parenting in 2010:
65% of Republicans in their late 30s were parents.
62% of DemocratPeak parenting in 2020:
60% of Republicans in their late 30s were parents.
50% of Democrat pic.twitter.com/m3HmjaT1Up— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) November 28, 2022
Do people become more conservative as they age? This data tells a nuanced story.
For those born between 1930 and 1949, they did move rightward between 2008 and 2021.
1950-1964 saw no change at all.
Those born in 1965 or later have moved to the left between 2008 and 2021. pic.twitter.com/WqpGXy3T43
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) April 20, 2022
In 1988, 6% of white Democrats took an atheist or agnostic position about God. It was 3% of nonwhite Democrats.
In 2021, 32% of white Democrats were atheist/agnostic. It was 8% of nonwhite Democrats.
There’s never really been a racial God Gap for Republicans. <2 pts in 2021. https://t.co/eUz6NHngnf pic.twitter.com/R7tFKTl3HA
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) July 17, 2022
Doing interviews for 20 Myths, I often get asked what’s the biggest falsehood I see when it comes to data about religion.
It’s education leads people away from religion.
14 survey waves. Total N of ~550K.
In every single survey the less educated are more likely to be nones pic.twitter.com/4hC8hN2oJA
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) April 1, 2022
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Today J.R.R. Tolkien turns 131! My buddy and pro-Tolkien nerd Nick Polk joined me to share a toast to Tolkien and reflect on a passage we selected as we enter a new year. After the toast, you will hear our special Tolkien Heads session from Theology Beer Camp, which was a bunch of fun.
Nick Polk is the production editor for Mallorn, the academic journal of The Tolkien Society. His most recent research includes his essay entitled “Middle-earth in South Park: The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers as Parody.” Other than Tolkien, his other loves include his wife Kelly, coffee, and punk. Nothing sounds better than starting the day reading a Tolkien book with a cup of coffee and ending it in a moshpit with loved ones.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Matthew Segall returns to the podcast! This was recorded in person in Napa, Ca where he gave a talk on Process-Relational Politic al Theology. You can see his blog post about the talk here.
Dr. Segall is a transdisciplinary researcher and teacher applying process philosophy across various natural and social sciences, including the study of consciousness. He is also the Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA.
Make sure you check out his YouTube channel and the new book. You can listen to our last podcast conversation – Cosmology, Consciousness, and Whitehead’s God.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Myron Penner is back on the podcast! We discuss his current research project on sex, gender, and anthropology. In the second half of the episode Myron starts asking me questions and things get personal
Dr. Myron Penner is a professor of philosophy at Trinity Western University and director of the Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre for Faith and Learning. On top of being a stellar scholar, he is a dear friend and the coolest Mennonite Canadian philosopher on planet earth ?
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Diana is back for some Holiday fun! We gathered a bunch of questions where anything was on the table. This is what happened when we randomly answered member-submitted questions. To be a part of future zoom sessions and get access to past gatherings, join Diana’s newsletter community, the Cottage &/or the Homebrewed Community.
Want to attend a Ruining Dinner session in person? (we hope so)
Well, you could always match up our calendars and bring us to your living room, or you could come to the Southern Lights conference over MLK weekend. This event has both in-person and live-streaming options.
Kick off the new year with a nerdy good time. The next Homebrewed class will be a robust exploration of how the tools of science, philosophy, and theology help us discern meaning from divine encounters. We’ll discuss God-experiences as mediated through faith communities, the mind, nature, the Bible, psychedelics, and more. And we’ll do all this with an eye towards the future, exploring the possibilities for how a lived-theology could express itself in the world. Check it out here.
Long-time friend of the podcast and New Testament super nerd – the Good Doctor Daniel Kirk – is back on the podcast for some Christmas fun! This conversation was the first in-person live stream from the new Homebrewed Christianity headquarters. It was zesty.
Be sure to check out his newest book, Romans for Normal People: A Guide to the Most Misused, Problematic and Prooftexted Letter in the Bible. It is a nerdy banger of a book.
Daniel Kirk (Ph.D., Duke University) is an award-winning New Testament scholar whose work takes place at the intersection of history, biblical interpretation, and real life. He is currently broadening his intellectual and vocational horizons by studying to be a Physician Assistant. Look for upcoming work to have a robust dose of science and politics mixed into the biblical conversations.
There is a list of scholars I reach out to every 18 months hoping they will come on the podcast. For 12 years, Marion Grau has been on the list, but no more! I can’t exaggerate how much nerdy fun I had hanging with Marion in Norway, and we recorded some of that fun for you.
Marion Grau is Professor of Systematic Theology, Ecumenism and Missiology at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society in Oslo, Norway. Before coming to Oslo, she taught at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, CA from 2001-2015. Her teaching interests are in constructive theology and critical intersectional theories. Her current research projects include a constructive theology of energy
transitions and climate change. In addition to various chapters and articles, she is the author of the monographs Pilgrimage, Landscape, and Identity: Reconstructing Sacred Geographies in Norway (Oxford University Press, 2021), Refiguring Theological Hermeneutics: Hermes, Trickster, Fool (Palgrave MacMillan, 2014), Rethinking Mission in the Postcolony: Salvation, Society, and Subversion (T&T Clark/Continuum, 2011), and Of Divine Economy: Refinancing Redemption (T&T Clark/Continuum, 2004).
The Magi get 12 verses in the Gospel of Matthew, but that was all we needed to remain fascinated with them across history. In his new book The Magi, Dr. Eric Vanden Eykel starts with the Biblical story and follows the Magi all the way to Biff (if you know, you know).
Eric Vanden Eykel is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and the Forrest S. Williams Teaching Chair in the Humanities at Ferrum College in Virginia. He received his Ph.D. in Judaism and Christianity from Antiquity from Marquette University in Milwaukee, and he also holds masters degrees from Marquette and the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta. Dr. Vanden Eykel’s primary area of research is early Christian apocryphal literature, with a special focus on texts and traditions about the infancies and childhoods of Jesus and Mary, his mother. He is the author of “But Their Faces Were All Looking Up: Author and Reader in the Protevangelium of James,” published by T&T Clark, co-editor of Sex, Violence, and Early Christian Texts, published by Lexington Books, and author of The Magi: Who They Were, How They’ve Been Remembered, and Why They Still Fascinate, published by Fortress Press.
Dan Koch is one of my favorite people. He reached out to connect in person when hewas thinking of starting a podcast, and since then, he has not only produced several quality podcasts, but I have grown to love having him in my life. Like all good elder millennials, nothing says, “dude, I love being your friend,” like a quality mixtape. In this episode, we share our mixtape playlists to a stack of song categories collected from Twitter.
Pretty Good Vibrations analyzes and celebrates pop and rock music and its crucial role throughout our lives. Podcast veteran and host Dan Koch (You Have Permission Podcast) has been a professional musician for most of the last 20 years: songwriter for the emo-pop band Sherwood, then as a commercial composer since 2012. Multiple episode styles include bracket-style tournaments, chronological walk-throughs, and deep dives into genres, artists, and eras. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
I am pumped to have Dr. Delvyn Case on the podcast! What happens when a professional composer and theology nerd chronicles all the appearances of Jesus in Pop music? Well, you end up with a really cool project exploring the spiritual questions of our secular age. In this conversation we discuss his project and then dig into some secular Advent / Christmas tunes.
Dr. Case is a composer, conductor, scholar, performer, concert producer, and educator based in Boston and on faculty in the music department at Wheaton College in Norton, Massachusetts.
What is the Jesus in Pop Music Project? From “Jesus, Take the Wheel” to “Jesus Walks”, Jesus has appeared in hundreds of songs by (secular) pop musicians over the past 50 years. Whether written by believers or atheists, all of these songs seek to answer the oldest questions in Christianity: who was Jesus, what was his message, and why is he important? Though not intended for Christians, these songs provide us with unique opportunities to explore our faith in ways that are contemporary, relevant, and spiritually valuable. The website includes an introduction to this fascinating phenomenon, Spotify playlists for each collection of songs, a searchable database of all 500+ songs, an online form that allows you to submit additions to this list, and links to more information about the project. The Secular Advent / Christmas PlaylistGreg Farrand, Executive Director for Second Breath, is joining the podcast for a special episode exploring thespiritual journey of Advent. Homebrewed has done over 20+ online classes and one of the consistent requests from a portion of the participants is for some more devotional option. Since the classes include people from many different and no religious tradition, that always seemed a difficult request to meet. This time, with the
Christmas Stories class we are going to try an optional more spiritual pathway.
For those interested in a contemplative pathway over Advent, we are partnering with Second Breath, to provide guided meditations and spiritual conversations. Having done 20+ online classes like this, that focus on the intellectual side of things, I am excited to have such a respected partner, gifted in equipping others to go beyond an intellectual comprehension of God, faith, and love to actually experiencing them with mind, heart, and body. You will want to check out the Second Breath app, on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. It includes hundreds of spiritual practices and reflections and will feature an Advent series of encounters for the class.
The best part of this partnership is it will not impact any of the time with Dom, but for those who have been requesting this kind of element, we can try it out.
It is almost time for our next online class and John Dominic Crossan is here to lure to join Christmas Stories
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, whether in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
John Thatamanil returns to the podcast and it is one zesty conversation!! We were both in Napa, California for the Power & the God of Love conference. The event was wonderful and getting to record in person with one of my favorite theologians was a real treat.
Dr. Thatamanil is Professor of Theology & World Religions at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.
Diana Bass is back on the podcast for a session of our ongoing series “Ruining Dinner.” We talk about religion and politics with a bunch of zest. Normally these conversations are for our community members, but we decided to share this one far and wide. To be a part of future zoom sessions and get access to past gatherings, join Diana’s newsletter community, the Cottage &/or the Homebrewed Community.
John Dominic Crossan is an Irish-American biblical scholar with two-year post-doctoral diplomas in exegesis from Rome’s Pontifical Biblical Institute and in archeology from Jerusalem’s École Biblique. He has been a mendicant friar and a catholic priest, a Co-Chair of the Jesus Seminar, and a President of the Society of Biblical Literature. His focus, whether scholarly or popular, whether in books, videos, or lectures, is on the historical Jesus as the norm and criterion for the entire Christian Bible. His reconstructed Jesus incarnates nonviolent resistance to the Romanization of his Jewish homeland and the Herodian commercialization of his Galilean lake as present program and future hope of a transformed world and transfigured earth. Crossan’s method is to situate biblical texts within the reconstructed matrix of their own genre and purpose, their own time and place, and to hear them accurately for then before accepting or rejecting them for now.
A couple of months ago, Ryan joined to discuss recent data on religion in America. It was a very popular episode, and members of the Homebrewed Community requested more charts! Here it is.
Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of
numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.
Previous Vists from Ryan Burge
The Charts We Discuss…(follow Ryan on twitter for more charts)
Religious attendance among African-Americans.
Never/Seldom attend in 2008 vs 2021, by age:
18-35: 35% -> 46% (+11)
36-44: 31% -> 45% (+14)
45-54: 23% -> 43% (+20)
55-64: 25% -> 48% (+23)
65+: 24% -> 40% (+16) pic.twitter.com/jffEBD5cM2— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) October 26, 2022
This is empirically, undeniably false.
This is 14 years of the Cooperative Election Study. Total sample size is 547,456.
In no year are those with a college degree more likely to be religiously unaffiliated than those who stopped at a high school diploma. https://t.co/WPze6UCTjd pic.twitter.com/jI8tmSvGsd
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) October 24, 2022
60% of Republican Protestants self-identify as evangelical/born-again. It’s 44% of Democrats.
19% of Republican Jews ID as evangelical. 6% of Democrats.
39% vs 15% for Muslims.
25% vs 8% for Buddhists.
37% vs 11% for Hindus. pic.twitter.com/2SNOL4nVJw— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) October 22, 2022
The more white people attend religious services, the more likely they are to identify as politically conservative.
The same is true for Black people.
And Hispanic people.
And Asian people.
It’s hard to find a situation where greater attendance doesn’t lead to conservatism pic.twitter.com/VO6IuBE4Gy
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) October 7, 2022
These are the 20 largest seminaries in the United States based on headcount.
One is a mainline seminary: Duke, which is affiliated with the United Methodists.
20,172 students represented here. 97% of them being trained in evangelical seminaries. pic.twitter.com/7qLfc8vdKY
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) October 24, 2022
This is the final live stream QnA from the Do I Stay Christian? online class. It was a complete blast to hang with Brian and a couple thousand readers
To join Brian, Tripp, and a bunch of their friends at Southern Lights: an Adventure in Progressive Christianity this January head over here. If you decide to come in person message me so I can send info for the podcast hang.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English
teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
Mariana Rios Maldonado completed her undergraduate studies in Literature and Spanish Linguistics at the Autonomous University of Zacatecas, Mexico, and her master’s degree in Comparative Literature at the Peter Szondi Institute in Berlin’s Freie Universität. Her research focuses on the influence of Germanic mythology and culture in contemporary literature, Germanophonic fantastic literature between the 18thand 20th centuries, as well as J.R.R. Tolkien’s literary production. Mariana is currently a PhD candidate in Comparative Literature at the School of Modern Languages and Cultures of the University of Glasgow with the research project ?“Ethics, Femininity and the Encounter with the Other in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth Narratives”, funded by the Mexican National Council for Science and Technology (CONACYT) as well as Mexico’s National Foundation for Fine Arts and Literature (Fundación INBA). She is the Equality and Diversity Officer for the University of Glasgow?’s Centre for Fantasy and the Fantastic.
WOW! Theology Beer Camp was amazing! I had to debrief it with some friends so I invited Nick Polk (Tolkien Heads), Kevin Garcia (Tiny Revolution), Sarah Heath (REVcovery), and Sam Perez (FUNctional Adults /Skip Sandwich Deluxe) to join the conversation.
Want to be the first to find out details for Theology Beer Camp 2023? Just sign up here and I will let you know.
Next week is Theology Beer Camp, and almost all of the speakers have been on the podcast multiple times except my friend and New Testament scholar Jennifer Bashaw. Well, let’s fix that! In this convo, we discuss her new book Scapegoats: The Gospel through the Eyes of Victims and her plans for karaoke Thursday night. Enjoy:)
Jennifer Garcia Bashaw is assistant professor of New Testament and Christian ministry at Campbell University in Buies Creek, North Carolina. She is an ordained minister and has served a variety of Baptist churches and ministries across the country.
I am excited to have Leah back on the podcast and coming to Theology Beer Camp. If you missed her first visit, then go check it out. It was one of the most popular this past year. The episode was Bad Theology & Jager Bomb Fountains.
Dr. Leah Robinson is Associate Professor of Religion at Pfieffer University. You should also follow her on twitter.
What a treat! I was joined by both Tom Oord and Brian McLaren for this wonderful live stream.
FYI, SacraSage Press recently published a 200+ page book with chapter samples from Tom’s best-selling books. Anyone who joins his newsletter will get a complimentary ecopy.
“Power and the God of Love” is an in-person conference in Napa, California featuring open, relational, and process people (including Tripp). The conference is November 4-5, 2022, and here’s a link with info.Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English
teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
Some pretty cool listeners sent a bunch of Process Theology questions & I got two #ProcessParty friends and scholars to hop on and answer them.
Both Tom Oord and Andrew Davis will be at Theology Beer Camp and an upcoming event in Napa, CA – Power & the God of Love.
Andrew M. Davis is a philosopher, theologian and scholar of world religions. He is Program Director for the Center for Process Studies at Claremont School of Theology at Willamette University. A native of northern California, he was born and raised among the towering redwoods of Occidental and the meandering woodlands of Santa Rosa’s Bennett Valley. It was out of these natural settings that his passion for the questions of philosophy, theology, and religion first emerged.
Check out Andrew’s previous visit to the podcast here – Mind, Value, and the Cosmos.
Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.
You can learn more about the Pacific School of Religion,its online and on-campus programs, and set up a time to talk to an admission team member here.
My interview with PSR President, David Vásquez-Levy, can be found over here.
Brian McLaren is joining me on four Sunday evenings for some live QnA. This is our third QnA! You can join the online class, future sessions, submit questions, and access the video guide to the book by heading over here. PS… there is a three short video guide to the book you can use with a group ?
This week we are joined by Chandrika Phea, author of Lord, I don’t want to Die a Christian.
Chandrika D. Phea, an ordained reverend, is an outdoor enthusiast, a triathlete, a Wellness Coordinator by profession, and a partner with W. Brand Publishing for the release of her debut book, “Lord, I Don’t Want to Die a Christian.” In 2005, she graduated from Beacon University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Biblical Studies and then went on to complete a two-year teaching and missions assignment in China that ultimately revolutionized her life. For fun, Chandrika initiates local events (e.g. Bikes and Breakfast, Melanin Miles & More), providing her community’s Black women with trustworthy outdoor experiences.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English
teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
Grace Ji-Sun Kim is back on the podcast to help me tackle some listener questions. We had a lot of fun as a theological tag team, and if you want to hang out with us, you can come to Theology Beer Camp! When registering for the event, drop the code MADANG for $50 off.
Check out my visit to Grace’s podcast –Here’s the audio & here’s Madang on YouTube?
Grace Ji-Sun Kim is Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. She received her M.Div. from Knox College and her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. She is the author or editor of 19 books most recently, Keeping Hope Alive; Intersectional Theology co-written with Susan Shaw and Embracing the Other. Kim is a Series Editor for Palgrave Macmillan Series, “Asian Christianity in the Diaspora”. Eerdmans included her in their list of Five Great Women Scholars, and the Englewood Review of Books named her in their list of Ten Important Women Theologians You Should Be Reading
Brian McLaren is joining me on four Sunday evenings for some live QnA. This is our second QnA! You can join the online class, future sessions, submit questions, and access the video guide to the book by heading over here. PS… there is a three short video guide to the book you can use with a group
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
Joerg Rieger has a brand new book and Catherine Keller joins the podcast for the celebration! You will want to check out Joerg’s new book Theology in the Capitalocene. In the episode I asked questions that bring themes from the book into conversation with Keller’s own work. While I may be bias, I am confident a theology nerd is going really get into this one!
Catherine Keller is George T. Cobb Professor of Constructive Theology in The Graduate Division of Religion of Drew University. If you are new to Catherine Keller and Process Theology this is the book to start with – On the Mystery: Discerning Divinity In Process.
Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology and the Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies. He is also the founding director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice. For more than two decades, he has worked to bring together theology and the struggles for justice and liberation that mark our age. His work addresses the relation of theology and public life, reflecting on the misuse of power in religion, politics, and economics. His main interest is in developments and movements that bring about change and in the positive contributions of religion and theology. His constructive work in theology draws on a wide range of historical and contemporary traditions, with a concern for manifestations of the divine in the pressures of everyday life.
Back by popular request is Dr. Ryan Burge! When he was last here, we discussed some myths about Religion and Politics. Today he returns to the podcast and brings 5 graphs of religion data and we proceed to explore them and generate hot takes about them.
To see the graphs themselves, you can watch the video below or go check them out on his super graph heavy twitter.
Here’s how wild public opinion is —
Among people who want a total ban on abortion (which is about 20% of the population):
67% of them would support a proposal to make college debt free!
77% favor paid maternity leave! pic.twitter.com/zGJe1iGCgy
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) August 26, 2022
How much does religion impact fertility? A lot.
About 75% of 40-year-old Mormons have kids.
It’s 40% of atheists or agnostics.
A majority of atheist/agnostics never have children. pic.twitter.com/imliUawHx5
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) August 24, 2022
Politically liberal Christians engage in less religious activity than politically conservative ones.
This is percent praying weekly. Among just Protestants and Catholics.
~82% of Conservatives pray weekly or more.
It’s ~70% of Liberals. pic.twitter.com/wrkmRLIiUd
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) August 22, 2022
Here’s how I know.
In 2021, the GSS asked people to self ID as atheist or agnostic.
Guess what? 35% who say that they don’t believe in God don’t ID as atheist.
And for those who express an agnostic belief only 37% identify as agnostic!
Belief ? belonging! pic.twitter.com/hyFsW7gIOa
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) August 8, 2022
Young women are more likely to be nones than young men in 2021.
That wasn’t the case in 2008.
In 2008, men born in 1980 were just as likely to be nones as those born in 1990.
Now, men born in 2000 are a bit *less* likely to be nones than those born in 1990. https://t.co/3NOMqZH4cx pic.twitter.com/rMMOvqH0ZU
— Ryan Burge ? (@ryanburge) July 22, 2022
Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of
numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.
Brian McLaren is joining me on four Sunday evenings for some live QnA. This is the first week! You can join the online class, future sessions, submit questions, and access the video guide to the book by heading over here.
Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is a faculty member of The Living School and podcaster with Learning How to See, which are part of the Center for Action and Contemplation. He is also an Auburn Senior Fellow and works closely with the Wild Goose Festival, the Fair Food Program, Vote Common Good, and Progressive Christianity. His recent projects include an illustrated children’s book (for all ages) called Cory and the Seventh Story and The Galapagos Islands: A Spiritual Journey, and Faith After Doubt. His newest book is Do I Stay Christian? and we are going to read it together.
Dr. Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University. He returns to the podcast for some seriously nerdy fun. We tackled a number of questions from Homebrewed Community members. Our questions include…
Polly — How do I stop feeling angry and sick when I think about the god I believed in for 35 years?
Bryan (min 32)— Do I have a soul? Growing up in southern Baptist church I was convinced that my soul was the truest thing about me, but now I wonder if what God really wants of involves my physical body on this physical world we are situated in.
Tyler (min 101)— What is the use of the church if everything it was founded on is myth? I just can’t see any reason to pick up my Bible or to congregate if there’s no absolute truth to the writings. Nothing matters. Nothing is real. Life feels completely purposeless.
Becky (min 116) — How do people interpret the Bible in so many different ways that are so far apart?
Nathan (min 125) — What is the purpose of concepts like “good, true, beautiful, justice” if they are always changing and never agreed upon? How are they more than a person or culture’s preferences in bold?
The Rings of Power is not out and about in the world! After seeing the first two episodes, I have been able to exhale, knowing the show isn’t going to be the nightmare many of us Tolkien Heads feared. It was surprisingly good. In this live-streamed episode, Nick Polk and I were joined by singer, poet, and connoisseur of fantasies, Kevin Max.
Kevin is a four-time Grammy-winning vocalist, whose work began in DC Talk and has since explored a host of different genres from spoken-word, electronica, and rock. On his previous visit to the podcast, we discussed his most recent rock band – the Sad Astronauts. Great album! Don’t forget to check out his current Kickstarter. Each supporter gets a digital download of his collection of fantasy songs, including The Greatest Adventure from the Hobbit.
Want to access the most zest lectures from the Tolkien Heads class? Head over here and join up.
What happens when three of my best friends come on the podcast to answer your questions? This. My friends and friends of the pod, Sarah, Myron, and Dan are here for the nerdy fun. Recently, I have been reading collecting listener questions and then asking myself, ‘what nerdy friend should answer this first?’ In this episode we tackle three questions, each selected so a specific guest could answer the question first. It did not disappoint.
If you want to hang with me, Dan from You Have Permission pod, Sarah and Myron, then come on out the Theology Beer Camp. Drop Dan’s code YHP in for $50 off your ticket.
Dr. Myron Penner is a professor of philosophy at Trinity Western University and director of the Anabaptist-Mennonite Centre for Faith and Learning. On top of being a stellar scholar, he is a dear friend and the coolest Mennonite Canadian philosopher on planet earth ?
Here’s Myron’s previous visit to the podcast – Navigating Philosophy & Religion
Dr. Sarah Lane Ritchie received her B.A. in Philosophy & Religion from Spring Arbor University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an M.Sc. in Science & Religion from the University of Edinburgh. She obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in Science & Religion with a thesis on divine action and the human mind, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews. She has published a book with Cambridge University Press and numerous articles in academic journals, and continues research in the field of science and religion.
Tony Jones is back for some friend time and a little theology. In this conversation we discuss…
This episode is sponsored by PROGRESSIVE YOUTH MINISTRY. You can join me and a bunch of progressive youth ministers in Atlanta this coming February.
Tony Jones is the author of Did God Kill Jesus? and contributing writer to several outdoors periodicals. He’s written a dozen books, including The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, developed the iPhone app, hosts the Reverend Hunter Podcast, and teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary.
Tony is a sought after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality, writing, and the outdoors. He served as a consultant on the television show, The Path, and he owns an event planning company, Crucible Creative.
Joerg Rieger is back on the podcast for some fun theology QnA. In our conversation, we cover…
Joerg Rieger is Distinguished Professor of Theology and the Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies. He is also the founding director of the Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice. For more than two decades, he has worked to bring together theology and the struggles for justice and liberation that mark our age. His work addresses the relation of theology and public life, reflecting on the misuse of power in religion, politics, and economics. His main interest is in developments and movements that bring about change and in the positive contributions of religion and theology. His constructive work in theology draws on a wide range of historical and contemporary traditions, with a concern for manifestations of the divine in the pressures of everyday life.
John Garth is the most epic living scholar of JRR Tolkien. He dropped an amazing lecture for the Tolkien Heads class we are currently running, and yesterday he joined our live stream for some nerdy fun. It was too much fun not to share. Plus some of you may not have joined the class to get those ohh so zesty lectures.
Writer, editor and researcher John Garth is well known for his ongoing work on J.R.R. Tolkien’s life and creativity and was awarded the Tolkien Society’s Outstanding Contribution Award in 2017.
His first book, Tolkien and the Great War (2003), won the Mythopoeic Scholarship Award, for which his second, Tolkien at Exeter College, was a nominee. His latest publication is The Worlds of JRR Tolkien: The Places that Inspired Middle-earth (Princeton University Press; Frances Lincoln). A further book, examining Tolkien’s creative life as a response to the crises of his times, was begun while a Fellow of the Black Mountain Institute, Nevada, and is still in progress.
Other publications include chapters in the Blackwell Companion to J.R.R. Tolkien; in Catherine McIlwaine’s Bodleian Library exhibition book Tolkien: Maker of Middle-earth; and in a forthcoming volume in memory of Christopher Tolkien.
Garth has spoken on Tolkien to specialist and general audiences in the US and across Europe, as well as on television and other news media. He has taught courses on Tolkien, and sometimes C.S. Lewis too, for Oxford University, the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, and Signum University.
After reading English at St Anne’s College, Oxford, Garth worked for the London Evening Standard for many years. Besides his work on Tolkien, he writes and edits more generally, both in print and online.
Philip Clayton returns to the podcast! This conversation was inspired by an online academic conference I put together as part of the God & the Book of Natureproject at the University of Edinburgh titled the Mindfulness of Nature. You can find videos of all the papers from the gathering here.
As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection points of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization.
In the conversation, we discuss…
I am thrilled to have Rev. Dr. Ben Bosell on the podcast and honored to be a part of his book launch for Confronting Whiteness. Our conversation was recorded live at Common Market Southend in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it was a blast.
Ben and I became friends in undergrad at Campbell University and by the end of the podcast you will hear some fun stories. Before storytime, we explore his own wrestling with the concept and legacy of whiteness and his doctoral research seeking to address it in predominantly white congregations.
You can find Confronting Whiteness to purchase here and access all the online resources, videos, and such here. As a friend, I am super proud of Ben’s work and hope those of you looking for resources in your own context connect with Ben. He also recently released a collection of timely sermons, For the Facing of this Hour: Preaching that Resists White Christian Nationalism.
Benjamin Boswell is the Senior Minister of Myers Park Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC, and a former Army Officer with degrees from Campbell University (B.A.), Duke Divinity School (M.Div.), and Saint Paul School of Theology (D.Min). He is a preacher, pastor, civil rights leader and public speaker who facilitates anti-racist spiritual formation courses for people racialized as White and for White dominant organizations. In 2021, Dr. Boswell was awarded the prestigious Martin Luther King Jr. Medallion, which is the city of Charlotte’s highest honor given to a person who promotes racial equality, social justice, and community service. He is the author of “For the Facing of this Hour: Preaching that Resists White Christian Nationalism,” and “Confronting Whiteness: A Spiritual Journey of Reflection, Conversation, and Transformation.”