Download or Stream this Episode The Gifford Lectures have always taken as their project to “promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term,” and some of the best books to come out of that lecture series have tested just how wide the term can be. In 2018 N.T.…
Download or Stream this Episode Some people just don’t know what to do with Paul. Browsing a bookstore will reveal attempts to pit him against Jesus, to make him the real genius behind the traditions we know as Christianity, to render the sayings of Jesus so that they fit his ideas, to render his career…
Download this Episode In one of The Wire’s many memorable scenes, the older and more seasoned Vinson has a caution for the young gangster Marlo Stanfield as he aspires to dominance in the Baltimore drug-war: “Prison and graveyards are full of boys who wore the crown.” Marlo quickly responds, “The point is, they wore it.…
Host’s Note: Please forgive the uneven recording quality of this episode. Nathan Gilmour was supposed to make a backup copy of the audio in case these sorts of things happened, but the backup disappeared. Introductions Shelah Woodruff, Carla Ewert, Nathan Gilmour Knowing Experiences with Paul’s teachings on women in the church N.T. Wright and the…
If we consult the Holy Scriptures we can have no doubt that God promised his church here on earth a better state than this. Philipp Jakob Spener (1675) Given all the problems we discussed in our previous episode, why should Christians today join Pietists like Spener in holding out “hope for better times” — for…
Download or Stream this Episode St. Paul is at once one of the most familiar literary voices and one of the most perplexing. An early convert to the Jesus movement within first-century Judaism, Paul’s letters have come to us as Holy Scriptures, canonical epistles whose teaching and whose proclamation have given shape to almost every…
David Grubbs leads a discussion with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about Helmut Thielicke’s 1959 treatise A Little Exercise for Young Theologians. Michial’s joke
The good news of Jesus, Messiah, Son of God. Thus begins the gospel according to Mark, and the notion of gospel, proclamation, announcement has been at the core of Christian confession for as long as there have been Christians. Yet that central news has given way in this historical moment or that, whether to an…
General Introduction – More weather talk – Feed problems Not Etymology but History – David turns to the OED – The Enlightenment – Byron’s parody – Intellectual vs. physical – Other terms and overlaps Intellectual, Scholar, Academic, Man of Letters – Defined against one another – Ranges of interests – Career tracks – Levels of…
General Introduction – Nathan’s snottier than usual – David goes back to bed – Listener feedback Death in the Bible – A Psalm of Moses – Daniel speaks out – Job knows that his redeemer liveth – Conscious afterlife? – Christ and Lazarus – The Bible’s lack of systematic theology Other Ancient Views – Nathan…
Stanley Fish notes the similarities in the right-wing and left-wing criticisms of the modern university. Patrick Deneen calls for public liberal arts education, not careerist college education, for all citizens. Andrew Perrimen offers N.T. Wright as good medicine both for neo-Calvinists and for Emergents. Joanne Barkan suggests new ways to think about the “failure” of…
This week’s theme music is “An Ecumenical Matter” by Loose Fur, from Born Again in the USA. I like instrumental themes because I don’t have to slice and dice. The clip from “Dog-Mess” Johnny Evans near the top of the show is Vigilantes of Love’s “Bethlehem Steel,” from 1995’s Blister Soul. General Introduction – What’s…