Jonathan Huggins joins us on the podcast today with a sermon for the season of Advent reflecting on peace. How does the Gospel redefine shalom—peace—with God, within ourselves, and with others? How can we maintain relational and psychological rest in our souls when facing the anxiety-producing situations of our modern world?
For our December episode on books, we, the CPT staff, have been reading (and, on this occasion, watching):
JRR Tolkien, Return of the King, (1955)
Mark A. Noll, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind (1995)
Stephen King, Carrie (1974)
Cormac McCarthy, The Border Trilogy, (1999)
Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen, American Nietzsche: A History of an Icon and His Idea, 2011
Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin. (2024)
Today, Chris Ganski shares a sermon on Acts 17:1-9. In the wake of the 2024 election, the book of Acts can be an excellent resource to consider the relationship between church and politics. In the context of Acts 17, does Caesar have anything to fear from the church? What is the church, and what does it mean to belong to the church? How does the church’s identity influence our understanding of the gospel as political? This and more on today’s podcast.
Pastor Caleb Campbell joins the podcast to discuss how pastors might guide their congregations through the results of the 2024 election, drawing from his experience pastoring in Phoenix, AZ. He also discusses his book "Disarming Leviathan: Loving Your Christian Nationalist Neighbor." How can we helpfully engage those in their community who align with combative political perspectives? How can pastors support members who are struggling to have conversations with family members, or for whom the election stirs up difficult emotions? This and more on today's episode.
Douglas Estes joins the podcast once again to discuss the second volume of a collection of essays he edited on theology in the works and worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien. We talk about the role of narrative fiction in shaping pastoral theology and how works like The Lord of the Rings can serve those who lead the church in the present day.
Why do so many seminary grads have a hard time retaining their knowledge of the biblical languages? What are some of the shortcomings of traditional language learning models and how can we improve upon them? Biblingo co-founder Nick Messmer joins Zach Wagner to discuss the difference between a grammar and translation method and a reading fluency method for language acquisition. What are the advantages of language fluency for pastoral ministry?
Professor Kimlyn Bender joins the podcast to share share about his farmers' town upbringing, how he first became interested in studying Karl Barth, and the importance of ecclesiology working out the tension between the academy and the church. Dr. Bender argues that Barth is the most important Protestant theologian to engage from the 20th century and that central to Barth's intent for the Dogmatics was that it would be a resource for pastors. With particular emphasis on volume of Church Dogmatics, Dr. Bender describes his project of helping pastors engage Barth and his work's relevance for the church today.
Author Trevin Wax joins the podcast to reflect on his upbringing in the church and the idea behind his recent book The Thrill of Orthodoxy. What does it mean to rediscover the exciting and wonderful truth claims of Christianity and the Bible? In a cultural context in which so much about Christianity is taken for granted, how do pastors and theologians underscore the power and influence of our faith? What is the relationship between our modern church culture's pragmatism and the stable truths of the Christian faith? Are doctrine and contextualization at odds in the church's mission?
CPT fellow Jarrod Longbons joins the podcast to discuss his upbringing in the space between the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. He shares about his varied interests as a young person and how things like acting and theater connected to his pursuit of theological education and pastoral calling. He then shares his story of PhD with John Milbank, with specific emphasis on Maximus the Confessor's theology of the doctrine of creation. The conversation concludes with Jarrod's reflections on ministry and his unique angles to the discipline of theology through his temperament and experiences.
CPT fellow Dillon Thornton joins the podcast to discuss his story of life, faith, education, and ministry. How does an early calling into ministry unfold over the years of young adulthood? Why is it important for scholars and pastors to study the Pastoral Epistles? How can pastors deal with struggling to find time for writing projects they'd like to pursue? All this and more on this episode.
Rev. Dr. Jacob Rodriguez joins the podcast to share his story of life, faith, and education. He reflects on his feelings of rootlessness and how transience theologically shaped him. He also shares his early exposure to theology and ancient languages that created an early passion for careful study of the biblical texts. Jacob spent time as a missionary in Ethiopia, and in this conversation he notes how Western Christians can learn from the long tradition of faith in Ethiopia and that church's recent experiences of persecution. Finally, we discuss his PhD research on gospel writing and what makes the canonical gospels unique among the other stories about Jesus that emerged in the first centuries of Christian history.
On this episode the CPT staff announces a new grant initiative from the CPT in partnership with the Lilly Foundation. We discuss the evangelical theology of preaching, the place of the sermon in ecclesial theology, and a preview of what we'll be up to at the CPT for the next three years.
Joel Lawrence and Felicia Wu Song discuss the sociological, cultural, and theological issues around technology and spiritual formation in the 21st century. What fractures in our society were revealed by Covid? How has the pandemic shifted our thinking around community and embodiment? How does the pervasive presence of technology re-arranged our pastoral and discipleship priorities?
This conversation is occasioned by the release of the CPT's new edited volume Techne: Christian Visions of Technology and Song's Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age.
CPT Executive Director Joel Lawrence interviews Dr. Justin Bailey, Professor of Theology at Dordt University. They discuss Dr. Bailey's story of faith, education, and ministry. They also discuss his new book Interpreting Your World: Five Lenses for Engaging Theology and Culture. How do we define culture? What are shortcomings of existing book-treatments? What does non-anxious cultural engagement look like? All this and more on this episode.
On this week's episode, Zach Wagner is joined by Gerald Hiestand and Eric Redmond to discuss their contributions to a newly published volume of essays on racial injustice. These chapters were adapted from the presentations at the CPT's 2021 theology conference.
ARTICLE: Life Is Hard, Be Humble: Thomas Aquinas on Humility
NATHAN BARCZI
PODCAST: What We’re Reading — December 2024
CPT STAFF
ARTICLE: Christians and the Virtues
BENJAMIN BURKHOLDER
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
