A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar

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Season 4 is here! To kick it off, we've got a 2-parter for you with Rob Schenck, a former Washington insider and heavy hitter in the evangelical Christian lobbying industry. Rob was an influential voice in the pro-life movement for decades, but lost his position, and his funding, when he began to question the consistency of the evangelical position on guns with their stated pro-life convictions. His story is featured in the Emmy Award-winning 2016 documentary The Armor of Light. In Part 1, we speak with Rob about his background, his anti-abortion activism, and how his views have evolved on that issue. Part 2 will focus on evangelical gun culture and its consistency with a pro-life ethic.

The beverage featured in this episode is New Glarus Pilsner. Jump to 7:29 to skip the tasting.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Content note: This episode contains graphic discussion of abortion.

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We speak with Dr. Bradley Onishi, a religion scholar whose latest book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next, explores the rise of the extremist religious right in America and its evolution from the 1960s through the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

We discuss his personal transformation from conservative Christian to scholar to unbeliever, his insights into January 6 and why he believes he could have been one of the insurrectionists, why evangelicals embrace conspiracy theories, the role religion played (and didn't play) in shaping the Republican party, and several interesting tidbits about everyone's favorite Family Man, James Dobson. We also delve into the American Redoubt, a survivalist and prepper movement that dreams of a Christian society within the United States, and its earnest preparations for a looming civil war.

Dr. Onishi offers a stark and unsettling warning: the distrust in our civic spaces and the readiness for religious violence could indeed be harbingers of our future.

The beverage we tasted in this episode is Penderyn Legend single malt Welsh whisky.

To skip the tasting, go to 5:33.

You can find the transcript for this episode here. Please note that it was auto-generated by an artificial intelligence and has not been reviewed by a human. Please forgive and disregard any inaccuracies, misattributions, or misspellings.

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The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

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Cheers!

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Many Protestants don't understand or appreciate how transformational Vatican II was for the Catholic Church and the whole global Christian Church in general. Our friend and Catholic theologian Shaun Blanchard co-wrote a book called Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction. In this episode, we chat with Shaun about the size, scope, and impact of Vatican II in the 1960s, and we wonder about when the next changes at the next Vatican Council might be.

In this episode, we tasted a barrel select of Eagle Rare from our friends at Story Hill BKC in Milwaukee, WI.

To skip the tasting, go to 9:21.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

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Want to support us?

The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

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Cheers!

Text us your questions!

If you're an American evangelical or used to be, there's a good chance you've heard of the Enneagram. You may have even run into it in another context or heard about it from friends who are really into personality tests. We've discussed it briefly on the show before, and we've wanted to eventually give it its own episode because Randy has found it really beneficial and Kyle is a bit of a skeptic.

Lo and behold, one of our Patreon supporters, Jeff Cook, is, like, the Enneagram guru, in addition to having a background as both a pastor and a philosopher. Go figure. Jeff reached out and proposed a conversation about what the Enneagram is, what its particular strengths are, and some of Kyle's objections to it. He's joined by TJ Wilson, his co-host of Around the Circle and two other Enneagram-focused podcasts.

It's a fun, serious, personal, and respectful conversation about a topic that a lot of Christians today care a lot about. An argument, in the best sense.*

Some resources mentioned in the conversation are:

• Around the Circle podcast
• Start Here podcast
• Movie Typing podcast
• What’s Wrong with the Enneagram (Kyle's article)

The beverages sampled in this episode are:

• Glenmorangie Signet
• Whiskey Acres Straight Rye
• Founders Brewing Co. Breakfast Stout

To skip the tasting, go to 3:38.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

*Note: in philosophy, arguments are good things.

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The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

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Cheers!

Text us your questions!

Tom Oord is back! Dr. Thomas Oord and his daughter Alexa compiled and edited a book called Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming."  We wanted to talk to them about the book because everyone in the church (not just the Church of the Nazarene) is talking about human sexuality and whether or not the church should be LGBTQ+ affirming.

LGBTQ+ inclusion and affirmation is something that's really important to us, and we love making space to have these much-needed conversations with scholars and, more importantly, queer people in and around the church to keep moving this essential conversation forward.

For more on this topic, check out our previous episodes from Season 2: LGBTQ, the Church, and Why We're Affirming, Heavy Burdens: Interview with Bridget Eileen Rivera (Part 1), Heavy Burdens: Interview with Bridget Eileen Rivera (Part 2), and LGBTQ Christians, Shame, and Love: Interview with Dawne Moon and Theresa Tobin.

In this episode, we tasted Little Elliot, a blueberry session mead from Manic Meadery. Jump to 7:05 to skip the tasting.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Content note: this episode contains explicit discussion of sex and sexuality.

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The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

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Cheers!

Text us your questions!

We speak with theologian and philosopher (and former pastor) Thomas Jay Oord about his new book The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence. We cover Tom's objections to the classical idea that God is all powerful, including that it's unbiblical, philosophically unsound, and makes the problem of evil impossible to solve.

It's a fun interview and Tom is a good sport about putting up with Kyle's objections and quibbles. We get into the weeds a bit on this one, but given the significance of Tom's thesis and its implications for the problem of evil and suffering (and theism itself), the weeds are important. We barely scratch the surface of these issues, and in some ways this is an introductory discussion to other aspects of Tom's thought about God, which we hope to explore more with him in future conversations. As always, let us know your thoughts!

In this episode, we tasted the exquisite Barrell Bourbon Batch 034. As Randy said, "Tasting this bourbon right now makes doing this podcast worth it." Grab a bottle if you see one. To skip the tasting, jump to 8:05.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Content note: This episode contains discussion of the problem of evil, suffering, and theodicy, as well as some mild profanity.

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Want to support us?

The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

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• Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
• Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
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Cheers!

Text us your questions!

If you heard our recent episode on hell and universalism, you may recall that Randy mentioned having Keith DeRose, a philosopher at Yale, on the show at some point to respond to some of the objections Kyle had to universalism (the idea that everyone is eventually reconciled to God). Well, we reached out to Keith and he graciously agreed to chat with us. Our conversation covers more ground than just universalism though; we also discuss certainty, the problem of evil and theodicy, and why Keith is uncomfortable at Easter and funerals. And yes, he responds to some of Kyle's worries about universalism. It's on the headier end of the spectrum for our episodes, but we like to throw those in every now and then. We hope you enjoy it.

The resources that Keith mentions in the episode can be found on this PPWB-specific page that he put up at his site. How cool is that?

In this episode, we tasted the stunning Elijah Craig Barrel Proof (B522). To skip the tasting, jump to 5:41.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Content note: instances of horrendous evil are discussed in this episode in the context of the problem of evil and theodicy. This is not an episode for children.

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The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

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Cheers!

Text us your questions!

Sheila Gregoire is an author who has written several books that break the mold of Christian books about sex and marriage. Her latest book, She Deserves Better, is about raising girls as followers of Christ in ways that leave purity culture and teaching about modesty in the dust while showing us a better way. We also talked to Sheila about her 2021 book The Great Sex Rescue, in which she points out the inherent misogyny in a vast majority of Christian books about sex and proposes a new way to create a sexual dynamic that promotes flourishing for women and men.

In this episode, we tasted Driftless Glen's Port Barrel Finished Bourbon.

If you're not interested in the bourbon tasting, skip to the 7:00 mark for the interview.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Content note: this episode contains themes of sexual abuse and rape.

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The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

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• Email us at [email protected]

Cheers!

Text us your questions!

Every now and then we like to talk to someone who is an expert in something we know almost nothing about. What better topic than philosophy and neuroscience? Andy Clark is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex, and is a well-known voice within philosophy of mind, pushing the boundaries of how we conceive of the brain, its connections with our environment, and in his new book, how it actively constructs our experience through prediction. The book is The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality. We have a delightfully nerdy, scientific, and humble conversation with Andy about everything from why we sometimes feel our phones vibrating when they're not there, to whether AI can match human brains, to psychedelics, to whether there is a hard problem of consciousness. We even get him to talk a bit about religion. We barely scratch the surface, but it was a lot of fun!

The beverage we taste in this episode is Blanton's Single Barrel bourbon from Buffalo Trace Distillery.

Audio note: we weren't able to use our standard recording setup for this one, so if we sound a little odd, that's why. Apologies!

To skip the tasting, go to 6:53.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

Image credit: The New Yorker Magazine

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Want to support us?

The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

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Cheers!

Text us your questions!

Do you keep a healthy distance between yourself and the book of Revelation? Have a loved one who believes super weird things about Revelation? If so, you're in good company.

Scot McKnight wrote a brilliant book called Revelation for the Rest of Us that turns all of those weird ways of interpreting Revelation on their heads and shows us what Revelation truly is.  It turns out that the book of Revelation is a brilliantly subversive book about resisting the evil ways of whatever empire the people of God find themselves living in, whether it's Babylon, Rome, or America. Revelation calls us to give our faithfulness and allegiance to the slaughtered Lamb who has triumphed over the violent and oppressive ways of the empire.

Scot is a brilliant New Testament scholar who has become a great friend of the podcast. We're excited to share more of Scot with you.

In this episode, we tasted Leopold Bros. Straight Bourbon.

To skip the tasting, go to 7:42.

You can find the transcript for this episode here.

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Want to support us?

The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.

If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.

Other important info:

• Rate & review us on Apple & Spotify
• Follow us on social media at @PPWBPodcast
• Watch & comment on YouTube
• Email us at [email protected]

Cheers!