I once spent time with a couple who had just lost their only, very young child, their daughter.  Like many other people who have lost loved ones, they asked about Heaven.  We take a survey of Heaven, looking at the current Evangelical interpretation, and then stepping back and walking through time, from the 100's A.D. to the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance, and to the emergence of the "Social Gospel".  Our goal is to see what Scripture tells us about the nature of Heaven, and to consider the highly varied interpretations of Heaven that have emerged from the minds of Christian Theologians.  Then we ask the question: What does it all mean?

Our conventional notion of Hell is not necessarily what we would derive from reading the New Testament.  We look at three somewhat different theories about the nature of Hell - all of them reasonably backed up by the Bible.  We also look at my father's father, who ran off when my father was a tiny boy.  My father never found his father, although he sought him out his entire life.  We see how this relates to the third of the three theories of Hell: Annihilationism, Eternal Punishment, and Restorationism.  We also consider why the Bible might deliberately be ambiguous about the nature of Hell.

The apocryphal Infancy Gospel of Thomas gives us stories about the boy Jesus from the age of 5 to 12 - and it portrays him as precocious at best, and perhaps even evil-minded at worst, as Jesus struggles to understand his powers and his identity.  These stories have been widely read since the second century, and ancient manuscripts have been found in many languages.  We look at what these stories are, and what they tell us about what ancient Christians thought of the child Jesus.  We see what this means for us today, as people raising children, and as adults who, like the apocryphal version of the child Jesus, always have room to grow.

There is a Christian community on the outskirts of Cairo, up in the mountains, that is built into a huge cave.  The people are called the "Garbage People" by the general population of Cairo because they scratch out a living collecting garbage by hand and sorting it into recyclables.  We consider the Gospel of Mark - written by the man who founded the church that became the Coptic Christian Church in Egypt.  We consider persecution - faced by the Garbage People - and we consider the need to be giving, faithful people.

I once spoke to a young woman whose father had just died in a bike vs. car accident.  She told me that while her father had deep faith, she could not believe the "myths" in the Bible.  She read to me from Matthew, about the faithful being able to move mountains.  In this episode, we look at some of the Bible stories that are difficult to interpret literally, like the Creation story.  We consider why the literalist view is actually harmful and not simply misguided.  We consider the depth of the Bible and how a non-literalist view can indeed allow us to "move mountains".

I once spoke to a woman who was struggling to show true empathy for her mother, who was an alcoholic and had given this woman many terrible childhood memories.  She felt that there was no way she could care for her now very sick mother - and she wished God could send an angel to come from Heaven and care for her mother for her.  We look at angels in the Bible, in particular, in the Book of Daniel.  We see God send these heavenly beings to rescue people.  We also consider how this woman with the sick mother solved her dilemma of trying to show genuine love for someone she couldn't help but resent.

I once spoke to a young schizophrenic man who talked to me outside, after it had rained.  I was about to sit down on a very wet bench when he did something very kind.  We look at the Gospel of Luke, the Gospel that has a number of unique parables in it, including the Good Samaritan.  We look at the traditional interpretation, and we look at a more theological interpretation.  Then we look at the impact that this schizophrenic man had on me.

When I was a professor, I once had a French student accuse me of Xenophobia, of giving her a bad grade simply because she was French.  I was quite worried that this could explode into a serious problem, as universities want students to be happy and do not want claims like this making their way into the press.  I ended up putting my mother on the phone and letting her talk to this student.  The interesting part is that my mother was French.  We look at the Book of James.  We examine whether it was truly Jesus' kid brother who wrote it, and what it teaches us about dealing with problems, and interacting with people who are suffering.

When I was a young guy, I bought my first car with a steering column lock.  It locked up on me - with a key in the ignition - as I was taking a freeway curve at 75 miles an hour.  I went off a small cliff.  Yes, I said a quick prayer to God.  We look at Jeremiah, Isaiah, and a Psalm to learn just what we should be doing with our lives BEFORE we turn to God for help.

I once spoke with a man who had been undergoing treatment for cancer, but who was at the end of effective treatments.  It was time to let go, and as he put it, welcome the Kingdom of God.  But he had an adult daughter who was going through an extremely difficult time - and he wanted to be there for her.  So he had decided to continue treatments so that he could live a bit longer - even though he would suffer.  We look at the issue of "theology", what it is, and what it means to truly understand Scripture and what it tells us about God and our relationship to God.  We see how this man's understanding of theology ended up impacting his final decision about remaining alive.