Currents in Religion

In this episode, Zen wraps up season one of Currents in Religion. In addition to giving thanks to our listeners and our guests, Zen shares about Summer School, which will be a short season in late June/early July.

Thanks for a great first season!

Why do we call the main characters in the Book of Judges “judges”? Compared to what judges are supposed to do in Deuteronomy, for example, the “judges” of Judges don’t really look like judges at all.

In this episode, Dr. Julian Chike joins me to discuss his work on the Book of Judges, in which he explores social, historical, and literary developments that might help clarify our understanding of what the judges in the book of Judges were. As he says, he is attempting to rediscover these characters. He’s doing some fascinating work, and I’m excited for you to hear more about it.

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In this episode, the Rev. Dr. Trevor Hart joins us to discuss Jesus and his works, christology and soteriology. We discuss topics like substitution, deification, participation, particularity, and more. The discussion engages with themes and ideas in Trevor's book In Him Was Life (Baylor University Press), a recently published collection of Trevor's essays.

The Rev. Dr. Trevor Hart is Rector of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in St Andrews and Honorary Professor of Divinity in the University of St Andrews. You can learn more about Trevor at trevorhart.com.

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James Cone died five years ago this month. He is one of the legends of American theology, writing books like A Black Theology of Liberation, God of the Oppressed, and The Spirituals and the Blues. One of the last books of his celebrated career, The Cross and the Lynching Tree, was published in 2011. And, because this episode releases on Good Friday, when Christians remember Christ’s own lynching, it is fitting to discuss this significant book.

I am very glad to have the Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley joining us to discuss James Cone’s book. Malcolm is a historian of American religion, and has focused his studies on lynching and Protestantism in America. We’re going to discuss James Cone’s book, but we’re also going to get to hear from Malcolm about his own work, which he does in both academic and ecclesial contexts.

The Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley serves as the Special Advisor to the President of Baylor University for Equity and Campus Engagement as well as the director of the Black Church Studies Program at Truett Theological Seminary. He is also a pastor at Mosaic Waco, an intentionally multi-cultural, non-denominational church in Waco, TX.

Learn more from Malcolm:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley

Anxious Bench: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/malcolm-foley/

Theology in Pieces: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theology-in-pieces/id1664552032

Related Episodes of Currents in Religion:

• Jessica Wai-Fong Wong & Jonathan Tran on theological approaches to antiracism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icons-economies-and-racism-a-conversation-with/id1648052085?i=1000584235192
• Marcus Jerkins on Black lives and salvation in Luke-Acts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-lives-matter-to-jesus-marcus-jerkins-on-salvation/id1648052085?i=1000599025436
• Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar on reading Esther and Africana biblical criticism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/africana-biblical-criticism-and-the-book-of/id1648052085?i=1000600183961

• João Chaves on immigration and American Christianity: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-study-in-how-migration-shapes-religion/id1648052085?i=1000583436591

In this episode, Dave Nelson talks about publishing academic books. He discusses the process of publishing a book, gives tips for turning a dissertation into a published book, and offers ideas on how to write better. Dave is an expert in these things, having served as an acquisitions editor at Baker Academic for years, before becoming the Director of Baylor University Press.

Dave joined us on the podcast before to discuss academic conferences from a publisher's perspective. He offered some ideas about how scholars can connect with publishers at conferences like AAR/SBL. You can listen to that episode here.

In this episode, Dr. Bruce Longenecker joins to discuss Greco-Roman associations and how studying them helps us to read the New Testament. Bruce recently published an edited volume about Greco-Roman associations with Baylor Press. He’s currently teaching both a graduate and an undergraduate seminar on the topic. The study of associations is proving, more and more, to bear fruit for those interested in Christian origins and the interpretation of the New Testament.

Baylor University Press Books on Associations:

• Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook edited by Richard S. Ascough, Philip A. Harland and John S. Kloppenborg (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602583740/associations-in-the-greco-roman-world)
• Greco-Roman Associations, Deities, and Early Christianity edited by Bruce Longenecker (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481315166/greco-roman-associations-deities-and-early-christianity/)
• Christ Groups and Associations: Foundational Essays edited by Richard S. Ascough (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481318211/christ-groups-and-associations)

Websites for Associations

• http://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/
• https://ancientassociations.ku.dk/CAPI/
• https://gdrg.ugent.be/

How might interreligious dialogue help the world address some of its most vexing issues? One possible way is by making progress on questions surrounding natural law. In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Seyed Amir Hossein Asghari, who is the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Natural Law in the Religion Department here at Baylor University. We’re going to talk about natural law, its history, and some interesting conversations happening about it. We also talk a little about a really exciting new project that’s just getting underway at Baylor, which Amir is a part of.

In this episode, I speak with Thomas Gardner about Lyric Theology, his recent book that is out now with Baylor University Press.

In the book, Thomas looks at four different artists—Czeslaw Milosz, Terence Malick, Marilynne Robinson, and Annie Dillard—as a way of exploring the doctrine of creation. Thomas practices patient, careful engagements with these artists, asking all along the way how their “lyric thinking” might enrich theological reflection. It’s a fascinating book and I think you’ll really enjoy our conversation.

Thomas Gardner is Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Virginia Tech. He’s authored numerous books and collections of poetry, including another book with Baylor Press that puts the Gospel of John into conversation with poets.

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Micheal O'Siadhail on his collection of poetry, Testament.

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Today—February 24, 2023—marks one year since Russia invaded Ukraine, an escalation of a conflict that has been long running. In this episode, Zen speaks with Paul Martens about the war, about how Christians have thought about war throughout history, and about how Christians might respond.

Dr. Paul Martens is associate professor of ethics in the department of religion at Baylor University and director of interdisciplinary studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In this episode, Zen speaks with Dr. Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar about her book Trafficking Hadassah (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021). This book explores the Book of Esther by employing Africana biblical criticism. We discuss her method and some of the ways it leads her to read Esther differently. 

Dr. Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar is Assistant Professor in the Religion Department at Baylor University. Her area of research focuses broadly on gender, ethnicity, violence, intersectional oppression, sexual(ized) abuse, colonialism, trauma, and diasporic studies. More specifically, she engages in intersectional analyses of sexualized, gender-based, and colonial oppression in the Hebrew Bible.