Doth Protest

Notable Luther scholar and theologian Dr. Mark Mattes joins DPTM hosts Stephen Burnett and Rev. James Rickenbaker in this episode to discuss the importance of God's forgiveness and righteousness given to us by His efficacious Word. Dr. Mattes is Professor of Philosophy and Theology at Grand View College in Des Moines, Iowa, and has served congregations as a pastor in Illinois and Wisconsin. He has authored many books and journal articles on Martin Luther and Lutheranism. Some of the titles of these works include Martin Luther’s Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal and Law & Gospel in Action: Foundations, Ethics, and Church. In this episode, we discuss Luther, Law & Gospel, the contemporary Luther scholarship of Gerhard Forde and Oswald Bayer, as well as spending time to get to know Dr. Mattes and what led to his interests.

Shownotes:

Mark’s article “Preaching to C and E Christians” from 1517 can be read here:

https://www.1517.org/articles/preaching-to-c-e-christians

The works referred to in this episode are:

C.F.W Walther’s The Proper Distinction Between Law and Gospel

Martin Luther's commentary/exposition on the Magnificat

Martin Luther's Treatise on Good Works

Gerhard Forde's On Being a Theologian of the Cross

Roland Bainton’s biography of Luther, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther

Rev. Kyle Tomlin joins the podcast to discuss his longtime interests in comic books and superheroes. We discuss Spiderman, Green Lantern, Deadpool, Batman, Superman, the Watchmen, the Boys, and more. Andrew is a bit less seasoned in the comic book universe, so James and Kyle really carried the conversation today. But importantly, we explore what messaging may people be internalizing from comics and superheroes as well as wider pop culture, and ponder what the Gospel of grace in Christ can offer to a culture that is, as Kyle believes, hungry to be rescued.

Kyle hosts a podcast called "God and Comics" along with Rev's Matt Stromberg and Jonathan Mitchican. He is the rector of Church of the Messiah, Episcopal in Fredericksburg, VA. He is an Anglican with a Christ-centered, Reformationally-rooted theology.

Check out God and Comics at www.godandcomics.com and their podcast at anchor.fm/godandcomics

River Devereux joins Andrew on this episode of 'Doth Protest' for a helpful conversation about the Reformational understanding of Scripture's authority in relation to Creeds and Councils. River's recent work in the North American Anglican has generated great conversation and some controversy surrounding this topic. River's argument is: "our entire theological system necessitates the validity of private judgement" (from his article "To Follow One's Conscience: A Defense of True Protestantism"), and that church councils cannot claim to bind our conscience. This does not equate to, River says, a type of anarchic individualism nor does it, importantly, subject Scripture to our own reason (as we see in the case of the Enlightenment). 

Here are links to the River's articles that we mentioned:

"To Follow One's Conscience: A Defense of True Protestantism"

"To Reject a Council: An Essay on Scripture, the Church, and the Believer"

"Reformation Anglicanism and Nicaea II"

This is a link to River's YouTube channel New Kingdom Media: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc9i77qgn4y1yTat-LgjLMg

Additional show notes from Andrew (Disclaimer: the authors of these may or may not be in agreement with every point we made in the episode):

"The Authority of Scripture" by Jack Kilcrease

Heiko A. Oberman's book Dawn of the Reformation

What is heresy? Can it be understood sympathetically without condoning it? James and Stephen of 'Doth Protest' had a great discussion with Justin Holcomb on this topic. You are in for a fascinating and uplifting discussion. Justin is an Episcopal priest and has served as the Canon for Vocations in the Diocese of Central Florida since 2013. He teaches theology and apologetics at Reformed Theological Seminary and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. You can visit Justin's website at justinholcomb.com

We go further down the list of our favorite hymns in this second of a five part series on sacred music.

We give a huge thanks and shout out to Aaron Shows, James's brother-in-law, who played segments of all of the hymns we discuss on organ or piano. Please do not kill Andrew for mispronouncing your name today! We featured Aaron's music on the episode as we introduced each one. Aaron is a film-composer and also serves as the organist for First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, CA. Listen in to hear what hymns we picked (we give the writing credits on the episode audio).

Without giving too many spoilers, here are some show notes:

James referred to the book Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers by Dane Ortlund when he was discussing the theology of his hymn.

Charlie mentioned to hymn 604 out of Lutheran Service Book as a superior version of a hymn (that isn't on any of our lists but it disliked by two of our hosts). He also mentioned hymn 539 out of the same hymnal as his favorite tune setting to his hymn that he discusses.

Here is a link to the German hymn writer Andrew referred to who lived during the 30 Years War.

Charlie mentioned the hymn scholar Jon Vieker out of Concordia Seminary who has written about Catherine Winkworth (who we mentioned on the show). Andrew was unable to find anything exclusively on Catherine Winkworth from him. However, his faculty bio page is here

"For a scholarly generation, students of Paul have confidently treated the sixteenth-century Reformers as Paul's 'misinterpreters-in-chief.' Now Stephen Chester's patient and learned treatment of the Reformers' Pauline exegesis exposes both their thoughtfulness and their potential as wise conversation partners in the present. This is a major contribution to Pauline study." 

These were New Testament scholar Beverly Gaventa's words of praise for Stephen J. Chester's book Reading Paul with the Reformers: Reconciling Old and New Perspectives. James and Andrew were honored to have Stephen Chester on the podcast in this episode to discuss his work and share valuable insights in how we can appreciate interpreters who have gone before us. Tune in for a great discussion. 

Zac Neubauer, President of Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion-USA, joins the podcast again, this time with Andrew and James to talk about some of the leading Evangelicals from Anglicanism's recent past including Charles Simeon, Charles McIlvaine, and John Stott. We also catch up about EFAC-USA in recent years. 

What does it mean for a Christian to live under both God and an earthly ruler? What are Christians supposed to do in everyday life situations that the Bible doesn't speak to or prescribe something directly for? These are just some of the questions that we explored in our latest episode.

Dr. Littlejohn joins Stephen and Andrew on the podcast today to discuss his book The Two Kingdoms: A Guide for the Perplexed as well as his work as President of the Davenant Institute which seeks to "retrieve the riches of classical Protestantism to renew and build up the contemporary Church."

Shownotes: 

Link to Dr. Littlejohn's book

The book that Dr. Littlejohn mentioned toward the end is Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview by Albert M. Wolters

Stephen, Charlie, James, and Andrew go through their favorite hymns in this first of a five part series on sacred music. 

We give a huge thanks and shout out to Aaron Shows, James's brother-in-law, who played segments of all of the hymns we discuss on organ or piano. We featured these segments on the episode as we introduced each one. Aaron is a film-composer and also serves as the organist for First United Methodist Church of Pasadena, CA. Listen in to hear what hymns we picked (we give the writing credits on the episode audio).

Shownotes:

A link to the devotional book by Caroline Maria Noel:

A link to the documentary on Ralph Vaughan Williams mentioned by Andrew

Rev. Andrew's friend Jacob Bouma-Sims joins the podcast to discuss the most recent EFAC-USA (Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion-USA) conference that he attended. He also shares his personal story and how God brought him out of atheism. He also talks about his own true-crime and history fusion podcast titled "Mead and Murder". 

Some of the conference speakers Jacob talked about were Zac Hicks, Glen Scrivener, and President of EFAC- Zac Neubauer.

Check out Zac Hicks' website here.

This is a link to Glen Scrivener's blog and website.

Visit EFAC-USA's website here.

(The book referred to by Rev. Andrew is Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification- What the Reformers Thought and Why It Still Matters by Thomas Schreiner)

Follow Jacob's podcast "Mead and Murder" on Facebook

On YouTube

On Apple Podcasts