James, Andrew, and their friend and fellow Episcopal priest Kyle Tomlin (from previous episodes: Remembering Jim Nestingen and We Need to be Rescued) each discuss the 1953 film Martin Luther and the 2003 film Luther, and which one they each liked better of the two. Andrew then gives an overview of every movie made on Martin Luther from 1911 to 2017 (!)

Shownotes:

*Birth of a Nation is indeed over 3 hours long (3 hours and 15 minutes to be exact).

*Luther's remarks on suicide that Andrew and Kyle refer to is from Table Talks entry 222 (April 7, 1532) found in vol. 54 of the American edition of Luther's Works . Read an excerpt of it here.

*Click here for a PDF of the biographical article in German about Walther Nithack-Stahn (the Berlin pastor who opposed World War I, and who wrote the screenplay of which the 1923 silent film Martin Luther was based upon)

*The book about Luther on film that Andrew recently came across is Martin Luther in Motion Pictures: History of a Metamorphosis by Esther P Wipfler

*The description of the 1911 film Doktor Martinus Luther that Andrew read was from a blog entry from the Bible Films Blog

*Here is a biographical article on Eugen Klöpfer, who played Luther in the 1928 movie, and gives more details on his involvement with Goebbels and the regime.

James and Andrew review the "95 Theses to the Episcopal Church", a set of statements put forth by a group called the Episcopal Fellowship for Renewal. They explain their essential agreement with all (or nearly all) the statements but why they could not sign.

Visit Episcopal Fellowship for Renewal and view these statements at episcopalrenewal.org

Author, speaker, and New Testament scholar Ian Paul joins the podcast today to break down where we get this concept of "blessings" from, and how blessings were understood in the Bible and in Jesus's ministry. Part of this episode entailed a discussion of Ian's recent blog post titled "What did Jesus do with bread?". Enjoy!

The Rev. Dr. Ian Paul is an Associate Minister at St. Nic's Nottingham, and is a member of General Synod- the legislative body of the Church of England. He holds a PhD in New Testament from St. John's College in Nottingham. He serves as the Managing Editor at Grove Books Ltd. and as the Chair of the Tyndale New Testament Study Group. He blogs over at his website Psephizo where you can also find a links for his books to purchase.

This is the second part of our conversation with Dr. Thomas E. Jacobson (the first part was published as the episode "The Nordic Reformation"). In this episode, Dr. Jacobson shares about his interest in the Norwegian Pietist leader Hans Nielsen Hauge (who became the focus of his doctoral dissertation) and how 'Haugean' movement later found its way into North American Lutheranism. Dr. Jacobson and Andrew also discuss Laestadian Lutherans- another spiritual awakening group out of Lutheranism that ended up in North America (and sort of resembles the Amish, but not entirely). Enjoy!

Shownotes:

-The quote Andrew shared at the beginning of our discussion on Hauge was from a lecture Dr. Jacobson gave on Hauge at Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota in April, 2019. Transcript here.

-The quote Andrew shared on the Laestadians was from a brief chapter Dr. Jacobson wrote titled "The Apostolic Lutheran Tradition" from the book Most Certainly True: 75 Stories about Lutherans Since 1517.

Dr. Thomas Jacobson, Assistant Professor of History at Institute of Lutheran Theology, comes on the podcast to discuss the Nordic Reformation, or how the Reformation transpired in Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Finland- both its influence from, and similarities and differences with, the Reformation in Germany and other countries. Host Andrew especially enjoyed his time as he learned a LOT about a fascinating history. This is the first of a two-part episode. Stay tuned for the upcoming episode with Dr. Jacobson "The Nordic Revivalists (and Their Influence in North America"

Dr. Jacobson mentions the following works that both influenced him and highlight the importance of the Nordic expression of Lutheranism:

Abdel Ross Wentz's A Basic History of Lutheranism in America

Conrad Bergendoff's book The Church of the Lutheran Reformation

James and Andrew had a great discussion on "The Sacred Supper of Christ, and What It Brings to Us" from Calvin's Institutes (Book IV, Chapter XVII)

The edition of the Institutes we read from is the two-volume Ford Lewis Battles translation from The Library of Christian Classics, Westminster John Knox Press.

The quotation at the beginning of the episode is from p. 199 of The European Reformations by Carl Lindberg, 3rd Edition.

The secondary source about the understanding of metonymy in Calvin is found at Derek Thomas's Blog 224 from Blogging the Institutes

The books that James recommended on the episode are Grace and Gratitude: The Eucharistic Theology by BA Gerrish and Analysis of the Institutes of the Christian Religion by Ford Lewis Battles.

The Rev. Ben Crosby, a priest in the Episcopal Church serving in the Anglican Church of Canada, comes on Doth Protest to discuss why clergy and laity need not be shallow but deeply engage the Scriptures and our theological heritage. (We were a bit salty at times... but all in love.) This conversation was inspired by Ben's recent blog post on his Substack Draw Near With Faith titled "What the Reformation Teaches Us About the Pastoral Nature of Doctrine" (so we get a bit into how Martin Luther can inform us on this topic).

The Rev. Ben Crosby is an Associate Priest at Christ Church Cathedral in Montreal and a PhD student at McGill University. He has written for Earth and Altar, The Living Church, and Journal of Anglican Studies.

Samuel Bray and Drew Keane are the co-editors of the recent "new" edition of the classic English Book of Common Prayer. In this episode, they join Andrew and James to talk about this project and Thomas Cranmer's approach to liturgy (it really turned into mainly a discussion on Cranmer... which is always wonderful.)

Samuel L. Pray is the John N. Matthews Professor of Law at University of Notre Dame Law School and a McDonald Distinguished Fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He is a prolific author in both legal studies and theology.

Drew Nathaniel Keane teaches English at Georgia Southern University and holds a PhD in English from University of St. Andrews. He is the co-host of the podcast Critical Readings which offers thoughtful analysis of essential literature. He serves on the Liturgical Commission and the Commission on Ministry for the Episcopal Diocese of Georgia. He has written for The Living Church, Anglican Theological Review, and more.

Cal Crucis joins Andrew today to discuss Cal's article "My Kingdom is Not of This World: A Critique of Cardinal Newman's Development of Doctrine" from The North American Anglican. We get into the Tractarian, Ritualist, and Anglo-Catholic movements that caused a tectonic shift in Anglicanism, and the role Newman played in this shift. Cal presents Newman on Newman's own terms and then gets into what some of the problems he sees in his theory.

Links to more work from Cal:

Cal's podcast

Cal's articles at North American Anglican

The quote from Mark Chapman that Andrew shared was from p. 89 of Anglicanism- A Very Short Introduction

Link to book: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/anglicanism-a-very-short-introduction-9780192806932?cc=us〈=en&

Prolific author and biblical scholar Michael F. Bird joins the podcast to discuss women in ministry, the Terminator movies, Bart Ehrman, and 90's-era John Barclay. This is the conversation theology nerds would dream of having, and Andrew and James (who are theology nerds, we must admit) were incredibly blessed to have such a conversation, one that was both humorous and earnest, with this esteemed scholar and theologian. (We even have somewhat of a bloopers reel toward the end.)

Dr. Bird is the Academic Dean of Ridley College in Melbourne and holds a PhD in New Testament from University of Queensland. He writes and speaks of a variety of topics (it was difficult to select which ones we wanted to bring to him for this episode). Below are links to access literature and media from him:

Dr. Bird's Substack The Word from Bird

Dr. Bird's YouTube channel Early Christian History

Dr. Bird's blog Euangelion

Dr. Bird's books he has authored and co-authored

Dr. Bird's debate with Dr. Bart Ehrman

The article Andrew mentions from Ian Paul on Phoebe and ancient-letter carriers can be accessed here