Faith Still Seeking

The Who, Where, and When of the origins of the four Biblical Gospels. Continuing in the series getting to the heart of the "good news," Kelly examines the historical context, authorship, and transmission of these core texts about Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

Topics include:

• Authorship of the Gospels
• Historical context of the Gospels
• Transmission of oral traditions
• Differences and similarities among the Gospels
• Are there contradictions in the Gospels?
• Theological significance of the Gospels
• Can we trust the authority of the Gospels?

The Who, Where, and When of the origins of the four Biblical Gospels. Continuing in the series getting to the heart of the "good news," Kelly examines the historical context, authorship, and transmission of these core texts about Jesus' life, ministry, death, and resurrection.

Topics include:

• Authorship of the Gospels
• Historical context of the Gospels
• Transmission of oral traditions
• Differences and similarities among the Gospels
• Are there contradictions in the Gospels?
• Theological significance of the Gospels
• Can we trust the authority of the Gospels?

We use the term “the Gospel” a lot in Christian circles, but how often do we think about what it really means? Yes, as we’ve all heard, it means “Good News,” but what is the CONTENT of that news? 

Throughout Christian history, theologians and ministers have interpreted the Gospel to mean different things. Is it individual salvation for the sinner? Entire sanctification and holiness of the believer? Access to miracles through the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Liberation for the poor and oppressed? Join me as I survey the landscape of Gospel interpretations.

[This is Part 1 of a series on The Gospel]

A peace, love, and justice-loving progressive takes on traditional doctrines about an angry god--and makes some surprising discoveries along the way. I would love to just ignore all the mentions of wrath, but it would be hard to do without cutting the Bible to pieces. In this episode, I talk about the arguments for and against thinking about God’s attitude toward us as “Wrath,” as well as the places where my thinking overlaps with those who see us as sinners in the hands of an angry God—even as I want to stand up and shout them down in the middle of the church service.

Wars, weather disasters, plagues, technological threats...some interpret these as signs of the approaching end, specifically the Rapture & a futurist unfolding of the book of Revelation. But do these “dispensationalist” readings of the Bible miss the mark? Author/speaker/teacher Keith Giles joins me to unpack the short history of dispensationalist thinking, the ways that theologians viewed Revelation prior to a few hundred years ago, & the potentially traumatic & harmful ways these relatively recent interpretations of ancient prophecy impact our modern society.

Keith Giles is a writer, speaker, teacher, & co-lead at Quoir, a publisher of books that take on life’s most important subjects & home of the independent news journal The Quollective (TheQuollective.com). Keith's most recent book is a collection entitled “The Unchristian Truth about Christian Nationalism,” available at Amazon. Keith is also the best-selling author of the “Jesus Un” book series on Deconstruction of the Christian faith (including “Jesus Unexpected,” which we discuss in this episode), as well as numerous other books. He’s a regular contributor to John Fugelsang’s Sirius XM Radio show, “Tell Me Everything”, the “God Squad” podcast, “Heretic Happy Hour Podcast”, and his solo podcast, “Second Cup with Keith.”

A meditation on superheroes and theology. Using the unboxing of my Daredevil action figure as a launching point (which many would say is blasphemous on its own--it loses its value out of the box!), I reflect on the superheroes I've admired through my life and how their stories intertwine with my faith. I consider the noble sacrifice of Superman, the torn nature of the Hulk, the broken faith of Captain America, the inner struggle of Daredevil, some issues with Batman and Punisher, and the powers to which we have access through the name of my biggest hero (someone named…Yeshua.)

Image Credits:

• Batman,Superman (comics,film): DC Comics/Warner Brothers
• Captain America (comics,film): Marvel/Disney
• Daredevil (comics): Marvel/Disney
• Daredevil (TV series): Netflix 
• Daredevil:Born Again (TV series): Marvel/Disney
• Doctor Strange (film): Marvel/Disney
• Hulk (comics, films): Marvel/Disney
• Incredible Hulk (TV series): Universal
• Punisher (comics): Marvel/Disney
• Spiderman (comics): Marvel/Disney
• Spiderman (film): Sony
• Superman (film): Warner Brothers
• Prince of Egypt (film): DreamWorks
• Smallville (TV Series): Warner Brothers
• Jesus Action Bible: David C Cook
• Jesus tempted by the Devil (stained glass): St Germain-l’Auxerrois church, Paris via CatholicAnswers (catholic.com)
• The Resurrection of Christ (painting): Maerten de Vos,National Gallery of Ireland via Wikimedia Commons
• Last Temptation of Christ (film): Universal Pictures
• Jesus sign/worship service (photo): Matt Botsford viaUnsplash
• Kneeling worship (photo): David Nieto via Unsplash
• Jesus cleansing the Temple (painting): Carl Bloch,Fredricksborg Castle, Denmark via Wikimedia Commons
• Punisher Tshirt man (photo): The Dallas Morning News
• Blue skull flag (product image): Via PikPng.com (earliestuse I can find, c. 2020)
• Punisher skull collage (video still): “The Punisher Logo:Origins, Evolution, and Appropriations,” video by Uniform History via YouTube
• Jesus hero/hippie (AI-generated images): created by KellyWilson using Firefly 
• Brightheaded Warrior/Frequenter of Churches (AI-generatedimage): created by Kelly Wilson using ChatGPT
• "Martial arts” Jesus (painting): Noli me tangere,by Hans Holbein the Younger (detail), Royal Collection of the United Kingdomvia Wikimedia Commons
• Moses Red Sea: Creator unknown (it has broadinternet usage, but I haven’t been able to find the original—if you have anyinfo, please let me know)
• Times Square Takeover (gif): Hillsong
• Yeshua definition (illustration): Southern California Shabbat Fellowship
• I AM THE WAY sticker (photo): Jon Tyson via Unsplash

You know all about Hell. Fire. Torment. Gnashing teeth. All the images we inherited from Dante, Milton, and "Chick Tracts." But where did those images come from? The Hebrew Bible has Sheol and the Greeks had Hades, but when Jesus said "Gehenna," it was a fiery new thing. What did he mean? Was it real or metaphor? Did his listeners know what he was talking about? How did the idea of justice in the afterlife evolve between Genesis and Revelation? And when we are faced with multiple visions of the future by the same Bible, which one do we choose?

In this episode, I start off with statements about Hell by notable progressive Christian thinkers--Zach Hunt, Roger Wolsey, Bart Ehrman, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Sharon L. Baker--and use those as the catalyst for an exploration of what Jesus did or did not say when he talked about Gehenna, what the Hebrew Bible said about the afterlife, and how the idea of divine retribution after death developed in the background between the Old and New Testaments.

I’m also always grateful to Steev RX for his song “Purpose,” which is the theme for the show. Find his music on ⁠⁠SteevRX.com⁠⁠ and on streaming platforms everywhere.

Kelly is grateful to welcome Matthew Distefano and Keith Giles, co-authors of the newly released "Reading Romans Right" (Quoir publishing). For many Christians (and non-Christians as well), Paul's teachings in Romans and other New Testament letters have long been a source of tension. Yes, Paul introduces grace by faith, but at what cost? Paul has long been accused of misogyny, homophobia, fostering blind allegiance to the State, and a theology that says we are worthless and doomed. The authors explore the social, rhetorical, and literary context of Paul's writing to open up a new understanding of the apocalyptic--and possibly universal--salvation that he was trying to describe to the church in Rome.

Distefano and Giles are co-publishers at Quoir publishing, an author-centered publisher that focuses on the biggest issues in the universe. They are also co-hosts of the popular Heretic Happy Hour podcast, and the principals of Quoir academy, which provides a range of education about mind, body, and spirit. Find out more about their work at https://quoir.com.

Also, check out their phenomenal book "Reading Romans Right," exclusively available at Amazon. It's a must-have for any theological library: https://a.co/d/6OoZ69H

The KINGDOM is at HAND! It was so surprised to find out that's what the Gospels really said. After a lifetime of thinking of the Gospel as being focused on my sin and individual salvation, I finally read what Jesus said on the page and it was totally different than I thought. It was announcing the Kingdom of God, which is quickly approaching but also has already started, and establishes God’s rule over any king or leader of this world. In this episode, I use the recent sermon from Bishop Mariann Budde and her words to President Trump as a launching off point to talk about how yes, the Gospel is absolutely political, and yes, although it is an impractical way to run a country, Mercy is at the heart of what nations are supposed to do.

So if I want to find out what’s true about Christianity, where do I go? The Bible? The Church? Theologians and thinkers? Prayer and meditation? My heart? My MIND? In this episode, Kelly explores the Prolegomena of theology, namely, what assumptions and other prior knowledge one needs to know more.

This episode specifically focuses on the sources of theology. Does it come from the Bible alone? What role does tradition have, or reason, or even (if we can trust it) EXPERIENCE. Kelly also talks about why, although he struggles with the Bible, there are also a lot of reasons he keeps coming back to it.

(There's also a special bonus feature that I recorded for this episode, but I'm still waiting for permissions from the creator, so am putting out this shorter version--but please Subscribe and/or follow the podcast on FB or IG so you know when the bonus material is up!)

I’m also always grateful to Steev RX for his song “Purpose,” which is the theme for the show. Find his music on ⁠SteevRX.com⁠ and on streaming platforms everywhere. Be sure to catch my enlightening conversation with Steev RX in our previous episode!

00:00 Introduction to Faith Still Seeking

00:47 Exploring Sources of Christian Truth

07:00 Understanding Prolegomena in Theology

18:01 The Role of Scripture and Tradition

34:24 The Importance of Reason and Experience

49:19 Conclusion: Embracing the Joy of Faith