Homebrewed Christianity

This is a fun conversation with Thomas Jay Oord & Philip Clayton. We have a good time digging into some of the biggest theological questions surrounding Christmas and the Incarnation. Enjoy & then join our upcoming online class, The Cosmic Christ.

Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. He is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty-five books. Oord directs a doctoral program at Northwind Theological Seminary and the Center for Open and Relational Theology. He won the Outstanding Faculty Award twelve times as a full-time professor and now speaks at institutions across the globe. Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and freedom and relationships for transformation.

As a scholar, Philip Clayton (Ingraham Professor, Claremont School of Theology) works at the intersection of science, philosophy, and theology. As an activist (president of EcoCiv.org, President of IPDC), he works to convene, facilitate, and catalyze multi-sectoral initiatives toward ecological civilization. As a disciple of Jesus, he finds himself energized by the Spirit in the Quaker community.

• How to Think Theologically
• On the Meaning of Life
• on the Mindfulness of Nature
• The Theology of Wolfhart Pannenberg w/ Philip Clayton
• Finding God in Everyone and Everywhere w/ Philip Clayton and Andrew Davis
• Can a process theologian be an Evangelical & other questions with Philip Clayton
• The #GodDebacle w/ Philip Clayton and LeRon Shults
• Philip Clayton on the Shape of Postmodern Theology
• Party Time with Philip Clayton for “The Predicament of Beliefâ€
• Bootlegged Christianity with Philip Clayton, Jack Caputo, Bill Mallonee, Peter Rollins, & Jay Bakker
• Philip Clayton on The Resurrection, Trinity, Eschatology & the Predicament of Belief
• Coming to Jesus with Daniel Kirk & Philip Clayton

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Throughout the  Theology for Normal People series, we have featured interviews with theologians from different parts of the church. In this episode, Dr. Ryan Duns, a Jesuit priest and theologian at Marquette University, returns to the podcast to share how he thinks in and with the Catholic tradition. It was a beautiful and enlightening conversation that blends his narrative, exploration of the Catholic tradition, and wisdom he’s gained, introducing it to students in the classroom. I had so much fun we went on a Tolkien excursion at the end, which is a sign I’m having fun.

Ryan G. Duns, SJ, (twitter) is a Jesuit priest and an assistant professor of theology at Marquette University. His locates his work the intersection of philosophy and systematic theology and is interested in regarding theology as practice or a way of life. He has published on Karl Rahner, Jean-Luc Marion, Renae Girard, and his most recent work has involved a sustained engagement with William Desmond’s metaphysics. His monograph Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age: Desmond and the Quest for God argues that, when read as a form of spiritual exercise (Pierre Hadot), Desmond’s philosophy can re-awaken a sense of the Transcendent.

You can check out our previous conversation here: Spiritual Exercises for a Secular Age.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ryan Burge is back and he has a bunch of charts to get us chatting! To stay up to date with Ryan’s regular release of graphs about religion, follow his substack here, IG here, and formerly twitter here.

Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of numerous journal articles, he is the co-founder of and a frequent contributor to Religion in Public, a forum for scholars of religion and politics to make their work accessible to a general audience. Burge is a pastor in the American Baptist Church.

Previous Visits from Ryan Burge

• Graphs about Religion & Politics w/ Spicy Banter
• a Year in Religion (in Graphs)
• Evangelical Jews, Educated Church-Goers, & other bits of dizzying data
• 5 Religion Graphs w/ a side of Hot Takes
• Myths about Religion & Politics

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

My friend, Dr. Bethany Sollereder, is Lecturer in Science and Religion at the University of Edinburgh. She received her PhD in Theology from the University of Exeter and an MCS in interdisciplinary studies from Regent College, Vancouver. She specializes in theology concerning evolution and the problem of suffering. Her current work is about the theological possibilities and human vocation in the light of irreversible changes in ecological degradation.

She is also interested in the intersection between psychology and faith, particularly how different approaches to theology can affect people’s experience of suffering. This interest led to the publication of “Why is There Suffering? Pick your own theological adventure” (Zondervan 2021), the first pick-your-own-ending theology book. Dr Sollereder is working in a broader research program in what she has called “Compassionate Theodicy.”

Here's two of Bethany's Books to checkout

•  God, Evolution, and Animal Suffering: Theodicy without a Fall
• Why Is There Suffering?: Pick Your Own Theological Expedition

Check out Bethany's previous visits to the podcast

• Celebration, Suffering, & the Future of Science + Religion
• Theology and the Ecological Crisis

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I am thrilled to have my friend Dr. Adam Clark back on the podcast. This conversation captures so many of his most potent observations about the task of thinking theologically in the key of liberation. Enjoy

Dr. Adam Clark is Associate Professor of Theology at Xavier University. He is committed to the idea that theological education in the twenty-first century must function as a counter-story. One that equips us to read against the grain of the dominant culture and inspires one to live into the Ignatian dictum of going forth to set the world on fire. To this end, Dr. Clark is intentional about pedagogical practices that raise critical consciousness by going beneath surface meanings, unmasking conventional wisdoms and reimagining the good. He currently serves as co-chair of Black Theology Group at the American Academy of Religion, actively publishes in the area of black theology and black religion and participates in social justice groups at Xavier and in the Cincinnati area. He earned his PhD at Union Theological Seminary in New York where he was mentored by James Cone.

• From Contemplation to Liberation
• The Living & Liberating Mystery
• Cancel Culture, Rogan, Whoopi, Chappelle, & the NFL
• Gary Dorrien & Adam Clark: James Cone and the Emergence of Black Theology
• Serene Jones & Adam Clark: Theology Matters and the Legacy of James Cone
• The Crisis of American Religion & Democracy: 1/6 a year later
• Christmas, BLM, Abortion, & the War on White Evangelicalism
• Jan 6th Theological Debrief: Adam Clark and Jeffrey Pugh
• Adam Clark: What is Black Theology?
• From Lebron James to the Black Panther: Black Theology QnA w/ Adam Clark
• Adam Clark: James Cone was right

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When I started the podcast over 15 years ago, Elgin was an infant, and today he is here hosting the podcast! Elgin decided to join the upcoming class, Live Before You Die, and has been collecting a stack of questions as he read through Paul Tillich’s The Courage to Be. Yesterday, we were tailgating at the Wake Forest vs Florida State football game with Arron Simmons and his family. What does a podcaster do when their teenager has a bunch of questions about existentialism, and you are tailgating with an existentialist philosopher? You hand them mics!

Dr. Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I was in Minneapolis speaking at the Festival of Homiletics and ended up at a bottle release party at Surly Brewing with my friend Tony Jones. There, we shared stories from our time in the Emerging Church Movement, what we learned, all the friends we made, and where we’ve all ended up. We decided then to do a class exploring the movement and process our learning with a bunch of its participants. From there, the idea took off, and we decided it would be best to turn it into a podcast series and invite people to contribute to a more significant oral history. In this episode, you will hear about the project, what we’ve been doing, and how you can be a part of it.

EMERGED:A Crowdfunded Podcast to Preserve an Oral History of the Emerging Church Movement – For a decade at the beginning of the 21st century, a small group of pastors, missionaries, and theologians set out to change the church. They were mostly GenXers, mostly men, mostly white, mostly evangelical. They planted churches and wrote books and ran conferences. They were quoted in the New York Times and Time Magazine, and they landed on the cover of Christianity Today and the Christian Century. And then, almost as quickly as it appeared, the emerging church movement disappeared. In this multi-part series launching January 2024, Tony Jones and Tripp Fuller will journey through the electrifying, tumultuous, ever-evolving years of the ECM through interviews, stories, and opinions from some of the movement’s pivotal figures.

WE’LL TACKLE QUESTIONS LIKE:

• What were the precursors to the ECM?
• What catalyzed the movement?
• How cohesive was it, really?
• When and why did interest switch from the evangelical church to the mainline?
• Did it become too political?
• Did the movement ultimately fail, or did it infiltrate and change the church?

GET ACCESS: http://www.emergedpodcast.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Everyone doesn’t have to be a theology nerd, but if you want to know what it sounds like when we have fun, this conversation with John Thatamanil is exhibit A. Over the years, John and I have had multiple conversations on and off the podcast, and everyone is a complete joy. I am always wholly hyped when it is over and have a stack of ideas brewing in my head for weeks. This episode is no exception! Not only do we go deep into an adequate ontology for the breadth of religious experience, explore some Tillichian connections with Whitehead, and transformative explorations across religious pluralism, but we get personal about how the activity of thinking theologically is an intimate form of engagement with God. Relistening to this episode made me excited about my next conversation with John.

Dr. Thatamanil is Professor of Theology & World Religions at Union Theological Seminary in NYC.

• Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity
• The Immanent Divine: God, Creation And the Human Predicament: God, Creation, and the Human Predicament
• Theology Without Walls: The Transreligious Imperative 

• What we do when we do theology
• A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity
• Theology Without Walls
• Non-duality, Polydoxy, and Christian Identity

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How do liberal Protestant Christian theologians think? Few people are as capable as our guest, Dr. Paul Capetz, at articulating the heart of liberal Protestantism. Paul has been a friend for a long time. We first met at Claremont School of Theology when he was on sabbatical and we quickly realized how much we enjoy getting nerdy together. In this episode, we discuss his new book, Recovering Protestantism’s Original Insight and how liberal Protestantism inherited Luther’s critical theology.

In the conversation, we discuss…

• how to engage historical criticism of the Bible as a modern Christian
• the role and function of tradition for theologizing
• the contrast between Calvin and Luther when it comes to Biblical authority
• can the Bible help us think about ethics today?
• the need to free the Bible from an ancient worldview
• the existentialist impact of Gospel proclamation
• the priority of education within liberal Protestantism
• how to be honest in wrestling with and discerning our history
• America’s anti-intellectualism and its deep desire to repress its history
• Paul tells the story of the Presbyterian church wrestling with same-sex marriage
• the relationship between liberal and liberation theologies

Paul E. Capetz is professor of historical theology emeritus at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and is currently minister at Christ Church by the Sea in Newport Beach, California. He is the author of God: A Brief History and co-editor of James Gustafson’s Moral Discernment in the Christian Life.

• Existentialist Philosophy, Politics, & Theology
• Calvin’s 500th Birthday
• The Big Theological Throw Down with John Cobb & Paul Capetz

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever read a book that you loved because it was uncomfortable? One that extended questions you’ve raised and challenged the answers you were attracted to? Maybe a book that, when you got done, you knew you needed to reread it? That happened when I finished Dr. Clark’s Reclaiming Stolen Earth: An Africana Ecotheology. So, I imagine you can guess how excited I was when he agreed to join the podcast!

Jawanza Eric Clark is professor of global Christianity at Manhattan College, NY. He holds a BA from Morehouse College, an MDiv from Yale Divinity School, and a ThM and PhD from Emory University. He is editor of Albert Cleage Jr. and the Black Madonna and Child, and author of Indigenous Black Theology: Towards an African-Centered Theology of the African-American Religious Experience. He is currently co-chair of the Black Theology unit of the American Academy of Religion.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices