Homebrewed Christianity

I love hanging out with Diana Butler Bass. She doesn’t hate hanging out with me, so we decided to do monthly live hangs with our supporters called Ruining Dinner. Each time we get together, we discuss whatever is happening in the public square at the intersection of religion and politics. This episode is a little taste of what happens on the live zoom. To be a part of future zoom sessions and get access to the entire session,  join Diana’s newsletter community, the Cottage &/or the Homebrewed Community.

 

Follow the podcast, drop a review, or become a member of the HBC Community. Previous Episodes with Diana & Tripp Theology and Spirituality in a Time of Rupture White Evangelical Theopolitics, John Shelby Spong, & Jesus 20 Years of Religious Decline Jesus After Religion and Beyond Fear Ruining Dinner with Diana Butler Bass and Robyn Henderson-Espinoza Evangelical Decline, the Supreme Court, and the Horizon of Possibility Debating, Praying, and Living with Tyrants Religion, Politics, & the Elephant in the Room

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All theology is NOT good. There is real deal Bad Theology and it kills. Practical theologian and one of my new favorite podcast guests, Leah Robinson is here for a nerdy party. Dr. Leah Robinson is Associate Professor of Religion at Pfieffer University. You should also follow her on twitter.

In this conversation we discuss…

• how to be a Southerner living in Edinburgh
• Leah resists being “all up on Barth’s butt”
• what is Practical Theology & how Leah got into it
• our shared interest in Peter Berger’s image of a Sacred Canopy

how theology changes once you realize it is (in part) a social construct

how to decipher if a theology is practically good or bad

the task of processing one’s own religious history

dealing with Southern Baptist baggage and staying Christian

Tripp manages to bring up LOTR & why he loves this specific audio version… you are welcome.

processing purity culture & kissing ‘kissing dating good bye’ good bye

Leah doesn’t recognize a DC Talk reference but said she was a Skillet person. She does like Norma Jean & Cool Hand Luke.

Tripp explains evangelical youth group “gold bonding” to Leah and how to make a Red Neck Martini

Leah gives advice to bringing whiskey to AAR by repurposing a wine bra.

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I heard Dr. Ryan Burge on the Crackers & Grape Juice podcast, started following him on twitter, and knew I wanted to have him on HBC. We had a very fun time! After listening, you will want to check out his new book 20 Myths about Religion and Politics in America.

Ryan P. Burge is an assistant professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University. Author of numerous journal articles, he is the cofounder 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.

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Dr. William Greenway returns to the podcast to talk about his most recent book, Reasonable Faith for a Post-Secular Age: Open Christian Spirituality and Ethics. Bill is Professor of Philosophical Theology at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. I absolutely loved the book and had a complete blast in this conversation. If you missed it you will want to go back and check out his first visit to the podcast on The Challenge of Evil.

About the book… Our global community desperately needs an overt awakening to an age of reason and faith. Reasonable Faith for a Post-Secular Age meets this need by interpreting faith not in terms of belief in propositions but in terms of living surrender to having been seized by agape for every Face, including one’s own. Virtually all faith traditions, from Buddhism to Humanism to Wiccan, are rooted in agape and therefore share considerable spiritual and ethical common ground (a truth long veiled). In contrast to ethically feckless secular rationality—over which a devastating, global social Darwinism currently runs roughshod—faith qua living surrender to agape grounds moral realism, awakens us to love for all creatures, and inspires struggles for justice. Inspired by the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas and Christian spirituality, Greenway engages, on the one hand, intellectuals like Stanley Hauerwas, Richard Rorty, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jeffery Stout, Charles Taylor, and Bernard Williams, and, on the other, contemporary debates over consciousness, free will, evil, and metaethics. He details the character of secular rationality’s devastating scission from moral reality and clarifies the promise of understanding faith and spirituality in terms of agape.

Books from Dr. Greenway

• A Reasonable Belief: Why God and Faith Make Sense
• The Challenge of Evil: Grace and the Problem of Suffering
• Reasonable Faith for a Post-Secular Age: Open Christian Spirituality and Ethics
• For the Love of All Creatures: The Story of Grace in Genesis
• Agape Ethics: Moral Realism and Love for All Life

 

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Why Stay Christian? A growing number of people are asking this question. My friend Brian McLaren has a new book coming out exploring it. Today we get to hear John Cobb’s response. At 97 years old, John has a lot of wisdom to share.

This episode is an invitation to an upcoming online class, Christianity in Process, where you will get an introduction to Process theology with John Cobb. The class is donation-based, including 0, so head on over and join the fun.

We are also giving away a library of John Cobb books… so get on it:)

Dr. John B. Cobb, Jr. taught theology at the Claremont School of Theology from 1958 to 1990. In 2014 he became the first theologian elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences for his interdisciplinary work in ecology, economics, and biology.

 

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John Dominic Crossan joins me and Diana Butler Bass to discuss a bunch of questions and topics from Jesus De/Constructed class members. This is the live stream of the QnA.

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Previous Visits from Crossan to the podcast

• Render Unto Caesar

• Resurrecting Easter with John Dominic Crossan

• John Dominic Crossan on the First Christmas

• From Jesus’ Parables to Parables of God with John Dominic Crossan

• John Dominic Crossan on God & Empire!

 Follow the podcast, drop a review, or become a member of the HBC Community.

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Dr. Helen K. Bond is Professor of Christian Origins & Head of the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh. She returns to the podcast for a wide-ranging conversation tackling topics from members of the HBC online Lent group, Jesus De/Constructed. In our chat we discuss…

• what is the difference between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith?
• how does a historical Jesus scholar do their work?
• the cultural/social/political/religious matrix of the historical Jesus
• the role of honor and shame in Jesus’ culture
• the entanglement of religion and politics
• what is the scholarly consensus around the historical Jesus?
• the political potency of Pilate’s pagan foreign troops in town for the Passover
• what does it mean for Jesus to be an Apocalyptic Jewish figure?
• it’s the end of the world, but what do “end” and “world” mean?
• how did the ancient world understand religion, divinity, and god-talk?
• how should we understand the titles of Jesus in the NT and his historical self-consciousness?
• what does it mean for Jesus to be the Christ?
• why does Paul say so little about the historical Jesus?
• what occasioned the composition of the Gospels?
• you should listen to Helen’s first visit to the podcast…the First Biography of Jesus… PS it is the Gospel of Mark

how does seeing the Gospels as biographies change the way we read them?

go get Helen’s new book Women Remembered: Jesus’ Female Disciples

the role and status of women in the early church

how the transitions within the early church brought back the patriarchy

Tertullian and the Montanists

Helen’s favorite female followers of Jesus

was Jesus a feminist?

what do we know about Mary, the mother of Jesus?

the historical Jesus’ brother James

the cross & resurrection

 

Don’t forget to join Tripp & Diana this Lent for an open online class – Jesus De/constructed! Details here.  Follow the podcast, drop a review, or become a member of the HBC Community.

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John Dominic Crossan is back on the podcast talking about his new book Render Unto Caesar: The Struggle over Christ and Culture in the New Testament. It is always a blast to have Dom on the podcast and this is no exception! Dr. Crossan is one of the leading New Testament scholars today. Not only has he significantly contributed to the academic guild, but he has consistently written texts for a larger audience.

Want to hang out with Dom?  Then come join an upcoming live stream QnA where he will be tackling a bunch of Bible questions from listeners. It promises to be a nerdy good time!

Previous Visits from Crossan to the podcast

• Resurrecting Easter with John Dominic Crossan

• John Dominic Crossan on the First Christmas

• From Jesus’ Parables to Parables of God with John Dominic Crossan

• John Dominic Crossan on God & Empire!

Don’t forget to join Tripp & Diana this Lent for an open online class – Jesus De/constructed! Details here.  Follow the podcast, drop a review, or become a member of the HBC Community.

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My buddy and the New Testament scholar Matt Novenson is back on the podcast to tackle a bunch of Bible questions and topics from the Jesus De/Constructed group. It was a tour de force of the early Christian movements. In the conversation we discuss things like…

• the major social /cultural context of Jesus
• Rome’s relationship to Israel
• the role of the Temple in Jewish life and how its destruction changed things
• the historical Jesus and the many Gospels he inspired
• what is Apocalyptic Judaism, the Kingdom of God, and Jesus’ own message
• Did Jesus and his earliest followers think the world was going to end?
• Paul and his role in early Christianity
• how the discoveries of the last century have reshaped our understanding of NT times
• the Resurrection of Jesus and the historian

Dr. Matthew Novenson is Senior Lecturer in New Testament and Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, where he is also director of the Centre for the Study of Christian Origins. Check out his previous podcast visit “ Messiah, Lord, Logos, & Other Titles” and his books:

• The Grammar of Messianism: An Ancient Jewish Political Idiom and Its Users
• Christ Among the Messiahs: Christ Language in Paul and Messiah Language in Ancient Judaism
• Paul, Then and Now

THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY

Louisville Seminary is a progressive theological school located in the fun and friendly city of Louisville, Kentucky. They offer the following programs: Master of Divinity, Master of Arts in Religion, Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy, the Doctor of Ministry, and dual degree options in partnership with the University of Louisville in law, business, and social work. All master’s level students who are enrolled at least half time are guaranteed a minimum of a 100% tuition scholarship. Louisville Seminary hosts various virtual and in-person visit opportunities. If you’re interested in the MDiv or MAR for this coming fall, there is still time to apply. The deadline is June 1. To learn more, to schedule a visit, or to apply, visit www.LPTS.edu. For Homebrewed Christianity listeners, if you apply to a master’s program by June 1, your application fee will be waived. Simply email the code “Homebrewed Podcast” to [email protected].

Don’t forget to join Tripp & Diana this Lent for an open online class – Jesus De/constructed! Details here.  Follow the podcast, drop a review, or become a member of the HBC Community.

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Dr. Conrad Kanagy taught Sociology at Elizabethtown College since 1993 and is an established scholar in the study of American and Global Christianity. He is also an ordained Mennonite minister. You can check out his podcast, YouTube channel, and the upcoming webinar – “Jesus in the Mainline: Why is Progressive Christianity Embracing A Church Dismantled?.”

Wherever you look, the metrics of the institutional church spell doom. Amid this forecast, Conrad Kanagy—long-time pastor and sociologist of religion—offers a vision of hope in what he calls the “Spirit’s dismantling of the church.” Five years ago, Kanagy learned that he had Parkinson’s disease. This devastating experience of “dismantling” gave him the courage to strip off his masks and to say things that, according to one reader, “Pastors and professors are not supposed to say!” When Covid-19 emerged two years ago, Kanagy produced a popular podcast that he has turned into a series of books receiving overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Donald Kraybill, author of The Upside Down Kingdom, writes: “Conrad’s essays mingle the voice of a prophet, the eye of a sociologist, the heart of a pastor, the wisdom of an educator, and above all the candid confessions of a child of God. He may stir your ire or light your fire, annoy you or compel you to compassion. Prophetic voices do that. But you will keep on reading. I promise!”

Professor Walter Brueggemann notes: “Conrad is able to cross many boundaries…he is able to juxtapose odd partners, push the extremities of exposure, and do a broad sweep of scripture. The subtext of his writing is the scriptural account wherein the biblical community of faith, in its distortion and obduracy, was dismantled in order to make way for an authentic community of mission.” Dr. Kanagy is currently writing an authorized biography of Professor Brueggemann.

The author includes stories of his growing up in a strict Amish/Mennonite community, his life-long struggle with OCD and constant fear of God’s wrath and damnation, his crises in ministry, battles with cancer, and his recent diagnosis of PD.

Don’t forget to join Tripp & Diana this Lent for an open online class – Jesus De/constructed! Details here.  Follow the podcast, drop a review, or become a member of the HBC Community.

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