Homebrewed Christianity

Transgressive Devotion is one of the best theology books I have read in years. I was thrilled to connect with Natalie and get her on the podcast. My list of questions was ginormous… then we got on zoom and all sorts of nerdy joy broke loose. We got to about 1/3 of topics, but had so much fun! On top of some zesty theology, we discussed Justin Bieber’s doughnuts, the Chicken Big Mac, Gandalf witnessing techniques, parenting as theologians, Passion Week, and a little sing-a-long.

Dr. Natalie Wigg-Stevenson is Associate Professor of Contextual Education and Theology at Emmanuel College, where she directs the MDiv and Contextual Education Programs. Her current research delves into how ethnographic methods could help create theological conversations across church, academy and everyday life. She is also interested in liturgical, feminist and queer theologies, cultural theories of practice, aesthetics, pop culture, and in decolonizing pedagogies. An ordained Baptist minister, Natalie is particularly passionate about preaching and worship, and about adult education in church settings.

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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Last night Diana and I hosted the authors behind the brand new book After Jesus Before Christianity for some nerdy fun. This was a special session for our online Lent group Jesus De/Constructed. 

“Here is a room full of forgotten stories about what it once meant to follow Jesus. Some are so strange that they tell me what a stranger I have become to my own faith. Others are so compelling that they refresh my sense of what this ?faith asks of me.�— Barbara Brown Taylor

“There have always been Jesus people who challenged the assumptions of Empire and created refuge for the oppressed. This noble effort to uncover movements that were silenced reminds me of the saints who sing, ‘I know Jesus for myself.’â€?— Bishop William J. Barber, II

“With a prose cool, clear, and crisp, a tone positive, powerful, and persuasive, and a vision confident, collective, and collegial, After Jesus Before Christianity is good news, truth, and joy—as Christianity itself should always be.�— John Dominic Crossan

Dr. Erin K. Vearncombe is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, appointed to the Office of the Dean. She received her Ph.D. in a collaborative program at the University of Toronto between the Department for the Study of Religion and the Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies. A specialist in writing instruction, Erin worked for five years as a faculty member of the Princeton Writing Program at Princeton University, and is currently designing a program for the Faculty of Arts and Science at the University of Toronto that will ease the transition to university-level writing for incoming undergraduate students. Her research specialty is the social origins and histories of Jesus movements in the first centuries of the common era, with a particular focus on practices of dress. Hal Taussig recently retired as Professor of New Testament at Union Theological Seminary in New York. He lectures around the country and world.  The editor of the award-winning A New New Testament (2013), United Methodist minister, and author of fourteen books, his mediography includes The New York Times, Time Magazine, The Daily Show, People Magazine, Newsweek Magazine, National Public Radio, the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC, the Bob Edwards Show on Sirius Radio, The History Channel, and the Washington Post. Bernard Brandon Scott is the author and editor of many books, including After Jesus Before Christianity, The Real Paul: Recovering His Radical Challenge and The Trouble with Resurrection. A charter member of the Jesus Seminar, he is chair of Westar’s Christianity Seminar. He served as chair of the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Section of the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as a member of several SBL Seminars including the Parable Seminar and Historical Jesus Seminar. He holds an A.B. from St. Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology, an M.A. from Miami University, and a Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. 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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It’s always good to have a Deacon’s Meeting with one of the OG Deacons, a Senior… Arch Deacon even – Dr. Tony Jones. In this conversation we discuss…

• the Amazon LOTR show & my quest to peer pressure Jason Micheli into a response pod
• visiting Lego Land & Istambul
• Organizing your life around keeping Income-based repayment & my failed plan to be a prof
• THEOLOGY BEER CAMP
• why Tony loves Constantine & Monty Python
• The predicament of institutions, accountability, and injustice
• The future of evangelicalism is (NOT) David Brooks
• Righteous Gem Stones is a reality show & the MEGA pod might be
• A student asked Tripp if he was an evangelical and he was triggered

A Few Previous Podcast Visits with Tony

• A Deacon’s Meeting with Tony Jones

• Progressive Christian Christmas

• Tony Jones: the Post-Emergent Church

• Devilpalooza: N.T. Wright, Richard Beck, Greg Boyd, Tony Jones and Duke!

• Soapbox Blabbery with Peter Rollins & Tony Jones

• Tony Jones & Peter Rollins on #TheGreatDebacle

• Did God Kill Jesus? w/ Tony Jones

Tony Jones is the author of Did God Kill Jesus? (HarperOne, 2015) and contributing writer to several outdoors periodicals. He’s written a dozen books, including The New Christians: Dispatches from the Emergent Frontier and The Sacred Way: Spiritual Practices for Everyday Life, developed the iPhone app, hosts the Reverend Hunter Podcast, and teaches at Fuller Theological Seminary.

Tony is a sought after speaker and consultant in the areas of emerging church, postmodernism, and Christian spirituality, writing, and the outdoors. He served as a consultant on the television show, The Path, and he owns an event planning company, Crucible Creative.

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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Jurgen Moltmann is on the podcast!

Moltmann is the most influential theologian from the 2nd half of the 20th century. In this episode, you will get to hear Moltmann answer our questions like a theological champ. His one-liners are inappropriately zesty!

This is the first half of the live HBC podcast from the American Academy of Religion. You will get to hear Tony Jones and I interview the zesty German one – Moltmann! During the podcast, we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Moltmann’s ground-breaking text The Crucified God.

We were also joined by Jennifer McBride and Philip Clayton. Get ready for the excitement!!

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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What is the future of spirituality? That question not only shapes this podcast episode but an upcoming online summit. Homebrewed is excited to be partnering with Convergence and 25 rather epic voices to explore the future of spirituality. In this episode, I have a blast talking with Cameron Trimble and Anna Golladay from Convergence. I not only hope you enjoy it but get wise and sign up for the free online summit HERE.

• How is our understanding of faith being reshaped, perhaps accelerated, by the pandemic?
• Do faith communities have a future and what kind of courage will that require?
• What kind of rituals will shape the future of spirituality? 
• What are the big theological questions of our time? 
• How do younger generations seek spirituality? 
• Is there a future of courageous spirituality? If so, what does that look like?

Rev. Cameron Trimble is a serial entrepreneur committed to the triple bottom line – a concern for people, progress, and the planet. Driven by an adventurous spirit, she runs businesses and NGO organizations, both secular and faith-based. She serves as a consultant, a frequent speaker on national speaking circuits, is a pilot, and an author. Cameron is the CEO of Convergence, a not-for-profit made up of subsidiary companies and organizations focused on organizational transformation.

Rev. Anna Golladay is the Senior Director of Communications and Marketing at Convergence. Anna has served as associate pastor in the United Methodist Church. Her ministry is undergirded by social justice and the inequity that exists both in and outside the church’s walls. She is diligent in her advocacy for full inclusion for all persons in the United Methodist Church. She is an entrepreneur, running a small online-based apparel shop called Bias & Bourbon and social enterprise, Work of Place. She spends her free time as an avid football and hockey fan and life partner to Mike Krigbaum, a small-animal veterinarian.

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 church history Prof from Wake Div, Bill Leonard, is back on the podcast. We have a wide-ranging conversation about the changing shape of religion in America. It is always a joy to reconnect with a mentor to pick some more wisdom and get feedback about some of the ideas you are working through.

Dr. Bill Leonard is Founding Dean and Professor of Divinity Emeritus at Wake Forest University’s SChool of Divinity. Leonard’s research focuses on Church History with particular attention to American religion, Baptist studies, and Appalachian religion. He is the author or editor of some 25 books including Christianity in Appalachia (1999); Baptist Ways: A History (2003); The Challenge of Being Baptist (2010); Can I Get a Witness?: Essays, Sermons and Reflections (2013); and  A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the U.S., (2014). In March 2015 he delivered the William James Lecture on Religious Experience at Harvard Divinity School and in February 2017 he gave the William Self Lectures on Preaching at McAfee School of Theology, Mercer University. His newest book, The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Church History: Flaming Heretics and Heavy Drinkers, was  published by Fortress Press in July 2017. Leonard is on the board of the Journal of Disability and Religion, The Baptist Quarterly (England), the Day1 Preaching Network, the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, and the Governing Board of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. His sabbatical research focuses on a new book, tentatively entitled: “Security or Idolatry?: A History of Religion and Firearms in the U.S.”  Leonard writes a twice-monthly column for Baptist News Global, is an ordained Baptist minister, and a member of First Baptist Church, Highland Avenue (American Baptist Churches, USA) in Winston-Salem.

• the church’s loss of cultural privilege

the changing sociology of Sunday

the rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated

living through a period of institutional permanent transition

changing shape of religious pluralism

the changing center of faith from the congregation

the rise of Christian Nationalism

the history of race and religion in America

fear of critical race theory

Christian formation in a Biblically illiterate age

how American evangelical identity got so ugly

the Fundamentalization of American Religion and the move from experience to transaction

from the Scopes Monkey Trial to Critical Race Theory

how inerrancy migrated to natural law

“you can be right about scripture and wrong about the Gospel”

an account of American brokenness

how big tech is ruining religion

the Pornification of Religion

how individualism is destroying us individually

the growing lack of community for many is a judgment on the church

why the West needs the church

Check out these books by Dr. Leonard:

• A Sense of the Heart: Christian Religious Experience in the United States
• Baptist Ways: A History
• The Challenge of Being Baptist: Owning a Scandalous Past and an Uncertain Future
• Word of God Across the Ages: Using Christian History in Preaching
• The Homebrewed Christianity Guide to Church History: Flaming Heretics and Heavy Drinkers

Previous Podcasts w/ Dr. Leonard

• Listening Beyond the Times
• The History and Transformation of American Christianity
• Faith and Politics Through Church History

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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What does it sound like when two friends discuss their struggle with the concept of God? If those friends also have a shared interest in science, philosophy, and religion it could sound like this.

My super-nerd friend, Sarah Lane Ritchie, is back on the podcast for a strikingly honest conversation about God and what is required for a “minimally viable” concept. It centers on three particular affirmations:

1. God is personal
2. God is transcendent
3. God provides for postmortem existence

Dr. Sarah Lane Ritchie received her B.A. in Philosophy & Religion from Spring Arbor University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an M.Sc. in Science & Religion from the University of Edinburgh. She obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh in Science & Religion with a thesis on divine action and the human mind, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of St. Andrews. She has published a book with Cambridge University Press and numerous articles in academic journals, and continues research in the field of science and religion.

Sarah’s Previous Podcast Visits

• Staff Lounge Shenanigans

• Can Scientists study gods, souls, and rituals?

• an Integrated Physicality and the Sacred

• Trilogies, Atonement Power Rankings, & Sex Work at Happy Hour

• Everyone You Ever Loved Will Die, so Merry Christmas!

• Kombucha, Meditation, Tarot, and Stink Bombs

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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Yesterday we launched Jesus De/Constructed, an open online class with Diana Butler Bass.  This is session one, so receive it as an invitation to join the group. We are thrilled over 3000 people have already signed up

 

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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What would happen if Marty McFly went back in time and gave a young Karl Barth a copy of Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age? 

It would be pretty close to Andrew Root’s new book Churches and the Crisis of Decline. The book came out today, so Andy and I talked about it on a live stream. Enjoy the convo, get the book, and look forward to the coming Karl Barth musical on Disney+

Andrew Root is the Carrie Olson Baalson Professor of Youth and Family Ministry at Luther Seminary, USA. He writes and researches in areas of theology, ministry, culture, and younger generations.  Some of his most recent books are The Congregation in a Secular Age (Baker, 2021), The End of Youth Ministry? (Baker, 2020), The Pastor in a Secular Age: Ministry to People Who No Longer Need God (Baker, 2019), Faith Formation in a Secular Age (Baker, 2017), and Exploding Stars, Dead Dinosaurs, and Zombies: Youth Ministry in the Age of Science (Fortress Press, 2018).  Andy has worked in congregations, parachurch ministries, and social service programs. He lives in St. Paul with his wife Kara, two children, Owen and Maisy, and their dog. When not reading, writing, or teaching, Andy spends far too much time watching TV and movies.

Previous Visits with Andy Root

• Acceleration, Resonance, & the Counting Crows
• Ministry in a Secular Age
• Christopraxis with Andy Root
• Faith Formation in a Secular Age
• the Promise of Despair

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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This is another zesty session of “Big God Questions” with Tom Oord. In this edition, we discuss his new book Pluriform Love, an Open and Relational account of divine revelation, and more. At the end of the episode, Tom offers to send 10 people a copy of his new book if they submit a question for a future ‘Big God Questions’ session. So send us a question HERE.

We are both evangelists for Open and Relational Theology and now that it has a center you should check it out. You can also check out the doctoral program in Open and Relational Theology here.

Thomas Jay Oord is a theologian, philosopher, and scholar of multi-disciplinary studies. Oord is an award-winning author, and he has written or edited more than twenty books. A twelve-time Faculty Award-winning professor, Oord teaches at institutions around the globe. A gifted speaker, Oord is known for his contributions to research on love, open and relational theology, science and religion, and the implications of freedom and relationships for transformation.

Some Previous Tripp & Tom Pods

Big God Twitter Takes

Trump is (NOT) a Process Theologian & Other Questions

Thomas Jay Oord wants you to know “God Can’tâ€

Open and Relational Theology Throwdown

Open and Relational Q&A with Thomas Jay Oord

Why Go Wesleyan?

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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