I absolutely love Rabbi Artson. His previous visit to the podcast has remained one of the most powerful and popular episodes, where he talks about his Jewish understanding of Process theology. This fresh episode is from our Cosmic Campfire reading group. It was so zesty that I thought I would share it as a means to lure you to Chapel Hill, North Carolina for the COSMIC CAMPFIRE event this February 1-2.

Rabbi Artson is the author of Renewing the Process of Creation and God of Becoming and Relationship: The Dynamic Nature of Process Theology and they are straight up awesome. If you are looking for introductory level texts about Process theology then you really need to check them out. Most importantly there are ZERO reasons not to subscribe to his podcast. LITERALLY ZERO REASONS.

Bradley Shavit “Brad” Artson is an American rabbi, author, speaker, and the occupant of the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean’s Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, California, where he is Vice-President. He supervises the Louis and Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and provides educational and religious oversight for Camp Ramah of California. He is Dean of the Zecharias Frankel College at the University of Potsdam in Germany, ordaining Conservative/Masorti Rabbis for the European Union.

You can check out a bunch of Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson's book here.

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My guest in this episode is the director and ecological activist behind the new film Behold the Earth - David Conover. It's a music-filled documentary with some of the most beautiful footage the screen can manage. I was moved by the emptive power of the film's imagery and music and I was inspired by the stories of ecological activism emerging in religious communities.

 

About the Film: Behold the Earth is a music-rich documentary film that explores America’s divorce from the outdoors through conversations with legendary scientists E.O. Wilson, Cal DeWitt, and Theo Colborn, as well as a new generation of creation-care activists within America’s Christian communities. Katharine Hayhoe, Ben Lowe, and Corina Newsome are close observers of nature bearing witness to creation, asking tough questions about church engagement with environmental issues.

About the Director: Film Director and Conservationist David Conover boldly began this highly original film 12 years ago, as an inquiry into America’s divorce from the outdoors, before-and-after the arrival of those known as the digital natives. He is neither scientist nor Christian. He draws upon some of the same talented field staff behind the spectacular natural sequences in his series Sunrise Earth and Big Picture Earth. Four time Grammy-award winning musician Dirk Powell leads the arrangements of traditional American tunes and hymns, with Rhiannon Giddens and Tim Eriksen.

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What a fun podcast episode! Brian McLaren, Micky ScottBey Jones, and Daneen Akers all joined for a conversation about parenting for the common good. Many of us know the faith we do not want to pass on to our children, but what does being a faithful parent look like after our childhood faith is gone?… Read more about Parenting for the Common Good w/ Brian McLaren, Micky, and Daneen

What a fun podcast episode! Brian McLaren, Micky ScottBey Jones, and Daneen Akers all joined for a conversation about parenting for the common good.

Many of us know the faith we do not want to pass on to our children, but what does being a faithful parent look like after our childhood faith is gone? That's the topic for this session...plus we answer some questions you sent in.

Brian McLaren wrote a new children's book with Gareth Higgins. It is called Cory and the Seventh Story and should be required reading for parents and grand parents with the children in their life.

Don’t worry adults, they didn’t forget about you. They also wrote a version for you that explores the same themes. That’s right, you can also get The Seventh Story: Us, Them, and the End of Violence.

 

Micky ScottBey Jones - the Justice Doula - accompanies people as they birth more love, justice and shalom into our world. As a womanist, faith rooted, contemplative activist, healer, and nonviolence practitioner, Micky supports students, clergy, activists and everyday leaders in a variety of roles - speaker, writer, facilitator, pilgrimage guide and teacher. She is the Director of Resilience and Healing Initiatives with the Faith Matters Network and is a core team member with The People’s Supper who has gathered more than 4,000 people around tables since the 2016 U.S. election for bridging and healing conversations. Micky's educational background includes a B.S. in Consumer and Family Sciences with an emphasis in Child Development and Family Studies, numerous mother-baby certifications for doulas and lactation consultants, a M.A. in Intercultural Studies from NAIITS/Portland Seminary, and she is currently pursuing advanced studies in the Enneagram while completing several writing projects to be released in 2019.

Named one of the Black Christian leaders changing the world in Huffington Post, Micky travels the world exploring peacemaking and relationships in different contexts, spreading revolutionary love, engaging in authentic conversations, participating in transformative experiences - and most importantly - she never passes up a dance floor.She has been a contributor at   Evangelicals For Social Action, The Porch Magazine, Sojourners, and Red Letter Christians. You can interact with her work and collaborations at Faithmattersnetwork.org and Mickyscottbeyjones.com and catch her social media on Facebook: facebook.com/MSJSpeaks/ and Twitter: @iammickyjones.

 

Daneen Akers is a filmmaker, writer, and parent who believes deeply in the power of stories. She is currently writing an illustrated children’s book called Holy Troublemakers & Unconventional Saints, which will feature 50 original portraits and profiles of people of faith who worked for love and justice, even if that rocked the religious boat.   Daneen found that most of the books she’d read as a child that had anything to do about faith were not compatible with the type of faith she now has as an adult. She knew she needed better stories for her own children, stories that help us transcend fears, connect with each other, engage in justice, and model an expansive and fully inclusive view of any Divine. Given the enthusiastic response to the Holy Troublemakers project, she realized she wasn’t alone. There are is a growing movement of parents and others looking to do better with the stories we tell ourselves and our children. You can find her current project at www.holytroublemakers.com.   Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community.

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Elgin, my oldest son, just turned 11 and he has managed to talk himself into a podcast appearance. Personally I had a blast. It may be a completely new parenting tactic - get your 11 year old Son to record a podcast and they will talk to you about something other than Fortnite for 30 minutes!!

Elgin is a pretty big fan of the National Geographic show MARS and we are currently rocking the second season. It is about an international team of scientists who go on a mission to colonize the red planet. The cool thing about the show is they go back and forth with a not-too-far-ahead future narrative of the first Mars team and cut-ins with info from contemporary scientists or current research connected to the mission. This leads to Elgin asking all sorts of fun questions...some of which we attempt to discuss in the episode.

If you haven't seen Mars and have a science or Sci-Fi nerd in the house check it out. For those that are going to watch with a very inquisitive offspring, just DVR it so you can pause and discuss as you go through the episode.

For more Mars excitement you can also check out the book the show is based on, How We'll Live on Mars. It's extremely readable and quite fun. There is a certain individual in our house who may or may not find the book in a stocking this Christmas.

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Two of my favorite humans on planet earth are named Gareth and Brian. They aren't my favorites because they are brilliant, creative, wise, or even lots of fun. Gareth and Brain are genuinely kind and passionately invested in the well-being of our planet. That is why I am super pumped that they have written a CHILDREN'S BOOK that is absolutely wonderful.

It is called Cory and the Seventh Story and should be required reading  for parents and grand parents with the children in their life.

Don't worry adults, they didn't forget about you. They also wrote a version for you that explores the same themes. That's right, you can also get The Seventh Story: Us, Them, and the End of Violence. 

You can also check out my first film and the only one I know of in the "progressive Christian buddy road-trip comedy you could get in trouble for showing at church, but if you watch the entire thing you might cry and not think it is just inappropriate humor" category. It is called The Road to Edmond and this holiday season you can stream it by heading to jesuslovesourmovie.com.

Gareth Higgins was born in Belfast in 1975, grew up during the northern Ireland Troubles, and now lives in North Carolina. He writes and speaks about connection to the earth, cinema and the power of dreams, peace and making justice, and how to take life seriously without believing your own propaganda. He co-founded the Wild Goose Festival, Movies & Meaning, The Porch Magazine, and the New Story Festival. He has experienced violence, and been involved in peace-building; he lives in the US and sees beauty amidst challenge; his greatest hope is that you would find some healing and inspiration in a better story, to find a better life, for you, your community, the world, and everyone else. He's looking for that too, and he's happy to be a work in progress. If you'd like to connect with his work, www.garethhiggins.net is the place to go.

Brian D. McLaren is an author, speaker, activist, and public theologian. A former college English teacher and pastor, he is a passionate advocate for “a new kind of Christianity” – just, generous, and working with people of all faiths for the common good. He is an Auburn Senior Fellow and a leader in the Convergence Network, through which he is developing an innovative training/mentoring program for pastors, church planters, and lay leaders called Convergence Leadership Project. He works closely with the Center for Progressive Renewal/Convergence, the Wild Goose Festival and the Fair Food Program‘s Faith Working Group.

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On this episode I am joined by Michael Frost and we talk about his newest book Keep Christianity Weird: Embracing the Discipline of Being Different.  Michael is an internationally recognized missiologist and one of the leading voices in the missional church movement. On top of that he's is the Vice Principal of Morling College and the founding Director of the Tinsley Institute, a mission study centre located at Morling College in Sydney, Australia.

 

You can check out his website, follow him on twitter, and even on Facebook.

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Selfies are ubiquitous. They can be silly or serious, casual or curated. Within moments, smart phone users can capture their image and post it across multiple social media platforms to a global audience. But do we truly understand the power of image in our image-saturated age? How can we seek God and care for each… Read more about Selfies and the Image of God with Craig Detweiler

Selfies are ubiquitous. They can be silly or serious, casual or curated. Within moments, smart phone users can capture their image and post it across multiple social media platforms to a global audience. But do we truly understand the power of image in our image-saturated age? How can we seek God and care for each other in digital spaces?

Well this week on the podcast we will tackle these questions with my friend, scholar, and guru of the cinema Craig Detweiler. Since the last time he was on the podcast he became President of The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology.

Craig Detweiler is a U.S. author, filmmaker, theologian, and cultural commentator who is the third president of The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology in Seattle, Washington.

Toward the end of the podcast I mention my recent film The Road to Edmond and now you can watch it online. So do it.

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Get ready for a mind expanding and assumption challenging episode with the one and only Rupert Sheldrake. When a guest comes to the podcast on recommendation from John Cobb you have to get pumped. Prior to the interview I read two of Sheldrakes books that I would definitely recommend to you.

In this wide-ranging conversation we end discussing the dogmatism of scientific materialists, the nature of consciousness, parapsychology, pets, psychedelics, ritual, pilgrimage, neo-darwinism, the changing shape of religion, epigenetic, creativity in evolution, Bergson, Whitehead, and why Rupert loves the doctrine of the Trinity.

Rupert Sheldrake, PhD, is a biologist and author best known for his hypothesis of morphic resonance. At Cambridge University he worked in developmental biology as a Fellow of Clare College. He was Principal Plant Physiologist at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics and From 2005 to 2010 was Director of the Perrott-Warrick project, Cambridge.

Rupert Sheldrake was not only kind enough to join the podcast, but is coming back for a live session with all the members of the Cosmic Campfire Online Book Group. If you want to join the fun and ask Rupert your own questions then head on over and sign up!

If you want to hear more from Sheldrake here's a few places to go.

Clearly you want to watch his BANNED TED TALK.

Check out his books Science and Spiritual Practices: Transformative Experiences and Their Effects on Our Bodies, Brains, and Health and Science Set Free: 10 Paths to New Discovery. Both are available in physical, digital, and audio versions.

Sheldrake also has a very informative and resource rich website. There you can find links to all the different podcasts that he has released. For a fun introduction to Rupert's work check out his visit to Russell Brand's podcast and his conversation with Joe Rogan.

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