Welcome to episode fifty-one of New Creation Conversations. In this first episode of this second year and second season of this podcast, I’m delighted to be joined in conversations by the co-authors of a wonderful new book on the complex history of Christian peacemaking Dr. David Cramer and Dr. Myles Werntz. 

David teaches at the Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana, and he is the Managing Editor of the Institute of Mennonite Studies. David’s scholarship focuses on Christian social ethics and the difference faith makes for how Christians live in contemporary society. Like me, David serves in both the academy and the local church. He is currently the teaching pastor at Keller Park Church – an urban congregation in South Bend, Indiana. His writing has appeared in scholarly journals and popular periodicals including Christian Century and Sojourners. 

Myles is Director of Baptist Studies and Associate Professor of Theology at Abilene Christian University, where he directs the Baptist Studies Center in the Graduate School of Theology. He is the author and editor of five books in theology and ethics and writes broadly on Christian ethics of war and peace, immigration, ecclesiology, and discipleship.

David and Myles became friends while working on their PhDs together in theology and ethics at Baylor University. Their mutual interest in the practice and history of Christian nonviolence led to a twenty-year conversation and exploration of the complicated and varied approaches of Christians across the centuries to the call of disciples to make peace in the world in Jesus’ name. That twenty-years of dialogue recently was released as a very helpful book, A Field Guide to Christian Nonviolence: Key Thinkers, Activists, and Movements for the Gospel of Peace – published by Baker Academic. In their book, Cramer and Werntz explore eight different streams of Christian nonviolence that not only take different approaches to peacemaking, but they also think about the call to take up the cross of Christ in different ways. In such a divided and violent age, I’m thankful for those who keep reminding us that it is the call of the disciple to participate in the new creation by making peace. However, I found David and Myles’ Field Guide so helpful in showing how complicated obedience to this call can be, and how different followers of Jesus have found different ways to pursue this call with faith. I think you will find their work helpful and I’m excited to bring this conversation to you. 

Welcome to episode fifty of New Creation Conversations. In this final episode of this first year and season of this podcast, I’m delighted to be joined by Dr. Kelly Kapic. Kelly is Professor of Theological Studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia where he has taught for over twenty years. Dr. Kapic is an alum of Wheaton College. He has an MDiv from Reformed Theological Seminary and a PhD in Systematic and Historical Theology from King’s College at the University of London. Kelly’s passion is connecting theology to everyday life. He has written several books including, Embodied Hope: A Theological Meditation on Pain and Suffering, Overcoming Sin and Temptation, A Little Book for New Theologians: Why and How to Study Theology, and Becoming Whole: Why the Opposite of Poverty isn’t the American Dream.

Our conversation centers around his new and incredibly helpful book, You’re Only Human: How Your Limits Reflect God’s Design and Why That’s Good News – published by Brazos Press. In this book Kelly celebrates the fact that God doesn't need us to meet all the needs, know all the answers, or be superhuman. Our limitations as humans are not a curse but a gift from God and should be embraced with gratitude. I thorough enjoyed the book and my soul deeply needed it in this moment. I resonate deeply with so many of the theological insights in this book and I am excited that I get to share this rich conversation with you. 

Welcome to episode forty-nine of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am delighted to be joined by a friend and former colleague from my Azusa Pacific days, Dr. Adam Winn. Adam is Associate Professor of Christian Studies at the University of Mary Hardin Baylor in Texas. He’s an alum of Southwest Baptist University and has both MA and PhD degrees from Fuller Seminary. He is the author of four books on the New Testament and numerous academic articles and essays. His primary research interests include the Gospels of Mark and Luke, the Roman imperial world of the first century, and the Christology of the early Christian church. His passion is helping people read and interpret the Gospels in the light of the context and culture from which they emerged.

I have been especially excited to talk with Adam about his very interesting book on the Gospel of Mark entitled, Reading Mark’s Christology Under Caesar: Jesus the Messiah and Roman Imperial Ideology – published by IVP Academic. In recent decades, biblical scholars have found the Gospel of Mark deeply interesting and, as you will hear, I think reading Mark in the light of what was going on – especially in Rome – at the time, can open our understanding to the life and mission of Jesus in new ways. I’m really thankful for the deep exegetical work that scholars like Adam commit themselves to, for the sake of the church. This conversation digs deep into the text of Mark’s Gospel, but not for the sake of the academic exercise itself, but out of the deep desire to know Christ more. I hope you will pick up that spirit from this conversation and be edified by it.

Welcome to episode forty-eight of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am very excited to be joined by Kat Armas. Kat holds both MDiv and MAT degrees from Fuller Theological Seminary and is currently working on a ThM Degree at Vanderbilt Divinity School. She has published in several venues, including Sojourners, RELEVANT,Fathom Magazine and Mutuality. She is affiliated with the Fuller Youth Institute and Missio Alliance. She is also an accomplished podcaster. Her podcast, “The Protagonistas,” centers on the voices of Black, Indigenous, and other women of color in church leadership and theology. Kat is Cuban-American and insightfully writes and speaks from the intersection of women, Scripture, and her Cuban identity.

I have been very anxious to talk with Kat about her recent book, Abuelita Faith: What Women on the Margins Teach Us about Wisdom, Persistence, and Strength – published by Brazos Press. I know it’s still early in 2022, but I don’t doubt that when the year is over it will make my personal list of most formative books that I read this year. Not only is the book a great tribute to her Cuban heritage and the women (especially her grandmother) who were such important sources of wisdom and guidance in her life, it is also an amazing journey exploring many of the overlooked women in the pages of the Scripture. As Kat’s book helps the reader realize, those of us from various majority cultures often read about various people on the margins, but faith to read with them. Because the Scripture emerges from a marginalized people, often reading with those on the margins can help us see the richness, beauty, and truthfulness of the text in ways we simply cannot see. I am very grateful for voices like Kat’s who can help us recognize the theological beauty and insight from persons and places that have too often been overlooked. I deeply loved Kat’s book. I was thrilled to get to talk to her about it, and it brings me joy to get to bring that conversation to you. 

Welcome to episode forty-seven of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am honored to be joined by Dr. Felicia Wu Song, Professor of Sociology at Westmont College, and the author of the brand new, and very important book, Restless Devices: Recovering Personhood, Presence, and Place in the Digital Age (published by IVP Academic). Dr. Song is a cultural sociologist who studies the place of digital technologies in contemporary life. Felicia is an alum of Yale University. She has a Master’s Degree from Northwestern University and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Virginia (where she had the privilege of studying with James Davison Hunter). Her research is oriented around the rapidly evolving digital technology industry and how the adoption of social media and digital devices fundamentally alters the landscapes of family, community, and organizational life.

 Our conversation centers around the new book: Restless Devices. In her book, Dr. Song explores how our contemporary digital habits shape our loves and our imaginations of what it means to be human. This book brings sociology and theology together, arguing that both are needed for understanding how to live wisely in a digitally saturated society. During this recent season of disruption, I have been deeply thankful for many aspects of our technological age and the unique ways it can connect people. For example, I’m thankful through new technologies to get to bring these weekly conversations to you. However, as Dr. Song and I will discuss, I also share deep concerns about what these technologies are doing to me – and to us. Media forms are not neutral. As Marshall McLuhan famously observed, “The medium is the message.” So, what are our technologies doing to us? How can we use and control them without feeling used and controlled by them? Those are the kinds of questions Felicia helps us wrestle with. 

Welcome to episode forty-six of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by my longtime friend and colleague both at NNU and at Nampa College Church, Dr. Brent Peterson. Brent is the Professor of Theology and Dean of the College of Theology and Christian Ministries at Northwest Nazarene University. He also serves as the Pastor of Liturgical and Spiritual Formation at College Church. Brent is an alum of NNU. He has a Master of Divinity Degree from Nazarene Seminary and a Ph.D. in Liturgical Studies from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. Brent is in his fourteenth year of teaching at NNU and his sixth year as dean.

In our conversation Brent and I talk about his book Created to Worship: God’s Invitation to Become Fully Human(published by the Foundry). We also discuss three of his forthcoming projects. One is a book he has co-authored with our colleague Dr. Diane Leclerc, entitled The Backside of the Cross. The others are two works that are part of the Wesleyan Theology Series: the first on The Church and another on The Sacraments. Brent and I have known each other since we were kids growing up in the same church in Seattle and I continue to learn so much from him about the formative nature of worship and the way our theology is not just learned in our heads but developed in us through our bodies. 

Welcome, after a short break for the holiday season, to episode forty-five of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by Dr. Jennifer Matheny, Assistant Professor of Old Testament at Nazarene Theological Seminary. Jenny is an alum of Ozark Christian College. She has done graduate work at Mennonite Seminary, and George Fox Seminary. She has a Master’s Degree in Old Testament Studies from Regent College and completed her Ph.D. degree at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England. In addition to her academic work, Jenny has served as a youth minister, church planter, and church revitalization in Kansas, Missouri, California, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Canada.

In our conversation we talk about her interest and work in the unique OT books of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth as well as her interest in the prophet Jeremiah. She has unique perspectives on the women, cultural practices, the use of bodies, and even the significance of dress or clothing in these important texts. Jenny has also recently been named as the Director of the Wynkoop Center for Women in Leadership at NTS. We discuss the significant mission of the Wynkoop Center and ways for women in leadership to connect to its work. It’s a great conversation to start this New Year. Thanks for reconnecting with New Creation Conversations. 

Welcome to episode forty-four of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by a friend and valued colleague in ministry, Dr. David Sharpes. David has been in ministry for over 40 years, serving as youth pastor, lead pastor, and district superintendent in the Church of the Nazarene. He has served in Philadelphia and Phoenix and several places in between. David is an alum of MidAmerica Nazarene University, has an MDiv from Nazarene Theological Seminary, and a DMin from Fuller Theological Seminary.

Along the way in ministry, David has taught as an adjunct at several colleges and seminaries. Just recently, he moved into the academic world fulltime, now serving as Associate Professor of Christian Ministry, the Smith/Cooper Chair in Evangelism and Christian Witness, and the Director of the Center for Pastoral Leadership at Nazarene Theological Seminary. I’ve been anxious to have a conversation with David because I have deep respect for his pastoral ministry, and I know that we are kindred spirits in many ways. But I also am excited to get to talk with him about his new role as one forming the next generation of ministers, and his passion and perspective on evangelism and witness in the twenty-first century. 

These are unique days of transition for the church as we learn to extend the love of Jesus to a postmodern, post-industrial, post-Christian, post-Enlightenment… well as one scholar puts it, “a post-everything culture.” I’m really thankful for David’s heart, mind, and commitment to helping the church fulfill the Great Commission. And I’m thankful that you’re sitting in with us on this conversation. 

Welcome to episode forty-three of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by my first repeat guest. When I started this podcast ten months ago my very first conversation was with Dr. Brent Stawn. Forty-something episodes later, I hope I've become a better interviewer. Nevertheless, that first episode still is one of my favorites. In part, because Brent is such a good friend, but also because I get such a joy out of talking Old Testament theology and all other things related to church and seminary life with Brent. Thankfully, Brent has a brand-new book out on preaching the Old Testament, and so we have the perfect excuse to pick up our conversation where we left off last time.

Brent is a Professor of Old Testament, and now also a Professor of Law, at Duke Divinity School and at Duke University. He's a graduate of Point Loma Nazarene University and has both a Master Divinity degree and PhD in Old Testament Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. Brent is in his third year of teaching at Duke. Prior to that, he taught at Asbury Theological Seminary and at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He has authored or contributed to a number of books, journals, and scholarly magazines. He has also appeared on CNN, invited to share his expertise on issues ranging from Easter celebrations to Pope Francis to gun violence, and he served as both a translator and a member of the editorial board for the Common English Bible.

In our last conversation, we talked about his recent book, Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament; published early in 2021. This conversation primarily centers on his brand new book - just released a few days ago and published by Fortress Press - entitled, Honest to God Preaching: Talking Sin, Suffering, and Violence. We also talked about his contribution to another recently released book entitled God and Guns: The Bible Against American Gun Culture - edited by Christopher Hayes and Carly Crouch.

Brent is truly one of my favorite people to get to talk to about life, theology, and ministry. Our conversations are always filled with laughter, joy, and occasionally even an insight or two. I hope that you enjoy this second New Creation Conversation between two friends. 

Welcome to episode forty-two of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson. Dr. Wilson is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. Jessica is a graduate of Pepperdine University, she has a Master of Arts in English from the University of Dallas, and a PhD in religion and literature from Baylor University.

She is the author of Giving the Devil his Due: Demonic Authority in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor and Fyodor Dostoevsky - which received a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year award in the Culture and the Arts category. She has also written two books on Walker Percy and recently co-edited a book entitled Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West. A good deal of our conversation today centers around her brand-new book, which is set to be released in March by Brazos Press, entitled, The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints.

Jessica has received numerous fellowships, grants, and awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship to the Czech Republic, a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to study Dante in Florence in 2014, and the Biola Center for Christian Thought sabbatical fellowship. In 2018 she received the Emerging Public Intellectual Award given by a coalition of North American think tanks in collaboration with the Center for Christian Scholarship at Redeemer University College, and in 2019 she received the Hyatt Prize in Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. 

Clearly, Jessica is a gifted scholar, and a thoughtful and reflective Christian. I was very excited to get a chance to meet her and talk to her, in part, because I'm really interested in her new book exploring the theme of holiness and imagination in literature. But those of you who know me know I'm a little bit of a literature geek. And so, I was excited to get a chance to talk to her about the many connections between literature and faith, and why it's important for both Christian students, and Christian believers of all ages, to be good readers and to be wrestling with the best of literature and poetry. I hope those of you who are literature nerds like me will have your artistic soul fed by this conversation. Everyone listening may want to get a pen and note pad out because I promise that you are going to get a great 2022 reading list out from Jessica. As always, thanks for joining me for these New Creation Conversations. Here's my conversation with Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson.