Postmodern Realities Podcast

A meritocracy insists that a person’s sense of identity and value is grounded in his or her own performance or action. For Christians, however, being is a divine gift. Thus, identity and value are determined by divine action, not by personal effort. If we rest in this divine action, we can withdraw from competing identities and from the perpetual and exhausting demands of ambition. But meritocratic values And their attendant anxiety have spread, in part, because the notion of vocation has all but disappeared from public consciousness. How might we recapture a sense of vocation? T. S. Eliot offers a case in point. His play, The Confidential Clerk, depicts a young man who must choose one of two paths: meritocratic success or vocation. God’s calling on our lives may not align with what society tells us is successful. However, we are responsible to be only what God has called us to be, whether that is a person leading a large business or a musician playing at a local nursing home. Our vocation should lead us to a deeper relationship with our Creator. If we are in Him, we will never be second-rate.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Stephen Mitchell about his article in the 43:1 Journal “Second-Rate Musician:Vocation and Performance in T. S. Eliot’s The Confidential Clerk “. https://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/the-word-crisis-that-threatens-to-undo-western-civilization/

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author

Episode 135-Questing for Divine Love-Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Questing for Divine Love-Cormac McCarthy’s The Road

Episode 111 Humanity Crucified: Hemingway and the Human Condition

Humanity Crucified: Hemingway and the Human Condition

Episode 092 Literary Apologetics: Flannery O’Connor

Episode 045: Alexander Solzhenitsyn Confronts the Grand Inquisitor

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Confronts the Grand Inquisitor

Rejoicing over Owls: Thoreau and the Gift of Being

The Sting of Death: Albert Camus and the Fight for Life

Reading My Favorite Atheists: Ivan, Raskolnikov, and Kirilov

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

Having burst into popularity on the millennial and younger social media platform TikTok, the phrase “OK Boomer,” whose true origins are lost in the murk of the back pages of the internet, is used by many millennials (those born between about 1981 and 1996) to dismiss their parents’ generation of baby boomers (those born between about 1946 and 1964) as out of touch and self-centered. And, in a sign that its use has expanded beyond mere internet meme-dom and into the public sphere, one New Zealand member of Parliament responded to another member’s heckling with a dismissive “OK, Boomer.” In 2020 in our particular historical moment, when we find ourselves confronted by a global pandemic from a virus that has proven especially dangerous for the sick and elderly, questions about intergenerational conflict have special weight. Discussion about what sort of containment measures are sufficient and whether it is ethical to risk the lives of the elderly for the sake of the economy have become issues of public debate. However, the Bible calls us to reject this conflict and calls Christians to a beautiful vision of an intergenerational, interdependent, remembering community.
This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Kyle Keating about his article in the 43:1 Journal, entitled, “OK, Boomer: Time to Declare a Truce in the Generational Wars.”
https://www.equip.org/christian-research-journal/the-word-crisis-that-threatens-to-undo-western-civilization/

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When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.
Another way you can support keeping our resources free is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3 or $5, which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here. https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author:
Episode 133 The Disorientation of Deconversion
Am I Just Not Chosen? The Disorientation of Deconversion
Episode 074: Authentic Community in the Age of Social Media
Cream or Sugar? Fostering Authentic Community in the Expanding Age of Social Media

COVID-19 has been incredibly costly — it has cost millions of people their jobs, thousands of people their lives, and has changed the shape of our lives in countless ways. In the midst of all the anxiety and uncertainty, it can be difficult to stay hopeful. However, if Christians really believe that God works all things together for good for those who love Him (Rom. 8:28), we should expect God to provide us opportunities to grow in our relationship to Him. One of the clearest good things that has arisen out of COVID-19 is the amount of time families spend together. Time, however, is beneficial only when put to good use. This episode is a conversation with JOURNAL author Drew Dixon about five ways Christians can promote spiritual health and disciple in their family during this pandemic.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Drew Dixon about his online-exclusive article, “Five Ways to Disciple Your Family During the Pandemic.”https://www.equip.org/article/five-ways-to-disciple-your-family-during-the-quarantine/

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author:

Episode 128 Summer Vacation, Kids, and Video Games: Better Alternatives to Fortnite

Summer Vacation, Kids, and Video Games: Better Alternatives to Fortnite

Episode 098 Virtual Violence, Video Game Addiction, and the Kingdom of God

Virtual Violence, Video Game Addiction, and the Kingdom of God

Episode 066: Comic Cons, Geek Culture, and the Mission of Christ

Comic Cons, Geek Culture and the Mission of Christ



Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author J. Warner Wallace gives a word of encouragement to Christian students in Gen Z and their parents about how to think biblically about their new normal as students and their grief and lament over missed milestones in their academic and social lives.

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support keeping our resources free is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3 or $5, which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here.

Other articles and podcasts featuring this author

Hank Unplugged: Cold-Case Christianity with J. Warner Wallace

Postmodern Realities: Episode 102 What Cops Can Teach Christians about the Critical Use of Language

What Cops Can Teach Christians about the Critical Use of Language

More than 50 years ago, Star Trek began its journey when it premiered as a television program in 1966. Since then it has spawned several motion pictures, most recently Star Trek Beyond (2016), as well as a number of television series. Star Trek as a franchise became a cultural phenomenon, making its way into popular culture with phrases such as “beam me up”, conventions for fans, and recognizable characters such as Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock. Created by Gene Roddenberry (1921–1991), the longevity of Star Trek speaks not only to its popularity but its willingness to address controversial topics. The series Star Trek: The Next Generation featured Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard, a captain of the starship Enterprise, and that cast was featured in four motion pictures released from 1994–2002. Eighteen years after their final film, CBS All Access premiered a 10-part, streaming series in 2020 titled Star Trek: Picard.

This podcast contains **SPOILERS**

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Robert Velarde about his online-exclusive TV review, “Star Trek: Picard and Transhumanism — Where No One Has Gone Before“. https://www.equip.org/article/star-trek-picard-and-transhumanism-where-no-one-has-gone-before/

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts related to this topic:

Episode 179 Rick and Morty: Scientism, Self-Centeredness, and the Search for Meaning

Rick and Morty: Scientism, Self-Centeredness, and the Search for Meaning

Episode 148-In Defense of Pop Culture

Ditching Netflix? Engaging Pop Culture in the Age of Binge-Watching

Episode 149 What Joker Gets Right About Human Depravity

Getting What We Deserve: What Joker Gets Right about Human Depravity: A Film Review of Joker (2019) starring Joaquin Phoenix

Episode 037: Choose Your Own Enchantment: Freedom and Conscience in What We Watch

Choose Your Own Enchantment: Freedom and Conscience in What We Watch

Episode 075: Film Nostalgia & Heaven

Looking for Heaven at the Movies: What our Fondness for Nostalgic Films Says about Us.”

The Wisdom of Pixar

Television as the New Literature: Understanding and Evaluating the Medium

Prometheus: Finding God in Outer Space

Episode 87: Westworld & A.I.

“HBO’s Westworld and the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence.”

The Gospel According to Lost

Breaking Bad’s Addicting Defense of Moral Realism

Episode 039: The Gospel According to Marvel

The Gospel According to Marvel

Episode 024: Dr. Strange (film review with spoilers)

Fighting Scientism with the Occult in Doctor Strange

Episode 017: Suicide Squad, Deadpool, and the Rise of the Comic Book Antihero

Suicide Squad, Deadpool, and the Rise of the Comic Book Antihero

Episode 139 Clear Skies, Hurt Hearts, Can’t Lose: Why Spielberg’s Aliens Help Make us More Human

Clear Skies, Hurt Hearts, Can’t Lose: Why Spielberg’s Aliens Help Make us More Human

Episode 123 Tolkien’s First Fellowship

Tolkien’s First Fellowship A film review of Tolkien

Episode 100: A. Hitchcock Films

“Caught Looking: Hitchcock’s Films in the Age of Instagram.”

Episode 001: The Films of Quentin Tarantino

Episode 067: Spielberg’s Nostalgia for Reality in Ready Player One

Spielberg’s Nostalgia for Reality in Ready Player One.”

Episode 054: The Last Jedi: A Star Wars Movie for the Era of “the Nones”

The Last Jedi: A Star Wars Movie for the Era of “the Nones”

Episode 027: “Evaluating the Star Wars Worldview”

May the Force Bewitch You: Evaluating the Star Wars Worldview

Episode 041: The Gracious Heroism of Wonder Woman

The Gracious Heroism of Wonder Woman

Episode 079: Theology of Morgan Freeman

“The Story of Morgan Freeman (Not God).”

The Matrix: Unloaded Revelations

A Wrinkle in Time: Drawing Apologetic Value from a De-Christianized Film





Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author Matt Kennedy gives a word of encouragement to Christians about unity in the church when beliefs about how churches should handle worship during the pandemic are so varied and why Christians need to worship in person together.

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author:

Episode 156 The Prayers Rose Like Incense: Anglican Worship and the Normative Principle

The Prayers Rose Like Incense: Anglican Worship and the Normative Principle

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

In Dr. Clay Jones’s new book, Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It (Harvest House, 2020), he writes about how all people cope with the fear of their own death. In the fourth chapter of Immortal, Jones examines what he calls atheist “mortality mitigation projects.” By that, he means the ways that atheists try to turn death into something good or, at least, not so bad. This episode’s conversation examines a mortality mitigation project that has seen quite a revival of late in atheist circles—“death is nothing to us.” It is a mortality mitigating strategy that one tells oneself that death is no big deal. In fact, death is nothing. But death is indeed something.

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Clay Jones about his online-exclusive article, “Epicurus, Sam Harris, and Bart Ehrman Are Wrong: Death Is Something” https://www.equip.org/article/epicurus-sam-harris-and-bart-ehrman-are-wrong-death-is-something/

To partner with us and help us to continue to create free online exclusive content, we are offering a special promotion of Clay Jones new book Immortal: How the Fear of Death Drives Us and What We Can Do About It for your partnering gift, click here to learn more. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-immortal-how-the-fear-of-death-drives-us-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/

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When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author:

Hank Unplugged: Why God Permits Evil with Clay Jones

Postmodern Realities: Episode 114 Why Did God Let that Child Die?

Why Did God Let That Child Die?

Postmodern Realities: Episode 068: Something Made: The Role of Form in Apologetics

Something Made : The Role of Form in Apologetics

Postmodern Realities: Episode 030: Evangelizing the Cultural Christian

Evangelizing the Cultural Christian

Killing the Canaanites: A Response to the New Atheism’s “Divine Genocide” Claims

Other articles and podcast related to this topic:

Episode 013: Death with Dignity and the Imago Dei

Death with Dignity and the Imago Dei

The Sting of Death: Albert Camus and the Fight for Life

Loving God in the Midst of Suffering with Douglas Groothuis

Can Suffering Bring You Closer to Christ? With Jean-Claude Larchet and Nicole Roccas

Rendezvous with Death: C. S. Lewis on Mortality and the Afterlife

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author Nicole Howe gives a word of encouragement to Christians about what it means to lament during the quarantine lockdown.

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here.

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

“Public Shame to the Rescue” blazed the headline of a prominent website barely a week into the American version of the worldwide coronavirus shutdown. “What could be more effective than a little public shaming?” the author asked in the first paragraph, going on to try to document the rise of shame on social media as a tool for curbing undesirable behavior. If there was an ever a moment to pause and consider the use of such a powerful phenomenon as shame, this is it. Into the breach steps self-styled shame expert Brené Brown, distinguished for her academic research of that fearsome subject, counselor to today’s most prominent self-help and progressive, pop-theological female voices like Jen Hatmaker and to celebrity admirers like Oprah Winfrey and Gwyneth Paltrow. Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us premiered right at the beginning of the 2020 quarantine.

Brené Brown is the one to whom the most prominent voices of today turn, not only for functional models for coping with shame, but for the deeper counsels of what to believe about the self, and the self in relationship to others. She is the font, the source, and the sociological justification of a self-oriented worldview increasingly adopted by so many, including Christian women. But she is celebrated in her own right, not just as a counselor to this moment’s influencers. But is her teaching on shame biblical?

This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Anne Kennedy about her online-exclusive “But What If It Is Me? The Work and Worldview of Brené Brown”. https://www.equip.org/article/but-what-if-it-is-me-the-work-and-worldview-of-brene-brown/

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

Another way you can support keeping our resources free is by leaving us a tip. A tip is just a small amount, like $3 or $5, which is the cost for some of a latte, lunch out, or coffee drink. To leave a tip, click here.https://www.equip.org/product/pmr-jnl-tip/

Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author

Episode 178 Worshipping Together

Episode 160-Naming Names: Why It’s OK (and Necessary) to Call Out False Teachers and Fugitives from Church Justice by Name

Naming Names: Why It’s OK (and Necessary) to Call Out False Teachers and Fugitives from Church Justice by Name

Episode 151 Am I a Bad Christian for Watching Hallmark Christmas Movies?

Am I a Bad Christian for Watching Hallmark Christmas Movies?

Episode 147 Book Review of Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage and An Evaluation of 2019 Evolving Faith Conference

A Helper Like Me: A Review of Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage by David and Constantino Khalaf

Losing Faith: A Look at the 2019 Evolving Faith Conference

Episode 140 The Theological “Mess” in the “Moxie” of Jen Hatmaker

The Unhindered Leadership of Jen Hatmaker

The Theological “Mess” in the “Moxie” of Jen Hatmaker

Episode 136 Have You Considered Trying Harder: The Theology of Rachel Hollis

Have You Considered Trying Harder: The Theology of Rachel Hollis

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.

In this short podblast episode of the Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 shelter-in-place series, JOURNAL Author Michael W. Austin gives a word of encouragement to Christians about what it means to develop spiritual disciplines during the quarantine.

We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/

When you to subscribe to the Journal, you join the team of print subscribers whose paid subscriptions help provide the resources at equip.org that minister to people worldwide. These resources include our free online-exclusive articles, such as this review, as well as our free Postmodern Realities podcast.

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Other articles and Postmodern Realities podcasts featuring this author

Episode 052: The Benedict Option

Is The Benedict Option a Live Option?

Episode 144 Taking the Long View: A Christian Approach to Youth Sports

Taking the Long View: A Christian Approach to Youth Sports

Episode 035: All Sins Are Not the Same

All Sins Are Not the Same

Episode 016: Anti-Intellectualism in the Church

Anti-Intellectualism in the Church

Episode 005: Wealth and Stewardship: Key Biblical Principles

Wealth and Stewardship: Key Biblical Principles

Don’t miss an episode; please subscribe to the Postmodern Realities podcast wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Please help spread the word about Postmodern Realities by giving us a rating and review when you subscribe to the podcast. The more ratings and reviews we have, the more new listeners can discover our content.