Queen of the Sciences

Only two days left to get Sarah's newest book, Catechizing Sphinxes and Other Stories!

Is God a being like other beings are beings—just bigger and better? Or is God not in the category of being at all? When we creaturely beings speak of God, are we extending similes from our experience upward? Or is God offering his own handles downward? In this episode Dad talks us through an otherwise impenetrable wall of metaphysics to see what is stunning and heartening about the doctrine of the Trinity, while Sarah plays the part of bright if befuddled pupil.

We're near the end of our EIGHTH year!

And, don't forget to back my Kickstarter campaign!

Notes:

1. See Dad's arguments laid out in Divine Complexity and Divine Simplicity

2. And see Sarah's work on trinitarian implications for human personhood in Woman, Women, and the Priesthood in the Trinitarian Theology of Elisabeth Behr-Sigel

Get Sarah's newest book, Catechizing Sphinxes and Other Stories!

Sarah appears on Katie Langston's fantastic new podcast (and YouTube channel), Faith After Faith. Also, be sure to get yourself a copy of the new edition of her memoir, Sealed: An Unexpected Journey into the Heart of Grace!

What right do Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have to define our understanding of Jesus? Why not let the Gospels of Thomas, Philip, or Judas fill in our historical understanding? What if we've gotten Jesus wrong for 2000 years?!?! Or so the ever-renewing Jesus-conspiracy headlines would like you to think. In this episode, Dad and I discuss a wonderfully concise book by New Testament scholar Simon Gathercole to make the case for canonical Gospel priority, why apocryphal "Gospels" exist at all, and what questions remain for faith even after this particular intellectual dust has settled.

We're in our eighth season

Notes:

1. Gathercole, The Genuine Jesus and the Counterfeit Christs

2. Dad's book Divine Complexity traces the development of early Christian theology from earliest canonical witness to conciliar Christological and Trinitarian doctrine

3. My book Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration traces surprisingly subterranean connections between very different books and genres of the NT

4. Related episodes: The Quest for the Historical Jesus, The Relationship between the Old and New Testaments

In which Matthew Longfellow interviews Dad and me!

Or have a listen over at mightyfortresspod.substack.com.

If you know Habakkuk at all (a big if!), it's almost certainly because of the way the Apostle Paul uses it to make his own argument about righteousness and faith, using one single verse of this minor prophet. But what was Habakkuk talking about in his own time? Did the apostle cut the verse out of context and distort it for his own purposes? Whose faithfulness are we talking about, anyway? In this episode Dad and I tackle these questions—gaining a new appreciation for the whole of Habakkuk. And of the Septuagint!

We're in our eighth season!

Notes:

1. Mauney, "Reading Paul from out of Habakkuk, both Hebrew and Greek" in Promissio

2. Sarah has an article in this issue of Promissio, too: "A Theologian Who Reads the Bible"

3. See also Dad's essay on "Faith" in the St. Andrew's Encyclopedia of Theology

4. Related episodes: The Crucifixion, Atonement, Justification by Faith, Galatians 1, Galatians 2

How dare anyone say one life is better than another? or the living of a life is wiser than another? Say something and risk legalism; say nothing and risk nihilism; and neither of those lead to a good life, either. In this episode Dad and I compile our sum total of 125 years of living, plus a lot of shortcuts gleaned from reading and talking to other people, to tell you what's worth pursuing, what's worth hurting over, and what's not. What you do with it is up to you!

We're in our EIGHTH year

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Nietzsche, Brain Mind Soul, Critical Social Theory, Jacques Ellul, Propaganda, Hey Jude, An Unlikely Marriage

2. Sarah's article "The Church and Happiness"

3. Hunter, Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy

4. India, Girls®

You might just be able to hear the explosion of the fireworks over the explosion of rhetoric upon the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Aiming to shed more light than heat, Dad and I discuss The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) from a theological perspective. Civic good is not the ultimate good, but it's not a negligible one, either. We find good reasons as Christians to support the American project, its self-corrections, and onward attempts to attain a more perfect union.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Our Democracy?; Jefferson; Lincoln; MLK; Thurman; Two Kingdoms 16th Cent.; Two Kingdoms 20th-21st Cent.

2. Sarah's short story in which Revolutionary-era Lutheran pastor Henry Melchior Muhlenberg plays the part of a detective

3. The Declaration of Independence

4. Samuel Miller's sermon on July 4, 1793, is found in Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805, Volume 2

4. See also Waldron, God, Locke, and Equality

We're in our EIGHTH year—

A discussion between me and Dad about Katie Langston's phenomenal memoir Sealed, tracing her life from Mormon upbringing to conversion to Christianity to discerning a call into ministry. A must-read for anyone interested in the Latter-day Saints as well as hope and healing for people scarred from high-demand religion. Be sure to get the new second edition, now in ebook and paperback!