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Strange New World
Strange New World episodes
- Understanding Easter - Part One: The Beginning
A deep dive into the meaning of Easter, starting at the very beginning (even before the beginning!), with the creation stories, the story of Noah and the ark, and the opening lines of the oldest New Testament Gospel.
32 min - The Night before Christmas: Part Four
Woven through the biblical library is a vibrant tradition of humility, making possible the practice of genuine love — and revealing how the essence of Christmas includes a critique of… Christmas as we know it today!
23 min - The Night before Christmas: Part Three
Isaiah’s legendary proclamation of “good news to the poor,” how Jesus understood scripture as “script,” St. Francis of Assisi’s second conversion (plus the anniversary of one of his inventions!), and more.
18 min - The Night before Christmas: Part Two
How Mark’s quotation of Isaiah’s call to “prepare the way of the Lord” reveals one of the key ingredients the Bible is made of — and how “peace” is at the heart of the Christmas season.
20 min - The Night before Christmas: Part One
How Isaiah’s call on God to “tear open the heavens” points to.an ancient practice central to the Bible, and crucial to Christmas - but often overlooked by Christians today.
22 min - Understanding Christmas - Part Four: Rethinking Christmas
In this concluding episode of the four-part series, we turn to the most well-known stories of the season, from Mary to the Magi to the shepherds and the angels, and find them shimmering with meanings that are often overlooked or misunderstood. Drop us a line at [email protected]. Merry Christmas!
28 min - Understanding Christmas - Part Three: Heart of the Matter
In this episode, we arrive at the heart of the matter. Featuring Mary, Hannah, Jael, Judith, Elizabeth - and John the Baptizer. We promise: you’ll never think about “the wheat and the chaff” the same way again! Drop us a line at [email protected].
26 min - Understanding Christmas - Part Two: Silent Night
In this episode, we dive into Luke’s story of John the Baptizer, and explore how it’s both a Christmas story and a war story - all for the sake of God’s peace.
27 min - Understanding Christmas - Part One: Hope Against Hope
It’s Part One of our four-part series, “Understanding Christmas” — a fresh look at the deeper meanings of one of the world’s biggest holidays, and what it says about Jesus, hope, and the ancient library we call “the Bible.”
19 min - Understanding Easter - Part Seven: Rethinking Easter
In the concluding episode of our seven-part series, “Understanding Easter,” we rethink the holiday from the ground up, with help from Mary Magdalene and one of the most harrowing, fascinating stories in scripture: the story of Rizpah. Drop us a line at [email protected].
24 min
About Strange New World
From the publisher's feed
Welcome to “Strange New World,” a show about understanding the Bible, the world’s most influential, misunderstood book - a podcast tailor-made for skeptics, believers, and everybody in between.
Hosted by SALT’s own Matthew Myer Boulton, who’s spent twenty years teaching the Bible and theology to students at Harvard Divinity School and seminaries in New England and the Midwest, “Strange New World” will take a fresh look at the world’s bestselling book of all time, the ancient community library we call “the Bible.”
The show’s title, “Strange New World,” is borrowed from an essay written by a Swiss theologian a hundred years ago, in which he wrote of “the strange new world within the Bible,” a world so ancient, so different, so familiar, so strange that it presses us to think new thoughts from new points of view, “to dare and to reach,” and ultimately “to grow out beyond ourselves.”