The Biblical Mind

Despite their shared foundations and concern for the Word of God, Christians and Jews rarely interact on the basis of faith in the modern world. Many Jewish communities, in response to centuries of antisemitism and persecution, have shielded themselves from Christians, while modern Christians often know very little about the Jewish faith.

Dru interviews Rabbi Pesach Wolicki about the state of relations between Christians and Jews. For Pesach, the Jewish faith centers on a universal mission to bless the whole world; as a result, his work focuses on sharing Judaism and Jewish readings of Scripture with Christians. They discuss thinkers from Maimonides to Luther, the way reading the Talmud can help Christians, and why tension still exists between Christians and Jews today. Plus, hear Pesach's critique of the popular worship song "Reckless Love."

Rabbi Pesach Wolicki is an Orthodox Rabbi whose work focuses on relations between Christians and Jews. Currently, he works as the Executive Director of the Center for Jewish–Christian Understanding and Cooperation. He has taught at churches, Christian colleges, and seminaries across North America, and writes regularly for various news outlets. He currently lives in Israel with his wife and eight children.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

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Western culture relies extensively on written text to communicate. But the majority of people across the world rely far less on reading than they do on speech, body language, story, images, and their other senses. Charles Madinger joins the podcast this week to explore the concept of orality—the multifaceted way in which people were created to communicate.

Though well-meaning pastors and missionaries may rely on three-point sermons and Bible translation projects, these efforts often miss the variety of ways that the active, living Word of God engages people's bodies and minds, in communities. Charles also examines Jesus' parables and the many ways God interacts with his people throughout Scripture, how McDonald's might do a better job communicating than most pastors, and whether Gen Z is escaping the low orality-reliance of Western culture.

Dr. Charles Madinger is the Founder and Director of the Institutes for Orality Strategies, a collective of organizations committed to evangelizing to oral communicators. In addition to his scholarly publications in the field of orality, he has worked in global ministry for thirty years. He also serves the 4.2.20 Foundation as the Vice President of the Center for Oral Scriptures.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

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Despite the rich history of Armenia as an ancient Christian community, many Christians know very little about the Armenian ethnicity, culture, nation, and faith. In this episode, Dru interviews Dr. Heather Ohaneson, pastor of Armenian Martyrs' Congregational Church, about Armenian history from the early days of the church until now, along with her experience as an evangelical Protestant Armenian pastor. They discuss the culture, language, and global migration of the Armenian people, and the aftermath of the Armenian genocide and recent conflicts on their nation. And yes, the Kardashians get a mention.

Dr. Heather Ohaneson is the pastor of Armenian Martyrs' Congregational Church in Havertown, Pennsylvania. She received her PhD in philosophy of religion from Columbia University, and taught at George Fox University and Azusa Pacific University. Currently, she is pursuing an MDiv at Princeton Theological Seminary and ordination in the United Church of Christ to continue to serve the Armenian Evangelical community.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

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How do we approach the Bible? Do we see it merely as a "perfect rulebook"? A piece of literature to be picked apart? Or do we see it as something that threatens to transform us and upend our preconceptions, helping us live in accordance with God and His activity? In this episode, Dru interviews Marty Solomon, cohost, creator, and Executive Producer of The BEMA Podcast and President of Impact Campus Ministries, about his approach to reading and teaching the Bible. They consider different approaches to Scripture, from fundamentalism to textual criticism to deconstruction, and explore the ways each might shed more light on the text. They also explore how understanding Jewish identity (both ancient and modern) can present both opportunities and pitfalls for understanding Scripture.

Marty Solomon is an author, teacher, and resource creator who aims to help people read the Bible in its historical and Jewish context. Along with his work at The BEMA Podcast and Impact Campus Ministries, he has written a book called Asking Better Questions of the Bible: A Guide for the Wounded, Wary, and Longing for More (releasing February 7, 2023). He aims to bring the best of Christian history, modern scholarship, and discipleship to the church, especially college students, to help them love God and serve his kingdom.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long.

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How do we read the Bible like adults? For many people who grew up in communities of faith, the Bible stories have been a part of their lives for as long as they can remember. But it's often not until later in life that the richer meanings of the stories come alive, misconceptions are corrected, and the voices of the biblical authors become clearer—even as we relinquish naive certainties and the expectation of a black and white world.

In this episode, Dru interviews Dr. Avital Hazony Levi, instructor in Jewish philosophy and Bible at Midreshet Nishmat. They discuss everything from the nitty-gritty vocabulary of the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar to the ways in which Western philosophical concepts threaten to drown out the voices of the biblical authors to the psychology of female characters in the Hebrew Bible. Along the way, they examine core biblical concepts such as loyalty, trust, responsibility, and generational sin.

Currently a postdoctoral fellow at Tel Aviv University, Avital has a rich background in both the Hebrew Bible and philosophy, and her work spans from moral epistemology to the nature of loyalty and worship. She has taught philosophy, Jewish thought, and Tanakh at Nishmat, TVA, and the Orthodox Union college summer program.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

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What does it mean for Christ to reign over every sphere of life? Many Christians relegate faith to "spiritual" activities, such as reading the Bible, going to church, and praying. However, the Christian tradition—and especially the Reformed tradition—can guide Christians in everything from personal ethics to politics to raising chickens.

In this episode, Dru talks with Jessica Joustra, Assistant Professor of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University, about the ideas of Reformed thinkers Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck (as well as the ways that they draw on John Calvin). As Protestants, these men wanted to capture a faithful, traditional, and thorough way of reading the Bible; as 19th-century men, they strove to live as Christians in the modern world, both through public theology and through active participation in politics. The Reformed tradition offers rich ways of thinking about law, vocation, systemic sin, economics, and even America's contemporary political structures, all while remaining rooted in Scripture's conceptual world.

Jessica Joustra is an Assistant Professor of Religion and Theology at Redeemer University and Associate Researcher at the Neo-Calvinist Research Institute of the Theologische Universiteit Kampen. She teaches in the areas of Reformed theology and ethics, and has contributed to several works centered around Bavinck and Kuyper. Most recently, she and her husband (Robert Joustra) released Calvinism for a Secular Age: A Twenty-First Century Reading of Abraham Kuyper’s Stone Lectures.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

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In case you missed it, this was our most popular episode of 2022. We hope this conversation encourages Christians with the biblical hope of the resurrection and the age to come.

What happens to you when you die? Many Christians picture eternal life as spending time in an ethereal heaven with God, either immediately after death as a disembodied spirit or after a "rapture" of Christians. Books and films, made by and for Christians, have promoted this idea of the afterlife.

Dr. J. Richard Middleton wants to challenge this particular view of the Christian afterlife. What happens immediately after we die does not much matter to the biblical authors; they concern themselves with proclaiming the hope of the eventual resurrection and preaching the Kingdom of God. In this episode, he discusses common words in our theological vernacular—spirit, soul, resurrection, hell, heaven, etc.—and challenges us to rethink them through a biblical lens. The story of the Bible is not the story of what happens between death and resurrection, but the story of the "redemption of the world."

Dr. Middleton is Professor of Biblical Worldview and Exegesis at Roberts Wesleyan College. He specializes in the Christian worldview, Christianity and postmodernism, Old Testament Theology, and eschatology. His most recent book is A New Heaven and a New Earth: Reclaiming Biblical Eschatology.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

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Christians know that we should read the Bible. But often, the "should" eclipses the "why"—the fact that Scripture presents a unified, powerful, mysterious story written by God for the benefit of his people.

In this episode, Dru interviews Kat Armstrong, a Bible teacher, speaker, and author who aims to cultivate joyful, imaginative reading of Scripture. The Bible contains rich networks of imagery, but we must read carefully to notice them. Kat's new Bible study series, Storyline Bible Series, takes a deep dive into some of the recurring motifs in Scripture, from mountains and valleys to sticks and stones. Additionally, Kat discusses how her son helps her pay closer attention to the Bible, why the Bible isn't an instruction manual, and how Scripture eschews dividing its characters into "good guys" and "bad guys."

Kat Armstrong is a Bible teacher from Dallas who is passionate about helping people develop holy curiosity and delve more deeply into the story of the Bible. Her work includes speaking at events and conferences and writing books and Bible studies. You can find out more about her at her website.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

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The Near East carries a strange set of connotations in the modern West. On the one hand, it is the origin of our most significant ethical traditions. On the other, it is an area full of political tensions and years of violent conflict. In this episode, Robert Nicholson (Founder and President of Philos Project and CHT Senior Fellow) helps Christians evaluate their attitudes toward the Near East and its importance for Christian history and the faith today. From the perception of Israel, to the various groups of Muslims in the region, to the frequently-persecuted Christian communities, the Near East presents a complicated combination of religious, ethnic, and political identities. Christians have opportunities to pursue peace by advocating pluralistic respect, recognizing the positive developments in the region, and praying.

Robert Nicholson is the Founder and President of Philos Project, an organization that seeks to promote positive Christian engagement in the Near East. He holds an MA in Middle Eastern history and a JD from Syracuse history, and he also co-founded Passages Israel, serves on the board of In Defense of Christians, and teaches at The King's College. His writings have appeared in major publications including The Wall Street Journal and First Things, and he also hosts the podcast The Deep Map.

Show notes:

For more about one practical way to get involved with the work of Philos Project, check out their 21 Martyrs Pilgrimage Campaign, a fundraising effort to bring the families of the 21 Christian Copts killed in 2015 on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

Show notes by Micah Long

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Is it biblical to "follow your passion"? How do you know if the law is written on your heart? In this week's episode, Dru interviews CHT Fellow Ryan O'Dowd on engaging deeply with the Bible, living in accordance with the Torah's instruction, and ministering as the church. Scripture provides a host of instructions about how to live: everything from the proper view of our passions to helping the marginalized to saving money. But too often, we don't even know what it says—or we just don't take it seriously. As we mirror the practices described in Deuteronomy, like constant public engagement with Scripture, communal feasting, and building flourishing economic communities, we will find that the Bible will open up itself to our understanding.

Rev. Ryan P. O'Dowd is a Senior Fellow at Chesterton House at Cornell University, the pastor at Bread of Life Anglican Church, and an Academic Fellow at CHT. His research interests include wisdom literature and the epistemology of the Torah. He has written for The Biblical Mind about virtual worship and the Lord's Supper and the book of Proverbs as instruction in virtue.

Show notes:

Show notes by Micah Long

Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.