The Biblical Mind

By Center For Hebraic ThoughtSociety & Culture Religion & Spirituality Philosophy

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The Biblical Mind episodes

January 21, 2022What Biblical Racial Reconciliation Actually Looks Like (Anthony Bradley)
Reconciliation in practice involves local communities acknowledging the wrongs of their particular pasts and figuring out how to move forward— what the responsibilities are and how to live together in peace.
In the area of racial reconciliation, we focus a lot on justice and the responsibilities of the offenders. But biblical reconciliation also requires the injured party to show mercy and eventually let go of the wrongs, which is profoundly humbling to those receiving the mercy.
Dr. Anthony Bradley joins us this week to discuss what has informed current racial tensions and how churches and communities can move forward.
Show notes:
0:26 Examining the racial tensions within a community
1:50 Racial reconciliation and ignoring history
4:19 What informs current racial tensions
7:05 The 80s
10:39 Reconciliation in Scripture and the local past
17:32 Truth required for reconciliation
20:43 Disconnection from history
28:20 Racial solidarity
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.
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33 min
January 14, 2022The Torah Is Not a Law Book (Jerry Unterman)
The nation of Israel was born into a world that was already culturally old and established. When the Torah appeared, the ancient Near East contained several law collections. CHT fellow Dr. Jerry Unterman explains that unlike other law codes of the ANE, the Torah is not a law book. Rather, its unique framework reveals it to be a treaty—a covenant between God and His people, embedded in a narrative.
Show Notes:
0:26 What is the world of law in the Torah?
6:02 Hammurabi and "If x, then y"
9:58 The ANE laws were never promulgated to the people
12:43 The God who makes a treaty with the people
15:47 Laws for the people to "tend"
16:50 Shared responsibility
17:36 The way the law works
21:43 Michael LeFebvre's contested article
25:53 God is the source of justice
27:28 What's the difference between laws?
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
34 min
January 07, 2022No One Asks for Forgiveness in the Bible? (Joshua Berman)
People don't ask for or grant forgiveness in the Bible—at least, not in the way modern people are familiar with. Scripture is less focused on whether someone feels sorry or magnanimous than on practical reconciliation and restoration. Repeatedly in biblical narratives, characters demonstrate this reconciliation with a kiss.
Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman discusses how forgiveness as we understand it is a modern notion and how the relevant biblical notion differs.
Show Notes:
0:26 The Hebrew Bible doesn't portray apology-and-forgiveness
4:38 Defining relationships
5:52 Forgiveness in Hebrew
7:48 The modern notion of forgiveness
10:35 Kissing
15:34 Torah and incarceration
19:40 We need to "get along"
21:05 The biblical authors on forgiveness
23:55 Reconciliation should be embraced
28:13 What does God think of us?
29:25 Postscript: The Prodigal Son
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
32 min
December 17, 2021African Americans Understood Paul‘s Words While Slave Owners Twisted Them (Lisa Bowens)
Discussing her book African American Readings of Paul: Reception, Resistance, and Transformation, Dr. Lisa Bowens identifies how people twisted the Scriptures written by the Apostle Paul to promote slavery and justify it as a Christian practice. But at the same time, Dr. Bowens explains, Black Americans were interpreting Paul's writings for themselves, and throughout history, they still appealed to Pauline texts extensively to protest and resist their oppression, and ultimately to build a strong foundation for the American church.
Show notes:
0:26 Hidden voices in Black Christian thought
4:25 What does sScripture actually say?
6:15 Nancy Ambrose and how Paul was preached to the enslaved
10:18 1774 Slave Petition
16:37 The slavery project and the broadening of the canon
19:40 John Jea and the miracle of literacy
25:40 Why we need to hear different voices
29:50 Salvation is spiritual and physical
34:37 For economic gain
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
40 min
December 10, 2021What Are Sermons for, and How Can They Be Improved? (Jonathan Pennington)
When it comes to preaching, less is more. If you really understand a complex issue, you should be able to write it down on a postcard. In light of this, how does one avoid dumbing down their preaching while still clearly communicating a complex message?
Dru and CHT fellow Dr. Jonathan Pennington discuss his book Small Preaching: 25 Little Things You Can Do Now to Make You a Better Preacher, how to convey rich meaning in a sermon while keeping it simple, and the significance of preaching within a worship service.
Show notes:
0:26 Sermon prep
1:27 How can a preacher avoid common pitfalls?
3:22 Two schools: lofty and simple
7:55 Confidence
9:00 The ideal preacher's life/snack writing
12:48 Should you write your sermon?
17:16 The significance of preaching in the worship service
23:49 Teaching vs. preaching
31:06 "Celebrification" of preaching
33:23 Is preaching performance art?
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
37 min
December 03, 2021Three Grinches in a Pod: Complicating Christmas
It's that time of year again.
It's the time when those who hate eggnog, pretty lights, cheery music, presents, and joy itself crawl out of their dark, barren hovels, bent on ruining Christmas.
Well, we aren't those people. Let us have our winter festival, says Dru. Let us have our (modest) presents, says Celina. Let us have our feasting, says Amy.
But we all ask, what does the winter festival of American Christmas really have to do with the first and second comings of Jesus Christ? Are traditional Advent practices a straightforward way to redeem the holiday? Do we even want to put the "Christ" back in "Christmas"?
Join Dru, Celina, and Amy as they discuss how we might faithfully improvise rituals of waiting and celebration to help us remember our place within the story of God's promise to the nations through Israel.
0:30 Rushing and conflating—why we're grumpy
6:08 Calling Dru out*
6:49 The fat man in the room: Christmas is not a biblical holy day
9:37 Redeeming Christmas through better rituals?
11:23 An Hebraic spin on Advent
17:22 Distraction from the establishment of God's peace through Israel
19:51 The biblical argument against telling children there's a Santa Claus
21:41 Theologically rich Advent practices
*Despite her protestations, Celina has since admitted that Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" totally slaps.
Show notes by Celina Durgin
Credits for the music TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.
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32 min
November 19, 2021Toward an Integrated Liturgy of Work and Worship (Matthew Kaemingk)
There is a deep division between work and worship in the West. However, the worship of the ancient Israelites integrated the sanctuary into the streets. What are ways that our work today (even sending emails) can be celebrated and offered to God as a form of worship?
With reference to his book Work and Worship, Matthew Kaemingk explains how the tasks we do every single day can be integrated into our worship and daily liturgy.
Show notes:
0:26 Wandering minds during worship
2:02 Integrated life
2:58 Spiritual divide
4:34 Work and worship
6:13 How do we celebrate our work?
12:00 Corey Wilson
12:40 Imago Dei—workers
17:40 Grander work
20:02 Physical participation in the work of God
22:57 Rituals and liturgies
27:37 Gathering rituals, and honesty with God
30:21 When wealth intercedes for work
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
36 min
November 12, 2021Crying for Justice: Why We Should Pray the ‘Angry‘ Psalms (Trevor Laurence)
Pleas for justice in the book of Psalms—the imprecatory psalms—can make some Christians uncomfortable. They're often passed over in the psalter during worship. How do petitions for justice map onto the mission of Jesus? How are imprecatory prayers compatible with commands to love our neighbors?
Though the Psalms contain many cries for vengeance, they also continually call readers back to a standard of holiness. Trevor Laurence discusses imprecatory prayers, the power of words to express profound pain to God, and how we can instinctively discern God and the world as we struggle through life.
Show notes:
0:26 How should Christians reconcile imprecatory prayers?
4:00 Logic in the request for vengeance and vindication
6:40 Callback to the covenant justice of God
8:36 Rhetorical violence
9:10 Deadly false accusations and the power of words
12:30 What we're missing in our worship
15:36 Profound pedagogies of prayer
17:11 Imagination and embodied experience
20:35 Ritual epistemology
21:34 If Trevor could design a church service
25:32 Policy and advocacy in the church
28:22 Liturgy: patterns that govern your life
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
34 min
November 05, 2021Reading the Bible While Black: The Crucial Perspective of the Black Church (Esau McCaulley)
"Blackness is a part of American culture." Too often American Christianity is equated with white Christianity, while expressions of Black Christianity are overlooked. Continuing our series "By the Oppressed, to the Oppressed: How the Marginalized Church Reads Scripture," Esau McCaulley, author of Reading While Black, explains how American Black history has given Black Christians an important lens through which to understand Scripture, and how power can actually be a distorting lens. When people hear biblical interpretations they might have missed because of their own experiences, the narrative can change.
Show notes:
0:27 When we misunderstand what we see and hear
3:08 Black Bible reading
6:33 Expressions of Black Christianity
11:36 Distorting the influence of power
16:03 The "Slave Bible"
23:48 Suffering and biblical interpretation
27:14 The use of the Bible in the Civil War
28:24 We need a fuller range of interpretations
34:33 Reevaluating your theological perspective
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

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40 min
November 03, 2021Understanding Supersessionism and the Controversy over a TBM Article (Ari Lamm)
A couple of weeks ago, The Biblical Mind published an article by Michael LeFebvre titled Jesus Restored the Original Purpose of the Law in the New Testament. Some readers expressed concern that the article endorsed supersessionist views. Not intending to suggest supersessionism, Michael revised some language in the article to address the concerns. It was retitled Jesus' Concept of the Law in the New Testament. Some Christians readers said they didn't fully understand the reaction.
In response, Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm joined the podcast to explain supersessionism, the relationship between Christianity and Judaism, and the reaction to some language in Michael's original article.
Show notes:
0:26 What the original title possibly conveyed
4:30 The relationship between Judaism and Christianity
8:01 Integration of "new" and "old"
9:40 Marcion's argument
14:34 Supersessionism
18:58 Intention with words
23:00 Response to comments
30:50 Ari's stance on the article
48:20 Why is "legalism" a bad word?
55:06 The Pharisees are too lenient
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music TBM podcast: 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.
1 hr 1 min

About The Biblical Mind

From the publisher's feed

The Biblical Mind is dedicated to helping its audience understand how the biblical authors thought, promoting Bible fluency through curious, careful reading of Scripture. It is hosted by Dr. Dru…