In this episode I talk with Dr. Rafael Rodriguez, who teaches New Testament at Pittsburg Theological Seminary. We discuss his chapter in The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (out now on Eerdmans), where he explains what ancient media tells us about the historical Jesus. While our primary sources are the gospels as written texts, in antiquity these were not the only ways in which people were exposed to Jesus. Dr. Rodriguez explains the nature of oral tradition, and what we can know about the period between the life of Jesus and the composition of the gospels. He explains both the failures and valuable insights of form criticism, which treats each individual unit of the gospels as an isolated tradition, and argues that the methodology of the Next Quest must move beyond the assumptions of form criticism. Based on the standards of ancient media, there were no ‘original’ versions of the events recorded in the gospels, and we can’t reconstruct exactly which words Jesus did and did not say. Rodriguez makes the compelling case that the diversity and divergences between the synoptic gospels are a necessary product of the ancient media environment, and do not present an obstacle to our faith. Taking these historical insights into consideration will give us a more nuanced impression of who Jesus was. 

Media Referenced:

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus: https://a.co/d/6nQxo23

Rafael Rodriguez Academia: https://pts.academia.edu/RafaelRodriguez

Helen Bond interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-167-the-gospels-as-biography-with-helen-bond/

James Crossley interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-169-the-next-quest-for-the-historical-jesus-with-james-crossley/

Adele Reinhartz interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-173-the-jewishness-of-jesus-with-adele-reinhartz/

Chris Keith video interview: https://youtu.be/B96XmTRQ3jo?si=MG_A0hpqT_-_s4NV

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Dr. Chris Keith, research professor of New Testament and early Christianity at MF Norwegian School of Theology, Religion, and Society. He is the co-editor of The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, out now on Eerdmans press, and he contributes a chapter to the volume entitled ‘Beyond What is Behind’. In this chapter he proposes that historical Jesus research needs to move beyond the idea that we can somehow ‘get behind’ the texts of the gospels and find unvarnished, uninterpreted historical information about Jesus. He discusses the rich legacy of form criticism, influenced by legendary scholars like Rudolf Bultmann, and examines how the operating assumption in Jesus scholarship has been that some individual units in the gospel tradition may give us perfect glimpses into the life of Jesus himself. Keith argues that the so-called ‘criteria of authenticity’ have failed to produce this result, and that all of our sources about Jesus are, by definition, interpretations of his life. We should instead try to look at the impact that Jesus had on his followers which gave rise to the sources we have, and explore the wider social, political, and historical contexts in which Jesus lived to get a sense of who he was. All we can every really know about Jesus is the ‘gist’ of his life, ministry and teaching. Keith stresses the need for humility when doing historical research and the important role that imagination plays in reconstructing the past. 

 
Media Referenced:

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus: https://a.co/d/3cjjthL

Chris Keith on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Chris-Keith/author/B0028OM79S?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

James Crossley Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-169-the-next-quest-for-the-historical-jesus-with-james-crossley/

Helen Bond Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-167-the-gospels-as-biography-with-helen-bond/

Adele Reinhartz Interview: https://youtu.be/LeypHVQVMF8

 
The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

This is a recording of a sermon I preached on Sunday, November 17, 2024. It is a part of our sermon series on the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ in Galatians 5:22-23. In this sermon, I talk about patience. I admit that I struggle to be patient, explaining why we live in a low patience society and how that affects the relationships we have with other people. I then explain how our patience is modeled after God’s patience. I explore the patience of God in 2 Peter 3, showing that God is patient with us because he wants all to repent. We then look at our own patience in Colossian 3, where Paul explains that patience means we must be forgiving to others as God forgives us. I then give some concluding thoughts on how we can better develop patience, and end with James 1:19-20. 

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Dr. Adele Reinhartz, professor of religious studies at the University of Ottawa in Canada. She contributed a chapter to The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus (out now on Eerdmans press) where entitled ‘Beyond the Jewish Jesus Debate’, in which she argues that historical Jesus researchers (and everyone else!) simply must take the Jewish identity of Jesus for granted. She explains why Biblical interpreters throughout the ages have either ignored or downplayed the Jewishness of Jesus and the negative impact that has had on our interpretation of him. We then explore how Jesus’s matrilinear descent, the presentation of Jesus by his biographers, and his wider Jewish context anchor his identity fully within Judaism. We discuss the controversial use of the term ‘the Jews’ in John, Jesus’s conflicts with the Pharisees, the mission of Paul to the gentiles, and the propensity for New Testament scholars to ‘grade’ the Jewishness of Jesus, as well as how grounding our understanding of Jesus in his Jewish identity will shape the future of New Testament scholarship.  

Media Referenced:

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus: https://a.co/d/7SgiWSJ

Dr. Reinhartz Academia page: https://uottawa.academia.edu/AdeleReinhartz

Dr. Reinhartz BlueSky: ancientjewreview.bsky.social

Helen Bond Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-167-the-gospels-as-biography-with-helen-bond/

James Crossley Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-169-the-next-quest-for-the-historical-jesus-with-james-crossley/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk to my friends Matt Barber and Josh Williams about the dark side of growing up in American Christian churches. All of us were products of 90’s and 2000’s church culture; I was raised in the Lutheran church and they were raised in the Nazarene church. They share some of the stories, both funny and serious, about the weird, frustrating, and harmful experiences they had growing up in the church, and we discuss the awkward relationship that Christians have with American culture. We also explore the direction of the church and how we wound up where we are today. As an added bonus, we debate whether or not Adam had a belly button. If you were ever surprised, hurt, intrigued, or weirded out by church culture, this episode is for you. Enjoy!

Media Referenced:

Matt Barber episode: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/future-christian-higher-education-dr-matthew-barber/

Josh Williams episode: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/the-power-of-stories-leaving-ministry-changing-beliefs-podcasting-josh-williams-podbless/

PodBless YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxeNCR8iQwItepJVh6vPU2Q

X: @podbless

PodBless website: https://linktr.ee/PodBless

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The 

In my third-annual ‘six books’ Christmas special, I present the six books that had a major impact on my thinking that were published in 2024. I have read a lot of great literature this year and it was very difficult to condense my list to only six. Here are the 2024 essential books finalists:

Trump’s War on Capitalism, David Stockman

National Divorce, Jason Fry

Paul and Imperial Divine Honors, Clint Burnett

Christmaker, James McGrath

Jesus and His Promised Second Coming, Tucker Ferda

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, James Crossley and Chris Keith

 I have interviews with five of the six authors, and the first book, Trump’s War on Capitalism, I covered extensively in an episode I recorded on Trump. Links to all the books and the interviews below. Enjoy!

Media Referenced:

Trump’s War on Capitalism, David Stockman: https://a.co/d/bRxtwQH

Episode on Trump: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-156-the-libertarian-case-against-donald-trump/

National Divorce, Jason Fry: https://a.co/d/dfY4NIX

Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-161-national-divorce-and-peaceful-secession-with-jason-fry/

Paul and Imperial Divine Honors, Clint Burnett: https://a.co/d/coy5tDs

Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-125-paul-imperial-divine-honors-and-the-roman-empire-with-clint-burnett/

Christmaker, James McGrath: https://a.co/d/j5uje0d

Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-134-john-the-baptist-with-james-mcgrath/

Jesus and His Promised Second Coming, Tucker Ferda: https://a.co/d/1IEIIMn

Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-159-jesus-and-his-promised-second-coming-with-tucker-ferda/

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, James Crossley and Chris Keith: https://a.co/d/ekFExPf

Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-169-the-next-quest-for-the-historical-jesus-with-james-crossley/

Six Essential Books 2023: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-97-six-essential-books-of-2023/

Six Essential Books 2022: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/six-books-that-shaped-my-political-thinking-and-theology/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Amity Dolby, a lifetime member of the Libertarian Party who serves as the treasurer of the LP of Central Virginia. Amity had been a life-long protestant, but recently converted to the Catholic church. We talk about her upbringing in the protestant world, her dissatisfaction with several protestant churches and the inconsistencies she saw in their teachings, and her interest in the Catholic faith. She describes her conversion, going through RCIA, and the spiritual depth and community she experiences as a Catholic. We also talk about her libertarian activism, the role of the LP, the controversies surrounding Trump and the Mises Caucus, and the prospects for libertarian success in the future, as well as how her Catholic faith intersects with libertarian philosophy. 

Media Referenced:

Amity on X: @amitylee13

The Coming Home Network: https://chnetwork.org/

Let Them Live: http://letthemlive.org/

The Lamb’s Supper: https://a.co/d/gegMX4N

Catharine Pakaluk on Catholic social teaching: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-103-the-social-and-economic-teachings-of-the-catholic-church-with-catharine-pakaluk/

Michael Pakaluk on Catholic teaching: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-122-what-protestants-misunderstand-about-the-catholic-church-with-michael-pakaluk/

Catharine Pakaluk on large families: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-123-why-women-are-choosing-to-have-more-children-with-catherine-pakaluk/

Trent Horn on Catholic teaching: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-148-a-catholic-take-on-the-reformation-sola-scriptura-economics-and-more-with-trent-horn/

Matthew Leavering on Catholicism: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-149-roman-catholicism-the-pope-mary-the-eucharist-and-ecumenicism-with-matthew-levering/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Dr. James Crossley, who teaches at Cambridge in England and MF Oslo in Norway. He explains the goals of the ‘Next Quest’ for the historical Jesus, which is an attempt to outline the next phase of historical Jesus research. He contributes the opening article in the new book The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, out now on Eerdmans, where he outlines the goals of the Next Quest. He discusses his frustrations with historical Jesus research over the last several years and the problems with previous attempts to reconstruct Jesus. Instead of attempting to find an uninterpreted Jesus behind the gospels, the Next Quest will emphasize the material and cultural forces that lead to the production of the sources we have about Jesus. It will also offer a new analysis of issues like class and economics, attempting to reconstruct the social world in which Jesus operated, as well as bringing in ideas from other fields such as religious studies and the humanities. It will place a heavy emphasis on the reception history of Jesus scholarship and analyze the social context of Jesus scholarship to see what impact the context of Jesus researchers has on their work. This is an important and insightful attempt to push historical Jesus research in a new direction.

 Media Referenced:

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus: https://a.co/d/bgZtkxA

James Crossley Cambridge Bio: https://www.divinity.cam.ac.uk/staff/professor-james-crossley

James Crossley MF Oslo Bio: https://mf.no/en/staff/james-crossley

CenSAMM: https://censamm.org/about/people/crossley

James Crossley on X: @thejcmort

Helen Bond on the Gospels as Biography: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-167-the-gospels-as-biography-with-helen-bond/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

This is a recording of a sermon I preached on Sunday, November 10, 2024. It is a part of our sermon series on the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ in Galatians 5:22-23. I preached on ‘faithfulness’ a few weeks before (link below in the show notes), and in this sermon I explain ‘kindness’. I discuss the lack of kindness among Americans today and why Christians should not give into the temptation to be unkind. I explain how the Greek word that is translated as ‘kindness’, chrestotes, is a rare term in the New Testament, and then explore two passages in Ephesians that use this term. The first, Ephesians 2:1-7, describes God’s kindness towards us, which is known by God’s good intentions for us and His willingness to act on those good intentions. I then explain how our kindness towards others is modelled on God’s kindness towards us, which is based on Ephesians 4:25-5:2. I then reflect on how we can develop an attitude of kindness towards others. 

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!

In this episode I talk with Dr. Helen Bond, professor of Christian Origins and New Testament at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and cohost of the Biblical Time Machine podcast. She has a chapter in the new book The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus, out now on Eerdmans, where she argues that the gospels need to be understood as an expression of ancient Greek biography. Dr. Bond explains how ancient biography works as a genre, that the goals of ancient biography are to recount the life of a great person so that others can imitate them, and why the goal of ancient biography isn’t simply historical accuracy but rather representing the ‘gist’ or the ‘impact’ that the subject had on those who encountered them. She also explains how the gospels contain anecdotes that were skillfully woven into a narrative by the writers, how the gospels reflect the oral culture of antiquity, and why we should be less concerned about determining whether individual stories and sayings in the gospels happened exactly as they were told and more concerned with the overall impression of Jesus the gospel writers are trying to impart. We then discuss the Next Quest and how recovering the gospels as biography will help move historical Jesus research forward. 

Media Referenced:

Helen Bond Bio: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/helen-bond

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001HMRULC/allbooks?ingress=0&visitId=62f6a737-f5de-43aa-aa9c-5d5dc01d12b6&ref_=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1

Biblical Time Machine Podcast:

Listen on Apple Podcasts

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/biblical-time-machine/id1648738323

Listen on Spotify 

https://open.spotify.com/show/7cNljZzhe4w3zL9t0MaOZH?si=9G0vB9NVRDe5XZZVDfOGVg

The Next Quest for the Historical Jesus: https://a.co/d/6oqI7qd

Craig Blomberg Interview: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-162-johns-gospel-and-the-historical-jesus-with-craig-blomberg/

James Crossley on the Next Quest: https://libertarianchristians.com/episode/ep-169-the-next-quest-for-the-historical-jesus-with-james-crossley/

The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.

Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and Youtube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the shows profile! Thanks!