Join Sam Fornecker, Alice Soulieux-Evans, and Jake Griesel, as the gang draw together many of the key themes and insights that have arisen from the seminal reformation texts studied thus far on the New Parker Society series. The New Parker Society series will return after a hiatus, and The Ridley Institute Podcast will be back, Fall 2023!

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Brian Rosner (Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne) about how the gospel addresses the collective identity crisis of modern society. Exploring the real-life implications of what scholars call expressive individualism, this conversation looks at how the gospel addresses arguably the most urgent question of modern people: "Who am I?" Find Brian's book here.

"Make good men wish [Christianity] were true," wrote Blaise Pascal, "then show them that it is." Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Chris Watkin, Associate Professor in French Studies at Monash University, about how a robust understanding of the Bible's story equips Christians to follow Pascal's advice. Introducing listeners to the riot of ideas in Chris's recent book, Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture, this chat provides tools for engaging more discerningly, charitably, and Christianly with modern life and culture.

In 1556, imprisoned in London's Tower, two Protestant bishops, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, encouraged one another through smuggled letters as they awaited the day of their demise. Those letters became the basis of a publication in 1556, which spurred on evangelical believers to stick to Christ, even when their life was at stake. Join Sam Fornecker, Alice Soulieux-Evans, and Jake Griesel for a discussion of this vivid work, and of the scholarly young bishop — Nicholas Ridley — whose love for Christ, and dedication to the truth of the gospel, lit an imperishable flame in England. Follow along here.

Join Abigail Whitehouse and Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Leah Savas, coauthor with Marvin Olasky of The Story of Abortion in America: A Street-Level History, 1652–2022 (Crossway, 2022). Synthesizing the book's key findings and implications, this conversation equips Christians to (re)integrate reflection on abortion—including its history and attendant present-day realities—into the realm of Christian discipleship. This episode deals with a very sensitive topic, by necessity somewhat graphically; it is not one to listen to within earshot of children.

Sam Fornecker and pastor/apologist Andrew Fellows discuss why "worldliness" is so poorly understood, and weakly challenged, in contemporary Christianity. Drawing on Fellows' recent book, Smuggling Jesus back into the Church: How the Church Became Worldly, and What to Do about It (IVP, 2022), as well as his experience in Christian leadership (including 21 years with the English L'Abri, and a period as chairman of L'Abri International from 2011–2016), this episode tackles several forms of worldliness besetting the Church — from the allure of the Modern Trinity ("Me, Myself, and I"), to the pervasive politicizing of the Church, to the erosion of evangelical confidence in the power of prayer and the supernatural ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Join Sam and political theorist Michael Lamb, to see how St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 A.D.) helps us to navigate the bleak and cynical political culture of our day. Key to Augustine's approach is the virtue of hope — the virtue that prevents one from veering into the ditches of presumption or despair. 

Michael Lamb serves as F. M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character at Wake Forest University, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities, and Research Fellow with the Oxford Character Project. His most recent book, A Commonwealth of Hope: Augustine's Political Thought (Princeton University Press, 2022), develops the insights touched on briefly in this conversation. 

In this episode, Sam speaks with Teresa Morgan, McDonald Agape Professor in New Testament and Early Christianity at Yale Divinity School, about the role of trust in the Christian life. Drawing on insights found in Morgan's most recent monograph, 'This Rich Trust': The New Testament and the Theology of Trust (Oxford University Press, 2022), this chat explores what it means to enter into a relationship of trust with God—a relationship in which one gives up trust in one's own judgment, and risks to place oneself in the hands of Jesus.

In this latest installment of the New Parker Society, Sam is joined by Jake Griesel and Mark Earngey (Head of Church History at Moore Theological College, Sydney), to discuss selections from the preaching of the English Reformer, Hugh Latimer (c.1487–1555). To follow along with the Sermons on the Cards and the Sermon on the Plough, click here (see pages 3–24 for the Sermons on the Cards and 59–78 for the Sermon on the Plough).

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with D.C. Schindler, Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., about Christianity's gift to the world—the gift of freedom. Drawing on a wealth of insights in Schindler's new book, Retrieving Freedom: The Christian Appropriation of Classical Tradition (Notre Dame, 2022), this conversation explores vital questions, ranging from the relationship of Jewish and Greek thought to Christianity, to the devastating consequences of affirming half-truths about God and ourselves.