Episodes
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Sarah once again joins Kemper on the All About Agatha podcast to discuss Agatha Christie's very Christian (though also very weird) short story, "In the Cool of the Evening" ... and theology abounds!
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We are theologians who read the Bible. That is not a self-evident statement. But let's back up further... why does Christianity have a Bible at all? And now that we have it, how do we read it? In this episode we explore how we as theologians depend on the discipline of biblical studies, our appreciations and critiques thereof, and how Bible gives rise to doctrine... or is it maybe the other way around?!
We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Notes:
1. Check out Sarah's Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration
2. And Dad's Before Auschwitz and commentary on Joshua
3. As well as Dad's related articles: “Scripture as Matrix, Christ as Content: A response to Johannes Zachhuber and Anna Case-Winters” in Luther Refracted; “Prima Scriptura: Saving Sola Scriptura from Itself,” Dialog 55/3 (2016) 223-230; “The Lutheran Dilemma,” Pro Ecclesia VIII/4 (1999): 391-422.
4. Levy, Introducing Medieval Biblical Exegesis
5. Juel, Messianic Exegesis
6. Hill, Paul and the Trinity
7. Wright, Surprised by Hope
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Missing episodes?
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Dad and I continue our discussion of the Ascension of Jesus in the New Testament: how John's entire Gospel is a cosmic parabola of descent and ascent, with a twist; why the Ascension is the crux of the matter for Hebrews's Day of Atonement interpretation of Jesus' sacrifice; and the apostle Paul's apocalyptic orientation to the ascended Lord.
From there we look at the presence, not absence of the ascended Jesus in our midst: in the preached word, in the Lord's Supper, and in the very bodies of his baptized believers.
Notes:
1. Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection
2. Barfield, Poetic Diction and Saving the Appearances
3. Luther, Confession Concerning Christ's Supper in Luther's Works 37
4. Moffitt, Rethinking the Atonement
5. Related episodes: Ascension in Luke and Acts, Holy Communion: Discipline, Holy Communion: Doctrine, Brain Mind Soul
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Forty Facets of the Ascension, Sarah's new book, is coming to Kickstarter in mid-March! Sign up now to be notified the moment it launches.
In this episode, Dad and I discuss whether Jesus was a rocket ship, a hot air balloon, a cosmonaut... or maybe just the risen Lord whose bodily existence is integral to gospel proclamation! We look at some of the differences between Luke 24 and Acts 1's version of the Ascension (be prepared for some surprises) and the many things Luke had to argue against in order to argue for Jesus. If the Ascension has left you perpetually perplexed or scientifically stressed, fear not! This episode is for you.
Notes:
1. Once again, folks, that's Forty Facets of the Ascension coming to you on Kickstarter in mid-Marcy 2025!
2. Also, Transfiguration is sneaking up on you soon (March 2)! If you didn't already get Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration, you can get it instantly in ebook or audiobook, or order a print copy right now.
3. If you count among that exalted elite who need good fiction and good theology at the same time, you'll be raptured over my novel A-Tumblin' Down. You can also sign up for my Substack for more theologically luminous storytelling.
4. Related episodes: Luke Part 1, Luke Part 2, The First Two-Thirds of Acts, The Last Third of Acts
5. Hans Frei, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative
We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron!
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From Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration, Sarah reads the first chapter, "Metamorphosis : Jesus." Keep listening, or read by getting your copy at Thornbush Press, Audible, Amazon, or Bookshop.org!
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How often do you celebrate the 1700th anniversary of anything? 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, which gave us most (though not quite all) of the Nicene Creed (completed and perfected at the Council of Constantinople in 381, but frankly, nobody wants to say "The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed"). Dad and I talk you through what's at stake in the trinitarian assertions of this Creed, compare and contrast it with the Apostles' Creed, and strongly urge you to make it a centerpiece of your preaching and teaching in this year of grace!
We're in our SEVENTH year!(not quite our 1700th) Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Notes:
1. Phillip Cary, The Nicene Creed (if you read only one theology book this year, make it this one)
2. Hinlicky, Divine Complexity (this is your second theology book of the year: tracing the movement of New Testament witness to conciliar trinitarian confession)
3. Related episodes: Baptism, Infant and Otherwise; Athanasius Against the World; Gregory of Nazianzus; Islam
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Sarah makes her third appearance on the fantastic All About Agatha podcast! With host Kemper Donovan she discusses Agatha's short story "Promotion in the Highest."
Happy new year!
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We have a quick look over our stats for 2024, and unveil some big news about 2025!
Click here to be notified when Sarah's Kickstarter for a book on the Ascension goes live (~March 2025)!
Here for her Transfiguration book in case you missed it the first time around... Transfiguration Sunday is only a couple months away!
Subscribe here to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack!
And if none of those moved you, then just hop on over to Patreon to express your appreciation for the Queen of the Sciences podcast!
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The first of a series of five episodes in which Sarah discusses I Thessalonians with John Drury of the Fresh Text podcast. Remarkably apt for the end of one church year and the beginning of another!
Subscribe to Fresh Text to listen to the next four episodes with Sarah and John!
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It's the ultimate smackdown! In this episode we discuss the covert work done by theories and doctrines of history, in church and saeculum alike, and why we can't stop theorizing about history once we've noticed it. We also drill down on two particular approaches to time and history within Christian discourse, what they mean, what they imply, and how (and how not) to deploy them.
Hoping for a SEVENTH year of Queen of the Sciences? Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Second Peter and the Second Coming, Unbaptized God, Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul, The Bible in One Hand and the Newspaper in the Other?, Buddhism, Our Democracy?, Hegel
2. Augustine, Confessions (specifically, the second half on time that you always skip over)
3. Hinlicky, Luther and the Beloved Community
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You may have missed the recent U.S. presidential election, since it was kinda inconsequential and nobody was paying any attention to it. Oh wait... In today's episode, Dad and I take up the topic of "our democracy" as it has been talked about in the U.S. during this grueling election year, why Christians have an investment in flourishing democratic government (especially considering the alternatives), how the distinctions between church and state, and God's two kingdoms, play out in a democratic nation, and what we can faithfully do in our callings as Christians and citizens. Plus, Sarah reminds you that you are not Bonhoeffer.
Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr, Two Kingdoms 16th Century Edition, Two Kingdoms 20th and 21st Century Edition
2. Tocqueville, Democracy in America
3. Heise, The Gates of Hell (on the elimination of the Russian Lutheran Church during the Soviet period)
4. Bonhoeffer, Ethics and Letters and Papers from Prison, plus DeJonge's Bonhoeffer on Resistance
5. Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics"
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Many religions are historically entangled with one another, but no relationship is as close, fraught, or dangerous as that between Judaism and Christianity... kind of like a pair of biblical brothers, in fact. In this episode Dad and I discuss the enormous number of things these two have in common, why that makes the not negligible difference of assessment about Jesus so explosive, how we might learn from one another, and how we might learn to wait for God to confirm our faith, one way or another.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Islam, World Religions, Unbaptized God, On Hamas's Attack on Israel, Before Auschwitz, Galatians 1, Galatians 2, Nehemiah, Luther and the Jews, The Relationship of the Old and New Testaments
2. Nostra Aetate
3. Cohen, Everyman's Talmud
4. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son
Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron!
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What's that story about the medieval monk who tried to find peace through religious good works, got wise to the power and corruption of the religious establishment, had a breakthrough to trust in the mercy of the transcendent one who became immanent for our salvation, and as a result left the monastery, got married, had children, and worked among ordinary folks? No, not Luther. Shinran! In this episode, Dad and I explore the rather startling parallels between the True Pure Land school of Buddhism in Japan and Lutheran Christianity, then discuss what the implications of these overlaps may, or may not, mean from our theological perspective.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Islam, World Religions, Justification by Faith, The Certainty of Faith, Justification by Faith Revisited, Faith Just Faith, Japanese Theologian Kazoh Kitamori
2. Most of the information in this episode I drew from Jodo Shinshu: A Guide; you might also be interested in Taitetsu Unno, River of Fire, River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism
3. Armstrong, Buddha
Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron!
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Subscribe at Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack to join the communal reading of A-Tumblin' Down!
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Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron!
After considering "World Religions" as such, in this episode Dad and I turn our attention to considering a specific world religion. But our burden here is not to discuss the details or the disputes about or within Islam, but mainly to inquire about it as a challenge to Christian theology. Do we wrongly exalt the finite man Jesus to the status of the infinite? Does our complex creed betray a fatal weakness compared to Islam's simple one? How did God as Christians know him allow a competing monotheism to arise under his providence? Not surprisingly, we also put some theological questions of our own to Islam.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: World Religions, John of Damascus, Fear and Phobias, Two Kingdoms 16th Century Edition, Two Kingdoms 20th and 21st Century Edition, On Hamas' Attack on Israel, Luther and the Jews
2. Some resources for more in-depth study of Islam on its own terms: Fletcher, The Cross and the Crescent; Saeed, Islamic Thought: An Introduction; A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor
3. Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, and see also Janosik, John of Damascus: First Apologist to the Muslims
4. Sanneh, Summoned from the Margin
5. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur'an
6. Manji, The Trouble with Islam
7. Also consider listening to this episode I did with Enter the Bible on the variety of millennialisms and the temptations of interpreting history
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Exactly what the title says it is!
And please check out Crackers and Grape Juice!
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You know that there is such a thing as "world religions," and you know which ones they are. But why? Where did such a notion even come from? And why are some in but some aren't? Is "religion" even the right word for everything categorized under it? And if not, why has "religious studies" come to dominate, not to say replace, "theology" at virtually every college in America? In this episode Dad and I trace the genealogy of the concept of both "religious studies" and "world religions," take a look at what one might dare to call a crisis of faith within these disciplines, and give some ideas about how religious studies and theology can actually do each other some good.
Notes:
1. James, The Variety of Religious Experience
2. Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions
3. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur'an
4. Orsi, Between Heaven and Earth
Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron!
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The more ecumenical dialogues establish agreement, the more they turn up disagreement. Why, 115 years into multilateral Christian dialogue and 60 years into bilateral dialogue, does Christian unity look farther away than ever? Why can't we all just agree? In this episode, Dad and I delve deeply into Lutheran theologian Robert W. Jenson's book Unbaptized God, which posits that the problem isn't disagreement at all—it's disastrous agreement on a faulty premise at the root of the theological enterprise. We agree and disagree with Jenson, both of which reactions prove to be tremendously fruitful.
Notes:
1. Jenson, Unbaptized God
2. Apocalyptic and the Future of Theology
3. Related episodes: Apologetics, Second Peter and the Second Coming, John of Damascus, Chalcedon vs Luther, Bonhoeffer's Christology, A Hegel with all the Fixin's
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?
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Is the apologetic enterprise coercing people outside the Christian faith into a decision on which their eternal fate depends, conceding the terms of the debate to the culture's notion of what's important, or making fruitful contact in ways specific to the person and situation? (I bet you can guess our answer.) In this episode, Dad and I examine some worse ways of making a defense for the faith that is within us en route to some recommendations of a more excellent way. Plus, Sarah complains even more about Tillich.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: The Bible in One Hand and the Newspaper in the Other?, Chalcedon vs Luther, The Resurrection, Good Tillich, Bad Tillich, Niebuhr, Critical Social Theory, An Unlikely Marriage, Luther and the Jews
2. McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict
3. Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man
4. Tillich, Systematic Theology vol. 1
5. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine
6. Sarah's book of law-gospel parables, Pearly Gates
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?
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Whose all-time favorite NT epistle is Second Peter? Yeah, I thought so, i.e., nobody's. Terse yet wordy, full of highly developed doctrine yet also threats of judgment, and most likely pseudepigraphal, it's a tough nut to crack. In this episode, Dad and I haul out our exegetical nutcrackers and extract the sweetmeat (to push an already overstrained metaphor too far—though you gotta admit, it fits with Second Peter's prose style), which, oddly enough, proves to be the Parousia of Christ and God's astounding patience, desiring that all, yes all, come to repentance. Plus, more on the Transfiguration!
Notes:
1. Sarah's book on the Transfiguration is now in print and available for general purchase! Get Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration as an ebook and audiobook direct from Thornbush Press, print (or any other format) from Amazon.
2. Bauckham, Jude–2 Peter
2. Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings
3. Harink, 1 & 2 Peter
4. Saarinen, The Pastoral Epistles with Philemon & Jude
5. Related episodes: Jude, The Transfiguration, I Peter, Faith Just Faith
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?
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