In All Things Podcast

DEMYSTIFYING Critical Race Theory with Jeff Liou (ep. 39)

On this episode of the podcast, I talk with Dr. Jeff Liou about his new book Christianity and Critical Race Theory. There are few topics more contentious than CRT, but in this conversation, we simply seek to demystify the discourse, to understand CRT, and to ask where there might be openings and oppositions for Christian discipleship as we seek to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Among the topics we discuss:

• What is CRT, and why has it become such a lightning rod? How can we demystify it to engage it in a meaningful way?
• How does the CRT concept of "community cultural wealth" connect with a Christian account of creative diversity?
• How does the CRT claim that "racism is ordinary" connect with the Christian doctrine of pervasive sin?
• What should we make of the criticisms of CRT that it redefines the terms of racism to see racism in everyone and everything, that it is nebulous and totalizing, and that it creates a new sort of fundamentalism that is light on grace?
• What are the greatest points of tension between Christianity and CRT?
• How might this conversation connect for Reformed Christians, specifically?
• How do we learn to see power, without power becoming the only thing we see?

Get the book: https://bakeracademic.com/p/Christianity-and-Critical-Race-Theory-Robert-Chao-Romero/436007

 

GETTING Out of Bed with Alan Noble (ep. 38)

On this episode of the podcast, I talk with Dr. Alan Noble about his new book, On Getting Out of Bed: The Burden and Gift of Living. Getting out of bed may seem like a simple thing to do, but for many who struggle with mental affliction, getting out of bed is an act of faith and defiance against despair, a testimony to that fact that life is worth facing. Among the topics we discuss:

• The difference between the categories of "mental suffering" and "mental illness" and why there might be a danger in over-relying on the category of mental illness
• Why the younger generation in particular seems to struggle to get out of bed, and what might give them courage to do so.
• How literature, especially The Road by Cormac McCarthy offers us an embodied answer to the question of getting out of bed.
• Counsel for those who walk with loved ones who struggle with more debilitating mental illness
• Hope for those who struggle to believe that the grace of Christ (rather than suffering) is the deepest reality

We hope that whether this is your testimony, or whether you walk with those who struggle to get out of bed, that you find this conversation helpful.

Get the book: https://www.ivpress.com/on-getting-out-of-bed

About Alan Noble: https://www.oalannoble.com/ 

EMBODYING Praise with David Taylor (ep. 37)

On this episode of the podcast I talk with Dr. David Taylor about his new book, A Body of Praise: Understanding the Role of Our Physical Bodies in Worship. For those of us who tend to think about worship as primarily a matter of the mind or heart, it’s a reminder about the role our physical bodies play in worship. It's an essential conversation, not least after the the upheavals and bodily deprivations of Covid. Among the topics we discuss:

• Why worship is just as much a matter of the body as the head or the heart.
• What it means to worship God "in Spirit and in Truth" (John 4)
• The idea of "body knowledge" and how it shapes us over time
• Surprises from church history about body postures in worship
• How to navigate debates over "originalism" and "the regulative principle" in light of cultural difference in the way we use our bodies in worship.
• Counsel for worship planners to engage the body in an authentic way
• Why it seems like worship doesn't always seem to work.
• How technological shifts towards online services shape the way we think of our bodies in worship

Get the book: https://bakeracademic.com/p/A-Body-of-Praise-W-David-O-Taylor/466164

More about David Taylor: https://www.wdavidotaylor.com/ 

DRAMATIZING the Greatest Story with Kathryn Wehr (ep. 36)

On this episode of the podcast, we are speaking with Dr. Kathryn Wehr, about her new annotated edition of Dorothy Sayers’s The Man Born to Be King, a series of 12 radio plays broadcast and published 80 years ago during the Second World War. It is a fascinating conversation of the unique complexities and tensions of adapting the gospels for dramatic production. Among the topics we discuss:

• Who was Dorothy Sayers? What are some of her works that we should know?
• The controversy that surrounded the original production of the radio plays and how it drove publicity and affected the final forms of the plays.
• Which characters were the most challenging to depict and which creative decisions were most successful
• How Sayers sought to write plays with ecumenical appeal, for the whole church rather than merely for a particular denomination.
• What Sayers might have to say to creative artists today.

We hope the conversation will encourage everyone to pick up a copy of the plays for themselves, or at least to allow this conversation to lift the film of familiarity from the great and true story that is the gospel.

Get the Wade Annotated Edition: https://www.ivpress.com/the-man-born-to-be-king

Listen to the plays: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Born-Be-King-Collection/dp/B09HSM8FJ9 

 

Other works by Dorothy Sayers mentioned in the conversation

Lord Peter Wimsey series (15 book series)

Introduction and Translation of Dante's Divine Comedy (Penguin classic)

The Zeal of Thy House

"The Mind of the Maker"

"The Lost Tools of Learning"

 

Other authors and books and authors mentioned in the conversation:

Gina Dalfanzo, Dorothy and Jack: The Transforming Friendship of Dorothy L. Sayers and C. S. Lewis 

Ronald Gurner, We Crucify!

 

FINDING Messiah with Jennifer Rosner (ep. 35)

On this episode of the podcast, we are speaking with the Dr. Jennifer Rosner, about her book Finding Messiah: A Journey into the Jewishness of the Gospel. Dr. Rosner is a Jewish believer in Jesus Christ, and in this episode, she tells us her story, as well as the story of how these two deeply intertwined religious traditions have been torn apart, and what it might mean to weave them back together. Among the topics we discuss:

• Dr. Rosner's story about finding Jesus and rediscovering her Jewish roots
• The sad history of Jewish and Christian relations
• How we can remember the Jewishness of the New Testament
• Some of the ways that well-meaning Christians perpetuate negative stereotypes about Judaism
• How Judaism can help us resist dualism through rediscovering the embodied character of faith and worship
• Some of the more encouraging developments in Jewish-Christian scholarship

For more about Dr. Rosner: https://www.jenrosner.com/

Get the book: https://www.ivpress.com/finding-messiah

 

Resources mentioned in this podcast:

Mark S. Kinzer, Jerusalem Crucified Jerusalem Risen

Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines

NT Wright, Surprised by Hope

 

STRETCHING the Poetic Imagination with Drew Jackson (ep. 34)

On this episode of the podcast, we interview poet Drew Jackson about his recently published collection of poems (God Speaks Through Wombs and Touch the Earth) in conversation with the gospel of Luke. Among the topics we discuss:

• The role of imagination as a pastor and as a poet
• How the Christian faith requires all of us to develop poetic imagination
• The process of writing poetry based on the biblical text
• Honoring the poetic voices that formed us in writing new poetry
• The process of writing poetry for sound and playing with structure
• The relationship of poetry and prayer

A highlight of this episode is when Drew reads two of his poems so that we can hear them in his voice. 

Get the new collection: https://www.ivpress.com/touch-the-earth

Get the previous collection: https://www.ivpress.com/god-speaks-through-wombs

Other poets and authors mentioned in the podcast:

Rainer Maria Rilke

Langston Hughes

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Kiese Lamon

Paul Louis Dunbar

Mary Oliver

Margaret Atwood

Barbara Holmes

Howard Thurman

Tony Hoagland

Sharon Old

Joey Graham

Jericho Brown

Mary Oliver

Elizabeth Alexander

Cheryl Sanders

UPDATING Calvinism for the Modern World with Cory Brock and Gray Sutanto (ep. 33)

On this episode of the podcast, we talk with Cory Brock and Gray Sutanto about their new book, Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction (Lexham Press). We know that our listeners come from many different theological traditions other than our own, and although this discussion may at times go into the weeds, the larger conversation is about what it means to work out of a historical tradition, retrieving while also reimagining. Among the topics we discuss:

• What is Neo-Calvinism? What makes it "neo"? Is it broad or specific?
• What does it mean to restore and renew instead of to "repristinate" a tradition?
• How do we value the unique calling & perspective of a particular tradition while also recognizing the larger body of Christ? 
• What does it mean to say that "grace restores nature"?
• How do we answer the charge that "every square inch" leads to triumphalism, or even Christian nationalism? What's the difference?
• What is the nature of our hope for "re-creation"? What do Neo-Calvinists believe about the age to come, the renewal of all things, and the "beatific vision" (encountering God face-to-face)?

We will also be running a series of reviews on the book, going chapter by chapter, which are available here: https://inallthings.org/

Get the book: https://lexhampress.com/product/224276/neo-calvinism-a-theological-introduction 

Cory and Gray's podcast, Grace in Common: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/grace-in-common/id1609942093 

SLOWING Down to Hear Creation’s Song with Kristen Page (ep. 32)

On this episode of the In All Things podcast, we speak with Dr. Kristen Page about her new book, The Wonders of Creation: Learning Stewardship from Narnia and Middle Earth. In this conversation, ecology and fantasy literature come together to train our imagination, practices, and pace. Among the topics we cover:

• How time spent in imaginary and literary worlds can slow us down and train our attention, helping us to become better stewards of creation.
• How learning to appreciate the beauty of creation empowers us to protect it.
• Why lament matters when it feels like our efforts are largely in vain
• What sort of practices can be cultivated and what other authors help us slow down and see

In All Things link (transcript available): https://inallthings.org/podcast-slowing-down-to-hear-creations-song-with-kristen-page-2/ 

Get the book: https://www.ivpress.com/the-wonders-of-creation

Read Hannah Landman's review: https://inallthings.org/active-imaginations-a-review-of-wonders-of-creation/ 

Read Dr. Carl Fictorie's review: https://inallthings.org/embracing-ecology-and-fantasy-a-review-of-the-wonders-of-creation/ 

Authors mentioned in this podcast:

C.S. Lewis, The Chronicles of Narnia

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Richard Powers, The Overstory

Robin Wall Kimmer, Braiding Sweetgrass & Gathering Moss

Wendell Berry (anything)

Robert McFarland, Landmarks 

Aldo Leopold, Sand County Almanac

Jean Carolyn Craighead George

FORGIVING as a Form of Grief with Matthew Ichihashi Potts (ep. 31)

On this episode of the podcast, I speak with Matthew Ichihashi Potts about his new book, Forgiveness: An Alternative Account. During the conversation, we consider the biblical teaching about forgiveness in the face of lingering grievance and ongoing harm. Among the topics we cover:

• How some demands for forgiveness might actually do more harm to those who have been hurt.
• How we can escape the binary of "remember or retaliate" or "forgive and forget"
• What forgiveness looks like that is rooted in grief or mourning
• Why literary works might hold special value for helping us grasp the complexities of forgiveness
• On what we may hope for forgiveness when it comes to the end of all things (eschatology)
• When it comes to forgiveness, what we are being asked to do, and what we are not being asked to do

Get the book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300259858/forgiveness/

REPENTING and Renewing with Esau McCaulley (ep. 30)

On this episode of the podcast, our guest is Dr. Esau McCaulley. Our conversation revolves around two books, his critically acclaimed book Reading While Black and his brand-new book Lent: The Season of Repentance and Renewal.

This thirtieth episode was special because we recorded it in-person in front of a live audience, who you may sometimes hear in the background. In any case, the conversation was an absolute joy, and you won’t want to miss Dr. McCaulley reading from his book near the end of the podcast, a moment that brought tears to my eyes. Among the topics we discuss:

• The connections between Dr. McCaulley's two books, one which introduces us to a vital interpretive tradition (Black biblical interpretation) and one which introduces us to a vital liturgical tradition (the church calendar). 
• On how we can honor, inhabit, and integrate multiple traditions simultaneously with integrity
• On how to read Scripture so that it can surprise us and can tell us what we don't already know
• On what difference observing the liturgical season of Lent might mean for the disinherited

Get Dr. McCaulley's new book: https://www.ivpress.com/lent-fts 

More about Dr. McCaulley: https://esaumccaulley.com/ 

Read my review of Reading While Black: https://inallthings.org/exercising-hope-a-review-of-reading-while-black/