A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a Bar
A pastor and a philosopher explore the intersections of theology, philosophy, and spirituality through casual conversation and interviews. Randy Knie, lead pastor of Brew City Church in Milwaukee, and Kyle Whitaker, a philosophy PhD, discuss topics that bridge faith and philosophical inquiry. They also bring in guests to help tackle the divide between their interests. The show mixes approachable dialogue with deeper questions about belief, disagreement, and meaning.
Episodes
Live Laugh Love
Text us your questions!We sit down with Kristin Kobes Du Mez to talk about her new book Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made. We discuss how what looks like consumer fluff often hides a dense system of theology, discipline, and power. If you grew up around evangelical culture, charismatic spirituality, Christian bookstores, or influencer Christianity
Faith and Unbelief
Text us your questions!Randy and Kyle get brutally honest about the moment doubt stops feeling like “questions” and starts feeling like unbelief, including what it’s like to say that out loud when you’re a pastor with a church, a family, and a job that takes for granted that you believe in God.We dig into the philosophy and the lived spirituality behind the words we toss around too easily: belief,
Prayer After Certainty
Text us your questions!Prayer can fall apart slowly. One day you are sure your words move heaven, and eventually you can't tell if you're talking to anyone at all. We return to the topic of prayer to discuss what happens when it stops feeling natural, when the old charismatic certainty no longer fits, and when trying to pray the way you used to would feel performative instead of real.We
Sacred Play: Exploring Music, Sports, and Spirituality with David Gungor
Text us your questions!We wanted something different from our usual fare, so we invited musician David Gungor to help us see spirituality through an artist’s eyes: beauty, story, woundedness, and play. What starts as a talk about music becomes an exploration of navigating Christian deconstruction, church hurt, and the fear that life’s best days might already be gone.David shares his pastor’s kid u
Republicans Want to Win. Democrats Want to Be Right.
Text us your questions!Democrats can pass huge bills and still lose the argument with the people those bills are meant to help. That’s the tension we dig into with Chuck Rocha, a longtime Democratic strategist, Bernie Sanders alum, and proud “Mexican redneck” from East Texas who learned politics through factory work and union life. He comes in hot on one theme: voters don’t just weigh policies, th
Pastor As Gardener (Part 2)
Text us your questions!We continue our conversation with pastor and author Matt Erickson of Eastbrook Church in Milwaukee. The job of many pastors feels like that of a CEO, with a focus on leadership strategy and the "three Bs": buildings, budgets, and butts in seats. This conversation offers a slower, deeper, and more hopeful way to think about church health, discipleship, and long-term
Is Pastoring More Like a Startup or a Garden?
Text us your questions!Randy and Kyle sit down with Milwaukee pastor and author Matt Erickson to explore a different vision of pastoral ministry: not the pastor as CEO, brand manager, or religious expert, but the pastor as gardener. Matt’s book, The Pastor as Gardener: A Renewed Vision for Ministry, grows out of real ministry pressure, including moral failures, church decline, the pandemic, and th
Why Preston Sprinkle Changed His Mind On Women Pastors
Text us your questions!We talk with Preston Sprinkle about his book From Genesis to Junia and the long road from a John MacArthur shaped complementarian framework to an egalitarian view that affirms women teaching, preaching, and leading in the church.We dig into the passages that always show up in this debate (especially 1 Timothy 2, along with Paul’s wider world), but we keep pulling the camera
Trump, Iran, and Where This All Might Be Headed: A Conversation With Mike Madrid
Text us your questions!The news cycle is moving so fast it’s training us to forget. We invited Mike Madrid, a longtime classical conservative political strategist, commentator, and Lincoln Project cofounder, back on the show to help us slow down and put the recent chaos into perspective.We start with crisis fatigue and the “flood the zone” feeling, then get concrete with the Minneapolis ICE crackd
Thinking About Nature With Brian McLaren
Text us your questions!Prayer doesn’t always happen in a church. Sometimes it happens under streetlights or beside old trees. We open with Randy’s simple practice of late night walks and how nature has slowly become the place where his spirituality feels dynamic again. That shift also brings a collision with old religious instincts: the inner voice that says connection is dangerous, that wonder is
Bart Ehrman: Is Jesus Responsible for Our Moral Common Sense?
Text us your questions!Bart Ehrman, an atheist New Testament scholar with a penchant for annoying evangelicals, now claims that the teachings of Jesus determined the moral instincts of the West. Bart joins us to talk about his new book Love Thy Stranger and why acts of care for immigrants, refugees, and people outside “our tribe” may be downstream of Jesus, even when the people doing the caring do
Human Is The New Vinyl: Micah Voraritskul
Text us your questions!AI can now generate essays, photos, songs, and video that look real enough to fool experts. This impacts how and whether humans can trust one another, and it’s already reshaping how we learn, create, and relate to each other.Kyle sits down with Micah Voraritskul, author of Human Is the New Vinyl: Why Human Creativity Still Wins in the AI Revolution, to unpack why the vinyl c
A Live Conversation on the Church, Healing, and Truth-Telling With David Gushee and Keri Ladouceur
Text us your questions!We recorded this live gathering in Chicago with the Post Evangelical Collective, and it still feels uncomfortably current. Alongside Dr. David Gushee and Keri Ladouceur (director of the PEC), we sit with a question that haunts a lot of post-evangelical and progressive Christian spaces: how do you keep loving the church after trauma, public rejection, and the weaponizing of G
Backyard Update
Text us your questions!We're still here! Stay tuned.=====Want to support us?The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.If you'd rather make a one-time donation, you can contribute through our PayPal.Other important info:Rate & review us on Apple & SpotifyFollow us on social media at @PPWBPodcastWatch & comment on YouTubeEm
Power, Love, and What God Can’t Do: More on Omnipotence With Tom Oord and Chris Lilley
Text us your questions!What kind of God is worth trusting when life falls apart? We pull up a chair with Thomas Jay Oord and guest Chris Lilley for a spirited, vulnerable conversation about omnipotence, evil, and why love may be the only measure of divine power that doesn’t betray our moral core. The stakes are high: beliefs about God’s power shape how we face suffering, talk to our kids about hop
Motives, Meaning, and the Enneagram with Jeff Cook
Text us your questions!Our friend Jeff Cook—writer, podcaster, and Enneagram systems thinker—is back with us to discuss his recent book (volume 1 of a series because of course it is): about the Enneagram. (See our first conversation from S03E26 here.)Jeff explains how the Enneagram names the “why” beneath our choices, conflicts, faith, and love. Randy shares how the framework has sharpened his sel
Miroslav Volf: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse
Text us your questions!Is the drive to be better than others making us worse? We talk with theologian Miroslav Volf about his book The Cost of Ambition and explore why comparison-based striving saturates our schools, churches, workplaces, and politics. Volf separates healthy aspiration from superiority-seeking and makes a compelling case for excellence without domination, rooted in agape, i.e., un
How Latino Voters Are Reshaping American Politics
Text us your questions!We talk with political strategist, author, and Lincoln Project member Mike Madrid about data, culture, and why both parties keep getting the Latino vote wrong.Mike takes us inside the Lincoln Project’s 2020 strategy and the personal costs of resisting Trumpism, then draws a sharp line between principled conservatism and punitive nationalist populism. From energy policy to bo
What Conservative LGBTQ+ Christians Can Teach Us About Love
Text us your questions!Dawne Moon and Theresa Tobin are back to discuss their book Choosing Love, which represents the culmination of their research over the last several years into the community of conservative LGBTQ+ Christians. This book expands on many of the topics we covered in our first conversation while adding insightful material on the varied ways this community understands their conserv
Deconstructing the Culture Wars with Laurie Johnson
Text us your questions!What happens when political labels lose their meaning? Dr. Laurie Johnson, political philosopher and president of the Maurin Academy, joins us to unpack the tangled roots of America's culture wars and explore pathways toward overcoming our divisions. We discuss her book The Gap in God's Country: A Longer View on Our Culture Wars.The conversation begins with a clari
Reframing the Bible with Zach Lambert
Text us your questions!Ready to transform your relationship with the Bible? Zach Lambert, pastor of Restore Church in Austin and author of Better Ways to Read the Bible, offers a healing pathway for those wounded by scripture in this candid conversation.Growing up in a Southern Baptist megachurch during the "fundamentalist takeover," Lambert experienced firsthand how the Bible can be wea
Do You Still Pray?
Text us your questions!What happens to prayer after you rethink religion and spirituality? Does it feel empty, confusing, or even impossible? If so, you're not alone.In this episode, the three of us discuss our journeys from structured, wordy, and sometimes demonstrative prayer lives to something altogether different. Randy reflects on his charismatic past where intercessory prayer dominated
Gender, Faith, and Privilege after Transitioning: Paula Stone Williams
Text us your questions!What happens when a successful religious leader transitions genders and loses everything? Reverend Dr. Paula Stone Williams takes us on her extraordinary journey from privilege to authenticity.Paula once stood at the pinnacle of evangelical success – CEO of a large nonprofit, television host, magazine editor. But beneath this accomplished exterior lived a truth she'd kn
Adding to the Good Pile: Women's Ordination and the Role of the Pastor's Wife with Beth Allison Barr
Text us your questions!How did the role of "pastor's wife" replace ordination for women in church history? Is the news that there was women's ordination in church history hitting you unexpectedly right now? It's cool, we get it; take a moment and come back when you're ready.Historian and actual pastor's wife Beth Allison Barr returns for a potentially revelatory
Sexual Ethics, Queer Theology, & Responding to Critics: Matthew Vines (Part 2)
Text us your questions!Matthew Vines returns to discuss how the revised edition of his book addresses critiques from prominent theologians, the distinction between affirming theology and queer theology, and the possibility of affirming, orthodox Christianity.Matthew unpacks the scholarly consensus that modern sexual orientation concepts simply didn't exist in biblical times—a fact many promin
Pope Francis' Legacy: A Global Church in Transition
Text us your questions!Pope Francis, a man who inspired even many Protestants and non-Christians with his refreshingly prophetic voice, has died. The process to select his successor is ongoing as we release this. To help us understand what's happening, as well as its historical significance, we're talking with our friend and returning guest Shaun Blanchard, a Catholic theologian and theo
Does the Bible Affirm LGB Relationships? Interview with Matthew Vines (Part 1)
Text us your questions!Matthew Vines is here to discuss the revised and expanded edition of his influential book God and the Gay Christian, marking eleven years since its initial release. The book sent shockwaves through evangelical Christianity and remains a powerful and compelling case for an affirming reading of the Bible for those who want to hold onto biblical authority (if you're counti
We Need to Talk About It
Text us your questions!This is a conversation we've been avoiding: how are we doing now that Donald Trump is president again? As we had a break between interviews, we decided to try to unpack how we're feeling, what we're doing, what we've learned about ourselves, and what we're worried and hopeful about.This is an unusually impromptu and unpolished conversation for us. We
Re-Release - Outrage Porn, Echo Chambers, and the Seduction of Clarity: Interview with C. Thi Nguyen
Text us your questions!This is a re-release of an episode from our second season when we spoke with philosopher C Thi Nguyen. We think it bears re-listening in our current moment.=====What happens when we seek simple answers in a complex world? Philosopher C Thi Nguyen takes us into the machinery of belief, understanding, and value formation, exploring how we navigate information landscapes design
What Happens When You're Done with Religion Altogether?
Text us your questions!What happens when the foundation of your identity crumbles beneath you? When the lens through which you understood the world no longer works? Psychologist Dr. Daryl Van Tongeren joins us to explore this profound transition that one-fifth of Americans have experienced—leaving religion behind.Drawing from eight years of groundbreaking research across multiple countries, Van To
Unpacking Open and Relational Theology: Interview with Tom Oord
Text us your questions!Tom Oord is back! This time, we're discussing his "main thing": open and relational theology. We explore what it means and its significance in reshaping our understanding of God, love, prayer, and more. Tom answers our questions graciously, and we try to convince Randy that he's wrong.How is open and relational theology different from classical theism? Wh
Will Deconstructing End My Marriage? A Conversation with Keri Ladouceur
Text us your questions!This episode explores the complexities of spiritual evolution and its impact on marriages and relationships. Our friend Keri Ladouceur shares her wisdom, and we discuss stories of navigating changing faith and the strain it can place on intimate partnerships. We cover how questioning beliefs impacts relationships, emotional labor amidst change, the stigma and fear surroundin
When Seeking Jesus Drives You Out of the Church: Interview with Scot McKnight & Tommy Preson Phillips
Text us your questions!Faith deconstruction has become a defining trend in American Christianity, and disagreement persists about what’s driving it. In this episode, we talk with Scot McKnight and Tommy Preson Phillips about their book Invisible Jesus, which considers why so many Christians are critically re-examining their faith. Rather than treating deconstruction as a problem to be solved, they
Nicholas Ma on Division, Vulnerability, and Doing What You Can
Text us your questions!This is one of our favorite interviews we've ever done. Nicholas Ma (son of famed cellist Yo-Yo Ma) is a filmmaker best known for producing the 2018 documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? about Fred Rogers. We speak with him about his latest documentary Leap of Faith, which follows a group of Christian pastors from diverse sociocultural and demographic backgrounds i
Re-Release - Holy Balls: Power, Masculinity, and the Making of White American Evangelicalism with Kristin Kobes Du Mez
Text us your questions!This is a re-release of an episode from our first season: our first conversation with Kristin Kobes Du Mez, which happened to fall just after January 6, 2021. It seems fitting to revisit it now.=====In this episode, we chat with Kristin Kobes Du Mez about her book that's been making waves and is brilliantly titled Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a
Brian Zahnd on The Brothers Karamazov
Text us your questions!Brian Zahnd is back with us to discuss his favorite novel, Fyodor Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. Brian is starting a public online course going through the book, which is notoriously philosophically and theologically rich, so we thought it would be fun to have him on to discuss its major themes and why it has been so influential in his life. We cover Dostoevsky&ap
Jonathan Merritt on Family, Evangelicalism, and Children's Books
Text us your questions!Jonathan Merritt joins us to discuss his children's book My Guncle and Me. We also discuss what it was like to grow up with a dad who was the president of the SBC, his experience being involuntarily outed, and how to maintain relationships across serious ideological and personal divides.=====Want to support us?The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual membersh
Chatting about Church with Brian McLaren and Tim Whitaker
Text us your questions!This episode was recorded live at Theology Beer Camp 2024. We sat down with Brian McLaren and Tim Whitaker (from The New Evangelicals podcast) to discuss Brian's history in the emerging church movement, the current progressive religious movement (of which we're a part), the Christian nationalist backlash, and our political moment. For those of us who think of ourse
Q&A Bonus Episode: The Soul
Text us your questions!Jeff Cook is back with us to dive deeper into our conversation from a while back about the soul and why Kyle is a materialist (and why Randy thinks he's silly for it). We discuss the difference between the claim that God is non-physical and the claim that humans are, Jeff's reservations about materialism, the mystery of the Incarnation and Christ's dual nature
Kristin Kobes Du Mez on Her New Film For Our Daughters
Text us your questions!After more than three years, Kristin Kobes Du Mez is back on the show to discuss her new short film For Our Daughters, which examines the connection between the culture of submission and sexual abuse within the evangelical church and the Christian nationalist effort to influence the 2024 presidential election. It tells harrowing stories of survival and coverup and puts a spo
Evolution + Christianity, Part II: An Interview w/ Dr. Jim Stump
Text us your questions!More Jim Stump!We hope you loved Part I of our conversation with Dr. Jim Stump as much we did. Here's Part II! In this one, we talk about the problem of evil and more about AI. Also...aliens! Seriously.Cheers!=====Want to support us?The best way is to subscribe to our Patreon. Annual memberships are available for a 10% discount.If you'd rather make a one-time donat
Evolution + Christianity, Part I: An Interview w/ Dr. Jim Stump
Text us your questions!Are Christianity and evolution compatible? Can a person trust God and trust science at the same time? Jim Stump wrote a book called The Sacred Chain: How Understanding Evolution Leads to Deeper Faith, and we are very much here for it.In this interview, we chat about the Bible, science, evolution, the soul, afterlife, and many other juicy topics. We actually had so much to ta
Sarah McCammon on Exvangelicals
Text us your questions!Welcome to Season 5!We're joined by Sarah McCammon, a National Political Correspondent for NPR and author of The Exvangelicals, an insightful and empathetic look at the stories of those who have left white American evangelicalism. Sarah is also an exvangelical herself, so she has a unique perspective that blends both personal experience and rigorous journalism.The Exvan
The Book of Belonging: An Interview w/ Mariko Clark and Rachel Eleanor
Text us your questions!How do we grow and steward our children's spirituality when we've deconstructed so much of the spirituality that we were raised with? And even if we figure that out, how do we guide and encourage our kids on their spiritual journeys when there are so few quality resources and books that don't get all cheesy and cringe? We aren't the only ones asking these
The Bible, Evangelicalism, and Propaganda with Scott Coley
Text us your questions!Good, Bible-believing Christians should just automatically be Republicans. Everybody knows this.Have you heard that sort of argument or been led to believe that this is just the "biblical" way? If so, that probably means you've been given a hearty serving of propaganda. Our friend and philosopher Scott Coley wrote Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power and the
Pastors Behaving Badly with Sheila Gregoire
Text us your questions!Evangelical megachurch pastors saying cringe things is nothing new, right? However, there's a point when cringe turns destructive and abusive. That's what this episode is about.Dallas/Ft. Worth megachurch pastor Josh Howerton said some very ugly and destructive things, and then doubled down with a weak (plagiarized) apology. Our friend Sheila Gregoire has some powe
God, Goodness, and Choice: A Conversation with Bruce Reyes-Chow
Text us your questions!We speak with Bruce Reyes-Chow about his recent book Everything Good about God Is True, a primer on what it means to choose faith in the midst of a bleeding world and an often broken church. We discuss the Christian ethic of loving enemies, listening, having compassion across ideological division, embodying faith in the public square, biblical literalism, Christian formation
Q&A Bonus Episode: Corporate Deconstruction
Text us your questions!Jeff Cook is back with us to dive deeper into deconstruction, inspired by our interview with Keri Ladouceur, the Executive Director of the Post-Evangelical Collective. We discuss the nature of deconstruction, its corporate, personal, and ethical dimensions, and what it implies about what's next. And because we're nerds, we also touch on ecclesiology and postmoderni
Recovering Enchantment in a Secular Age: Interview with Richard Beck
Text us your questions!Psychologist and author Richard Beck joins us to discuss his recent book Hunting Magic Eels: Recovering an Enchanted Faith in a Skeptical Age. Richard is an engaging critic of some forms of contemporary "disenchanted" spirituality. He's also a fun dialogue partner and a good sport, who was willing to roll with Kyle's annoying philosophy questions. Some st
Is American Democracy in Danger? Interview with David Gushee
Text us your questions!David Gushee is back on the show to discuss his book Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies, an erudite, timely, and disturbing take on American democracy, its struggles with authoritarianism, and its place on the global political stage. We discuss such questions as: How are government and morality related? What does the United States have in common with France, Germ
Making Sense of Negative Theology: Peter Rollins, Part 2
Text us your questions!Believe it or not, this is our 100th episode! And what better way to spend it than diving back in with Peter Rollins, a guest who is unusually suited to the regular themes of our show, while also throwing some wrenches into pretty much everything we do. :-)Picking up with where we left off in Part 1, we explore the sense in which Pete is a trinitarian Christian, some differe
Disillusionment, Pyrotheology, and the Death of God: Peter Rollins, Part 1
Text us your questions!Break out your dictionaries folks, this one got in the weeds a bit. But if you're familiar with Peter Rollins, you're probably not too surprised by that. Peter is a philosopher, public intellectual, and self-described anti-guru who writes and speaks extensively about concepts like the death of God, negative theology, "pyrotheology," and Atheism for Lent.
Is Your Theology Too Small? A Conversation with Trey Ferguson
Text us your questions!Trey Ferguson of the New Living Treyslation and Three Black Men podcasts joins us to discuss his new book Theologizin' Bigger: Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly. We talk about the Bible, the difference between "theologizin'" and theology, the racial dynamics of deconstruction, why evangelicals are so obsessed with "facts," why they&apo
Is There a Soul?
Text us your questions!In this episode, Kyle and Randy discuss the philosophy of the soul and its implications for religious belief, the lived experience of faith, and even ethics. Kyle is a materialist, which means he thinks humans are physical objects, and Randy leans towards dualism, which involves belief in a soul or non-physical part of a human being. Are there any good arguments either way?
Randy Quit
Text us your questions!... drinking.This is a more personal episode for us, particularly for Randy. As you know, we like alcohol around here, especially whiskey. In this episode, we chat about that and the presence it's had on our podcast and in our lives.Can we have a "healthy relationship" with alcohol? What does that look like? How does that question get answered for each of us i
Changing Our Mind with David Gushee
Text us your questions!David Gushee is an influential Christian ethicist who famously changed his mind about LGBTQ Christians. His 2014 book Changing Our Mind (now in its third edition) has been celebrated and widely recommended as an honest and forceful reckoning with the ethical issues surrounding LGBTQ Christians and the church's complicity in their exclusion, neglect, and abuse. It is a p
Philosophy in the Wild: Aaron Simmons
Text us your questions!Philosopher Aaron Simmons joins us to discuss his new book Camping with Kierkegaard. It's all about living life in a way that is "worthy of your finitude," avoiding becoming an "asshole capitalist," and learning how to value the things in your life with the help of folks like Kierkegaard and Simone de Beauvoir. We discuss living faithfully, being pre
After Evangelicalism with Keri Ladouceur
Text us your questions!Where do we engage when we're done with evangelicalism, but we don't want to be done with the church? Thanks be to God, there are new signs of life springing up in the post-evangelical wasteland, and we're so here for it.Keri Ladouceur leads one of those hopeful spaces called the Post Evangelical Collective. Keri is the Executive Director of the PEC, has been
William Paul Young & Brad Jersak: Judgment, Wrath, Hell, and the God Who Is Love (Re-Release from S01E11)
Text us your questions!For New Year's, we're re-airing an episode from Season 1 in which we discuss God and love in the context of suffering, abuse, betrayal, and addiction with William Paul Young and Brad Jersak. It remains one of our most popular episodes to date, and we hope re-airing it will introduce it to new listeners. Enjoy! We'll be back on our regular schedule with new con
The Other Side of Advent with Brian Zahnd
Text us your questions!Merry Christmas! Brian Zahnd is back on the show to discuss his Christmas devotional The Anticipated Christ. We talk about why he's "trying to be religious," the difference between Christmas and Advent, the book of Isaiah, the Magnificat, what nonviolence has to do with Advent, the current Israel–Hamas war, and more.We also spend a few minutes at the end just
Theology, Race, and Inclusion: An Interview w/ Dr. Willie James Jennings
Text us your questions!This is such a rich conversation. Dr. Willie James Jennings is an incredible theologian who teaches Systematic Theology and Africana Studies at Yale Divinity School. Dr. Jennings has written influential books like, The Christian Imagination: Theology and Origins of Race, After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, and a groundbreaking commentary on the book of Acts, among a
Theology from the Margins: An Interview w/ Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim
Text us your questions!How do you process your identity and theology if you feel invisible as a person? What if your story, history, and experience are largely rejected and excluded from the culture you're a part of? How does that shape the way you see God and the world?Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim is a Korean-American theologian who works in liberation and feminist theology and wrote the book Invisi
Q&A Bonus Episode: The Problem of Evil
Text us your questions!Jeff joins us to ask some questions about evil and get into the philosophical weeds a bit. What is the connection between God's nature and suffering? Can we say that suffering is meaningless? What was up with Leibniz? And a lot more.If you'd like to ask a question about a recent episode to be featured on one of these bonus segments, email us at pastorandphilosopher
How Liberals, Progressives, Feminists, and Black and LGBTQ People Got Kicked Out of Evangelicalism
Text us your questions!We discuss the history of evangelicalism with Isaac B. Sharp. Or rather, the alternative history of evangelicalism, for it differs in some significant ways from what you may have heard about how evangelicalism in America developed, and how most of us understand what it is today. Would it surprise you to learn there were once proud theologically liberal evangelicals? That the
The Problem of Evil (Part 2)
Text us your questions!We wrap our discussion of evil and suffering with a look at some other sorts of responses to the problem and a reflection on where we land personally. If you haven't heard part 1, start there first.Due to the subject and the tone of this conversation, these episodes do not include a beverage tasting.Content note: this conversation includes discussion of evil and sufferi
The Problem of Evil (Part 1)
Text us your questions!How can people who believe in a good God account for the existence of pervasive suffering and evil? This is the oldest and most powerful objection to both belief in God's existence and religious practice, and it has been the subject of philosophical discussion and theological speculation spanning many religious traditions for thousands of years. We've run into it i
Q&A Bonus Episode: AI and God
Text us your questions!Elliot has a few more questions about AI following our conversation with Derek Schuurman. Is AI a Tower of Babel moment? Is there any real reason for concern? Will it go so great that it makes us all soft? If you could live forever, would you? What about the end of the world? Big questions! We do our best for answering on the fly. If you'd like to ask a question about a
The AI Takeover: A Conversation w/ Dr. Derek C. Schuurman
Text us your questions!The rise of artificial intelligence has happened at a startlingly rapid rate, and it seems like it's only accelerating by the month. Whether it's AI writing (plagiarizing) college papers and lazy pastors' sermons, potentially curing horrific diseases, making fake humans, or taking over the world, we all have an endless amount of questions when it comes to wha
Q&A Bonus Episode: Evangelicals, Nationalism, Guns, and Masculinity
Text us your questions!Our friend Jeff Cook joins us for a new Q&A segment to reflect on our conversation with Rob Schenck (see parts 1 and 2 of that conversation here and here). This is our second installment of what will become a regular bonus segment with Jeff unpacking the content of certain episodes. You can hear the first installment, on LQBTQ affirmation and the church, at our Patreon (
Christians and Guns: A Conversation with Rob Schenck (Part 2)
Text us your questions!In the second part of our interview with Rob Schenck, a former Washington insider and heavy hitter in the evangelical pro-life lobbying industry, we discuss gun culture among American Christians and how asking questions about it ultimately cost him the organization he built and led for decades and led to him being ostracized by longtime friends and colleagues. Why are so man
Abortion and American Nationalist Religion: A Conversation with Rob Schenck (Part 1)
Text us your questions!Season 4 is here! To kick it off, we've got a 2-parter for you with Rob Schenck, a former Washington insider and heavy hitter in the evangelical Christian lobbying industry. Rob was an influential voice in the pro-life movement for decades, but lost his position, and his funding, when he began to question the consistency of the evangelical position on guns with their st
January 6, White Christian Nationalism, and How We Got Here, with Bradley Onishi
Text us your questions!We speak with Dr. Bradley Onishi, a religion scholar whose latest book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next, explores the rise of the extremist religious right in America and its evolution from the 1960s through the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.We discuss his personal transformation from conservative C
The Meeting That Changed the Church
Text us your questions!Many Protestants don't understand or appreciate how transformational Vatican II was for the Catholic Church and the whole global Christian Church in general. Our friend and Catholic theologian Shaun Blanchard co-wrote a book called Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction. In this episode, we chat with Shaun about the size, scope, and impact of Vatican II in the 1960s, and
Arguing About the Enneagram
Text us your questions!If you're an American evangelical or used to be, there's a good chance you've heard of the Enneagram. You may have even run into it in another context or heard about it from friends who are really into personality tests. We've discussed it briefly on the show before, and we've wanted to eventually give it its own episode because Randy has found it re
Why the Church Should Be LGBTQ+ Affirming With Tom and Alexa Oord
Text us your questions!Tom Oord is back! Dr. Thomas Oord and his daughter Alexa compiled and edited a book called Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming." We wanted to talk to them about the book because everyone in the church (not just the Church of the Nazarene) is talking about human sexuality and whether or not the church should be LGBTQ+ affirming. LGBTQ+ inclus
Is God All Powerful? A Conversation with Thomas Jay Oord
Text us your questions!We speak with theologian and philosopher (and former pastor) Thomas Jay Oord about his new book The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence. We cover Tom's objections to the classical idea that God is all powerful, including that it's unbiblical, philosophically unsound, and makes the problem of evil impossible to solve.It's a fun interview and Tom is
Certainty, Hell, Evil, and Universalism: A Conversation with Keith DeRose
Text us your questions!If you heard our recent episode on hell and universalism, you may recall that Randy mentioned having Keith DeRose, a philosopher at Yale, on the show at some point to respond to some of the objections Kyle had to universalism (the idea that everyone is eventually reconciled to God). Well, we reached out to Keith and he graciously agreed to chat with us. Our conversation cove
Rescuing Sex and Raising Girls: Sheila Gregoire
Text us your questions!Sheila Gregoire is an author who has written several books that break the mold of Christian books about sex and marriage. Her latest book, She Deserves Better, is about raising girls as followers of Christ in ways that leave purity culture and teaching about modesty in the dust while showing us a better way. We also talked to Sheila about her 2021 book The Great Sex Rescue,
How the Brain Constructs Reality: Interview with Andy Clark
Text us your questions!Every now and then we like to talk to someone who is an expert in something we know almost nothing about. What better topic than philosophy and neuroscience? Andy Clark is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex, and is a well-known voice within philosophy of mind, pushing the boundaries of how we conceive of the brain, its connections with our environm
Redeeming Revelation w/ Scot McKnight
Text us your questions!Do you keep a healthy distance between yourself and the book of Revelation? Have a loved one who believes super weird things about Revelation? If so, you're in good company. Scot McKnight wrote a brilliant book called Revelation for the Rest of Us that turns all of those weird ways of interpreting Revelation on their heads and shows us what Revelation truly is. It turn
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