Mere Fidelity

Send us Fan Mail Friend of the show, Pastor Timothy Keller, has entered into glory. He was a pivotal player in Evangelicalism over the last generation, and a great encourager of many ministers, including the cast and crew of Mere Fidelity. To pay tribute to his life and legacy, Derek, Alastair, and Matt talk to Editor-in-Chief of Mere Orthodoxy, Jake Meador. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com...

Send us Fan Mail Lectio Divina is a popular form of prayer using the reading of Scripture as a means of encountering God. While its origins are in Christian tradition, Lectio Divina is sometimes associated with a kind of individualistic loose spirituality. Dr. Hans Boersma, however, makes a strong case for its use in the devotional lives of faithful Christians. Alastair, Matt, and Derek probe his...

Send us Fan Mail Why do we need creeds? What are they for? Isn't Scripture enough? Dr. Phillip Cary has a very useful and smart book introducing the Nicene Creed to not only a wider audience, but take those of us who say the Creed every week even deeper into this summary of the Christian faith. In this conversation Alastair and Matt talk with Dr. Cary about the basics and about the finer poin...

Send us Fan Mail Josh Butler caused a big ruckus when an excerpt from his latest book was posted on a prominent Christian website. His approach using sex to talk about God drew a lot of criticism. The Mere Fi cast have a few criticisms of their own. Andrew, Matt, and Alastair discuss it all quite candidly with Josh himself in this episode of Mere Fidelity. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com....

Send us Fan Mail Christ is risen indeed! In this Easter season, Matt, Alastair, and Derek turn their attention to one of the most intriguing questions ever asked by Christians, namely, what exactly will our resurrection bodies be like? The answer may be more provocative than you think. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com. Timestamps: Good Question? [0:00] Not That Kind of Resurrection [4:13] N...

Send us Fan Mail How can we humans form a conception of God, Who is infinitely beyond our capacity for understanding? Analogies! They're at least as great as sliced bread. But using analogies is like playing with fire. Each one is a path that can lead us into the light of truth and over the cliff of delusion. Fortunately, Mere Fidelity has its own elite team of theological sleuths. On this ep...

Send us Fan Mail Neo-Calvinism is in the air. But is it theologically relevant or merely a political phenomenon? Or did the Americans just mess it up? Cory Brock and Gray Sutanto join Matt, Derek, and Alastair to make the case for Neo-Calvinism and discuss their new book on the subject. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com. Timestamps: Family Friendly [0:00] More than Politics [2:10] Misunderst...

Send us Fan Mail When students started turning in papers written by artificial intelligence, educators were caught flat-footed. We knew that machines would replace many human tasks, but we thought the humanities were immune to that. Have our writing standards fallen so low that we can no longer write better than computers? Or are we about to experience the awakening of Artificial Consciousness? Ma...

Send us Fan Mail On this episode of Mere Fidelity, historian of history Paul Gutacker joins Matt, Derek, and Alastair to talk about the changing and sometimes fraught relationship that Protestants have had with the notions of "history" and "tradition." Paul's book, The Old Faith in a New Nation, particularly examines how nineteenth century debates about slavery, etc., infl...

Send us Fan Mail What would you do with a billion dollars to strengthen the Western Church? The question is straightforward enough, but the answers are where it gets interesting. The full Mere Fi cast and crew (Andrew, Matt, Derek, and Alastair) put their heads together to figure out what project would move the needle most. Christian billionaires, pay attention! Full show notes at www.merefidelity...

Send us Fan Mail When you come across a passage of Scripture that just throws you for a loop, who do you go to for guidance? Matt turns to Alastair and Derek. Let the Mere Fi cast and crew be your Scriptural support group. Today we look at another passage from the Apostle Paul that just doesn't really sound like what we'd expect. Along the way we encounter the beasts of Revelation, ancie...

Send us Fan Mail These days, it seems nobody without a doctorate in biology knows how to tell men apart from women. How did it come to this? And what can be done about it? Andrew, Matt, and Alastair talk to Dr. Abigail Favale, author of The Genesis of Gender, about how the gender paradigm arose, swallowed the concept of sex (like a "giant Pac-Man monster"), and brought into question the...

Send us Fan Mail J.R.R. Tolkien is known as the language professor who created a fantasy world and constructed several languages for fun. However, those who get to know his writing and thought well discover that behind those seemingly frivolous projects lie deeply seeded theological ideas. And where better to discuss the intersection of theology and fiction than here on Mere Fidelity. Austin Freem...

Send us Fan Mail Why are so many Canadians choosing to make use of "medical assistance in dying" and ending their lives prematurely? The Mere Fidelity crew (including Alastair's new Plus One) tackle this vexing question and disturbing trend. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com. Timestamps: A Problem in Canada [0:00] The Situation [3:10] The Terminology [8:04] The Act Itself [14:...

Send us Fan Mail There is a passage in Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians that is so jarring some have doubted whether Paul could actually have written it. On its face it seems like an easy tool for antisemites to grab on to. Even Matt is having issues with these few verses. So he and Andrew and Alastair got together to talk about, Mere Fi style. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com....

Send us Fan Mail Learn more about Mere Orthodoxy at www.mereorthodoxy.com.

Send us Fan Mail At the end of each year, we like to take one episode of Mere Fidelity to give the hosts a chance to talk about their own projects and what has been their intellectual focus of the past year. We are blessed this year to have all four of the regular cast and crew together at once: Matt, Andrew, Alastair, and Derek. So listen in as they… [checks notes]… um… disagree over the first am...

Send us Fan Mail Talk of thankfulness pervades the Scriptures. But how well do we really understand the concept of gratitude. Matt has done some thinking about this recently with a fellow scholar from Biola University, Dr. Kent Dunnington. Along with Alastair, they tackle some tricky questions about gratitude. How should we understand the relationship between the gift and the giver? How important...

Send us Fan Mail Our times are fragmented. Political and cultural differences rage, even among people who otherwise show goodwill. But what if Scripture actually provides the key for thinking about unity in diversity? Dr. Richard Lints joins Matt and Alastair to explore the nature of diversity as he wrote in his new book, Uncommon Unity. There are no easy answers, but there is a lot of good discus...

Send us Fan Mail Every generation faces the temptation to wander from orthodoxy and to drift with cultural currents. So every generation must be awakened again to the thrill of orthodoxy, and experience the astonishment that comes from stumbling afresh upon the electrifying paradoxes at the heart of the Christian faith. Trevin Wax wants to turn the tables on those who believe Christian teaching is...

Send us Fan Mail When one advocates for good practices that are quite old and abandoned, these things that have been forgotten can seem new and radical. Peter Leithart returns to Mere Fidelity to discuss the vision and principles of the Theopolis Institute, especially as written in his new book, On Earth as in Heaven. The book is large but it reads well as a manifesto of how the church and the Bib...

Send us Fan Mail For generations of evangelicals lacking good catechesis, Martin Luther is often seen as a primitive, unsophisticated, or backwards reformer. Into this negative environment, Dr. Todd Hains is bringing forth the richness of Luther's thought and Lutheranism's tradition. There is so much more than just justification by faith. Alastair and Matt discuss with Dr. Hains his late...

Send us Fan Mail What counts as doing God's mission? How do we measure the success of Christian mission? It's very tempting to turn it into a numbers game, or to rely on our own strategies. But Dr. Michael Niebauer has written the Mere Fidelity Book of the Month about this very topic. Matt and Alastair examine with him this very crucial aspect of our Christian life. Full show notes at ww...

Send us Fan Mail In light of the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the two British and one Canadian member of the Mere Fidelity cast & crew ruminate upon the peculiarities, virtues, weaknesses, generalities, and specificities of the institution of the British monarchy. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com.

Send us Fan Mail What are the limits of introspection as a Christian discipline? Is introspection advocated in Scripture? When you listen in silence to the voice inside you, is there a danger in paying attention to it? Alastair, Derek, and Matt take up these questions and more. Full show notes at www.merefidelity.com.