OnScript

Episode: Does God have a body? Did the New Testament writers think that God has a body? Brittany Wilson says, Yes! Her study of Luke-Acts challenges assumptions that God is inherently invisible and incorporeal, and draws multiple lines of connection between images of an embodied God from the Old Testament and similar images in the New Testament. This wide-ranging and engaging conversation draws fr...

Episode: How has the church's understanding of salvation grown and shifted over time? What are common misunderstandings that Catholics and Protestants have about salvation? How has this impacted the church? And what is the future of justification as that connects to ecumenical efforts? Eminent church historian Alister McGrath (University of Oxford) has been research and writing about the history o...

Episode: In this episode we talk with Dr. Leopoldo A. Sánchez M. He is the Werner R.H. and Elizabeth R. Krause Professor of Hispanic Ministries at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, where he serves as professor of systematic theology and director of the Center for Hispanic Studies. His newest book is  Sculptor Spirit: Models of Sanctification from Spirit Christology (IVP, 2019). In our conversation, w...

OnScript is pleased to announce that we have a new theology co-host. Please welcome Jules Martínez-Olivieri to the podcast! Jules will start this fall as Milton B. Engebretson Chair in Evangelism and Justice at North Park Theological Seminary in Chicago. Most recently he has served as Associate Professor of Theology and Director of the Masters in Theological Studies at Trinity International Univer...

Episode: Proverbs is one of the most misunderstood books in the Old Testament. It's often treated as a self-help guide or as a collection of promises. Dominick Hernández challenges us to understand the literary qualities of Proverbs, as well as its function within the biblical canon. The episode also talks about some of the personal experiences that shape Hernández's reading of Proverbs. The episo...

Episode: In the opening pages of her new book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood (Brazos, 2021), Beth Allison Barr writes, “This was my understanding of biblical womanhood: God designed women primarily to be submissive wives, virtuous mothers, and joyful homemakers. God designed men to lead in the homes as husbands and fathers, as well as in church as pastors, elders, and deacons. I believed that t...

Episode: Walter Brueggemann is on the show to talk about his life as a biblical scholar, as well as his recent book Delivered Out of Empire - Pivotal Moments in the Book of Exodus (WJK Press, 2021).  Guest: Walter Brueggemann is surely one of the most influential Bible interpreters of our time. He is the author of over  one hundred books  and numerous scholarly articles. He has been a highly sough...

Episode: After being forgotten for over 3000 years, the ancient city of Ugarit was rediscovered by archaeologists in 1929. Perhaps the greatest find from the site was the stash of over 2500 texts written in the ancient language of Ugaritic, texts which illuminated the history of the ancient world and the life of the local inhabitants.  Join hosts Mary Buck and Chris McKinny as they discuss the anc...

Episode: This episode discusses whether it's possible to recover scenes from the Israel/Merneptah Stele, as well as cutting edge technology at Karnak, Egypt. Hosts:  Chris McKinny ( Gesher Media ) and Mark Janzen (Louisiana College)  Summary: In this episode, Chris and Mark discuss the following: becoming an Egyptologist and the role of Egyptology in biblical studies; Karnak Temple - the most impr...

Episode: This inaugural Biblical World episode takes a deep dive into the archaeological background of King Hezekiah’s religious reform (2 Kgs 18:4). Hosts:  Chris McKinny ( Gesher Media ) and Oliver Hersey ( Jerusalem University College )  Episode Summary:  In this episode, Chris and Oliver discuss the following:  The historical background of Assyrian interactions with Israel and Judah in the lat...

Episode: Though Peter was the rock of the early church, why has Paul dominated New Testament scholarship? Part of the answer lies in the controversies surrounding the Gospels' portrayals of Peter, questions about the authenticity of his epistles, and the specious reception of his speeches in Acts. Yet, despite those problems, Gene Green believes that Peter's voice, his theological and influence, a...

Episode:  I was leaving the South to fling myself into the unknown... I was taking a part of the South to transplant in alien soil, to see if it could grow differently, if it could drink of new and cool rains, bend in strange winds, respond to the warmth of other suns and, perhaps, to bloom. (Richard Wright, Black Boy) The sentiment of Wright's words is one that resonates deeply with immigrants ev...

Episode: Christians in the West go to great lengths to avoid direct contact with death, and as a result of this death avoidance, we avoid the hope and fullness of life. J. Todd Billings argues that "true hope does not involve closing over the wound of death," but instead, facing death and human mortality directly. In this episode Todd discusses his own confrontation with mortality through a cancer...

Episode: Trees are people too! While this claim may come as a surprise to many listeners, it's familiar territory for biblical authors. Trees, mountains, skies, plants ... all of these bear the capacity for relationships of responsiveness with humans, animals, and most significantly, God. Dr. Mari Joerstad explores the rich array of texts in the Hebrew Bible that express the land's personhood, it'...

Windrider Productions Episode: Generativity over usefulness and efficiency. Making versus fixing. The "new newness" of Redemption and New Creation. In this episode artist, writer, and speaker Makoto Fujimura joins co-host Amy Hughes to discuss his new book  Art + Faith: A Theology of Making . Depending on one's church tradition, the role of art in the theological endeavor can span the range from f...

Episode: Paul's missionary travels stopped in Rome, but is that where they should end? Dr. Ervine Sheblatzm is back on the show to give a firm "Nein!" Listen to a fascinating and wide-ranging discussion of the many ways that Paul's theology of universalism applies to all, and how Paul's work can be carried forward into the future. Dr. Sheblatzm claims that "Paul's theology may have surprises for u...

Episode: What happens when Dallas Willard, Wendell Berry, and James K. A. Smith walk into a bar to discuss Paul and the Good Life? Join Julien C. H. Smith and co-host Matt Bates as they explore the social and political world of Scripture, with a special eye for how Paul's vision of ideal kingship shaped his ideas about the gospel and salvation. The Book: Julien C. H. Smith, Paul and the Good Life:...

Episode: Dru Johnson talks with Clinton Bailey about how he ended up living with Bedouins in the Negev, their law, gender practices, and poetry. His most recent book, Bedouin Culture in the Bible (Yale University Press, 2019) , examines and explains practices, poetry, and laws from the Hebrew Bible's own bedouin roots (according to the stories of Genesis). Guest: Dr. Clinton Bailey is a leading au...

Episode: Was there death and violence before the Fall? Was there cancer before? Did lions go after gazelles before the Fall? Bethany Sollereder says yes, yes, and yes. So what, if anything, changed in creation through the Fall? This episode probes the question of animal suffering throughout the evolutionary process, as well as the theological implications of death in the pre-Fall world. Guest: Bet...

Episode: Returning to the theme of interviewing young and upcoming scholars, the cutting edge of the cutting edge, in this episode Chris Tilling talks with Andrew Rillera, a PhD candidate in NT at Duke University. Chris talks with Andrew about his background as a Jehovah’s Witness and what got him into biblical studies, how to identify when Paul is quoting from someone else in his letters and some...

Episode: This episode covers Paul, m/f, hermeneutics, theology, and all the things. Lucy Peppiatt helps us think through the challenging issues at play in 1 Corinthians 11, territory we covered in a previous episode with Michael Lakey , but this time from a different angle. Lucy has thought long and hard about this passage, and talks with Matt L. about some of her groundbreaking work. This episode...

Episode: Was Jesus opposed to the purity system? Was he a revolutionary who challenged religious anxieties over uncleanness? Matthew Thiessen joins us to discuss these questions, and to help us rethink assumptions about the relationship between Jesus and Israel's longstanding purity system. This episode discusses Jesus' confrontation with demonic impurity and ritual impurity, his relationship to t...

Episode: In this episode, Jason A. Myers and Ben Witherington III will help orient you to some of the major perspectives on Paul within contemporary New Testament scholarship. Tune in for rich conversation on N. T. Wright's work, covenant theology, authorship in the Pauline corpus, Paul within Judaism,  critiques/assessments of apocalyptic readings of Paul, and much more that arises from Withering...

Episode: What is salvation? What does it mean that Christ frees us? What is liberation theology? Why is there such a fuss about liberation theology anyway? In this episode, Dr. Jules Martinez-Olivieri joins co-host Amy Hughes to talk about his work on Christology and liberation and participation. Guest: Jules A. Martinez-Olivieri, PhD., is an Associate Professor of Theology and Director of the Mas...

Episode: Mark and Luke Glanville bring their unique areas of expertise in biblical studies and international relations to bear on the pressing global refugee crisis. This episode covers everything from local to international issues, personal stories and politics, and the transformative biblical concept of kinship. This episode will provoke and stir you to action! Guests: Mark R. Glanville (PhD, Br...