Gravity Commons Podcast

We talked with podcaster, theology nerd, and former pastor Josh Patterson about leaving the pastorate, starting his (Re)thinking Faith podcast, working a "secular" job, and why he's looking forward to Theology Beer Camp (Oct 17-19 in Denver - join us and register using our code GRAVITYHOBBIT to get $50 off registration!). Joshua Patterson is the founder and host of the (Re)thinking Fai...

We continue our series with Jon DePue (co-author of  Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel ) about how to interpret specific scripture passages and theological ideas in the new "liberated" way he outlines in the book. Today we talk about "faith" - what does Paul actually mean when he talks about faith? What does it mean for us to have faith? Jon DePue is a graduate of Duke...

We talked with podcaster and theology nerd Tripp Fuller about the history, mistakes, and legacy of the emerging church movement of the early 2000s, the state of the church and theology right now, and why he's excited about Theology Beer Camp this fall (Oct 17-19 in Denver). Tripp Fuller likes the LA Lakers, beer camps, Illia Delio, the Church, philosophy, Battlestar Galactica and LOTR, podcast...

Khristi Lauren Adams's faith was first shaped by her experiences as a Black girl--learning about Scripture from her grandmother, Mama Hattie; "playing church" with her seven cousins over summer vacation; and grieving the murder of her sixteen-year-old friend when she was just fifteen. In Womanish Theology: Discovering God Through the Lens of Black Girlhood , Adams reflects on those exp...

Registered psychologist and award-winning researcher Hillary McBride joins us to talk about all things embodied. In her latest book Practices for Embodied Living: Experiencing the Wisdom of Your Body , McBride offers an experiential guide--centered on prompts, activities, and opportunities for reflection--to support readers who want to practice embodiment. Dr. Hillary McBride is a registered psych...

We talk with writer and artist Jenai Auman about the experience of being left out or pushed out of the church, and how to find spiritual rest and belonging in a God who loves, restores, and blesses the outcast and the marginalized. In her book Othered: Finding Belonging with the God Who Pursues the Hurt, Harmed, and Marginalized , Jenai draws on her experience growing up as a biracial kid in the A...

Today we start a new regular series on the podcast, based on our conversation a couple months ago with Jon DePue about Liberating the Gospel from Mere Justification . The paradigm shift in  Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel (the book Jon co-authored with Douglas Campbell) is such a big one for most of us that we thought it'd be helpful to talk regularly with Jon about how to inter...

After twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a global pandemic, protests against racial violence, and frequent shootings, more Americans than ever are living with the effects of trauma. Our conversation with Army veteran and Episcopal priest David Peters helps us see the good news that Jesus was born and died in a traumatized world, and his story speaks forever to wounded people worldwide. P...

Matt and Ben respond to a listener question about finding a place in the body of Christ after clergy sexual abuse. Connect with Gravity Commons: Leave us a message or ask a question  about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode. Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interest...

In the face of the rising threat of Christian Nationalism to both church and democracy, Beau Underwood joins us to talk about how some of the hidden undercurrents are present not just among evangelical Christians, but in the mainline church, which is the theme of the book he co-wrote with Brian Kaylor, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism . Beau Underwood...

We're starting a Book Club, and you're invited! We talk about why we wanted to do this, how you can be involved, and the first book we'll discuss: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism , by journalist Tim Alberta. The Book Club will be a weekly discussion on Fridays at 12pm ET starting August 2, 2024 (recordings available to all members). T...

Though evangelicals emphasize fidelity to the gospel above all else, many have fallen in step with "a different gospel" of Christian nationalism. Analyzing Scripture, church history, and current events in the United States and Russia, Joel Looper offers evangelicals a theological rationale for resisting Christian nationalism. Joel Looper teaches at Baylor University where he serves as coor...

There is no such thing as substitutionary death sacrifice in the Torah, which changes everything we thought we knew about Jesus's death. The consistent message throughout the entire NT is not that Jesus died instead of us, rather, Jesus dies ahead of us so that we can unite with him and be conformed the image of his death. It's not about substitution, it's about participation, and Andr...

What if obedience is not the goal of Christian parenting? What if it's our job as parents to instead help our kids get to know God and discover that God can be trusted? In her book Woven: Nurturing a Faith Your Kid Doesn't Have to Heal From , pastor and parent Meredith Miller helps families nurture the kind of faith that can flex and grow, be broken and repaired. The kind of faith that can...

Men today are starved for sexual formation. They've been failed by parents, churches, and culture alike, leading to widespread shame, confusion, and brokenness in the area of sexuality. We talked with therapist Sam Jolman about helping men reconnect their God-given sexuality with innocence, awe, and joy, and shows readers how to celebrate--instead of struggle against--the gift of sexual desire...

Lee C. Camp joins us (again!) for a wide-ranging conversation about human flourishing, habits, ethics, politics, philosophy, and faith. This is Lee's second time on the podcast - we talked with him in 2020 about his book Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians . Lee C. Camp is an award-winning teacher and Professor of Theology & Ethics at Lipscomb University in Nash...

In a world experiencing turbulent change, we need people who are resilient, kind, open, generous, and brave. How do we become those kinds of people? In Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times , popular podcaster Elizabeth Oldfield uses the seven deadly sins as a framework to explore this question. Elizabeth Oldfield hosts The Sacred , a podcast about our deepest values, the stories tha...

We talk with spiritual director Terra McDaniel about how to rediscover the lost practice of lament, so we can heal and hope again. Most people don't know how to process personal or communal mourning and instead struggle to honor our tears, vulnerability, and the full weight of these disillusioning times. But tending our grief is exactly what we need to reimagine a way forward. Terra's book...

Matt posted something on Facebook recently about people who attempt to "police" those going through deconstruction, who seem to: equate deconstruction with de-conversion, say people deconstruct so they can sin, say people deconstruct to 'be cool or hip or trendy or for street cred', criticize 'giving up' on the local church, and blame deconstruction on bad teaching. Matt re...

In their new book Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel , Douglas Campbell and Jon Depue address a growing frustration among many Christians of how to understand what seems to be contradictory messages from Paul about the Gospel. On one hand, Paul usually talks about a participatory, transformational good news full of freedom, resurrection, love, and being ‘in Christ’. On the other hand,...

The fact that "good evangelical Christians are Republican" seems obvious means the propaganda is working. Professor and author Scott Coley helps us understand how evangelicalism became fused with right-wing politics and now presses evangelical theology into the service of authoritarian politics, which he outlines in his new book Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of th...

A dramatic misinterpretation of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread misrepresentation, Rabbi Shai Held, in his book Judaism Is about Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life , recovers the heart of the Jewish tradition, offering the radical and moving argument th...

In her book Forgiveness After Trauma: A Path to Find Healing and Empowerment , Christian minister and scholar Susannah Griffith explores what the Bible says--and doesn't say--about the biblical call to forgive. She helps readers understand a "trauma-informed forgiveness" that is healing and restorative, framing forgiveness within broader concerns around lament, anger, accountability, r...

American history has profoundly shaped, and been shaped by, Christianity. In her book Turning Points in American Church History: How Pivotal Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith , Dr. Elesha Coffman tells the story of Christianity in the United States by focusing on 13 key events over four centuries of history. Elesha helps us understand our faith and the landscape of American religion. Elesha J. Co...

The Beatitudes are some of the most-quoted and least-understood words of Jesus. Pastor and author Ryan Post helps us hear the Beatitudes anew as good news to form us into Christlikeness. Ryan Post is the lead pastor of Village Church in Burbank, CA and the author of  Healthy Prayer: Integrating Structure, Silence, and Spontaneity and the book we talked about in this converastion, Jesus People: Com...