jonathan_foster

Great to be with my friend Jeremy Jernigan ( from the valley of the sun, for those of you who care about such things), talking about his new book, The Edge of the Inside: When Losing Your Place Means Finding Your Soul.   Jeremy is one of those people who operates somewhere between the ancient and the emerging, between the structure of Sunday mornings and the spontaneity of new leadings of the Spir...

Hey friends, here's a little thing about truth, movement, reality, Herod, US Presidents, and love. I reference a Substack conversation I had that is itself called Grief in the Holiday s. Click the link to watch or listen. It turned out nicely and I think could help a lot of people during this challenging time.  Other references that I hope you'll check out include the new denominational ecosystem...

Loved catching up with Brian Recker about both his work and his USA Today bestselling book, Hell Bent: How the Fear of Hell Holds Christians Back from a Spirituality of Love. Subscribe to Brian’s substack publication and find him on Instagram (with a few hundred thousand other people!) Thanks everyone. This will likely be our last Substack Live of the year for Tori and I, but we’re already talking...

Tori and I got to meetup with the Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis recently and talk about love, patience, the state of the world, racism, and her book Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World. And hey, if you're like me, you'll pick up a copy of The Just Love Story Bible for any children in your life.  Thanks everyone! Links 👇🏼 jonathan_foster substa...

Tori and I had a fantastic conversation on Substack Live with the Rev. Zach Lambert about his book Better Ways to Read the Bible: Transforming a Weapon of Harm into a Tool of Healing (Four New Lenses for Making Sense of Scripture).  Find Zach on social media or Substack. Shouldn't be hard to find because he's got a lot of followers!  Thanks everyone. ✌🏼 jonathan_foster substack jonathan_foster in...

Fantastic for Tori Owens and I to meetup with Danny Bryant today to talk about his book Unless a Seed Falls to the Ground: Welcoming the Death of the Whiteness Gospel. The book shares both the wounds and rewards of being a native son of a puritanical way of life with the hope of inviting others into a season of hospice in a way that allows it to die with dignity. It's a solid and important read (a...

It was great to have Jim Palmer on talking about meaning making, the role of God, love, how atheism can get it wrong, religion, nihilism, and Costa Rica! Find him on Substack with thousands and thousands of followers and also on Amazon or Facebook. Jim is a good friend of mine and I'm really glad we were able to carve out an hour with him.  Subscribe, like, and review the show. I dare you!  Find m...

I had a great time talking with the Dr. John Pohl about what the microbiome might say about metaphysics (and metaphysics about the microbiome). Not to mention prehension, panentheism, and panexperientialism and a host of other things! I hope you'll check it out, find him on Substack, and read his dissertation turned book, which is called A Theology of the Microbiome: An Intersection of Divinity an...

I don’t know how one gets to be so lucky as to be acquainted with Ilia Delio, but Tori E. Owens and I are and today we got to catch up with her online. It’s probably the best start to a conversation I’ve ever had as the first thing out of the box was “So, I play guitar.” 😂 And then it just went up from ther We were able to talk about mysticism, evolution, the distinctions between Whitehead and Te...

Hey, friends, thanks for joining me and Tori as we talk to the Rev. Brian Zahnd. Brian is the author of multiple books (probably my favorite is Beauty Will Save the World ), including his latest, The Wood Between the Worlds: A Poetic Theology of the Cross .  He's also the pastor of Word of Life Church, a speaker, and a lover of mountains. Last time Brian was on we spent the whole time talking abou...

Hey everyone, thanks for hanging out with Tori and I with Ben Cremer where we talk about fun things like pastoring, justice, the mark of the beast, politics, christianity, living in geographical areas (social areas, too) where there isn’t much room to think outside the box, and much, much more! Make sure to subscribe to any of Ben's channels, but you can find his Substack here .  Find me at these...

Loved our time with the Dr. Matthew Segal l. You should listen if you’re interested in … The participatory nature of truth How Jesus fits into this idea Open and closed systems Objective vs. subjective immortality The non-completeness of love Is God responsible or responsive? AI and our current political-economic times. Meanwhile, make sure to find Matt on Subsctak or YouTube or just about anywher...

Welcome to a little conversation I had with my friends Dina Bell-Laroche and Leslie Palumbo. We met on the Substack Live platform a few weeks ago, but am grateful to be able to bring the audio to you here on this podcast.  Both Leslie and Dina have great insight into the grieving process. I've really enjoyed both their content and their vibe. ("vibe attracts your tribe?") I hope you'll take some t...

I absolutely loved this conversation that Tori E. Owens and I had with Brian McLaren . Among many other things we chatted about ...  Authoritarianism. The issues that both the right and the left have in the church with authoritarianism.  The indigenous vision question that Jesus went on (Temptation in the Wilderness story). Creativity and Writing. Relational Theology. Music is from epedemicsound.c...

Hi, thanks for joining Tori and I as we talk to Grace Ji-Sun Kim about her book When God Became White: Dismantling Whiteness for a More Just Christianity. It's an important book written by one of the world’s sweetest humans. One of my favorite parts, and something we got to chat a little bit about, is the Theology of Visibility section of the book, where Grace unpacks four Korean words that are he...

Welcoming back to the show someone who needs no introduction: Thomas Jay Oord .  Tori and I were glad to be able to talk to Dr. Tom about topics like the development of Jesus, open and relational thinking, realistic hope, how love might be considered as "winning," and his commentary on that old holiness classic:"The Princess Bride."  Music provided by epidemicsound.com. Leave a review. No really,...

I've really enjoyed reading The Great Open Dance: A Progressive Christian Theology and so it was fun to have Jon Paul Sydnor and Tori Owens on the show to talk about that book and ... Sanctuary theology vs. defensive theology Agape nondualism Normalizing being upset, angry, and scared in these anxious days we live in Meditation Ashram Theology The organic vs mechanic reality we live in And more Th...

A conversation Tori and I had with Brad Jersak .  What’s it like being in Canada right now, living so close to the empire to the south? Why does creativity matter? What’s curently happening at St Stephens University? What is it about the Book of Revelation that helps you think through the beast of a economic-political-religious machine we’re living in right now? Why does consent matter? What does...

This episode is a special one for me. As cairns (i.e., rock piles) are used way out in the wilderness to keep hikers on a trail, so the concepts in this episode might keep those in a psycho-spiritual wilderness on trails, too.   I'm trying not to be dogmatic about any of this, but the intensity of the wilderness (or what I'm calling "the darkness" in this episode) has given me plenty of reason to...

Hey, everyone, I'm happy to introduce you to Liz Charlotte Grant and her forthcoming book: Knock at the Sky: Seeking God in Genesis After Losing Faith in the Bible . Instead of seeing the book of Genesis as a weapon in the culture wars, Grant interprets the Bible’s inspired book of beginnings as a work of art and that is why I was happy to have her on the show. We need more of that. :) Take a mome...

Hey, this is my friend, psychoanalyst, and author, Quique Autrey. I've had the chance to be on his Psyche Podcast a couple of times, so when he decided to write a book, I knew I wanted to have him on and talk about the project. Btw, if you're into Rick Boothby, Todd McGowan, Peter Rollins kind of stuff, like me, then Quique's podcast is a great resource.  Today, we're talking about his new book, w...

It was great to be with my friends Tom Oord and Tammy Vogt recently, talking about our experience(s) with The Church of the Nazarene—both the good and the bad. I think this will be helpful for any of you who have lost faith in your denominational, church, or religious affiliation. And unfortunately, there are a lot of us who fall into this category. None of this means that all religious communitie...

It's great to have author and friend, Dana Hicks back on the show to talk about his latest book: The Quest for Thin Places: How to Find Spirituality after Deconstruction . I highly recommend this book to anyone going through some type of disassembling and reassembling of their faith.  Thanks for your support. Make sure to like, leave a review, and share with a friend. And don't forget to sign up f...

It's always fun to interact with Mason Mennenga , and this time around, we talk about his faith journey, filled as it's been with open and relational insight. We also talk about theology beer camp and football (of course), so I don't know what more people could want!  Find Mason on his podcast, A People's Theology , and all the stuff he's up to (including his merch!) at his website, magsonmennenga...

Mattie Jo Cowsert is an actor and author. I think the courage she displays unpacking her story around, you guessed it, God, sex, and rich people is something that a lot of people are going to benefit from. I love her spirit and her energy for finding healthy ways forward for young people (all people). We had a lot of fun on this episode.  Her book is out today (as of the release of this episode)....