Faith Improvised

I recommend Jared Yates Sexton's compelling new book, American Rule: How A Nation Conquered the World but Failed Its People , and I talk about reckoning with the narrative shape of the Gospels, how they theologize about Jesus as a character, and how certain theological conceptions can get in the way of our understanding, especially an assumption about God's "omniscience." I also mention Jeannine B...

I talk about Adam Grant's new book, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know , and how it sheds light on creative Christian postures of humility and curiosity. I also mention Beth Allison Barr's new release, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth . And I make minor note of Daniel Boorstin's classic work, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events i...

In this short episode I talk about the Cubs' brutal start to the season, the Masters tournament from last week, and I recommend Edward Larson's brilliant book, Summer for the Gods: The Scopes Trial and America's Continuing Debate Over Science and Religion .

I reflect a bit about why this is my favorite week of the year, I talk about Molly Worthen’s book, Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism , and I share a personal story about reconnecting with an old friend.

I recommend a powerful new book by Anthea Butler called White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America , and I reflect for a bit about the terms “exvangelical” and “deconstruction.” I also mention a few other books: Adam Grant, Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don’t Know ; Crystal M. Fleming, How To Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy, and the Racial Divi...

I share some random observations from the past week, I recommend Educated: A Memoir , which is a brilliant and quite compelling coming of age narrative, and I talk about Paul’s vision of the church as God’s public justice.

I share some thoughts from the past week, I recommend Heather McGhee's brilliant new book, The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together , in which she elaborates the zero-sum logic that distorts our racial and political imaginations, and I share some ideas from my book, Power in Weakness: Paul's Transformed Vision for Ministry , especially how Paul experienced a conver...

In this episode I share some random observations, I recommend Jason Hickel's brilliant book, The Divide: Global Inequality from Conquest to Free Markets , and I talk about the politics of abortion and how this issue has shaped the culture of white evangelicalism in America.

In this brief episode, I share some thoughts from the past week and I recommend Jason Stanley's fascinating book How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them . 

I offer some reflections on music, sports, and the challenge of self-awareness among athletes, I recommend Daniel Radosh's fun and enlightening book, Rapture Ready!: Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture , and I respond to some questions about what I've been saying about God's sovereignty and what that looks like in our world.

I respond to a bunch of questions I received based on the previous episode, and I recommend Kate Bowler's wonderful memoir, Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Loved , which is a personal and theological reflection on so many of the poor ways Christians have come to think about God in relation to human suffering.

I reflect on the character of antagonism and how patterns in evangelical culture make evangelicals susceptible to being drawn easily into antagonistic postures and patterns in the larger culture. I also recommend Manoush Zomorodi's fascinating book, Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self , and I talk about how the Bible depicts God's sovereignty and...

I have a conversation with my friend Steve Watkins about a variety of topics: how our thinking has developed over the years, what to do about misinformation and conspiracy theories, and we drop some Coen references along the way. I also recommend Anne Applebaum's important new book, Twilight of Democracy .

I offer some ruminations from the past week, I talk about Bruce Longenecker's wonderful book, The Lost Letters of Pergamum , which is one of the best resources for getting into the world of the New Testament, and I reflect on the strategic importance of listening to those our culture *others*, especially when it comes to realities like cruciformity.

In this first episode of season 2, I answer a question about evangelical engagement with the Bible, I talk about my new book, Power in Weakness , which is about Paul as a pastor, and I reflect a bit on current events, especially the attempted putsch on January 6 and what that portends for America in coming days.

I offer a few observations and reflections from the past week, I recommend Seth Dowland's fascinating book, Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right, and I talk about the Household Code in Ephesians 5-6 as an instance of how modern Bible readers can misread an apparently clear passage when they don't understand ancient and modern historical contexts.

I reflect a bit on evangelical faulty logic that keeps us from loving our neighbors, I talk about a wonderful resource for understanding Mark in its Jewish context, and I conclude my series on Mark's Gospel.

I talk about the statement issued by SBC seminary presidents rejecting Critical Race Theory and why that signals a resistance to the difficult but life-giving work of gospel-oriented justice. I also talk about Beth Allison Barr’s upcoming book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, which is a brilliant analysis of how evangelical patriarchy uses the Bible to endorse gender hierarchies that the gospel...

I offer a few reflections and observations from the past week, I recommend Luke Timothy Johnson's new book on Paul's letters and theology, and I talk about the narrative dynamics of what is going on in chapter 14 of Mark's Gospel.

I talk about some events of the recent week, along with offering a few other random thoughts, I recommend Scot McKnight's book, Reading Romans Backwards, and I explore some of what is going on in Mark 13, which has huge implications for being Christian while a pandemic is raging.

I share some thoughts about the bizarre nature of the past week, I commend Esau McCaulley's excellent new book, Reading While Black, and I talk about some of the narrative dynamics of Mark 11-12.

I share some reflections from the past week's events, respond to an interesting question about relating to God, talk a little about Grand Rapids Theological Seminary where I teach, and I draw out some of the narrative dynamics up and running in Mark 8-10.

I reflect a bit on events of the past week, I recommend Jill Lepore's excellent and insightful work, These Truths: A History of the United States, and I talk about the narrative dynamics of Mark 4-8.

I recommend Jeannine Brown's excellent new book on the Gospels and I continue talking about the subversive Gospel of Mark, focusing on how Jesus's parable of the sower and the seed in 4:1-20 sets the table for the rest of the narrative.

I talk about Matthew Avery Sutton's brilliant book, American Apocalypse, which is now the standard work on the history of modern fundamentalism / evangelicalism in America, and I start a series exploring Mark's mystifying and thoroughly unsettling Gospel.