Forging Ploughshares

Jim, Matt, David, Janice and Paul discuss the trial motif in the Gospel of John and the trial of Jesus as it directly confronts the problem of evil. The focus of discussion becomes the question of the nature of evil and its defeat in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton preaches - Origen, following Paul, held that the relation between the Father and the Son found in the incarnation is the eternal truth about God and creation. There is no other biography of God than that found in Jesus Christ, yet this simple Gospel understanding has been obscured in part due to the condemnation of Origen's development of it.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcas...

Matthew, Jim, Brian, Matt, Tim, Janice, and Paul, consider the book of John in terms of a cosmic trial in which Judas and all who hand Jesus over are witnesses for the prosecution and Jesus and all those who witness on his behalf throughout the book are witnesses for the defense. The verdict has cosmic implications. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support...

Paul Axton preaches - Paul, in Ephesians, says all things are summed up in Christ. This doctrine of summing up or recapitulation, according to the church father Irenaeus, is at once the salvation and hermeneutic that constitutes the Gospel.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jim, Matt, and Paul discuss the apocalyptic shift of Christ as truth and life. The tomb of Christ becomes the true ark of the covenant collapsing hades and sheol. The lamb who takes away the sin of the world, John's theological summary, is focused on the power of life as inherently defeating death, and this is the meaning of the two goats of the day of atonement. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed th...

Paul Axton preaches - The identity of Christ (the Gospel), is inclusive of the presence of Christ in the one answering the question of identity. The identity of Christ is the primary authority, not the authority of history, Scripture, or Church, which derive their authority in his identity. Like early heresies, missing the identity of Christ, is to miss his presence in the inner person answering t...

Matt, Brian, Jim, Janice and Paul discuss our after death experiences and the experience of abiding in the peace and presence of Christ, and how this ties in to the doctrine of salvation in John, and the picture of Christ as true Temple and true abiding place. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Tim, Matthew, Janice, Brian, Matt, and Paul discuss John the Baptists phrase "Behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" as an interpretive frame for understanding the nature of salvation, the meaning of the cross, and the problem of darkness as presented in John's Gospel. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton preaches - The rule of faith refers to apostolic authority, the canon or rule determining scripture, the rule which the apostles applied to one another and the Hebrew Scriptures, and the ethic and mindset the Christian. The Christian is to put on as the mind of Christ and the mode and goal of this rule or mindset is peace - the unity of the faith. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this po...

Mathew, Jim, David, Matt, Brian, and Paul examine how the Jewish and Greek worldview and sensibility is undone in the crucifixion of Christ. The return to a premodern understanding allows for Christ as foundation. Specifically, crucifixion was the destiny of Haman, the curse of the wicked, the annihilation of personhood and Christ's crucifixion and harrowing of hell empties out Jewish and Greek ab...

Paul Axton preaches - A key part of the rule of faith is the peace that can resist the violence of torture, a type of the violent regime of "truth," which the peace of Christ deposes. Christ's peace is an interpretive rule for reading scripture and the world which is included in the mind of Christ the believer puts on. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to suppo...

Paul Axton preaches - The Apostle Paul uses the picture of the "analogy of faith" or the "rule of faith" and pictures it as part of having the mind of Christ. This rule is the measure of the canon of scripture, so that we go from Gospel to scripture both historically (in the formation of the canon) and in our interpretation of scripture. (To register for our next class “Reading the Bible in Commun...

In this interview with Old Testament scholar Eric Seibert, Paul and Eric discuss his most recent book Enjoying the Old Testament ( https://www.amazon.com/Enjoying-Old-Testament-Encountering-Scripture ). Eric explains the value of the Old Testament as a pointer to Christ, and as training in righteousness and maybe even a counterexample to the teaching of Christ. (To register for our next class “Rea...

Jim, Brian, Matthew, Janice, David, Matt, and Paul discuss how it is the force of human law that explains the source of evil which Christ encountered and defeated. The work of Walter Benjamin, critical race theory, and natural and positive law are discussed in their connection to forms of violence exposed by Christ. (To register for our next class “Reading the Bible in Community” starting the week...

Paul Axton preaches - The satanic version of theosis is not displacement of God with self but a loss of self under the weight of sin sickness, violence and fear. True freedom does not pertain to religion or irreligion per se, but to suspending the weight of the sickness unto death through Christ. (To register for our next class “Reading the Bible in Community” starting the week of September 26th a...

In this discussion of Hans Jonas' picture of Gnosticism, Jim, Tim, Janice, Brian, David, and Paul consider how the Gnostic problem characterizes the human tendency toward dualism expressed in modern nihilism, deism, and existentialism and how John's Gospel addresses the problem. (To register for our next class “Reading the Bible in Community” starting the week of September 26th and running through...

Paul Axton preaches - The early church term, found in Ignatius, Irenaeus, Dionysius the Areopagite, and Maximus the Confessor, for being partakers of God, or being made God, is theosis, which is another way of describing salvation or being incorporated into Christ. (To register for our next class “Reading the Bible in Community” starting the week of September 26th and running through November 18th...

Tim, Brian, Matt, Mathew, David, Dan, Janice, Jim, and Paul discuss the key difference between a gnostic and Christian conception of the Logos and tie in the gnostic antagonism to the darkness described in John and defeated by Christ. The discussion concludes with an examination of how faith defeats gnostic nihilism. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support...

Paul Axton preaches - Jesus quotes Psalm 82, "You are Gods," to explain his own claim to deity and his extension of eternal life to his disciples, which restores humankind to the reign assigned to Adam and which Peter pictures as a "participation in the divine nature." Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In this opening series on the Gospel of John Jim, Janice, Brian, Tim, Matt, Dan, and Paul, discuss the prologue of John and the meaning of the Logos, not as the pre-incarnate Christ but as the historical Jesus, and the difference this makes to conceptions of God, salvation, and the meaning of creation. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton preaches - God's Word is world constituting, self-authenticating, and a repetition of God while the human word may attempt to constitute a world in its own self-authenticating repetition - inducing human failure. God's Word is the cure for this failure. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jim, Janice, Matt, David, Brian and Paul discuss how gender, race, ethnicity, or simply language can become an oppressive tool of the culture or of the symbolic order and how the Christian community is defined by its suspension of this cultural oppression. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton preaches - Donald Trump has promoted the big lie that he did not lose the election, but this lie is a type of the big lie challenged and exposed by Christ which pictures the human, the political, this world as God's truth. Christ as truth exposes the big lie.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Janice, Jim, Brian, David, and Paul discuss how the theory of Rene Girard fits with the Bible, but how it points to the benefits of sacrificial religion over uncontrolled violence, and how the end of scapegoating leaves open the possibility of total violence. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul Axton Preaches - The truth of the Trinity, or Truth, unfolds historically with the realization of God as Father, the incarnation and recognition of the Son, and with the giving of the Holy Spirit and full human participation in God. This marks three possible errors: God as Father apart from the Son and Spirit can be confused with law or power, God as Son, apart from the Spirit and Father can...