Forging Ploughshares

The death of Christ encompasses all dying and the life of Christ encompasses all of life, so that every individual true beginning and end is to be found in Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Yom Kippur, the sacrifice of the Yahweh Goat and the sending of the Azazel Goat into the Abyss is the primary holy day for understanding the work of Christ. Clearly dividing and understanding the work of each goat arrives at a different meaning then those theories (like Calvin's) which fuse the work of the goats. Christ's life and death, like that of the Yahweh Goat, cleanses from sin, and the res...

Jordan Daniel Wood explains how Maximus' notion of the end is the beginning constitutes an understanding of salvation that encompasses and goes beyond legal understandings or ideas of Christus Victor. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Christ connects to himself a long anti-sacrificial tradition in the prophets, connecting sacrifice with disobedience and violence, and not instituted by God. Christ sees himself as exposing the history of murder and murderous religion, but to reduce Christ to a propitiating sacrifice erases this central part of his message. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work....

In this repeat episode, Ryan Hemmer explains the significance of Paul Ricoeur, René Girard, and Sigmund Freud, in regard to the role of culture. What role for evil and desire or goodness and deity in language and culture? To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to  https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings . The Course wil...

In Galatians, Paul explains that Christians are to read the law allegorically for their edification and to cling to the law for interpreting Christ is to continue to be enslaved by the elementary principles. As Origen explains, to cling to the violence and lust of the law by reading literally and historically rather than applying spiritually is to continue in enslavement to lust, idolatry, and vio...

Here is a repeat of an earlier podcast on Girard and Peter Berger. Jonathan, Matt, Brian, Brent, and Paul discuss Ephesians 4-5 and the singular lie exposed by Christ creating entry into love. The function of a hostile lie in the reification of culture and religion, as in the work of Peter Berger and Rene Girard, and the necessity of this lies exposure so as to be "rooted and grounded in love" is...

Joy is integral to the Christian life as described by Peter, commanded by Paul, and as defined by love and mutual indwelling by Dionysius and Maximus, who describe this joy and love as ecstatic longing and giving, culminating in the kenotic love of Christ.  (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to  https://pbi.forgingplough...

In this episode, Paul Axton discusses Girard's atonement theory - over against propitiation and penal substitution. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings . The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) If you enjoyed this podcast, please...

In this repeat edition of a PBI course discussion on science and language, Tim, Tyler, Trenton, and Paul discuss how Girard's theory might or might not fit evolutionary theory, or a deterministic or a free will universe, and how modern science accords with a particular theological understanding of language. To register for the course René Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingp...

Here is a repeat of an earlier interview with Michael Hardin, who will be teaching a class with PBI beginning in the second week of October. In this fascinating interview with Michael, author of some ten books dealing with René Girard  he tells of his relationship with both Girard and Walter Wink and he describes the essential element which Girard brings out in the Gospel and the Christian journey...

In this conversation, Michael Hardin introduces his class with Ploughshares Bible Institute on the work of René Girard. He describes the 8 week course which will begin the second week of October. Michael was a friend of Girard and was present at the founding of the Colloquium On Violence and Religion, and he will share published and unpublished work from Girard and others detailing the important w...

Here is a repeat of an earlier episode on René Girard pointing to our upcoming class with Michael Hardin.  Paul and Frank have a conversation about the work of Girard, who has given us a tremendously useful and biblical understanding of the scapegoat mechanism which shapes all culture. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/...

Jordan Wood answers a series of question on duality and nonduality, contemplation, embodiment, and time, in his explanation of Maximus the Confessor. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood delineates two forms of evil, privation and false incarnation in Maximus, and also discusses the object of human desire as the determinate good of incarnation. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.  

The Lamb sacrificed from the foundation of the world is the singular Logos from which creation proceeds and holds together.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood explains how it is that the processes of being human are exceeded by the telos of deification, the fulfillment or end but also the beginning of what it means to be human. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The comprehensible yet infinite depth of the universe grounding modern science and medicine arises both through the understanding that God is legislator and creator and that in Christ this person is working not only as designer and sustainer but healer and controller, such that the person and not the laws are in control. This understanding was extended into science by the philosophy of Michael Pol...

Jordan Wood, in this conclusion to the discussion on the person of Christ answers a series of questions on personhood and provides a unique insight into the foreknowledge of God in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood, in this lecture discusses the personhood of Christ, the role or meaning of such terms as natural, Logos, and hypostatic union, and he critiques the work of David Bentley Hart in failing to grasp the implications of the neo-Chalcedonian understanding. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood focuses in on the key passage in Maximus explaining the whole mystery of Christ as this pertains to all things, but particularly the role of personhood and identity in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood concludes the discussion of Maximus and synthesis, explaining how Christ, even in the midst of sin and false synthesis or through the passions, brings all things together in his life and the life of the Christian. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The Western tradition from Augustine and Descartes has developed focus on thought, propositions and doctrine separated from practice and ethics. This disembodied form of the faith stands in contrast to Paul's description of being embodied - living sacrifices and it contrasts with the Eastern understanding exemplified in Maximus the Confessor. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please co...

Jordan Wood introduces the controversies surrounding the life of Maximus and also introduces the framework of his theology as cosmic incarnation, providing a synthesis for all things.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In 2 Corinthians Paul describes the letter or scripture as deadly, as this unenduring reality is not an end in itself. Absolutizing the symbolic order in law or in some form of moral imperative leads directly to evil, not because this is a possible reality but because it obscures the truth that freedom comes from God and there is no autonomous realm of law, nature, reason, or will. Become a Patron...