Gospel Conversations podcast

As always Iain shines in this important and extended question and answer session. As one participant observed to me about Iain’s ability to answer questions—‘He has the gift of understanding what the questioner was really trying to say and what lay behind the question—even if the asker could not articulate it well themselves. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack....

This talk is a fitting climax to the grand sweep of this series. Iain finishes with ‘hope’ or the vision of the future that Jerusalem gave the world. Importantly he begins by demolishing the Greek notion of the intrinsic immortality of the soul, and he explains that this is not the vision of hope here. He grounds God’s promises of the future in the great covenants of the Bible and their increasing...

This is a talk lots of us have been waiting for—what kind of position should believers take in politics? Iain confronts the fear that many people hold – ie involving faith and politics will result in a kind of ‘Christian Taliban’. Many Christians feel caught in a no-man’s land between the hard choice of involvement and detachment. We want our faith to be involved in politics and society but fear b...

Having diagnosed the deep roots of modern thinking Iain moves on to the consequences. What are the practical implications of living within the ‘Jerusalem’ mindset? This talk is simple and profound: living with the Jerusalem legacy means building our lives around three archetypal relationships: Our relationship with God and the creational vision of cosmic reality Our relationship with our neighbour...

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The first talk from Iain Provan's series titled Seriously Dangerous Religion. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

The eminent historian, Edwin Judge, takes us back to the mind of the Roman Empire as they faced the burgeoning growth of Christianity. Furthermore, he recreates the self-identity and characteristics that defined early Christianity—including that this new thing was not a 'religion' in the minds of either the Christians or the Romans. This jewel of a talk/interview merits a couple of hearings as it...

Almost no doctrine is more controversial than 'original sin'. It has branded the Gospel as a dark message in the minds of many people—but most Christians just have a foggy notion of what it might mean. In this important talk, Tony challenges the mental models behind 'original sin' and then gives us a much richer model for sin—its beginnings and its imputation. Tony uses Romans 5 and the 'two Adams...

One of the great stumbling blocks to evangelism and faith is the doctrine of predestination. Calvin was the most vociferous advocate of it, and he built it around his belief in total depravity. But was he right. In this talk, Tony explains where Calvin went wrong because his frame was limited. Tony turns to Ephesians 1 and builds a much grander picture of what predestination means. Get full access...

Tony looks at the prayers of the church in Revelation and compares them to the prayers of the angels. The difference shines the light on a radical humanism—because the church (i.e. humanity) sees so much more than the angels do, and is closer to the heart of God. This opens the door to a radical humanism based on the incarnation of Jesus. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversati...

In this breathtaking overview, Rikk Watts zooms across the landscape of the four gospels and puts them all in a historical and biographical context. He argues that their narrative structure is their most defining feature—and that in fact, the narrative structure implies a breakthrough new theology. His climactic point is that this structure was the brainwave of Jesus himself. Get full access to Go...

Tony keeps exploring how 'resurrection' reframes 'judgment'. In this talk, he focuses on 'inheritance' as the dominant motif for the latter part of Hebrews and develops the theme that this is a double-edged sword. It expands our vision of God's plans for us, but it also sobers us as God is trusting us with an awesome responsibility. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.su...

In our previous talks on Hebrews, we revealed the strong foundation built by Apollos through Melchizedek and the resurrection, a foundation that renders the law obsolete. Now the question is, how does he build on that? How does he build accountability, how does he build responsibility, on top of all this wondrous talk of the resurrection? In this talk, we open a door to an expansive new paradigm,...

Drawing on Nietzsche, Professor Volf will explore two pervasive and mutually reinforcing nihilisms of our time—our misplaced search for meaning, and our wrongheaded pursuit of pleasure—and counter common critiques of religion by arguing that faith in God intensifies and deepens the enjoyment of the world, uniting both meaning and pleasure. Professor Volf will tie this in with his personal story, h...

Drawing on Nietzsche, Professor Volf will explore two pervasive and mutually reinforcing nihilisms of our time—our misplaced search for meaning, and our wrongheaded pursuit of pleasure—and counter common critiques of religion by arguing that faith in God intensifies and deepens the enjoyment of the world, uniting both meaning and pleasure. Professor Volf will tie this in with his personal story, h...

Drawing on Nietzsche, Professor Volf will explore two pervasive and mutually reinforcing nihilisms of our time—our misplaced search for meaning, and our wrongheaded pursuit of pleasure—and counter common critiques of religion by arguing that faith in God intensifies and deepens the enjoyment of the world, uniting both meaning and pleasure. Professor Volf will tie this in with his personal story, h...

In this fourth talk Tony explores Hebrews 7-10 where Apollos brushes aside Moses' law as 'useless' and in its place paints an epic picture of Christ's grand entrance to the heaven of heavens after his ascension and his establishment of a new covenant between God and humanity, and his building of a true eternal tabernacle—a new created order in which matter and physicality can finally contain glory...

In this talk we move past the grand opening of Hebrews into the guts of the argument; how Jesus is superior to the entire religious system of the law but not only that—how he has totally eclipsed the religious system of law and Moses with the 'system of the resurrection'. All of these grand themes are crystallised in the strange governing theme of 'Melchizedek'. We unpack all of that in this talk—...

Hebrews opens with two very important chapters that take Jesus out of the religious box, lifting him to the Maker of the Universe. From that lofty position, Apollos makes his biggest move and uses Psalm 8 to put humanity right there beside Jesus—ruling the cosmos. Through his explorations, Tony will translate these rich theological themes into in language that speaks to our world today. Get full a...

The Epistle to the Hebrews breaks new ground in the debate over religion and grace. In this talk we look at who wrote it, and what problem it is trying to solve—really important questions since it is such an alien book to us modern people in many ways. We delve into the book of Acts in detail and uncover the deep struggle between Jerusalem and Rome that defined the faith in its early days. And we...

Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith will be giving her second talk on "Reading the Bible as Literature". In her first talk, she introduced us to the rich resources that a literary reading brings to the Bible. In this talk, she will take a deeper dive in Genesis and give us a more detailed picture of these exciting tools at work in a major book. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.subs...

Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith takes us on a journey to discover the riches of reading the Bible using the toolkits and methods of literary analysis. She argues that Christians tend to read the Bible as an instruction manual—not literature—and this narrows its richness and indeed our view of God. Instead, she opens up the more living and vast world of reading the Bible literature. Get full access to Gospel...

What do we mean when we say "The Bible is the Word of God"? Does the Bible itself make this claim? In today's postmodern world we cannot afford to make glib claims like this—we need to think through what we mean. In this talk, Tony goes back to literary and rhetorical theory to lay a much stronger foundation for how we should treat the Bible, and interpret it. Get full access to Gospel Conversatio...

To wrap up the year we structured this event differently. Instead of a talk, we had a time of dialogue structured by the question, “What areas of interest and questions have Gospel Conversations raised for you this year?” We push the boundaries in Gospel Conversations, but often don’t have the time to explore the ideas further on the nights after the talks. We didn't aim to always arrive at clear...

Following three remarkable talks by Professor Edwin Judge, Mark has been tracing Paul’s role in three great shifts in western thought and life: from Closed Cosmos to Open Cosmos, from Closed Society to Open Society, and from Closed Heart to Open Heart. In this last session, Mark will focus on how Paul’s translation of the gospel ends the obligation to the law and the grip of morality, religion, an...