Postmodern Realities Podcast

This is the first short podblast episode in a special new Postmodern Realities Podcast 2020 COVID-19 quarantine series. On this episode, JOURNAL Author Ellen Mary Dykas talks about biblically faithful sexuality during the pandemic. We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscribe to the Journal, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/crj-subscription/ When you to su...

It is sometimes thought that while Mormonism and Christianity differ significantly, they both are Christ-centered. After all, the Mormon Church is named The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But appearances can be deceiving. Mormon leaders and teachers add to the confusion of Mormon theology with statements made in both their public dialogue and written commentary. While there may be ma...

The New Age Movement has made a resurgence in 2020. Particularly popular for those claiming to be spiritual and not religious, we cannot write off New Age spirituality as something of the past. It is in the here and now, and even Christians are enticed by it. Astrologer Chani Nicholas is popular among the social media generation seeking spiritual enlightenment. Nicholas, who just released her firs...

“These are the times that try men’s souls,” wrote Thomas Paine in his rousing call to Americans to fight for independence. “The Crisis” was the title of Paine’s work from 1776; and now we face another crisis — not a war of man against man, but of a virus warring against all of humanity. Previous scares about Ebola, swine flu, and other viruses seem — to Americans, at least — small compared to the...

The New Age Movement has made a resurgence in 2020. Particularly popular for those claiming to be spiritual and not religious, we cannot write off New Age spirituality as something of the past. It is in the here and now, and even Christians are enticed by it. Teal Swan is popular among those in the social media generation who are seeking spiritual enlightenment. Swan claims to have endured horrifi...

Marxism, rebranded as socialism or democratic socialism today, is making a comeback. And now the makeover is complete. But Karl Marx’s theory suffers the same malady as every materialistic theory: it contradicts the existence of the theorist. How should Christians apply a Christian ethic and world view to civic government? If Christians agree that the government cannot save people or fundamentally...

The pro-life argument isn’t that it is wrong to intentionally kill fetuses because they are capable of experiencing pain. Abortion is wrong because it intentionally kills innocent human beings. Even so, unborn babies as early as 20 weeks may feel pain intensely. This Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Megan Almon about her volume 42, number 3/4 (2019) article, “What...

Christians are not averse, in principle, to the concept of nonhuman persons. We attribute personhood to the Trinity and to angels, clearly nonhuman beings. We recognize, however, the danger that lies in attempts to elevate animals to our moral equals in the face of glaring evidence they could never operate as such. These efforts ultimately reduce us all to an undifferentiated mess. This Postmodern...

Just War Theory (JWT) has been criticized for being so flexible that it can be used to rationalize almost any motivation for initiating war and is therefore of little use in actually preventing war. Because it was originally developed as a means of evaluating the moral considerations of war between nation-states, the applicability of JWT becomes more complicated and difficult to assess when potent...

In apologetics, a crucial question to ask a critic of religion is, “What do you mean by God?” Author Philip Pullman gives an imaginative answer to that question in His Dark Materials, a fantasy trilogy for young adults turned television series now airing on HBO. The books originally generated backlash from Christians because of Pullman’s anti-religious bent and his negative characterization of God...

The internet gives Christians a virtual platform from which to survey the theological landscape and spot from a long way off the horrifying wrongness of others, and then it is a tool by which we can to correct them, by name, in a tweet, Facebook or Instagram post, or long-form blog post. But what does the Bible say? Should Christians critique others and call each other out by name for theological...

This film review examines the artfulness and cinematographic symbolism that makes The Two Popes spiritually uplifting, while also providing philosophical tools to assess its core message of postmodern change for the Roman Catholic Church. The 2020 Oscar nominated film portrays a friendship between Cardinals Joseph Ratzinger and Jorge Bergoglio who became the modern-day two popes–Pope Benedict XVI...

The Light of the World Church (TLOW), with over 15,000 temples in 58 countries, claims to be the restoration of the early church of Christ. Although official doctrinal documents are rare, we can trace their central doctrines from its hymnology and other sources. When we analyze three critical doctrines held by TLOW, comparing them to early Christian orthodoxy and early heresies, TLOW aligns more w...

A 2015 Pew study found that 25 percent of those identifying as Christians believe in reincarnation. For some, the idea of reincarnation offers comfort and guidance. And many times, the pop-culture view of reincarnation, while popular in American circles, does not fit the Hindu and Buddhist religions where the doctrine originated. According to these religions, you do not choose your next lifetime....

First time visitors to an Anglican Church, especially a parish of the high church tradition, are often bewildered. Worship abounds in written prayers, vestments, acolytes, a robed choir, candles, hymns accompanied by an organ. People cross themselves, kneel for certain prayers, stand for others. Communion wine is just that, wine served from a common cup. If it happens to be a feast day, there may...

[This review contains SPOILERS for the film that tells the story of the Austrian hero Franz Jägerstätter who died during World War II.] A Hidden Life, the three-hour film by acclaimed director Terrence Malick is based on the true life story of an Austrian farmer living in the final years of World War II. In it we see the main character, Franz Jägerstätter, a farmer and family man living a modest l...

It’s been 42 years in the making, but finally The Rise of Skywalker, the final film in the nine-film epic space opera saga called Star Wars, debuted in Dec. 2019. In this podcast episode, the topics discussed include: The reasons behind fans embracing the film and film reviewers critiques of it. The view of God in the Star Wars films, how The Rise of Skywalker affects the theology of the series, a...

The path to emotionalism has been a process of elimination, striking down various authorities along the history of ideas. The history of ideas can be roughly summed up by three main epochs: pre-modernism, modernism, and postmodernism in the mid-late 20th Century. While postmodern ideas may have been commonplace in academia, they still represented a fringe-group of thought experiments. The average...

“Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension? Have you? To be exiles?” So asked William Hartnell’s mysterious Doctor back in An Unearthly Child (1963), the very first episode of the long-running British, BBC produced science-fiction TV series, Doctor Who. He is a Time Lord travelling the universe in the TARDIS, a bigger-on-the-inside time machine disguised as a Pol...

More than 85 million people in the U.S. are avid watchers of the Hallmark Channel’s Christmas films. Complete with its own mobile App, Hallmark Christmas film fans can partake year-round in the romantic, true-love plots. Not just on the Hallmark Channel, but other on-demand viewing channels like Netflix have also gotten into the Christmas film game. All the films have the same plot, the same kiss,...

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood is being marketed primarily on the strength of the cultural similarity between Mr. Rogers, America’s most wholesome neighbor, and Tom Hanks, the lovable actor sometimes called “America’s dad.” It’s a good casting choice, but it might mislead viewers into thinking that Hanks will be as much at the center of the film as he is in Cast Away or Forrest Gump. This Pos...

is Postmodern Realities episode is a conversation with Journal author Correy Latta forthcoming online-exclusive movie review article, “What Joker Gets Right About Human Depravity”. https://www.equip.org/article/getting-what-we-deserve-what-joker-gets-right-about-human-depravity-a-film-review-of-joker-2019-starring-joaquin-phoenix/ We’d also like to invite you to subscribe to the Journal. To subscr...

Several Christian voices have recently been questioning the value of engaging with pop culture, and particularly the kind of entertainment gluttony encouraged by the convenience of services like Netflix or Amazon Prime. They posit that excessive consumption of pop culture by Christians is worse for our souls, minds, and hearts. So are those Christians who believe that engaging popular culture is v...

This episode is a conversation about the book Modern Kinship: A Queer Guide to Christian Marriage by David and Constantino Khalaf who invite the LGBTQ community to see marriage in a new enchanting light—that of an unorthodox, unbiblical, LGBTQ-affirming “Christianity”. The book makes the case that queer “Christian” marriage is a healthy option for partnered gays and lesbians, and that, in many cas...

The new Magnolia Pictures documentary Hail Satan?, directed by avant-garde documentarian Penny Lane, is a thought-provoking darkly comedic study of an upstart faction of Satanists known as The Satanic Temple (TST). Cofounded by Lucien Greaves and Malcom Jarry in 2013, TST has been a growing, mischievous, and yet whimsical presence in public life. The group has earned a reputation as diehard politi...