Queen of the Sciences

You might just be able to hear the explosion of the fireworks over the explosion of rhetoric upon the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. Aiming to shed more light than heat, Dad and I discuss The Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) from a theological perspective. Civic good is not the ultimate good, but it's not a negligible one, either. We find good reasons...

A discussion between me and Dad about Katie Langston's phenomenal memoir Sealed , tracing her life from Mormon upbringing to conversion to Christianity to discerning a call into ministry. A must-read for anyone interested in the Latter-day Saints as well as hope and healing for people scarred from high-demand religion. Be sure to get the new second edition , now in ebook and paperback !

Tradition is a buzzword in confessional polemics: Protestants (supposedly) say Scripture only, while Catholics and Orthodox (supposedly) say Scripture-and-Tradition without hierarchical triage between them. Of course, it has never been that simple! Luther and Melanchthon and the Formula of Concord all insist that they were in fact more faithful to the tradition of the church against Roman innovati...

You foolish person! I Corinthians 15 isn't the place to come for an instruction manual, but for a redirection toward the one who was raised from the dead for the glory of God. In this episode Dad and I talk through what is—and isn't—the subject matter of the apostle's treatise on resurrection, where to be exuberant (i.e. doxology), where to be sober (i.e. the mechanics of the life to come), and wh...

Sarah discusses "The Water Bus," the last story to be covered from the collection Star Over Bethlehem by Agatha Christie Mallowan, with Kemper Donovan of the All About Agatha podcast!

Everything is authorized to me—but I will not let just anything have authority over me. And therein lies the path of discernment for a baptized Christian body in the world. Sex, marital and otherwise? Food, idolatrous or not? What has the promised resurrection to do with the mortal body in this life? In this episode Dad and I work our way through the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of I Corinthians to...

Where is the debater of this age? All over the internet, apparently. The Apostle Paul would not be impressed, and neither should you. If the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, how much more its folly! In the meanwhile, however, there is the real and contentious question of what, exactly, makes for God's wisdom and God's strength. Hint: if the answer does not include the cross...

A quick introduction to a new ebook from Sarah: sermons on all four Passion accounts from all four Gospels. Download your free ebook of Lenten Postil on the Passion here.

Transfiguration Sunday is coming soon -- the 15th of February! Arm yourself against the inevitable rehashing of the same with this, the second of seven ways of looking at the Transfiguration. Or better yet, treat yourself to all Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration.

SO MANY PROBLEMS when you try to think about the resurrection of the dead... one of the reasons it is abandoned as much by naive faith and scientific sophistication. Should we take such a challenge lying down? No, we shall not! In this episode, Dad and I rise to the occasion (see what I did there?) to think through, with the guidance of the gospel, what it even means to say that Jesus rose from th...

The Sermon on the Mount will make its once-every-three-years appearance in the lectionary starting in late January, so here is a re-release of Sarah's poetic paraphrase thereof. For downloads and print purchases of Sermon on the Mount: A Poetic Paraphrase visit Thornbush Press.

After a three-year interim, Dad and I finally return to Reinhold Niebuhr's magisterial work, The Nature and Destiny of Man, first delivered as the Gifford Lectures in 1939, then revised and published in 1943. In this episode on vol. 2, we discuss what Dad cribbed from Niebuhr upon his first reading this book 55 years ago (!), the question of metanarratives and what we can (and can't) know about hi...

This oft-overlooked little epistle of the New Testament is very likely the first extant work of Christian literature—characterized by the apostle Paul's intense pastoral love for his congregation in Thessalonica and comforting hope in the return on the clouds of the Lord Jesus. In this episode Dad and I dig into both these themes, the abundance of family language (some of it startling, to say the...

There is plenty puzzling about the doctrine of the resurrection, no matter which way you slice it. But it's extra puzzling if you prioritize the immortality of the soul over the resurrection of the body, and if you prioritize the resurrection of the body over the resurrection of the dead. In this episode Dad and I warmly invite Cappadocian father Gregory of Nyssa and his accomplished sister Macrin...

Sarah talks with Tara Beth Leach and Mark Quanstrom of The Pastor's Table about hard-won lessons in gospel and ministry!

Sarah talks with the hosts of the Narrative Lectionary Podcast about the Book of Revelation, and especially the six lessons appointed for this year.

After our last episode on Pastoral Preaching, I had a brainwave. Dad and I talk about it.

Most church services include preaching... but why? What should be the focus of a sermon? For that matter, what should not be the focus of a sermon? And is any genre more or less compatible with law-gospel preaching? Plus: Sarah shares the worst sermon she ever heard. And a few other doozies besides. We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron! Notes: 1. Iowa Preachers Project...

Dad and I are back on Enter the Bible to discuss whether and to what extent Christians are obligated to obey the laws found in Scripture.

Dad and I both moonlight on Enter the Bible to discuss whether faith is our work or God's work. Or maybe that's the wrong question...?

What's worse, a Christianity exceedingly well aware of the devil... or a Christianity totally unaware of it? What's worse, the devil you know or the devil you don't? Did the devil make you do it? or did God in disguise? In this episode Dad and I undertake a historical survey of Christian understandings of the devil, where it's gone wrong, and (if such a thing is possible) how to speak of the devil...

Luther's 1528 treatise is quite the diatribe against denials of Christ's bodily presence in the sacrament of his Supper. But it is also a deep exploration of the nature of meaning, what we mean when we speak, and above all what Christ means when he speaks. Plus, it'll set right anyone still misinformed enough to think that Lutherans teach "consubstantiation"! We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your s...

A counterpart to our earlier episode on Bible to Doctrine (and Back Again) , this one has us discussing Dad's forthcoming book, which is a theology of theology and an exegesis of exegesis! In particular we discuss the difference between starting with the incarnation vs. starting with the resurrection in christology, and all the downstream consequences of the respective decisions. We're in our SEVE...

Or, how God took a burned, unwilling, and fearful pastor, and turned her into a joyful one. With, of course, a few bumps along the way. In this episode Dad and I reflect together on my six and a half years of missionary ministry in the world's biggest megalopolis, and what the very specific circumstances of church life here can teach us about renewing the church in the U.S. and elsewhere. We're in...

Dad gets interviewed on Wipf & Stock's Theology Mill podcast to talk about his book, Lutheran Theology: A Critical Introduction !