Recovering Evangelicals

John’s Gospel is so different from the other three Gospel accounts, one might have to wonder ….. This week, we talk to a New Testament scholar with particular expertise on the writing of the Gospels. His most recent book focuses squarely on the Gospel of John. After asking some basic background information on that Gospel […]

Literary scholars such as JR Tolkien and CS Lewis see Christianity as not only the fulfillment of ancient Hebrew prophecies, but also the deep-seated yearnings of the human heart, expressed through a multitude of myths and religions. [this is a re-release from our Archive; Scott was not part of the team at that time] In […]

They were written by GrecoRoman elites in the 2nd century, and Paul radically influenced their writing!? Christians sitting in the pews have long had the idea that the Gospels were written by four individuals, at least of three of whom were Jews (Luke may not have been), and two of whom were part of Jesus’s […]

Paul and John (and modern Evangelicals) seem to paint a different portrait of Jesus than all the others who actually walked and talked with him. Jesus of Nazareth as … the Logos? [image created by Andrew … thanks Andrew!] Last week, we looked at the first half of that paradoxical Christian expression: Jesus was “fully […]

The people reported as having walked and talked with Jesus in the first century all saw him primarily as a Jewish Messiah. Jesus and his disorganized, unarmed group of disciples re-imagined as a conquering hero leading an armed resistance against the Roman Empire [image created by Andrew … thanks Andrew!] One particular Christian tenet that […]

We look at some of the common ways that this is [mis]understood, and share some other perspectives on the how’s, who’s and what’s behind it. Did the Gospel writers receive Divine guidance? Or were they hearing from some part(s) of their inner selves? [image crated by Andrew … thanks Andrew!] [note: this is a re-release […]

Given that they’re the best source we have on who Jesus is/was, it would be good to know how reliable they are. After deconstructing nearly every other aspect of the Christian faith that was handed down to me as a child, I thought it was time to do a mini-series on the question: “who is […]

No, humans did not arise out of apes. We arose out of fish! And we bear many scars and souvenirs from that journey. Yes, again!  We are indeed talking about Young Earth Creationism again, because folks: YECism is alive and well in large swathes of Western society. And they’re building a giant cultural silo — […]

Dr Joel Duff helps us critique Young Earth Creationist and Intelligent Design ideas about predation strategies in particular, and science in general This week, we talked to Dr. Joel Duff about the focus of our previous episodes on venomous snakes and the Green Jewel Wasp.  Joel not only has decades of experience at a state […]

The Emerald Jewel Wasp brings new meaning to the phrases “eating out” and “having someone over for dinner”. The Emerald Jewel Wasp is an amazing example of “Extreme Evolution.”  They propagate their own species by stinging their prey — cockroaches — three times in a very carefully orchestrated dance.   The first sting is directed at […]

The evolution of venomous snakes was an incredibly complex journey that took hundreds of millions of years. Here’s the short version of this interview (~45 minutes) … with much of the really technical scientific bits removed …. And here’s the full-length version (over an hour) of our conversation with our guest expert. Buckle up your […]

Introducing Young Earth Creationist and Intelligent Design proponents to the Emerald Green Wasp, the hooded cobra, and Ridley Scott’s Xenomorph Over the next few weeks, we’re going to do a bit of a deep-dive into the origin of defense and attack strategies in animals.  How snakes developed hollow fangs that inject a toxic venom.  And […]

Five centuries of vicious, in-house conflicts over the control of emergent Christian orthodoxy. This week’s guest — Dr. Paula Fredriksen — discusses her latest book: Ancient Christianities: The First Five Hundred Years.  Yes, that’s “Christianities” … plural!  The focus of this retrospective is the multiple strands of Christian thinking which were vying for control during […]

Professor of New Testament studies traded his traditional Evangelical faith for one that is much more authentic and relevant. In this episode, we talk to Dr. James F. McGrath about a new book he’s just published with Eerdmans: Beyond Deconstruction — Building a More Expansive Faith.  It’s a very easy reading book which is quasi-autobiographical: […]

Why a mechanistic explanation for religious belief/unbelief in humans can actually complement a thoroughly Christian faith. Over the last two weeks, Dr. Will Gervais unpacked his research looking at how humans — as a species, as groups of nations, and even as individuals — build a religious belief system.  He identified a variety of contributing […]

The Dual-Inheritance Model explains so much about the emergence of religion in Homo sapiens millions of years ago, as well as the persistence (growth?) of atheism in a world dominated by religious humans. This week, we bring you the second half of our conversation with Dr. Will Gervais.  We return to the kitchen table where […]

It took billions of years and billions of life forms, but religion eventually emerged in one species, and filled the globe; and yet disbelief persists? Today’s guest — Dr. Will Gervais (Brunel University, London UK) — has recently published an exceptional book: Disbelief: origins of atheism in a religious species.  In it, he addresses two […]

… on science, religious belief, and the meaning of life. Our guest — Dr. Philip Clayton — is an exceptionally credentialed and highly acclaimed philosopher, speaker and author standing at the interface between science and religion.  In this book, he teamed up with a non-theist — Claudia Pearce — to write a book which addresses […]

Do we burn them all, or can we redact the problematic parts? Or do we take the path that involves his confession, repentance and restoration? Last week, we explored our own responses, as well as those of nine anonymous listeners/friends, to the sex scandals involving Christian authors and theologians.  This began as a direct response […]

We begin with a really hot-potato topic, one that blew up the Evangelical Christian community a few weeks ago! Recovering Evangelicals are back from hiatus! When we took a break from podcasting last summer, we wondered if there even would be a 7th season … and if we did return, whether we needed to re-brand. […]

Divine dictation of fully-formed books, or a gradual evolution of texts at the hands of authors, editors, interpreters, redactors, copyists, collectors, ……? This will be the first of several episodes we’re hauling out of our Podcast Archive that are related to how we came to have this collection of books we call the Bible. This […]

A new understanding of the ancient story of Israel’s exodus out of Egypt leads to a whole new understanding of the Passover … and of the crucifixion! In this episode, Scott and Luke look back on the two recent re-releases — both challenging the traditional “Sunday school version” of the Exodus story — to address […]

Science now makes the Sunday School version of this story no longer tenable, leaving three options for believers: ignore the problem, reject the Bible, or revise one’s theology. The story of “the Exodus” has traditionally been seen to involve millions of Israelites following Moses out of Egypt: this image is derived from a literal reading […]

Although the origin story for Jews, and the foundation for much of Christian theology, many scholars will ask: did it really happen (that way)? Moses leading the newly-born nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, wandering through the desert for 40 years, and taking possession of Canaan is an iconic story. Not only is […]

Last week we said this “mind-virus” could end up destroying the planet; this week we explain the three biggest reasons why/how. Last week’s episode title claimed “Dispensationalism” could end up destroying our planet, but we never really fully explained how: here, we fill in that fundamentally important gap. Our guest is the perfect expert for this.  […]