The Blue Collar Scholar

It took a while for the American colonists to begin thinking of themselves as colonies that could bond together to resist British imperial policy, let alone rallying together for the purpose of independence. But, before we can get to July 4, 1776, we have to understand all of the British policies and American reactions that built momentum that would eventually become the American Revolution. This...

The prophet Jeremiah makes several references to a "Queen of Heaven" that was being worshipped by some Jews of his generation. God, through Jeremiah, condemns this blatant act of polytheism. But this raises two questions: Who or what is this "Queen of Heaven?" And why was the attraction to worship her so powerful in a culture that was supposed to be devotedly monotheistic? Note: Roman Catholics so...

Why and how did England plant its flag on the Eastern Seaboard of North America? What was the purpose of the 13 colonies? Were the colonies established for different reasons and purposes? What role did religion, business, and war play? We will explore these and other similar topics that lay a foundation of British colonization of the East Coast of North America.

The Fall 2023 class for the NCCC Lifetime Learning program was called "Women in the Bible." Over the next few weeks, this podcast feed will provide lecture audio for that class. But before we can dig into individual women in the Bible and their stories, we need to back up and look at the entire Bible's timeline from a bird's eye view. From the earliest days of prehistory in Genesis to the height o...

This episode launches our Spring 2024 class: The American Revolution. Join us as we travel back to the birth of democracy in ancient Athens, the Magna Carta in 1215 England, the Protestant Reformation, and the Age of European exploration and colonization in the Americas. We also, admittedly, chase a few bunny trails about WWII, Jewish history, the 27th Amendment, etc.

This episode is the finale that closes out The World Wars class. We will briefly cover the rapid growth of the American and Soviet nuclear programs after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the beginning of the Cold War.

The development of the atomic bomb remains one of the greatest scientific achievements of all time, as well as one of the most controversial tools of death ever used against other human beings. This episode digs into the origins of the Manhattan Project, which saw the United States & Allies invest billions of dollars into a project that made sure that the Allies got the A-Bomb before Hitler or Imp...

The Second World War in the Pacific hinges on Midway. Before Midway, Japan found unbelievable success. After Midway, Japan lost territory, as well as their necessary manpower to hold all that they conquered. But Midway was in the first year of the Pacific war. Japan fought tooth-&-nail to hold their conquests, and made the Allies fight with all that they had for another 3 years. In this episode, w...

Imperial Japan had an incredible undefeated streak that went a half of a year after their attack on Pearl Harbor. The US, the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, and the other Allies were unable to stop Japan as they spread their Empire over many islands and peninsulas all over the Pacific Ocean and coastal Asia. But Imperial Japan met their match when they went toe-to-toe with the US Navy at the tiny...

Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor? How did they do it? What military moves did Imperial Japan make immediately following their successful first strike? Download, listen, and find out!

This episode explains the history of Japan, from the origins of the Emperor's Chrysanthemum Throne, to the rise of the shoguns, to rise of late-19th Century and early-20th Century Japanese militarism. We will examine Japan's multiple military successes from the late 1890s to the early 1940s, the atrocities of the Rape of Nanking, and the military reasons for attacking the United States.

As you can see on this podcast page, The Blue Collar Scholar has been on hiatus for some time. However, we are back! This episode attempts to get caught up a bit. This podcast episode covers the lecture notes for four different lectures, all related to WWII in Europe: (1) The Battle of Britain & Operation Barbarosa, (2) The Holocasut, (3) D-Day, & (4) Allied Victory.

This sermon draws on the story of King David bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem to illustrate four lessons for Christians today.

The European Theater of World War II will be our focus on the podcast for the next few months. (In the Spring, we will shift the focus to the Pacific Theater.) For the Nazis, the earliest stages of the Second World War was a series of successes. After their six-week conquest of France - the strongest of the Allies in World War I, and the nation Germany wasn't able to conquer in four years in the t...

This episode briefly explores the Paris Peace Conference, Prohibition, the Roaring '20s, technological advances after WWI, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the Spanish Civil War, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria & China, and the rise of Adolf Hitler.

In this podcast episode, we will take a criminally-brief dive into World War 1, why it started, who were the major belligerents, and how WWI set the stage for WWII.

This short episode of The Blue Collar Scholar is a book review and enthusiastic recommendation to read or listen to "Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics in the Civil War South" by Stephanie McCurry.

This episode kicks off a new class for Spring 2023: The World Wars. The first episode quickly summarizes all the wars and industrialization that helped form the great belligerent nations of the First & Second World War, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, Tsarist Russia (and the USSR), Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, China, & Japan.

This podcast episode will conclude the lessons for the Fall 2022 New Testament class. This episode is a survey of New Testament theology, examining the Doctrine of Man, the Doctrine of the Church, and Eschatology (the study of the End Times).

We will close out the New Testament class with a few lessons on New Testament Theology. First up, we will discuss monotheism and the Trinity.

This episode will cover the class notes of the last three class periods for the New Testament class. In this episode, we will briefly discuss how the original manuscripts of the New Testament were transmitted through time to us today. We will also take a look at translation philosophies of English translations and discuss the value of a few of them. The second half of the podcast will deal with th...

As a time-saving measure, I will be switching formats for the rest of the semester. Instead of sharing classroom audio, these episodes will use the same notes that I use to teach, but it will be a podcast format instead of classroom audio. This episode digs into the question of the "canon," the authoritative list that is our New Testament. How did these 27 books and no others make the cut?

This episode completes the three-part sub-series of biographies of the New Testament. In this episode, we take a look at the biography of Saul of Tarsus, who went by the Greek name Paul (or Paulos) once his apostolic ministry brought him primarily into Gentile and multicultural cities in Asia Minor & Europe.

This episode gives an overview of all the Apostles of Christ, as well as all of the individuals who could possibly be called Apostles based on the text of various New Testament verses. This episode depends on the evidence of New Testament texts, but mostly on church tradition. Where did all the Apostles go during and after Acts? How did they die? What can we learn from these Apostles?

Now that we have examined each of the books of the New Testament, we will begin to synthesize the material. We shall start with an overview of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, called Christ, or Messiah. In this episode, we look at Jesus' birth, His ministry, His miracles, His death, His Resurrection, and His prophesied return.