The Magnificast

Liberation theology is cool! But, what about theology done from inside revolutionary contexts like Cuba? This week we're discussing Cuban theologian Sergio Arce Martinez and his book The Church and Socialism. You can check out his book here on archive.org. What's interesting about Arce's work is that rather than theology as a critique of capitalism, you get theology as a constructive project of wh...

This week, we're talking about the recent news about Cornerstone University's decision to shutter all of their humanities departments and Christian higher education as a site of ideological reproduction. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon  https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Support The Magnificast on Patreon*  http...

With the recent passing of Jürgen Moltmann, we thought it would be worth chatting about some of his thoughts about the Christian-Marxist dialogue. In this episode, we talk about Jürgen Moltmann, Christian freedom, and what freedom movements have to say to one another.  Check out the book here:  https://archive.org/details/religionrevoluti0000molt/mode/1up Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro mu...

This week on the show, we're talking about a really neat book called Revolutionary Forgiveness: Feminist Reflections on Nicaragua by the Amanecida Collective. The book is a reflection on 13 theologians who took a number of trips to Nicaragua in the early 80's. The book highlights a lot of interesting interactions between Christianity and politics during the Nicaraguan Revolution.  Find the book he...

Folks, The new Magnificast late night talk show is back with another round of headlines, current events, and rambling takes about democracy. This week we're talking about the conviction of Donald Trump, Global Elections, What's happening in the UK Labour party, and Cuba news. Tune in!  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon  https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/trac...

This week, we're coming up for air and talking about some of the big trends in Christianity with regards to its declining membership and closing churches. Listen in and hear our takes on what it all means for Christians on the left. Here are the links we mentioned in the show https://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/news-and-events/news/articles/transgender-people-are-loved-by-god-and-welcome-in-the-ch...

We've got another cool interview from the archive this week!  This week the Magnifiboys are joined by journalist Olga Segura (@OlgaMSegura) a reporter at The National Catholic Reporter and author of the forthcoming book The Birth of A Movement: Black Lives Matter and the Catholic Church. In this episode, we talk about the silence and sometimes antagonism of the Catholic Hierarchy with regards to B...

Folks, we're Ireland pilled. This week we dive into Ireland and how liberation theology shows up in the 20th century struggles. As it turns out, it's complicated! Throughout the episode we talk about the history of Ireland, the troubles, Liberation theology and reconciliation. Here are the books we talk about in this episode.  https://archive.org/details/bwb_T2-DWJ-929 https://www.cambridge.org/co...

Students have been organizing campus protests at universities across the world, so we're going to have a chat about it. This week, we talk about the campus protests from the level of strategy and pull together a few narrative threads about the faith angle to these protests.  These are the articles we talked about in this episode  https://sojo.net/articles/student-encampments-echo-jesus-parable-ann...

Something cool about having a podcast is that you can talk about whatever you'd like and no one can stop you. This week, we're doing just that. We've both gotten really interested in photography as a hobby and practice, so we're talking about Vilém Flusser's Toward a Philosophy of Photography and also some ideas about how it relates to the photographs of Mev Puleo, a photographer who was involved...

This week, we're easing back into podcasting after taking a bit of a hiatus. So, we're getting back into the swing of things with some of our favorite goofs. Don't worry; next week, we'll be back with something a bit more substantive. Also, Dean's audio sounds bad...Sorry.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon  https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-t...

Podcasts are hard for busy and successful people like us. We're away travelling this week and next. But, we'll be back with fresh content later this month. This time, Brett O'Shea from Rev Left Radio is joining us to talk about everyone's fav Irish revolutionary, James Connolly! If you're following along at home, you can check out the writings by Connolly that we read for this ep here:  “Socialism...

Podcasts are hard for busy and successful people like us. We're away travelling this week and next. But, we'll be back with fresh content later this month. We're still out here doing this Bible study, and this time we're doing a classic, the parable of the talents! You might think God wants you to invest the gifts he's given you so you can grow his kingdom, but guess what, if you knew a ton of ext...

This week, Matt is away travelling, so we're giving you a spicy episode from the vault!  Theology? Yeah, it's boring. Liberation theology? It's DANGEROUS--well, at least according to the CIA! This week we take a look at a few right wing documents from the 1980's that recognize that liberation theology was a possible threat to US hegemony. 

Last week, we hit you with the first half of Richard Horsley's book, You Shall Not Bow Down and Serve Them, and this week, we have part two on Paul and his economic message.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues Support The Magnificast on Patreon http://patreon.com/themagnificast Get...

This week, we're back to reading books! We've got some hot takes about the economic message of the Gospels that you didn't learn about in church from Richard Horsley's book You Shall Not Bow Down and Serve Them. We'll be back with the second part of the book next week.  Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon  https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-l...

It's an election year, which means that every person you know will tell you what they think about voting. We're no different. In this episode, we're talking about Joe Biden, the SOTU, Palestine, and the uncommitted vote.  Intro: Amaryah Armstrong Outro: theillalogicalspoon

You might have noticed that the podcast feed has been empty for a few weeks. Dean has been travelling the world and went all the way to Nepal to the World Social Forum to rub elbows with liberation theologians and activists. This week, Dean is back and ready to tell us all about it.  Learn more about the World Social Forum here: https://www.wsf2024nepal.org/organization/activity/59

Happy Valentines Day/Ash Wednesday. Here's a classic ep to help us think about love.  "Love is a power, and for that reason we cannot sequester it from all politics or keep it trapped in theological and mystical privacy. Love is not a neutral power that agrees with everything. But love lives precariously in a world that vacillates between not knowing what it is and subjecting it to the values of c...

Dean is halfway around the world at the World Social Forum talking liberation theology, so this week we're bringing you one from the archives. This conversation still seems timely given the new round of He Gets Us ads at the super bowl. This week, Josiah Daniels has joined us from the frontlines of the culture war, where he's been reporting on the He Gets Us campaign for Sojourners. In this episod...

This week on the podcast we're thinking about the way St Francis approached animals in his life. To take the idea of animals a bit more seriously we read the book Animalia: An Anti-Imperial Bestiary for Our Times. In the episode, we talk about the imperial history of apes, dogs, cattle, whales, foxes and even unicorns!  Check out the book here: https://www.dukeupress.edu/animalia#:~:text=The%20con...

This week, we're taking a look at Leonardo Boff's 2014 book Francis of Rome, Francis of Assisi and talking through Boff's thoughts on reforming the Catholic church, how Pope Francis might do that, and what it means for Pope Francis to take up the project of St. Francis. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low...

This week we're chatting with Alex Mikulich about his book Unlearning White Supremacy: A Spirituality for Racial Liberation. In the pod we talk about the importance of understanding the colonialist roots of Christianity, how white people can practice anti-racism, and what ecology and degrowth have to do with white supremacy.  Check out the book here---> https://orbisbooks.com/products/unlearnin...

You might have heard that this year we're making a big effort to read the Bible. In our reading plan, we just finished up reading Genesis, so in this week's episode, we're going to talk about our experience reading the first book of the bible.  If you want to join the community of Magnificasters reading the bibe, then joins us over at patreon.com/themagnificast. 

That's right folks, Marika is back to talk about her new book out with SCM Press, Theology for the End of the World! Find Marika's other writing at the AUFS blog: https://itself.blog/author/cmarikarose