The Magnificast

Today on the pod, we're taking a moment to think through the ongoing genocide in Palestine and Munther Isaac's Christmas sermon Christ in the Rubble.  Palestine Resources https://www.movement.org.uk/blog/palestine-resource-pack https://www.redletterchristians.org/christ-in-the-rubble-a-liturgy-of-lament/

We're taking some time off for Christmas, so here's one from the archives!  Ho Ho Ho, we're back with more Christmas content for all you Whos down in Whoville. This week, we talked with Pamela Klassen, a professor in the study of religion at the University of Toronto. She edited a rad collection of essays called The Public Work of Christmas and we're excited to talk with her and figure out what Ch...

We're always talking about the importance of Christian solidarity with Cuba, but this week we're talking with some folks who recently went on a trip to build that solidarity! Listen in and hear about their experience, reflections, and thoughts about solidarity with Cuba and why it's important. You can also donate some money to cover the cost of their trip here:  bit.ly/SCMCuba

What's Christmas really about anyway? Is it about getting presents? Peace on earth? Or the liberation of the poor and exploited? This week on the podcast we read a bit of Richard Horsley's The Liberation of Christmas, talk about biblical hermeneutics, and talk about the true meaning of Christmas.  get the book here: https://wipfandstock.com/9781597525756/the-liberation-of-christmas/

COP 28 just got off the ground in the UAE, and we want to tell you about it. There's so much stuff going on in the world, but it's all happening against the background of climate change and the world's politicians and bureaucracies who are failing to take adequate action. In this episode, we talk about what COP 28 is, the loss and damage fund, and Pope Francis' intervention.

This week, Dean is down in Cuba, building Christian solidarity with the Student Christian Movement. So, enjoy this classic episode about the rich man and Lazarus. Folks, on this podcast, we love the parables. This week we're talking about Luke 16:19 the Rich man and Lazarus. In the conversation, we talk about the historical context of the parable, the trope of class inversion, and just why the ric...

This week on the podcast, we're talking to Jewish liberation theologian Marc H. Ellis, about his new book First Light: Encountering Edward Said and the Late-Style Jewish Prophetic in the New Diaspora. Throughout the conversation, we chat with Marc about Edward Said, what it means to be a person of conscience, liberation theology and even his encounters with Dorothy Day!  Get Marc's book First Ligh...

This week, we're giving you one of the episodes from the archive while we do some prep work for future episodes! In 2018, Óscar Romero was canonized as a saint in the Catholic Church. His life and faith have been an important example to Christians on the left ever since his martyrdom. In this episode, we talk about the life and martyrdom of Saint Óscar Romero with Matt Eisenbrandt, author of The A...

Last week, we chatted with Jonathan Kuttab of FOSNA and heard about how to be in solidarity with the Palestinian people. This week, we're digging in further by talking about Naim Ateek's A Palestinian Theology of Liberation.  Find out more about Friends of Sabeel North America here: https://www.fosna.org Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon....

For the past 2 weeks, all eyes have been on Palestine. To talk about solidarity with Palestine we brought on Jonathan Kuttab, the director of Friends of Sabeel North America, to tell us about Palestinian Liberation Theology, the horrors of Israel's apartheid, and what the good news of Christianity is in light of that apartheid.  Find out more about Friends of Sabeel North America here: https://www...

With all that's going on this week, we Matt and Dean needed to take a minute, so this week we've got some classic content for you. Tune in next week for something new and interesting!   We've spent more time than usual reading the Bible lately, but, as you might know, reading the Bible can be complicated. To get into how difficult it is, we read William Herzog's Parables as Subversive Speech and t...

Folks, we’re back at it. Last week, we refreshed our memories about the Pope’s climate encyclical Laudato Si and how it connected with things like degrowth and dependency theory. But this week, we’re back with some breaking news. The Vatican has released Francis’ most recent apostolic exhortation Laudate Deum, and we will talk through it. Last time, we pulled out some of Francis’ thoughts around d...

Folk's we're on high alert here at the magnificast, because we are just DAYS away from Pope Francis dropping his follow up to Laudato Si, Laudate Deum. To get ourselves in the right headspace for this big moment, we're revisiting some of the big themes in Laudato Si. Everyone talks about the environmental themes, but we're really interested in the Pope's use of dependency theory.  Put on your stud...

In China Mieville’s book A Spectre Haunting , he notes that the communist manifesto has an almost religious function. Mieville says it’s a type of catechesis and confession that the world does not have to be as it is. The Manifesto calls people to a type of “committed fidelity” to a world where a small group of people do not disadvantage the many for the sake of profits. In that spirit of committe...

This week on the show, we're joined by William Gibson, from SCM Britain, who recently attended a protest against the DSEI arms fair in London. Throughout the episode, we talk about the DSEI protest, theology, labor, and solidarity.  You can follow William Here (https://twitter.com/willgibsongla) and find all of William's other projects here: https://www.liinks.co/william.gibson Also, find out more...

Folks, we're back with more Planetary Theology. In this episode, we're going to tackle what Tissa Balasuriya thinks about ecumenicism and pluralistic worship and then we'll talk about his spirituality of justice. It's cool!  Check out Planetary Theology by Tissa Balasuriya here https://archive.org/details/planetarytheolog0000bala/page/224/mode/2up?view=theater Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong Outr...

On this podcast, we’ve talked about radical theologians from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, The US, and China, but this week we’re bringing in the voice of Tissa Balasuriya, a Catholic theologian from Sri Lanka. This week, we’re talking about some pieces of his Book Planetary Theology, Published in English in 1984 by Orbis Press.  There’s a lot going on in Balasuriya’s work, but it’s a real...

Nonviolent direct action has been a part of faithful expressions of the Christian left for a long time, and this week, we're talking about it! Here are the articles we talked about https://sojo.net/articles/dutch-military-arrest-25-nonviolent-anti-nuke-protesters https://geezmagazine.org/magazine/article/eucharist-at-gunpoint http://supportjessicareznicek.com/about Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong...

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...

Hey Folks, Dean is away on holiday, so we're giving you an episode from the archives this week. This episode about Jessica Reznicek is once again timely as the two year anniversary of Jessica's incarceration has just past. Listen in and sign her petition if you haven't! http://supportjessicareznicek.com/ Jessica Reznicek is a Catholic Worker and water defender who sabotaged the Dakota Access Pipel...

Folks, we're not done with Franz Hinkelammert. This week we're back with an essay from Hink called  Liberation Theology in the Economic and Social Context of Latin America. Broadly, this essay is about liberation theology and its discontents. But, there's a really interesting piece about the IMF's anti-liberation theology that you're not going to want to miss. Also, this is our first transatlantic...

It's Matt's last episode in the USA, and we're talking about one of its greatest critics among liberation theologians, Franz Hinkelammert! Tune in to hear why even leftists can have a little idolatry critique, as a treat. Intro Music by Amaryah Armstrong  Outro music by theillogicalspoon https://theillalogicalspoon.bandcamp.com/track/hoods-up-the-low-down-technified-blues *Get Magnificast Merch* ...

Hey Folks, this is (hopefully) our last transitory episode, and we'll be back after this. But, for this week, we're bringing back reddit questions and current events. Vibe with us as we consider how demons influence the world if there are dinosaurs in heaven, and what current events there are this week. 

The docuseries The Secrets of Hillsong recently dropped, and evangelical megachurch Hillsong is back in the discourse of Christianity. In this episode, we talk about why these documentaries are popular, the perverse draw of these stories, and what's missing from the conversation.