The Protestant Libertarian Podcast

In this episode I talk with Dr. Frank Thielman, Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, about his brand-new book Paul, Apostle of Grace , out now on Eerdmans. This book is a sweeping but readable biography of Paul that addresses his life, ministry, theology, letter writing, and more. We discuss the importance of Paul in the development of the early church, the historical reliability of Ac...

In this episode I talk to Dr. Dale Allison, Professor of New Testament Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including the brand-new Interpreting Jesus , out now on Eerdmans, where he analyzes several interesting and innovative issues related to the historical Jesus. We discuss contingent eschatology in 2nd Temple Judaism, the belief that God w...

In this episode I talk with Richard Fulmer, an engineer and systems analyst who was written several articles related to free-market economics, about his recent piece for the Mises institute entitled Karl Marx’s Missing Link: Erasing the Line Between Mercantilism and Capitalism , where he explores how Marx wrongly conflates the results of mercantilism with capitalism and what it means for economic...

In this episode I talk to Econ Bro, a Nigerian minster and economist, about his plans to spread Austrian economics and libertarian ideas to the people of Nigeria. We talk about the impact of US politics on the rest of the world, the dysfunctional socialist economy of Nigeria, the country’s rampant political corruption, and the dim prospects for change. We then talk about the Nigerian Liberty Proje...

In this episode I talk once again to Erik, a Swedish socialist who is philosophically Marxist. We discuss his perspective on what is happening in the world, the problems with the American left, how Europeans interpret Trump’s second term, imperialism, Swedish politics, how video games promote American military propaganda, and more. He offers insights into the current state of global politics that...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.   Then the world shut down.  I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five yea...

In this episode I talk with Jane Clair Tyner, communications manager at End it for Good , a non-profit which advocates for health-centered approaches to drug use and addiction. After losing her oldest son to addiction, Jane Clair has become a vocal advocate for educating the population about drugs, addiction, and treatment. She talks about the policy failures resulting from the war on drugs and th...

In this crossover episode I talk with Zak Kisor and Andrew Joseph of The Legacy Right podcast about America’s failing public schools. We discuss our personal experiences in the education system, why schools consistently underperform, how the agenda of the education bureaucracy has nothing to do with serving the public or providing an education, and the difficulty of making changes that benefit stu...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.  Then the world shut down.   I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five yea...

In this episode I talk with Dr. Jordan Ballard, Assistant Professor at the John W. Wralings School of Divinity at Liberty University and adjunct professor at Calvary University. His doctoral thesis was entitled The Kindness and Severity of God: A Defense of the Conquest of Canaan , which explores the conquest narratives in Joshua 1-12. We will be discussing the problem of Old Testament violence an...

In this episode I talk to Dr. James Ware, scholar of New Testament and Ancient Christianity and professor emeritus at the University of Evansville, about his brand-new The Final Triumph of God: Jesus, the Eyewitnesses, and the Resurrection of the Body in 1 Corinthians 15 , out now on Eerdmans, which is a line-by-line commentary of Paul’s most iconic statement of the resurrection at the end of the...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.  Then the world shut down.  I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five year...

In this episode I talk with Brent M., host of the Aiming Up podcast, about his political evolution, how philosophy has shaped his worldview, leaving religion, psychedelics, and health. This is a wide-ranging conversation that touches on issues that are extremely important to my show, and Brent’s insightful and open-minded approach to complex issues is refreshing and guaranteed to get you thinking!...

In this episode I talk with Dr. Gerard Casey, professor emeritus at University College Dublin and associate scholar at the Mises Institute, about charity and welfare. Dr. Casey argues that a libertarian approach to charity, which is based on the principles of non-aggression and localism, are a more efficient method of providing for those in need than big-government redistributive programs. Besides...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.  Then the world shut down.  I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five year...

In this episode I explore Paul’s exhortation in 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 where he instructs the Thessalonians that “those that don’t work, don’t eat” (3:10). Building from last week’s episode on 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12, I explain how this passage functioned in its historical context and the principles that we should draw from it to think about economics and politics in the modern world. I justify the...

In this episode, I explain what Paul is doing when he exhorts the Thessalonians to “ mind your own business and work with your hands ” in 1 Thessalonians 4:9-12. I discuss the problems with historical anachronism and the difference between ancient and modern economic thought. I then discuss the wider context of Paul’s though, explaining how his fundamental moral principle is cruciformity (living a...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.  Then the world shut down.  I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five year...

*Streamyard defaulted to my computer microphone and not my recording microphone. I apologize for the terrible sound quality.  In this episode I explore how the American progressive left and conservative right share many fundamental assumptions about the use of authoritarian power. While the political spectrum in the West is usually conceptualized as left vs. right, I argue that it should be more a...

In this episode I welcome back long-time friend of the show Cody Cook to discuss his brand-new book The Anarchist Anabaptist: Essays on Radical Christianity and Freedom . In this book he explores the relationship between his Anabaptist faith and libertarian political philosophy. We discuss the meaning and history of the Anabaptist movement, its relationship to the wider Protestant world, and the d...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.  Then the world shut down.  I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five year...

In this episode I talk with Dr. James Barker, associate professor of New Testament at Western Kentucky University, who authored the brand-new book Writing and Rewriting the Gospels: John and the Synoptics , out now on Eerdmans. In this book Dr. Barker discusses the synoptic problem, the question of the literary relationship between Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and offers a defense of the Farrer hypoth...

In this episode, I discuss the problem of unclear economic thinking in Biblical scholarship. Terms like ‘capitalism’ and ‘socialism’ are often left undefined by the scholars who employ them, and the vague cultural notion that ‘capitalism’ is about evil and greed while ‘socialism’ is about virtue and charity characterizes the use of economic language in scholarship on the Bible. I discuss how many...

Right before the pandemic, in February of 2020, I took on the role of interim student ministries director at my church.  Then the world shut down.  I hosted seven weeks of group online, and I recorded a series of videos about the basics of our beliefs for my students to watch before our weekly meetings. These short video introductions to important Biblical subjects lay dormant for nearly five year...

In the long-awaited third installment of my Ludwig von Mises vs. a Christian Scholar series, I take on the big dog himself, N.T. Wright. Wright is the world’s most famous New Testament scholar and theologian and is known for his pioneering work on the ‘New Perspective’ on Paul, Paul and empire, and the historical Jesus. I explain how his own theology of empire and the church helped lead me to libe...