Theology in the Raw

My book Exiles: The Church in the Shadow of Empire releases tomorrow! (3/5). In this podcast conversation, my good friend Ed Uszynski interviews me about my book. As always, we get pretty raw and real--and drive off the road quite a bit. When it comes to the Bible, I feel pretty confident about what I believe about politics. And Exiles is primarily a book about the Bible. But when I wonder into mo...

Originally from Australia, Dr. Darren Whitehead has lived in the United States for over 25 years.  He is the founder and Senior Pastor of Church of the City with several locations across Nashville. He earned his Doctorate from Capital Seminary and Graduate School. Darren lives with his wife, Brandy, and their three daughters in Franklin, TN. Darren recently released his book The Digital Fast: 40 D...

Welcome to a sneak peek of the Bonus Q&A episode, part of the Theology in the Raw premium subscription.  In this Patreon-only episode, you'll get a sneak peak into my responses to some criticisms I've received over the last few months, such as: why am I having an open and affirming speaker at the Exiles conference? Do I really believe that gay people don't need to repent? Am I a heretic for be...

In this conversation, Preston and Josh talk about his latest book (release date: March 5) The Party Crasher: How Jesus Disrupts Politics as Usual and Redeems our Partisan Divide, which is an incredible book about political discipleship and how followers of Jesus can faithfully engage the political world around us. Joshua Ryan Butler is a pastor and the author of The Party Crasher , Beautiful Union...

Amy Ford is the Founder and President of Embrace Grace , a nonprofit that equips churches to love and encourage women with unexpected pregnancies by providing spiritual, emotional, and practical support. Over 1,100 groups are active in churches around the world who utilize the Embrace Grace curriculum and host support groups to help those impacted by unplanned pregnancies in their community. She h...

In this podcast conversation, we begin by wrestling with some innocent questions around AI but end up exploring some darker parts of this topic, including the reality of sex robots and cloning dead loved ones to ease our pain--and how this might destroy humanity. Christopher is a Tech Analyst and Industry Advisor and Chief Learning Officer at ChenMed. He's also the host of the podcast: Future-Focu...

Gregory Coles is the author of Single, Gay, Christian , No Longer Strangers , and the recently released dystopian-ish novel, The Limits of My World . He holds a PhD in English from Penn State and lives in Boise, Idaho, where he works as a writer and speaker. Greg is a Senior Research Fellow at The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender.  In this podcast conversation, we talk about his book The L...

Dr. Austin Knuppe has a Ph. D. in political science from The Ohio State University and currently serves asan assistant professor of political science at Utah State University. Prior to Utah State, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the Dickey Center for International Understanding at Dartmouth College. His research interests include civilian survival during wartime, Middle East politics, and the role...

Ellen Radcliff, a therapist and the author of the forthcoming book: Love Covers Over: A Guide for Christian Parents Raising Kids in an LGBTQ+ World . Ellen channels her love for God, her clinical expertise, and her experience as a former lesbian to walk alongside individuals, couples, and families as they navigate the nuances of sex, sexuality, and gender in our modern world, while remaining roote...

Joshua S. Porter is pastor of teaching and creative vision at Van City Church in Vancouver, Washington. He is also a former member of the experimental art-punk band, Showbread, and the author of the novel Punk Rock Vs. the Lizard People. His most recent book is With All Its Teeth: Sex, Violence, Profanity, and the Death of Christian Art, which examines a biblical theology of art. Find out more and...

JR Woodward, PhD (University of Manchester, UK) is a catalyst, author, and teacher. He is the national director of the V3 church planting movement. See jrwoodward.com . He's also the author of The Scandal of Leadership , which forms the backdrop of our conversation.  We discuss the need for polycentric leadership, the problems with hierarchical leadership, the temptation for church leaders to buil...

Welcome to a sneak peek of the Bonus Q&A episode, part of the Theology in the Raw premium subscription.  In the full episode, we discuss: 0:00  Introduction 2:02    My wife has recently become affirming and I am not. I'm concerned about how she reads the Bible and what to do? 11:30  How important is it that you and your wife Chris are in step in your theology? 16:08  How would you counsel a yo...

Dr. A.J. Swoboda (Ph. D., Birmingham) is an associate professor of Bible and Theology at Bushnell University and lead mentor for the Doctor of Ministry Program on Spiritual Formation and Soul Care at Friends University. He is the author of many books, including The Gift of Thorns (Zondervan), After Doubt (Brazos), and the award-winning Subversive Sabbath (Brazos). He lives and works on an urban fa...

Dr. Daniel Lee Hill (Ph. D. Wheaton) is an assistant professor of Christian Theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University. He, his wife, and his young son live in Waco, TX with a jar of sourdough starter and a persistent jug of kombucha scoby. In this conversation, Daniel and I wrestle with a Hauerwasian approach to political theology, and while we find ourselves in much a...

Dr. Kevin Grasso (Ph. D. Hebrew University) lives in the Atlanta area and is the founder of Biblingo : an innovative and effective way to actually learn biblical Greek and Hebrew. Dr. Grasso is a biblical scholar, author, linguist, and a husband and father of 4. In the academic space, he applies theoretical linguistics to exegetical problems, such as the pistis Christou phrase and the interpretati...

Evan Wickham is a worship leader, songwriter, speaker, and lead pastor of Park Hill Church in San Diego, CA, which he co-founded in 2017 with Sandy, his wife of 23 years (and their five kids).  In addition to helping people encounter Jesus through teaching and meaningful, rooted worship experiences, he has released four albums of worship songs, several of which are sung across the world. He holds...

For nearly two decades, John Mark pastored at Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon. After leading Bridgetown through five years of spiritual formation initiatives and seeing the impact, he wanted to help other churches discover a similar path of apprenticing under Jesus. In 2021, with the blessing of the church, John Mark stepped away from his role as pastor to launch Practicing the Way, a nonpro...

Dr. Julia Sadusky is a licensed clinical psychologist in Colorado. She is also an author, consultant, speaker, and adjunct professor. Dr. Sadusky has done extensive research and clinical work in sexual development and specializes in trauma-informed care. She earned a bachelor's degree from Ave Maria University and a master's degree and doctorate in Clinical Psychology from Regent University. She h...

Chris Butler is a pastor and "serial organizer" hailing from the Southside of Chicago where he lives with his wife, Aziza, and 6 children. Pastor Chris leads Chicago Embassy Church Network, a mission-based network church in America's third largest city and is an experienced organization builder. Butler is also co-author of Compassion and Conviction, and co-host of the awesome "Church Politics" pod...

Munther Isaac is a Palestinian Christian pastor and theologian. He pastors the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and the Lutheran Church in Beit Sahour and serves as the academic dean of Bethlehem Bible College, and is the director of the highly acclaimed and influential Christ at the Checkpoint conferences. Munther is the author of “The Other Side of the Wall”, “From Land to Land...

Okay folks, it's 2024! Congratulations--you're still alive and it's 2024. I truly hope that Theology in the Raw has played some positive influence in your life this past year.  In this first episode of 2024, I take a stroll down memory lane, reflecting on theology in the raw 2023. I review some stats, discuss some reviews, highlight TITR's mission statement, and discuss the top 10 episodes of the...

Merry Christmas from Theology in the Raw! We’re going to take a week off of podcasting and will pick it up again on January 1st. Thank you all for your love, support, encouragement, and criticism! We’ll see you in a week! Support Theology in the Raw through Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theologyintheraw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https:/...

Lee has been teaching full time at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, since 1999. He has an M.A. and M.Div. from Abilene Christian University and an M.A. and Ph. D. in Moral Theology / Christian Ethics from Notre Dame University. Lee is the author of several books, including an outstanding book on politics called Scandalous Witness: A Little Political Manifesto for Christians . And this forms t...

Colton Beach is a Christ-follower who's also a gay New Yorker who grew up secretly struggling with same sex attraction’ in the Independent Fundamental Baptist church. He grew up ignoring his sexual identity for the sake of his Christian identity which allowed sexual sin to fester in darkness until it could no longer be ignored. He is passionate about calling the church to be honest about the reali...

In this conversation, we talk about a libertarian view of economics (etc. Austrian Economics), war, foreign policy, immigration, along with gay marriage and abortion.  Doug Stuart is CEO of the Libertarian Christian Institute and host of the Libertarian Christian Podcast. He holds an MDiv from Missio Seminary and currently lives with his wife and three children in Lancaster, PA. Support Theology i...