Paul Axton preaches: Following the development of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in his expanded Christocentrism and departure from Luther's notion of the two kingdoms, this sermon calls for a clear delineation between Christian Nationalism and authentic Christianity. The failure to delineate gave rise to National Socialism in Germany and is giving rise to fascism in the United States. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Jun 14, 2025•23 min•Ep. 1061
Paul Axton describes Rowan Williams' reinterpretation of Hegel, which accords with Axton's reading of Hegel's work on the philosophy of religion and Anselm's ontological argument. In this understanding, Hegel provides an orthodox Eastern-like sensibility of the necessity of Trinity for thought. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Jun 09, 2025•53 min•Ep. 1060
Paul Axton preaches: Romans 4 describes the experience of the sublime, in which the individual recognizes their unifying center outside of themselves, and are thus enlarged and liberated from the world. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Jun 07, 2025•28 min•Ep. 1059
William Cavanaugh describes to Brad and Paul how the state came to dominate the Church, using Chile as a case study, and drawing links between Pinochet and Trump in the outworking of fascism through Christian nationalism in the US and in models such as Victor Orbán in Hungary. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. B...
Jun 02, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 1058
Paul Axton preaches: The Lord's Supper is instituted originally against Egypt, Rome, and Israel, but the Eucharistic power has been coopted by the modern state such that nationalism and capitalism have become the modern liturgy, which can only be resisted through the power of bodying forth Christ in the original Eucharistic sense. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this p...
May 31, 2025•31 min•Ep. 1057
In this continued discussion of imaginative apologetics it is argued that the possibility of knowing is not contained within thought, the possibility and impossibility posed from Anselm, Descartes, and Kant, but as Hegel argues, it is contained in the personhood of God revealed in Christ. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support...
May 26, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1056
Tim Turner and Paul discuss the work of the Macedonia Project and the opportunity to come to Japan for a mission internship. Contact the [email protected] or visit https://macedonianprojectjapan.com/ (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
May 24, 2025•51 min•Ep. 1055
Brad and Paul discuss the new monthly online fellowship as part of the necessary work of making peace through deep friendships and theology. The antagonism of the institution to the fullness of the gospel may require alternative means of finding fellowship. Send an email to [email protected] or to [email protected] in order to be put on the fellowship list. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.o...
May 19, 2025•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 1054
Paul Axton Preaches: The theology undergirding Donald Trump's expansion of presidential power is that of Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, built upon nominalism and voluntarism, the opposite of Jesus Christ as Logos and Lord. In this understanding the rule of law through the political leader displaces Christ's defeat of death and evil, and leaves law and fear as primary and necessitates a sovereign political leader. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd...
May 17, 2025•26 min•Ep. 1053
Anthony Bartlett, a leading Girardian theologian who has extended Girard's theory into a more complete description of the the semiotic or meaning shift which takes place in our orientation to signs through Christ, here explains how it is that hominization results in an orientation to death that Christ releases us from in his death and resurrection and in our taking up the cross. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingp...
May 12, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 1052
Paul Axton preaches: In the debates over Christology there were two clear tendencies in which the Alexandrians embraced the paradox of Jesus as God and the Antiochenes attempted to rationalize the suffering and death of Jesus through two natures. This has resulted in an obscuring of the identity of Christ in much of Christianity. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this po...
May 10, 2025•27 min•Ep. 1051
Anthony Bartlett, a leading scholar of René Girard, describes Girardian theory as precisely not the understanding given to it by Peter Thiel and right-wing Girardians (would be kingmakers in an authoritarian state). In a Girardian reading of the "sign of Jonah" Jesus and Christianity are anti-imperial, anti-oppressive authoritarianism. "A Christianity that would deploy Girardian insights for power and violence are of the anti-Christ." (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which...
May 05, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 1050
Paul Axton preaches: This sermon looks at the radical New Testament depiction of Christ and its implications, and the failure to fully acknowledge this understanding in various heresies or simply the tendency to delimit the discussion such that it falls shore of acknowledging the story of Jesus is the story of God. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 29th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this podcast, please c...
May 03, 2025•24 min•Ep. 1049
Paul and Jonathan Totty discuss the upcoming class on Colossians and Christology, which will utilize the historical development of Christology detailed by Rowan Williams, in arriving at an applied and practical understanding of the person and work of Christ. (Register now for the course Colossians and Christology which will run from June 3rd to July 22nd https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings ) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Apr 28, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 1048
Paul Axton preaches: Wittgenstein, Hegel, and Moltmann unite in describing the resurrection as opening up the life of Christ as the story of God, and the central interpretive key of faith. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Apr 26, 2025•24 min•Ep. 1047
Paul and Jim look at the ontological argument as an example of the basic human impetus to secure the self, to gain being, in and through language. The work of the psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva explains this basic human drive and how the cross breaks open this narcissistic self to become open to others and community. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Apr 21, 2025•46 min•Ep. 1046
Paul Axton preaches: The theological reason for the death of Christ should begin with the historical reality of what killed him and what he defeated in his death and resurrection; namely Israel, Rome, the law, and the principalities and powers behind the reification of death and law. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Apr 19, 2025•24 min•Ep. 1045
The Canadian broadcaster David Cayley describes his groundbreaking interviews with the thinker and theologian Ivan Illich, in which Illich describes how it is the very best, the church, became the very worst, in modernity. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Apr 14, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 1044
Paul Axton Preaches: Romans 3:25 is a key verse in determining Christ's relationship to the Temple. Is he a sacrifice of atonement to be fit into the Temple and Law, or is he the (hilasterion) Mercy Seat providing access to revelation of righteousness which is salvation? If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Apr 12, 2025•22 min•Ep. 1043
In part 2 of Brad and Paul's conversation with the theologian James Alison, the role of the church in marriage, divorce and the role of Church law are discussed especially as it relates to issues of gender and homosexuality. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Apr 07, 2025•55 min•Ep. 1042
Paul Axton preaches: What Paul calls the ministry of death, is accentuated and exposed in the murder of Jesus, due to Jesus teaching and action in the Temple. The temple deals in the death of animals, which did not touch upon the deadly attitude of the human heart, and Jewish response to his interruption of the killing is the motive for killing Jesus bring this ministry of death to an end. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Apr 05, 2025•26 min•Ep. 1041
Brad and Paul interview the Girardian theologian James Alison concerning the pastoral and practical application of Girard, and how this relates to the sexual crisis in Catholicism. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 1040
Paul Axton preaches on the inadequacy of now and not yet as a characterization of the Christian life. Victory in Christ holds out a fullness of truth, a complete adoption, and the reality of escaping evil. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 29, 2025•20 min•Ep. 1039
Anselm's deployment of the ontological argument leads directly to the closed whole of his atonement theory in divine satisfaction, all of which depends upon the reification of language resisted and corrected in Hegel, and noted by Paul. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 24, 2025•59 min•Ep. 1038
In the story of the Good Samaritan Jesus sets love above custom, law, and religious institutions but the corruption of this very best also poses the possibility of the very worst, in the words of Ivan Illich, in the institutionalization of the Church. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 22, 2025•25 min•Ep. 1037
John Pearson describes his work with the homeless and in sustainable farming leading to his work with wounded ministers through Ministry Support Services International https://www.mssint.org/ If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 17, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 1036
The fundamental lesson of the incarnation is that embodiment in general is the carrier of meaning a meaning for death or life, and that His embodiment is the fullness of meaning, life, extended universally. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 15, 2025•23 min•Ep. 1035
In Part 2 of this 2 part conversation, Jon, Matt, and Paul, discuss the possible meanings and impact of David Bentley Hart's recent confession and discuss various alternative interpretations. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 10, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 1034
Personhood is definitive of God and humanity, meaning the relational, the infinite, and the universal, are inherent to truth, rather than the foundational, the propositional, the doctrinal, or the institutional, which reduce to the impersonal. Personal truth and knowledge overcomes the reductionistic, finite, and limited systems of this world. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Mar 08, 2025•19 min•Ep. 1033
In Part 1 of this 2 part conversation, Jon, Matt, and Paul, discuss the positive impact of the work of David Bentley Hart and consider what his recent confession might mean in understanding his work. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 1032
