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
The focus on Christ's faithfulness rather than merely our faith in Christ, creates a more holistic understanding of faith than an interior intensity of belief, focused on Christ as object. Faithfulness is Christocentric rather than anthropocentric, incorporating ethics and embodiment of the living out of faith in Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Mar 01, 2025•23 min•Ep. 1031
Matt, Paul, and Jon continue the discussion of the baptist vision set forth by Stanley Hauerwas and James McClendon, focusing on unity and contrasting it with the forced and violent unity of Christendom. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Feb 24, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 1030
Ephesians 3:10 describes the work of Christ as recapitulation, which is inclusive of all that it means to be human, and can be described as a different human experience and psychical difference. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!
Feb 22, 2025•28 min•Ep. 1029
John, Matt, and Paul, inspired by articles by C. J. Dull, discuss the baptist vision set forth by Stanley Hauerwas and James McClendon, and discuss how this provides for a first order unity in the person and work of Christ. Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April 11th. Register here https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support ...
Feb 17, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 1028
In this sermon, the witness of Scripture to Christ and Christ as interpretive key to Scripture is spelled out, using the Gospel of John and Paul's illustration in Corinthians concerning Moses. Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April 11th. Register here https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!...
Feb 15, 2025•24 min•Ep. 1027
In this first podcast on Imaginary Apologetics, it is noted that Anselm's ontological and cosmological arguments pose a logic developed in his atonement theory, focused on a foundational logic, and this is contrasted with Hegel's understanding that the ontological argument is dependent on Christianity and the Person of Christ. Hegel is working from a Maximian-like understanding in which Christ brings together thought and being while Anselm does not reference Christ in the core of the argument. S...
Feb 10, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 1026
Philippians 3:13 describes a stretching forth, in which the past (failures and achievements) are forgotten as part of the focus on the goal of attaining to likeness of Christ. Gregory of Nyssa portrays this Pauline understanding as the eternal dynamic of life in Christ which offers true stability and peace. Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April 11th. Also sign up for Sin and Salvation: An i...
Feb 08, 2025•22 min•Ep. 1025
The transformative power in conversion and salvation flows backward, redeeming all of our life, so that the end is in the beginning. Our finite lives make sense as they are stretched out in the beginning and end that is Christ. This self-transcendence is realized in being woken up religiously to the love of God, morally to others, intellectually to the cosmic Christ, and psychically or emotionally to the fruits of the spirit. Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theolog...
Feb 03, 2025•24 min•Ep. 1023
Here is part 2 of the 2 part discussion of the upcoming course Sin and Salvation. John, Matt, and Paul, discuss their theological journey as a journey of friendship. (Sorry, the previous podcast was duplicated but here corrected.) Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April 11th. Also sign up for Sin and Salvation: An in-depth study of the meaning of sin and a description of the atonement as a de...
Feb 01, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 1024
Matt, John and Paul discuss the upcoming course with PBI, Sin and Salvation, which focuses on the peace of Christ, and which pictures the theological journey as only cohering as a continuing journey, in which the beginning is in the end, as with Christ. Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April 11th. Also sign up for Sin and Salvation: An in-depth study of the meaning of sin and a description o...
Jan 27, 2025•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 1022
In part 2 of discussion of Flannery O'Connor, David, Jonathan, and Paul discuss how her depiction is an explicit defeat of liberal and pietistic notions which believe in the natural competency of the soul. Only an acknowledgement of judgment, evil, and purgation, even as part of a universal salvation, is adequate for the reality of the human condition. (Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April...
Jan 25, 2025•47 min•Ep. 1021
