It is assumed in the popular imagination that early Christians were persecuted for their beliefs. Thousands of stories of saints who were persecuted because of their religious convictions flood Christian literature. But were Christians persecuted historically or was this mythology created by Christians? My guest, Dr. Candida Moss of the University of Notre Dame, speaks about this myth-making in her book: The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented a Story of Martyrdom.
Jun 10, 2013•29 min
This is the second interview with Marcus Borg. In the first conversation, we discussed his latest book, Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written. In this discussion he tackles the big issues, God, Jesus, and the Bible from a 21st century perspective. He is the author of over twenty books including Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power--and How They Can Be Restored.
Jun 03, 2013•26 min
Religion scholars, Linda Schearing (Gonzaga) and Valarie Ziegler (DePauw) take us back to the garden to show how American culture is obsessed with Eden. In their popular and enticing book, Enticed By Eden: How Western Culture Uses, Confuses, (and Sometimes Abuses) Adam and Eve, they introduce us to the world of evangelical manhood and womanhood, the sex toy industry, Christian wife spanking, on-line Christian dating, and more. Join us for a fascinating (and a little scary) conversation about gen...
May 28, 2013•28 min
Robert Cornwall is a Disciples of Christ minister and church historian. He is the pastor of the Central Woodward Christian Church in Troy, Michigan and he blogs at Ponderings on a Faith Journey. He is the author of Ultimate Allegiance: The Subversive Nature of the Lord's Prayer and Faith in the Public Square: Living Faithfully in 21st Century America. Dr. Cornwall's Faith in the Public Square is a collection of newspaper columns addressing issues of faith and politics. Join us for this insightfu...
May 14, 2013•28 min
Ted Olson is a Professor of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. He has published a collection of poems called Revelations. This is a magnificent collection of poetry that touches on spirituality, nature, family, and music. Maurice Manning writes that Revelations "...sweeps broadly, gathering family history, displaced people, the natural world, religion, small towns, solitude, and love into a single tide washing into shore." Dr. Olson brought his banjo and his poetry. Join us!...
May 07, 2013•29 min
Ted Olson teaches Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. He has been nominated for three Grammy Awards. Two nominations in 2012 for The Bristol Sessions 1927-1928 - The Big Bang of Country Music and another nomination in 2013 for Old-Time Smoky Mountain Music: 34 Historic Songs, Ballads and Instrumentals Recorded in the Great Smoky Mountains by 'Song Catcher' Joseph S. Hall. He just produced The Johnson City Sessions, rare recordings made in Johnson City in 1928. Dr. Olson talks...
Apr 30, 2013•29 min
The Christian religion is changing. Everything is on the table including the Bible. My guest, Dr. Hal Taussig, professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York City and pastor at Chestnut Hill United Methodist Church in Philadelphia is the editor of A New New Testament: A Bible for the 21st Century Combining Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts. This document includes as sacred scripture ten texts from antiquity that some early Christians used but never made it into the canon. These include...
Apr 22, 2013•29 min
One of the great teachers in my life has been Marcus Borg. His book Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time introduced me to a way of understanding the Christian faith that not only made sense but was worth living. He introduced me to a Christianity for both mind and heart. So I was honored to speak with Marcus Borg about two books, The Evolution of the Word: The New Testament in the Order the Books Were Written and Speaking Christian: Why Christian Words Have Lost Their Meaning and Power--and Ho...
Apr 16, 2013•29 min
This week I speak with Russill Paul, the author of Jesus in the Lotus and The Yoga of Sound. Russill will be in Johnson City, TN, April 26-28 for a weekend of lectures and workshops. He speaks with me about the intersection of Hinduism and Christianity and the blending of ancient and contemporary spiritual practices.
Apr 09, 2013•29 min
This week I speak with "pyro-theologian" Peter Rollins. This interview, perfect for Holy Week and Easter, is about "divine doubt" and letting go of the need for God to solve our problems. His latest book is called The Idolatry of God: Breaking Our Addiction to Certainty and Satisfaction. "He explores how the Good News actually involves embracing the idea that we can’t be whole, that life is difficult, and that we are in the dark. Arguing that God has traditionally been approached as a product th...
Mar 28, 2013•26 min
Author Barbara Kingsolver lives in southwest Virginia. She is the author of 14 books including the The Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna, and Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. She visited with me at the WEHC studio at Emory and Henry College to discuss her latest novel, Flight Behavior, a novel set in Southern Appalachia. In part it is about denial and the beliefs that get assigned to us. It is on the long list for the Women's Prize for Fiction (formerly the Orange Prize for Fiction).
Mar 26, 2013•25 min
Harvey Cox is the Hollis Research Professor of Divinity at Harvard, where he began teaching in 1965, both at HDS and in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. He is the author of The Secular City, When Jesus Came to Harvard, and The Future of Faith. The "Future of Faith" is the title of my series of programs and I am honored to have as my guest the man who wrote the book on it!
Mar 18, 2013•28 min
Robin Meyers has written books with provocative titles such as Why the Christian Right Is Wrong and Saving Jesus from the Church. His latest is the The Underground Church: Reclaiming the Subversive Way of Jesus. He is the senior minister of Mayflower Congregational UCC Church in Oklahoma City. He talks to me about empire, faith, and following a subversive Jesus in a red state.
Mar 11, 2013•28 min
Catherine Bush, playwright in residence at Barter Theater in Abingdon, Virginia is my guest this week. We talk about her pretty cool gig of being a playwright in residence as well as her play "Walking Across Egypt" and the intersection of faith and theater. Join us for a fun and lively conversation with Catherine Bush, part of my interesting people series!
Mar 04, 2013•28 min
My "Future of Faith" series continues with a conversation with Daniel Dennett. He is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens are seen as prominent voices for The New Atheism. He is the author Breaking the Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon. Dennett and colleague, Linda LaScola, published an article that has received a great deal of attention, Preachers Who Are Not Believers. He was award...
Feb 25, 2013•26 min
My "Future of Faith" series continues with a conversation with Daniel Dennett. He is the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He along with Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and the late Christopher Hitchens are seen as prominent voices for The New Atheism. He is the author Breaking the Spell: Religion As A Natural Phenomenon. Dennett and colleague, Linda LaScola, published an article that has received a great deal of attention, Preachers Who Are Not Believers. He was award...
Feb 18, 2013•27 min
Do you know what your minister believes? You might not. Jerry DeWitt is the author of the upcoming, Hope After Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism. He is the executive director of Recovering From Religion, and "the first graduate" of The Clergy Project. His story has been written up in the New York Times and he speaks about his journey at a number of conferences such as Reason in the Rock 2012. I caught up with Jerry on Religion For Life to discuss what it means to graduate from...
Feb 11, 2013•28 min
Michael J. Perry is Robert W. Woodruff Professor of Law at Emory University. He is the author of 60 articles and 11 books including Love and Power: The Role of Religion and Morality in American Politics, The Political Morality of Liberal Democracy, and the upcoming Human Rights in the Constitutional Law in the United States. He spoke at King College on February 4th, 2013 as part of the Buechner Lectures on the relationship between moral law, the constitution, and same-gender marriage. He joins m...
Feb 04, 2013•28 min
Kathleen Norris is an award-winning poet and author. Her works include Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Amazing Grace: A Vocabulary of Faith, and Acedia and Me: A Marriage, Monks, and A Writer's Life. I caught up with her on Religion For Life to talk about community, faith, life, meaning and star gazing in South Dakota.
Jan 29, 2013•28 min
Alex McNeill is on at least two journeys. One is a journey to ordination into the ministry in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Another journey is a personal journey from female to male. He speaks candidly about both journeys on Religion For Life. He is the host of Presbyqueerian and will be featured in the upcoming film, Out of Order.
Jan 22, 2013•27 min
This week on Religion For Life, my guest is Rev. Carol Howard Merritt. She is the author of Tribal Church: Ministering to the Missing Generation and Reframing Hope: Vital Ministry In A New Generation. She is part of my "Future of Faith" series and has insights on ministry with a new generation. You can hear her on her radio podcast, God Complex Radio, and follow her blog, Tribal Church. Rev. Merritt will be the Theologian In Residence at Tusculum College in February 2013. She will offer lectures...
Jan 14, 2013•27 min
This week Brian McLaren asks an age old riddle. His new book is entitled, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha, and Mohammad Cross the Road? Christian Identity in a Multi-Faith World. In this engaging and candid conversation, Dr. McLaren talks to me about the challenge and hope of religious pluralism. If the followers of our religious traditions behaved toward one another like our founders would, we would all be more gracious toward one another. He talks about his own journey including the importanc...
Jan 08, 2013•28 min
What happens when you bring the historical Jesus to church? In other words, if we strip away the myth from the man and develop a community based on humanistic principles, what would it look like? It might look like the Quest Learning Centre for Religious Literacy, a community founded on the historical Jesus, in Hamilton, Ontario. My guest, Dr. David Galston, is the leader of this community. He is a fellow of the Jesus Seminar and the author of an exciting new book, Embracing the Human Jesus: A W...
Dec 31, 2012•27 min
My "Future of Faith" series continues with Diana Butler Bass, author of Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. She reminds us that the religious structures in which we live were founded on corporate models and they are crumbling. Faith, however, is taking vibrant new forms that is far less interested in dogma and hierarchical structures and more interested in practices that sustain and heal one another and Earth. Join us for this forward thinki...
Dec 24, 2012•27 min
Dr. Brene Brown has done research on topics no one wants to discuss, shame and vulnerability. Yet it is through these human experiences that we find the courage to "dare greatly" and become "wholehearted." She has been featured on TED, The Power of Vulnerability, and Listening to Shame. She is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller, Daring Greatly. In this candid conversation she weaves her own experience with her research and thus inspires us all to live courageous lives.
Dec 18, 2012•29 min
Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence and Emergence Christianity, is an historian of religion and a native of Johnson City, Tennessee. She is so filled with information and insight that she is my guest for two programs on Religion For Life. In this second program she talks with me about how Christian communities are changing regarding authority, technology, and empire. She also talks about growing up in Johnson City and the importance of Balaam's Ass. It is part of my “future of faith” s...
Dec 10, 2012•27 min
Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence and Emergence Christianity, is an historian of religion and a native of Johnson City, Tennessee. She is so filled with information and insight that she is my guest for the next two programs on Religion For Life. She provides a whirlwind tour of the history of Christianity and says that we are in the middle of a big whoopie in regards to cultural and religious change. It is part of my "future of faith" series!
Dec 03, 2012•28 min
David Kinnaman of the Barna Group is my guest on Religion For Life. He is an evangelical and he talks candidly about why young people are leaving the Christian faith. His research and reflections have been published in two books, You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving the Church...and Rethinking Faith and unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity...and Why It Matters. He is my first guest in my "Future of Faith" series.
Nov 27, 2012•28 min
Film director, Paul Verhoeven has directed over 16 films including blockbusters such as Robocop, Basic Instinct, and Total Recall. He has a new film on the horizon about the historical Jesus! He has already written the book, Jesus of Nazareth. For twenty years, Verhoeven has deliberated with the Jesus Seminar and finally is ready to put the fruits of his efforts onto the big screen. He talks with me about his book, Jesus, and his upcoming film on Religion For Life.
Nov 19, 2012•28 min
Tory Mills, External Affairs Coordinator of Planned Parenthood of Middle and East Tennessee. She will talk about the work of Planned Parenthood including the new health center in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Nov 13, 2012•27 min
