I sat down with a good friend, Jonathan Foye, to discuss his book Ganbaru: How All Japan Pro Wrestling Survived the Year 2000 Roster Split . We discuss the all-too-human drama of this story of grief, conflict, separation, and a will to persevere, playing out in and out of the ring. In the year 2000, Mitsuharu Misawa left All Japan Pro Wrestling. He took all but two of the company’s contracted wrestlers with him. To keep the company alive, company owner Motoko Baba made two phone calls. One was t...
Apr 04, 2022•49 min•Ep. 134
In the latest panel on BLM in the church in Australia and Oceania, Tamsyn Kereopa joins Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, and myself in a discussion on Indigenous theology, the struggle for racial justice in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the shifting forms of colonisation, and her work towards a Wahine Maori Theology of Liberation. Rev Tamsyn Kereopa is of Te Arawa & Tuwharetoa descent. She is a PhD candidate with the University of Otago on the topic “A Wahine Māori Theology of Libe...
Mar 14, 2022•52 min•Ep. 133
I sat down with Shannon Craigo-Snell to discuss turning to theatre to ask: Why Church? We discuss what led her to this conversation, how performance as event/interaction/doubleness illuminates the nature of the church, reading Delores Williams with Bertolt Brecht and much more. Buy The Empty Church Shannon Craigo-Snell is a systematic and constructive Christian theologian. Since 2011, she has served as professor of theology at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, where she teaches Maste...
Mar 06, 2022•35 min•Ep. 132
I sat down with Peter Kline to talk about the fun and flexibility of teaching theological anthropology, talking sex and gender in the classroom, differences in theological academies and institutions he encountered moving from the US to Australia, and what drew him to negative/apophatic theology. Peter Kline is the academic dean and lecturer in systematic theology at St Francis Theological College in Brisbane (part of Charles Sturt University). His research focuses on negative/apophatic theology....
Feb 27, 2022•33 min•Ep. 131
I sat down with Jione Havea to discuss his new book, Losing Ground. We discuss the book of Ruth, reading it amidst climate catastrophe, how Jione built this book through talanoa and bible studies with Pasifika people across Australia, Aotearoa, and the Pacific, opening up academic biblical studies, and how this book "seeks to make any notions of white supremacy absurd." Buy the Book Rev Dr Jione Havea is a native pastor (Methodist Church in Tonga) and research fellow with Trinity Methodist Theol...
Feb 20, 2022•35 min•Ep. 130
Grace Ji-Sun Kim returns to the podcast to talk about the racism and sexism encountered presently and historically by Asian American women, before exploring what it might look like to live into a Theology of Visibility. Buy the Book Grace Ji-Sun Kim was born in Korea, was educated in Canada, and now teaches in the United States. She is the author or editor of 20 books, most recently, Invisible, Hope in Disarray; Keeping Hope Alive; and Intersectional Theology. Grace writes for Sojourners, Faith ...
Feb 20, 2022•32 min•Ep. 129
Skyler Jay Keiter-Massefski returns to the pod to answer the question: why read a poem. We discuss our mixed histories with poetry, how they approach the craft, and poetry's embodiedness and relation to breath. We also discuss the "how" of reading poetry and then Skyler finishes the chat by talking about the connection for them, between going out dancing and reading/writing poetry. Skyler Jay Keiter-Massefski is a theological anthropologist whose work focuses on the ghostliness of trans embodime...
Feb 20, 2022•42 min•Ep. 128
I sat down with German theologian, Florian Klug, to talk about the contingency and legitimacy of doctrine. We discuss the importance of God's initiative preceding human speech, that language is not something we possess but are born into and how this gives us a horizon of preconditioned knowledge that is expanded and shattered by God's intrusion. We also discuss how his book holds together an emphasis on God’s sovereignty and God’s grace in self-revelation so to not overwhelm the human in such a ...
Feb 20, 2022•43 min•Ep. 127
I sat down with Hannah Bacon to talk about sin, salvation, and women's weight loss narratives. I ask Hannah what drew her to this project and why there are seemingly so few theological works concerning weight/weight loss. We also discuss her focus on the theological doctrinal loci of sin and salvation and how are these shaping/resurfacing contemporary weight-loss narratives. We end by discussing what it might look like for salvation to be performed and Hannah's particular rendering of 'sensible ...
Feb 20, 2022•26 min•Ep. 126
I sat down with anthropologist Ellen Lewin to discuss her recent work, Filled with the Spirit: Sexuality, Gender, and Radical Inclusivity in a Black Pentecostal Church Coalition. The book (and our interview) focuses on Lewin’s time participating in and researching the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries. Through our discussion Lewin shares about the emergence of the coalition, its values, how she became connected, and why spirituality and religion are still under-observed/under-researched in disc...
Feb 20, 2022•53 min•Ep. 125
I spoke to Ali Robinson about teaching the New Testament, that little book of Jude, harsh language, conflict, and struggling to stick to a topic of research. Dr Ali Robinson hold a PhD from Macquarie University, a BTh with Honours from Charles Sturt University. She has a strong interest in the General Epistles, Greco-Roman Rhetoric, Invective, Second Temple Judaism and Biblical Greek. Ali is the author of Jude on the Attack: A Comparative Analysis of the Epistle of Jude, Jewish Judgment Oracles ...
Feb 20, 2022•31 min•Ep. 124
This is a portion of the most recent Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panel discussion where Dr Anne Pattel-Gray joined the group to talk about Indigenous Theologies. She offers insight into the cost of developing a theology based in sovereignty and anti-colonialism, the work that remains, and what she's working on now. The monthly panels are hosted by Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi of the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie and Rev Dr Katalina Taha...
Dec 20, 2021•34 min•Ep. 123
I sat down with Emmy Kegler to discuss easing the burden on the walk with mental illness. We discuss how this book emerged out fo a deep need for compassionate Christian talk about mental illness, something that critiqued harmful Christian approaches but still had something to offer. I ask about her chapter on sin, which helps us rethink where the 'sin' in conversations about mental health should be located. We then discuss prayer - especially the urge to pray it away even if that's not how we r...
Dec 12, 2021•42 min•Ep. 122
I spoke with Sally Douglas about becoming the community Jesus speaks about. We discuss the versatility and surprise of the image of salt when thinking about the church, her engagement with early church writings, salty wombs, and the importance of being a place where people can cry in times such as these. Buy the Book Sally Douglas is a Uniting Church minister, who works in the mode of ‘scholar pastor’. She ministers with an inner-city parish, lectures at Pilgrim Theological College and is an Hon...
Dec 05, 2021•40 min•Ep. 121
I spoke with Gillian Townsley about queer reading across 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. We talk about attending to the ideology of reception and how reading across helps us move beyond the 'tired old debates'. I ask about how the work of Monique Wittig shapes her project (specifically about bringing men/masculinity back into focus). We also discuss her analysis of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Christians for Biblical Equality and how supposedly oppositional movements are bound by he...
Nov 28, 2021•43 min•Ep. 120
I sat down with Christiane Tietz to discuss the challenges and rewards of writing a biography of Karl Barth, and what theology gains from biography. We discuss Barth's time as a pastor in Safenwil and his siding with factory workers in a local labour dispute, and I ask how this event influenced (or was shaped by) his understanding of the kingdom of God and whether she feels this commitment to the vision of heaven come to us as an impetus to support socialism lasts throughout Barth's life or was ...
Nov 21, 2021•24 min•Ep. 119
I sat down with president of the Søren Kierkegaard Society (USA), Aaron Simmons to talk all about the existential Dane. We discuss who Kierkegaard was, what drew Aaron to his work (including the surprising points of resonance between Søren and pentecostalism). I also ask about Kierkegaard's work on Abraham and faith, how one can be led through existentialism to corporate struggles for liberation , and what theologians who study Kierkegaard can learn from those who utilise his work in other disci...
Nov 14, 2021•51 min•Ep. 118
I sat down with Eve Rebecca Parker to discuss an Indecent Dalit Theology. We talk about her book where she theologises with the Dalit women who from childhood have been dedicated to village goddesses and used as ‘sacred’ sex workers. We talk about how she came to this project, and what theology and the reading of Scripture gains through engagement with the lived religiosity and daily struggles of these dedicated women, known as devadāsīs. Parker shows that it is through this engagement that an I...
Nov 07, 2021•42 min•Ep. 117
Rev Dr Garry Deverell and Rev Dr Chris Budden join Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, and myself to discuss the preamble to the Uniting Church in Australia's constitution. Garry opens by discussing his critique of the document from an Indigenous perspective as one which rein-scribes colonial narratives, Chris then offers some insights into the motivation and process behind the production of the document, after which we all enter into a discussion on the lineage and im...
Nov 04, 2021•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 116
I sat down with Sathi Clarke to discuss his calling as a theologian, how his theological development was shaped by living with communities of untouchables in India, why a theologian needs to have concrete commitments to communities in their struggles for justice, how to teach global/world Christianity, responding to religious fundamentalism, and being passionately Christian and compassionately interreligious. In the interview we discuss the class Sathi is teaching as the United Theological Colle...
Oct 31, 2021•37 min•Ep. 115
I sat down with Anna Scheid to discuss her Christian ethic of political resistance and social transformation. We discuss her critique and inversion of Just War Theory to consider how it might be shaped to consider resistance and revolutions from below. Buy the Book Anna Floerke Scheid is Associate Professor of theology at Duquesne University. Dr. Scheid's research interests are in the area of Christian social ethics. In particular she is concerned with ethical issues surrounding human rights, co...
Oct 17, 2021•38 min•Ep. 113
I sat down with Michael Graziano to talk about his book Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors which investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious world-views of the early moulders of the CIA. We discuss how the religious studies of the time (both in the academy and in popular culture) shaped the CIA's view of and approach to religion - particularly the developing World Religions Paradigm. Along the way we discuss American exceptionalism, shifting attitudes to Catholicism,...
Oct 10, 2021•36 min•Ep. 112
I interviewed Aaron Griffith about his book God's Law and Order, which argues that we cannot understand the US criminal justice system without accounting for evangelicalism's impact on its historical development. We discuss why crime and punishment 'mattered' for white evangelicals in the post-war period, how they made an expansive mass incarceration system seem neutral and appealing to the broader public, and how the focus on soul saving shaped the current justice system and evangelicals involv...
Oct 04, 2021•51 min•Ep. 111
Naomi Wolfe sat down with Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, Emma Jackson, and myself to talk about Indigenous theology and spirituality, theological education, decolonising liturgy and language for God, and much more. This episode is a re-post of most recent of the monthly Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panels hosted by the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at Charles Sturt University in Port Macquarie and the Social Justice Pilgrim Presbytery NT. This episod...
Sep 27, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 110
I sat down with U-Wen Low to talk about the Book of Revelation as drama, resistance literature, and message of hope. We also discuss postcolonialism in biblical studies, and how he found himself in the middle of all this fascinating (if not highly controversial) research. Dr U-Wen Low is Senior Lecturer In Biblical Studies and Program Director - Master Of Theology at Alphacrucis College. U-Wen began theological studies at the University of Divinity in 2007, progressing through to an Honours year...
Sep 20, 2021•48 min•Ep. 109
I sat down with Rhiannon Graybill to talk about how we tell biblical rape stories and how we might tell rape stories differently (content warnings for discussions of rape and sexual violence). We discuss the twofold sense of "after": 1) after Phyllis Trible and related approaches of feminist biblical interpretation, and 2) after the event of terror (as in not letting the suffering or darkness of the texts consume all the interpretive space around them). We also discuss her framework of fuzzy, me...
Sep 13, 2021•40 min•Ep. 108
I sat down with Matthew Thiessen to discuss the Gospels’ portrayal of ritual impurity within First-Century Judaism. We discuss how purity concerns map out the reality of the gospel writer's worlds, and clarify the differences between categories of holy, profane, pure, impure. Matthew then demonstrates Jesus' acceptance of the reality of these categories and his desire to rid people of the conditions that create ritual impurity. All of this shapes how we read Jesus' interactions with the haemorrh...
Sep 06, 2021•45 min•Ep. 107
I'm joined by a wonderful group of friends to ring in episode 100 with a 64 team single-elimination tournament pitting books of the Bible against each other in one-on-one competition until just one remains and we declare the best book in the canon. It was a lot of fun to record and generated a lot of fascinating and passionate conversation about a host of different books and their importance, beauty, challenge, and place in our lives and scripture. If you want to play along you can download the ...
Aug 30, 2021•2 hr 55 min•Ep. 106
I sat down with newly inducted President of the Uniting Church in Australia, Rev Sharon Hollis. We discuss her call into a role such as this, what it means for the UCA that we're entering an era when those taking roles like President, Moderator, etc. have no memory of union or experience with the uniting churches. We also discuss the issues and challenges facing the church, the state of ecumenism, and Sharon's hopes for her time in this position. Rev Sharon Hollis is a minister in the Uniting Ch...
Aug 22, 2021•46 min•Ep. 105
I sat down with Leah DeVun to discuss her book, The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance. We talk about how widespread thinking and writing about non-binary individuals was during the first centuries of the CE and again in the C12th-14th, and the way non-binary bodies actually shaped the way a host of categories and boundaries (not just gender) were demarcated. We talk in detail about the shift in the C12th/13th and the way non-binary sex shaped the project of establish...
Aug 16, 2021•39 min•Ep. 104
