I sat down with Sara Gillingham to talk about her experience in the church as someone born with intersex traits. We discuss her work with theologians and church leaders in developing conversations and resources, the way the diverse experiences of those born with intersex traits can sometimes be obfuscated in order to be aligned with more ‘hot-button’ church debates, and the frustration of church leaders continuing to make a meal of what are, ultimately, some rather basic hopes. Sara Gillingham i...
Dec 10, 2020•52 min•Ep. 72
I sat down with Tripp Fuller to talk about open and relational Christology. We discuss the pros of going process (or adopting elements of an open and relational theology), why Tripp just keeps talking about Jesus, his three-pronged approach to Christology (historical Jesus, existential register of faith, and metaphysical referent to God), how his approach can address supersessionist ways of thinking of the Incarnation, and what is the hope in a God who maybe doesn’t control or overrule, but inve...
Dec 03, 2020•55 min•Ep. 71
I sat down with Oscar García-Johnson to talk about Spirit Outside the Gate: Decolonial Pneumatologies of the American Global South (IVP Academic, 2019). We discuss doing theology in the colonial difference and centring indigenous practices, values, and ideas; we talk about Transoccidentality and how it repositions Christian identity toward a community-in-movement (and the implication of this in conversations around migrants and migration). We also go deep on pneumatology, discussing his view of ...
Nov 27, 2020•59 min•Ep. 70
I sat down with Vicky Balabanski to discuss her Eco-Stoic reading of Colossians – a new addition to the Earth Bible Commentary Series with T&T Clark. We talk about stoicism – the ins and outs, its popularity in the New Testament era, and how it shapes the letter to the Colossians. We then pick up how an eco-stoic reading can guide the church trying to untangle itself from certain assumptions, readings, and patterns that contributed to the ecological crisis we now face and lead us into action...
Nov 18, 2020•42 min•Ep. 69
In the exciting conclusion of Deus Ex Schleiermacher I sat down with Shelli Poe to talk about Schleiermacher as Trinitarian Theologian. We talk about the anit-speculative connection between Calvin and Schleiermacher, why "the great mystery of the Christian faith ought to be the fact of the divine good-pleasure toward creation, rather than a set of conceptual difficulties." We then discuss the 'pastoral' reasoning behind Schleiermacher's positioning of the Trinity, the trinitarian form of the div...
Nov 11, 2020•45 min•Ep. 68
I sat down with Ted Vial to talk about Friedrich Schleiermacher’s political activity, intellectual proclivity, and preacher’s sensitivity. We discuss Schleiermacher’s distinction between religion and theology, why readers benefit by considering his work in other academic disciplines, and why it is helpful to be reminded that the only Christianity we have is the one we have. We end with a great discussion on Schleiermacher’s Christmas Eve: a dialogue and why it’s the perfect entry point to his th...
Nov 03, 2020•44 min•Ep. 67
I sat down with Kendall Vanderslice to talk about dinner church, meal based communities, and the community of God. Her excellent book, We Will Feast is out now with Eerdmans and draws on her experience and research within these communities and her own theological and gastronomical reflections. We talk about why food needs more attention in preaching and theology, eating as delighting in the created order, what kinds of communities and relationships she has seen forged over meals, centring relati...
Oct 26, 2020•49 min
In a special live episode of Love Rinse Repeat, Liam sat down with Monica Melanchthon, Lyndal Sherwin, and Renee Evans to talk about how we might read the Psalms and Prophets in the midst of a pandemic. Despite often being framed as a great equaliser, the impact of COVID is disproportionately metered out against the world's vulnerable people. The time of the pandemic has been accompanied, in Australia and elsewhere, by an intensified push to confront and overcome racial injustice, renewed emphas...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 65
I sat down with Brian Robinson to talk about being beta for Jesus! (Or, as his book is more scholarly titled: Being Subordinate Men: Paul’s Rhetoric of Gender and Power in 1 Corinthians – out now with Lexington Books). Folks, this book is a game changer! A robust, bold, and ultimately convincing argument that through elevating femininity and misperforming masculinity, Paul consistently undermines first-century Roman norms of masculinity. Instead of toxic masculinity, Paul commands the men in his...
Oct 12, 2020•47 min•Ep. 64
I sat down with Dr Di Rayson to talk about teaching theology, being a Christian in green movements, and how to appropriately call on Bonhoeffer when engaging contemporary issues. Di is a public theologian with special interest in climate change, ecoethics, and ecofeminism. She often teaches at The University of Newcastle Australia, where she did her PhD, on Bonhoeffer's Theology and Anthropogenic Climate Change. Di has worked on other contemporary issues such as war, rape culture, and theology a...
Oct 06, 2020•52 min•Ep. 63
I sat down with Susannah Cornwall, Associate Professor in Constructive Theologies at the University of Exeter, to talk about her edited volume Intersex, Theology, and the Bible: Troubling Bodies in Church, Text, and Society . We discuss gender reveal parties, the limits of gender binaries, the ethics of performing ‘surgical corrections’ on infants, why theology often overlooks intersex people, and intersex's capacity to positively trouble unquestioned norms and dubious assumptions in religion an...
Sep 28, 2020•49 min•Ep. 62
I interviewed Gregory L. Cuéllar about his book Resacralizing the Other at the US-Mexico Border: A Borderland Hermeneutic ( Routledge, 2020) . We talk about the way the sacred is weaponsised by elite powers to shape social reality, the way it grants permanence to the negating of the inherent sacred worth of the black and brown bodies of those approaching or crossing the border, while sacralizing the Anglo-American project of colonisation, violence, and manifest destiny. We talk about how – count...
May 21, 2020•56 min•Ep. 61
I sat down with Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev to talk about the Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets . We talk about the world's need for courage, wisdom, and vision, the three qualities inherent in every prophet: “an encounter with divine love and concern for the world, courage to name oppression, and a moral imagination to articulate an alternative future.” We also discuss the importance of art, imagination, and dialogue in the prophetic tasks, the overlapping concerns of the Hebrew Prophets and the ...
May 13, 2020•50 min•Ep. 60
I interviewed Michael J. Gorman about his book Participating in Christ: Explorations in Paul’s Theology and Spirituality (Baker Academic, 2019). I ask Michael how some common refrains stack up against Paul’s understanding of participation, how the cross not only reveals Christ and God, but also what it means to be human. We talk about co-resurrection and how that shapes how we speak of justification, how Michael’s work on theosis is more narrative than metaphysical, and if there’s a relationship...
May 05, 2020•33 min•Ep. 59
Liam sat down with Rev Charissa Suli, a National Consultant with the Uniting Church in Australia's Assembly Resourcing Unit. They discuss resourcing the church for increasingly changing times, working with and in churches that are becoming increasingly multicultural, how the UCA has lived up to its 1985 declaration "we are a multicultural church. We also talk about her work with youth and young adults in the church, what she has learnt in those encounters, and how churches might think about 'gro...
Apr 26, 2020•36 min•Ep. 58
I sat down with Brian Brock to talk about his book Wondrously Wounded: Theology, Disability, and the Body of Christ (Baylor University Press, 2019). We discuss his motivation for writing the book, what it was like to try and ‘witness to the witness’ of his son, reclaiming wonder, pre-natal screening and how liberal societies establish norms, the need to be rescued from seeing ourselves as ‘abled’, where the doctrine of sin fits in a theology of disability, the body of Christ as a circulator of d...
Apr 21, 2020•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 57
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam Miller interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, Travis McMaken discusses the final words, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit". This commendation signifies the climax of the relationship between the Spirit and Jesus throughout Luke, and the shift to the ongoing role of the Spirit in the lives of those who follow after. W. Travis McMaken is Associate Professor of Religion, Chair of the Int...
Apr 09, 2020•24 min•Ep. 56
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam Miller interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, Lauren Larkin discusses, with care and passion, Jesus declarative words "it is finished" and its relation to what has past, what is, and what is possible - both cosmically and personally. A decisive shift has occurred and we should think carefully before trying to go back to before - which has potent implications for a post-COVID society. Lauren R. E...
Apr 09, 2020•26 min•Ep. 55
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, Sean Winter reflects on the words "I thirst", and both their simplicity, as a basic human need for a small mercy in the midst of trauma, and their powerful symbolic and theological overtones. We explore what the words teach us about presence, absence, and the completion of Christ's work. And how Jesus' own thirst shapes how we read the many other times thir...
Apr 09, 2020•21 min•Ep. 54
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam Miller interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, David Congdon discusses the scandal of the words "my God, my God, why have you foresaken me?" Why there is hope in allowing these words to ring out a true disruption, resisting the urge to incorporate them neatly into our theology, piety, or liturgy. David W. Congdon is acquisitions editor at the University Press of Kansas (overseeing the publishing ...
Apr 09, 2020•25 min•Ep. 53
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, Tau'alofa Anga'aelangi discusses the third words "Woman, here is your son... here is your mother". We talk about different cultural experiences of family, how these words shape the way the churches engage intergenerational and intercultural encounters, and resisting obligation with a view to seeing people as gift. Rev Tau'alofa Anga'aelangi is an Ordained D...
Apr 09, 2020•25 min•Ep. 52
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, Laura Jean Truman discusses Jesus' words to the man next to him on the cross, "today, you will be with me in paradise" and importantly the words of the two criminals preceding this promise. Repentance, solidarity, welcome, and a strange kind of presence are all concepts illuminated and provoked in this most powerful scene. Laura Jean is a queer writer, prea...
Apr 09, 2020•21 min•Ep. 51
To celebrate 50 episodes of the Love Rinse Repeat podcast, Liam interviewed seven guests about Jesus' seven last words from the cross. Here, Grace Ji-Sun Kim discusses the first words, "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing" in the context of rising anti-Asian racism during the COVID19 pandemic. She reminds us that, as participants in unjust systems we all sin in ways that we do not see, and so all have need of forgiveness. Grace Ji-Sun Kim received her M.Div. from Knox Coll...
Apr 09, 2020•30 min•Ep. 50
How does one pick up a Bible and start to read it? It’s a deceptively complex question. And in the time of COVID19 when many people are reaching for their Bibles outside of their familiar contexts of a worshipping community, shared liturgy and the proclamation of the word, it’s a question well worth considering. To help us consider it I sat down with two wonderful pastors, authors, and friends of the podcast, Melissa Florer-Bixler and Emmy Kegler. We talk about the questions we bring to scriptur...
Apr 02, 2020•57 min•Ep. 49
I sat down with Geoff Thompson to talk about his new work, Christian Doctrine: A Guide for the Perplexed (T&T Clark) . We talk about the constructive and creative work of doctrine, its role in the church, its range of genres and purposes, the gift it can be in times of conflict and upheaval, the relationship of parts to the whole, and Geoff's excellent proposal of the link between doctrine and the Christian Social Imaginary. Buy the Book . Geoff Thompson is Co-ordinator of Studies of Systema...
Mar 29, 2020•50 min•Ep. 48
Is it possible for the exploited and their allies to reclaim the Bible from the dominant powers? I sat down with Steve Heinrichs, Director of Indigenous-Settler Relations for the Mennonite Church Canada, to talk about Unsettling the World: Biblical Experiments in Decolonisation, a volume he edited, out now through Orbis Books. In Unsettling the Word over 60 Indigenous and Settler authors come together to wrestle with Scripture, reimagining ancient texts for reparative futures. With poem, essay, ...
Mar 18, 2020•44 min•Ep. 47
I sat down with Hannah Bowman to talk about the Prison Abolition movement and why Christians should get involved. Its a wide-ranging, informative, and impassioned conversation about the reality of prisons, their fundamental flaws, why reform isn't enough, better alternatives which promote responsibility and relational healing, and how churches might get to work. Be sure to check out the Christians for the Abolition of Prisons website for loads of resources, articles, blogs, and FAQs. Hannah Bowm...
Feb 27, 2020•55 min•Ep. 46
I sat down with Michael Jimenez to talk about his attempt to take the foreignness of history to another level. We engage his book, Remembering Lived Lives: A Historiography from the Underside of Modernity (Cascade, Books, 2017) - and I ask him about "not remembering to forget the past", empathetic reading, Barth's view of history, engaging history through cinema and image, and how history can be seen as resistance. Michael Jimenez (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) is an instructor of both histo...
Feb 13, 2020•55 min•Ep. 45
I sat down with Michael J. Gorman to discuss his recent book on the Gospel of John, Abide and Go: Missional Theosis in the Gospel of John (Cascade 2018). We talk theosis, participation, spirituality, and mission – and how, in this gospel, these categories are not as separated as we might have thought. Gorman’s work reconfigures our thinking on a lot of topics, from forgiveness of sins, to the formation of community, and the ethic of enemy love. Buy the book Michael J. Gorman holds the Raymond E....
Feb 02, 2020•30 min•Ep. 44
I sat down with Michael Mawson to talk discipleship, suffering, weakness, and the way of the cross. I start by asking if discipleship is inextricably tied to concepts such as these and if so, is being a disciple of Christ something we should wish on anyone... from there we range through a number of related topics and interesting thinkers from M. Shawn Copeland, to Julian of Norwich, Martin Luther to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. And we end with a helpful discussion on how this focus on the weakness of Go...
Jan 14, 2020•50 min•Ep. 43
