A counterpart to our earlier episode on Bible to Doctrine (and Back Again) , this one has us discussing Dad's forthcoming book, which is a theology of theology and an exegesis of exegesis! In particular we discuss the difference between starting with the incarnation vs. starting with the resurrection in christology, and all the downstream consequences of the respective decisions. We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron! Notes: 1. Related episodes: Ellul , Tillich , Lind...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 7Ep. 6
Or, how God took a burned, unwilling, and fearful pastor, and turned her into a joyful one. With, of course, a few bumps along the way. In this episode Dad and I reflect together on my six and a half years of missionary ministry in the world's biggest megalopolis, and what the very specific circumstances of church life here can teach us about renewing the church in the U.S. and elsewhere. We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron! Related episodes: Japanese Theologian Kaz...
May 20, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 7Ep. 5
Dad gets interviewed on Wipf & Stock's Theology Mill podcast to talk about his book, Lutheran Theology: A Critical Introduction !
May 13, 2025•1 hr 2 min
Sarah once again joins Kemper on the All About Agatha podcast to discuss Agatha Christie's very Christian (though also very weird) short story, "In the Cool of the Evening" ... and theology abounds!
May 06, 2025•1 hr 54 min
We are theologians who read the Bible. That is not a self-evident statement. But let's back up further... why does Christianity have a Bible at all? And now that we have it, how do we read it? In this episode we explore how we as theologians depend on the discipline of biblical studies, our appreciations and critiques thereof, and how Bible gives rise to doctrine... or is it maybe the other way around?! We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron! Notes: 1. Check out Sarah'...
Apr 22, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 7Ep. 4
Dad and I continue our discussion of the Ascension of Jesus in the New Testament: how John's entire Gospel is a cosmic parabola of descent and ascent, with a twist; why the Ascension is the crux of the matter for Hebrews's Day of Atonement interpretation of Jesus' sacrifice; and the apostle Paul's apocalyptic orientation to the ascended Lord. From there we look at the presence, not absence of the ascended Jesus in our midst: in the preached word, in the Lord's Supper, and in the very bodies of h...
Mar 18, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 7Ep. 3
Forty Facets of the Ascension , Sarah's new book, is coming to Kickstarter in mid-March! Sign up now to be notified the moment it launches. In this episode, Dad and I discuss whether Jesus was a rocket ship, a hot air balloon, a cosmonaut... or maybe just the risen Lord whose bodily existence is integral to gospel proclamation! We look at some of the differences between Luke 24 and Acts 1's version of the Ascension (be prepared for some surprises) and the many things Luke had to argue against in...
Feb 18, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Season 7Ep. 2
From Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration , Sarah reads the first chapter, "Metamorphosis : Jesus." Keep listening, or read by getting your copy at Thornbush Press , Audible , Amazon , or Bookshop.org !...
Feb 04, 2025•28 min
How often do you celebrate the 1700th anniversary of anything? 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, which gave us most (though not quite all) of the Nicene Creed (completed and perfected at the Council of Constantinople in 381, but frankly, nobody wants to say "The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed"). Dad and I talk you through what's at stake in the trinitarian assertions of this Creed, compare and contrast it with the Apostles' Creed, and strongly urge you to make it a cent...
Jan 21, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Season 7Ep. 1
Sarah makes her third appearance on the fantastic All About Agatha podcast! With host Kemper Donovan she discusses Agatha's short story "Promotion in the Highest." Happy new year!
Jan 01, 2025•2 hr
We have a quick look over our stats for 2024, and unveil some big news about 2025! Click here to be notified when Sarah's Kickstarter for a book on the Ascension goes live (~March 2025)! Here for her Transfiguration book in case you missed it the first time around... Transfiguration Sunday is only a couple months away! Subscribe here to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack ! And if none of those moved you, then just hop on over to Patreon to express your appreciation for the Queen of the Sc...
Dec 17, 2024•35 min
The first of a series of five episodes in which Sarah discusses I Thessalonians with John Drury of the Fresh Text podcast. Remarkably apt for the end of one church year and the beginning of another! Subscribe to Fresh Text to listen to the next four episodes with Sarah and John!
Dec 10, 2024•1 hr 5 min
It's the ultimate smackdown! In this episode we discuss the covert work done by theories and doctrines of history, in church and saeculum alike, and why we can't stop theorizing about history once we've noticed it. We also drill down on two particular approaches to time and history within Christian discourse, what they mean, what they imply, and how (and how not) to deploy them. Hoping for a SEVENTH year of Queen of the Sciences? Show your support by becoming a Patron! Notes: 1. Related episodes...
Dec 03, 2024•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 24
You may have missed the recent U.S. presidential election, since it was kinda inconsequential and nobody was paying any attention to it. Oh wait... In today's episode, Dad and I take up the topic of "our democracy" as it has been talked about in the U.S. during this grueling election year, why Christians have an investment in flourishing democratic government (especially considering the alternatives), how the distinctions between church and state, and God's two kingdoms, play out in a democratic...
Nov 19, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 23
Many religions are historically entangled with one another, but no relationship is as close, fraught, or dangerous as that between Judaism and Christianity... kind of like a pair of biblical brothers, in fact. In this episode Dad and I discuss the enormous number of things these two have in common, why that makes the not negligible difference of assessment about Jesus so explosive, how we might learn from one another, and how we might learn to wait for God to confirm our faith, one way or anothe...
Nov 05, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 22
What's that story about the medieval monk who tried to find peace through religious good works, got wise to the power and corruption of the religious establishment, had a breakthrough to trust in the mercy of the transcendent one who became immanent for our salvation, and as a result left the monastery, got married, had children, and worked among ordinary folks? No, not Luther. Shinran! In this episode, Dad and I explore the rather startling parallels between the True Pure Land school of Buddhis...
Oct 22, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Season 6Ep. 21
Subscribe at Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack to join the communal reading of A-Tumblin' Down!
Oct 15, 2024•4 min
Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron! After considering "World Religions" as such, in this episode Dad and I turn our attention to considering a specific world religion. But our burden here is not to discuss the details or the disputes about or within Islam, but mainly to inquire about it as a challenge to Christian theology. Do we wrongly exalt the finite man Jesus to the status of the infinite? Does our complex creed betray a fatal weakness ...
Oct 08, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Season 6Ep. 20
Exactly what the title says it is! And please check out Crackers and Grape Juice!
Oct 01, 2024•1 hr
You know that there is such a thing as "world religions," and you know which ones they are. But why? Where did such a notion even come from? And why are some in but some aren't? Is "religion" even the right word for everything categorized under it? And if not, why has "religious studies" come to dominate, not to say replace, "theology" at virtually every college in America? In this episode Dad and I trace the genealogy of the concept of both "religious studies" and "world religions," take a look...
Sep 24, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 19
The more ecumenical dialogues establish agreement, the more they turn up disagreement. Why, 115 years into multilateral Christian dialogue and 60 years into bilateral dialogue, does Christian unity look farther away than ever? Why can't we all just agree? In this episode, Dad and I delve deeply into Lutheran theologian Robert W. Jenson's book Unbaptized God, which posits that the problem isn't disagreement at all—it's disastrous agreement on a faulty premise at the root of the theological enterp...
Sep 10, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Season 6Ep. 18
Is the apologetic enterprise coercing people outside the Christian faith into a decision on which their eternal fate depends, conceding the terms of the debate to the culture's notion of what's important, or making fruitful contact in ways specific to the person and situation? (I bet you can guess our answer.) In this episode, Dad and I examine some worse ways of making a defense for the faith that is within us en route to some recommendations of a more excellent way. Plus, Sarah complains even ...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 17
Whose all-time favorite NT epistle is Second Peter? Yeah, I thought so, i.e., nobody's. Terse yet wordy, full of highly developed doctrine yet also threats of judgment, and most likely pseudepigraphal, it's a tough nut to crack. In this episode, Dad and I haul out our exegetical nutcrackers and extract the sweetmeat (to push an already overstrained metaphor too far—though you gotta admit, it fits with Second Peter's prose style), which, oddly enough, proves to be the Parousia of Christ and God's...
Aug 13, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 16
Sarah talks with Amber Noel of The Living Church Podcast about ... the Transfiguration! If you've skipped all the others on the Transfiguration, listen to this one. The sheer force of our exuberance will bring you around. Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration is now available in all formats (ebook, audiobook, paperback, hardcover) from Thornbush Press , Amazon , and Bookshop.org ! If you'd like to request it from your library, make sure to furnish your librarian with the ISBN! Ebook 979-8...
Aug 06, 2024•53 min
Take a sad song and make it better? In this episode, Dad and I explore the oft-overlooked Epistle of Jude, including theories of authorship, its lavish use of apocryphal sources not included in either Christian or Jewish scriptural canons, its incipient trinitarianism, and the ongoing urgency of its charge against antinomianism. Also, is Jude the middle term between Paul and James? Notes: 1. Bauckham, Jude–II Peter 2. Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings 3. Saarinen, ...
Jul 30, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 15
The one in which we totally betray our convictions and bargain for material blessings in return for our immortal souls. Oh no wait, that's a different podcast and a different hashtag. In this episode, Dad and I sort out what a blessing actually is and does, how it is that God can bless us but we can also bless God, and the implications for pastoral practice. Along the way, we also discuss the recent Catholic declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on blessing, Fiducia Suppli...
Jul 16, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 14
My conversation with James Hazelwood, host of the Everyday Spirituality podcast , on... wait for it... the Transfiguration! And more specifically, my book Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration. Get yourself the ebook or audiobook right now from Thornbush Press! Print edition coming next month.
Jul 09, 2024•45 min
What do women want? For that matter, what do men want? Is it (ever) the same thing? Is sex God's greatest joke on his long-suffering creation? Dad and I entertain these and a number of other notions, as we solve all problems of the war of the sexes in an hour and twenty minutes. Plus, good news: the patriarchy is over. I beat it. Notes: 1. Related episodes: Seminex , Elisabeth Behr-Sigel , Critical Social Theory , Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul 2. See Dad's articles "Why Women May B...
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 6Ep. 13
Ruth-exclamation-point, because evidently Podbean won't let you do four-letter titles. Hmm. Well anyway, in this episode Dad and I talk through this absolutely delightful little book of the Old Testament, one of only two named for a woman and the only one named for a Gentile. In particular we explore the necessary and good yet self-contradicting and troubling aspects of the Law, why neither Law nor Love are improved by being reduced to one another, the personal nature of hesed (the Hebrew word f...
Jun 18, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 12
Preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, so we are told. Maybe Karl Barth told us so. Maybe someone in your church with an axe to grind. Or a sensitive conscience eager to be compassionate and relevant. Should we? In this episode, we continue our explorations of technique and propaganda with the help of Jacques Ellul, pressing the question: how can we possibly propagate the gospel with integrity in a media landscape polluted with propaganda? Notes: 1. Re...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 11
