Among a certain kind of Lutheran theologian, liking Barth just isn't done. We are not that kind. In this episode, Dad walks us through the theological development of the great Swiss Reformed theologian, why Lutherans made it difficult for Barth to receive Luther and what Barth nevertheless gained from Luther, and highlights of Barth's massive theological oeuvre. And we once again discuss the distinction between law and gospel, because what else would we do? Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Barth...
Apr 20, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 8
All memoirs are meditations on providence—so I learned from writing one of my own (see Note #1 below!). I used to think that all Christian memoirs went back to Augustine, but it turns out he had a biblical precedent: Nehemiah, who most unusually in the canon of Scripture reported his own acts and motives in the first person. In this episode, Dad and I consider the advantages of drama over concepts in depicting the interplay of divine and human agency, how to think about Nehemiah's prohibition on...
Apr 06, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 3Ep. 7
Now is the winter of our discontent... or is it the winter of our ecumenism? Either way, the mission-motivated drive to reconcile bitterly divided Christians has succeeded so well that all the frisson has vanished right out of it, but hasn't succeeded enough to actually make us one as Jesus and his Father are one. So in this episode, Dad and I talk through our own interest in and commitment to the search for Christian unity, what unity is not, how an ecumenical document differs from a confession...
Mar 23, 2021•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 6
After a recent dive into the theological, philosophical, and political writings of Hannah Arendt, I found her so disturbingly prescient that I wanted to talk her ideas over with Dad—only to discover that Arendt was one of his earliest and most formative influences, and still is now, in ways that he only realized as we talked. So, in this episode, much about her writings and why Eichmann in Jerusalem elicited such a firestorm, why you should never say "it can't happen here," and that, contrary to...
Mar 09, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 5
After setting the stage in our last episode with the distinctives and circumstances of John's Gospel, here we turn to its message: being born again (or is it from above?), how the Father and the Son can be one and yet the Father greater than the Son, whether John's commendation of love of friends is a retrogression from Paul's enemy-love, and how the confrontation with Pilate and the powers functions as the mega-exorcism consolidating the individual exorcism accounts in the Synoptics. And if eve...
Feb 23, 2021•57 min•Season 3Ep. 4
One of these kids is not like the other... and among the New Testament Gospels, that weirdo kid is John. He drops the parables and the Sermon on the Mount and the exorcisms, shifts the cleansing of the temple from the end to the beginning, turns poor Lazarus in Abraham's bosom into a dead man walking out of a tomb, and is totally unfazed by Gentiles but levels constants accusations against "the Jews"... even though most of his heroes are Jews, too. What gives? In this episode, Dad and I talk thr...
Feb 09, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 3
In which Sarah unloads a jeremiad on the Revised Common Lectionary and Dad mostly stands at the side of the road and watches. Also, ways to work around lectionary limitations, and whether you should preach "with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other." Support the podcast on Patreon! Notes: 1. Revelant previous episodes of ours include What Is (Not) the Job of a Pastor? , Learning to Love Leviticus , The Relationship between the Old and New Testaments , and Is Scripture Holy? 2. Th...
Jan 26, 2021•57 min•Season 3Ep. 2
Welcome to Season 3 of Queen of the Sciences! To kick off the most welcome new year in recent memory, we tackle the question of the certainty of faith. What does it even mean to be "certain" where something like "faith" is concerned? Can we have the same certainty as, say, apostles and early Christians, or as folks before various revolutions in science and historical study? Where does doubt fit in, or hard questions? Is faith something that you have or something that has you? All this and more! ...
Jan 12, 2021•55 min•Season 3Ep. 1
In which Dad and I read aloud a series of questions I put to him in a notebook on Christmas 1990, and discover that the more things change the more they stay the same. You can read the transcript on my website. Merry Christmas!
Dec 25, 2020•25 min
This is Dad's talk for the Virginia Synod's annual Power in the Spirit conference, from July 2020. You can also watch the video version with questions and answers from Pr. David Drebes on YouTube. Support us on Patreon!
Dec 15, 2020•33 min
To wrap up season 2 of Queen of the Sciences, not to mention wrapping up an exceptionally fraught election year (at least for those of you in the U.S.), we tackle St. Augustine's magnum opus, The City of God against the Pagans. Turns out there isn't actually very much about the two cities at all, but we range with Augustine across a wide assortment of issues: theodicy, providence, human community, the uses of history, and the nature of evil. Fun fact: the Roman empire never actually fell, and ce...
Dec 01, 2020•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 24
The eponymous unlikely marriage is that of marriage—with Christianity. After assembling an impressive number of reasons why we should have expected the Christian faith to want nothing whatsoever to do with exclusive sexual pairing, we then change directions and show why, after all, Christianity opted for marriage, and in so doing once again engaged in a doctrinal revision of inherited notions of God. In light of which, we then engage a contemporary Catholic theologian's take on Christian marriag...
Nov 17, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 23
From a Tokyo street parade advertising the services of a shady prosperity church to the global pandemic, with pit stops in pain, death, suffering, and theodicy, this episode is sure to be a real crowd pleaser. Also, why you should go to the emergency room for a broken bone or infected wound but try Jesus for chronic conditions, death being the most chronic condition of all. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Here's a short article I wrote on the International Lutheran-Pentecostal dialogue's meetin...
Nov 03, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 22
After a lonnnnng delay, we finally finish up the Acts of the Apostles! Check out our previous episode on the First Two-Thirds of Acts, then dive in to this one for the riveting topic of... wait for it... rule of law and due process. No, really, it's good stuff. Plus, why Paul appeals to Caesar but never actually meets him, or, how to avoid soteriological confusion. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Ferdinand Christian Baur on Acts 2. This is my favorite map of the missionary journeys of Paul 3. W...
Oct 20, 2020•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 21
Dad talks to Sarah about the inspiration for and design of her new translation of Luther's Small Catechism , specifically intended for memorization. Support us on Patreon!
Oct 13, 2020•16 min
Friedrich Nietzsche demolished the traditional foundations of religious belief. Does that make him a foe—or possibly a friend? One way or another, we can't get away from him. In this episode Dad walks us through Nietzsche's tirades against all forms of fake religious assurances and insidious social control to find, surprisingly, compelling reasons to embrace the crucified and risen one. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. You can find translations of everything Nietzsche wrote without any trouble o...
Oct 06, 2020•1 hr 4 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Dad talks to me about my "weird little stories" in Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold . Support us on Patreon!
Sep 29, 2020•22 min
Possibly the best thing Luther ever wrote (for my money only the Large Catechism offers the best competition for that claim), "The Freedom of a Christian" turns 500 this year and accordingly merits even more attention than usual. In this episode Dad and I explore the two halves of the treatise, one each for "A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none" and "A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all," drawing out the powers of faith and joyful exchanges th...
Sep 22, 2020•1 hr 6 min•Season 2Ep. 19
I talk to Dad about his book Luther for Evangelicals: A Reintroduction . (Non-Evangelicals warmly invited to eavesdrop.) Support us on Patreon!
Sep 15, 2020•29 min
Last time we talked about the job of the pastor, so this time we're discussing the job of the congregation, which is a bit like the old Atari video game Pitfall—look out for those alligators, especially if you're one of Jesus' sheep. But most of the time it's just the sheep learning to bear with one another, and bear one another's burdens: a whole zooful of grace, evidently. Also, what to think about the roof, and how to navigate the inevitable requirement these days of being a church shopper. S...
Sep 08, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Dad talks to me about my "poetic paraphrase" of the Sermon on the Mount . Support us on Patreon!
Sep 01, 2020•24 min
Less obvious than you might think! The pastoral office functions like a magnet, attracting an infinity of valuable tasks without knowing how to shed them when it gets to be too much. In this episode we address the distinction between lay and ordained ministries, attempt to clear away some of the aforementioned well-intentioned clutter, and chart out a triage approach to the pastor's true calling. Hopefully helpful to burned-out and compassion-fatigued pastors, lay folks may also appreciate this ...
Aug 25, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 17
How could anyone possibly feel "meh" about Isaiah? Well, that was me, before digging in deep to prepare for this episode. I have since come around (whew) and, if not quite as excited as about Leviticus, I'm still pretty jazzed now about both the prophet Isaiah and the book named for him. In this episode Dad and I discuss both the text in its own time and the text in the hands of Jesus and the apostles, and wrap up with ruminations on how not to exploit Isaiah and other prophets as a soapbox for ...
Aug 11, 2020•1 hr 10 min•Season 2Ep. 16
I get Dad to talk about his new book, Lutheran Theology: A Critical Introduction . Fact: Lutheran theology is NOT the same as Luther's theology! Shocker, right? Support us on Patreon!
Aug 04, 2020•32 min•Season 2Ep. 27
Generally you should run screaming in the opposite direction when someone starts talking about her dissertation, but we promise this is a good one. French Orthodox theologian Elisabeth Behr-Sigel (1907–2005) knew pretty much every important Orthodox theologian of the 20th century, pioneered Russian hagiography, co-edited a journal, was active in the ecumenical movement, and supported the possibility of the ordination of women in the Orthodox church. Wait, what? Yes—but not until she was 75! And ...
Jul 27, 2020•1 hr•Season 2Ep. 26
The party never stops at the Queen of the Sciences podcast! Coasting on the generally optimistic, cheerful, and devil-may-care attitude of a world gripped by pandemic and the various cultural and political responses to it, we break out our kazoos and streamers for the wrath of God. In this episode we talk about what it is, why it matters still to talk about it, and why (gasp) it may even be a good thing. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Richard Niebuhr, The Kingdom of God in America 2. The hymn ...
Jul 14, 2020•1 hr 3 min•Season 2Ep. 14
No, not a glam metal band, but a martyr of the second century and one of the first post-New Testament writers whose works survive. In the episode we take a look at the first heresies to erupt in Christianity—first analyzing just what counts as a "heresy" and why the concept remains a useful one—namely, Ebionitism and Docetism. Ignatius en route to Rome as a prisoner elucidates for us just why it matter so much that God really took flesh in Jesus Christ, and that his flesh was really crucified, a...
Jun 30, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Season 2Ep. 13
The terrible killing of George Floyd and the resulting protests and riots around the country have prompted us to record this bonus episode, in which we reflect on our experiences and theological interpretations of being "white," American, and Christian. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Much of what we say in this episode presumes topics we've covered already; you may want to check out What Is a Person? , Faith to the Aid of Reason , Two Kingdoms: 16th-Century Edition & Two Kingdoms: 20th- an...
Jun 19, 2020•1 hr 5 min
We bet you still have a hangover from the crucifixion episode with which we opened this season. Well, you had to wait longer than three days, but here it is at last: the counterpart episode on the resurrection. For we consider the sufferings of the crucifixion episode are not worth comparing to the glory that is this resurrection episode. We cover a range of questions here, from what is even meant by resurrection (and just as importantly what is not) to what an event like this means in the strea...
Jun 16, 2020•1 hr 5 min•Season 2Ep. 12
Following on our last episode about eucharistic discipline, in this one we actually dig into the doctrine, discussing what and who it is in, with, and under the Lord's Supper and what it even means to talk about Christ's presence therein. Lots of fun terminology (see below). Then some liturgical advisories on bread vs. wafers, I momentarily lose it over how people approach their shot glasses, and we (perhaps a bit disappointingly) argue less about the eucharistic prayer than either of us anticip...
Jun 02, 2020•1 hr 7 min•Season 2Ep. 11
