Dad and I discuss Putin's invasion of Ukraine in two kingdoms perspective. Notes: 1. Related episodes: Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague ; The 8th Commandment in Cancel Culture ; Two Kingdoms 16th-Century Edition ; Two Kingdoms 20th and 21st-Century Edition ; Samuel Stefan Osusky (Dad’s Slovakia book); I Am a Brave Bridge (Sarah’s Slovakia book); Athanasius Against the World 2. Check out Dad’s book Before Auschwitz: What Christian Theology Must Learn from the Rise of Nazism 3. The Wolfha...
Mar 16, 2022•46 min
From the sublimity of the Blumhardts and Nenilava to the ridiculousness of American revivalism. Let's face it, a revival is never honored in its own country. In this episode, these two American theologians trace the irritating history of how Heinrich Bullinger of Zurich (where else?) corrupted Luther's doctrine of the new birth, setting off a chain reaction that bounced from stark Puritan double predestination to the hysterical self-determination of American revival religion, and pretty much eve...
Mar 15, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Season 4Ep. 5
And you thought the Blumhardts would push the limits of your Lutheranism! Have we ever got a prophetess for you. In this episode, we recount the wondrous life and ministry of Nenilava, a lay evangelist, exorcist, and eventually crowned prophetess of the Malagasy Lutheran Church. Along the way we discuss what it means for Western Christians to encounter, understand, absorb, and critique such models of mission from newer Christian churches, how to think about evil spirits, and what emergent office...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 4
After our overview of Luke and the conception/birth stories in Part 1, now in Part 2 we dig deeper into Luke's unique parables (Good Samaritan, Lost Sheep-Coin-Son(s), Rich Man and Lazarus, Dishonest Steward etc), teachings (inviting those who cannot pay you back, Pilate's bloodletting of Galileans and the tower of Siloam), and narrative episodes (boy Jesus in the temple, the many women, Zaccheus, Emmaus, distinctive Ascension story). We wrap up noting commonalities between Luke and John, and al...
Feb 15, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Following on our previous two-parters covering the Gospels of Mark ( part one , part two ) and John ( part one , part two ), in this episode we finally get around to covering the prequel to the Book of Acts (also covered in two parts ), namely the Gospel of Luke. We discuss whether Luke was a Jew or a Gentile and what difference that would make, what he left out of Mark and why, what he took from Matthew or possibly Q, how not to read the bits about purity and Pharisees anti-Judaically, and the ...
Feb 01, 2022•54 min•Season 4Ep. 2
So apparently we're all still the Puritans that The Scarlet Letter taught us to revile: eager to shun, vilify, condemn, and label. Is this an American thing, a Christian thing, or a human thing? Is social condemnation the best bulwark against political condemnation or the gateway to it? How do we assess the difference between false witness and accurate witness to unhappy truths? Does "putting the best construction on everything" make suckers of us, easily manipulated and gaslit? And if we oppose...
Jan 18, 2022•1 hr 10 min•Season 4Ep. 1
In which I tell you a bit about my new short story collection, Protons and Fleurons: Twenty-Two Elements of Fiction , and then read you one of them, "Cobalt: A Mystery," which features among other delights Henry Melchior Muhlenberg as the detective, and me doing a German accent. Read more about mystagogical realism here. Season 4 of Queen of the Sciences starts next week with an episode on The Eighth Commandment in Cancel Culture!...
Jan 11, 2022•38 min
One last bonus episode for 2021! Katie Langston is a convert from Mormonism to Christianity. She tells her story in Sealed, published this year by Thornbush Press . An amazing story for all fans of amazing grace! Support us on Patreon!
Dec 31, 2021•45 min
Dad gives a Bible study on Hebrews (as you may have surmised from the episode title). Many thanks to Pastor David Drebes of College Lutheran Church in Salem, Virginia, for arranging and assisting in the production of this bonus episode! Support us on Patreon!
Dec 28, 2021•52 min
Michael Chan of the outstanding Gospel Beautiful Podcast talks with Dad and me about Dad's long-awaited commentary on the book of Joshua . If you like Queen of the Sciences, you'll like Gospel Beautiful, so be sure to add it to your podcast feed! Support us on Patreon!...
Dec 21, 2021•56 min
Sarah's talk for the 2020/2021 conference of the Center for Catholic and Evangelical Theology. Check out Sarah's "poetic paraphrase" of the Sermon on the Mount. Support us on Patreon!
Dec 14, 2021•42 min
Dad gives a Bible study on Galatians (as you may have surmised from the episode title). Many thanks to Pastor David Drebes of College Lutheran Church in Salem, Virginia, for arranging and assisting in the production of this bonus episode! Support us on Patreon!
Dec 07, 2021•54 min
We're ending the third season of the Queen of the Sciences with an apocalyptic bang! Whether you're a fanatical dispensationalist stockpiling canned goods against a rapture that might just leave you behind, or a sniffily disapproving enlightened sort with your own fanatical visions of making the world a better place, we have good news for you: Jesus. History is in his hands, not yours, and you can trust him to bring all things to a place where death and Hades are no more. In the meanwhile, dive ...
Nov 30, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 24
Of course we could have covered the two (or three) Uses of the Law, but what fun would that be? Instead, in this episode, we explore the patterned consistency of all law-based systems—scientific, psychological, jurisprudential, and religious—and why we not only need them, but can't even function without them; yet also, how that exact patterned consistency makes all laws hackable, gameable, and manipulable. How then to have an honorable relationship to the law, especially if the law—and others wh...
Nov 16, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 23
We are not fighting against flesh and blood. No, really, NOT flesh and blood! But if not that, then what? In this episode, Dad and I establish what the "powers and principalities" of Ephesians 6 (and other passages) are not and circle around what possibly they are—but, more importantly, what it means to arm ourselves with the gospel to identify and resist them, confident in the victory of Christ over all. Plus, a side dish of atonement theory. Notes: 1. Moberly, The God of the Old Testament 2. P...
Nov 02, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 3Ep. 22
There I was, living my tidy little mainstream Protestant life, when Karl Barth sprung the Blumhardts on me. Took a few years (or decades) to follow up, but now I (and even Dad) have become fans of these indigenous German Lutheran revivalists. In this episode we discuss the difference between revivals stemming from European Pietist roots and from American roots, cover the lives of Johann Christoph Blumhardt (who proclaimed Christ's victory over the devil) and his son Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt...
Oct 19, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Hagiography happens. Even if you're Protestant. In this episode, we review the history of the saints as both products of the gospel and pathways to the modern practices of science and biography, make the case for why Lutherans and other Protestants should embrace hagiography in an evangelical key, disambiguate veneration from invocation, and, of course, we mention Bonhoeffer. Notes: 1. Among the things I've written on this topic, see " Saints for Sinners ," " Luther's Hagiographical Reformation ...
Oct 05, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Why cover justification by faith once when you can do it twice? In this episode we look at the "faith(fulness) of Christ" controversy, how much it's rooted in a faulty understanding of what Luther meant by "faith," what Luther really did mean by "faith," and how that pretty much solves the problem. Whew. Also, why good works don't justify but also why love doesn't justify, either. Notes: 1. Bird and Sprinkle eds., The Faith of Jesus Christ 2. Vainio, Justification and Participation in Christ 3. ...
Sep 21, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 19
The distinguishing quality of Christians is that they believe in Christ... a point that seems almost too obvious to make. But in fact, having belief as the central and distinguishing feature of a religion is so rare and weird that religious scholars have pushed back against the study of other religions through the lens of faith—to the point of not even wanting to study Christianity through that lens. What gives? In this episode, we walk through the findings of a new study on how exactly faith fu...
Sep 07, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 18
The story of a prophet wherein the cows get the last word! Dad and I enthuse over this simultaneously hilarious and deep little book, ranging from hyperomnipresence to mutable immutability to the self-defeating prophecy and the spiritual dangers of resenting God's mercy. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Luther's commentary on Jonah in LW 19 2. Steiger, Jonas Propheta 3. Sonderegger, Systematic Theology vol. 1 4. For a good example of putting your money where your prophetic mouth is, see the Simo...
Aug 23, 2021•1 hr 6 min•Season 3Ep. 17
The pastoral ministry doesn't have the social clout it used to, but it's hardly alone. "Vocations of judgment," as we term them in this episode, are under siege everywhere, as the understandable suspicion of human fallibility leads more and more to an outsourcing of human judgment to regulations, bureaucracy, and AI. We hope you'll agree that this is hardly an improvement. In this episode, we try to get a handle on the problem across the vocations, then zero in on what exactly does (and does not...
Aug 10, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Dad and I talk over my new book, To Baptize or Not to Baptize: A Practical Guide for Clergy. Pick it up at the vendor of your choice !
Aug 03, 2021•21 min
And here I was wondering if anything could beat justification for being a great idea hidden behind a lousy word. Well, pragmatism, you win. Dad renders this unpromising term lively and insightful, shows how its approach avoids the extremes of both rationalism and empiricism, and can prove to be a helpful handmaiden to theology (but, of course, not a foundation. Heavens no). Also, how to cope with the hell of the irrevocable. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. West, Prophecy Deliverance! 2. Rorty, ...
Jul 27, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 15
You can't get too much of a good thing! Picking up where we left off in the last episode, we discuss why "rectification" may be preferable to "justification," what human faith has to do with the faith(fulness) of Jesus, forgiveness vs. the defeat of the dominating power of sin, what on earth Paul is talking about with the "powers," and whether he is in fact suggesting an undoing of all the distinctions that make up the creation according to Genesis 1. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Check out t...
Jul 13, 2021•1 hr 3 min•Season 3Ep. 14
In this episode we only begin to tackle the myriad of issues in this searing, white-hot, impassioned blast from our favorite apostle early in his career. Who were these Galatians, and more importantly, who weren't they? Who were the interloping Teachers, and why does it turn out that sola gratia isn't specific enough? If the law is so treacherous in Paul's reading, why can he turn around and talk about "the law of Christ"? This and many more enigmas, plus ways of interpreting Galatians for good ...
Jun 29, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 13
What to do when there is no longer common faith or common facts? Reversing the tide of history is not an option, but the church recentering itself on its task of being conformed to Christ and learning to speak in the new language of the Spirit is. In this episode, we review what we've covered in the past two, why they run aground, and how Christian speech in the public square can aid civil discourse without illegitimately demanding assent to Christian faith. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. More...
Jun 15, 2021•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 12
In matters civic, we have great sympathies with empiricist and classical-liberal critics of the recent woke madness induced by Critical Social Theory. And yet... In this episode we distinguish among the many children of the Enlightenment, point out the strengths of the empiricist/liberal tradition but also its corresponding weaknesses that CST exploits, and exhort secular empiricists to reconsider the moral, spiritual, and theological roots of the intellectual tradition that they rightly see as ...
Jun 01, 2021•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 11
Hot diggity dog! Here we go, investigating the obscure Marxist theory beloved of academics that has gone viral in the past year... in both senses of the word. In this episode you'll get an effective innoculation, for the good health of your own mind as well as the polis at large. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Hedges, " Cancel Culture: Where Liberalism Goes to Die " 2. Marx, “Theses on Feuerbach,” in Karl Marx on Religion 3. Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment 4. Tillich, The Soc...
May 18, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 3Ep. 10
Second-century bishop and theologian Irenaeus of Lyon is famous for his teaching on recapitulation—how Christ our head redoes everything Adam and the rest of us did wrong—and so, in our worst pun yet, in this episode we recapitulate his teaching. Also, why heresy is not so much a deviation as a dead-end, how redemption is not getting airlifted out of creation, and how my dogma outran your karma. Support us on Patreon! Notes: 1. Irenaeus's work is the five books of Against Heresies , but as Dad a...
May 04, 2021•1 hr 4 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Five years in the writing, and more than a quarter-century after the fact, I Am a Brave Bridge: An American Girl's Hilarious and Heartbreaking Year in the Fledgling Republic of Slovakia recounts the first year that the Hinlicky family spent as missionaries in Slovakia in 1993 (the year of Slovakia's independence) and 1994. In this bonus episode, Dad and I talk about the theological themes embedded among the hijinks of cross-cultural romance, the difference between omnipotence and totalitarianism...
Apr 23, 2021•37 min
