Shows
The American Reformer PodcastWorldview Symposium (ft. Simon Kennedy, Stephen Wolfe, Joel Carini, & Benjamin Mabry)What is “worldview”? What are its uses and abuses? Contributors to our recent worldview symposium, Simon Kennedy, Stephen Wolfe, Joel Carini, & Benjamin Mabry, answer these questions and more in a wide-ranging roundtable discussion.
#Worldview #Christianity #Culture #Society #StephenWolfe #SimonKennedy #JoelCarini #BenjaminMabry #AmericanReformer #Symposium
Show Notes:
https://americanreformer.org/2025/02/worldview-and-its-discontents/
Simon P. Kennedy is research fellow at the University of Queensland in Australia and a non-resident fellow at the Danube Institute in Budapest. He is associate editor of Quadrant magazine and teaches at a variety of institut...2025-03-271h 52
The Natural TheologianIn Defence of Christian CivilizationYes, that’s right — “defence,” with a ‘c.’That’s because my guest on this episode is an Anglican priest and Substacker Father Thomas Plant (Fr Thomas Plant).Father Plant recently responded to Paul Kingsnorth’s lecture “Against Christian Civilization” with his well-titled reply, “Kingsnorth’s Radical Protestantism: In Defence of Christian Civilisation.”Fr. Plant writes:“Do we want civilization,” he asks, “or do we want Christ? What if we can have only the one or the other?” The question is rhetorical, the presumed answer clear. Christ and civilisation are antitheses. To follow one is to reject the oth...2025-02-2751 min
The Natural TheologianPraeparatio Evangelica: The Evangelistic Step Evangelicals Forgot[Doorbell buzzes]“Hello! Would you like to change religions? I have a free book written by DJEE-ZUS!”While the Broadway show from which that line comes is not about evangelicals but Latter-Day Saints, it fits.The average evangelical is liable to think that their free afternoons and weekends ought to be spent engaged in similarly abrupt evangelistic conversations.After all, people are dying! If we don’t act quickly, they’ll soon face God’s throne of judgment; and then they’ll go to hell.But our Christian forefathers would have h...2025-02-1113 min
Conversations That MatterScripture and Natural LawJoel Carini joins the podcast to talk about his reply to Brian Mattsen's article on 1 Cor 2. To Support the Podcast: https://www.worldviewconversation.com/support/Become a Patronhttps://www.patreon.com/worldviewconversationFollow Jon on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonharris1989Follow Jon on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldviewconversation/Our Sponsors:* Check out TruDiagnostic and use my code HARRIS for a great deal: https://www.trudiagnostic.com2025-01-111h 13
New KinshipBonus: Marriage Idolatry Discussion over on The Natural TheologianTJ and David were interviewed on Joel Carini’s podcast, the Natural Theologian, a previous guest of ours, to discuss the role of marriage, family, other significant others, covenants, Side B perspectives on kinship, and more! Check it out! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newkinship.substack.com2024-11-2502 minNew KinshipBonus: Marriage Idolatry Discussion over on The Natural TheologianTJ and David were interviewed on Joel Carini’s podcast, the Natural Theologian, a previous guest of ours, to discuss the role of marriage, family, other significant others, covenants, Side B perspectives on kinship, and more! Check it out! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newkinship.substack.com2024-11-2502 min
The Flâneur and the PhilosopherIs the Evangelical Church Guilty of Marriage Idolatry?In the context of secular, individualist culture, the American evangelical church has put a premium on marriage. Yet critics from within and without evangelicalism have accused Christians of treating marriage and the nuclear family in idolatrous ways.Our guests this week, David Frank and TJ Espinoza, argue that the church has neglected forms of kinship beyond marriage and the nuclear family - which is particularly damaging to same-sex attracted Christians, like themselves. David and TJ are the co-hosts of the podcast “New Kinship” where they discuss life as celibate, gay Christians and the possibilities of kinship, community, and...2024-11-251h 37
The Flâneur and the PhilosopherThe Marks of Authoritarian EcclesiologyDr. Joseph Minich, residential teaching fellow at The Davenant Institute, joins King Laugh - before you go further, subscribe to his Substack, Laughing with God - and Joel Carini this week on The Flâneur and the Philosopher. Our topic is the ideology of Mark Dever’s Nine Marks ministry. While on the face of it, designed to limit the pastor’s authority to the word of God, we detect in Nine Marks’ teaching an unjust accruing of authority to the sole preaching pastor.Dr. Minich tells us about his review of Jonathan Leeman’s Political Church, an accoun...2024-05-271h 43
The Flâneur and the PhilosopherLatter-Day LaymenThis week, Joel Carini and King Laugh are joined by Michael, author of Build the Village, a publication about building community beyond mainstream institutions.I came across Michael through his engagement with Aaron Renn’s cultural commentary, but as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. (Michael wrote this review of Renn’s recent book, Life in the Negative World.)In my judgment, the LDS church is an interesting example of a church that has already adjusted to “the negative world,” i.e., adopted a minority mindset and practiced a kind of large...2024-05-241h 38
The Natural TheologianWhich Evangelicals Are Woke?Yesterday morning, I listened to Preston Sprinkle’s response to criticisms of his Exiles in Babylon conference. Sprinkle presents, in his books and on YouTube, an evangelical perspective that is arguably theologically orthodox, but sympathetic to Side B, celibate, gay Christians. He is also mildly left-leaning on politics, from an Anabaptist-inflected Christian perspective. Hence, “Exiles in Babylon.”Alisa Childers and Christopher Yuan criticized Sprinkle and his conference in a recent podcast. Alisa Childers is a former contemporary Christian music star, turned Christian discernment YouTuber. Christopher Yuan is the author of Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son's...2024-05-1008 min
Samsara AudioConversation, NOT Conversion | with Joel Carini (The Natural Theologian)In this long overdue episode of Samsara Audio, my old friend Joel Carini (“The Natural Theologian”) joins me to discuss his piece “Berating the Godfearers” which raises a host of questions close to both our hearts — how does the Christian ideology of “worldview” get conversion wrong, and consequently disable real conversation along the way?This conversation was born out of years deep inside particular communities which eschew empirical observation and experimental procedures for axiomatic assertions and pious certainty. We want to move past the stance which starts with the answers, and instead find ourselves in the trenches with others wh...2024-03-061h 26
The Natural TheologianSexual Orientation Is Not a Social ConstructIn 2014, Al Mohler announced that he had changed his mind on homosexuality.No, he had not determined that homosexual marriage was compatible with Scripture, nor that any form of sexual expression outside of heterosexual marriage was divinely sanctioned. He had changed his mind on the existence of sexual orientation.Formerly, Mohler had written, “Actually, the Bible speaks rather directly to the sinfulness of the homosexual orientation — defined as a pattern of sexual attraction to a person of the same sex.”Now, Mohler said, “Early in this controversy, I felt it quite necessary, in order to...2023-10-2420 min
The Natural TheologianSuffering from Original Sin: Misty Irons on Same-Sex AttractionOne of the first topics I wrote on at “The Natural Theologian” was same-sex attraction and the Christian life. While I do not experience same-sex attraction myself, I found that the predominant conservative evangelical narrative on same-sex attraction was unduly harsh to those who do. My post “Same-Sex Attraction and the Misery of Our Condition” found an audience with Side B readers, that is, readers in the community of celibate, gay Christians (leading to my being interviewed here). This was partly because I argued that the claim that same-sex attraction and sexual orientation are sin is not theologically well-grounded, because...2023-10-1007 min
The Natural TheologianNine Gifts the Revoice Conference Gave MeI encourage my readers to listen to the following podcast from Communion and Shalom, on which I was interviewed concerning theological method, being a “natural theologian,” and Christians and same-sex attraction: Weigh and Consider the World: Joel Carini on Nature, Truth, and Side B.Last Thursday and Friday, I attended Revoice, a yearly conference for Christians who are same-sex attracted, i.e., gay, or who experience gender dysphoria. The conference has received a lot of negative press from theologically and politically conservative Christians. It has led the Presbyterian Church in America to make theological statements and policies in r...2023-06-2009 min
New Kinship#29 - Weigh and Consider the World: Joel Carini on Nature, Truth, and Side BWe (TJ and David) first connected with philosopher Joel Carini from a few of his articles on a reformed theology of same-sex attraction. In this episode, Joel joined us for a conversation around various Christian contexts, nature and grace, Side B and identity language, and, of course, philosophy. We appreciate Joel’s care and thoughtfulness around his work, and we hope (whether you agree with him or not) you’ll find his approach worth engaging!—Note: This episode uses the terms “Side A” and “Side B” (and X, Y) as shorthand quite a bit. If you’re...2023-06-141h 40New Kinship#29 - Weigh and Consider the World: Joel Carini on Nature, Truth, and Side BWe (TJ and David) first connected with philosopher Joel Carini from a few of his articles on a reformed theology of same-sex attraction. In this episode, Joel joined us for a conversation around various Christian contexts, nature and grace, Side B and identity language, and, of course, philosophy. We appreciate Joel’s care and thoughtfulness around his work, and we hope (whether you agree with him or not) you’ll find his approach worth engaging!—Note: This episode uses the terms “Side A” and “Side B” (and X, Y) as shorthand quite a bit. If you’re...2023-06-141h 40
The Natural TheologianTim Keller and Kevin DeYoung Miss the Nature of Sexual DesireIn the last several weeks, I have been thinking a lot about the question of what the Christian life looks like for those with a same-sex sexual orientation.TJ Espinoza and David Frank recently interviewed me for their podcast “Communion and Shalom” on the subjects of theology and same-sex sexual orientation, and I will be excited to share that interview with all of you when they publish it. We talked about what it means to be a “natural theologian,” how theology can be open to experience, and why I agree with Side B that same-sex sexual orientation exists a...2023-05-0214 min
The Natural TheologianA Newcomer's Guide to "The Natural Theologian"As I began to write this Substack, I did not know what direction my writing would take. Following the directions of my own interests, I found that the convergence of my interests in philosophy and theology and in the relationship between the two was captured in the theological problem of “nature and grace.”The questions that drive me have to do with the relationship between natural human life and eternal, spiritual things. In a parallel way, there is the question of the relationship between secular forms of knowledge, chiefly science and philosophy, and religious forms, revelation and theo...2023-03-0803 min
The Natural TheologianThree More Reasons Aaron Renn Is Right about Common GraceIn mid-December, Aaron Renn took up the question, “Why Aren’t Evangelicals Leaders In Our Society?” on his podcast. He offered two theological reasons: The first was a weak doctrine of vocation, and the second was the theology of common grace. As I mentioned, that piqued my interest because I had encountered criticism of common grace once before on the lips of one of my fellow seminarians. In short, Renn argued that common grace disguises a weak theology of nature, of the created order, one that hampers Christian engagement and leadership in the public square.Yesterday, I gave t...2023-02-0313 min
The Natural TheologianWhy Aaron Renn Is Right About Common GraceLast night, I listened back through the podcast of Aaron Renn’s in which he suggested that the theology of common grace hampers Protestant leadership and public engagement, “Why Evangelicals Are Not Leaders in Our Society.” (The relevant section begins at 20:56.)It was the first I had heard “common grace” blamed as the source of our problems since my friend Joel Zartman had identified it as such at Westminster Theological Seminary. (Apparently, he had identified it as such several years before.) “Hocus pocus,” he called it, referring to the way it allowed Reformed theologians to claim that nature was rad...2023-02-0208 min