Shows
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarDo You Still Pray?Text us your questions!What happens to prayer after you rethink religion and spirituality? Does it feel empty, confusing, or even impossible? If so, you're not alone.In this episode, the three of us discuss our journeys from structured, wordy, and sometimes demonstrative prayer lives to something altogether different. Randy reflects on his charismatic past where intercessory prayer dominated his spiritual practice, Kyle raises philosophical questions about whether prayer "works" in a traditional sense and shares his current discomfort with it, and Elliot shares what about prayer still seems to fit—and what doesn't—through the...2025-07-261h 19
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarWe Need to Talk About ItText us your questions!This is a conversation we've been avoiding: how are we doing now that Donald Trump is president again? As we had a break between interviews, we decided to try to unpack how we're feeling, what we're doing, what we've learned about ourselves, and what we're worried and hopeful about.This is an unusually impromptu and unpolished conversation for us. We didn't plan much and the emotions and the thoughts are raw and relatively unprocessed. We hope that resonates, but if it doesn't, we get it. We'd love to hear from you...2025-04-131h 12
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarUnpacking Open and Relational Theology: Interview with Tom OordText us your questions!Tom Oord is back! This time, we're discussing his "main thing": open and relational theology. We explore what it means and its significance in reshaping our understanding of God, love, prayer, and more. Tom answers our questions graciously, and we try to convince Randy that he's wrong.How is open and relational theology different from classical theism? What does it imply about prayer or freedom or evil and suffering? What does love have to do with it? Is it all just a bit too easy?As always, Tom is...2025-03-021h 20
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarQ&A Bonus Episode: The SoulText us your questions!Jeff Cook is back with us to dive deeper into our conversation from a while back about the soul and why Kyle is a materialist (and why Randy thinks he's silly for it). We discuss the difference between the claim that God is non-physical and the claim that humans are, Jeff's reservations about materialism, the mystery of the Incarnation and Christ's dual natures, reduction in science, and a lot more.If you'd like to ask a question about a recent episode to be featured on one of these bonus segments, email...2024-10-1651 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarKristin Kobes Du Mez on Her New Film For Our DaughtersText us your questions!After more than three years, Kristin Kobes Du Mez is back on the show to discuss her new short film For Our Daughters, which examines the connection between the culture of submission and sexual abuse within the evangelical church and the Christian nationalist effort to influence the 2024 presidential election. It tells harrowing stories of survival and coverup and puts a spotlight on the theological and ecclesial structures that facilitate abuse and wield enormous power in our society. Randy and Elliot chat with Kristin about the film, as well as what she's been up...2024-10-121h 07
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarIs There a Soul?Text us your questions!In this episode, Kyle and Randy discuss the philosophy of the soul and its implications for religious belief, the lived experience of faith, and even ethics. Kyle is a materialist, which means he thinks humans are physical objects, and Randy leans towards dualism, which involves belief in a soul or non-physical part of a human being. Are there any good arguments either way? What do most philosophers think? What are the implications for religion? Does any of it matter? What does it have to do with Donald Trump? This one is definitely on...2024-03-081h 04
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarRandy QuitText us your questions!... drinking.This is a more personal episode for us, particularly for Randy. As you know, we like alcohol around here, especially whiskey. In this episode, we chat about that and the presence it's had on our podcast and in our lives.Can we have a "healthy relationship" with alcohol? What does that look like? How does that question get answered for each of us in honest ways? How do we responsibly balance our autonomy with the example we want to set for others?Also, what kinds of...2024-02-2359 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarQ&A Bonus Episode: AI and GodText us your questions!Elliot has a few more questions about AI following our conversation with Derek Schuurman. Is AI a Tower of Babel moment? Is there any real reason for concern? Will it go so great that it makes us all soft? If you could live forever, would you? What about the end of the world? Big questions! We do our best for answering on the fly. If you'd like to ask a question about a recent episode to be featured on one of these bonus segments, email us at pastorandphilosopher@gmail.com.2023-09-2926 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarThe AI Takeover: A Conversation w/ Dr. Derek C. SchuurmanText us your questions!The rise of artificial intelligence has happened at a startlingly rapid rate, and it seems like it's only accelerating by the month. Whether it's AI writing (plagiarizing) college papers and lazy pastors' sermons, potentially curing horrific diseases, making fake humans, or taking over the world, we all have an endless amount of questions when it comes to what to expect from AI.Dr. Derek C. Schuurman is a computer science professor at Calvin University and has written extensively on the rise of AI and what a Christian's proper response to it m...2023-09-221h 21
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarQ&A Bonus Episode: Evangelicals, Nationalism, Guns, and MasculinityText us your questions!Our friend Jeff Cook joins us for a new Q&A segment to reflect on our conversation with Rob Schenck (see parts 1 and 2 of that conversation here and here). This is our second installment of what will become a regular bonus segment with Jeff unpacking the content of certain episodes. You can hear the first installment, on LQBTQ affirmation and the church, at our Patreon (free for everyone!) here.If you'd like to ask a question about a recent episode to be featured on one of these bonus segments, email us...2023-09-1533 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarChristians and Guns: A Conversation with Rob Schenck (Part 2)Text us your questions!In the second part of our interview with Rob Schenck, a former Washington insider and heavy hitter in the evangelical pro-life lobbying industry, we discuss gun culture among American Christians and how asking questions about it ultimately cost him the organization he built and led for decades and led to him being ostracized by longtime friends and colleagues. Why are so many Christians so obsessed with guns to the point that they're unwilling to even question their centrality in their lives or their consistency with their stated pro-life convictions? Why are they seemingly...2023-09-0851 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarAbortion and American Nationalist Religion: A Conversation with Rob Schenck (Part 1)Text us your questions!Season 4 is here! To kick it off, we've got a 2-parter for you with Rob Schenck, a former Washington insider and heavy hitter in the evangelical Christian lobbying industry. Rob was an influential voice in the pro-life movement for decades, but lost his position, and his funding, when he began to question the consistency of the evangelical position on guns with their stated pro-life convictions. His story is featured in the Emmy Award-winning 2016 documentary The Armor of Light. In Part 1, we speak with Rob about his background, his anti-abortion activism, and how his...2023-08-2551 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarJanuary 6, White Christian Nationalism, and How We Got Here, with Bradley OnishiText us your questions!We speak with Dr. Bradley Onishi, a religion scholar whose latest book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism and What Comes Next, explores the rise of the extremist religious right in America and its evolution from the 1960s through the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.We discuss his personal transformation from conservative Christian to scholar to unbeliever, his insights into January 6 and why he believes he could have been one of the insurrectionists, why evangelicals embrace conspiracy theories, the role religion played (and didn't play) in...2023-08-111h 19
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarThe Meeting That Changed the ChurchText us your questions!Many Protestants don't understand or appreciate how transformational Vatican II was for the Catholic Church and the whole global Christian Church in general. Our friend and Catholic theologian Shaun Blanchard co-wrote a book called Vatican II: A Very Short Introduction. In this episode, we chat with Shaun about the size, scope, and impact of Vatican II in the 1960s, and we wonder about when the next changes at the next Vatican Council might be.In this episode, we tasted a barrel select of Eagle Rare from our friends at Story Hill...2023-07-281h 20
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarArguing About the EnneagramText us your questions!If you're an American evangelical or used to be, there's a good chance you've heard of the Enneagram. You may have even run into it in another context or heard about it from friends who are really into personality tests. We've discussed it briefly on the show before, and we've wanted to eventually give it its own episode because Randy has found it really beneficial and Kyle is a bit of a skeptic.Lo and behold, one of our Patreon supporters, Jeff Cook, is, like, the Enneagram guru, in addition to...2023-07-141h 15
Brew City ChurchQuestion and Response with Randy Knie and Shelly SchmorJuly 9, 2023 | Randy Knie and Shelly Schmor | Brew City Church2023-07-0951 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarWhy the Church Should Be LGBTQ+ Affirming With Tom and Alexa OordText us your questions!Tom Oord is back! Dr. Thomas Oord and his daughter Alexa compiled and edited a book called Why the Church of the Nazarene Should be Fully LGBTQ+ Affirming." We wanted to talk to them about the book because everyone in the church (not just the Church of the Nazarene) is talking about human sexuality and whether or not the church should be LGBTQ+ affirming. LGBTQ+ inclusion and affirmation is something that's really important to us, and we love making space to have these much-needed conversations with scholars and, more importantly, queer p...2023-06-301h 18
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarIs God All Powerful? A Conversation with Thomas Jay OordText us your questions!We speak with theologian and philosopher (and former pastor) Thomas Jay Oord about his new book The Death of Omnipotence and the Birth of Amipotence. We cover Tom's objections to the classical idea that God is all powerful, including that it's unbiblical, philosophically unsound, and makes the problem of evil impossible to solve.It's a fun interview and Tom is a good sport about putting up with Kyle's objections and quibbles. We get into the weeds a bit on this one, but given the significance of Tom's thesis and its implications...2023-06-161h 13
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarCertainty, Hell, Evil, and Universalism: A Conversation with Keith DeRoseText us your questions!If you heard our recent episode on hell and universalism, you may recall that Randy mentioned having Keith DeRose, a philosopher at Yale, on the show at some point to respond to some of the objections Kyle had to universalism (the idea that everyone is eventually reconciled to God). Well, we reached out to Keith and he graciously agreed to chat with us. Our conversation covers more ground than just universalism though; we also discuss certainty, the problem of evil and theodicy, and why Keith is uncomfortable at Easter and funerals. And yes...2023-06-021h 12
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarRescuing Sex and Raising Girls: Sheila GregoireText us your questions!Sheila Gregoire is an author who has written several books that break the mold of Christian books about sex and marriage. Her latest book, She Deserves Better, is about raising girls as followers of Christ in ways that leave purity culture and teaching about modesty in the dust while showing us a better way. We also talked to Sheila about her 2021 book The Great Sex Rescue, in which she points out the inherent misogyny in a vast majority of Christian books about sex and proposes a new way to create a sexual dynamic...2023-05-191h 04
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarHow the Brain Constructs Reality: Interview with Andy ClarkText us your questions!Every now and then we like to talk to someone who is an expert in something we know almost nothing about. What better topic than philosophy and neuroscience? Andy Clark is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex, and is a well-known voice within philosophy of mind, pushing the boundaries of how we conceive of the brain, its connections with our environment, and in his new book, how it actively constructs our experience through prediction. The book is The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality. We have a...2023-05-051h 10
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarRedeeming Revelation w/ Scot McKnightText us your questions!Do you keep a healthy distance between yourself and the book of Revelation? Have a loved one who believes super weird things about Revelation? If so, you're in good company. Scot McKnight wrote a brilliant book called Revelation for the Rest of Us that turns all of those weird ways of interpreting Revelation on their heads and shows us what Revelation truly is. It turns out that the book of Revelation is a brilliantly subversive book about resisting the evil ways of whatever empire the people of God find themselves living i...2023-04-211h 01
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarNot Your Typical Easter PodcastText us your questions!In this special Easter episode, Kyle and Randy discuss all their questions about resurrection. They cover its significance to them, its coherence, whether it makes any sense to hope for it, apologetic approaches to it, how much it matters, and why Randy finds conversations about it kind of frustrating. Happy Easter!Extra resources (including those mentioned in the episode):N.T. Wright: Surprised by Hope and The Resurrection of the Son of GodSufjan Stevens: Carrie and LowellWe explore similar themes in another episode about afterlife in general: "What Happens When...2023-04-071h 05A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarIs Hell Real?Text us your questions!Who will be saved in the end? Does the Bible support eternal conscious torment, annihilationism, or ultimate reconciliation (or all three)? Can a good God condemn a majority of human beings who've ever lived to eternal hell? In this episode we tackle these questions and more, and we find out that Randy and Kyle don't quite agree on this one.In this episode, we tasted both Kinnickinnic Whiskey by Great Lakes Distillery and Heaven's Door Distillery's Straight Bourbon Whiskey.The resources mentioned in this episode are: C.S. L...2023-03-241h 13
Brew City ChurchQ&R with Randy Knie, Shelly Schmor, and Randy SchmorMarch 12, 2023 | Randy Knie, Shelly Schmor, Randy Schmor | Brew City Church2023-03-1253 minA Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarScience and Religion Walk Into a BarText us your questions!Are science and religion compatible? Should there be any crossover whatsoever? Why is it dangerous when we try to make our science fit into our religion? These are questions that Randy and Kyle chat about in our latest episode. Kyle strongly thinks that science and religion are in completely different categories and should almost never mix. Randy likes the "almost" in that statement.The guys really, honestly tried to have a debate in this episode...we'll see if they were successful.The resources mentioned in this episode are:...2023-03-091h 00Brew City ChurchQ&R with Randy Knie and Zach DomachMarch 5, 2023 | Randy Knie and Zach Domach | Brew City Church2023-03-0559 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarBroken Brains and Alternative FactsText us your questions!Bonnie Kristian is a journalist who writes for Christianity Today and has been published in The New York Times, The Week, CNN, The Daily Beast, and many more. Bonnie wrote the book Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community. The title says it all. How can we have good faith conversations and dialogue when we're dealing with "alternative facts" and call every report we don't agree with "fake news"? These are important questions for all of us.The resources mentioned in the episode are:2023-02-241h 17
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarReconstruction: An Interview with Brad JersakText us your questions!Brad Jersak is an Eastern Orthodox theologian, author, and great friend of this podcast. Brad recently published a book called Out of the Embers: Faith After the Great Deconstruction. In this interview, we chat about what Brad calls the Great Deconstruction, the history and tradition of deconstruction within and outside of our faith tradition, why Brad is a devotee of Simone Weil, and how to move forward in your faith after deconstruction (if you can).In this episode, we tasted Hooten Young's 6 Year Cabernet Cask Finished Whiskey from our friends at...2023-02-101h 08
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarStay HumbleText us your questions!Humility is one of those fleeting virtues in our world, and it feels like we need a healthy dose. Being comfortable with what we know and what we don't know, what we're good at and what we're not, and not trying to live in hubris and pretense. It's not easy, but it is really important.In this episode, Randy and Kyle talk about humility, pride, certainty, apophatic theology, and more. In the most humble of ways, of course.The beer we tasted in this episode is Flesh to Stone...2023-01-271h 02
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarIndigenous Theology and the Western Worldview: Interview with Randy WoodleyText us your questions!Randy S. Woodley is a Native American theologian, community builder, and seed farmer, and sees little difference between those vocations. We speak with him about the relationship between Christianity, Judaism, and Native American religion, the contrasts and similarities between indigenous and Western worldviews, why he thinks the Bible shouldn't have been translated into indigenous languages, and what a sweat lodge is like. He's a prolific author with a podcast of his own, as well as a down to earth guy (literally and theologically). The books discussed or mentioned in the episode are:...2023-01-131h 03
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarWhat Is Truth: Wrestling with Absolutism, Relativism, and Alternative Facts (Re-Release from S01E21)Text us your questions!For New Year's, we're re-airing an episode from Season 1 in which we discuss the question "What is truth?" We think it's as timely now as it was when we first released it and probably deserves a bit more attention than it got then. We hope you enjoy re-listening or perhaps catching it for the first time. We'll be back on our regular schedule with new content on January 13.=====Truth is a tricky term these days, with everyone believing their own "facts" or having their own "truths" or "alternative facts."...2022-12-301h 16
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarChristmas, Empire, and Context: Discussing Advent with Kelley NikondehaText us your questions!Merry Christmas! In this episode, we talk with Kelley Nikondeha about her book The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope. Kelley helps us reimagine the meaning of Advent by taking us into the complex political, religious, and ethnic landscape that forms the backdrop of the Christmas story, and encourages us to trade our often whitewashed, Americanized, empire-friendly understanding of the story for something grittier, more authentic, and more moving. How does the conflict between Israel and Palestine affect the typical American Christian's understanding of incarnation? What do...2022-12-1652 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarGrowing Into Freedom: A Conversation with S. David LutzText us your questions!Dave Lutz is a therapist in Seattle who works with families, couples, men, youth, and more. He's also a former college pastor at a mega-church whose faith journey has evolved and simplified into a spacious and beautiful place. And he's Randy's former college pastor who is in many ways to blame for who Randy is and what he's doing on this podcast. Dave recently wrote a book called Freedom for the Ragged Saint, and we took that as an opportunity to share this beautiful person with our PPWB community. We talk about deconstruction...2022-12-021h 03
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarExvangelicals and Parenting: An Interview with Bekah McNeelText us your questions!We were raised in the church, and now it's our turn to parent our kids and figure out how to pass on a healthy spiritual journey to them. We don't really know how to do it, but we know we don't want to do it in ways that we were raised on in the church. Does that sound familiar? Bekah McNeel wrote Bringing Up Kids When the Church Lets You Down from exactly that perspective. In this episode, we chat with Bekah about her experiences growing up in the church, working...2022-11-191h 22
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarWhy Conservatives Should Be Against Christian Nationalism: Conversation with Paul D. MillerText us your questions!Our second political episode ever! Does it have anything to do with the elections occurring next week? You bet! Did we invite this guest on the show to trash nationalism some more? Sure did! BUT: Paul Miller is not our typical guest. For one thing, he's a self-described conservative patriot. He's a professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He worked for George W. Bush. And he's a Christian (a Baptist to be specific). From that perspective, he mounts an unflinching case against Christian nationalism in his book The...2022-11-041h 04
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarTransforming: Gender, Trans Identity, and the Church with Austen HartkeText us your questions!Austen Hartke is a transgender Christian man who wrote the book Transforming: the Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians. The book is a gift to the trans Christian community, as well as to parents, church leaders, and the church in general. While the church and politicians debate and degrade transgender people's existence, they are trying to live lives without loneliness, isolation, and self-hatred. Austen's book does an incredible job of sharing the stories of real life trans and non-binary people who grew up in the church. He frames the conversation Biblically and...2022-10-211h 05
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarThe Error of Biblical InerrancyText us your questions!Sometimes it's appropriate to carefully weigh all sides of an issue, patiently sorting through reasons, listening to perspectives, and respectfully dialoging with people who believe differently. We spend most of our time on this podcast trying to commend and practice that sort of thing. On the other hand, sometimes ideas are just bad, and it's appropriate to say when something is dumb or harmful and move on. As Qohelet of Ecclesiastes might say, there's a time for argument, and a time for derision. You're gonna get a little more of the second thing...2022-10-071h 09
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarBonus Episode: Bourbon Tasting with the Power of Bourbon YouTube ChannelText us your questions!This one is for the whiskey geeks. In this special bonus episode, we join our friends TJ, Chuck, and Brian at the Power of Bourbon YouTube channel for a blind-tasting of six exquisite whiskies. Along the way, we also find time to chat a bit about our podcast and introduce ourselves to their subscribers. And now we're sharing the experience with you, so you can get to know them! What you hear here is a slightly condensed version of the livestream we did on their channel. You can find the full unedited video...2022-10-0158 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarHow to Inhabit Time with James K.A. SmithText us your questions!We speak with philosopher James (Jamie) K.A. Smith about his new book How to Inhabit Time: Understanding the Past, Facing the Future, Living Faithfully Now. It's a contemplative exploration of what it means to be a temporal creature, a being constituted by a past and oriented toward a future. If that sounds heady, it's honestly one of the most spiritual and restful books we've featured on the show, and it's also philosophically informed and beautifully written. Jamie also loves music, and certain songs are featured prominently in the book, and there's a...2022-09-2357 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarA Conversation with Stanley HauerwasText us your questions!Stanley Hauerwas. Do we need to say more? The man is the preeminent living American theologian and has formed and shaped Christian thought and practice for decades. Stanley is a gift to the Church, and we loved chatting with him. We talked about sola scriptura, Kierkegaard, pacifism, how to be a Christian in America today, and much more. The audio for this episode is not to our regular standard. We apologize for that, and hope you can hang in there. It's worth it when we're talking to a treasure like Stanley....2022-09-0937 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarCreation, Inspiration and the Hebrew Scriptures: An Interview with Dr. John WaltonText us your questions!In this episode, we chat with John Walton, one of the foremost evangelical Old Testament scholars alive. Dr. Walton teaches Old Testament at Wheaton College in Illinois. John has also written groundbreaking books about Genesis 1 and 2, commentaries on Genesis and Job and many more books. We chat about creation, ancient people groups and cultures that the Bible was written in, inspiration and much more.We sampled Toast by the always delicious Basil Hayden. Cheers!The beverage tasting is at 6:01. To skip to the interview, go to 9:20.You...2022-08-251h 14
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarWhat Bar Culture Can Teach the Church: Patreon BonusText us your questions!Why is "bar" part of the theme of our show (besides the obvious joke)? Kyle and Randy break this down with the help of an excellent article by Rich Manning called "The Complicated Journey from Holy Studies to Hospitality," which interviews various bartenders about their experiences in the seemingly contrasting spaces of the hospitality industry and the church.The article gives us occasion to discuss why we do adult beverage tastings, why people are often more comfortable in bars than churches, Randy's time in the hospitality industry, what we think about...2022-08-2316 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarDeconstructing DeconstructionText us your questions!Deconstruction. What is it, why are so many doing it, and why are so many others apparently so threatened by it? We've said a few times on the show that we don't want to be just another deconstruction podcast, but we've never quite fully explained what we mean. So we sat down to work through our own experiences with deconstruction and what we've heard from others, to try to put our finger on what it is about it that leaves us wanting more, and to think together about what might be a richer...2022-08-1258 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarDo I Stay Christian with Brian McLarenText us your questions!Brian McLaren is at it again, writing a book for people on the edge of Christianity, just barely holding on. Do I Stay Christian? is a brilliant book that takes a very honest look at Christianity, ponders reasons to go, and reasons to stay, while presenting us with a new kind of Christianity...one that's more Christ-like and rooted in this moment and on this earth we find ourselves on. I know...weird, right?In this episode, we tasted both the spectacular Wild Turkey Father and Son 13 Year and a select...2022-07-291h 06
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarTranslations and Gender, Part II w/ Beth Allison Barr and Scot McKnightText us your questions!Our first discussion with Beth Allison Barr and Scot McKnight at the end of Season 1 was so popular and helpful that they wanted to come back a second time to answer more questions about biblical translations, gender, and bias. We cover the editing process, translation committees, trusting the right experts, different translation styles, why translations aren't more diverse, what Beth and Scot are up to next, and more. These two obviously enjoy one another and have a great time talking through the complexities of how translations come together, what purposes they serve, and...2022-07-151h 04
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarThe Truth Will Set Us Free: An Interview w/ Lisa Sharon HarperText us your questions!Buckle up, friends...this is a major episode. Lisa Sharon Harper wrote Fortune, which dives into and details the history of her ancestors from Africa, to slave ships, to plantations and displaced and colonized Native Americans, all the way through to her own lived experience and the trauma, bravery, and resilience she carries in her own body through her ancestors. The book details the history and making of America in brutally honest ways...ways we all need to hear. This interview is raw, honest, challenging, beautiful, and she wraps it up...2022-07-011h 12
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarMiracles and Unanswered Prayers with Craig KeenerText us your questions!Does God move supernaturally in our world today? Should we expect miracles? These are questions that New Testament scholar Craig Keener investigated, documented, and wrote about in his book Miracles Today. The book is fascinating and a bit frustrating in some ways, but also compelling and deeply researched. Dr. Keener has also written a ridiculous amount of scholarly work on the New Testament, and we go into some of that expertise for our Patreon supporters, so subscribe if you're interested in some NT geeky time. It's good fun.The beer we...2022-06-1757 min
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarUnderstanding Unconscious Bias: Interview with Jessica NordellText us your questions!In this episode, we speak with science writer and award-winning journalist Jessica Nordell about her book The End of Bias: A Beginning. It's an extraordinarily well-researched and compellingly written explanation of the science of implicit bias, covering its manifestations in many areas, including sexism, racism, policing, and more. Our conversation tackles how to understand implicit bias, as well as evidence-based methods of attempting to solve the problems it creates. Along the way, we discuss practical police reforms, the benefits of mindfulness, the difficulty of judging past actors, and recognizing the bias and judgmentalism...2022-06-031h 11
A Pastor and a Philosopher Walk into a BarOceans of Problems: Hillsong Exposed Exposes Us AllText us your questions!In this episode, we reflect on the documentary from Discovery Plus, Hillsong: A Megachurch Exposed. If you haven't watched the three part miniseries, it's gross, tragic, and maddening, and yet it feels like many of us in the church find a part of our story in this broken story of manipulation, abuse, and consumerism. We talk about the fine line between being welcoming and being manipulative, how easy it is to abuse "volunteers," and how easy it is to throw anything and anybody under the bus in the name of "redeeming t...2022-05-201h 07