Queen of the Sciences

Judaism

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 another.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Islam, World Religions, Unbaptized God, On Hamas's Attack on Israel, Before Auschwitz, Galatians 1, Galatians 2, Nehemiah, Luther and the Jews, The Relationship of the Old and New Testaments
2. Nostra Aetate
3. Cohen, Everyman's Talmud
4. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son
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True Pure Land Buddhism (Jodo Shinshu)

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 Buddhism in Japan and Lutheran Christianity, then discuss what the implications of these overlaps may, or may not, mean from our theological perspective.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Islam, World Religions, Justification by Faith, The Certainty of Faith, Justification by Faith Revisited, Faith Just Faith, Japanese Theologian Kazoh Kitamori
2. Most of the information in this episode I drew from Jodo Shinshu: A Guide; you might also be interested in Taitetsu Unno, River of Fire, River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism
3. Armstrong, Buddha
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A-Tumblin' Down on Substack!

Subscribe at Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack to join the communal reading of A-Tumblin' Down!

Islam

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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 compared to Islam's simple one? How did God as Christians know him allow a competing monotheism to arise under his providence? Not surprisingly, we also put some theological questions of our own to Islam.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: World Religions, John of Damascus, Fear and Phobias, Two Kingdoms 16th Century Edition, Two Kingdoms 20th and 21st Century Edition, On Hamas' Attack on Israel, Luther and the Jews
2. Some resources for more in-depth study of Islam on its own terms: Fletcher, The Cross and the Crescent; Saeed, Islamic Thought: An Introduction; A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor
3. Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, and see also Janosik, John of Damascus: First Apologist to the Muslims
4. Sanneh, Summoned from the Margin
5. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur'an
6. Manji, The Trouble with Islam
7. Also consider listening to this episode I did with Enter the Bible on the variety of millennialisms and the temptations of interpreting history

2024 Bonus 10: Crossover with Crackers and Grape Juice, featuring Dad!

Exactly what the title says it is!
And please check out Crackers and Grape Juice!

World Religions

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 at what one might dare to call a crisis of faith within these disciplines, and give some ideas about how religious studies and theology can actually do each other some good.
Notes:
1. James, The Variety of Religious Experience
2. Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions
3. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur'an
4. Orsi, Between Heaven and Earth
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Unbaptized God

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 enterprise. We agree and disagree with Jenson, both of which reactions prove to be tremendously fruitful.
Notes:
1. Jenson, Unbaptized God
2. Apocalyptic and the Future of Theology
3. Related episodes: Apologetics, Second Peter and the Second Coming, John of Damascus, Chalcedon vs Luther, Bonhoeffer's Christology, A Hegel with all the Fixin's
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Apologetics, Good and Bad

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 more about Tillich.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: The Bible in One Hand and the Newspaper in the Other?, Chalcedon vs Luther, The Resurrection, Good Tillich, Bad Tillich, Niebuhr, Critical Social Theory, An Unlikely Marriage, Luther and the Jews
2. McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict
3. Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man
4. Tillich, Systematic Theology vol. 1
5. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine
6. Sarah's book of law-gospel parables, Pearly Gates
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

Second Peter and the Second Coming

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 astounding patience, desiring that all, yes all, come to repentance. Plus, more on the Transfiguration!
Notes:
1. Sarah's book on the Transfiguration is now in print and available for general purchase! Get Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration as an ebook and audiobook direct from Thornbush Press, print (or any other format) from Amazon.
2. Bauckham, Jude–2 Peter
2. Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings
3. Harink, 1 & 2 Peter
4. Saarinen, The Pastoral Epistles with Philemon & Jude
5. Related episodes: Jude, The Transfiguration, I Peter, Faith Just Faith
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2024 Bonus 9: Crossover with The Living Church

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 979-8-9899141-1-1 ; audiobook 979-8-9899141-2-8 ; paperback 979-8-9899141-3-5 ; hardcover  979-8-9899141-4-2.

Hey Jude

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, The Pastoral Epistles with Philemon and Jude
4. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism
5. My "little book of parables" that Dad referred to is Pearly Gates (my #1 bestseller!)
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#Blessing

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 Supplicans.
Notes:
1. Fiducia Supplicans
2. Johannesson, Thérèse and Martin
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2024 Bonus 8: Crossover with Everyday Spirituality

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.

Women and Men

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 Be Ordained" in Different Voices/Shared Vision and "Whose Church? Which Ministry?" Other than my book on Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, my main contribution to the conversation is "The Epistle of Eutyche"
3. Manne, Down Girl
4. Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture
5. Harrington, Feminism against Progress
6. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
7. Solberg, Compelling Knowledge and A Church Undone
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

Ruth!

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 for loving-kindness), and why none of it works without... God! God-exclamation-point!
Notes:
1. LaCocque, Ruth
2. Smit and Fowl, Judges and Ruth
3. Related episodes: Joshua, The Saul Saga, How to Hack the Law
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

The Bible in One Hand and the Newspaper in the Other?

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. Related episodes: Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul, The Image of God, Powers and Principalities, Howard Thurman
2. And speaking of propaganda... I actually have yet another podcast, The Disentanglement Podcast, in which my husband Andrew and I try to figure out loud and in the midst and mess of life how to extricate ourselves from all the digital systems that entangle and ensnare us. It's half practical and half philosophical. Oh, and a whole lot shorter per episode than Queen of the Sciences. If that sort of thing matters to you.
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul

Nearly everyone thinks the world has gone off the rails, and nearly everyone has a theory why, from kids these days to the moral breakdown of the West to the internet. We return to the conversation started by French Protestant philosopher Jacques Ellul more than 80 years ago, and find him startlingly, alarmingly prescient. In this episode we consider his proposal that technique, in the sense of efficient means by technological instruments, has become our all-defining reality, and answer the question that haunted us some time back: is it propaganda all the way up and all the way down? (Yes.)
Notes:
1. Ellul, Presence in the Modern World and Propaganda
2. Plekon, Hidden Holiness, Saints As They Really Are, Living Icons
3. Related episodes: Private Public and Propagandistic, Cybertech and Personhood, Postmodernism for the Perplexed, Hannah Arendt
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

John of Damascus

Popularly considered the last of the church fathers, John of Damascus gathered up the fruit of early church reflection on the Trinity and the person of Christ in his learned tome, The Orthodox Faith. But in addition to the usual wrangling with the Greek philosophical heritage and the monotheistic challenge of Judaism, John had a new adversary to consider: the even more radically monotheistic Islam. In this episode, Dad and I sort through John's record of Chalcedonian orthodoxy from the 8th century, his "double-mindedness," and what pressures led to the enormous internal doctrinal tensions that he passed on to the generations to follow. Such that, in this episode, Sarah admits defeat.
Notes:
1. Can't get enough of Trinity and christology, especially with respect to Greek metaphysics? Then by all means rush right out and get yourself a copy of Dad's Divine Complexity and also Divine Simplicity
2. John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith (and generally speaking checking out the great selection in the Popular Patristics series)
3. Related episodes: Atonement, Image of God, Melanchthon's Loci Communes, Oh, Anselm!!!, Gregory of Nazianzus, Irenaeus, Athanasius
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

Chalcedon vs Luther

The Council of Chalcedon (451) gave us the famous christological formula that Jesus Christ is one person in two natures, without change, division, separation, or confusion. It also gave us a lot of conundrums, enough to cause the first major split of the church between the Syriacs and the Greeks. Among others trying to sort out the perplexities of Chalcedon was Martin Luther himself, whose own christological formulations might just run afoul of Chalcedonian orthodoxy. So in today's episode we entertain the question: was Martin Luther a Chalcedonian heretic? Or should we possibly say, was Chalcedon a Lutheran heretic?
Notes:
1. Zachhuber, Luther's Christological Legacy
2. Cross, Communicatio Idiomatum
3. McCormack, The Humility of the Eternal Son
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

Legalism and Antinomianism

What's worse, being bound by the Law or untethered from it entirely? It probably depends on where you're standing. In this episode, Dad and I trace out two kinds of challenges Christians have had to work out with respect to the Law—whether the Law given to Israel applies also to Gentile believers in Jesus Christ, and whether the Law in any respect contributes to justification. Then, we explore working definitions of legalism and antinomianism as misconstruals of the Christian's relationship to the Law, leading to the ultimate question: are legalism and antinomianism really, at root, the same thing after all?
Related episodes: Galatians 1, Galatians 2, Romans, Luther and the Jews, Sermon on the Mount, Atonement
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2024 Bonus 7: Crossover with All About Agatha

My second appearance on the All About Agatha podcast, talking to host Kemper Donovan about Agatha Christie's speculative-mariology-fanfiction story, "The Island"!
Here's a link to my previous All About Agatha appearance: Star over Bethlehem
And if that still isn't enough Agatha Christie for you, check out my article in the new issue of the fabulous magazine The Mockingbird, "Agatha Christie, a Very Elusive Christian."

Fear and Phobias

Death! Disaster! Panic in the streets! In this episode Dad and I try to understand how fear and fear-mongering have come to grip our wealthy and (historically speaking) unprecedentedly free societies. Toward that end, we also explore the metastasis of the psychiatric diagnosis of debilitating phobias to a biopolitical strategy for accusing and shutting down anyone who doesn't agree with or approve of certain things. But above all, it's a call to the courage of conscience for anyone tired of having the bullies run the show. Fear not! The Lord is with you.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Transfiguration, Perpetua and Felicitas, Private Public and Propagandistic
2. Read, mark, and inwardly digest Luther's commentary on the First Commandment in the Small Catechism to "fear, love, and trust in God above all things"!
3. Horn, People Love Dead Jews
4. The Scriptural Reasoning inter-faith dialogue project
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

The Lord's Prayer

The prayer our Lord Jesus taught his disciples, in address to his and their heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit! And probably the most-prayed prayer of all time. (Well, except maybe "HELP!") In this episode Dad and I pore over each petition, with a great deal of help from Luther's Catechisms, discuss why it is we should pray, and the greater truth that we can and are invited to pray.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: All About Prayer, Sermon on the Mount, Revival and Renewal with the Blumhardts
2. Sarah's Sermon on the Mount: A Poetic Paraphrase
3. Luther's Small Catechism (and Sarah's Memorizing Edition therof) and also his Large Catechism
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2024 Bonus 6: Crossover with Art Life Faith

Sarah sits down to chat with Roger Lowther of the Art Life Faith podcast!
Also, in the unlikely event you missed it, the Transfiguration book Kickstarter mentioned in this episode has already ended (after exceeding all expectations!). But you can preorder the ebook on Amazon, where it will be published on August 6, 2024.

Seminex

In remembrance of an event that took place 50 years + 1 week ago, Dad tells the story of the internal schism in the Missouri Synod, the "walkout" of professors and students from Concordia Seminary St. Louis, and the founding of a seminary in exile, popularly known as Seminex. It is the founding story of why American Lutheranism looks the way it does today and mirrors the wider cultural polarization, yet with uniquely theological elements all its own. Triumphalists on either side beware; this is a tragedy.
Notes:
1. Todd, Authority Vested
2. Burkee, Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod
3. Tietjen, Memoirs in Exile
4. A Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles (LCMS)
5. See more on Dad's new blog with a number of essays on this history, Theological Ramblings,
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2024 Bonus 5: Crossover with Doth Protest

Andrew Christiansen of Doth Protest and Dad discuss Karl Marx's reception and use of Martin Luther.

Atonement

We've discussed the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, Anselm and Aulen, and salvation itself all over the place... but until now, never "the Atonement." Could that be because the word itself tends to dictate the outcome? In this episode we talk about the origins of the English word "atone," exchange some thoughts on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and then dive deep into an essay by theologian Robert Bertram commenting on Luther commenting on Galatians. Joyful exchanges abound!
Notes:
1. Bertram, "How Our Sins Were Christ's"
2. Sarah's article "The Law of God," now also published in Common Places in Christian Theology
3. Luther's 1531/35 Galatians commentary in Luther's Works vols 26 and 27
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

Confession and Absolution

In church, do your sins actually get forgiven, or are you only assured that in general God likes to forgive sins? Do you have to be penitent for the absolution to work? How penitent? Can a mere human absolve on God's behalf? And if so, how do absolvers know whether they ought to loose something or whether they'd better keep it bound up? In this episode, Dad and Sarah discuss Luther's little known 50 Theses on the Remission of Sins, from the year 1518, which has been dubbed by scholar Oswald Bayer as really truly the first Reformation text. From there we talk about general and corporate absolution in public worship in comparison with specific absolution of a private confession, and what qualifies as a faithful, evangelical liturgical practice of absolution.
Notes:
1. Luther's 1518 Theses on the Remission of Sins
2. Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg
3. Studying Luther in Wittenberg
4. Bayer, Promissio
5. Liturgical resources for confession and absolution from the Lutheran Church in Australia and New Zealand
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2024 Bonus 4: Transfiguration with Freely Given, Part 2 of 2

Sarah talks with Katie and Gretchen of Freely Given about her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

2024 Bonus 3: Transfiguration with Freely Given, 1 of 2

Sarah talks with Katie and Gretchen of the Freely Given podcast about her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

2024 Bonus 2: Transfiguration with Fresh Text

John Drury of Fresh Text and Sarah discuss all things Transfiguration in light of her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).
And, if you want to hear their next two conversations about the Transfiguration, including the mind-blowing discussion of the Gospel of John, be sure to subscribe to Fresh Text right away!

2024 Bonus 1: Transfiguration with Crackers and Grape Juice

Jason Micheli of Crackers and Grape Juice and Sarah discuss all things Transfiguration in light of her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

The Transfiguration

All about the Transfiguration of our Lord! And, to be perfectly honest, all about Sarah's new book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (which, as you'll hear, launched as a Kickstarter, and will be available for purchase starting July 2024). Among other topics: Why Elijah and Moses of all possible visitors from Israel's past? Why does Peter offer to build booths, of all weird things (and is he really as much of a dope as every Transfiguration sermon you've ever heard claims)? How does the apostle Paul handle the Transfiguration? And why, for heaven's sake, does Second Peter of all oddball epistles feature the Transfiguration??
Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

2023 Bonus 19: Crossover with Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories #3

I have a new podcast! For people who need good fiction and good theology at the same time. Two final episodes here to whet your appetite—so if you enjoy them, please hop on over and subscribe to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories so you won't miss a single episode!

2023 Bonus 18: Sarah at Australian Lutheran College

My lecture at the Parkville Plus seminar hosted by Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide, South Australia, on "Three Nineteenth-Century German Lutheran Saint Calendar Proposals."

2023 Bonus 17: Crossover with Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories #2

I have a new podcast! For people who need good fiction and good theology at the same time. Two more episodes here to whet your appetite—so if you enjoy them, please hop on over and subscribe to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories so you won't miss a single episode!

2023 Bonus 16: Dad at Love Teach Heal Academy

Dad speaks about preaching to political and cultural issues as an exercise of both Christian discipleship and lefthand-kingdom stewardship at the Love Teach Heal Academy for lay preachers and teachers.

2023 Bonus 15: Crossover with Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories #1

I have a new podcast! For people who need good fiction and good theology at the same time. Two episodes here to whet your appetite—so if you enjoy them, please hop on over and subscribe to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories so you won't miss a single episode!

The Image of God

What makes human beings to be in the image of God? A rational soul? A capacity for action? An openness to the divine? Is it a given or an achievement? Who or what has it, and who or what doesn't? And does the image of God tell us only about humans, or can it tell us something about God, too—without remaking God in our own image? We wrap up Season 5 of Queen of the Sciences tackling these fraught questions!
And looking toward 2024 and Season 6, here are some fun things you should most definitely check out:
—Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration, my first-ever Kickstarter, launching in mid-January!
—Dad's new weekly sermon!
—My new fiction podcast, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories!
—And a ton of newly available articles from Dad for your edification!
Notes:
1. Dalferth, Creatures of Possibility
2. Strawn, The Old Testament Is Dying and "From Imago to Imagines" in The Incomparable God
3. van Huyssteen, Alone in the World?
4. McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary
5. Cary, The Nicene Creed
FIVE SOLID YEARS of theological podcasting! Show your enthusiasm, apprecation, and support by contributing to the cause on Patreon!

Brain Mind Soul: or, Neurotheology

Is it a brain? Is it a mind? Is it a soul? What hath neuroscience to do with theology? In this episode Dad and I discuss recent work on the function of the brain and especially its hemispheric differences, and what this has to do with rationality, bodiliness, and faith.
Notes:
1. Kandel, There Is Life after the Nobel Prize
2. Doidge, The Brain That Changes Itself
3. McGilchrist, The Master and His Emissary
4. I discuss "transgenre theology" on episode 19 of my new podcast, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories!
What do you think five years of top-quality theology podcasting is worth? Register your vote by joining our highly select band of Patrons. Get some cool swag and support your favorite podcast in remaining stridently independent and advertising-free!

Lutheran-Pentecostal Dialogue

The brand-newest of any theological writing Dad and I have ever covered on the podcast! We discuss "The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Me," the recently released statement of the International Lutheran-Pentecostal Dialogue, following discussions that took place from 2016 to 2022. Full disclosure: Sarah worked as a consultant to the dialogue on behalf of the Institute for Ecumenical Research, an independent house of studies that delegates consultants to all the ecumenical dialogues of the Lutheran World Federation. Besides Sarah's offering of some insider illumination on the text, the two of us discuss what an ecumenical statement is, what it isn't, and how it can become fruitful across the church.
Notes:
1. "The Spirit of the Lord Is Upon Me"
2. The Institute for Ecumenical Research
3. The Lutheran World Federation and Pentecostal World Fellowship
4. Related episodes: Making Ecumenism Sexy Again, Nenilava, Theology and Experience 1, Theology and Experience 2
What do you think five years of top-quality theology podcasting is worth? Register your vote by joining our highly select band of Patrons. Get some cool swag and support your favorite podcast in remaining stridently independent and advertising-free!

2023 Bonus 14: Crossover with First Reading

Dad discusses the upcoming lectionary reading from Joshua 24 with Rachel Wrenn and Tim McNinch of the First Reading podcast!

Bad Tillich

After giving Tillich his due in the last episode, in this one Sarah goes off, more or less blaming Tillich and his book The Courage to Be for everything that has gone wrong in American Lutheranism for the past 75 years. Overwrought and unjust? Probably. Dad makes the case for Tillich at least asking the right questions, and not accepting certain false solutions. But we both agree there is a more excellent way. If nothing else, you'll enjoy hearing the generation gap on display as you've never before heard it on this podcast!
Notes:
1. Tillich, The Courage to Be
2. Related episodes: Oh, Anselm!!!, Reinhold Niebuhr, Barth Ain't So Bad, Bonhoeffer's Christology
3. For universality from specificity rather than the other way around, consider my novel A-Tumblin' Down
What do you think five years of top-quality theology podcasting is worth? Register your vote by joining our highly select band of Patrons. Get some cool swag and support your favorite podcast in remaining stridently independent and advertising-free!

2023 Bonus 13: On Hamas’s Attack on Israel

Dad and I respond to the Hamas terror attack on Israel.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Good Tillich, Before Auschwitz, Luther and the Jews
2. Please read Dad's Before Auschwitz; I also commend Dara Horn's People Love Dead Jews
3. Statement from Presiding Bishop Elizabeth Eaton of the ELCA

Good Tillich

The little-known story of expatriate German theologian Paul Tillich's radio addresses from America to the German people in the depths of World War II, exhorting them to name and reject the false idol that was holding them hostage and driving millions of people to death. In this episode Dad and I explore how Tillich drew on the depths of the Bible's prophetic speech to analyze the Third Reich and the Germans' own complicity with it, the uniqueness of that situation, and what we might be able to learn from it.
Notes:
1. Tillich, Against the Third Reich
2. If you read no other book by Dad, be sure to read this one: Before Auschwitz
3. Related episode: Before Auschwitz, Hannah Arendt, Reinhold Niebuhr
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2023 Bonus 12: Crossover with Enter the Bible #4

Sarah discusses premillennialism, postmillennialism, amillennialism, and Revelation 20 with Katie Langston and Kathryn Schifferdecker of the Enter the Bible podcast. Check out Katie's memoir of leaving Mormonism and becoming a Christian, Sealed: An Unexpected Journey into the Heart of Grace, and listen to Dad's and my discussion of it on a bonus episode of Queen of the Sciences!

Bonhoeffer’s Christology

Christ the center, Christ for me, Christ for us, Christ as church, Christ the humiliated and exalted one, Christ the Lord who is nothing like der Führer who reigned over Berlin at the time a young Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave these university lectures. In this episode we sift through Bonhoeffer's appropriation of Luther's christology, lightly inflected by Karl Barth, as well as his own corrections and innovations, in the service of a community centered on Christ... and no one else.
Notes:
1. You may know these lectures as Christ the Center but we worked from the new translation in DBWE 12.
2. DeJonge, Bonhoeffer's Reception of Luther
3. See Dad's "Luther's Anti-Docetism in the Disputatio de divinitate et humanitate Christi (1540)," pp. 139-185 in Creator est creatura
4. Luther, "Confession Concerning Christ's Supper," in LW 37
5. Sarah mentioned her novel A-Tumblin' Down
6. Related episode: Bonhoeffer's "Life Together"
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2023 Bonus 11: Crossover with Enter the Bible #3

Sarah discusses why God heals infections and cancers, but doesn't regrow amputated limbs, on this episode of Enter the Bible with Kathryn Schifferdecker and Katie Langston! Check out related episodes Illness and Healing and Miracles (with Some Help from C. S. Lewis).

I Peter

Elect exiles, spirits in prison, slaves, wives, the devil qua prowling lion, but above all lots and lots of the risen Lord Jesus... the First Epistle of Peter has it all! Dad and I get so carried away with this brief letter than we sort of rush to finish at the end, and even so have an outsized episode. But don't worry, we get into that bit about Christ preaching to the dead. Plus, Dad mispronounces French again, and Sarah goes off on Bible-believin' Christians who deny that baptism saves, when it says so right here.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: How To Be a Congregation, Baptism: Infant and Otherwise
2. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter
3. Harink, 1 & 2 Peter
4. My sermon on the "elect exiles" of I Peter 1
5. And my book To Baptize or Not to Baptize: A Practical Guide to Clergy
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2023 Bonus 10: Crossover with Enter the Bible #2

Dad discusses just what the phrase "faith of Christ" in St. Paul's letters means on this episode of Enter the Bible with Kathryn Schifferdecker and Katie Langston!

Melanchthon’s Loci Communes

Or, the one in which Sarah at long last reads the first work of Protestant dogmatics, and has an existential/vocational crisis as a result. Dad talks her off the ledge.
Notes:
1. Melanchthon, Loci Communes (1521 edition) and Loci Communes (1559 edition) (there are lots of other editions in-between)
2. Quere, Melanchthon's Christum Cognoscere
3. Sarah's To Baptize or Not to Baptize and Small Catechism: Memorizing Edition
4. Related episodes: Bondage of the Will, Before Auschwitz
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2023 Bonus 9: Crossover with Enter the Bible #1

Dad discusses how the 12 tribes of Israel entered the promised land on this episode of Enter the Bible with Kathryn Schifferdecker and Katie Langston!

Luther’s Bondage of the Will

The famous, no, infamous, no, notorious treatise by the reformer at his most white-hot passionate. Mild-mannered Erasmus didn't stand a chance. And neither do you. Which turns out to be good news!
In this episode Dad and I sort out what The Bondage of the Will is actually about, what it isn't about, how it is true freedom even for religiously-minded people (maybe especially for them...?), and the delights of a theology you can't possibly programitize.
Notes:
1. Luther, Bondage of the Will, in LW 33
2. Kolb, Bound Choice, Election, and Wittenberg Theological Method
3. Vestrucci, Theology as Freedom
4. Ruokanen, Trinitarian Grace in Martin Luther's The Bondage of the Will
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Augustine’s Enchiridion

Late in life, after penning thousands of pages, Augustine received a request from an admiring but understandably intimidated friend for something a little shorter. This "handbook" is the result—a veritable greatest-hits compilation for this most influential of Western fathers. Everything from evil as privation to predestination, when and whether to lie and how to grow in love, justifying faith and almsgiving to oneself (!).
Notes:
1. We read this edition of Augustine's Enchiridion
2. See also our episode on Augustine's City of God
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2023 Bonus 8: Crossover with Outside Ourselves

Sarah talks with Kelsi Klembara of the Outside Ourselves podcast about A-Tumblin' Down, and a few other things besides! Plus, here's the link to my new podcast: Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories. Or just search for it in whatever app you're using right now!

Follow-up to Silenced

What happened after I posted the protest to the suppression of our episode.

Silenced

Why our last regular episode didn't show up in your podcast app. Please, please listen to this message.
Update: Literally within five minutes of my uploading this short protest, both Apple and Spotify let the episode on "The Inhumanity of Lockdown" through. Take the lesson and protest censorship! They back down. At least for now.

The Inhumanity of Lockdown

We break our habitual reserve on what's been inflicted on the body politic over the past three years with this extended discussion of lockdown—and its essential inhumanity cloaked in the garb of science and righteousness. Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben with his concept of biopolitics is our guide. We realize that this has been an incredibly painful set of issues for many of you to even attempt to discuss, so we try to model a way of talking about without rancor even while calling it like we see it. But we hope, whatever you thought and however you managed, your conclusion is the same as ours: Never again.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Before Auschwitz, Illness and Healing, Faith to the Aid of Science, St Paul among the Philosophers, Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague, Virtual Communion
2. Agamben, Where Are We Now?
3. Weikart, From Darwin to Hitler
4. This is my only other public statement related to covid: "Churches During Lockdown: Near Disaster"
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2023 Bonus 7: Crossover with All About Agatha

Not your usual Queen of the Sciences crossover! Sarah talks with Kemper Donovan of the All About Agatha (Christie) podcast to parse the great detective novelist's short story "Star over Bethlehem," and more generally Agatha's little known but deeply felt Christian faith.

Ecclesiastes

To everything there is a season... even a season for gaining an appreciation of the odd little book of Ecclesiastes. Maybe middle age is precisely that season. Overcoming our own initial biases against Ecclesiastes, which is the ultimate inkblot test within the canon of Scripture, we place the Preacher in historical context as a template for taking the ancient wisdom of Israel's faith into radically different contexts. More relevant and less existentialist-nihilist than you thought!
Notes:
1. Of course you know "Turn, Turn, Turn" by the Byrds
2. Check out Dad's article in Word & World (Winter 2023), "Luther on Ecclesiastes: Nature in the Light of Grace" and Luther's commentary in LW 15
3. Lohfink, Qoheleth
4. Scott, Proverbs–Ecclesiastes
5. Brueggemann, Theology of the Old Testament
6. Treier, Ecclesiastes (Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible)
7. Adams, Christ and Horrors
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Oh, Anselm!!!

A couple years ago we did an episode entitled "Poor Anselm" because we felt sorry for the vilification of this major medieval theologian's work on the atonement in Cur Deus Homo, which we thought deserved better. So we thought, why not give his first treatise, Monologion, a try? Um. Well... In this episode, we go from defending Anselm to rebuking him for his account of the Trinity by reason alone, which just plain doesn't work and has caused trouble in western Christianity ever since. And yet, somehow, Anselm's version seems to be what people even today think is the correct way of talking about the Trinity. Join us for some trinitarian therapy.
Notes:
1. Anselm, Monologion
2. Rogers, The Neoplatonic Metaphysics and Epistemology of Anselm of Canterbury
3. Luy, Dominus Mortis
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Gregory of Nazianzus

Among the many remarkable Gregories of the early church, the one from Nazianzus stands out to such an extent that he has earned the simple epithet: "The Theologian." In this episode, we explore why! In particular, Gregory's five famous theological orations (plus two letters to neighborhood priest Cledonius) present one of the best and most formative accounts of the doctrine of Trinity, emphasizing the priority of Person over Nature and the distinction among the Persons residing in their relationships, not their being. If you've ever felt defeated by the doctrine of the Trinity, this episode is for you.
Notes:
1. See my issue of Theology & a Recipe on Basil the Great entitled "The Trinity Is Not an Egg"
2. A nice little compendium of Gregory's writings can be found in the charming Popular Patristic series under the (unfortunately awful) title On God and Christ
3. Hall, Philip Melanchthon and the Cappadocians
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2023 Bonus 6: Crossover with Crackers and Grape Juice

Sarah talks with Jason Micheli of the very excellent Crackers and Grape Juice podcast... and a little foreshadowing at the end that Dad might just get an episode of his own, too!

Mary Theotokos

Mariology is both Christology and Israelology—or should be, anyway. In this episode Dad and I work through the biblical witness about Mary, patristic affirmations of her as the God-bearer, what the doctrine of the virgin birth does and, perhaps more importantly, doesn't mean, and conclude with some suggestions for expanding and developing Mary's theological significance as not only birth mother of God but also adoptive mother of the church of both Jews and Gentiles.
Notes:
1. Quotes from Cyril of Alexandria and the christological formula of the Council of Chalcedon come from Christology of the Later Fathers
2. See also the discussion of Theotokos in Pelikan, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition, and also his book Mary through the Centuries
3. Check out my article "Maria Adoptrix"
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2023 Bonus 5: Crossover with Talkingbird

Sarah's talk at the 2023 Mockingbird conference in New York, brought to you via the Talkingbird podcast. Check out the Mockingcast too!

Before Auschwitz

It's easy, too easy, to blame the past for not knowing what we know now. Much more useful is to examine how the past arrived at its conclusions, and see if we can discern what led in fruitful directions and what led to disaster. In this episode, Dad and I review the contents of his book, also called Before Auschwitz, examining what led Christian theologians to support, denounce, or try to avoid taking a stand on the rise of Nazism. It's a master class in theological method when the stakes were never higher—and a small step toward the long process of repentance for Christian anti-Judaism and anti-Semitism.
Notes:
1. If you read no other book by Dad, be sure to read this one: Before Auschwitz
2. Related episodes: Luther and the Jews, The Relationship between the Old and New Testaments
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The 100th Episode!

Never pass by a nice round anniversary! On this 100th full and regular episode of the podcast, Dad and I reminisce about the origins of Queen of the Sciences, reveal the secrets of how we prep and record, share statistics and fan reviews, tell which are our favorite episodes (and yours!), and look onward to many more episodes to come.
Notes:
1. Ten most downloaded QotS episodes, from #10 down to #1: Bonus episode on Law and Gospel Part 1, Hannah Arendt, Luke Part 1, Critical Social Theory, Bonhoeffer's "Life Together," Learning to Love Leviticus, Holy Communion: Discipline, Powers and Principalities, The 8th Commandment in Cancel Culture, What Is Theology and Who Needs It?
2. Sarah's favorites: Theology & Experience Part 2, James Epistle of Straw?, Private Public and Propagandistic, How to Hack the Law, Pastoral Authority, Poor Anselm, Illness and Healing, An Unlikely Marriage, What is a Person?, The Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicitas
3. Dad's favorites: Abraham Lincoln Theologian, Postmodernism for the Perplexed, The Land, The Earth, Outer Space, Nietzsche Is Peachy, Sermon on the Mount, Athanasius Against the World, Jonah
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2023 Bonus 4: Crossover with A History of Christian Theology

Dad talks to Chad Kim of the History of Christian Theology podcast about his book, Divine Complexity.

The Jesus Seminar

Continuing our quest for the quest for the historical Jesus, in this episode we take a look at the Jesus Seminar, and in particular representative scholar Marcus Borg. Dad as usual is the very picture of responsible scholarship. I manage to be not quite as snarky as in the last episode, but given the choice between Borg's milquetoast mystic and Schweitzer's apocalyptic nut, I'm with the latter. Fortunately, it is not a choice we need to make, which should be your takeaway from these two episodes!
Notes:
1. Wright and Borg, The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions
2. Weiss, Jesus' Proclamation of the Kingdom of God
3. Related episodes: Quest for the Historical Jesus, Resurrection
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Quest for the Historical Jesus

Modern techniques and approaches to the discipline of history were inevitably turned on Jesus. But you may be surprised to learn that, at the origin, the desire was not to deconstruct but to shore up belief in Jesus, if not all the subsequent doctrinal accretions around him. In this episode, Dad walks us through the early history of the quest for the historical Jesus, its findings, what it gave and what it took away, and what any of it has to do with classic christology. Meanwhile, I essentially play the role of Waldorf and Statler, the grumpy guys up in the balcony of "The Muppet Show."
Notes:
1. Kant, Conflict of the Faculties and Religion within the Limits of Mere Reason
2. Schleiermacher, The Life of Jesus
3. Strauss, The Christ of Faith and the Jesus of History
4. Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus
5. Heschel, The Aryan Jesus
6. Bornkamm, Jesus of Nazareth
7. Troftgruben, "How Not to Fall for the Next Big Jesus Exposé," Lutheran Forum 52/4 (2018): 45–50.
8. Related episodes: Martin Luther King, Howard Thurman, Miracles, Elisabeth Behr-Sigel
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2023 Bonus 3: Crossover Episode with Fresh Text on John 11

John Drury of the Fresh Text podcast and I (i.e. Sarah) discuss John 11 at great and enthusiastic length!
If you enjoyed this episode, by all means subscribe to Fresh Text! John discusses a lectionary passage each week with a great array of scholars and preachers. Highly recommended!

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King is revered. But is he revered for the right reasons? In this episode we counter the domestication of King as only an advocate of civil rights, and instead encounter him as the prophet and preacher who called America to be born again in costly love toward the racially other. We also survey his range of theological convictions and insights, connecting him with his famous namesake, in pursuit of a Beloved Community for our time.
Notes:
1. The Essential Martin Luther King Jr.
2. King, A Gift of Love
3. Baldwin, Go Tell It on the Mountain (I listened to this audiobook edition—it's excellent)
4. Carson, Martin's Dream
5. Lischer, The Preacher King
6. West, The Radical King
7. Related episodes: Thurman, Niebuhr
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Howard Thurman

Martin Luther King is the famous preacher of the civil rights movement (and indeed, we'll be getting to him in the next episode). But behind King, and crucial to him, is pastor and theologian Howard Thurman. In this episode, Dad and I immerse ourselves in Thurman's great work of spiritual theology, Jesus and the Disinherited, its portrait of Christ, and the challenge to all believers to take up the cross of radical love.
Notes:
1. Thurman, Jesus and the Disinherited
2. Related episodes: Jefferson, Lincoln, The Land, What Is a Person?, Propaganda
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2023 Bonus #2: One Year after the Invasion of Ukraine

On the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Dad and I turn to the insightful critical comments of Orthodox theologians around the world, and share our own takes on the situation.
Notes:
1. A Declaration on the "Russian World" (Ruskii Mir) Teaching
2. Hovorun, Is the "Russian World" Condemnable?
3. Bintsarovskyi, On Some Misconceptions about Russia's War against Ukraine

Matthew, Part 2

After the broad overview last time, in this episode we dive into some Matthew-specific detail, from the genealogy to parables to the zombie apocalypse, I mean resurrection of the saints of Jerusalem.
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Matthew, Part 1

Save the best for last? In this episode, Dad and I finally get around to the First Gospel, as it is sometimes called. We talk over our previous prejudices against Matthew and how on this read we came to a new and fresh appreciate of just what this evangelist is up to.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Mark 1, Mark 2, Luke 1, Luke 2, John 1, John 2, Sermon on the Mount, Sarah's Sermon on the Mount, Sarah's talk on the Sermon on the Mount for CCET
2. Check out my book Sermon on the Mount: A Poetic Paraphrase
3. Albright, Anchor Bible commentary on Matthew
4. See Dad's review of Peter Ochs's "Another Reformation" in The Journal of Scriptural Reasoning 13/2 (December 2014).
5. See the Luz essay in ed. Stanton, The Interpretation of Matthew
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2023 Bonus #1: A-Tumblin’ Down audiobook

Get the audiobook of my first novel, A-Tumblin' Down, direct from Thornbush Press, or from Audible, or pretty much any audiobook retailer of your choice!
Not quite convinced yet? Then listen to these excerpts introducing you to the Abney family: Kitty, Donald, Carmichael, Saul and Asher.
Prefer to read rather than listen to your novels? No problem! Jump here to find links to the book in paperback, hardcover, and ebook.

Vocation vs Bull**** Jobs

Welcome to season 5 of the Queen of the Sciences podcast! Vocation is a topic near and dear to me and Dad, both as a central theological focus of the Lutheran Reformation and also because we just plain take a lot of pleasure in our work. But David Graeber's astonishing book Bullshit Jobs came as a serious wake-up call to us both. In this episode, we review Graeber's case for the precipitous shift from meaningful to meaningless and even actively harmful paid work in the world today, and what it means for an ongoing commitment to the doctrine of vocation.
Notes:
1. Graeber, Bullshit Jobs
2. The short story "Gold" in my collection Protons and Fleurons is a skewed look at vocation, but not as skewed as Graeber's.
3. The classic study of Luther on vocation is Gustav Wingren's appropriately titled Luther on Vocation
4. Related episodes: Hannah Arendt, Cybertech and Personhood
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2022 Bonus #6: Divine Providence

Dad's second talk for the NALC Atlantic Mission Region's theological conference, "Stand Fast and Be of Good Courage: The Lord Will Fight for You."
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2022 Bonus #5: Divine Violence

Dad's first talk at the NALC Atlantic Mission Region's Theological Conference, "Stand Fast and Be of Good Courage: The Lord Will Fight for You."
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2022 Bonus #4: Luther Discovers His Doctrine of Sanctification in the Saints of Genesis

Sarah's lecture at Johannelund Theological School in Uppsala, Sweden, at a daylong conference on Sanctification in Lutheran Perspective.
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2022 Bonus #3: Happiness, Despair, Hope--22 Years at Roanoke College

Dad's talk at Roanoke College reflecting on his 22 years of service there as a professor of theology.
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Heaven, Hell, and the Life to Come

What's beyond the land, the earth, and outer space? Heaven and hell. Unless, that is, we don't exit the created cosmos to get to them, but they come to us (preferably the former and not the latter). In this episode, guided by a book from N. T. Wright, Dad and I explore the unexplored and unexplorable territory of the life to come, speculating mildly, not wildly. And that's a wrap for Season 4 of Queen of the Sciences. Thanks for being with us! Bonus episodes coming your way till we resume with Season 5 in January 2023. Meanwhile, brag to your friends about how you listen to the best theology podcast in the known universe!
Notes:
1. Wright, Surprised by Hope
2. Zahl, The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience
3. Becker, Denial of Death
4. Sarah's Pearly Gates
5. Past episodes that relate to this one: Triple Predestination, Resurrection, Cybertech and Personhood
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Outer Space

From the land, to the earth, to infinity and beyond! In this episode Dad and I contemplate the vastness of the universe and the itty-bittiness of subatomic particles, the astonishing rareness of life in any form and the likelihood of meeting aliens, what this cosmos-view does to our God-view, and what it means to be an Earthling, i.e., an "Adam," assisted along the way by science fiction novels, shows, and movies. But most importantly, I finally get to indulge my decades-long desire to crack a joke about "alien righteousness."
Notes:
1. Luther's commentary on Ecclesiastes
2. John Palka's blog Nature's Depths
3. Vainio, Cosmology in Theological Perspective
4. Brooke, Science and Religion
5. Lewis, Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength
6. Russell, The Sparrow
7. Wells, War of the Worlds
8. "Passengers" (2016 film)
9. Le Guin, Worlds of Exile and Illusion, plus see the volume of critical studies edited by Harold Bloom
10. Worthing, God, Creation, and Contemporary Physics
11. Wisnefske, Could God Fail?
12. Check out this episode of the fantastic Enter the Bible podcast talking to Alan Padgett about protological and eschatological science
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The Earth

The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof! We start off this episode with some appreciative words for the agrarian background of the Bible, though also some cautionary words against modern industrial people cheaply romanticizing the agrarian past. But most of this episode is Farmer Paul's personal testimony to his own hands-on care for a neglected and degraded patch of earth, now flourishing under his care. Sleeping flounder, Swiss bears, and runaway honeybees all make an appearance. Plus you get to hear me sing the opening lines of "I've Been Picking These Darn Peas," the "spiritual" that my brother Will and I composed during our childhood bondage to the family garden.
Notes:
1. Wirzba, Agrarian Spirit
2. Davis, Scripture, Culture, And Agriculture
3. Shellenberger, Apocalypse Never
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The Land

The meek shall inherit the earth... or maybe the land. And if the land, which land—the land of Israel, to be exact? In this episode Dad and I admit to lacking anything like a robust theology of the land of Israel for today, despite being rather more theologically robust on this topic when it comes to the biblical writings, as well as having some political convictions about the current state of secular affairs. But do we need to have an active theology of the land of Israel today? To guide us through, we turn to studies by, on the one hand, a Messianic Jewish theologian, and, on the other, a Palestinian Lutheran theologian, and wrestle our way to a conclusion that is guaranteed to satisfy nobody. That's what we're here for.
Notes:
1. Dad's commentary on Joshua
2. My moonlighting on Fresh Text to talk about Psalm 37
3. Article 17 of the Augsburg Confession
4. Kinzer, Jerusalem Crucified, Jerusalem Risen
5. Isaac, From Land to Lands, from Eden to the Renewed Earth
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Private, Public, and Propagandistic

This episode started out as an experimental bonus: I asked Dad to think through with me what it can mean to bear witness in these days when a) everything sounds like propaganda, b) public and private are endlessly confused but I'm unwilling to expose to public scrutiny matters that are relevant to public discourse yet intrinisically private, and c) rebuttal and critique automatically vault the rebutted into martyr status. In other words, is it even possible to say truthful things in public anymore? Listen in for our provisional answers.
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Theology and Experience 1, Theology and Experience 2, James
2. Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death
3. MacLuhan, The Medium Is the Message (beats me why this is spelled everywhere on Amazon, even the book covers, as "Massage" instead of "Message")
4. Weiss, "Hurts So Good"
5. Coakley, God, Sexuality, and the Self
6. Augustine, Confessions (current favorite translation)
7. Merton, Seven Storey Mountain
8. My "apocalyptic parables": Pearly Gates and Protons and Fleurons
And by the way, if you'd like to support our efforts at truthful public speech, please consider joining our Patreon supporters. Or just tell a friend about podcast. Thanks!

Postmodernism for the Perplexed

If everything's postmodern, then nothing's postmodern. In fact, according to Dad, postmodernism is actually just modernism continued by other means. Perplexed yet? No worries, that's part of the plan. If you can't conquer the body, then conquer the soul, and the rest will follow. In this episode we sort out postmodernism and its doppelgänger, then explore ways to keep sane and whole amidst the insanity. Surprisingly, I give words of hope, encouragement, and peace. So listen in just for that surprising development!
Notes:
1. Related episodes: Critical Social Theory, Pragmatism, Hannah Arendt, What Is a Person?, Cybertech and Personhood, Bonhoeffer's Life Together, Powers and Principalities
2. Nelson, "The Convening Power of the Pastor," Lutheran Forum 51/1 (2017): 50–51.
3. ed. Helmer, Truth-Telling and Other Ecclesial Practices of Resistance, including Dad's "Complicity and the Christological Path of Ecclesial Resistance"
4. eds. Stjerna and Thompson, On the Apocalyptic and Human Agency: Conversations with Augustine of Hippo and Martin Luther, with Dad's “Augustine, Luther and the Critique of the Sovereign Self”
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Miracles, with Some Help from C. S. Lewis

Miracles seem like straightforward things to define, if rare to experience, until you start to think about the topic more deeply. In this episode, Dad and I discuss C. S. Lewis's book Miracles, the danger of accepting the definition of miracle as "violation of natural processes," what the Creator has to do with the Redeemer, how prayer affects providence, and biblical ambivalence about miracles.
Notes:
1. Lewis, Miracles
2. Related episodes: Illness and Healing, Revival and Renewal with the Blumhardts, Nenilava Prophetess of Madagascar
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Faith to the Aid of Science

Already in our first year of podcasting we expressed sympathy with Bonhoeffer's view that the time was coming when faith would need to come to the aid of reason. Three and a half years later, it seems even more acute than that: faith to the aid of science! In this episode we discuss scientific reasoning as an extremely valuable form of reason that nevertheless, like all human forms of reasoning, is subject to both limitations and distortions, not to mention exploitation in the service of authoritarianism. Then Dad walks us through the difference between a worldview and a Godview, why a change in the former makes people feel that they're losing the latter, and what is resilient about a Godview as science continues its necessary task of questioning and challenging received knowledge.
Notes:
1. Have a listen to our previous episodes Faith to the Aid of Reason and The Empiricists Strike Back
2. Knoll, A Brief History of the Earth
3. In Dad's Beloved Community, see the discussion of "creation faith and the scientific understanding of nature" (pp. 735–640), and see also his article "Retrieving Luther on Prayer: Spirituality in the Production of Christian Doctrine" in The T&T Clark Handbook of Christian Prayer
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A Hegel with All the Fixin’s

Hegel was our first family dog, which probably tells you all you need to know about our family. Before that, Hegel was a German philosopher, famously one of the most impenetrable, and yet weirdly influential for all that. In this episode, Dad shines a light in the fog. Don't worry if you come to this topic with nothing but Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis. I didn't either, but it all made sense in the end. Kind of.
Notes:
1. Related Episodes: St. Paul Among the Philosophers, Critical Social Theory
2. See Dad’s Divine Simplicity and Divine Complexity; plus, with his colleague Adkins, Rethinking Philosophy and Theology with Deleuze
3. Adkins, Death and Desire in Hegel, Heidegger and Deleuze
4. Hegel, Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion
5. Kojeve, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel
6. O’Regan, The Heterodox Hegel
7. Moltmann, The Crucified God
8. Agamben, The Time That Remains
9. Žižek and Milbank, The Monstrosity of Christ
10. Ayres, Nicaea and its Legacy
11. Małysz, "Hegel's Conception of God and its Application by Isaak Dorner to the Problem of Divine Immutability," Pro Ecclesia XV:4 (2006): 448-471

James, Epistle of Straw?

Yikes. You know the end is nigh when a couple of Lutheran theologians produce an episode on James longer than the one they did on Romans. In this episode, we first sort out what Luther did and didn't say about James, "epistle of straw," clearing up a lot of misapprehensions and faulty inferences, but either way we strongly suggest that the rest of the history of interpretation of James need not be controlled by a few remarks of the reformer early in his career.
From there, we discuss at length why there is so little plainly said about Jesus in this five-chapter letter—though there is a lot about God the Father, and there's no Father without a Son! We also argue that Paul and James really were addressing different errors in their respective discussions of faith and works, so pitting them against each other is neither exegetically nor spiritually illuminating.
All right, let's just admit it: we both like this book. You should, too.
Notes:
1. If you insist on making Luther's comments continue to determine the course of James interpretation, you can find them in Luther's Works vol. 35.
2. The other podcasts I mentioned are Fresh Text and The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill.
3. Other relevant episodes from us are: How to Hack the Law, Justification by Faith, Faith to the Aid of Reason, The Certainty of Faith, Justification by Faith Revisited, and Faith. Just Faith.
4. L. T. Johnson, The Letter of James
5. If you enjoy Woe-itudes, check this out
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Niebuhr’s The Nature and Destiny of Man vol. 1

After three and a half years of dropping not-so-subtle hints, Dad finally persuaded me to read Reinhold Niebuhr's The Nature and Destiny of Man... though in this episode we cover only vol. 1, the "Nature" part. (Stick around with us in Season 5 and you might just get vol. 2!) In this episode we examine Niebuhr's sweeping summation of Western intellectual history and whether it holds up to scrutiny, how the divorce of Renaissance and Reformation gave us all the intractable problems of modernity, the difference between universal sin and unequal guilt, and zero in on the one place where Niebuhr talks more about God than man.
Notes:
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, The Nature and Destiny of Man; see also his Moral Man and Immoral Society
2. James, Varieties of Religious Experience
3. Related episodes: Hannah Arendt, On Putin's Invasion of Ukraine
Do you rejoice every other Tuesday to see a new Queen of the Sciences episode appear? Then consider supporting us on Patreon. You can start at just $2 a month; more gets you swag. Or just pay us a visit at sarahhinlickywilson.com and paulhinlicky.com!

Cybertech and Personhood

Robots are not people, information does not want to be free, and the internet has no consciousness of its own. Meanwhile, human society trades on outrage and no one can tell what is true and what is false. Among the many enduring themes of human experience is how we create tools that in turn re-create us, and the past couple decades are only an accelerated and amplified version of that. With the help of tech critic Jaron Lanier, in this episode Dad and I explore the roots of how the whole world has gone mad, what it means to be and remain a person in the midst of it, and the urgency of doing so. Otherwise, "those who make them become like them," as Psalm 135 puts it.
Notes:
1. All of Lanier's books are highly recommended: You Are Not a Gadget, Who Owns the Future?, and Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now.
2. Scott, Seeing Like a State
3. Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism
4. Asimov, "Robbie," in I, Robot
5. For more on this topic, see my blog post "Quitting Facebook... Again," our previous QotS episodes What Is a Person? and How to Hack the Law, and my new podcast with my husband Andrew, The Disentanglement Podcast, with explanations of digital tech and practical tips for getting free of its tentacles.
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Philemon

Lincoln observed that both slaveholders and abolitionists appealed to the Bible to make their case—but who was right, and why? Slaves appear throughout the Old Testament, yet the core story is the Exodus from slavery in Egypt. The Pauline and Petrine letters exhort peace and fair treatment between masters and slaves, but do not openly advocate for manumission. In Paul's shortest letter, a personal address to Philemon, he sends home a (runaway?) slave, Onesimus, not making it clear what Philemon ought to do with him—and yet, at the same exact time, Paul radically transforms the relationship between Philemon and Onesimus, and between the two of them and Paul, too. Joyful exchanges abound in these twenty-five verses, which proved to be a leaven in the lump of toxic human social systems.
Notes:
1. Saarinen, The Pastoral Epistles with Philemon and Jude
2. Fitzmyer, The Letter to Philemon
3. Ruden, Paul among the People
4. Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church
5. Here's a few of me moonlight on Fresh Text podcast (highly recommended if you're a lectionary preacher): Psalm 37, 2 Corinthians 5, James 5.
6. Zahl, The Holy Spirit and Christian Experience
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Abraham Lincoln, Theologian

In this episode we turn to the great emancipator—not that he started out with that intention. From the covenant between the States in one Union to the painful perception of necessary bloodshed for the North as well as the South on account of its collusion, Lincoln out-Jeffersoned Jefferson, invoking the equality of all human beings according to the Declaration over against the evasion of the slavery issue in the Constitution. And yet, young Lincoln has about as much regard for orthodox Christianity as Jefferson did. What was that brought about such different results in conscience and action? What did Lincoln perceive of God that others could not, as he expressed so powerfully in the Second Inaugural?
Notes:
1. Lincoln, Speeches and Writings (Library of America). See in particular: 1860 Speech at the Cooper Institute, 1861 First Inaugural, 1862 Annual Message to Congress, 1862 Emancipation Proclamation, 1863 Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day, 1863 Gettysburg Address, 1865 Second Inaugural
2. See Dad’s essay, “Lincoln’s Theology of the Republic According to the Second Inaugural Address,” The Cresset (May 2002: LXV/6) 7-14
3. Guelzo, Mr. Lincoln and Redeemer President
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Dad Weighs in on My Novel

One last bonus episode! Dad and I talk about his impressions so far of A-Tumblin' Down, six chapters in and just through the devastating tragedy that scared me off of writing the book for nearly 15 years. Also, what is it exactly that has caused the book of Joshua to haunt our lives for so long?!
Subscribe now to the serialization of the novel—it starts next week!

A-Tumblin’ Down #4 of 4: Introducing Carmichael Abney

Last chance to subscribe to the serialization of my novel A-Tumblin' Down about the lives, tragedies, and triumphs of a Lutheran pastor and his family in the late 1980s. The story begins on June 6, so don't delay! On today's bonus episode, meet Carmichael Abney, English professor, pastor's wife, and mother of three, content with her life--that is, until alternate versions of herself appear and demand her dissatisfaction...

A-Tumblin’ Down #3 of 4: Introducing Saul and Asher Abney

Another installment for Queen of the Sciences listeners! Subscribe to the serialization of my novel A-Tumblin' Down  about the lives, tragedies, and triumphs of a Lutheran pastor and his family in the late 1980s. On today's bonus episode, meet Saul and Asher Abney, brothers born within a year of each other but with diametrically opposed personalities...

A-Tumblin’ Down #2 of 4: Introducing Donald Abney

Another sneak preview--or rather prehear--for Queen of the Sciences listeners! Subscribe to the serialization of my novel A-Tumblin' Down  about the lives, tragedies, and triumphs of a Lutheran pastor and his family in the late 1980s. On today's bonus episode, meet Donald Abney, gentle grandson of a fiery revivalist, afflicted by the one and only appearance of the Book of Joshua in the Common Lectionary...