RTN Theology

This podcast is the second (listen to Pt 1) of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features co-authors Soong-Chan Rah & Mark Charles talking about lament, imagination, history, politics, and a call to conciliation. Deeply theological thinkers, Charles and Rah, their partnership came about from repeatedly crossing paths speaking about the topics of the Doctrine of Discovery and lament. Currently Mark Charles is running for Presidency of the United States of America as an independent.

This podcast is the first of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features co-authors Soong-Chan Rah & Mark Charles talking about lament, imagination, history, politics, and a call to conciliation. Deeply theological thinkers, Charles and Rah, their partnership came about from repeatedly crossing paths speaking about the topics of the Doctrine of Discovery and lament. Currently Mark Charles is running for Presidency of the United States of America as an independent.

Bob joins Bishop Gene Robinson, the chaplain of the Chautauqua Institution for a special talk about his life of faith as a professional musician, father, and friend. Their remarkable CHQ Assembly conversation comes during such a difficult time for so many, and remembers how his faith in Jesus grew amidst the crisis of his daughter, Hallie’s, brain tumor and treatment. Bishop Robinson brings pastoral sensibility and keen spiritual insight. Featured music comes from Winston-Salem’s The Pharaoh Sisters and their album Civil Dawn.

RTN Theology #30 features two longtime Portlanders— D.L. Mayfield and Liz Vice (little known fact: before she was a gospel and R&B star she worked on Portlandia!). D.L. Mayfield is the author of "The Myth of the American Dream" (IVP, 2020). Liz and Danielle reflect on their own experiences of Portland's virtues and vices, and how protest might just be the mode of worship we all need right now.  The sacred music collective, Common Hymnal, provides our soundtrack for the episode.

RTN Theology #29 features two theologians who’ve both recently written brilliant books about 4th Century North African Bishop and theologian St. Augustine: Natalie Carnes (Baylor) & previous guest, James K.A. Smith (Calvin). This wide-ranging and luminous conversation spotlights Dr. Carnes’ new book, Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford UP) and branches out to talk about her previous writing on iconoclasm and monuments, justice, memory, and parenting during COVID-19. Paul Zach (featuring Liz Vice) provides our soundtrack with songs from his EP, God is the Friend of Silence.

This podcast is the second of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features guest host Liz Vice and spoken word artist Micah Bournes talking faith, art, and activism. Liz and Micah have collaborated on each’s albums, including Micah’s most recent record, A Time Like This. This wide-ranging conversation between two brilliant artist of faith was too good to cut short, so we kept the tape running and turned it into a two-part episode.

This podcast is the first of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features guest host Liz Vice and spoken word artist Micah Bournes talking faith, art, and activism. Liz and Micah have collaborated on each’s albums, including Micah’s most recent record, A Time Like This. This wide-ranging conversation between two brilliant artist of faith was too good to cut short, so we kept the tape running and turned it into a two-part episode.

This special RTN Theology conversation features two renowned artists, Scott Avett and Makoto Fujimura, at the table to talk creativity, hope, artistic process, and faith in a time of pandemic. Scott Avett is a member of the Avett Brothers and a visual artist recently exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Makoto Fujimura is internationally known for his Nihonga works. He founded the International Arts Movement (IAM), leads the Fujimura Institute, and recently co-founded the Kintsugi Academy. His book, Art + Faith: A Theology of Making releases in January 2021 via Yale UP. Josh Garrels provides our soundtrack with songs from his newest release, Peace to All Who Enter Here.

RTN Theology #26 partners with the NC Study Center for a brilliant end-of-semester concert and conversation between Duke Divinity bible scholar Ellen Davis and Nashville songwriter Sandra McCracken. Director of Spiritual Formation, Bill Boyd guides a conversation around the hopeful resources of the Psalter in times of disorientation and displacement. (Apologies for some broken audio and the limitations of Zoom recording, some performances were augmented with studio recordings, all featured music is available for purchase and stream.)

Everyone is working and worshipping at home these days and all of our social lives outside of our homes are mediated by technology. RTNT 25 enlists guest co-host John Jay Alvaro to join in on a conversation with author Jay Kim (Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age, IVP 2020). about the ways we use technology to connect to each other and to God in this time of our widespread reliance. The Welcome Wagon provides our quarantime soundtrack.

Our Holy Week episode features author and liberation theologian Kelley Nikondeha. Not only do we get into her new book, Defiant: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us about Freedom (Eerdmans 2020), but also her previous book Adoption: The Sacrament of Belonging in a Fractured World. Kelley brings a ferocity and loving imagination to help us see and recover the stories of these “hidden figures” of liberation in the Exodus story. Her experience as both an adopted person and an adoptive mother, along with her marriage and work in Burundi, give her a keen vision for Christian scripture’s call towards justice, and God’s heart for those on the margins. Episode features Lenten and (new) Easter music by Austin church musician Mac Meador.

Community is on all of our minds during this time of social-distancing in order to help flatten the curve of the spread of coronavirus. Fittingly, Bob and Chris connect with the founders of Reality Ministries, a highly relational, Christ-centered community of persons with and without disabilities in Durham, NC. Jeff and Susan McSwain share the theological convictions which led to and have been gathered from the creation of a community of mutuality and presence. Episode features new communal worship music from the Meek Squad.

After an intense couple of weeks, Bob and Chris get back together to reflect on the beginning of the Lenten season, the Coronavirus outbreak, and the Democratic Primaries. RTN Theology #22 features archival audio of author and organizer Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove from November 3, 2019 when he spoke at Oak Church. Part of an ongoing series of profiles of saints (holy ones, past and present), Jonathan shared about his mentor and spiritual mother, Ann Atwater. A Durham legend, Ann’s life and work known more widely from the book and movie about her life called Best of Enemies. Ann’s words and actions are a provocative witness towards healing and collaboration bourn from the gospel in divisive and polarized times. Her story shows how transformation is possible on the way to working for wholeness and help for society’s most vulnerable. Throughout the episode is featured music from Lincoln, NE soul singer Mona Reeves.

RTN Theology #21 features Esau McCaulley—priest, professor, writer, and theologian— talking about the Christian season of Lent. Our wide-ranging conversation includes how the darkest day of the church calendar is the exact day when he found a new and permanent church home. While Esau repeatedly attempts to convert and confirm Chris into the Anglican Church, they also talk about how the vast biblical narrative is communicated with but a few liturgical words and actions, what it is like to do liturgy with kids, why people from different Christian traditions change church environments, how emerging leaders of color are connecting with and transfiguring liturgical traditions, and even a little bit about N.T. Wright and Kanye West. Featuring Lenten music from Liturgical Folk throughout.

Far from the end of the world, apocalypse mostly means unveiling what’s been under the surface the whole time. In this episode of RTN Theology, Chris and Bob converse with writer Amy Peterson on what happens when the things you grew up taking for granted are revealed as less than reliable, true, or solid. Amy’s new book Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy (W Publishing Group, 2020) artfully examines the virtues of her evangelical subcultural youth and crafts a way forward in a post-2016 world. While some deconstruct, “salt the fields,” or add to the increasing number of “nones,” Peterson chooses to instead reinvest in the soil of her youth. Starting with Lament and ending in Hope, she writes with a steadfast insistence that these reframed virtues might actually be compost for new creation.

RTN Theology podcast launches out on it own with a new season featuring Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith. Bob and Chris talk with Jamie about his new book On The Road With Saint Augustine: Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts (Brazos Press, 2019). By deeply exploring the primal image of the journey for our human condition, Smith unlocks the many ways St. Augustine knows us better than ourselves when it comes to core human longings for freedom, ambition, friendship, and desire. Augustine’s is a wisdom which comes not from above, but from alongside of us in our darkest, most confused, and restless. Augustine’s magnum opus, Confessions, reveals that the antidote for a restless heart is not more running on the road, rather to find rest in the Home which only God gives and is for us. New music by A.S. Wilson is featured throughout.

For many, the Christian liturgical calendar is often a bit mysterious or just plain strange. Bob and Chris dig into the start of the year, the four weeks leading up to Christmas known as Advent, with theologian and arts pastor David Taylor of Fuller Seminary. David wears many hats, and in our interview we discuss how he teaches his students about time, joy, and lament, and he also shares about a multiyear liturgical songwriting project he’s leading. Finally, we preview his forthcoming book Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life (March 2020), which features a forward by Eugene Peterson and afterward by Bono. Throughout the episode we’ll also hear some brilliant new Advent and Christmas music from the likes of Sandra McCracken, Nathan Partain, the Gentle Wolves, and Liz Vice (ft. Hannah Glavor).

Bob and Chris sit down with baker and writer Kendall Vanderslice for a special Thanksgiving episode of RTN Theology centered on food, faith, and a movement of church communities built around the table. Vanderslice’s 2019 book, We Will Feast (Eerdman’s) is a veritable buffet in its own right: part journalism, part food studies, part memoir, and part sacramental theology. Lastly, we’re treated to a perfect sweet treat: music from Nashville musician Sandra McCracken’s Psalms, We Will Feast in the House of Zion. Happy feasting!

Bob and Chris talk with Megan and Isaac Wardell, who shepherd a Christian music collaborative out of Charlottesville, VA made up of dozens of musicians, theologians, pastors, and faith leaders from many places and traditions. In 2017 they released the project’s debut album, Work Songs, about vocation. Last week came the follow-up Neighbor Songs. This diverse musical collection is the product of a beautiful and challenging gathering exploring themes of hospitality in and across difference, disability, gender, race, theology, and tradition. You’ll be treated to these sacred sounds built in the Church from and for the life of the world.

Bob and Chris sit down with Richella Parham to talk about her debut book, Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison. Richella talks about the trap of comparing ourselves to others and the way that a distorted picture of ourselves and others creates a distorted picture of God, and vice versa. Richella’s writing is as interesting, accessible, and deep as this interview. We touch on the work of Richella’s mentor Dallas Willard, as well as some of Richella’s favorite hymns.

RTN Theology #14 remembers as collaborative music project from 2012 birthed out of a North Carolina church community. Bob and Chris talk with producer Jeff Crawford about the making of Hymns from the Gathering Church at Arbor Ridge Studios. This record features old hymns reimagined by artists such as Phil Cook, Mandolin Orange, Skylar Gudasz, Seth Kaufman (Floating Action), H.C. McEntire, Brett Harris, Ryan Gustafson (The Dead Tongues), and more. Bob shares his personal ties to this music and Chris is simply content to be on a call “between two Crawfords.”

RTN Theology 13 is a conversation with Dr. Jennifer Allen Craft in Durham, NC as she participates in the Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts’ 10th anniversary symposium. Dr. Craft wrote Placemaking and the Arts: Cultivating the Christian Life: a beautiful vision for investing in real places and loving real people, while we cultivate a rich experience of God through the arts.

Chris has a conversation with C. Christopher Smith, author of How the Body of Christ Talks. Bob and Chris also speak with Will Acuff of Corner to Corner in Nashville, TN about the amazing community organizing & empowerment work he, his wife Tiffany, and their team are doing with the youth in their community. Throughout the episode you’ll hear music from Russ Mohr, from his recent collaboration, The Kingdom Sessions.  

Chris Breslin speaks w/ Dr. Stanley Hauerwas’ on the recent passing of his friend, Jean Vanier, the life of the church in the era of Trump, and what it means to become people of virtue & character. Dave Fitch shares the ways that Dr. Hauerwas has shaped his life & work and also shares his most recent book project, The Church of Us vs. Them. Dr. Hauerwas also reads a chapter on the virtue of Justice from his recent book of letters to his Godson. Featured music by Deeper Well Music Collective’s Volume III.

This episode of RTN Theology centers on the life, thought, and legacy of German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Bob Crawford talks with professor Stephen Haynes, author of The Battle for Bonhoeffer about how Bonhoeffer has become a cultural Rorschach test, often coopted and reflecting his interpreters, but also how his life and work can be relevant and transformative for  today. New co-host and co-producer, Chris Breslin explores some of the ways Bonhoeffer continues to influence by interviewing Pastor José Humphreys (Seeing Jesus in East Harlem) about ministry in Harlem after Bonhoeffer and then reflects on Bifrost Art’s Bonhoeffer’s Prayer by Bifrost Arts.

In this episode of RTN Theology, Bob talks with Christian social ethicist-activist, author, and Professor at Iliff School of Theology, Dr. Miguel De La Torre. Bob and Miguel discuss liberation theology and the connection between the theology shared by slaveholders during the antebellum and Civil War periods with the theology professed by many prominent evangelical leaders like Franklin Graham and Jerry Falwell Jr. Del La Torre’s 36th book, Burying White Privilege, was based on his article  November 2017 article, “The Death of Christianity in the US,” which went viral after it appeared in Baptist News Global. De La Torre does not mince words as he takes on white Evangelicals, Catholics, and Protestants, who he believes have made a Faustian bargain, trading the gospel for political influence.   The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network.

Bob speaks with Arizona State University Associate Professor of History Catherine O’Donnell about the prejudice Catholics endured in the years leading up to the American Revolution and how they gained the respect of George Washington as he sought French assistance in the cause. Catherine also discusses her recent work Elizabeth Seton: American Saint (Cornell University Press, 2018) and how Seaton went from Catholic convert to the first American Saint. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all our other episodes, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

In this episode of RTN Theology hosts Bob Crawford and Keith Larson share personal reflections on the life of North Carolina 3rd District Congressman Walter B. Jones who passed away on February 10th, 2019. Jones served Eastern North Carolina in Congress and the State Legislature for over 34 years. He became a household name in the run up to the war in Iraq when he led a campaign to change the name of French fries to Freedom Fries. A couple of years into the war, he attended a funeral for a fallen soldier and had a spiritual conversion, becoming the first Republican in Congress to come out against the war. A fiercely independent politician and a devout Catholic, Jones' faith framed the way he viewed issues. Bob and Keith both shared a personal relationship with the Congressman. Keith interviewed Jones many times over the years as a radio host at WBT in Charlotte, North Carolina. Bob and Walter B. Jones first became friends through conversations about politics, but their friendship grew much deeper following Bob’s daughter’s illness.

Discussing the relationship between faith and the public sphere has been a part of America’s story since its beginning. Over the past decade, the presence of Christian faith in public policy and politics has been questioned and challenged in new and unique ways. How are citizens, Christian and non-Christian alike, to respond to issues of faith in politics? Join former Obama staffer Michael Wear and Josiah C. Trent Professor of Medical Humanities at Duke University Farr Curlin for a conversation moderated by musician and The Road to Now podcast host Bob Crawford to hear Christian perspectives on these enduring questions. Recorded live at the Center for Christianity and Scholarship at Duke University in collaboration with the Duke Program in American Grand Strategy. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all our other episodes, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com.

This week Bob and Pastor Chris Breslin of Oak Church in Durham, NC sit down with Duke University, Thomas A. Langford Distinguished Professor of Theology Jeremy Begbie for a discussion about how we can see God’s presence in our own creative expression. Begbie uses music to try and explain hard to grasp theological concepts like the trinity, as described in his 2018 Eerdmans release, Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts. This episode was recorded by Jeff Crawford at Arbor Ridge Studios in Chapel Hill, NC and also features the music of Alanna Boudreau and the poetry of Malcom Guite. The Road to Now is Part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on this and all our other episodes, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

In this episode of RTN Theology, Bob talks to Fuller Theological Seminary Assistant Professor Kutter Callaway about his new book, Breaking the Marriage Idol: Reconstructing Our Cultural and Spiritual Norms (InterVarsity Press, 2018) and the need to change the existing perceptions of single life and marriage in the church. They also discuss theology, the arts, and the Paul Schrader film, First Reformed. The Road to Now is Part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on The Road to Now, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

Chris Breslin recently invited Bob to be part of a live conversation with Kate Bowler to talk about the history of Christianity, their faith, and how the crisis of cancer has affected their relationships with God. Kate Bowler is Assistant Professor of the History of Christianity in North America at Duke Divinity School and author of the New York Times Best Selling Book Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved (Random House, 2018) and Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel (Oxford University Press, 2013). She also hosts the podcast Everything Happens. This episode was recorded live on February 25, 2018 at Oak Church in Durham, NC. For more on this and other episodes of The Road to Now, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

In the second installment of RTN Theology, Bob speaks with Messiah College’s John Fea about Christianity in Early America and the ways that the founders viewed the relationship between faith and politics. Fea outlines the “5 Cs” of history, the importance of approaching history with an open mind, and explains why he thinks the title of his book Was America Founded as a Christian Nation? may not be the question in approaching Christianity’s role in the establishment of the United States. Ian Skotte also contributes his thoughts on Christian relics and why he sees authenticity as less important than faith in people’s relationship to material objects. John Fea is Professor of American History and Chair of the Department of History at Messiah College and host of the podcast The Way of Improvement Leads Home. He is the author or editor of four books, including Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction (Westminster/ John Knox Press, 2011) & Why Study History?: Reflecting on the Importance of the Past (Baker Academic, 2013) and his essays and reviews have appeared in a variety of scholarly and popular venues. The Road to Now is part of the Osiris Podcast Network. For more on our podcast and this episode, visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com.

In the premier episode of our theology subseries, RTN Theology we welcome Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith to discuss the intersection of Christianity and culture in the United States. We also chat about his illuminating Op-Ed that appeared in the Thanksgiving edition of the Washington Post, which looks at ‘love of country’ from a religious perspective. Smith penned “Awaiting the King,” a new book that studies secularism and its impact on modern day religion. Ian Skotte tracked down the Swedish textile archeologist who believes she may have discovered a link between Viking and Muslim cultures from the ninth century. However, not everyone is convinced of these findings.  Finally, singer/songwriter David Childers rounds out our show. It just seemed appropriate to take time out during the Christmas holiday and spend time with our good friend. We discuss his take on gospel music and songs of the season as only David Childers can. For links related to this episode, please visit our website: www.TheRoadToNow.com

We're excited to announce that RTN Theology w/ Bob Crawford & Chris Breslin is expanding to its own podcast feed. A brand new episode, along w/ episodes 1-18 will be live here on January 23rd. Subscribe now so you don't miss it! Until then, check out The Road to Now w/ Bob Crawford & Ben Sawyer, available on all podcast players and at www.TheRoadToNow.com