Strange New World

“Wheatfields with Crows” is Vincent's last major painting, and as it turns out, it's a brilliant portrait of the tensions at the heart of Easter morning: sadness and loneliness, restoration and grace. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

The story of Van Gogh's beloved "Starry Night," and how it can help us see the story of Palm Sunday - and the Bible generally - with new eyes. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

In this episode, we dive into one of Van Gogh's most famous paintings, a still life of an ordinary, worn-out pair of shoes. And the link between that painting and Mary's anointing of Jesus' feet gets to the heart of what life is all about: in a word, tenderness. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

In this episode, we turn to Vincent's version of “The Sower” he painted in November of 1888, a springboard for exploring two of Jesus' most famous (and misunderstood) teachings: “The Parable of the Sower,” and “The Prodigal Son.”

In this episode, we explore Vincent's “Almond Blossom” painting, setting his vision of an almond tree alongside Jesus' parable of a fig tree. Two trees, two parables, each shedding light on the other… Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

In this episode, we dive into Vincent's famous "Sunflowers" paintings, and discover connections to Icelandic fisherman, a woman at a cradle, and Jesus' image of himself as a mother hen. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

The son of a Christian pastor, Van Gogh trained for ministry before becoming a painter - and both his letters and his canvases are full of theological ideas. Can Van Gogh help us understand the Bible? Can the Bible help us understand Van Gogh's work? The answer to both questions, as it turns out, is a resounding Yes.

In this concluding episode of the four-part series, we turn to the most well-known stories of the season, from Mary to the Magi to the shepherds and the angels, and find them shimmering with meanings that are often overlooked or misunderstood. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org. Merry Christmas!

In this episode, we arrive at the heart of the matter. Featuring Mary, Hannah, Jael, Judith, Elizabeth - and John the Baptizer. We promise: you'll never think about “the wheat and the chaff” the same way again! Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

In this episode, we dive into Luke's story of John the Baptizer, and explore how it's both a Christmas story and a war story - all for the sake of God's peace.

It's Part One of our four-part series, “Understanding Christmas” — a fresh look at the deeper meanings of one of the world's biggest holidays, and what it says about Jesus, hope, and the ancient library we call “the Bible.”

Culminating this six-part series, we explore the true meaning of the cross in Mark's Gospel, and what Jesus really had in mind by "a ransom for many." Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

It's one of the most controversial, radioactive, personal, pressing topics around: money and wealth, how much we should have and how much we should give away. Turns out Jesus had a lot to say about it, and in this episode, we take a deep dive. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

In this episode, we tackle the specific question of Jesus' teaching about divorce (it's not what you think!), and the general question of how Jesus reads Scripture. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

"Blessed are the peacemakers," Jesus said - and as it turns out, peacemaking is a key to understanding what it means to follow him. Along the way, we explore a famous story about A. J. Muste, the Christian peacemaker sometimes called, "The American Gandhi."

What's the essence of Jesus' mission? What's the "signature move," the choreography at the heart of his work? In this episode, we explore these questions - and along the way, discover his vision for what "true greatness" is all about.

It's part one of our six-part series, "Understanding Jesus," a fresh look at the most provocative, influential, and misunderstood figure in human history. In this episode, we introduce the series, and then dive in to his famous, deceptively simple question, "Who do you say that I am?"

Part Two of our two-part series, “The Bible and Climate Change” - exploring what Jesus has to do with climate change, zeroing in on his last public teaching, the final words he wants ringing in our ears. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

Rethinking the Bible from the ground up, in the face of the greatest global challenge in human history. In this episode, we start with Genesis, and uncover how "climate change" - though it's never mentioned in the Bible - is on virtually every page. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

In the concluding episode of our seven-part series, “Understanding Easter,” we rethink the holiday from the ground up, with help from Mary Magdalene and one of the most harrowing, fascinating stories in scripture: the story of Rizpah. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

This episode tackles the challenge of Palm Sunday, a story brimming with an ancient idea about how scripture works, and what it's for. Why do the crowds welcome Jesus so warmly - only to turn on him in just a few days? And what's with all the palm branches, anyway? Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

How should we think about the mystery of resurrection? Is it actual resuscitation? Or a symbolic story? Or somehow both? With the Gospel of John and the prophet Jeremiah as our guides, we unpack this ancient mystery - with some surprising results. Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

The Easter story is full of big, bold reversals - but there's one in particular that's hidden under the skin of the story, and it just might be the most subversive of them all. Exploring it takes us to Japan, seventeenth-century England, 1980's New York City, and Nazi Germany - all to understand how the cross both epitomizes and proclaims The Great Reversal. And along the way, we'll visit one of the most famous - and misunderstood - verses in the New Testament (John 3:16), and one of the strangest stories in the Bible's library (Numbers 21).

Why was Jesus killed? Why did the Roman empire, arguably the most powerful force in the world, execute an unarmed, peasant rabbi from Nazareth? And what did it have to do with one of the most dramatic episodes in Jesus' life: when he fiercely drove the money changers from the Jerusalem Temple? Turns out this mystery goes all the way back to the story of Cain and Abel... Contact SNW at community@saltproject.org.

An overview of ten historic, evocative ways of looking at the Christian cross - including a warning about how they can be misunderstood, and a case for how they add up to more than the sum of their parts. BONUS: A cameo from the Buddha, and a surprising idea from John Calvin (for all you Calvin nerds, it's in the Institutes, 2.16.2). Drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

At the heart of Christianity is the mystery of Easter - and to understand it, it's best to start at the beginning: the Book of Genesis and the original covenant between God and humanity, and the oldest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark. In this episode, we do a deep dive into the story of Noah's Ark and the story of Jesus' baptism, uncovering hidden connections that help lay groundwork for understanding the mystery of Easter.

A fresh, surprising look at the most familiar Christmas stories (Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and the angels, and the visiting Magi), uncovering how Christmas is an epic, multigenerational love story - and how sometimes interpreting the Bible means citing "scripture against scripture." This is the concluding episode of our four-part series, "Understanding Christmas."

How the Gospel of Luke's story of Mary's song (the "Magnificat") portrays Mary as brilliant, bold, and deeply educated in the Jewish tradition. Along the way, we explore how the essence of Christmas is joy, and how the Bible is not just something to "think about," but also to "think through." The quote from Henri Nouwen is from The Heart of Henri Nouwen. Feel free to drop us a line at community@saltproject.org.

What's Christmas really all about? Last week, we saw how Christmas begins with hope against hope - but its end, the goal to which it points, is peace. The Gospel of Mark's opening lines function as Mark's "Christmas story," a story not of Jesus' birth, but rather his adoption, at his baptism. Mark casts this good news as a peaceful alternative to the "gospel" of military triumph, or the birth of Caesar Augustus - and so frames Jesus' ministry as a matter of war and peace. The famous "Christmas Truce" during World War I serves as an icon for this view of Christmas as armistice. And along the way, we see how the Bible works: not as a "book," but as a library, as Mark artfully echoes ancient patterns from Genesis, Exodus, and Ezekiel. Finally, we also reveal the story behind the name for this podcast, “Strange New World,” from a famous essay written about a hundred years ago by Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, which can be read here.If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at matt@saltproject.org.

Former Harvard Divinity School professor Matthew Myer Boulton introduces the "Strange New World" podcast, and explores how the Gospel of Mark helps us understand the essence of the Advent and Christmas season. Includes an argument about how and why the Bible is both the most influential and the most misunderstood book in history. A close reading of Mark 13 helps show how the Advent season, and the Christmas season generally, begin in the shadows of disaster and "apocalypse" (from an ancient Greek word for "unveiling" or "revealing"). Christmas begins, it turns out, not with tinsel and lights and presents and feasting, but in the shadows of struggle and hope - even when all hope seems lost.If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact us at matt@saltproject.org.“Strange New World” is a production of SALT Project.