The Peoples Theology

What Jesus do we worship? And how does our picture of Jesus shape the faith we live? In this episode, we continue our conversation with Dr. Reggie Williams, but now exploring "white Jesus" and the ways in which we have inherited a broken and diseased theology that rewrites and controls the scripts we live into.

If you're new to the podcast, or forgot what we do, in each episode we explore culture and theology like they matter, because they do. Maybe that sound strange, but often it the way we learn and talk about our faith can feel abstract, like ideas that are “good to know” but hard to apply. Which leaves a lot of us feeling like our faith is empty when we need it the most. In this episode we begin a conversation with Dr. Reggie Williams, social ethicist and author of Bonhoeffer's Black Jesus. I first had an opportunity to engage with Dr. Williams in a doctoral seminar and have been a fan ever since. Through his research and writing on Bonhoeffer's engagement with the black church, his theological journey, and his activism in Nazi Germany Williams provides us with an imagination to make our own faith matter.

Brand new episodes of The Peoples Theology are coming soon!

The People's Theology is a show exploring theology and culture. In each episode, we explore a question, theme, or topic in dialogue with our faith. Today that question is, “how do we count?” Maybe that sounds weird, but we all have a way of “counting” especially when it comes to success. We believe, as Chris Hughes noted, that the hustle is holy and that hard work should lead to more and higher. That's the underwriting narrative of the American story; Zuckerberg and Facebook, Apple and even Enron. And like with those examples, sometimes we love it the result and sometimes we hate it but for some reason, we rarely ask was the “direction right?” Is the Hustle virtuous? Is 10 always greater than 1?  Why do we count that way? And more importantly, is it good?

If you've been listening to the people's theology recently, you are familiar (probably exhaustingly so) with the themes and questions we're wrestling with: Mainly, why is the world the way that it is and, what do we do about it? In the last few episodes we've interviewed and explored the lives of different people who have been startled, grieved, frustrated by these questions and thus committed to answering them. These folks come from different places and experiences but their stories share something. Each person went through a similar kind of journey to get to where they are. It starts with a set of questions, experiences, wounds, needs which leads to an attempt to answer those questions. So we try and address those needs but what we learn is that the situation is more complicated than our question assumed and so we need to evaluate, rebuild, and do a little renovation so that we can truly get at the issues. In this episode of The Peoples Theology we are talking to someone who has both done that work and will force us to do our own work with their story. This person is, Leonce Crump former New Orleans Saint, founding pastor of Renovation Atlanta, and author of the book Renovate.

Our history is full of saints and radicals who have asked the question, “is this how it has to be” and then revealed to us that it doesn't. If the only image of the “Church” we have is the modern American white evangelical community than, well, we should all go home and give up. I'm not interested in that. But that isn't the only image nor is it even the primary image of the church. Our history is full of communities of dissent that have revealed, if even for just a moment, the Kingdom of Jesus because they had no other option.

What do we do about our world? How do we change it for the better? In our final episode of 2018, we look at one of our primary tools of defiance and protest. Something we desperately need, especially at this time of year.

In this season of The Peoples Theology we've been asking two questions: why is the world the way that it is? And what can we do about it? But the truth is, we haven't really been asking the first question instead we've asked “why is the West the way that it is?” We have a habit of prioritizing and privileging our experience but it comes at the cost of missing and ignoring the stories and experiences of the global Church. And we don't want to miss that because if we start paying attention we might just being to see what God is doing in this world.

In this episode of The Peoples Theology we interview Dan Stanford author of the book, Losing the Cape, and ask what kind of person does it take to impact the world? Do we need to be powerful, wealthy, charismatic? Do we need to fit a certain mold or be a certain type of person? Because if you look around at the leaders and celebrities of our culture there is really only one model. Or is there another option? In our interview with Dan we talk about the difference between the kind of people our world celebrates and the kind of people God calls and uses. Everyman – use code "tptpodcast" at checkout for 15% off Creek Tea – use code "tptpodcast" at check out for 25% off

On this episode of The Peoples Theology, we continue exploring the role of the church in engaging our cultural moment. In this episode, we have a conversation with Charles Kiser about living out the good and beautiful life of Jesus as the Church. https://missiodeislc.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c778144d4c6450ceacd2d1f21&id=274ee15aa7&e=a2ad1569f2 (Everyman) – use code "tptpodcast" at checkout for 15% off https://missiodeislc.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c778144d4c6450ceacd2d1f21&id=de26535077&e=a2ad1569f2 (Creek Tea) – use code "tptpodcast" at check out for 25% off

The Peoples Theology is back after our long summer break. In the first part of season two we looked at the question, why is the world the way that it is? In the second part of our season we want to focus on the question, what do we do about it? How do we engage our world? How do we make it better? To help us answer that question we interviewed author, professor, and pastor David Fitch. Fitch is interested in how the church, which is so often compromised by culture, can become a community that serves and loves the world well. How we can be the people Jesus intended us to be. Episode 4 of The Peoples Theology is brought to you by Everman. Use the below link for a 15% discount on all purchases. https://everyman.grsm.io/tptpodcast (https://everyman.grsm.io/tptpodcast)

The People's Theology is returning.

David Foster Wallace, in his now very famous commencement speech, tells a story about two fish and in it, he asks a question, "what is water?" Meaning, what are the pieces of our world we don't recognize but are fundamental to its existence. In this episode we try and answer that question, what is water. *podcast includes two expletives. 

In this episode, we continue exploring the feelings of our current cultural moment but to best understand our feelings we need to understand how we got here. We need a history of the now.

How do we explain and make sense of our world today? Author Pankaj Mishra says we live in, an "age of rage" but the real question is why.

In our final episode of 2017, we have a conversation about sexual assault and the role of friends, family, and the church with Pastor Heather Thomas. Historically, the Church hasn't been a place that cultivated conversations about sexual assault and abuse. In fact, the institution of the church has often been complicit. The question on the table then, is what can we do differently? How do we become a people that advocates for victims, creates safe places, and always offers mercy? 

How do we make sense of the violence in the Old Testament and the person of Jesus in the New? In part 2 of our conversation about holy war we look at the "drastic marching" orders Israel recievs.

How do we reconcile the goodness of Jesus and the violence of the Old Testament that is seemingly attributed to God? In this episode we begin a 2 part series exploring Holy War with pastor and author Josh Butler

It's been said that AI is the single greatest threat to theology since Darwin. Is that true? Does it really threaten so much of what we believe and hold dear? How should we think about AI?

Right now in SLC, UT state officials are conducting a large scale operation to close and open new homeless shelters and relocate the homeless population to new areas around the state. Regardless of what you think about the state's plan and its success and failures, it reminds us of the difficult situation our homeless neighbors live in every day. In Episode 10 of The Peoples Theology we interview Fred Liggin president of 3e Restoration a nonprofit that works to equip, empower, and encourage churches to equip, empower, and encourage homeless and displaced neighbors. 

We live in tension. We wake up and breathe the air tension every day and the question most of us will ask is, “what do we do in the tension?” Can we fix it? Make it better? Resolve it? These are questions we've been asking for all of human history. Questions that have driven our most significant culture projects. Our institutions, governments, and inventions begins with the recognition that, “all is not right” in the world but while at the same time innately believing that it can be better. But what happens when we overestimate our ability to fix the tension?

We live in strange days. It's not hard to see because the reality can be felt in nearly every domain of life and culture, but it can be hard to name why things seem so strange. For many of us we feel it in our political climate, for others we see it in our churches and religious environments, and for others the feeling pervades our neighborhoods and workplaces. Regardless of where it comes from, we are all trying to figure out why the world is as it is and more importantly, what we should do about it. 

Today in the podcast we explore three questions that, whether we realize it or not, tend to shape the way we see and understand the world and our role within it. At first glance, you might be thinking these three questions are politically motivated but they aren't. These questions are bigger than that. Yes, they influence our politics but they also influence the way we think things get done in this world. 

Most of us, if we're honest, have a weird relationship with the bible. The Chief question underneath all of it, is can it be trusted? Does it have some kind of authority and if so,  where does it come from? What does it mean? What do I do with it? 

The last two episodes have revolves around a conversation about hell with author and pastor Josh Butler. We were hoping to make it to three episodes with him but realized, we just don't have enough content. So, instead of trying to stretch it we are releasing it as a bonus content. A short 10 minute conclusion to our conversation with Josh. 

How do we deal with the tension between the goodness of God and the presence of hell in the Biblical narrative? For so many of us, this is one of our biggest obstacles to trusting the God of the Bible. And honestly, it makes sense but maybe, we've been missing something really important about God and the story of hell. 

When we talk about God there are certain questions that, for many of us, come to mind. One of the most important questions is, is God good? It's an important question, and it exist and presses in on us for a lot of really good reasons. History bares witness to horrendous events attributed to God and that does't even include the difficult events we have to wrestle through in the Bible. Above all of this, the issue that calls God's goodness into question the quickest, is often, the question of hell. How can a good God send billions of people to a place of torment and pain forever?

Ability is the power to make something of the world, the power to steward God's gifts, and seek the flourishing of the world around you. Ability may be power to image God and fulfill the culture mandate, but actually fulfilling the culture mandate is a responsibility. But, what happens when ability and responsibility are separated, one overcoming the other?

On this episode of The Peoples Theology, we continue exploring Genesis' creation narratives with Dr. Tim Mackie. In order to understand Genesis, we need to understand it's context. Which means unpacking the beliefs and worldview of the cultures surrounding Israel. When we do this, we find that the Genesis has something radical to say in light of it's context. But, this message isn't for only for ancient people, it transcends culture and speaks to us today.

Exploring the Bibles creation narratives with Dr. Tim Mackie. How should we read this narratives? Are they in conflict with modern science? And, is that the right question to ask?