This week we are joined by CTP Fellow Ben Burkholder. Ben shares how he developed an interest in learning how people grow as disciples. Reflecting on his time as a student, Ben also shares insights about the relationship between psychology and spiritual formation. This and more on today’s podcast!
Join us this week as we get to know Eric Rivera. Eric will be a plenary speaker at the 2025 Pastor Theologians Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. On this episode, Eric talks about how his story shaped his interests and calling in church history and pastoral ministry. Drawing from his context as a pastor at a multi-ethnic church in the greater Chicago area, he also shares what he has learned it means to be a Good Shepherd in the 21st Century.
Samuel Parkison joins the podcast today to talk about his recent book, To Gaze upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice (InterVarsity Press 2024.) He also shares with us his story and calling to academic ministry at the Abu Dhabi Extension Site at Gulf Theological Seminary in the United Arab Emirates.
What is the beatific vision? What does the beatific vision have to do with this moment in history for the church? This and more on today's podcast!
For our April episode on books, we, the CPT staff, have been reading:
CR Wiley, In the House of Tom Bombadil (2021)
Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way (2014)
Percival Everett, James (2024)
Harold Netland, Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God (2022)
Nadya Williams joins the podcast to talk about her recent book, Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic: Ancient Christianity and the Recovery of Human Dignity (IVP Academic, 2024.) How do our attitudes towards motherhood reflect either a commodification of human life or, by contrast, a rich affirmation of the imago dei? This and more on today’s podcast!
This episode features a presentation from our 2018 conference on spiritual formation, given by Dr. Vincent Bacote of Wheaton College. What can the broader church learn from the experiences and theological emphases of the African American Church? How has the Black experience in America shaped the approach to spiritual formation in these contexts? How can White Christians listen and learn from the wisdom of these communities' shared experience?
We are joined on this episode by CPT fellow Marcus Johnson, who serves as a theology professor at the Moody Bible Institute as well as an associate rector at St. Mark's Church in Geneva, IL. Marcus explores his story of faith and theological education, including falling in love with theology and navigating God's calling on his life, particularly his journey to see the life of the church as central to the discipline.
In Mark 10 Jesus makes a distinction between the way the Gentiles exercise authority and the way the greatest among Jesus' disciples must become servants. How does this passage relate to a Christian concept of authority? CPT fellows Joel Lawrence and Mickey Klink explore this and related questions in light of the current crisis of authority in the evangelical church.
Is there such a thing as "Patriarchal Feminism"? This apparent contradiction in terms is at the center of a paper written by CPT fellow and co-founder Gerald Hiestand. Gerald joins our podcast along with CPT fellow Amy Peeler to discuss these ideas. How does Christianity enter into and redeem the "toxic masculinity" that has characterized so many human societies throughout history? How does this relate to contemporary debates between complementarians and egalitarians and, specifically, the question of women's ordination?
We continue our conversation with CPT fellow Ben White about his PhD research. Ben reflects on how growing up in Canada shapes theological vocation. We also discuss the unique opportunities of teaching at a small evangelical college in New York City. Finally, Ben comments on how a Pauline view of power transforms our conception of power in light of the current crisis of power and abuses of it in evangelicalism.
On today's episode we are joined by CPT fellow Ben White. We discuss Ben's story of education and faith, and his calling to become a pastor theologian.
This week on the podcast, CPT Executive Director Joel Lawrence is joined by Winn Collier, Director of The Eugene Peterson Center for Christian Imagination & Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Christian Imagination at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, and author of A Burning in My Bones, the official biography of Eugene Peterson. In part 1, we talk about Winn’s journey in faith, his pastoral ministry, and how he got connected to Eugene Peterson.
On this episode of the podcast, we are joined by CPT fellow Nathan Chambers, pastor of Wiser Lake Chapel in Lynden, WA. Nathan earned his MCS in Old Testament at Regent College and his PhD in Biblical Studies from Durham University. In the first part of our conversation, Nathan shares about archetypes of evangelicalism, growing up in the faith, and his educational path through philosophy and Old Testament studies.
How has theological education served to denigrate the African American preaching tradition? What is the distinction between the style and theory of preaching? How does an emphasis on disenfranchisement, hope, and the practical immediacy of the text make Black preaching unique? We continue our conversation with CPT Fellow Eric Redmond as he discusses the history of expository preaching in the African American Church church.
CPT Fellow Eric Redmond rejoins the podcast to discuss the recent guilty verdict rendered against Derek Chauvin in the George Flloyd murder trial. We discuss the response of conservative evangelicals, as well as the different historical perspectives of white and black Christians on police violence. What are the biblical and theological dynamics at play in these discussions? How do we as Christians cultivate our integrity in the way we engage social issues, avoiding selectivity and fearful self-protection.
ARTICLE: Life Is Hard, Be Humble: Thomas Aquinas on Humility
NATHAN BARCZI
PODCAST: Becoming a Pastor Theologian
ERIC RIVERA
ARTICLE: Christians and the Virtues
BENJAMIN BURKHOLDER
NEWS: Announcing Two New Learning Cohorts
CPT NEWS UPDATE
