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 week on the podcast we're sharing a presentation from our 2021 theology conference, Confronting Racial Injustice: Theory and Praxis for the Church. This talk was given by Raymond Chang, President of the Asian American Christian Collaborative and a Ministry Associate for Discipleship at Wheaton College.
Visit https://www.pastortheologians.com/conference-media to access this and other presentations from our 2021 conference.
The CPT staff discuss some books we're reading and why we read the books we do. This conversation features CPT President Todd Wilson, Executive Director Joel Lawrence, Managing Director Rae Paul, and Editorial Director Zach Wagner. We discuss books by Michael Sandel, Eugene McCarraher, Andrew Peterson, and Kazuo Ishiguro.
CPT fellow Gavin Ortlund returns to the podcast to discuss his new book Why God Makes Sense in a World That Doesn't: The Beauty of Christian Theism. We discuss why Gavin became interested in apologetics. What are different kinds of faith crises and unique situations that bring various people to a place where they might find a work of apologetics helpful. What is the role of beauty in apologetics? How can we use our desires and intuitions around transcendence be used in "abductive" arguments for the faith?
We also touch on recent discussions around the term "deconstruction." When can deconstruction be a good thing? When is it not? How does diversity of experience factor into these conversations?
We are joined by CPT fellow Jay Thomas for a conversation about preaching, deconstruction, and the season of Advent. Jay gives a look into his weekly rhythm of preaching preparation, as well as how he anticipates preaching through the season of Advent. We discuss contextualizing the sermon for the season in the life of the church and for individual hearers. We also discuss how theological truth conveyed to the congregation through worship and liturgy. Finally, Jay discusses how he stays pastorally sensitive to those in the audience who feel themselves drifting from their faith or are undergoing a process of "deconstruction."
We're joined in this episode by Dr. Diane Langberg, author of Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church. She discusses her work with both pastors and trauma survivors, and her realization that these worlds sometimes overlap in alarming ways. What are different types of power? How do these relate to pastors and systems of churches and ministries? How can we draw attention to the way systems of power often misdirect and corrupt us and our ministries?
We continue our conversation with Doug Sweeney about his theological education and ongoing teaching, writing, and research. How can we expand our perspective in theological education beyond distinctly Western voices? What ways can professors and students use their gifts to serve people in local church? What are the dangers in using the term "evangelical" in our current cultural moment? All this and more in this far-reaching conversation.We continue our conversation with Doug Sweeney about his theological education and ongoing teaching, writing, and research. How can we expand our perspective in theological education beyond distinctly Western voices? What ways can professors and students use their gifts to serve people in local church? What are the dangers in using the term "evangelical" in our current cultural moment? All this and more in this far-reaching conversation.
Doug Sweeney, Dean of Beeson Divinity School, joins the podcast as this week's guest. Doug is a Jonathan Edwards scholar who serves as a theological mentor and sits on the board of the CPT. He discusses some of his story and how he came to worship in the Lutheran tradition and how he has navigated ongoing theological tensions as an evangelical in historic Protestant denominations.
In part 2 of our conversation with Erin Heim (Lecturer in Biblical Studies, Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University), we conclude our conversation about adoption in the Apostle Paul. We then pivot to discussing Dr. Heim's paper on the connections between the #metoo Movement and the death and resurrection of Christ. How did sexual humiliation play a part in Christ's torture and crucifixion? What are the implications of this for the female human experience? How does the New Testament reorient our conversations on sexual violence?
We are joined on this episode by Dr. Erin Heim, a Tutor in Biblical Studies at Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford. We discuss her life of faith, training in music, and decision to pursue biblical scholarship. We also discuss Erin's research on metaphors of adoption in the letters of the Apostle Paul. Her research is informed by her own experience as an adoptee, and she argues that many of the ways contemporary Christians talk about adoption in Paul can be painful for adoptees and ironically not very closely related to what Paul actually meant in context.
This week we’re sharing a conversation with the CPT staff on why we decided to host a conference on racial injustice this October. Hear Todd Wilson, Joel Lawrence, and Zach Wagner discuss their hope for the gathering in Chicago on October 18–20, 2021.
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
