Currents in Religion

Dr. Elise Edwards is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Baylor University. You can order the book by clicking here.

Other Episodes You Might Like

• Feminist theology and the arts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/natalie-carnes-on-feminist-theology-and-the-arts/id1648052085?i=1000583436666
• On inclusion and justice with Erin Raffety: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/should-we-abandon-inclusion-erin-raffety-on-disability/id1648052085?i=1000594272809

In this episode, Zen speaks with Menachem Fisch and Debra Band about their illuminated philosophical commentary, Qoholet: Searching for a Life Worth Living. You can learn more about the book by clicking here.

Other Currents in Religion Episodes You Might Like:

• Natalie Carnes feminist theology and the arts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/natalie-carnes-on-feminist-theology-and-the-arts/id1648052085?i=1000583436666
• Micheal O'Siadhail on faith, poetry, and daring to love: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/micheal-osiadhail-on-faith-poetry-and-daring-to-love/id1648052085?i=1000590394430
• Thomas Gardner on lyric theology: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lyric-theology-thomas-gardner-on-marilynne-robinson/id1648052085?i=1000602629863

Rebecca Poe Hays is working on several projects that bring the Psalms into conversation with recent research on trauma and resilience. She joins us today to talk about her research, both how it helps us better understand the psalms historically and how it makes them relevant in the life of faith today.

Rebecca Poe Hays is Assistant Professor of Christian Scriptures at George W. Truett Seminary at Baylor University.

Other CIR episodes on the psalms

• Bill Bellinger on Psalms as a Grammar of Faith: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-grammar-lesson-in-prayer-bill-bellinger-on-the-psalms/id1648052085?i=1000587487293
• Trevor Laurence on cursing psalms and Christian ethics: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cursing-christ-and-christian-prayer/id1648052085?i=1000583436719
• Deirdre Fulton on translating the NRSVue: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/updating-the-nrsv-a-chat-with-deirdre-fulton/id1648052085?i=1000623434086

• Is Religion Good for You? https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/512216/religion-spirituality-tools-better-wellbeing.aspx
• Asian American Nones & Connection to Religion: https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2023/10/11/religion-among-asian-americans/
• Generational & Geographical Trends in Faith: https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/two-global-religious-divides-geographic-and-generational
• Gen Z and the Sacred: https://www.springtideresearch.org/post/news/sacred-experience-benefits-gen-z-spirituality-wellbeing

The Fire and the Cloud: https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481320504/the-fire-and-the-cloud/

In this episode, Zen speaks with Philip Jenkins about his new book A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World, recently published by Baylor University Press.

Dr. Philip Jenkins is Distinguished Professor of History & Director of the Program on Historical Studies of Religion at Baylor University.

Related Episodes:

• Jessica Wai-Fong Wong on icon theology and antiracism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icons-economies-and-racism-a-conversation-with/id1648052085?i=1000584235192

• Natalie Carnes on the arts, theology, and feminism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/natalie-carnes-on-feminist-theology-and-the-arts/id1648052085?i=1000583436666

• Micheal O'Siadhail on poetry and scripture: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/micheal-osiadhail-on-faith-poetry-and-daring-to-love/id1648052085?i=1000590394430

• Thomas Gardner on lyric theology: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/lyric-theology-thomas-gardner-on-marilynne-robinson/id1648052085?i=1000602629863

In this episode, Zen speaks with Laine Scales and João Chaves about the Baptist Scholars International Roundtable and their new book Baptists and the Kingdom of God (Baylor University Press, 2023).

BSIR Call for Papers

https://religion.artsandsciences.baylor.edu/sites/g/files/ecbvkj1166/files/2023-10/BSIR_Call%20for%20Proposals%202024%20%282%29.pdf

Giveaway

Enter to win a free copy of A Storm of Images by Philip Jenkins: https://bit.ly/40mnfbj

Related Episodes:

Hearing History: Mandy McMichael on Interviewing Baptist Women in Ministry: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hearing-history-mandy-mcmichael-on-interviewing-baptist/id1648052085?i=1000619951034

Baptists in 2022 with Elizabeth Flowers and Doug Weaver: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/baptists-in-2022-with-elizabeth-flowers-and-doug-weaver/id1648052085?i=1000591685324

The episode also includes a plug for Autism and Worship: A Liturgical Theology by Armand Léon van Ommen. This new book is out now from Baylor University Press.

Related Episodes:

• Interdisciplining Theology: How the Psychological Sciences Help Theology
• Should We Abandon Inclusion? Erin Raffety on Disability and the Church
• An Era of Soft Eugenics? Devan Stahl on Disability's Challenge to Theology

The episode also includes a promo for "The End of Civility" by Ryan Andrew Newson, a new book from Baylor University Press. Learn more here.

In this episode, Zen speaks with Amy Carr and Christine Helmer about their brand new Baylor University Press book Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice.

Amy Carr is Professor of Religious Studies at Western Illinois University.

Christine Helmer is Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Humanities at Northwestern University.

Want to get a free copy of the book?

Enter our giveaway by visiting us on X/Twitter and following the directions on our pinned post (https://twitter.com/cirbaylor). The winner will be announced October 27th!

Here's some of the book's blurb:

Christians in the United States and around the world are politically polarized today, unable to speak to one another across deep divisions regarding urgent social issues. Ordinary Faith in Polarized Times: Justification and the Pursuit of Justice addresses this dire reality by offering a theological framework for Christian justice-seeking. Amy Carr and Christine Helmer draw on Paul’s theology to center the idea of justification by faith in Christ as the primary ground of Christian belonging and community.

This approach yields a theology of ordinary faith that resists the temptation to equate Christian identity with the performance of a heroic "here I stand" posture against moral and political positions felt to be inimical to a properly Christian life...

Carr and Helmer articulate ways that justification by faith grounds Christian practices of affective listening and storytelling, even on the most contentious ethical questions today, with the hope that mutual conversation in and through the Beloved Community can get Christians who disagree oriented towards each other again for the good of the world.

  Dr. Julian Chike earned his PhD from Notre Dame. In the fall of 2022, Julian joined the Baylor University Religion Department as an assistant professor.

You might also enjoy:

• Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar on Esther and Africana biblical criticism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/africana-biblical-criticism-and-the-book-of/id1648052085?i=1000600183961
• Cynthia Shafer-Elliott on archaeology and the Old Testament: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/seeing-and-touching-history-cynthia-shafer-elliott-on/id1648052085?i=1000585869717
• Trevor Laurence on the imprecatory psalms and Christian ethics: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cursing-christ-and-christian-prayer/id1648052085?i=1000583436719

The Rev. Dr. Trevor Hart is Rector of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church in St Andrews and Honorary Professor of Divinity in the University of St Andrews. You can learn more about Trevor at trevorhart.com.

Other Currents in Religion Episodes you might like:

• Mike Bird on Jesus Among the Gods: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/mike-bird-on-jesus-among-the-gods/id1648052085?i=1000588501532
• Malcolm Foley on The Cross and the Lynching Tree: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-cross-and-the-lynching-tree-malcolm-foley-on/id1648052085?i=1000607851160
• Trevor Laurence on Christ, prayer, and ethics: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cursing-christ-and-christian-prayer/id1648052085?i=1000583436719

I am very glad to have the Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley joining us to discuss James Cone’s book. Malcolm is a historian of American religion, and has focused his studies on lynching and Protestantism in America. We’re going to discuss James Cone’s book, but we’re also going to get to hear from Malcolm about his own work, which he does in both academic and ecclesial contexts.

The Rev. Dr. Malcolm Foley serves as the Special Advisor to the President of Baylor University for Equity and Campus Engagement as well as the director of the Black Church Studies Program at Truett Theological Seminary. He is also a pastor at Mosaic Waco, an intentionally multi-cultural, non-denominational church in Waco, TX.

Learn more from Malcolm:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MalcolmBFoley

Anxious Bench: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/malcolm-foley/

Theology in Pieces: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/theology-in-pieces/id1664552032

Related Episodes of Currents in Religion:

• Jessica Wai-Fong Wong & Jonathan Tran on theological approaches to antiracism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/icons-economies-and-racism-a-conversation-with/id1648052085?i=1000584235192
• Marcus Jerkins on Black lives and salvation in Luke-Acts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/black-lives-matter-to-jesus-marcus-jerkins-on-salvation/id1648052085?i=1000599025436
• Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar on reading Esther and Africana biblical criticism: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/africana-biblical-criticism-and-the-book-of/id1648052085?i=1000600183961

• João Chaves on immigration and American Christianity: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-study-in-how-migration-shapes-religion/id1648052085?i=1000583436591

Dave joined us on the podcast before to discuss academic conferences from a publisher's perspective. He offered some ideas about how scholars can connect with publishers at conferences like AAR/SBL. You can listen to that episode here.

In this episode, Dr. Bruce Longenecker joins to discuss Greco-Roman associations and how studying them helps us to read the New Testament. Bruce recently published an edited volume about Greco-Roman associations with Baylor Press. He’s currently teaching both a graduate and an undergraduate seminar on the topic. The study of associations is proving, more and more, to bear fruit for those interested in Christian origins and the interpretation of the New Testament.

Baylor University Press Books on Associations:

• Associations in the Greco-Roman World: A Sourcebook edited by Richard S. Ascough, Philip A. Harland and John S. Kloppenborg (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781602583740/associations-in-the-greco-roman-world)
• Greco-Roman Associations, Deities, and Early Christianity edited by Bruce Longenecker (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481315166/greco-roman-associations-deities-and-early-christianity/)
• Christ Groups and Associations: Foundational Essays edited by Richard S. Ascough (https://www.baylorpress.com/9781481318211/christ-groups-and-associations)

Websites for Associations

• http://philipharland.com/greco-roman-associations/
• https://ancientassociations.ku.dk/CAPI/
• https://gdrg.ugent.be/

The lecture was delivered by Dr Brett Scharffs. Dr. Scharffs is the Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law and the director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University. Dr. Scharffs is a highly regarded scholar, having served as chair for various sections of the Association of American Law Schools, holding editorial positions at esteemed journals, and writing field-making books.

In the lecture you’ll hear, Dr. Scharffs discusses human dignity, a topic perennially important, but of special interest this year because we will celebrate the 75th anniversary of the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was proclaimed on December 10, 1948. The first article of the declaration states, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

You can watch the video of the lecture here.

How might interreligious dialogue help the world address some of its most vexing issues? One possible way is by making progress on questions surrounding natural law. In today’s episode, I’m joined by Dr. Seyed Amir Hossein Asghari, who is the Postdoctoral Research Associate in Natural Law in the Religion Department here at Baylor University. We’re going to talk about natural law, its history, and some interesting conversations happening about it. We also talk a little about a really exciting new project that’s just getting underway at Baylor, which Amir is a part of.

In this episode, I speak with Thomas Gardner about Lyric Theology, his recent book that is out now with Baylor University Press.

In the book, Thomas looks at four different artists—Czeslaw Milosz, Terence Malick, Marilynne Robinson, and Annie Dillard—as a way of exploring the doctrine of creation. Thomas practices patient, careful engagements with these artists, asking all along the way how their “lyric thinking” might enrich theological reflection. It’s a fascinating book and I think you’ll really enjoy our conversation.

Thomas Gardner is Alumni Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English at Virginia Tech. He’s authored numerous books and collections of poetry, including another book with Baylor Press that puts the Gospel of John into conversation with poets.

You Might Also Like These Episodes

Micheal O'Siadhail on his collection of poetry, Testament.

Natalie Carnes on feminist theology and the arts.

Dr. Paul Martens is associate professor of ethics in the department of religion at Baylor University and director of interdisciplinary studies in the College of Arts and Sciences.

In this episode, Zen speaks with Dr. Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar about her book Trafficking Hadassah (Taylor & Francis Group, 2021). This book explores the Book of Esther by employing Africana biblical criticism. We discuss her method and some of the ways it leads her to read Esther differently. 

Dr. Ericka Shawndricka Dunbar is Assistant Professor in the Religion Department at Baylor University. Her area of research focuses broadly on gender, ethnicity, violence, intersectional oppression, sexual(ized) abuse, colonialism, trauma, and diasporic studies. More specifically, she engages in intersectional analyses of sexualized, gender-based, and colonial oppression in the Hebrew Bible.

In this episode, Zen chats with Rev. Dr. Marcus Jerkins about his book, Black Lives Matter to Jesus: The Salvation of Black Life and All Life in Luke and Acts. The book explores the significance of Black characters in the theological story of salvation told throughout Luke and Acts. Here's the books blurb:

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The third evangelist makes Black-skinned people central to his claim in Luke and Acts that the gospel of Jesus is restoring the children of God. Within Luke's literary environment, the identity of the children of God was linked to national/ethnic identity. Many Jewish texts argued for the Jews' position as God's children because they are bound to God by covenant; they are God's firstborn. But there is also a more general sense within this tradition that all human beings are made in the image of God and are, thus, the children of God through Adam. In the Gospel, Luke asserts that all nations and all ethnicities, including Israel, have questionable filial status vis-à-vis God. Both Israel and the nations are restored in status as God's children through Jesus, the Son of God.

In Acts, Luke explores the initial return of Israel and all ethnicities to God through the witness of the church empowered by the Spirit. To epitomize the return of all nations to God, Luke narrates the salvation of Black-skinned Africans. These Black lives are emphasized to signify that their representation in the church demonstrates the universal extent to which the salvation of Jesus Christ will reach. Their presence in the church is also meant to dignify their Black skin against an aesthetic bias that was prevalent in Greco-Roman views at that moment. This subversion of ethnographic bias helped Luke's audience sustain a gospel-centered critique against the devaluation of Black life.

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Marcus Jerkins earned his PhD in Religion from Baylor University. He also holds a BA from Emory as well as a MDiv and ThM from Candler. He serves as pastor to Resurrection Baptist Church in Silver Spring, MD and adjuncts at Northern Seminary. He and Courtney, his wife of 14 years, have three beautiful children. 

Here's the full quote and video from Megyn Kelly about Jesus being white. "Just because it makes you feel uncomfortable doesn't mean it has to change...Jesus was a white man, too. It's like we have, he's a historical figure that's a verifiable fact, as is Santa, I just want kids to know that. How do you revise it in the middle of the legacy in the story and change Santa from white to black?"

In this episode, we chat with Dustin Benac about his new book Adaptive Church: Collaboration and Community in a Changing World (Baylor University Press 2022). The book studies the way Christian communities in the Pacific Northwest are adapting in ways that may prove beneficial to the broader Christian community. How do churches belong in their particular communities? What is the broader ecology in which churches exist and flourish? 

Dr. Dustin Benac is a Louisville Institute Postdoctoral Fellow, Visiting Assistant Professor of Practical Theology at Truett Seminary here at Baylor, and Director & Co-founder, Program for the Future Church.

“What is the revelatory potential of the corpse?” That is the question that Cody Sanders and Mikeal Parsons seek to answer in their new book, Corpse Care: Ethics for Tending the Dead.

Here's the book's blurb: "Corpse Care relates the history of death care in the U.S. to craft robust, constructive, practical ethics for tending the dead. It specifically relates corpse care to economic, environmental, and pastoral concerns. Death and the treatment of the dead body loom large in our collective, cultural consciousness. The authors explore the materiality and meaning of the dead body and the living's relationship to it. All the biggest questions facing the planetary human community relate in one way or another to the corpse. Surprisingly, Christian communities are largely missing in the discussion of the dead, having abdicated the historic role in care for the dead to the funeral industry. Christianity has stopped its reflection about the body once that body no longer bears life. Corpse Care stakes a claim that the fact of embodiment, this incarnational truth, this process of our bodily becoming, is a practical, ethical, and theological necessity."

Dr. Cody Sanders is pastor to Old Cambridge Baptist Church in Harvard Square, and holds various roles at Harvard University, MIT, and Chicago Theological Seminary.

Dr. Mikeal Parsons is professor and Macon Chair in Religion at Baylor University.

For many, the term “inclusion” is the end all for social justice efforts. But, in her new book, Erin Raffety suggests that “inclusion” doesn’t work, at least in churches with disabled people. Listen to this quote: “The church is called apart from the world to repent of its ableism, disown its power, abandon inclusion, and pursue justice alongside disabled people.” Throughout her book she clarifies why inclusions falters and what justice might look like. She does this by interpreting scripture, drawing from her ethnographic research with congregations in Northeastern America, and engaging with disability activists and scholars. So, you’ll get to hear about some of those things in our conversation. I’m excited for you to hear it.

Erin Raffety is Associate Research Scholar at Princeton Theological Seminary and Research Fellow in Machine Intelligence & Pastoral Care at the Center for Theological Inquiry in Princeton, New Jersey. She is the author of From Inclusion to Justice, the book we’re discussing today, which is out now through Baylor University Press.

And I’m grateful also that Dr. Devan Stahl joined us for this conversation as a cohost. Devan is Assistant Professor of Religion here at Baylor University and author of a new book called Disability’s Challenge to Theology (UND Press). You can listen to us discuss Devan's book in our episode "An Era of Soft Eugenics?"


Resources for Further Education on Disability

• Visit Erin's curated list of resources on her website.
• Browse Baylor University Press's books on the topic.

In this episode, you'll hear a lecture from Amanda Tyler. (You can watch the lecture here.) Amanda Tyler is the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty (BJC), a pan-Baptist organization that advocates for religious liberty for all Americans. In the lecture, originally delivered in 2018, Tyler defends the importance of religious liberty and warns against the rise of Christian nationalism.

Resources on Christian Nationalism

• In February 2022, the BJC released a report exploring the connection between Christian nationalism and the January 6th Capitol Riot. The report can be read here. 
• Christians Against Christian Nationalism, an organization that provides resources for countering the rise of Christian Nationalism.
• A reading list compiled by Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary.
• A reading list compiled by the Englewood Review.

Elizabeth Flowers is Associate Professor of Religion at Baylor University. 

Doug Weaver is Professor of Baptist Studies and Chair of the Religion Department at Baylor University. 

The "Elevator Speech" segment introduces Kendall Cox's new book Prodigal Christ, out now from Baylor University Press.

In this episode, Zen speaks with Micheal O’Siadhail about his newly published Testament, a collection of poems published by Baylor University Press. In addition to readings from Testament, we discuss themes from the collection, the role of form in poetry, and how poetry might help people read scripture.

Micheal O’Siadhail is an internationally acclaimed poet whose works include The Five Quintets, Collected Poems, and One Crimson Thread. He is Distinguished Poet in Residence at Union Theological Seminary.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Devan Stahl about disability, eugenics, metaphysics, and how theology can help navigate the ethics of medicine. The subject of our book is Devan's new book Disability's Challenge to Theology (University of Notre Dame Press).

Devan Stahl is Assistant Professor of Religion at Baylor University and co-host of the podcast Bioethics for the People.

In this episode, we talk with Mike Bird about how ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman folks thought about what makes a god a god. We also talk about how the New Testament writings portray Jesus as a God, and what the creeds from the fourth century and onward have to do with all of this. These are subjects Mike explores in detail in his new book Jesus Among the Gods.

Michael F. Bird is the Academic Dean and Lecturer in Theology and New Testament at Ridley College.

Bill Bellinger was the W. Marshall and Lulie Craig Chairholder in Bible and the Chair of the Department of Religion at Baylor University before his recent retirement (though, he is returning this spring to teach a course on the psalms once again). Bill has also published several books with Baylor University Press, including Psalms as a Grammar for Faith and the Baylor Annotated Study Bible.

The Elevator Speech for this episode introduces Daryl Ireland's recent book Visions of Salvation.

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott about her archaeological and historical research, and how she thinks it matters for reading the Hebrew Bible. Dr. Shafer-Elliott's scholarship explores homes and households, food and hospitality, and the importance of domestic ritual in ancient religious life. Listen now to hear more about her work, and why she thinks it matters for reading the Hebrew Bible .

Dr. Cynthia Shafer-Elliott is Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament at Baylor University.

This week's Elevator Speech comes from Paul DeHart, author of Unspeakable Cults, a new Baylor University Press book.

Dr. Jessica Wai-Fong Wong is associate professor of systematic theology at Azusa Pacific University and authored Disordered: The Holy Icon and the Racial Myth

Dr. Jonathan Tran is Associate Professor of Philosophical Theology and George W. Baines Chair of Religion at Baylor University and authored Asian Americans and the Spirit of Racial Captialism.

Natalie Carnes is Associate Professor of Theology at Baylor University.

In this episode, Dr. Trevor Laurence wrestles with how Christians ought to pray the imprecatory psalms, which call on God to judge, destroy, or otherwise punish the enemies of the one praying. Should Christians pray these prayers or do they run counter to Christ's call to love enemies and to pray for those who persecute? And if they should, how? This is the topic of Laurence's new book with Baylor University Press, Cursing With God: The Imprecatory Psalms and the Ethics of Christian Prayer.

Trevor Laurence is the executive director of the Cateclesia Institute and Lecturer of Biblical Studies at The King's College. Follow him on Twitter: @trevorilaurence

In this episode, Dr. Amy Marga describes the diverse ways Christians have imagined motherhood throughout the church's life. From Origen's mother to modern day, there is no singular image of the Christian mother. What is more, does looking carefully at the stories of mothers in the Christian tradition inform theology today? She explores these topics in her new book with Baylor University Press, In the Image of Her: Recovering Motherhood in the Christian Tradition.

Amy Marga is Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary.