Orthopraxis

In an addendum series to our most recent rant through the ages, Jaymes and Ravi tackle a sacred cow of our modern times: intellectual property. Is it actually a thing? Should it be? Where did it come from? What does the Bible say? The answers may surprise you!

In the grand finale of Orthopraxis podcast's epic epochal extravaganza, Jaymes, our ever-present co-host, finds himself dethroned and demoted to 'guest expert' as Ravi flips the script. Buckle up as we blitz through the 70s and 80s, accusing them of ruining... well, pretty much everything! From MTV-inspired movie pacing to the dawn of emotionally charged postmodernism, it's a whirlwind tour of change. We brave the digital age, exploring screen-induced posture problems, the obliteration of boundaries thanks to incessant notifications, and the troubling rise of societal ADHD, all while fighting off disinhibition and comparison fatigue in an Instagram-filtered world. From paperback novels to TikTok, it's a rollercoaster ride through time you don’t want to miss!

Welcome to the rise of the industrial revolution, when everything from humanity to theology to community became mechanized! All hail the Machine-god! Erm, perhaps that's not a good thing...

Ravi and Jaymes take this month's episode to explore the penultimate epoch of this series: the industrial revolutions. So much awesomeness and such excellent coolness has come from this explosion of innovation, that it's often hard to see the contrasting dark side. We aren't Luddites and we aren't here to turn the clock back, but we are here to encourage us all to take a second glance at what was left behind, the consequences to society, and how we can mitigate those problems.

Were there ever actual atheists before modernity? Was the Enlightenment really all that enlightening? Continuing our trek through major epochs of history, we tackle the recent few centuries and the pros and cons of various aspects of progress.

Continuing our series on historical epochs, we dive right into the entirely non-controversial time period surrounding the first Christian Emperor: St Constantine the Great. We touch on a lot of previous episodes in this one, but we mostly constrain ourselves to pagan-bashing.

We are undertaking a new series dedicated to history! We'll be exploring various major epochal shifts through time and how they are still impacting us today. In this first episode we lay out our motivations for doing this kind of exploration in the first place, as well as cover all the time leading up to Christ -- which is kinda  a lot. Wish us luck!

We return with our annual tradition of dedicating an episode to the Banquet & Ball. This time, we are joined by a few of Jaymes' siblings to explore the experience through their eyes. We don't go over what the Ball experience is itself as much in this one, so if you haven't listened to our previous episodes on the Banquet & Ball, go and listen to those first! Then come back and hear these powerful testimonies of how God is working in this culture.

This time in our summer ramblings (which is when we recorded it, even if it's winter now...) we discuss our first reactions to Rings of Power as well as a smattering of other related topics like shoes!

Today's summer ramblings meander from a new breathing technique Jaymes is experimenting with, and some curiosity on both our parts about a certain kind of episodic hero-fiction.

Continuing in our summer ramblings, we grouch about people who are too grouchy!

Continuing with our rambles, we talk about a recent life-saving act of gun violence, as well as culture and creation.

In our second episode of Summer Ramblings, we actually have news to talk about! Yay news!

With all the busyness in the lives of Ravi and Jaymes, we are starting a new format for our summer series of episodes. Listen to find out what we're up to!

Ravi and Jaymes are joined on this episode by Kate Rodriguez and Keturah Lamb, both long-time listeners to the podcast! We discuss this year's Banquet and Ball -- the Paragon Ball. Along the way we encounter topics such as cults and culture as well as the good, the true, and the beautiful.

At long last, we come to it. The episode where we talk about those things. The things the proper sort of people just don't do. Or shouldn't they? (Spoiler alert: petting kittens is evil.)

Join us while we explore what may or may not make something a vice, and how we should relate to them, and to those who participate in them!

Today we're going on a brief historical survey through the Church's wars against heresies as embodied in creeds and other expressions of the common faith. A very brief survey. Barely enough to get our toes wet, but hopefully enough to spark your interest in studying more!

The world has been afflicted with poor history teachers, who seem to think that the most important things about the past are the most boring and useless parts of it. And so history has taken on a reputation for dry, dull, evilness. But is studying history only an academic pursuit of endless trivia?

No! History is one of the most important things we can study for improving our practical, daily, God-honoring lives!

Come join us as we discuss how. ;)

To wrap up our series on men and women, we're doing another Q&A episode! We cover topics ranging from Nietzsche to ghosts to child labor, and we even talk about a few things relevant to our series, haha. It's a fun ride, regardless, and we'd love to hear your thoughts!

So what happens if you aren't dating/courting and you aren't married (yet)... can you still be friends with that weird, alien, other half of the species? How do we navigate the awkward, touchy, complicated waters of false assumptions and accidental miscommunications? How do we live in love towards each other, radically, while still remaining not-marital?

We don't have all the answers, but we do take a stab at this subject along with another of our friends: Sam Lichty. Join us and let us know what you think!

After courtship and dating comes, Lord willing, marriage! But what does that look like? Joining Ravi and Jaymes this month are Azriel (our first returning guest!) and his wife to discuss the purpose and function of marriage. And we definitely have fun storming castles along the way. ;)

Today, Ravi and Jaymes are diving into the murky quagmire of mushiness that is romance-with-intent-of-marriage (or not, as the case may be). This is a complicated topic that has a ton of pitfalls and rabbit trails, which we... mostly tried to dodge. There are soapboxes and rants galore, though, so strap in and have fun! Let us know how wrong we are in Discord or on FB! ;)

Following up in our series on relations between the sexes, we dive into what is femininity? This is a hotly contested and debated topic, and there's so much more that could be said than what we could cover. But to help us out, we brought in a guest expert, Cora Jongeward, who is definitively more female than either Jaymes or Ravi. Together, we explore the origin of females in Eve and the various facets of womanhood, elevating it back up to its place of glory. We also talk briefly about some of the attacks on femininity and false understandings of it, teasing our next episode, which will focus entirely on feminism and how we should interact with it as Orthopraxically minded Christians.

Beginning a series on relations between the sexes, we dive right in with "What is Masculinity?" and the accompanying complexities. We lay some foundations about equality and hierarchy, how the roles God designed fit together, and the challenges to those ideas from our culture. We really want to hear what you all think about this episode, and what you see as true masculinity, so make sure to join the conversation on Facebook and our Discord server!

Today we bring Daniel Hede with us as a guest to discuss the experience of the Banquet & Ball. This is slightly challenging, since, by its very nature, it is transcendent, ineffable, and nears the numinous. But we do our best, and along the way discuss the significance of honor, intentionality, dancing, dueling, sacraments, and worshipping God with all of our life. This is our longest episode yet, but if you only listened to one, I'd recommend this one.

And join us next year for the next Banquet & Ball.

And as an extra special Christmas present, here is a bonus episode with Jaymes doing a reading of Tolkien's Christmas poem: Noel!

We are so thankful for all of you who have stuck with us on this crazy experiment of a podcast, and so for this month's episode, in honor of Thanksgiving, we did a Q&A, where we asked you all to supply the Qs. And boy did you ever! There are some brain benders in here, haha. There's also quite a few sneak peeks into what episodes are coming up down the road, so have a listen and let us know what you think! Happy Thanksgiving!

So many things to do, so little time, how can we justify spending any of it on video games at all? Don't those rot your brain? What about the occasional demonic possession... aren't video games just as bad as rock music? Let's explore what value there is in video games, and how to enjoy them while avoiding their inherent pitfalls. Game on!

P.S. This is our one year anniversary of starting this podcast! Wow!!

Yep, we did it. We've been trampling on the toes of some sacred cows on both sides of the aisle (and mixing metaphors while we're at it) for a while now, but this one might actually be one of the most challenging we've faced. We're tackling what we believe the Bible actually says about the standards for our speech, rather than what our culture says the Bible says. Honest, we're not trying to be click-baity here, but this is likely going to surprise at least a few of you. And a lot of you are likely not going to agree with us!

So we're actually releasing two versions of this episode. One (the one here) is censored for those of you who are of sensitive ears. The other, uncensored version, will be released on our Discord server and our Facebook page. Let us know what you think! We'd love to engage in discussion on this topic.

Bonus episode where Ravi reads out loud one of his favorite works of poetry by Rudyard Kipling!

A brave subject in these troubled times, or perhaps just reckless, who knows? We're aiming to cut to the heart of a biblical orthopraxis which clarifies and exposes the true nature of the conflicts and confusion running rampant right now. Scripture has a lot of amazing and beautiful things to say on the subject of inequality and how we as Christians should approach it, far more than we can cover in this (longer than usual) podcast episode. So have a listen, and then come back and discuss it with us!

Also, for reference, here are some of the Scripture references that we cover in this episode: James 2:1-9, Leviticus 19:9-18, Matthew 26:11, Proverbs 30:8-9, 1 Cor 7:17-24, Col 3:5, 1 Tim 6:5-10, 17-19, Ruth 2:1, 2 Kings 15:20, Romans 12:16, Psalm 131:1, Matthew 20:25-27, Mark 10:42-45, Luke 22:24-27, Eph 4:28, 1 Cor 7:21, James 4:13, Ezekiel 18, Colossians 3:9-11, Galatians 3:26-29, 

The last movie review in our series (for now anyway) focuses on Will Smith's portrayal of the real life figure Chris Gardner. We talk about charisma, determination, and the vital importance of fatherhood.  We also talk about how it illustrates beautifully how class in America works. Specifically, how it isn't a caste system. What did the Declaration of Independence mean by the 'pursuit of happiness'? Listen in to find out!

For this episode of movie review from an Orthopraxis perspective, we have pulled in one of our good friends to help us break down and analyze an Asian martial arts film. Because we're strange like that. Here we examine not only some fun stuff about story theory and cinematography and history and philosophy and martial arts and... well the regular range of topics we run the gamut of, but we also explore how a Christian can approach Eastern philosophy with a discerning mind.

Here we go on the instantiation of a series of episodes where we talk through various kinds of movies, so you can see how we apply Orthopraxis to media consumption. The first one: The Prince of Egypt!

This is one of those topics that unsaved people and new Christians often think they understand, but couldn't be more wrong about. Even mature Christians often get these topics askew. What does the law really mean for us who live in the New Covenant? How do we approach the Old Testament in discerning how God wants us to live? What do we do with it all? Let's dig in and find out!

Food and eating is one of the most fundamental aspects of life and culture, so it definitely falls under the category of "practical," but what about "theology"? Join us as we discuss what the Bible says, and just as importantly *doesn't* say, about food!

Last episode we referenced our beliefs about music when discussing our beliefs about food, and so we figured we should probably elaborate on those as well. Music is an integral, daily part of our humanity, and is thus a very practical thing to explore theologically. Join us as we discuss the controversial topic of music in worship as well as music in recreation!

Today we're diving deep into what pandenominationalism means for our everyday lives, and presenting and comparing several different ways of organizing and categorizing theological beliefs. Graphs and charts are involved. Things get crazy.