OnScript

M. Daniel Carroll Rodas - The Bible and Borders

Episode: 
I was leaving the South
to fling myself into the unknown...
I was taking a part of the South
to transplant in alien soil,
to see if it could grow differently,
if it could drink of new and cool rains,
bend in strange winds,
respond to the warmth of other suns
and, perhaps, to bloom. (Richard Wright, Black Boy)

The sentiment of Wright's words is one that resonates deeply with immigrants everywhere. Immigration brings an acute awareness of our connections to land, to food, to culture––things we all take for granted until we uproot and transplant ourselves, and then attempt to bloom in foreign soil. In this episode, M. Daniel Carroll R. guides us through what the Bible has to say about immigration as he and Erin discuss his new book, The Bible and Borders. Carroll Rodas has been speaking and writing about immigration for the better part of the past twenty years, and brings a wealth of personal experience and scholarly wisdom to the conversation.

Guest: M. Daniel Carroll Rodas is the Scripture Press Ministries Chair of Biblical Studies and Pedagogy at Wheaton College, where he was previously Blanchard Professor of Old Testament. Prior to his time at Wheaton he was a Professor of Old Testament for many years at Denver Seminary, and he also taught at El Seminario Teológico Centroamericano (SETECA). Carroll is half-Guatemalan and was raised in a bilingual and bicultural household, and spent many summers in Guatemala in his youth. The realities and challenges of politics, poverty, and war in Central America fostered his passion for the Old Testament texts and Old Testament social ethics. Carroll is also the author of the NICOT commentary on Amos (Eerdmans, 2020), and an earlier book on immigration, Christians at the Border (Baker, 2008).

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OnScript was voted one of the top 20 theology podcasts! https://blog.feedspot.com/theology_podcasts/

 

J. Todd Billings - The End of the Christian Life

Episode: Christians in the West go to great lengths to avoid direct contact with death, and as a result of this death avoidance, we avoid the hope and fullness of life. J. Todd Billings argues that "true hope does not involve closing over the wound of death," but instead, facing death and human mortality directly. In this episode Todd discusses his own confrontation with mortality through a cancer diagnosis, as well as the deep Christian tradition of embracing the good of death (and lamenting its horror). We talk through personal stories about death, including the death of pets, sociological and historical insights, prosperity Gospel in the cancer community, and much more from Todd's new book The End of the Christian Life (Brazos).

Guest: J. Todd Billings is the Gordon H. Girod Research Professor of Reformed Theology at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, MI. He’s an ordained minister in the Reformed Church in America, and received his M.Div. from Fuller Seminary and his Th.D. from Harvard. He’s the author of 7 books, including The Word of God for the People of God: An Entryway to the Theological Interpretation of Scripture, Calvin’s Theology and Its Reception, Rejoicing in Lament, and The End of the Christian Life: How Embracing Our Mortality Frees Us to Truly Live (Brazos, 2020).

Give: Help support OnScript as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

OnScript was voted one of the top 20 theology podcasts! https://blog.feedspot.com/theology_podcasts/

Mari Joerstad - The Hebrew Bible and Environmental Ethics

Episode: Trees are people too! While this claim may come as a surprise to many listeners, it's familiar territory for biblical authors. Trees, mountains, skies, plants ... all of these bear the capacity for relationships of responsiveness with humans, animals, and most significantly, God. Dr. Mari Joerstad explores the rich array of texts in the Hebrew Bible that express the land's personhood, it's capacity for a reciprocal relationship. The land can "give" its produce and fruit, mourn, bear moral and cultic responsibilities, participate in warfare, praise God, and much more. Moreover, God and humans are in a (sometimes complicated) relationship with non-human/non-animal persons throughout the Hebrew Bible. This carries significant spiritual and environmental implications that Mari Joerstad explores in her new book The Hebrew Bible and Environmental Ethics, and that we discuss in this episode!

Guest: Dr. Mari Joerstad is a research associate at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, where she’s working on a project called “Facing the Anthropocene.” She graduated with a Ph.D. in Hebrew Bible from Duke Divinity School, and is the author of The Hebrew Bible and Environmental Ethics: Humans, Non-Humans, and the Living Landscape (Cambridge, 2020). She has recently been appointed as Dean of the Vancouver School of Theology, a post that will commence in the summer of 2021.

Give: Help support OnScript as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

OnScript was voted one of the top 20 theology podcasts! https://blog.feedspot.com/theology_podcasts/

Makoto Fujimura - Art + Faith: A Theology of Making

Windrider Productions

Episode: Generativity over usefulness and efficiency. Making versus fixing. The "new newness" of Redemption and New Creation. In this episode artist, writer, and speaker Makoto Fujimura joins co-host Amy Hughes to discuss his new book Art + Faith: A Theology of Making. Depending on one's church tradition, the role of art in the theological endeavor can span the range from fundamental to antagonistic. Fujimura builds upon his earlier work on culture care to offer a theological vision that offers coherence and beauty to truncated versions of the gospel.

Guest: Makoto Fujimura is an artist, writer, and speaker who is recognized worldwide as a cultural shaper. A Presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts from 2003-2009, Fujimura served as an international advocate for the arts, speaking with decision makers and advising governmental policies on the arts. In 2014, the American Academy of Religion named Makoto Fujimura as its "2014 Religion and the Arts" award recipient. He has had numerous museum exhibits including Tikotin Museum in Israel and Gonzaga Jundt Museum. New York's Waterfall Mansion & Gallery, Asia's Artrue Gallery represents his works. New York Times colonist David Brooks has featured Fujimura's work and Culture Care as "a small rebellion against the quickening of time." His new book Art + Faith: A Theology of Making (Yale Press) has been called by poet Christian Wiman as “a tonic for our atomized time.”

Give: Help support OnScript as we grow and develop. Click HERE.

OnScript was voted one of the top 20 theology podcasts! https://blog.feedspot.com/theology_podcasts/

Credit to Windrider Production for Makoto Fujimura's photo.