OnScript

Iain Provan - On Reading the Bible Literally

Episode: Pour yourself a wee dram of whisky and tune in as Matt and Dru talk with Iain Provan about the perils and benefits of literal(istic) interpretation of Scripture and his new book The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (Baylor, 2017). In addition to some great convo, in this episode you'll witness the special guest appearance of an Eastern European thought leader, and a new edition of 'How Scottish Are You?' This is a republished episode. 

Guest: Iain Provan is Marshall Sheppard Professor of Biblical Studies at Regent College (no, not Regent University) in Vancouver, BC. Provan has written numerous essays and articles, and several books including commentaries on Lamentations, 1 and 2 Kings, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Songs, and co-authored with Phil Long and Tremper Longman A Biblical History of Israel (John Knox Press, 2nd edition, 2015). He has also published Against the Grain: Selected Essays (Regent College Publishing, 2015), Seriously Dangerous Religion: What the Old Testament Really Says and Why It Matters (Baylor University Press, 2014), Convenient Myths: The Axial Age, Dark Green Religion, and the World that Never Was (Baylor University Press, 2013), and The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (Baylor, 2017). His most recent book is Seeking What is Right: The Old Testament and the Good Life (Baylor, 2021).

Book: (from the publisher's website) The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture (Baylor, 2017). In 1517, Luther nailed his Ninety-Five Theses to the door of Wittenberg’s castle church. Luther’s seemingly inconsequential act ultimately launched the Reformation, a movement that forever transformed both the Church and Western culture. The repositioning of the Bible as beginning, middle, and end of Christian faith was crucial to the Reformation. Two words alone captured this emphasis on the Bible’s divine inspiration, its abiding authority, and its clarity, efficacy, and sufficiency: sola scriptura.

In the five centuries since the Reformation, the confidence Luther and the Reformers placed in the Bible has slowly eroded. Enlightened modernity came to treat the Bible like any other text, subjecting it to a near endless array of historical-critical methods derived from the sciences and philosophy. The result is that in many quarters of Protestantism today the Bible as word has ceased to be the Word.

In The Reformation and the Right Reading of Scripture, Iain Provan aims to restore a Reformation-like confidence in the Bible by recovering a Reformation-like reading strategy. To accomplish these aims Provan first acknowledges the value in the Church’s precritical appropriation of the Bible and, then, in a chastened use of modern and postmodern critical methods. But Provan resolutely returns to the Reformers’ affirmation of the centrality of the literal sense of the text, in the Bible’s original languages, for a right-minded biblical interpretation. In the end the volume shows that it is possible to arrive at an approach to biblical interpretation for the twenty-first century that does not simply replicate the Protestant hermeneutics of the sixteenth, but stands in fundamental continuity with them. Such lavish attention to, and importance placed upon, a seriously literal interpretation of Scripture is appropriate to the Christian confession of the word as Word—the one God’s Word for the one world.

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If you enjoyed this episode ...  listen in to our earlier interview with Iain about his book Discovering Genesis.

David Artman - Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism

Episode: In this episode, Chris Tilling interviews David Artman, author of Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism (Wipf and Stock). Rich in exegetical claims, Artman boldly proposes that Christian Universalism isn’t simply a possible option, but a necessity to adequately account for the goodness of God. Artman is not defending – to quote Brad Jersak in his foreword – a “sloppy pop-universalism that fails to proclaim Christ alone, the necessity of a faith response, or the reality of judgement”. Instead, today’s guest aims to present something that is biblically compelling and theological orthodox. To teases out the claims, Chris Tilling walks through Artman’s chapters on the bible, judgment, grace, hell, Revelation and more besides.

Guest: David Artman is an ordained minister in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). He holds master of divinity and Doctor of ministry degrees from Brite Divinity School. He is an only child, a husband, a 5-string banjo player, a minister, and a Christian universalist. Putting all of this together he says this means he is, “kind of spoiled, doted upon, pretty eclectic, and can’t shake the idea that God is in the business of finally saving all of God’s lost and wayward children by grace”. After being in pastoral ministry for over 30 years, he has now shifted gears towards writing and podcasting. His first book, Grace Saves All: The Necessity of Christian Universalism was published by Wipf & Stock in April of 2020. His podcast Is called Grace Saves All. It’s Available on iTunes, Google, and other podcast platforms, as well as at the podcast page of his website davidartman.net. In the podcast he has put forward his own views, and interviewed such notables as David Bentley Hart, John Milbank, John Behr, Brad Jersak, William Paul Young, Brian Zahnd, Brian McLaren, Robin Parry and Douglas Campbell.

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If you enjoyed this episode, listen back to our old episode where Brad Jersak interviewed Meghan Henning about her book Educating Early Christians Through the Rhetoric of Hell.

The Apostle’s Creed - Ben Myers and Natasha Kennedy

Episode: In this episode we go back to theological basics. What is a creed? What is a creed for? Co-host Amy Hughes talks with Ben Myers about his book on the Apostles' Creed and it's companion children's book. We discuss what it was like to write theology for an adult audience and for children. This episode also features a short interview with the illustrator, Natasha Kennedy.

 

Ben Myers: Ben oversees the higher degree research programs at Alphacrucis (Honours, MPhil, DMin, PhD). He has worked extensively in research and postgraduate supervision, and has been a research fellow at the University of Queensland, a lecturer at Charles Sturt University, and dean of liberal arts at Christian Heritage College. His international appointments have included visiting fellow at Fuller Theological Seminary and member in residence at the Center of Theological Inquiry in Princeton. He's the author (with Natasha Kennedy as illustrator) of The Apostle's Creed for All God's Children, The Apostle's Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism (Lexham), Christ the Stranger: The Theology of Rowan Williams, and Milton's Theology of Freedom. He is a Research Fellow of the Public and Contextual Theology Research Centre (PaCT) at Charles Sturt University and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) at the University of Queensland. Ben has published widely in theology, literature, and the history of Christian thought. His current research focuses on poetry and theology in the 17th century, especially George Herbert and John Milton.

 

Natasha Kennedy is a freelance illustrator from Seattle, Washington. She illustrated The Apostle's Creed for All God's Children

 

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Munther Isaac - A Biblical and Palestinian Theology of the Land

Episode Details: We're digging back into the archives to the very beginning to bring you this inaugural OnScript episode from 2016, which features Dr. Munther Isaac of Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem, Palestine. He discusses his book From Land to Lands, From Eden to the Renewed Earth: A Christ-Centered Biblical Theology of the Promised Land (Langham Monographs, 2015). I (Matt Lynch) met Munther in Bethlehem back in 2011, when we met to discuss the relationship between land in the Bible and the current strife over land in Israel/Palestine. Among the various texts we discussed, I remember him pointing me toward Ezek 47:21-23:

"So you shall divide this land among you according to the tribes of Israel. You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord GOD.'

Emphasizing this text illustrates just one way that Palestinians have re-examined the Old Testament to bring to life those passages that have often been overlooked by those eager to legitimate a certain perspective on the land. But Isaac's reading of land in the Bible is far more comprehensive and holistic than pinpointing such key texts, and it is well worth the read. This interview discusses his book and its relevance to the current socio-political situation in Palestine. Enjoy and pick up a copy of his book!

Guest: Dr. Munther Banayout Isaac is Academic Dean and Professor of Biblical Studies at Bethlehem Bible College in Bethlehem, Palestine. In addition to From Land to Lands he's also the author of The Other Side of the Wall: A Palestinian-Christian Narrative of Lament and Hope (IVP 2020). He's also an Evangelical Lutheran Pastor. He completed his Ph.D. at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies, and has an MA from Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia and Bachelor of Science from Birzeit University in Civil Engineering. He is also actively involved in Musalaha, a reconciliation ministry and he organizes the Christ at the Checkpoint conference which typically happens every other year.

Book Details: The land is an important theme in the Bible through which the whole biblical history in the Old and New Testaments can be studied and analyzed. Looking at the land in the Bible right from its beginnings in the garden of Eden this book approaches the theme from three distinct perspectives - holiness, the covenant, and the kingdom. Through careful analysis the author recognizes that the land has been universalized in Christ, as anticipated in the Old Testament, and as a result promotes a missional theology of the land that underlines the social and territorial dimensions of redemption. Get your copy of his book today!

*Special thanks to Langham Monographs for giving us an interview copy of the book

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Andrew Lawler - Beneath Jerusalem

Episode: What lies beneath Jerusalem? Join Kyle and Chris as they interview Andrew Lawler about his excellent and exciting new book Under Jerusalem: the Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City (also available via Audible.com as an audio book). In this interview, we discuss a variety of issues that Lawler covers in his book - he also gives some personal reflections on the writing and research involved with a book on Jerusalem’s complicated history (and present).

Guest: (From his website) Andrew Lawler is author of three books, Under Jerusalem: The Buried History of the World’s Most Contested City (Doubleday, 2021), The Secret Token: Myth, Obsession, and the Search for the Lost Colony of Roanoke, a national bestseller, and Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?: The Epic Saga of the Bird that Powers Civilization.  As a journalist, he has written more than a thousand newspaper and magazine articles from more than two dozen countries. His byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and many others. He is contributing writer for Science and contributing editor for Archaeology. Andrew’s work has appeared several times in The Best of Science and Nature Writing.

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Photo: From Dan to Beersheba, p. 257

Andy Abernethy - Discovering Isaiah

 Episode: Andy Abernethy talks about finding new ways of reading Isaiah, his new book Discovering Isaiah, as well as life in the academy, his dad's career in the NBA, influential figures in his life, and much more.

Guest: Dr. Andy Abernethy is Associate professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College. He’s the author of Eating in Isaiah (Brill, 2014); The Book of Isaiah and God’s Kingdom (IVP, 2016); God’s Messiah in the Old Testament (Baker, 2020) Discovering Isaiah (Eerdmans/SPCK, 2021), and has a forthcoming book called Savoring Scripture: A Six-Step Guide to Studying the Bible with IVP. He also edited Isaiah and Imperial context: The Book of Isaiah in Times of Empire (Wipf & Stock, 2013) and Interpreting the Old Testament Theologically: Essays in Honor of Willem A. VanGemeren (Zondervan, 2018).

Give: Visit our Donate Page if you would like to support OnScript’s work.

New Podcast! Have you seen our new podcast, In Parallel? Check it out HERE.

Douglas Harink - Resurrecting Justice

Episode: In this episode, Chris Tilling chats with Prof. Douglas Harink about his new book, Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2020). The book presents a complete reading of Romans in light of the justice revealed in the gospel. So Harink’s book covers a lot of hotly debated ground relating to definitions of the “good news”, the Holy Trinity, justification, politics, the role of law, the nature of faith and much more besides. This discussion was particularly rich, then, and only begins to skim the surface of the issues discussed in the book.

Guest: Prof. Emeritus Douglas Harink has been a faculty member at The King’s University for nearly three decades. In the past he served as charter member and president of the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association and president of the Canadian Theological Society. Currently, Douglas is active internationally in the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), regularly presenting papers and planning panels and sessions. With Philip Ziegler (Aberdeen University) he co-founded and co-chairs the group, Explorations in Theology and Apocalyptic, which meets annually at AAR. He also currently co-chairs the Pauline Theology Section of SBL. He is regularly invited to speak in churches, academic conferences and other public settings, recently as key-note speaker for the 100th birthday celebration of Hungarian NT scholar, Prof. Sarkadi Nagy Pal, at the Karoli Gaspar Reformatus Egyetem (Reformed theological college), Budapest, Hungary (October 2017). In his scholarly work, Douglas has worked extensively at the intersection of Pauline studies and contemporary theology and philosophy. He continues to work in this area and others. In addition to Resurrecting Justice: Reading Romans for the Life of the World (Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2020), Harink is the author of numerous important essays and 1 & 2 Peter. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2009); Paul Among the Postliberals: Pauline Theology beyond Christendom and Modernity (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2003); and a co-editor (with Joshua B. Davis) and contributor in Apocalyptic and the Future of Theology: With and Beyond J. Louis Martyn (Eugene: Cascade Books, 2012); and Paul, Philosophy, and the Theopolitical Vision: Critical Engagements with Agamben, Badiou, Žižek and Others (Theopolitical Visions 7; Eugene: Cascade Books, 2010).

Give: Visit our Donate Page if you would like to support OnScript’s work.

New Podcast! Have you seen our new podcast, In Parallel? Check it out HERE.

A Poem about Love and Death (Song 8:6-7) - Brent Strawn

Episode: A meditation on Song of Songs 8:6-7, a poem about love and death, written and narrated by Brent Strawn. This is from our podcast In Parallel. For future episodes, please subscribe wherever you listen (Apple Podcasts, Spotify). In Parallel is a new podcast that explores biblical and contemporary poetry.

For more information about the podcast, see HERE and to learn more about Brent, see HERE.

Poetry: This episode makes reference to Sharon Olds' poem "The Signs," from The Golden Cell, p. 78.

Help Support In Parallel: Visit our Donate Page if you want to support this new show.

Introducing In Parallel with Brent Strawn - Ecclesiastes 3

Episode:  We're thrilled to introduce our first episode of In Parallel, a new podcast that explores biblical and contemporary poetry. Our first episode is a poetic reflection on Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 by poetaster Brent A. Strawn. In Parallel will begin with a 7-episode series that features the rich resonances between the Bible's poetry and poetry from some of today's best.

For more information about the podcast, see HERE and to learn more about Brent, see HERE.

Help Support In Parallel: Visit our Donate Page if you want to support this new show.

Chris Green - All Things Beautiful: An Aesthetic Christology

Episode: What role does art play in the forming of our theological imagination about Christ? What does it mean to respond to the cross as witness instead of spectator? In this interview, Chris Green joins co-host Amy Hughes to talk about his new book on art, beauty, and Christology. The topics range widely from the role of story, art, and liturgy in formation to quite the discussion about Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ. 

Guest: Chris EW Green is Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University and a pastor at Sanctuary Church in Tulsa, OK, where he lives with his wife, Julie, and their three kids: Zoë, Clive, and Emery. He’s the author of several books, including Surprised by God, The End is Music: A Companion to Robert W. Jenson’s Theology (Cascade), Toward a Pentecostal Theology of the Lord’s Supper(CPT Press) and Sanctifying Interpretation: Vocation, Holiness, and Scripture (CPT Press). Chris is the author most recently of All Things Beautiful (Baylor Univ Press, 2021), and his current work focuses on the place of Mary and other saints in Christian theology and spirituality.

Help Support OnScript: Visit our Donate Page if you want to join the big leagues and become a regular donor.

If you liked this episode ... Listen to our earlier episode with Chris about his book Sanctifying Vision.