OnScript

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.

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

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. 

Charles Halton - A Human-Shaped God

Episode: Charles Halton joins to discuss divine embodiment and its theological implications. We discuss the role of tensions and diversity in Scripture, Old Testament antecedents to the incarnation, theological method, and much more!

Guest: Charles is an Episcopal priest currently serving as Associate Rector of Christ Church Cathedral in Lexington, Kentucky. He taught Old Testament and Semitic languages for almost ten years at the seminary and college levels and earned a PhD in Bible and ancient Near East with an emphasis in cuneiform languages from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is External Affiliate at the Centre of the Social-Scientific Study of the Bible at St. Mary's University, Twickenham. He's also a founder, managing editor, and director of media for The Marginalia Review of Books, which is part of the LA Review of Books. He edited Genesis: History, Fiction, or Neither? (Zondervan, 2015) and is coauthor, editor, and translator (with Saana Svärd) of Women's Writing of Ancient Mesopotamia: An Anthology of the Earliest Female Authors (Cambridge, 2017). Finally, he's the author of the book discussed in this episode, A Human-Shaped God: Theology of an Embodied God (WJK 2021). He translated the cuneiform collection of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh.

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

Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer - The History and Archaeology of Christmas (Part 1)

Episode: Biblical World hosts Chris and Kyle talk about the archaeology and historical context of Christmas. They try not to be Grinches. This is part 1 of a two part series. For part 2, keep your eyes on the Biblical World podcast feed.

Hosts: Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer.

Give: Help support OnScript’s Biblical World HERE. Thanks to all of you who have supported us!

Image by by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Vince Bantu - A Multitude of All Peoples (Live in San Antonio)

Episode: Erin and Matt L. join Vince Bantu for a live recording in San Antonio. At this IVP Academic event, we cover all things early Christianity as it took root and developed in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. We talk about the (often) untold stories of early Christianity, the weaponization of doctrine, Miaphysite and Diaphysite controversies, Vince's Old Nubian studies, and much more from his book A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity’s Global Identity (IVP 2020)!

Guest: Rev. Dr. Vince Bantu is Assistant Professor of Church History and Black Church Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary. He’s the author of Gospel Haymanot: A Constructive Theology and Critical Reflection on African and Diasporic Christianity (2020), and the book discussed in this episode, A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity’s Global Identity (IVP 2020). Vince is also the founder and director of the Meachum School of Haymanot (Haymanot is Ge’ez, or Ethiopic for faith), which exists to bring biblical, grad-level theological education to African-American, ethnic minority and low-income communities in a contextualized and affordable manner.

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

Mentioned in this Episode: J. Edward Walters, Eastern Christianity: A Reader (Eerdmans).

Thanks again to our sponsor for this event, IVP Academic! Check out their catalogue HERE.