OnScript

Jemar Tisby - The Color of Compromise

Episode: In this episode Erin hosts Jemar Tisby, who is the founder and CEO of The Witness: A Black Christian Collective (thewitnessbcc.com) and author of the New York Times bestseller The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism (Zondervan, 2019). Tune in for this important and challenging conversation on the history of racism and Christianity in America and its ongoing relevance for current conversations on racial justice. You can also now pre-order Jemar’s second book, How to Fight Racism (Zondervan, 2021), which will be released on January 5^th.

The Book: (from Zondervan) The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don't know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create and maintain racist ideas and practices. You will be guided in thinking through concrete solutions for improved race relations and a racially inclusive church.

Guest: (from Zondervan) Jemar Tisby (BA, University of Notre Dame; MDiv, Reformed Theological Seminary) is CEO of The Witness, Inc., an organization dedicated to Black uplift. He is also cohost of the Pass the Mic podcast and the author of the New York Times bestseller The Color of Compromise. He has spoken nationwide at conferences, and his writing has been featured by the Washington Post, CNN, and The Atlantic. Jemar is a PhD candidate in history at the University of Mississippi studying race, religion, and social movements in the twentieth century. You can also now pre-order Jemar’s second book, How to Fight Racism (Zondervan, 2021), which will be released on January 5^th.

Jeremy Schipper - Black Samson

Episode: Biblical Samson offered a powerful way of focusing and communicating the struggle, opportunities, and challenge of life for African Americans throughout U.S. history. From the prophesies of his parents concerning the deliverance he'd begin, to the enslaved man who ground at the Philistine mill, to the final moments when he toppled the Philistine temple, Samson was a prominent point of reference for abolitionists, activists, and, oddly enough, some white supremacists. Jeremy Schipper and Nyasha Junior trace the life of Black Samson and tell his wild and wonderful story.

Guest: Dr. Jeremy Schipper is Professor of Religion at Temple University in Philadelphia. In addition to Black Samson, he’s published the Ruth Anchor Bible commentary, Disability and Isaiah’s Suffering Servant (OUP, 2011), Parables and Conflict in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, 2009), Disability Studies and the Hebrew Bible (T&T Clark, 2006), and has co-authored Black Samson (OUP 2020) with Nyasha Junior. He’s also co-edited several volumes.

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Richard Rice - The Future of Open Theism

Episode: The upstart theological movement called open theism is coming of age. It's time to reassess its possibilities, promises, and perils. One of the founders of open theism, Richard Rice, speaks with co-host Matt Bates about varieties of open theism, vexed models concerning God and time, and his own spiritual journey in the face of the intense controversies surrounding open theism within evangelicalism.

The Book: Richard Rice, The Future of Open Theism: From Antecedents to Opportunities (IVP Academic, 2020). Open theism has reached its adolescence. How did it get here? And where does it go from here? Since IVP's publication of The Openness of God in 1994, evangelical theology has grappled with the alternative vision of the doctrine of God that open theism offers. Responding to critics who claim that it proposes a truncated version of God that fails to account for Scripture and denies many of the traditional attributes of God, open theism's proponents contend that its view of God is not only biblically warranted but also more accurate―with a portrayal of God that emphasizes divine love for humanity and responsiveness to human free will. No matter what one's assessment, open theism inarguably has made a significant impact on recent theological discourse. Now, twenty-five years later, Richard Rice recounts in this volume the history of open theism from its antecedents and early developments to its more recent and varied expressions. He then considers different directions that open theism might continue to develop in relation to several primary doctrines of the Christian faith. (Publisher’s description).

Guest: Richard Rice received an MDiv degree from Andrews University in 1969, and an MA and PhD in Christian theology from the University of Chicago in 1972 and 1974, respectively. Rice is a Professor of Religion at Loma Linda University in the areas of Theology and Philosophy of Religion. Rice is the sole author numerous books, including God's Foreknowledge and Man’s Free Will; The Reign of God: An Introduction to Christian Theology from a Seventh-day Adventist Perspective; and Search for Meaning: Contemporary Responses to the Problem of Pain. He also co-authored, along with Clark Pinnock, John Sanders, William Hasker, and David Basinger, the book that for practical purposes launched open theism into the mainstream of theological conversation, The Openness of God: A Biblical Challenge to the Traditional Understanding of God.

OnScript's Review: All Christians have implicit or explicit models regarding how God engages the world. As classical theologians consider the widest categories—God's relationship to time, providence, and human free will—open theism has proven to be a disruptive but necessary conversation partner. Richard Rice masterfully maps the past and present landscape of open theism while adding his own powerful and creative voice. --Matthew W. Bates, author of The Birth of the Trinity, for OnScript

Kevin Grasso - Christ-Faith in Paul's Letters

Episode: The debate as to whether the phrase πίστiς Χριστοῦ should be translated as "faith in Christ" (objective genitive) or the faithfulness of the Christ (subjective genitive) seems interminable. In an important new journal article, Kevin Grasso claims to have entirely disproven the viability of the objective genitive as traditionally understood. Meanwhile, he claims that a third-way solution ("Christ-faith" is better evidenced grammatically, while it also makes good theological sense of aspects of the subjective interpretation.

The Article: Kevin Grasso, “A Linguistic Analysis of πίστiς Χριστοῦ: The Case for the Third View,” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 43 (2020), 108-44. Published Abstract: "This study seeks to demonstrate that the Pauline phrase πίστις Χριστοῦ is best understood grammatically as the ‘Christ-faith’ in accordance with the so-called ‘third view’, where ‘faith’ is taken to mean a system or set of beliefs, and ‘Christ’ qualifies what the system is about. I argue that the grammar disallows the meaning ‘faith in Christ’ where Christ is the object of one’s ‘trust’, since objective genitives can only mean ‘belief of something (to be true)’, as is shown by an analysis of the data in the NT and in Harrisville 1994; 2006. Additionally, the subjective genitive rendering often fails to make sense within the literary context and faces its own grammatical difficulties. Drawing on work from theoretical linguistics in lexical semantics and syntax, I show that the third view meaning, translated as the ‘Christ-faith’, is the most likely rendering given the context of each of the passages, the Greek case system and the meaning of the noun πίστις as used in the NT and other Koine Greek writings."

Guest: Kevin Grasso is the founder of Biblingo, a software program to teach the biblical languages, and a PhD student at Hebrew University in the Hebrew language department as well as an MA student in the comparative religion department. He did his MA in linguistics with a focus in Bible translation from Dallas International University. He studies theoretical linguistics, particularly syntax and semantics, as well as contemporaneous literature with the Scriptures. He lives in Jerusalem with his wife Rachel and his son Emmett, and in his spare time, he enjoys playing basketball, hiking, hanging out with friends, Bible study, and occasionally attempting to play the violin.

OnScript's Review: Grasso's article makes a bold and potentially momentous claim: the traditional translation, "faith in Christ" as an objective genitive for pistis Christou, is grammatically disallowed. That is, the verb-noun-argument patterning evidenced for the pist* root shows that there is considerable evidence against and no grammatical evidence in favor of this translation, making it all but impossible. Although he may have offered a knock-out blow to the objective genitive, I don't find Grasso's evidence against the subjective decisive, for it does not take seriously enough how Paul establishes a pistis-lexicon and syntax earlier in his letters that places guiderails around how to take subsequent pistis Christou phrases. For example, the entire holistic ek pisteōs eis pistin structure ("by fidelity for fidelity") in Rom 1:17 needs to be taken more fully into account by Grasso given its relationship to dia pisteōs Iēsou Christou (through the fidelity of Jesus the Christ) and eis pantas tous pisteuontas (for all performing the fidelity action) in Rom 3:22. That is, Paul appears to separate the king's initial agency (by or through the Christ's fidelity) and its subsequent "for us" purpose (in order to cultivate human fidelity). [For further discussion, see Bates, "The External-Relational Shift in Faith (Pistis) in New Testament Research" CBR 18 (2020): 176-202, or, in a less technical fashion, Gospel Allegiance, p. 73-82]. Meanwhile Grasso musters evidence from reception history in favor of the third view that those favoring the subjective genitive will need to weigh. Regardless of questions about the subjective genitive versus the third way, Grasso's innovative demonstration that the objective genitive (as traditionally understood) is grammatically disallowed has seismic potential. --Matthew W. Bates, author of Salvation by Allegiance Alone, for OnScript

Don Payne - Already Sanctified

Episode: Conversations on sanctification can often leave Christians feeling spiritually inadequate and discouraged about their lack of spiritual growth and maturity, but Don J. Payne insists that this arises from a faulty view of sanctification. Instead, Scripture's view of sanctification, which involves being fitted for the presence of God and the purposes of God, should be understood as the sure foundation for the Christian life. Listen as theologian Don J. Payne joins Erin for a congenial and collegial interdisciplinary conversation on his newest book: Already Sanctified (Baker, 2020).

Guest: Dr. Don J. Payne is currently the Associate Professor of Theology and Christian Formation at Denver Seminary, where he has served in various faculty roles since 1998. Prior to earning his PhD in Systematic Theology from the University of Manchester, Don served a number of years in pastoral ministry in various churches in Tennessee and Colorado. In addition to Already Sanctified, he has published Surviving the Unthinkable (Resource Publications, 2015), and The Theology of the Christian Life in J. I. Packer's Thought (Paternoster, 2015). A proud West Texan from the Permian Basin region, Don has a penchant for hunting, fixing his truck, and Wolf Brand Chili.

 

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Esau McCaulley - Reading While Black

Episode: Dru's discussion with Dr. Esau McCaulley spans across matters of biblical theology, NT interpretation, the hermeneutics of the Black Church in America, and how his own biography has played into his scholarship. Reading While Black (IVP) is a forceful and encouraging message to the Black Church that McCaulley has written so that non-Black readers can listen in and learn. Sho Baraka's blurb captures this book well for the OnScript audience:
“Esau McCaulley is untying the Gordian knot that has kept Black Christians bound to theological ultimatums. This is a book for theologians who hope to play outside the trite sandboxes of their seminaries and for the practitioners who find themselves in need of a Black lexicon."

Guest: The Rev. Canon Esau McCaulley, PhD is a New Testament scholar, an Anglican Priest, and a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He has also appeared in outlets such as Christianity Today and the Washington Post. He is also the host of the Disrupters Podcast and functions as a Canon Theologian for his diocese. Dr. McCaulley, currently, serves as assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. In addition to Reading While Black (IVP, 2020), he is the author of Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance: Davidic Messianism and Paul’s Worldwide Interpretation of the Abrahamic Land Promise in Galatians (T & T Clark, 2019).  He is married to Mandy, a pediatrician and a Navy reservist. Together, they have four wonderful children.

NB: Dru mistakenly cited the "Congressional Black Caucus" when saying that black leaders once claimed that President Obama was not black. He was misremembering what he had read in Debra J. Dickerson's Salon.com article "Colorblind: Barack Obama would be the great black hope in the next presidential race—if he were actually black." See the following for the discussion of Obama's "blackness" in the 2008 presidential election:

• "Is Obama Black Enough?"
• "Is he African American if his roots don't include slavery?" 
• "Morgan Freeman raises eyebrows for saying Obama wasn’t the first black U.S. president" 

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Justo González - Prayer in the Early Church and Today

Episode: "Our Father, who is in heaven..." These words and the rest of the Lord's Prayer are so familiar. They remind us to seek God, draw us into communal prayer with the church, and bring comfort. However, while we repeat words we cherish, sometimes this familiarity becomes distance. In this episode, co-host Amy Hughes talks with Dr. Justo González about his new book Teach Us To Pray: The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church and Today (Eerdmans, 2020). Let us come to the Lord's Prayer anew, without fear and with new understanding.

Guest: Dr. Justo González is a retired United Methodist minister and professor of historical theology. He attended United Seminary in Cuba and was the youngest person to be awarded a PhD in historical theology at Yale University. He is the author of the celebrated three-volume History of Christian Thought and The Story of Christianity volume 1 and volume 2. He has written more than 100 books published in more than ten languages.

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Chris Green - Sanctifying Interpretation

Episode: Chris Green is on the show to talk about how God is not saving us from interpretation, but through it - a process that can be "soul harrowing and purgative." Chris talks about problematic and more helpful models of Scripture and its interpretation, his appreciation for George MacDonald, approaches to troublesome texts, and we even have a brief poetry reading from the poetry collection Bigly. All these things and more await you in this one jam-packed episode on the second edition of his Sanctifying Interpretation. 

Guest: Chris Green is Professor of Public Theology at Southeastern University in Lakeland, FL. 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). His current research interests are focused on the doctrine of God, Pentecostal spirituality, and issues of racial/ethnic injustice. Chris serves as Teaching Pastor at Sanctuary Church (Tulsa, OK), and he is also a visual artist.

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Erin Heim with Dru Johnson - MeToo and the Apostle Paul (part II)

Episode: Erin Heim and Dru Johnson discuss part II of Erin's paper "Resurrection and the #MeToo Movement," which is part of a larger project that Erin is working on as she wrestles theologically with the sexual abuse that she experienced as a child. In this paper, she probes the connection between the abuse Jesus suffers in his crucifixion and his resurrection body. For Part I, please click HERE.

Content warning: This episode contains some language and descriptions of torture and sexual assault.

Hosts: Erin Heim is one of OnScript's co-hosts, and she is also tutor in Biblical Studies at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. She specialises mainly in Pauline literature, though she sometimes dabbles in theological interpretation of Scripture. Her latest book, Adoption in Galatians and Romans (Brill, 2017), was awarded the Manfred T. Lautenschlaeger Prize for Theological Promise. She's currently working on the Zondervan Critical Introduction to the New Testament volume on Galatians, and also the volume on Galatians for The Bible in God's World Commentary Series (Wipf & Stock).

Dru Johnson is an OnScript host, the director for the Center for Hebraic Thought, an associate professor of biblical and theological studies at The King's College, and finishing a book called Biblical Philosophy: An Hebraic Approach to the Old and New Testaments (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

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A. J. Culp - Memoir of Moses

Episode: How is memory made and maintained in a community? Moreover, how can a community remember something they never witnessed? A. J. Culp walks us through recent turns in memory theory to explore how Deuteronomy, as a piece of literature, instantiates and reifies memory in Israel. We address misconceptions of memory as individualistic, how literature can form memory, and the use of memory for social identity. For Christians and Jews, the implications for their tradition's rituals and sacraments are manifest.

 

Guest: A. J. Culp is lecturer in Old Testament and biblical languages at Malyon Theological College and honorary research fellow at the University of Queensland. His books include Invited to Know God: The Book of Deuteronomy (Lexham, 2019) and the book discussed in this episode: Memoir of Moses, Puzzling Portraits.

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