OnScript

Nijay Gupta - Strange Religion

Episode: Fighting statues? Mystery cults? Roman religion was strange. Yet in many ways Christianity was even stranger. Nijay Gupta's Strange Religion explores how Christianity was oddly attractive to Romans. If we "keep it weird," Christianity can remain compelling today. Co-hosted by Matthew Bates.

The Book: Nijay K. Gupta, Strange Religion: How the First Christians Were Weird, Dangerous, and Compelling (Brazos, 2024). The first Christians were weird. Just how weird is often lost on today's believers. Within Roman society, the earliest Christians stood out for the oddness of their beliefs and practices. They believed unusual things, worshiped God in strange ways, and lived a unique lifestyle. They practiced a whole new way of thinking about and doing religion that would have been seen as bizarre and dangerous when compared to Roman religion and most other religions of the ancient world. Award-winning author, blogger, speaker, and New Testament teacher Nijay Gupta traces the emerging Christian faith in its Roman context in this accessible and engaging book. Christianity would have been seen as radical in the Roman world, but some found this new religion attractive and compelling. The first Christians dared to be different, pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable, transformed how people thought about religion, and started a movement that grew like wildfire. Brought to life with numerous images, this book shows how the example of the earliest Christians can offer today's believers encouragement and hope. (Publisher's description).

Guest: Nijay K. Gupta (PhD, Durham) is Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary. He has written numerous books, including recent titles such as Tell Her Story (IVP Academic), Galatians (in The Story of God Commentary series by Zondervan Academic), Galatians (in the Word Biblical themes series) and Paul and the Language of Faith (Eerdmans). Gupta blogs at www.cruxsolablog.com and can be found on X/Twitter (@NijayKGupta).

OnScript's Review: Let's keep it authentically weird. Roman religion was odd: talking statues, meaningful entrails, warring gods. In Strange Religion, Nijay Gupta shows how ancient Christianity was equally weird yet oddly attractive in the Roman world. If the contemporary church can look to the earliest church's strange way of life, it will remain compellingly different today. Highly recommended. -- Matthew W. Bates, author of Why the Gospel?; professor of theology at Quincy University.

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Brent Strawn - Honest To God Preaching

Episode: Strawn argues that keeping secrets makes us sick, and the Old Testament offers a way to speak honestly about the BIG things like sin, suffering, and violence.

Guest:  Brent Strawn is D. Moody Smith Distinguished Professor of Old Testament and Law at Duke Divinity and Duke University. He’s the author of numerous books, including The Old Testament is Dying (Baker) Honest to God Preaching (Fortress), The Old Testament: A Concise Introduction (Routledge), Lies My Preacher Told Me (WJK Press), and The Incomparable God: Readings in Biblical Theology (Eerdmans). He's the editor of many books and resources, including the award-winning The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (Oxford, 2015). He’s also hosted In Parallel, an offshoot of OnScript that looks at the resonances between biblical and modern poetry.

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Garrick Allen - Words Are Not Enough

Episode: In this episode, Dru Johnson talks with Garrick Allen about how paratexts (i.e., all the things around and between the biblical texts) have shaped our notions of canon, Gospel, and our reading practices of the biblical literature. His forthcoming Eerdmans book—Words Are Not Enough: Paratexts, Manuscripts, and the Real New Testament—argues that paratexts might hold the most sway over our biblical reading, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's unavoidable. From titles of anonymous books to cross-reference systems to extensive theologically-driven study notes, the biblical literature has always been entangled with paratexts. Dru and Garrick spend some time talking about the recent "Trump Bible" (AKA Lee Greenwood's God Bless the USA Bible) and the ethical contours of paratexts.

Guest: Garrick Allen is Professor of Divinity and Biblical Criticism (Theology & Religious Studies) at the University of Glasgow. His first book, The Book of Revelation and Early Jewish Textual Culture (Cambridge 2017), was awarded the Manfred Lautenschlaeger Award for Theological Promise 2019 and his essay "Monks, Manuscripts, Muhammad, and Digital Editions of the New Testament," published also in a chapter in his book Manuscripts of the Book of Revelation (Oxford 2020), was awarded the Paul J. Achtemeier Award for New Testament Scholarship by the Society of Biblical Literature (2018). His most recent book is Words Are Not Enough: Paratexts, Manuscripts, and the Real New Testament (Eerdmans, 2024).

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Ervine Sheblazm - Abraham's Bosom, Paul, and the Decline of Postmodernism

Episode: Back for the 7th time, Prof. Dr. Ervine Sheblazm is here to speak the hard truth about tuff questions. What happens when culture fails to address its own insidious tendencies? How do we move forward when culture reaches a dead end? What lies around the corner for those of us living on the crusted-over remains of modernity and its evil child, post-modernity? Dr. Sheblazm has thought through each of these questions, and he has answers that left reviewers stunned. Learn about how Abraham's bosom and Pauline passages may hold the key to navigating the troubled waters we live in.

Guest: Dr. Sheblazm is the best tendencies in all of us ... what we wish we were on a good day.

Endorsements: 

If you enjoyed this episode … why not check out the good Dr.’s other episodes, HERE, HERE, HERE,  HERE, HERE, and HERE.

 

 

N. T. Wright and Michael Bird - Jesus and the Powers

Episode: Beginning with Jesus's kingship, Tom Wright and Michael Bird speak to about the potentials and perils of contemporary politics. Discover a Christian vision for government not as an overbearing nanny or a terrifying bully but as God's servant. Cohosted by Matthew Bates.

The Book: Tom Wright and Michael F. Bird, Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political  Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies (SPCK/Zondervan, 2024). Should Christians be politically withdrawn, avoiding participation in politics to maintain their prophetic voice and to keep from being used as political pawns? Or should Christians be actively involved, seeking to utilize political systems to control the levers of power?

In Jesus and the Powers, N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird call Christians everywhere to discern the nature of Christian witness in fractured political environments. In an age of ascending autocracies, in a time of fear and fragmentation, amid carnage and crises, Jesus is king, and Jesus’s kingdom remains the object of the church's witness and work. (Publisher's description, abridged).

Guests: N.T. Wright is Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall at Oxford University. 

Mike Bird is Academic Dean, Postgraduate Coordinator, and Lecturer in Theology at Ridley College at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia.

OnScript's Review of Jesus and the Powers: The gospel is that Jesus is king. And, yes, this is a political claim. But what should that mean for our politics today? Wright and Bird make a powerful Christian case for liberal democracies as the least worst option, because they protect liberties, curb evil, and create space to love our neighbors well. Discover how Christians can participate wisely in government to help it remain God's servant. -- Matthew W. Bates, author of Why the Gospel?; professor of theology, Quincy University

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David Tombs – The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross

Episode (Trigger Warning): David Tombs lays out his case for the crucifixion of Jesus as a form of state-sponsored sexual violence and considers the theological and pastoral implications of his case in a discussion of his newest book, The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross (Routledge, 2023). The episode includes frank discussions of stripping of Jesus, the exposure and humiliation that victims of crucifixion experienced, and the possibility of further sexual violence during crucifixion. We want to warn listeners that the content and subject of this episode are quite difficult (but important!), but please be warned that it is not suitable for children.

Guest: Professor David Tombs took up the Director role at the Centre and the Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues in January 2015. David is an Anglican lay theologian and his work focusses on contextual and liberation theologies, theologies of reconciliation, and the cross. He also writes on how churches can make better responses to spiritual and sexual abuses. His research has pioneered the study of crucifixion as a form of torture, an instrument of state terror, and an open opportunity for sexual harm. His numerous publications include Latin American Liberation Theology (Brill 2002), Explorations in Reconciliation (co-edited with Joseph Liechty, Routledge 2006), When Did We See You Naked?: Jesus as a Victim of Sexual Abuse (co-edited with Jayme Reaves and Rocío Figueroa, SCM 2021), and The Crucifixion of Jesus: Torture, Sexual Abuse, and the Scandal of the Cross (Routledge, 2023).

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Nathan MacDonald - The Tabernacle and Priestly Power

Episode: Nathan MacDonald argues that four versions of the Tabernacle can be traced through ancient versions of the Old Testament. This episode explores those versions, the significance of Aaron's garments, the significance of the wild Nadab and Abihu account, and much more from Nathan MacDonald's new book The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony (OUP, 2023)! 

Guest: Nathan MacDonald is Professor of the Interpretation of the Old Testament at Cambridge University. He taught Old Testament previously at St. Andrews University, and was the recipient of a Sofja-Kovalevskaja Prize which enabled him to lead a research team on Early Jewish Monotheisms at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from 2009–2014. He's the author of numerous books, including Deuteronomy and the Meaning of ‘Monotheism’ (Mohr Siebeck, 2003; 2nd edition 2012), Priestly Rule: Polemic and Biblical Interpretation in Ezekiel 44 (de Gruyter, 2015), What did the Ancient Israelites Eat? Diet in Biblical Times (Eerdmans, 2008), Not Bread Alone: The Uses of Food in the Old Testament (Oxford University Press, 2008), and the book we're discussing in this interview, The Making of the Tabernacle and the Construction of Priestly Hegemony (Oxford University Press, 2023).

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Top 10 Archaeological Discoveries in 2023 (Pt 1)

Episode: In this three-part series - Chris and Kyle discuss the year’s top ten archaeological discoveries and stories related to the Bible. Part 1 discusses the most important finds related to the Bronze Age. We talk Hittites, the location and identification of Sinai, and much more! This is a re-release from our Biblical World podcast.

Hosts: Chris McKinny and Kyle Keimer

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Photo Attribution: The Lion Gate at Hattusa - Photo by Carole Raddato from FRANKFURT, Germany - The Lion Gate flanked by two towers, located at the southwest of the city, the lions were put at the entrance of the city to ward off evil, Hattusa, capital of the Hittite Empire, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=123588439

Sandra Glahn - Nobody’s Mother (Live Event!)

Episode: Recorded live in San Antonio at the Little Rhein Prost Haus with Sandra Glahn, Dru and Erin discuss the cult of Artemis in Ephesus and the way it transforms our reading of key NT passages. Crucially, Glahn's analysis of the Artemis cult helps us better understand Paul's statement in 1 Tim 2:15 that the woman/women "will be saved through childbearing." The event was co-sponsored by IVP, who publishes Dr. Glahn's book Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament (2023). Thanks to all who came out live for this event!

Guest: Dr. Sandra Glahn is Professor of Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary. She's the author of over 20 books, including Vindicating the Vixens: Revisiting Sexualized, Vilified, and Marginalized Women of the Bible (Kregel, 2017), Latte with Luke (AMG, 2022), and Nobody's Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament (IVP Academic, 2023), and she is the co-editor of Sanctified Sexuality: Valuing Sex in an Oversexed World (Kregel, 2020). She has also written eleven Bible studies in the Coffee Cup Bible Study series. A regular blogger at Engage, bible.org’s site for women in Christian leadership, she is the owner of Aspire Productions, and served as editor-in-chief for Kindred Spirit from 1999 to 2016. She and her husband have one adult daughter. (adapted from the DTS website)

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Jason Staples - The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism

Episode: Lynn Cohick speaks with Jason Staples about concepts of Israel, Judaism, and Jewishness that emerged in the Second Temple period, and their implications for understanding the early Judaism. Staples challenges prevailing ideas about Jewish identity around the turn of the Common Era. (Re-release from an earlier Biblical World ep).

Guest: Jason Staples is Assistant Professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at NC State University. Jason A. Staples is a specialist in Ancient Mediterranean Religions, focusing primarily on Early Judaism and Christian Origins. He is the author of The Idea of Israel in Second Temple Judaism: A New Theory of People, Exile, and Israelite Identity​​​​​​​ (Cambridge University Press, 2021). His second book will focus on Israel in the writings of the apostle Paul. (from the NC State University site)

Host: Lynn Cohick

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