OnScript

Jen Singletary - When Things Become Deities (in the ancient Near East)

Episode: We all understand that statues were considered divine in the ancient Near East. But what about a god's sword, or concepts about a god? Could they also be divine? In this episode, Jennifer Singletary helps understand the conditions in which objects and attributes were divinized (if that's the right word) alongside the gods themselves and how this might help us understand biblical divinization.

Guest: Dr. Jennifer Singletary is Assistant Research Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Her work explores ancient ideas regarding superhuman beings, methods used to communicate with them, relationships among religious specialists, and cognitive approaches to religion and linguistics. Her first book, Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in the Ancient Near East (Brill, 2025), examines deified objects, qualities, and attributes in the ancient Near East. She is currently working on her second book, Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy, which is under contract with the Cambridge Elements series, the Ancient Near Eastern World and the Bible. Her third book project (under contract with Brill) investigates the strategies that ancient diviners, including prophets, used to discredit their rivals or work cooperatively with their peers in Old Babylonian Mari, Neo-Assyria, and the Hebrew Bible. Her research on this topic was recently featured in an article in Archaeology magazine. She is also the area editor for the Early Alphabetic and Northwest Semitic section of Prayer in the Ancient World (Brill) and a series editor for the Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean book series (Eisenbrauns). (adapted from the Penn State website)

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Malcolm Foley - The Anti-Greed Gospel

Episode: In this episode, "follow the money" takes on a whole new (and old) significance. Co-host Amy Hughes talks with Malcolm Foley about his book The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why The Love of Money is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create A New Way Forward. The conversation begins with why greed is the root of race and racism instead of hate or ignorance and ends with how the Kingdom of God forms our imaginations and helps “drain race of its power” and work toward a world where “no person is a victim of injustice.”

Guest: Malcolm Foley (PhD, Baylor University, MDiv, Yale Divinity School) is a pastor, historian, and speaker who serves as special adviser to the president for campus engagement at Baylor University. He has written for Christianity Today, The Anxious Bench, and Mere Orthodoxy. Foley copastors Mosaic Waco, a multicultural church in Waco, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Desiree. In addition to the Anti-Greed Gospel, he is currently working on a second book which will, among other things, argue, with the guidance of the Greek and Byzantine Fathers, that the hope of deification is what jettisons our lesser hopes of material wealth, political power, and cultural influence.

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Ervine Sheblazm - The Emotionally Healthy Paul

Episode: Gird your emotional loins! Dr. Sheblazm takes us on a journey inward, to those painful places that few want to go, in order to retrieve what no one thought existed, to bring about what no one thought possible.

Guest: Professor Dr. Irvine Sheblazm, Ph.D, Ph.D., is a theologian and a scientist with degrees from prominent institutions. He runs the “Center for Excellence” in the Lake District in the UK. He is the author of many many books, including:

• The Cheerful Taker: A New Economics for Pauline Christians in a Changing World (2025)
• Abraham's Bosom, Paul, and the Decline of Postmodernism (2024).
• Child Rearing with the Apostle Paul and the Book of Revelation (2022).
• The Emotionally Healthy Paul: Inner Emotional Intelligence with the Apostle Paul.  

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Brian Toews - Voices of the Sages

Episode: Imagine the writers of Scripture around a table discussing, sometimes arguing about, and ultimately seeking deeper wisdom about God, humanity, and the world. In his recent book, Voices of the Sages, Brian Toews helps us grasp the conversation between sages in the "Writings," the third major division of the Hebrew Bible. And then imagine a conversation about that conversation ...

Guest: Dr. Brian Toews is retired Professor of Bible at Cairn University in Philadelphia, where he also served as Provost. He earned his BA in Linguistics from UCLA, ThM and MDiv from the Talbot School of Theology (Biola University), and PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures from UCLA. He's the author of Voices of the Sages: Old Testament Wisdom in Dialogue (McGahan, 2025). 

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Check out the new song from our producer Jason Stark! -

Flesh of My Flesh: https://artists.landr.com/FleshofMyFlesh

 

 

Carmen Imes - Becoming God's Family

Episode: Matt L. talks with Carmen about the third in her "Bearing" > "Being" > "Becoming" series with IVP academic. Her subtitle, "Why the Church Still Matters" explains the (ambitious) goal of the book ... to make a case for the ongoing importance of the church in an age of disillusionment. The book offers a rich theology of God's family, and the interview covers everything from flawed characters, purity language, brutality in Judges, the latest Chicken Run movie, Jesus dissing his family (Matt 12:48-50), and more!

Guest: Dr. Carmen Imes is an associate professor of Old Testament at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University. She is the author of Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters (IVP Academic), Being God’s Image: Why Creation Still Matters (IVP Academic), and Becoming God’s Family: Why the Church Still Matters (IVP Academic), as well as several other academic works. Her primary areas of expertise are Exodus and the Psalms. Carmen has a YouTube channel where she releases weekly Torah Tuesday videos and other videos, and she also writes on several popular level sites including Christianity Today, Substack, The Well, and The Politics of Scripture blog.

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Marty Folsom - Karl Barth's Doctrine of Creation

Episode: In this third conversation with Marty Folsom, we turn to the Doctrine of Creation in Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone, Volume 3. Having explored Barth’s theological method and doctrine of God in the earlier episodes, this instalment brings us to what many readers find the most surprising and pastorally rich section of the Church Dogmatics. Marty introduces us to Barth’s distinctive vision of creation as an act of divine hospitality, the world as God’s house, and creation itself as the space and time in which covenant fellowship with the triune God is enacted. We explore Barth’s claim that creation is the “external basis” of the covenant, and much more besides!

This episode is part three of an ongoing series with Marty Folsom on making Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics accessible to “everyone”, without domesticating its theological depth or imaginative force. See HERE for vol. 1, and HERE for vol. 2.

Guest: Marty Folsom has been Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies for over 30 years in New Zealand and Seattle. He is most famous for his “Face to Face” trilogy on relational theology, which emphasizes “personal relationship”. Apart from authoring numerous articles, he has also been a therapist for 24 years. Today we discuss his new book, Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone Vol 3 (Zondervan Academic). This is the third volume of five in total.

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Ingrid Faro - Redeeming Eden

Episode: Ingrid Faro talks with Matt Bates about overlooked, less-known, vilified, and misunderstood women in the Old Testament. Like ... Jehosheba (did you know about her?). She argues that the story of women in the Old Testament--and in particular their role at key junctures in that story--is good for men and women. 

Guest: Dr. Ingrid Faro is Professor of Old Testament and Coordinator of the MA in Old Testament–Jerusalem University College Program at Northern Seminary. She's currently the interim president. Ingrid is an author and international speaker on topics including deconstructing evil, navigating suffering, forgiveness, lament, abuse and power dynamics, women in the Bible and ministry, Genesis, and Ecclesiastes. Ingrid is the author of Evil in Genesis (Lexham), co-author of Honest Answers (Kregal), Demystifying Evil (IVP Academic), and the topic of this episode, Redeeming Eden: How Women in the Bible Advance the Story of Salvation (Zondervan).

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Mark Scarlata - Wine, Soil, and Salvation in Scripture

Episode: Mark Scarlata's new book Wine, Soil, and Salvation in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament (CUP, 2025) explores the intricate dance between earth and sustenance. Scarlata argues that wine becomes the unique vessel that contains the culmination of God's blessings on Israel and Israel's responsibilities to the earth, each other, and neighbors. The terroir of wine acts as a kind of metaphor for this nexus and Scarlata shows how wine appears in surprising ways across the biblical literature with this paradigm in mind. Mark also managed to almost sway Dru into becoming a wine drinker. Erin Heim and Dru Johnson hosted this live interview at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.

Guest: Rev Dr. Mark Scarlata is Tutor and Senior Lecturer in Old Testament at St. Mellitus College, UK. He's the author of numerous books, including Outside of Eden: Cain in the Ancient Versions of Gen. 4:1-16 (T&T Clark 2012), Am I My Brother's Keeper? Christian Citizenship in a Globalized Society (Wipf & Stock/Cascade), The Abiding Presence (SCM Press, 2018), Sabbath Rest: The Beauty of God's Rhythm for a Digital World (SCM Press, 2019), Journey Through the World of Leviticus: Holiness, Sacrifice, and the Rock Badger (Wipf & Stock, 2021),  The Theology of Leviticus (CUP, 2025), and the book of focus for this episode, Wine, Soil, and Salvation in the Hebrew Bible and New Testament (CUP, 2025). He is also the Vicar-Chaplain at St. Edward, King and Martyr, Cambridge where he serves as a priest in one of the oldest churches in Cambridge that was integral in the English Reformation. He is the director of the St. Edward’s Institute for Christian Thought which seeks to nurture Christian scholars and bring theology to the heart of the church. (an edited version of his St. Mellitus page).

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Paul Sloan - Jesus and the Law of Moses

Episode: Did Jesus offer a radical reworking of the law? Did he subvert the Jewish law of his day? Was he exposing legalism, nationalism, or ritualism in favor of compassion? Paul Sloan thinks not. But ... you might be thinking, what about all those critiques and arguments between Jesus and religious leaders of his time? Sloan's book Jesus and the Law of Moses offers a rich and thoughtful reflection on Jesus, the law, and Israel's restoration in the context of Second Temple Judaism (including other NT writings). 

Author: Paul Sloan is Associate Professor of Early Christianity at Houston Christian University. He received his PhD in New Testament from The University of St Andrews. His research interests include Leviticus, the sacrificial system, sacred space, and the reception of those motifs in 2^nd Temple texts. He's the author of Jesus and the Law of Moses: The Gospels and the Restoration of Israel within First-Century Judaism (Baker Academic, 2025).

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Dru Johnson - Understanding Biblical Law (with surprise guest)

Episode: Dru suggests that biblical law is something to think with and not just about. Matt and Dru discuss this idea and its many implications that were articulated in Dru's recent book Understanding Biblical Law: Skills for Thinking With and Through Torah (Baker, 2025). And as a throw-back to an old OnScript interview practice, Dru and Matt cold-call another guest.

Guest: Dr. Dru Johnson is the Templeton senior research fellow at Wycliffe Hall (University of Oxford), adjunct professor of religion at Hope College in Holland, MI (previously a professor at The King’s College in New York City),  director of the Abrahamic Theistic Origins Project, director of the Center for Hebraic Thought, editor at The Biblical Mind, host of The Biblical Mind podcast, and co-host of the OnScript Podcast. He’s written a bunch of books, including Human Rites, Knowledge By Ritual, Scripture's Knowing, and What Hath Darwin to do with Scripture?

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