New Persuasive Words

In this episode we discuss ambition, mortality and everything in between. Our conversation was inspired by Bill's recent article in The Mockingbird print magazine. You can get a copy of the most recent issue of the magazine at www.mbird.com.

|n this Bullgeschichte/Friday Night Lights episode we talk with the Prince of Lutherans (according to us), Adam Morton. He and Bill argue the finer points of Luther and Lutheranism. Scott cracks bad jokes. Special Guest: Adam Morton.

In this episode we consider an essay T.S. Eliot wrote as an introduction on the topic of revelation in the modern world in a volume that listed among its contributors renowned theologians like Karl Barth and Gustav Aulen. Show Notes: You can find the essay we reference here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/u7p24zxr9v7k5uy/eliot_essay.pdf?dl=0.

We read a weird article. It looks like the atheist left is getting as crazy as the evangelical right. We're nervous.

We don't talk hermeneutics very often on this podcast. At least explicitly. But Jace Broadhurst got us talking about it. It's Bullgeschichte and Friday Night Lights rolled into one! God help us all. Special Guest: Jace Broadhurst.

In this episode we discuss a 1969 radio address about the future of the church in a secular age. It was delivered by a young priest known as Joseph Ratzinger, the man who would become Pope Benedict XVI. His insights are certainly provocative and worth pondering. The piece comes to via www.ucatholic.com. You can find the post which contains the entirety of Ratzinger's address here: http://www.ucatholic.com/blog/the-lost-prophecy-of-father-joseph-ratzinger-on-the-future-of-the-church/.

We celebrate the milestone of our 150th episode with listener and friend Josh Retterer. We reflect on where we've been and where we're going. Special Guest: Josh Retterer.

We revisit one of the themes of our earliest podcasts, friendship.

In this episode we talk about the powerful temptation to judge other people, which most of us give in to all the time. Our launching point was one of Bill's blog posts: https://www.residentexile.com/single-post/2017/07/08/As-You-Judge. We also quote Jason Micheli: http://tamedcynic.org/the-worm-at-the-core-of-the-apple/. This is the full context for the Karl Barth quote we reference: This fact that God has here come amongst us in the person of His Son, and that as a man with us He exercises judgment, reveals the full seriousness of the human situation. In this judgment God obviously has something to say to man which apart from this direct confrontation with God he is unwilling to say to himself, and caught in this unwillingness he cannot say to himself. Man has obviously given himself quite a different account of himself than that which he is now given by God. It obviously was and is something strange to him that he, for his part, can be in the right and do right only in subjection to the judgment of God. Ob

As we approach our 150th episode, we're revisiting some topics we did early on at the beginning of the podcast. This episode is about the human tendency to go into fight or flight mode in response to anxiety provoking realities. We quote from the book "Failure of Nerve" by Edwin Friedman a few times. Below are the excerpts cited: the possible exception of the first half of the twentieth century, since. While there have been other half-centuries of extraordinary progress, few have involved such fundamental change of direction all across the board. A person born in 1492 could have witnessed in their lifetime: an extraordinary flowering of artistic imagination concerning form and perspective in painting, sculpture, literature, architecture; the Reformation led by Luther and Calvin, ramifying out into almost every subculture and presaging the way religious differences would be formulated for centuries thereafter; the invention of the watch, enabling an unheralded fine-tuning in the measurement and coordination o

In this episode we reflect on a 2008 article by the recently deceased Peter Berger which originally appeared in First Things. In it Berger argues that while modernity pluralizes it doesn't really secularize or make culture anti-religious, whether it tries to or not. The Berger article can be found here: https://www.firstthings.com/article/2008/02/secularization-falsified. The article from Sean Kelly can be found here: https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/05/navigating-past-nihilism/. Here's the Halik quote we reference: "Were Christianity to turn its back on modernity it would sink into bigotry and fundamentalist religion; and conversely, were modernity to turnaway completely from Christianity it would itself become an intolerant pseudoreligion." Halík, Tomáš. I Want You to Be: On the God of Love (p. 150). University of Notre Dame Press. Kindle Edition.

In this episode, in light of the upcoming Fourth of July celebration, we reflect on the nature of freedom and life together in the United States.

Do you think you're right and they're wrong? Who's on your heretic list? Liberals? Conservatives? Calvinists? Vegans? Valentians? We continue our musings on truth, heresy and learning the art of life together.

In this podcast we talk about a recent statement by Pope Francis, an article about Rob Bell, and the nature of disagreement in communities that care about their convictions. Show notes: -You can find the article about Pope Francis' homily here: http://en.radiovaticana.va/news/2017/05/19/popefrancisdoctrineunites,ideology_divides/1313444 -You can find the article about Rob Bell here: http://archives.relevantmagazine.com/god/what-continued-crucifying-rob-bell-says-about-modern-christianity Thanks for listening!

We go back to Tomas Halik's work "I Want You To Be: On The God Of Love", considering how Christians can really love the world.

We go back to our teacher Tomas Halik to consider narcissism and the possibility of really loving and being loved.

In light of the recent shooting of Congressman Steve Scalise and the combative political and cultural rhetoric of the day, we consider what it means to be in the American project together.

Our guest for this midweek Bullgeschichte episode is Jason Micheli. He's an author, pastor and podcaster and he's not sure he believes in hell, which is the topic for our conversation. Special Guest: Jason Micheli.

In this episode we talk about Pope Francis' recent statement, "God Cannot Be God Without Man." Show Notes... You can read an account of the Papal audience and find a link to the text of Francis' statement here: http://www.christianpost.com/news/god-cannot-be-god-without-man-pope-francis-says-187045/.

In this Friday Night lights episode, recorded on Bill's birthday, we continue reflecting on the Holy Spirit and spirituality.