Episode: Timothy Brookins wants to challenge the scholarly consensus about the conflict behind the book of 1 Corinthians. Listen in as Brookins discusses with Chris Tilling the importance of Stoicism for understanding the rhetoric and message of this crucial Pauline letter!

Guest: Timothy Brookins is Professor of Early Christianity at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. In addition to the book featured in this episode, Rediscovering The Wisdom of the Corinthians: Paul, Stoicism, and Spiritual Hierarchy (Eerdmans, 2024), he's the author of Ancient Rhetoric and the Style of Paul's Letters (Cascade, 2022), First and Second Thessalonians (Baker, 2021); Reading 1 Corinthians (Smyth & Helwys, 2020); 1 Corinthians: A Handbook on the Greek Text. 2 Vols (Baylor, 2016), and Corinthian Wisdom, Stoic Philosophy, and the Ancient Economy (Cambridge University Press, 2014).

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Episode: Artists and Christ followers walk a similar path, as those who discern the truth about the world. The artistic gift of intuitive discernment, of expressing reality with clarity and soul, relates to the Christian gospel. In this syndicated episode of the Blue Note Theology podcast, Mark explores a woven kinship between artists and Christ followers while playing the grand piano.

Guest Host: For more about Mark, his podcast, speaking, and writing, visit his site – https://www.markglanville.org.

Check out Blue Note Theology

Check out our episode with Makoto Fujimura

Episode: In this episode we welcome back Fr John Behr! Long-time listeners will be familiar with Fr John's delightful live two-part episode on Origen of Alexandria (Part 1 & Part 2). In this episode co-host Amy Hughes speaks with Fr John about his new translation of Gregory of Nyssa's On the Human Image of God (aka On the Making of Humanity). The conversation ranges from discussing what it's like to work on a translation to nerding out about Gregory - for this we will not apologize! This work is the first theological anthropology where Gregory muses on the mundane (yet fascinating) like, why do humans sleep or yawn or eat. He also considers big questions about the image of God, evil, the resurrection, the body, etc. Fr Behr's translation centers this wonderful text again with its uncanny relevance for current questions and delightfully weird diversions.

Guest: Fr. John Behr was appointed to the Regius Chair in Humanity at the University of Aberdeen in the summer of 2020, having taught at St Vladimir’s Seminary since 1995, serving there as Dean from 2007–17. His early work was on asceticism and anthropology, focusing on St Irenaeus of Lyons and Clement of Alexandria (OUP 2000). He is currently writing a series of books on “The Formation of Christian Theology”, two volumes of which have already appeared: vol. 1, The Way to Nicaea (SVS Press 2001) and vol. 2 The Nicene Faith (SVS Press 2003). On the basis of these two volumes, he published a synthetic work, The Mystery of Christ: Life in Death (SVS 2006). This was followed by an edition and translation of the fragments of Diodore of Tarsus and Theodore of Mopsuestia, setting them in their historical and theological context (OUP 2011). More recently he published a more poetic and meditative work entitled Becoming Human: Theological Anthropology in Word and Image (SVS Press, 2013) and a full study of St Irenaeus: St Irenaeus of Lyons: Identifying Christianity (OUP, 2013). He also completed a new critical edition and translation of Origen’s On First Principles, together with an extensive introduction, for OUP (2017), and John the Theologian and His Paschal Gospel: A Prologue to Theology (OUP 2019). Most recently, he published a new translation of Gregory of Nyssa's On the Human Image of God (aka On the Making of Humanity). (adapted from the University of Aberdeen website).

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Episode: We're sharing another great podcast with you this week that we hope you'll enjoy. Blue Note Theology is hosted by Mark Glanville (visit HERE). This may be the only podcast in the world hosted from a grand piano! The Blue Note Theology podcast offers a fresh vision for the church in post-Christian neighbourhoods. Blue notes in jazz and blues music create tension and some of the deepest creativity is found in that space. Mark Glanville, a professional jazz musician, theologian, and author, interviews guests to imagine fresh expressions of Christian community.

In this episode that we're sharing, Mark unfolds a vision for leadership in post-Christian church communities. His guest is Wynston Minckler, a top acoustic bass player. Mark and Wynston show how jazz bands are “leader-full” communities, offering a fresh and exciting pathway for church leadership. Join in, and hear what is sounds like when jazz musicians play like a bunch of alpha leaders!

Host: For more about Mark, his podcast, speaking, and writing, visit his site - https://www.markglanville.org.

In this episode, co-host Amy Hughes talks with Daniela Augustine about her book The Spirit of the Common Good: Shared Flourishing in the Image of God. Her work is a perfect example of theology helping us parse large, complex, and weighty issues with high stakes: How do we engage with violence in our world? How do we live with one another as neighbors when terrible things divide us? How do we move forward together in the Spirit as a Christian community in a broken and war-torn world? Augustine's books that show what theology – and specifically Pneumatology – is capable of.

Guest: Dr. Daniela C. Augustine is Reader in World Christianity and Pentecostal Studies at the University of Birmingham (UK). She is editor with C.E.W. Green of The Politics of the Spirit: Pentecostal Reflections on Public Responsibility and the Common Good (Seymour Press, 2023), and is the author of The Spirit and the Common Good: Shared Flourishing in the Image of God (Eerdmans, 2019). Her research and publications are in the fields of theological ethics and public theology, focusing through pneumatological, anthropological and ecclesiological lenses on the subjects of social transformation, theology of economics, religion and culture, and eco-theology. Her work also engages Eastern Orthodox theology (with particular interest in Orthodox liturgical and sacramental theology), Pentecostal theology, and ecumenical studies in World Christianity, as well as continental philosophy (especially the thought of Jacques Derrida and Emmanuel Levinas).

Her current projects include: an investigation of the liturgical pneumatology of Alexander Schmemann conducted in conjunction with my habilitation work at the University of Heidelberg; and a research in spirituality of urban sustainability, focusing on the intersections of building communal trust, cultivation of social capital and achieving sustainable economic growth that promotes reverent consumption and ecological stewardship in pursuit of the common good. (from her Univ of Birmingham academic page).

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Episode: Jesus did not claim to be God. That is the verdict delivered by the preponderance of historical Jesus scholarship. Meanwhile many scholars of early Christianity--including luminaries such as Larry Hurtado, Richard Bauckham, and N.T. Wright--have contended that the evidence overwhelming shows that Jesus was immediately worshipped as divine after his death. That is, they affirm an early high Christology. How can this disconnect be explained? Renowned scholar Brant Pitre makes a innovative case from history that the most reasonable explanation is that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed claim to be God within his own historical lifetime, but that his divine claims have been neglected by previous historical Jesus scholarship because they were advanced in a distinctively Jewish "riddling" way. Cohosted by Matt Bates.

The Book: Brant Pitre, Jesus and Divine Christology (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2024), was the recent recipient of Nijay Gupta's "Book of the Year" award. Did Jesus see himself as divine? Since the beginning of the quest for the historical Jesus, scholars have dismissed the idea that Jesus could have identified himself as God. Such high Christology is frequently depicted as an invention of the councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon, centuries later. Yet recent research has shown that the earliest Jewish followers of Jesus already regarded him as divine.

Brant Pitre tackles this paradox in his bold new monograph. Pitre challenges this widespread assumption and makes a robust case that Jesus did consider himself divine. Carefully explicating the Gospels in the context of Second Temple Judaism, Pitre shows how Jesus used riddles, questions, and scriptural allusions to reveal the apocalyptic secret of his divinity. Moreover, Pitre explains how Jesus acts as if he is divine in both the Synoptics and the Gospel of John. Carefully weighing the historical evidence, Pitre argues that the origins of early high Christology can be traced to the historical Jesus’s words and actions.

Jesus and Divine Christology sheds light on long-neglected yet key evidence that the historical Jesus saw himself as divine. Scholars and students of the New Testament—and anyone curious about the Jewish context of early Christianity—will find Pitre’s argument a necessary and provocative corrective to a critically underexamined topic. (Publisher’s description).

Guest: Brant Pitre (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is Distinguished Research Professor of Scripture at The Augustine Institute in St Louis. Dr. Pitre is the author of numerous titles, including Jesus and the Last Supper (Eerdmans), as well as Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary (Image, 2018), Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist (Doubleday, 2011). He has also co-authored, along with Michael Barber and John Kincaid, Paul: A New Covenant Jew (Eerdmans)..

OnScript’s Review: “Finally! By showing from history that Jesus made divine claims about himself, Brant Pitre has compelled the prodigal quest for the historical Jesus to return home. This book should be received with open arms, because it is both necessary and convincing.” —Matthew W. Bates, author of The Birth of the Trinity; professor of New Testament, Northern Seminary.

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Episode: In this episode, Chris Tilling interviews Crispin Fletcher-Louis about his new book, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023). This work combines keen theological insight with rigorous scholarship to explore one of the most significant questions in Christian theology—the identity of Jesus Christ. Fletcher-Louis takes us on a remarkable journey through Paul’s Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:6–11, engaging with both Greco-Roman literature and Second Temple Jewish texts to craft an entirely new reading of this key text. The book is large, but surprisingly accessible—not to mention daring, filled with one original insight after another.

In our conversation, we delve into Crispin’s background, from his studies at Oxford during the heady days of E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, and Rowan Williams, to his teaching roles at Durham, King’s College London, and Nottingham, and his founding of Westminster Theological Centre. Now focused almost entirely on research and writing, Crispin is at the cutting edge of discussions relating to early Christology. We discuss why Philippians 2:6–11 became a thousand-page exploration, the wider textual frame of the letter, and Crispin’s navigation of Paul as a Jewish thinker within the broader Mediterranean world. Topics include Christ as a divine shape-shifter, the metaphysical implications of to einai isa theō, Paul’s innovative reworking of Greco-Roman concepts of divinity and virtue, and much more besides.

Crispin’s book has a dedicated website: www.divineheartset.com. There you can buy a digital copy, find reviews and additional resources, including links to videos in which Crispin summarises the book by chapter and section.

Guest: Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis completed his doctoral work on angels in Luke and Acts and has taught at Durham, King’s College London, and Nottingham. As the founder of Westminster Theological Centre and a postgraduate supervisor at the University of Gloucestershire, Crispin has spent decades researching and writing early Christology, publishing numerous important books and essays.

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Episode: Dru and Shai have a wide-ranging conversation about the use of Jewish sages in theology, gratuitous suffering, Jesus's interpretation of Torah, and more on love. Shai Held's work innovatively explores non-romanticized realities of love, including the practicalities and theologies of loving the stranger.

Guest: Rabbi Shai Held is a philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar, and is President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013), The Heart of Torah, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2017), and Judaism is About Love (2024) and he is the host of Hadar's newest podcast, Answers WithHeld. (from the Hadar Website).

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