The Biblical Mind

Update: Now Accepting Questions for Upcoming Q&A Episodes!

We at the CHT and TBM are curious about your thoughts and questions regarding the intellectual world of the Bible! We’re now inviting listeners to send us questions, and we’ll start answering them in upcoming Q&A episodes. You can email us your questions at cht_administrator@tkc.edu. 
Have you ever wanted to jump into a conversation between Dru and one of our guests? Do you want to probe more deeply into a topic of a previous episode? Or do you perhaps have a question on a topic we’ve never discussed, but that you think we could answer? We look forward to hearing from you!

What Can Non-Jewish Clergy Learn from Jewish Studies? (Jeff Jacoby)

This week, Jeff Jacoby, op-ed columnist for The Boston Globe since February 1994, joined Dru to discuss his essay in Sapir, "Jewish Study for Non-Jewish Clergy." He proposes a project of study with deep historical roots that would benefit clergy and anyone who takes religion seriously, not just as an abstract intellectual exercise.
He writes, "Imagine that it were possible for non-Jewish clergy — Catholic, Muslim, Baha’i, Mormon, Baptist, Hindu — to have the opportunity to engage meaningfully with the world of Torah study from the inside, even if for only a limited time."
0:30 Essay in Sapir
3:53 The Jethro Project
13:58 The Jewish style of questioning on the spot
28:51 Why would this program be valuable?
33:00 Experiencing Sabbath in Israel
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

The Sexual Reformation: What Does the Bible Actually Say about Gender? (Aimee Byrd)

Certain modern stereotypes and gender roles influence how women and men in the church understand their humanity and sexuality. When people fall short of these expectations, they can feel inadequate. An idea that has pervaded church history is that men and women are polar opposites. Famous theologians have called women inferior. Regarding gender, what is actually "biblical," and what is merely cultural—and sometimes very harmful?
This week, Aimee Byrd critiques the stereotypes in light of her new book The Sexual Reformation, with an eye to restoring the dignity of personhood. She focuses mainly on the Song of Solomon to explore what the roles of men and women, married and single, truly are based on God’s spousal love for His people.
Show notes:
0:26 Am I feminine enough? Am I masculine enough?
4:57 The ideal human
7:45 Masculinity and aggression
11:26 Marriage as a picture of God’s love
13:20 The Aristotelian person
16:31 The effect on women
19:23 The last man standing is a woman
23:09 Women in Scripture
31:45 Embodied spirituality
34:40 You are valuable
38:00 What Aimee would say to those who disagree
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

A Look Back at Rethinking ’Quiet Time’ (Jen Wilkin)

This episode was originally published on January 1, 2021. We thought it was worth a reissue for our newer listeners.
Why do many Christians elevate the practice of "quiet time": isolated, often hurried and brief daily Bible-reading? Jen Wilkin—author, speaker, and leader of many Bible studies—challenges this practice. She believes that, rather than instilling deep Bible literacy, the typical "quiet time" encourages shallow reading and pursuit of instant gratification in the form of cheap satisfaction or vague encouragement at the expense of comprehension.
Reading any book this way would not yield a thorough grasp of its themes, narrative, characters, and worldview, Jen says, so why read the Bible this way? While affirming its inerrancy, Jen cautions against treating Scripture like a magic 8-ball. The practice of quiet time is indeed formative, but not necessarily for the better. She proposes an alternative method of Bible study involving, among other things, extended (if not daily) reading and regular input from other careful Scripture-readers.
Show notes:
0:25 The problem with "quiet time"
8:06 English literature and magic 8-balls
18:56 Setting low expectations for Bible literacy in the church
23:17 The effectiveness of raising the bar
31:21 Why Jen Wilkin focuses on an audience of women
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

Beyond Bible Study: From Consumers to Participants (Caroline Smiley and Kyle Worley)

To find your place in the story of Scripture, you have to understand the story and then how the story continues into our world today. Many Christians haven't learned a method for reaching sound theological conclusions, and end up being more defensive than constructive. Some Christians are also content to lack Bible knowledge as long as the pastor or another leader has it, instead of becoming knowledgeable themselves within a community. 
Caroline Smiley and Kyle Worley explain how they have partnered to help people learn theological methods and frameworks to study the Bible in a way that is sustainable and replicable. 
Show notes:
0:27 Beyond Bible study: the contours of Scripture
3:00 What led to their method
5:06 From consumers to contributors
6:37 Help for poorly formed theology
13:49 Challenges of leadership
17:20 We disembody knowledge with one knower
24:30 An alternative to seminary
27:15 Theological education
30:16 Practicing knowledge in the church
31:40 Next steps; partnership and sustainability
Book mentioned: 
By the Renewing of Your Minds, by Ellen T. Charry
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

What Do Rituals ’Do,’ and What Makes a Ritual Sacred? (Ben Noonan)

Rituals aren't mechanistic activities that may or may not produce a direct, isolated result. Rather, rituals shape a person over time. What distinguishes mundane rituals such as brushing your teeth or drinking coffee from sacred rituals such as baptism?
In Scripture, sacred rituals are formative for particular purposes, separating God’s people from the rest of the world, while simultaneously providing people with a community.
Dr. Ben Noonan joins us to discuss rituals and practices: which ones from the Bible are meant for today, how they change us, and how the rituals we don’t necessarily practice today draw on principles that still can apply to our lives.
Show notes:
0:26 Significance of rituals to faith
2:16 One-time thing?
3:38 The formative aspect of rituals
8:05 Individual and corporate identity
10:21 Is Sabbath a ritual?
14:15 Rituals and sacraments
18:54 “We don’t do those rituals anymore!”
23:32 Can we start with Jesus?
25:16 Talking to those worried about rituals
Show Notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

The True Causes and Purposes of Religious Doubt (Matthew LaPine)

For many people, the stress of the pandemic has amplified what would otherwise be small tensions and concerns. This tensions can eventually cause or manifest as creeping religious doubt, which may be interpreted, rightly or wrongly, as a sign of a larger underlying spiritual problem.
Dr. Matthew A. LaPine, pastor of Theological Development at Cornerstone Church of Ames and author of The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology, joins us this week to discuss how he guides others through their doubts (especially college students), and reminds us that in the midst of brokenness, there is still tremendous joy that flows from fellowship with God and others. 
Show notes:
0:27 The true sources of religious doubt
3:55 Faith and the college years
8:50 Emotions, rationality, and spirituality
10:17 How God addresses our doubts
15:20 Difference between determination and control
17:50 Is apologetics effective?
25:05 Befriending good scientists
Show Notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

Love Enemies Better through Knowing the Biblical Land (Danielle Parish)

The Jewish and Christian faiths exist because of the events that happened in a particular place and time. To understand biblical texts—including issues of justice and loving strangers and enemies—we should learn something about the places where the events they describe occurred. Danielle Parish, pastor of Spark Church in Palo Alto, CA, who leads study tours in Israel, discusses the importance of the biblical land and how enjoying creation as "guardians of the Garden" can deepen our knowledge of Scripture.
Show Notes:
0:25 Perspectives of God
5:14 Consider the birds of the air
6:23 The Importance of the land
10:25 Climate and connection to the land
14:07 Love your enemies
21:44 Reconciliation
22:59 God of rescue and resurrection
24:19 Recommendation for the average church
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

Still Trying to Find Yourself? Try Losing It First (Alan Noble)

One of the most countercultural sentences comes from the Heidelberg Catechism: our only comfort in life and death is that "I am not my own, but but belong—body and soul, in life and in death—to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ." The loudest voices in the contemporary West seem to tell us that we belong to ourselves, that we author our own destinies and create our own identities. This is not the way of Scripture.
It's also an exhausting, depressing, and disappointing way to live. Indeed, belonging to yourself is literally impossible. Counterculturally and even counterintiutively, we need to practice dying to ourselves and living for others, because we belong to God and to our communities.
Though the burden of belonging to others is difficult to bear, with practice and the Holy Spirit’s help it is possible. Dr. Alan Noble joins us to discuss his book You Are Not Your Own, and how to practice belonging to God in a world that is self-seeking.
Show Notes:
0:26 Comfort or solution?
3:42 Practice knowing that you are not your own
7:54 Counting the cost
10:07 Ways God belongs to us
13:55 Dirtlings
15:20 Being = belonging
17:34 Jacques Ellul
19:14 Weaving threads, and the middle-way between resignation and affirmation
27:01 What we’ve lost in renunciation
28:26 Dysfunctional legalism and the singular will
34:40 Stay-at-home parents
38:18 Non-techniques to solve the problem
40:20 Stumbling around, grace, and forgiveness
Other resources mentioned:
The Meaning of the City, by Jacques Ellul 
Show notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.

The Church Needs African Hermeneutics (Liz Mburu)

Where you are situated in time and space affects how you interpret the world. This cultural, geographical, and historical consciousness likewise forms a hermeneutical lens whereby we read and understand Scripture.
Professor Liz Mburu, a Kenyan theologian and author of African Hermeneutics, joins us this week on the podcast to discuss how she views Scripture through an African hermeneutical lens. One African way of seeing the Bible is as a text of power, with a strong focus on the role of the Holy Spirit.
As members of the body of Christ, Christians around the globe need each other's perspective to develop a full understanding of Christianity and how to practice it.
Show notes:
0:27 Biblical hermeneutics
5:06 Looking at Scripture through the Kenyan lens
10:40 Is there an African hermeneutic?
14:45 Scripture as a text of power
19:06 The native religion informing the hermeneutic
23:17 Pastors visiting witch doctors/syncretism
28:06 The Global church needs all its members 
Show Notes by Dominique LaCroix
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast: hebraicthought.org/credits.