The Biblical Mind

Is God Perfect? Does that Matter? Peter Leithart Workshop, Part 2

On February 15, Rev. Dr. Peter Leithart joined the Center for Hebraic Thought and a group of about 20 professors, church-goers, and students for an all-day workshop on the Perfection of God.
In the second session, Dr. Leithart discusses the idea of "deflating metaphysics" a bit in order to see how the biblical authors describe God. 

Is God Perfect? Does that Matter? Peter Leithart Workshop, Part 1

On February 15, Rev. Dr. Peter Leithart joined the Center for Hebraic Thought and a group of about 20 professors, church-goers, and students for an all-day workshop on the Perfection of God.
This first session is on the primacy of Scripture in considering God's attributes.

Is God Perfect? Does that Matter? Peter Leithart Lecture

This podcast is taken from the evening lecture of our February 14-15 workshop with the Rev. Dr. Peter Leithart from the Theopolis Institute.If you're interested in the content of the workshop that he refers to multiple times throughout the lecture, stay tuned for the recording of that, coming soon.

The Hebraic Roots of Modern Equality

Rabbi Dr. Joshua Berman (Bar-Ilan University, Israel) gave a talk at The King's College on January 31st on our modern notion of equality that was uniquely sculpted in the Hebrew Bible. Politics professors—Dr. Innes, and Dr. Griffin— and Center for Hebraic Thought fellow Dr. Shira Weiss offer responses and questions.

Moral Progress in the Bible?

Rabbi Dr. Jeremiah Unterman delivers a public lecture for the CHT examining moral progress in the Hebrew Bible and more generally in the ancient Near East. 

Hebraic Thought in Christmas, Part 2: Humble Moms and Shepherds

Nerdy Episode: Baby Yoda, Christmas, & Hebrew Narrative

Drs. Mary Hom and Dru Johnson discuss the impact of the baby Yoda story in the Christmas season, how the Star Wars stories and Yoda's poetic speech prime expectations, and how much these resemble aspects of the biblical narratives and style—especially Christmas!
 

Hebraic Thought in Christmas, Part 1: Endangered Babies

We think of Christmas as a New Testament Story, but does it start earlier?
Hint: the story of a child changing the flow of cosmic events goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
The nativity isn't an isolated story, but it pulls together all of God's political ambitions for the world, to run it with righteousness, justice, and peace.

The Idea of Christian Calling

 
Dru Johnson talks with Drs. Eric Smith and Scott Booth of Pillar Seminary about the notion of calling in Scripture and some of the problematic thinking about Christian vocation practiced in the church. They address the following questions:
 
What do Christians commonly misunderstand about calling?
Is individual calling the same as a vocation/career?
What are Christians called to do as a whole?
How do you know if God wants you to be a missionary or a banker? Does it matter?
Can we demand signs and wonders from God like Moses and Gideon did?
 

Hebrew Ethics: Radical in the Ancient Near East, Yet So Familiar to Us

In this episode, Dru talks with Dr. Unterman about biblical teaching on ethics. They discuss ancient notions of justice, law-keeping, fickle gods, and the treatment of foreigners across the Near East. Unterman highlights the specific and unusual features of Hebraic thought that have also informed our modern Western ethics more than we might realize. 
Jeremiah Unterman is a resident scholar at the Herzl Institute, Jerusalem. He is the author of Justice for All: How the Jewish Bible Revolutionized Ethics, From Repentance to Redemption: Jeremiah’s Thought in Transition, and numerous scholarly articles.