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(Sign up for “Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled: Perspectives on Peace” Starting April 8th and running through May 27th on from 7 pm to 9 pm central time. This class, with Ethan Vander Leek, examines “peace” from various perspectives: Biblical, theological, philosophical, and inter-religious. Go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings.)

The Anarchy of Apocalyptic Theology: Beyond Now and Not Yet

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0300

In this discussion with Karl, Andy, Jim, and Scott, Paul brings together Christian Anarchy as it coincides with an apocalyptic theology, but fills this out through the work of Ann Jervis, who describes the need to set aside "now and not yet" as a controlling metaphor which does not do justice to victory in Christ.

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Coming To Easter Faith Through Taking Up the Cross

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 05:00:00 -0300

This is a combination of Brad and Paul discussing the sermon and the upcoming classes along with the sermon on approaching Easter through the cross, or taking up the cross as enabling resurrection faith.

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(Sign up for “Do Not Let Your Hearts Be Troubled: Perspectives on Peace” Starting April 8th and running through May 27th from 7 pm to 9 pm central time. This class, with Ethan Vander Leek, examines “peace” from various perspectives: Biblical, theological, philosophical, and inter-religious. Go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings.)

Ivan Illich and the Apocalyptic Failure of the Church

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0300

Paul, Nate, Karl, Jim, and Andy discuss the work of renegade Catholic Priest Ivan Illich in his criticism of institutional Christianity as giving shape to modern nationalism and the profound failures of modern society.

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Sermon: Learning to Think with Mary and Martha

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 05:00:00 -0300

Part 2: Interview With African Peace Activist John Ashworth

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Brad and Paul continue the conversation with John Ashworth, who has spent much of his life in Sudan in practical peacemaking efforts and describes how nonviolence is the real-world solution to conflict.

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Sermon: Exposing the Reigning Antichrist Through Love

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 05:00:00 -0400

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Jordan Daniel Wood, in conversation with Matt and Paul, explains the logic of Hegel as a natural development of Maximus' understanding of personhood, which also serves to address the failure of David Bentley Hart to grasp the paradigm shift Jordan is picturing in light of Hegel.

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Sat, 20 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: Death and judgment are not the end of the story in Scripture but either the continuation of the work begun in Christ or a restorative judgment in which all are drawn into restoration and salvation.

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David Artman: Universalism as a Theodicy?

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Part 2: Eucharistic Perspectives

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0300

In Part 2 on discussion of the Eucharist the focus on the role of the Holy Spirit, the bringing together sign and signified, in a new humanity of peace realized in deep communion and practice are discussed.

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Sermon: The Kingdom of Universal Peace Versus the Kingdoms of Evil

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: The kingdom of Christ, the church, is the all encompassing work of Christ in defeating evil, and the kingdoms of this world, so as to be all in all and to reign over all.

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Eucharistic Perspectives

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0300

What happens when a Baptist, an Episcopalian, an Eastern Orthodox, a Roman Catholic, and a non-denominational Christian discuss the Eucharist? Brad, Brian, Matt, Jonathan, and Paul arrive at a point of convergence which relies upon a depth of history, very much associated with the Eastern tradition.

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Sermon: Christian Zionism Versus Christ

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: The slaughter in Gaza demonstrates the bankruptcy of premillennialism, dispensationalism, and Christian Zionism, all of which deny the basic teaching that the work of the cross has defeated sin, death and the devil. The genocidal teaching displacing the Gospel, and which Christ identifies with blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, is now the predominant religion of the land.

(Sign up for the class Human Language, Signs of God: using Anthony Bartlett’s two books, Theology Beyond Metaphysics and Signs of Change, as one continuous argument. Underlying this sequence is the core perception that language is the privileged medium by which the biblical God, the God of nonviolence, is revealed to us. If God is going to invite us into a new sense and meaning of what it is to be human this has to happen through language, that is through "signs of God." Theology Beyond Metaphysics introduces the thought of semiotics and specifically in relation to the anthropology of Rene' Girard. Signs of Change traces a pathway of semiotic change of meaning through the text of the whole Bible. The course will run from 2025/9/16 to 2025/11/4. Register here: https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/)

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Benard Perret On the Girardian Satan

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 08:51:00 -0300

In part 2 of our conversation with Benard Perret he describes the role of the satan, or the complex nature of mimetic desire and the obstacle cause of desire which gives rise to violence and murder.

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Sermon: The Unity of Creator and Creation in Christ-Consciousness

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: The point of judgement, "When you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me," puts the full weight of the eternal in the finite, which is the form of the incarnation. Eternity has invaded time, and to continue in a consciousness that separates them is the failed ethics and consciousness Christ defeats in his uniting God and humanity.

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The Premiere French Expert, Benard Perret, Explains René Girard

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 05:00:00 -0300

Sermon: The Gospel as the Interpretive Key and Situation of Scripture

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0400

In this sermon, the witness of Scripture to Christ and Christ as interpretive key to Scripture is spelled out, using the Gospel of John and Paul's illustration in Corinthians concerning Moses.

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Anselm Versus Hegel On the Ontological Argument

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0400

In this first podcast on Imaginary Apologetics, it is noted that Anselm's ontological and cosmological arguments pose a logic developed in his atonement theory, focused on a foundational logic, and this is contrasted with Hegel's understanding that the ontological argument is dependent on Christianity and the Person of Christ. Hegel is working from a Maximian-like understanding in which Christ brings together thought and being while Anselm does not reference Christ in the core of the argument.

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Sermon: Stretching Forth Eternally Toward the Image of God

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Philippians 3:13 describes a stretching forth, in which the past (failures and achievements) are forgotten as part of the focus on the goal of attaining to likeness of Christ. Gregory of Nyssa portrays this Pauline understanding as the eternal dynamic of life in Christ which offers true stability and peace.

Sign up for the upcoming class, "Lonergan & the Problem of Theological Method." The course will run from the weeks of February 16th to April 11th. Also sign up for Sin and Salvation: An in-depth study of the meaning of sin and a description of the atonement as a defeat of sin and the basis of an alternative community in Christ. This course will run through the beginning of February to the end of March. Register here https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings

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Sermon: Transcending the Finite Self Through the Alpha and Omega

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 05:00:00 -0400

The transformative power in conversion and salvation flows backward, redeeming all of our life, so that the end is in the beginning. Our finite lives make sense as they are stretched out in the beginning and end that is Christ. This self-transcendence is realized in being woken up religiously to the love of God, morally to others, intellectually to the cosmic Christ, and psychically or emotionally to the fruits of the spirit.

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Part 2 Sin and Salvation and Entry into Friendship

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 12:25:14 -0400

Here is part 2 of the 2 part discussion of the upcoming course Sin and Salvation. John, Matt, and Paul, discuss their theological journey as a journey of friendship. (Sorry, the previous podcast was duplicated but here corrected.)

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Conversion and Salvation: The Beginning is in the End

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Matt, John and Paul discuss the upcoming course with PBI, Sin and Salvation, which focuses on the peace of Christ, and which pictures the theological journey as only cohering as a continuing journey, in which the beginning is in the end, as with Christ.

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Flannery O'Connor Versus Enlightenment Individualism

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Sermon: The Slaughter of the Innocents in Palestine

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 05:00:00 -0400

Herod lied to the wisemen about his intent, pretending to want to worship Jesus, but slaughtered the innocent children of Bethlehem in an attempt to kill any rival. This provides a working principle for understanding the facade of piety among rulers and the powerful and how to understand the continued slaughter of the innocent in Palestine and elsewhere. It clarifies the mandate for the people of God to be citizens of the Kingdom of God rather than citizens of this world.

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Music: Bensound

Sermon: The Violence of the Old Testament as Spiritual Allegory

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 05:00:00 -0300

In Galatians, Paul explains that Christians are to read the law allegorically for their edification and to cling to the law for interpreting Christ is to continue to be enslaved by the elementary principles. As Origen explains, to cling to the violence and lust of the law by reading literally and historically rather than applying spiritually is to continue in enslavement to lust, idolatry, and violence.

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The Organizing Power of the Lie Exposed: Reading Ephesians with Peter Berger and Rene Girard

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0300

Here is a repeat of an earlier podcast on Girard and Peter Berger. Jonathan, Matt, Brian, Brent, and Paul discuss Ephesians 4-5 and the singular lie exposed by Christ creating entry into love. The function of a hostile lie in the reification of culture and religion, as in the work of Peter Berger and Rene Girard, and the necessity of this lies exposure so as to be "rooted and grounded in love" is discussed.

(To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.)

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Sermon: Joy

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0300

Joy is integral to the Christian life as described by Peter, commanded by Paul, and as defined by love and mutual indwelling by Dionysius and Maximus, who describe this joy and love as ecstatic longing and giving, culminating in the kenotic love of Christ.

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Sat, 14 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0300

In this conversation, Michael Hardin introduces his class with Ploughshares Bible Institute on the work of René Girard. He describes the 8 week course which will begin the second week of October. Michael was a friend of Girard and was present at the founding of the Colloquium On Violence and Religion, and he will share published and unpublished work from Girard and others detailing the important work of this key thinker.

To register for the course go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings

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René Girard

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 05:00:00 -0300

Here is a repeat of an earlier episode on René Girard pointing to our upcoming class with Michael Hardin. Paul and Frank have a conversation about the work of Girard, who has given us a tremendously useful and biblical understanding of the scapegoat mechanism which shapes all culture.

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 05:00:00 -0300

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0400

Mike Johnson has put on display the reigning religion of Christian Nationalism, in imagining God ordained his rise as Speaker so as to support Israel. The appeal to Romans 13 is a key part of this Christian Nationalism, but this misses the true message of Paul that the Christian defeat of evil government is not through fusion of church and state, but by Christian adherence to the Kingdom built on resurrection power not through directing the state power of death.

John DePue On a Rhetorical and Apocalyptic Rereading of Romans

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0400

In part 2 of our conversation, John DePue explains the history of interpretation of Romans up to the Reformation, the manner in which Phoebe would have acted out the text, and how it is an apocalyptic reading avoids supersessionism or antisemitism.

See Beyond Justification (https://wipfandstock.com/9781532678981/beyond-justification/) , by Douglas Campbell and John DePue.

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Sermon: Christian Zionism and the Anti-Christian Judaizing Tendency Paul Refutes

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 05:00:00 -0300

The rise of Christian nationalism, first in England and then in the United States, has always been linked to Christian Zionism, which is now killing Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians. Ironically this is linked to Romans 11, where Paul sets forth the purposes of Israel to Christ, and refutes any eternalizing importance of the law or of ethnic Israel.

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John DePue Explains the Precedent for the False Teacher of Romans 1:18-32

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Luther's justification by faith, though it may have been aimed at an unconditional understanding over and against works-righteousness, melded conditionalism and unconditionalism and injected much of Christian thought and biblical interpretation with this confusion. Romans is the place these two systems collide, and particularly how we read Romans 7 brings out the contrast in epistemology, anthropology, the doctrine of revelation, the understanding of God, and of Christ and atonement.

(Sign up for our next class, Romans: Salvation through the Body of Christ A theological study of the faithfulness of God revealed in Christ Jesus as articulated in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Focusing on Paul’s exposition of God making the world right through Christ. Starting September 4th https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings)

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Women’s Chapel Project: The Destructive Role of Purity Culture and Complementarianism in the Church

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Megan, Shaila, Jess, and Paul continue the discussion surrounding Megan's Women's Chapel, as it has addressed the destructive nature of how women and human sexuality are viewed in teachings surrounding both purity culture and complementarianism as they have become part of church and Christian teaching.

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Sermon: Justification by Faith as Unconditional Good News

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Justification by faith can either be understood as the "accursed gospel" of the false teachers or entry into the unconditional good news. The manner in which justification by faith must include every category is worked out in this message.

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The Women’s Chapel Project

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Megan, Shaila, and Jess describe to Paul the Women's Chapel started by Megan as a project through Washington University to provide a space for women to share their church journey through, what is sometimes a stifling and traumatic experience.

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Sermon: The Accursed Gospel

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches - Christ exposes the history of murder and the exposure, as in the case of Daniel Ellsberg's exposure of the Pentagon Papers and the Doomsday Machine and Cormac McCarthy's novel Blood Meridian exposing nihilistic violence, is the first step in confronting evil. The Gospel, by definition, opposes the violence embedded in the human heart.

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Mon, 10 Apr 2023 05:00:00 -0300

Sat, 26 Nov 2022 05:00:00 -0400

In this final podcast on the book of John, Jim, Matt, Brian, Tim, David and Paul, discuss the atonement theory of John - and whether atonement is the right word - and the meaning of dying with Christ or being inflicted with the sickness unto death (or the incapacity to die with Christ).

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Mon, 04 Jul 2022 05:00:00 -0300

Matt, from an Eastern Orthodox tradition, and Jon, from an Episcopalian tradition, and Paul, discuss the spiritual life, prayer, and the experiential difference available in active spiritual practices and living life from a spiritual perspective.

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Mon, 13 Dec 2021 05:00:00 -0400

In this PBI discussion of chapter 9 of Paul Axton's book, The Psychotheology of Sin and Salvation, Allan, Tim, Matt, Nathan, Thomas, Trenton, Rob, and Paul discuss the three part structure of the human subject as revolving around a deception. Calvin's is taken as an example of one who misses the deception and in doing so believes the lie of sin, demonstrated in the failed treatment of baptism, the confrontation and resolution to the lie.

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Sat, 16 Oct 2021 05:00:00 -0300

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Sermon: Reading the Bible Figuratively

Sat, 26 Jun 2021 05:00:00 -0300

Music: Bensound

The Problem of Dualism

Mon, 18 May 2020 05:00:00 -0300

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 08:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: The basic negative emotions – shame, jealousy, envy – can be understood as arising with mimetic rivalry – desiring what the other desires; desiring life and wholeness and feeling its absence. With the faith of Abraham made complete and available in Christ, imitating his faith saves from blind sacrificial violence.

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Sermon - Is Sacrifice Necessary?

Sat, 14 Sep 2019 08:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: In Christ what sacrifice hides is now revealed. No longer can we claim that sacrifice and murder are perpetuated by God – as His murder and all murder “shall be charged against this generation” (Luke 11:51). All that would claim the necessity of His sacrifice perpetuate the lie that killed Him.

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Jason and Vangie Discuss the Course in Creation Care

Mon, 09 Sep 2019 10:26:39 -0300

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 08:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton begins a new series answering basic theological questions, beginning with original sin.

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Music: Bensound

Sermon - Communion as Celebration of Death's Defeat

Sat, 06 Apr 2019 10:58:58 -0300

In this sermon, Paul Axton sorts out the biblical picture from the various traditions and reactions that arose around the Lord's Supper.

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Postliberalism as Over and Against Fundamentalism and Liberalism as Well as Postmodernism - Part 2 of 2

Mon, 01 Apr 2019 08:00:00 -0300

Hayden Hagerman and Paul Axton discuss how Postliberalism intercedes into modern thought- as a disruption on the order of idolatry undone and absorbed by the strange new world of the Bible.

Part 2 of 2.

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Music: Bensound

Sermon - Reversing Sin's Effect in the Death Acceptance of Communion and Baptism

Sat, 30 Mar 2019 08:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: The reversal of sin is through the death of Christ because sin is an orientation to death which his death addresses.

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Music: Bensound

Postliberalism as Over and Against Fundamentalism and Liberalism as Well as Postmodernism - Part 1 of 2

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 08:00:00 -0300

Sat, 16 Feb 2019 07:00:00 -0400

Paul Axton preaches on I Corinthians 9, where the apostle Paul's ideal of authority and leadership is contrasted with that of the Corinthians and contemporary notions of leadership.

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Wittgenstein and Augustine - An alternative approach to Theology (Part 1 of 2)

Mon, 11 Feb 2019 07:00:00 -0400

Sat, 05 Jan 2019 09:13:24 -0400

Mon, 15 Oct 2018 12:07:16 -0300

In this conversation Paul Axton and Ryan Hemmer discuss philosophy of science as it impacts theology and as worked out by Bernard Lonergan.

Ryan also recently started his own podcast, Systematically.

Part 3 of 3

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Music: Bensound

Sermon - Christ and Culture

Sat, 13 Oct 2018 17:45:38 -0300

Paul Axton preaches: In the 1960’s and into the 70’s – with the Vietnam War, the sexual revolution, women’s liberation, the rise of the drug culture – what we call the cultural revolution – a phenomena called the Jesus People came about. Youth Culture meets the Church. We are not at the end of this cultural clash but can assess it through Corinthians.

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Music: Bensound

Sermon - The Success of the Cross

Sat, 06 Oct 2018 14:27:03 -0300

In this introductory sermon to I Corinthians, Paul Axton compares the measure of the cross to the health and wealth gospel and the philosophy of church growth as a measure of success.

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Ryan Hemmer - Bernard Lonergan and Speculative Theology: Part 1 of 3

Mon, 01 Oct 2018 13:30:44 -0300

Paul Axton interviews Ryan Hemmer who is completing a major work on Bernard Lonergan. Here are his insights into this key theologian of the 20th century. Lonergan provides the basis for theology to forge ahead into previously uncharted territory and Ryan explains why.

Ryan also recently started his own podcast, Systematically.

Part 1 of 3

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Music: Bensound

PBI Course - Matthew: Gospel of Kingdoms

Tue, 25 Sep 2018 16:54:28 -0300

Sat, 28 Jul 2018 08:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton invties Bryan Gallant to discuss recovering from the worst sort of grief and finding love and a new understanding of God and what is important.

Author's book: Undeniable

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Music: Bensound

Sat, 14 Jul 2018 08:00:00 -0300

This Father's day sermon by Paul Axtno suggests ultimate despair is answered through love of God as Father.

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Music: Bensound

Interview with Congressman Mark Siljander

Mon, 09 Jul 2018 08:00:00 -0300

Paul Axton interviews congressman Mark Siljander, attacked by Bush and Cheney for attempting to work out a diplomatic solution to the Middle East, spent 4 months doing hard time in a federal prison as a result. His notion that we should give peace a chance has had real-world results and radical personal consequences.

THE ALGORITHM Things To Avoid:

Are you pushing a personal agenda?

Are you asserting that"I" am right & "you" are wrong?

Are you using the tactics of shame or disgrace;"pointing out mistakes"?

Are you keeping a record of the offences committed by the "other" person?

Are you holding anger toward the "other" person? Are you acting proud of yourself, your culture/country or religion?

Are you happy when bad things happen to your enemy?

Things To Embrace:

Are you patient with each other?

Are you acting in kindness or acting upon your own self-interests?

Are you seeking justice and truth?

Are you hopeful (to God) for a positive outcome?

Are you giving up easily or are you working together persistently?

Do you think that the "other" party is trustworthy?

Are you only protecting your self interest?

Mon, 16 Apr 2018 13:55:51 -0300

Paul Axton and David Rosado review two films, Won't You Be My Neighbor and Primas.

Won't You Be My Neighbor: Fred Rogers was about to enter the seminary when he turned on his first TV and saw a man get hit with a pie. He was aghast. How could he preach love and kindness when preschoolers were absorbing junk violence? So he changed career, trading a clerical collar for a cardigan, and attempted to change the world. Morgan Neville’s “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” follows how Rogers spent three decades hosting PBS’s “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” answering kids’ questions that other entertainers wouldn’t, including week-long episodes on death and divorce. Introducing the film at Sundance, Neville described his cheery documentary as therapy, only now for adults. At the first glimpse of the retro red trolley, a grown man in the audience moaned in joy.

Primas: How do you go on after an appallingly traumatic experience? Rocío, an 18-year-old Argentine girl, has managed to get her life back on track. When she was 10, she was dragged from her bike by a passing stranger, raped, set on fire and left for dead in a field. Incredibly, she survived. Now she tells her story to her cousin, who was sexually abused for years by her own father. Director Laura Bari transforms the girls' shocking personal stories into a beautifully natural portrait of two ordinary adolescents with familiar questions about life.

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Music: Bensound

Mon, 12 Mar 2018 12:09:52 -0300

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Mon, 17 Apr 2017 13:00:00 -0300

Jonathan Totty makes the case that nonviolence is at the heart of the central ideal of unity in the Restoration Idea.

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Music: Bensound

Galatians 2 – Justification and Authority

Sat, 15 Apr 2017 14:33:00 -0300

Paul traces how authority works in relation to the Gospel and what this has to do with Justification.

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Preserving the Fellowship – The Purpose of Galatians and the New Testament

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 01:27:00 -0300

Galatians and the New Testament are written that, “We might know how to conduct ourselves in the household of God.” The Bible is to be read in the Church so as to preserve an already existing unity.

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The Difference Christ Makes

Mon, 10 Apr 2017 13:03:00 -0300

Can we state the concrete personal and psychological difference which Christianity makes? Through a comparison of contemporary psychoanalysis and Ro. 7-8 this difference is layed out.

(Talk given at Lane Christian Church for the area men’s meeting.)

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Music: Bensound

God Is Making Things Right in the Face of Sin and Death – A Summary of the Book of Romans

Sat, 08 Apr 2017 13:00:00 -0300

In this sermon, Paul summarizes the book of Romans.

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Music: Bensound

I John 5:1-5 – Tests or Proofs of Christianity

Wed, 05 Apr 2017 13:00:00 -0300

Paul continues his study of I John.

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Music: Bensound

Narrative Ethics

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 13:00:00 -0300

Using Scientology and Albert Speer as examples, Paul demonstrates how narrative misdirection or a truncated narrative can result in evil. This points to the need of the alternative narrative community of the church in which to ground our ethics.

Apologetics as Witness

Sat, 18 Mar 2017 13:00:00 -0300

Paul presents a reconstituted, holistic form of apologetics that may provide effective witness.

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Music: Bensound

Mon, 02 Jan 2017 13:00:00 -0400

Ryan, in an unusual move, combines Pauline theology and the Book of Revelation with the peaceable living of agrarianism.

He talks about Wendell Berry’s agrarian pacifism, it’s a sort of rooted peaceableness. In my mind, I can’t imagine anything more peaceable than rooting oneself on a piece of land, committing oneself and one’s family to live in tune with that place and embodying the gospel by your peaceable existence on that land and in that community. I can’t imagine anything less violent than saying, “I’m going to reject what the world says I should be doing in terms of pursuing all of these economic goals,” rejecting that whole system and instead saying, “I’m going to root myself here and I’m going to take my life from this land.” That’s how I connect the way I think about creation care and agrarianism and how, at its core, is concerned with a kind of patient peaceableness that I think the gospel calls us to. So, we can talk about peace all day, but at the end of the day if we’re still getting our food from an industrial system that destroys God’s creation and depends upon oil, then we’re still benefiting from other people committing acts of violence.

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Music: Bensound

The Vainglorious and the Glorious Economies

Sat, 31 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul compares the two economies presented in Galatians.

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Music: Bensound

Michael Householder Interview

Wed, 28 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul interviews Michael Householder, who practices a very different “church growth” system than what we normally see in consumer-oriented mega-churches.

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Music: Bensound

Resurrection as the Resolution to Shame

Wed, 21 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

That we have entered into this millennial kingdom in and through Christ—what should mean for us in our immediate experience is that we’re no longer desperate to save ourselves. If we understand the human enterprise—the kingdoms of this world—what are they all about? Well, they’re in the business of securing themselves. They’rein the business of saving themselves. And that is the desperate need that consumes peoples’ lives. It’s the driving force. And, so, when we talk about the millennial kingdom, it is a resolution that is enacted in baptism through the church now,so that we begin to live resurrection lives in the present.

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Rediscovering Communion – Part II

Mon, 19 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul and Frank continue their discussion on the meaning, origin and practice of communion. This episode covers the purpose of the Levitical sacrifices and the significance blood, more readings from the Didache, whether communion and the assembly should be open or closed, and a little more detail on the way thanksgiving offerings were practiced.

For Further Learning:

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Music: Bensound

The End of the Law and its Shame in Christ

Sat, 17 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Romans chapter 10: The end of the law, or the purpose of the law is shown to be the way it points to covenental relationship which resolves the problem of shame and death which is the problem of sin.

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The Reality of Shame

Wed, 14 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

In this lecture, Paul discusses the root negative emotion, shame, and how Christ addresses it.

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Music: Bensound

Where Do We Go from Here in the Restoration Movement?

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul and Jonathan Totty have a conversation about the state of the restoration movement.

Paul: To my mind, this is the pernicious influence that we’re combatting: Donald McGavran church-growth philosophy which flows with American utilitarianism, pragmatism, and consumerism to produce the model of the mega-church as the goal which is pervasive—and I don’t mean just the big churches, but even in the little churches, the mega-church is just the goal. Is that your perception?

John: Yes, even in smaller congregations in smaller communities, Instead of thinking in terms of how do we best serve the community, how do we grow spiritually,and how do we grow deeper in our knowledge of the Word, the emphasis is still on how we grow numerically.

Paul: Right, and how you grow numerically is not through a scholarly engagement with the Old Testament, but a kind of concealed light treatment—a kind of “gospel-light.” But the whole trend in preaching is toward a kind of spectacle and production—as is the music—all bent upon delivering a product.

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The Greatest Mystery

Sat, 10 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

What is the mystery resolved in Christ? Paul connects the resolution of this mystery to the meaning of world history and to the meaning of predestination and the role of Israel and the Church. (Romans 9-11)

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There Is No Personal Relationship to God

Wed, 07 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

There is no personal relationship to God apart from the historical ground of the covenant with Abraham fulfilled in Christ. The perverse underside of the law draws us in through imagining we can gain righteousness through agonistic struggle or through intensified personal effort or emotion – through an intensified “personal” disembodied relationship. This leads to the fruits of the law.

The problem Paul struggles with is how to avoid the trap of perversion, that is, of a Law that generates its transgression. Paul presents a sinful perspective on the law which generates transgression (and transgressive desire), but he presents no way out of this bind other than through re-founding subjectivity in Christ.

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Narrative Freedom

Mon, 05 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

NT Wright says, “The story of the new exodus in Christ and the homeward journey of God’s people led by the Spirit provides the setting for incorporative and participationist language.” This is over and against the old Lutheran reading, right? In other words the way you are saved in a Lutheran/Calvinist understanding is not so much through participation in Christ but it’s through an imputed legal righteousness. That leaves out the narrative reality that is being described.

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What the Cross Doesn’t Mean

Sat, 03 Dec 2016 13:00:00 -0400

A first-Sunday-of-Advent message about the meaning of the cross of Christ and how it resolves the violence of people and not the violence of God. Inherent in the discussion is the topic of the meaning of OT sacrifice. Jason gives an alternative to the classic “appeasing an angry God” reading of the atonement sacrifice. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Rediscovering Communion – Part I

Wed, 30 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul and Frank start a conversation about a Biblical understanding of communion and what it may mean to restore Biblical practice today.

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Music: Bensound

Resources from the conversation:

For further reading:

Lindsay, Dennis R. “Todah and Eucharist: The Celebration of the Lord’s Supper as a ‘Thank Offering’ in the Early Church.” Restoration Quarterly 39 (1997): 83–100.
Gese, Hartmut. “The Origin of the Lord’s Supper,” In Essays on Biblical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1981.
Hicks, John Mark. “Churches of Christ and the Lord’s Supper: Twentieth-Century Perspectives.” Stone-Campbell Journal 13 (2010): 163-176.
Hicks, John Mark. Come to the Table: Revisioning the Lord’s Supper. Orange, CA: Leafwood Publishers, 2002.
Thurian, Max. The Mystery of the Eucharist. American ed. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1981.

Saved From Sin Not The Law

Sat, 26 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul describes the problem with divine satisfaction and presents an alternative biblical understanding.

As long as we are willing to sell our brother down the river, have the other suffer instead of us, I believe we have no part in true Christianity. When we are willing,though, to take up the cross and stand with those who are suffering, stand with those who are oppressed, then I believe we have joined the way for Christ.

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Christ as Culture

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

What is the Church and how does it save? The point is not that we have to negotiate between two realities – there is only one cultural reality and this is that established in the body of Christ.

As NT Wright has put this, “No first century Jew could imagine that the worship of their God and the organization of human society were matters related only at a tangent.” That is that who God is—think of the Old Testament means coming out of the nations, forming an alternative economy—what is the economy of the Jews? It’s the strangest economy of the world, it’s built on Jubilee and Sabbath. Every 50 years everything reverts back [debt is erased]. Now, whether the Jews practiced that is in question, but Jesus came preaching, “The year of Jubilee has arrived.” Here is a kingdom, a culture that is going to put into practice the ideas built into Israel. It’s a social rebellion—a departure from the most powerful Empire in the world. This should resonate here. We live in the most powerful Empire in the world. And the tendency is to continue to make bricks.

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Understanding the Atonement

Mon, 21 Nov 2016 14:42:00 -0400

The New Testament describes the defeat of sin and death and the devil. Historic explanations have missed this focus by picturing atonement as removing an obstacle located in a singular person (God, humans, the devil) when all three are involved in the construct which the cross addresses.

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Destruction of Democracy

Sat, 19 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

The scapegoating of Christ pronounced by Caiaphas is the height of political genius and definitive of majority rule. It is this evil that Christ came to defeat. Paul uses Rene Girard to explain scapegoating, the way it consumes all in its wake and how it is exposed by Christ.

The New Testament puts on display the logic and workings of human politics and shows us the logic at the center of human political strategy.

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The Problem of the One and the Many Solved Through Christ

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

How are we made right? In that we are found faithful inasmuch as we are found to be in Christ. He is the one who is faithful to the covenant. So we do ethics not as a separate part of our Christianity, as if “We got saved now and maybe we can be good on top of that.” The point is that Jesus’ goodness, his faithfulness, his walking in the way he did constitutes a faithfulness to the covenant. And our participation in his faithfulness is a participation in walking the way he walked. Our ethic is not an additive to salvation. Our ethic is our salvation. Too strong? Salvation is something you practice.

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Karl Barth and Analogia Entis with Jonathan Totty

Mon, 14 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Paul and Jonathan Totty have a conversation about Karl Barth and his engagement with Eric Przywara on perhaps the most important theological conversation of the 20th century, analogia entis, the analogy of being. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Christus Victor

Sat, 12 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Christ came to defeat sin death and the devil. This is inclusive of an overcoming of blinded minds so that we can now apprehend the working of sin in and through the principalities and powers.

In other words this perverse kind of Christianity is just one more ideology that is used to justify the self. At the heart of the problem is the very doctrine of the cross of Christ. Anselm’s doctrine of divine satisfaction that is an exchange between the Father and Son tends to leave out the human reality—that is an exchange within the Trinity does not picture what is happening in the New Testament. Calvin’s picture of penal substitution takes it a step further so that the God of the Bible is often portrayed like a kind of pagan deity demanding violent sacrifice. So we lose an understanding in this of the real-world difference that Christ makes in the reality of our own lives—that there are two kingdoms/logics/ways of thinking. So there is a kind of moral failure and intellectual failure in what often passes for Christianity today. What I’d like to talk about today is the meaning of the death of Christ as it is portrayed in the Bible. What we will see is that the way it is often talked about tends to mystify something that is not actually mystical.

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A Nearly Unbreakable Relationship

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Carlyle King, a man with autism, and Mario Puentes, the parent of a child with autism, share a friendship that they call “a nearly unbreakable relationship.” In this podcast, they discuss how their friendship has overcome the loneliness of autism and brought hope to both of their families. At Forging Ploughshares, we think the practice of healthy presence and acceptance they describe is a wonderful model of the way the peaceable kingdom works to bring different people together and an example of the practice of friendship with the other.

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The Story of Theology: II

Mon, 07 Nov 2016 13:00:00 -0400

Mon, 24 Oct 2016 13:00:00 -0300

Paul explains how the cross addresses evil.

We understand the nature of evil in and through the person and work of Jesus Christ, which is not normally the way this is done. Usually when we talk about Christ we don’t bring in the issue of evil. What we would bring in is other issues like the problem of sin. So, evil is usually reserved in a college classroom for something like apologetics—and in an apologetics course you never bring in the cross of Christ. You may think “that’s a travesty.” That’s the travesty of modern evangelicalism…

There is a Christianity, unfortunately, that makes itself irrelevant by colluding with the evil of the world. I’m not sure that we should continue to call it Christianity, but I’m not going to be the one to say, “Let’s stop using that word.” But where do we see it? We see it in nationalism, a Christianity coopted by the state…capitalism: a Christianity that gives itself over to notions of consumption and desire…or maybe just a commitment to do evil on a personal level so that good may abound. In someway, a Christianity that does not recognize the problem of evil and how the cross addresses it is one which makes itself irrelevant.

Music: Bensound

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Romans 8: God’s Infinite Depth of Communication

Sat, 22 Oct 2016 13:00:00 -0300

A comparison of Ro. 7:7ff – which amounts to an empty word from nowhere with Ro. 8:26-27 which describes an infinite depth of communication.

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Two Kinds of Certainty

Wed, 19 Oct 2016 13:00:00 -0300

Paul compares and contrasts the certainty we would attain to and the certainty given in Christ.

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Jesse Schrader on Cultural Relativism

Mon, 17 Oct 2016 13:00:00 -0300

Paul and Jesse Schrader discuss the anthropology of Ratzinger and Hauerwas, covering important differences and misunderstandings.

In talking about the topic of relativism: in the church being a separate community you will most certainly confront relativism. Because your only line of defense against relativism is not appealing to reason or philosophical argument. Instead, you are insisting that truth is something that is embodied—there is a merger there.

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The Therapy of Salvation

Sat, 15 Oct 2016 13:00:00 -0300

A picture of Christian salvation in terms of therapy or deliverance from systemic deception and the destruction this entails.

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Sat, 24 Sep 2016 13:00:00 -0300

Paul explains how hope deconstructs desire. The future anterior perspective (hope) breaks through the imminent perspective (desire).

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Romans 8, Life in the Trinity

Mon, 19 Sep 2016 22:40:00 -0300

Paul talks about life in the trinity from Romans 8.

You know, we often hear people say this that ‘Christ’s death defeats death,’ but can we say that we know exactly how—‘how does it do that?’ Well, once we understand that ‘death’ is the form of ‘life’ outside of Christ, that people’s lives are controlled by this absolute that is posited, and then Christ exposes that it’s not an absolute—that the enemy controlled it as some sort of door or mystery, that it is the fear of death as pictured in Hebrews—the punishing effects of sin and death are finished…the announcement in Romans 8 is that ‘living death’ is undone in Christ.

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Music: Bensound