Ep83. How to Have an Enemy, Melissa Florer-Bixler

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Ep83. How to Have an Enemy, Melissa Florer-Bixler

“No good comes from the denial of enmity.” I spoke with Melissa Florer-Bixler about her new book, How To Have an Enemy. The question, she emphasises, is not whether to have enemies, but how to have the right enemy. We also talk about the myth of the Christmas Day truce, problems of 'unity', and why Melissa's job as a pastor isn't "to create a politically diverse church where people share their ideas dispassionately in an attempt towards middle ground or mutual transformation.” We end with a discussion about what the church can offer in a society riddled by inequality, dispossession, and violence and how stepping out to work against the principalities and powers of this world might require us to make ourselves enemies of the community (even the family) in which we were once so lovingly rooted.

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Ep59 (LIVE). Psalms and Prophets in a Pandemic, Monica Melanchthon, Lyndal Sherwin, Renee Evans

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Ep59 (LIVE). Psalms and Prophets in a Pandemic, Monica Melanchthon, Lyndal Sherwin, Renee Evans

In a special live episode of Love Rinse Repeat, Liam sat down with Monica Melanchthon, Lyndal Sherwin, and Renee Evans to talk about how we might read the Psalms and Prophets in the midst of a pandemic.

Despite often being framed as a great equaliser, the impact of COVID is disproportionately metered out against the world's vulnerable people. The time of the pandemic has been accompanied, in Australia and elsewhere, by an intensified push to confront and overcome racial injustice, renewed emphasis on the need for urgent environmental activism, and revealed just how many people are willing to sacrifice their neighbours for the economy.

The Prophets and the Psalms, texts often written and compiled in the wake of deep disruption, traumatic cataclysm, and the end of meaning, are unwavering in their demands for truth, lament, repentance justice, and hope. For this reason they are a potent place to turn amidst the crises of our day. Join us for a wide-ranging and relevant discussion on what the church can learn through the disruption and comfort that comes from reading these old texts in a new pandemic.

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Ep44. John's Missional Theosis, Michael J. Gorman

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Ep44. John's Missional Theosis, Michael J. Gorman

I sat down with Michael J. Gorman to discuss his recent book on the Gospel of John, Abide and Go: Missional Theosis in the Gospel of John (Cascade 2018). We talk theosis, participation, spirituality, and mission – and how, in this gospel, these categories are not as separated as we might have thought. Gorman’s work reconfigures our thinking on a lot of topics, from forgiveness of sins, to the formation of community, and the ethic of enemy love.

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