September 13, 2021

Ep102. Texts After Terror, Rhiannon Graybill

September 13, 2021/ Liam Miller

I sat down with Rhiannon Graybill to talk about how we tell biblical rape stories and how we might tell rape stories differently (content warnings for discussions of rape and sexual violence). We discuss the twofold sense of "after": 1) after Phyllis Trible and related approaches of feminist biblical interpretation, and 2) after the event of terror (as in not letting the suffering or darkness of the texts consume all the interpretive space around them). We also discuss her framework of fuzzy, messy, and icky, as well as what it means to do unhappy readings. Along the way we explore the Graybill's use of millennial and Gen Z women's fiction, why predation might not be the best fit when talking about King David, and why we need more than more than consent as the arbiter of whether a story is a rape story.

December 16, 2020

Ep67. Talanoa with the Old Testament, Brian Kōlia

December 16, 2020/ Liam Miller

I sat down with Brian Kōlia to discuss his diasporic/postcolonial work on Ecclesiastes, his Tulou reading of Song of Songs (and its constructive implications for animal studies), his Fāgogo reading of Gen 3 (and its ability to cross taboos and allow more liberative conversations on sexuality), and teaching the Prophets in ways that preserve their distinctiveness and speaks into our times. What comes across is the vitality of this work and its nimbleness to not be tied down by the forms, questions, and big T truth of colonial forms of Christianity and academia.

Brian is teaching an intensive on the Prophetic Literature at United Theological College in North Parramatta from Jan 18-22. To find out more or enrol/audit the class contact Joanne Stokes on: joannes@nswact.uca.org.au or phone (02) 8838 8967 (Course Code: THL 308).

October 21, 2020

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

October 21, 2020/ Liam Miller

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.

May 13, 2020

Ep54. A Liberation Journey, Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev

May 13, 2020/ Liam Miller

I sat down with Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev to talk about the Liberating Path of the Hebrew Prophets. We talk about the world's need for courage, wisdom, and vision, the three qualities inherent in every prophet: “an encounter with divine love and concern for the world, courage to name oppression, and a moral imagination to articulate an alternative future.” We also discuss the importance of art, imagination, and dialogue in the prophetic tasks, the overlapping concerns of the Hebrew Prophets and the Book of Deuteronomy, and the way biblical liberation themes are found in various contemporary figures. We end with a discussion on how the prophetic critique of stability and immutability as "currency of empire" and the importance placed on a liberation journey in increasingly mutual relationships speaks with hope and care into our current COVID19 climate, and an impassioned plea to join the work of birthing a new world.

March 19, 2019

Ep26. What Happened at Sinai? Benjamin D. Sommer

March 19, 2019/ Liam Miller

I sat down with Benjamin D. Sommer, Professor of Bible and Ancient Semitic Languages at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. I ask him what happened at Sinai... which is a far more complicated question than you may have previously noticed. We discuss participatory revelation, dissolving the line between Scripture and Tradition, practices of close reading, the way Biblical texts destabalise their own authority whilst maintaining a commitment to Law, and whether we must privilege the redactor over the other voices in Scripture? Listen in iTunes // Watch on YouTube

“All Torah, ancient, medieval, and modern, is a response to the event at Sinai”

March 13, 2019

Ep25. Fire By Night, Melissa Florer-Bixler

March 13, 2019/ Liam Miller

I sat down with Melissa Florer-Bixler to talk her new book Fire By Night: finding God in the pages of the Old Testament. This is an exceptional, exciting, and accessible work, drawing us into the nuance, beauty, and challenge of the OT in order to draw us deeper into the life of God. We talk about reading slowly, how difficult texts often reveal parts of ourselves we’d rather turn away from, holiness, justice, Sodom and Gomorrah, and how the Mennonite practice of testimony fits well with the nature of debate and conversation within the pages of the OT. Also, we recorded this a day after the Oscars, so we talk about our desire for a Jael movie. Listen in iTunes // Watch on YouTube

This is a special episode, co-presented with Insights, the magazine of the Uniting Church in Australia Synod of NSW/ACT.

“From page to page, chapter to chapter, book to book, we encounter the human and divine in the same verse, the same ink, as one bleeds into the other.”

October 16, 2018

Ep19. The Heart of Torah, Rabbi Shai Held

October 16, 2018/ Liam Miller

“The first rule is to read slowly”

I interviewed Rabbi Shai Held, author of the two-volume The Heart of Torah: Essays on the Weekly Torah Portion. We discuss the character of love in the Torah, the importance of human responsibility, finding theological gems in unexpected places, reading characters as archetypes, particularism and universalism in a pluralistic age, and Judaism’s greatest gamble… also, why we need an Isaac movie.

This is a special episode of Love Rinse Repeat, co-presented with Insights, the magazine of the Uniting Church in Australia’s Synod of New South Wales and the ACT. Listen in iTunes / Watch on YouTube

May 01, 2018

Ep16. The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, Austen Hartke

May 01, 2018/ Liam Miller

I spoke with Austen Hartke, author of the new book: Transforming: the Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians. It is a wonderful book, and this discussion gives a great insight into why it is so essential for our times. We talk about what it is like to write a book with helplines in the back, how conversations and the stories of others shape a theological work, what Biblical story Austen would turn into a movie, why the book centres on Biblical studies/exegesis, the connection of experience between Eunuchs in the ancient world and Transgender Christians today, the importance of the body in the New Testament, and a life lived beyond apologetics. Listen in iTunes

September 13, 2017

Ep07. Womanist Midrash, Wil Gafney

September 13, 2017/ Liam Miller

I sat down with Wil Gafney to talk about her new book Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. We discuss what drew her to the Hebrew Bible, play some conceptual lightning round, ask her which woman from her book needs a major motion picture, discuss translation, the future of Womanist biblical studies, what its like to write a Biblical commentary, how the Hebrew Bible emphasis on remembering can inform contemporary debates about monuments and history, and I introduce a new segment centred on Amazon reviews... we talk about a LOT, and its a whole bunch of fun. Listen in iTunes

Podcast