Ep128. Ganbaru: a story of wrestling and humanity, Jonathan Foye

/
Ep128. Ganbaru: a story of wrestling and humanity, Jonathan Foye

I sat down with a good friend, Jonathan Foye, to discuss his book Ganbaru: How All Japan Pro Wrestling Survived the Year 2000 Roster Split. We discuss the all-too-human drama of this story of grief, conflict, separation, and a will to persevere, playing out in and out of the ring.

In the year 2000, Mitsuharu Misawa left All Japan Pro Wrestling. He took all but two of the company’s contracted wrestlers with him. To keep the company alive, company owner Motoko Baba made two phone calls. One was to a man who had walked out on the company a decade ago. The other was to an age-old rival.

Read More

Ep106. Religion and the History of the CIA, Michael Graziano

/
Ep106. Religion and the History of the CIA, Michael Graziano

I sat down with Michael Graziano to talk about his book Errand into the Wilderness of Mirrors which investigates the dangers and delusions that ensued from the religious world-views of the early moulders of the CIA. We discuss how the religious studies of the time (both in the academy and in popular culture) shaped the CIA's view of and approach to religion - particularly the developing World Religions Paradigm. Along the way we discuss American exceptionalism, shifting attitudes to Catholicism, and the strongly held belief within the CIA that a religious person would always, ultimately, side with the good ol' USofA.

Read More

Ep105. The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America, Aaron Griffith

/
Ep105. The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America, Aaron Griffith

I interviewed Aaron Griffith about his book God's Law and Order, which argues that we cannot understand the US criminal justice system without accounting for evangelicalism's impact on its historical development. We discuss why crime and punishment 'mattered' for white evangelicals in the post-war period, how they made an expansive mass incarceration system seem neutral and appealing to the broader public, and how the focus on soul saving shaped the current justice system and evangelicals involvement therein.

Read More

Ep98. The Shape of Sex, Leah DeVun

/
Ep98. The Shape of Sex, Leah DeVun

I sat down with Leah DeVun to discuss her book, The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to the Renaissance. We talk about how widespread thinking and writing about non-binary individuals was during the first centuries of the CE and again in the C12th-14th, and the way non-binary bodies actually shaped the way a host of categories and boundaries (not just gender) were demarcated. We talk in detail about the shift in the C12th/13th and the way non-binary sex shaped the project of establishing a non-human other, justifying violence towards Jews and Muslims, and determining who could live in a Christian territory. We also talk about the figures of "Adam androgyne" and the "Jesus hermaphrodite", and how they function as "anchors of eschatological time." Finally, Leah discusses how this study can inform our present, not only by showing that the consideration of non-binary, trans*, and intersex bodies are not novel to our period, but how this consideration cuts through claims of 'natural and immutable' in our own day.

Read More

Ep97. The Miracle of Religion in Modern Manhattan, Jon Butler

/
Ep97. The Miracle of Religion in Modern Manhattan, Jon Butler

I sat down with historian Jon Butler to discuss his book God in Gotham which explores religion in Manhattan from the last C19th to midC20th. We discuss how - contrary to much opinion (then and now) - modernity, urban density, and plurality did not prove a stranglehold on religion in this most city of cities but proved fertile ground for its flourishing. We also discuss religion, race, and activism in this period, in particular the efforts of the Reverends Adam Clayton Powell and Adam Clayton Powell Jr. We also explore what he dubs 'God's Urban Hothouse' the particularly fertile theological institutions (Union and the Jewish Theological Seminary) and prominent theologians and religious figures who worked in this time (e.g. Heschel, Day, Niebuhr, Tillich, Ida Bell Robinson, the Powells again). It is a rich discussion about an incredible story.

Read More

Ep90. Redfern: Aboriginal Activism in the 1970s, Johanna Perheentupa

/
Ep90. Redfern: Aboriginal Activism in the 1970s, Johanna Perheentupa

I sat down with Johanna Perheentupa to discuss her new book on Aboriginal activism and the push for self-determination in Redfern in the 1970s. We discuss the conditions and social changes that made Redfern ripe for such radical change and the development of landmark organisations such as the Aboriginal Legal Service, the National Black Theatre, Aboriginal Medical Service, Murawina preschool, and the Aboriginal Housing Company. We discuss the relationship between these organisations and the well known demonstrations of the time (such as the Tent Embassy). We discuss the way the ALS emerged as a response to police violence, how the Black Theatre sought to shape a national Indigenous identity, and how the ALS and AHC engaged the fight for land rights in the city.

Read More

Ep84. Luke/Acts and the End of History, Kylie Crabbe

/
Ep84. Luke/Acts and the End of History, Kylie Crabbe

How does Luke's understanding of the end of history reshape experience in the present? I sat down with Kylie Crabbe to talk Luke/Acts, eschatology, history, and how ancient writers make sense of negative experience. I also ask Kylie to argue the case for Luke as the best gospel and attempt to disprove the theory that Acts is actually kind of boring.

Read More

Ep79. A Bridge Between, Katharine Massam

/
Ep79. A Bridge Between, Katharine Massam

I sat down with Katharine Massam to talk about Spanish Benedictine Missionary Women in New Norcia in Western Australia. We discuss the way this strange, surprising, complex, and sad story helps chart a path for thinking about religious and colonial history in these lands now called Australia. We talk about the way this small mission town both reflected and balked the broader trends in the colonial project of assimilation, changes in C20th Catholicism, and the experience of women in religious orders (with particular attention to the story of Sr Veronica Therese Willaway OSB). We also cover how one writes history that doesn't praise anyone, and holds the complexity of a story that should never have been with the fullness of feeling of those most impacted.

Read More

Ep45. Remembering Lived Lives, Michael Jimenez

/
Ep45. Remembering Lived Lives, Michael Jimenez

I sat down with Michael Jimenez to talk about his attempt to take the foreignness of history to another level. We engage his book, Remembering Lived Lives: A Historiography from the Underside of Modernity (Cascade, Books, 2017) - and I ask him about how good history and theology does not forget to remember the past, empathetic reading, Barth's view of history, engaging history through cinema and image, and how history can be seen as resistance.

Read More

Ep 41. Christian Women in the Patristic World, Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Huges

/
Ep 41. Christian Women in the Patristic World, Lynn H. Cohick and Amy Brown Huges

I sat down with Amy Brown Hughes and Lynn H. Cohick to talk about their book Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries (Baker, 2017). We discuss responsible remembering, the emphasis on martyrdom, asceticism, virginity, and the renunciation (or at least creative use) of money during the era, the ways women were impacting the developing the dynamic theology of the early church, how Thecla “becomes what any specific generation of the church needs her to be”, and which woman from the era needs their own, sprawling, high-budget mini-series whatever streaming platform needs quality content.

Read More

Ep32. The Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake

/
Ep32. The Bible in Australia, Meredith Lake

“From the outset it has followed a fluctuating path of negotiation and transformation”

I sat down with Meredith Lake to talk about the Bible in Australia. We bust myths about the history of the Bible in this country, talk about where one goes looking to find the cultural history of a book so contested, the way the Bible shows up in almost every major national conversation and debate (often on both sides), the role of the Bible in colonisation, its use by immigrants, and the way Indigenous Christians – from early on through today – have reappropriated the Bible, turning it back on the worst of White Australia. Listen in Apple Podcasts

Read More

Ep17. A Flexible Faith, Bonnie Kristian

/
Ep17. A Flexible Faith, Bonnie Kristian

I sat down with Bonnie Kristian to talk about her new book A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What it Means to Follow Jesus Today. We talk about her own journey in discovering the flexibility within Christian doctrine, the incredible people from many varied Christian communities and traditions she interviewed in the book, her hopes for neigbourhood ecumenicism, and the importance of understanding and dialogue in the contemporary world. Listen in iTunes

"Following Jesus is a big, weird, amazing thing that individual believers, movements, and denominations have expressed in remarkably different ways over the centuries"

Read More

Ep06. Postcolonialism & Biblical Etchics, Mark Brett

/
Ep06. Postcolonialism & Biblical Etchics, Mark Brett

I interviewed Mark G. Brett, the Professor of Old Testament and Research Coordinator at Whitley College, part of the University of Divinity, to talk about his recent book POLITICAL TRAUMA & HEALING: BIBLICAL ETHICS FOR A POSTCOLONIAL WORLD. 

We cover a lot! We do a conceptual rapid fire round, getting tweetable definitions for a host of complex terms. We talk about what postcolonialism offers conversations around secular democracy and human rights, we address the church, and its habit to fall into ethno-centrism, Mark explores how we begin to begin with Aboriginal voices, and the last 10 minutes is a can't miss discussion on economics and Biblical ethics! Listen in iTunes

Read More

Ep02. Explorations in Asian Christianity with Scott W. Sunquist

/
Ep02. Explorations in Asian Christianity with Scott W. Sunquist

In this, our second episode, Liam is joined by Scott W Sunquist to talk about his book Explorations in Asian Christianity. We talk they why and how of studying Christian mission (including his excellent proposal of a cruciform and apostolic lens), discuss the multi-directional, complex, and fascinating story of the transmission of Christianity in Asia (spoiler: it's much more complex than East to West), a theology for mission and migration, the question of unity in World Christianity, what story from world Christian history would Scott turn into a movie... and so much more! Listen in iTunes

“Christianity was born at the borderland of two empires, and at the confluence of three continents”

Read More