Matt posted something on Facebook recently about people who attempt to "police" those going through deconstruction, who seem to:

1. equate deconstruction with de-conversion,
2. say people deconstruct so they can sin,
3. say people deconstruct to 'be cool or hip or trendy or for street cred',
4. criticize 'giving up' on the local church, and
5. blame deconstruction on bad teaching.

Matt received a response from Aaron Gardner, a friend who is right in the middle of a painful deconstruction process, and we decided to record a podcast conversation about what it's actually like to be right in the middle of deconstruction.

You can connect with Aaron on his Facebook page for further conversation.

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In their new book Beyond Justification: Liberating Paul’s Gospel, Douglas Campbell and Jon Depue address a growing frustration among many Christians of how to understand what seems to be contradictory messages from Paul about the Gospel.

On one hand, Paul usually talks about a participatory, transformational good news full of freedom, resurrection, love, and being ‘in Christ’. On the other hand, about 10% of the time Paul’s language speaks of retribution, punitive justice, and a conditional transaction at the cross. What to make of this disjunction in Paul’s thought?

Jon Depue joins us for a provocative conversation seeking a way through this quagmire that has consistently confounded Christians for many years. Making use of historical backgrounds and utilizing a close reading of Paul’s rhetoric and argument in the book of Romans, Doug and Jon propose a compelling and unifying way forward to a clear articulation of Paul’s Gospel.

Jon DePue is a graduate of Duke Divinity School and has served churches as director of Christian education for several years. He currently works as a learning community support specialist for Indianapolis Public Schools.

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The fact that "good evangelical Christians are Republican" seems obvious means the propaganda is working.

Professor and author Scott Coley helps us understand how evangelicalism became fused with right-wing politics and now presses evangelical theology into the service of authoritarian politics, which he outlines in his new book Ministers of Propaganda: Truth, Power, and the Ideology of the Religious Right.

Scott M. Coley is a lecturer in philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University. His research interests include philosophy of religion, moral epistemology, and political philosophy.

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A dramatic misinterpretation of the Jewish tradition has shaped the history of the West: Christianity is the religion of love, and Judaism the religion of law. In the face of centuries of this widespread misrepresentation, Rabbi Shai Held, in his book Judaism Is about Love: Recovering the Heart of Jewish Life, recovers the heart of the Jewish tradition, offering the radical and moving argument that love belongs as much to Judaism as it does to Christianity.

Rabbi Shai Held--philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar--is President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of several books, and is the host of Hadar's newest podcast, Answers WithHeld.

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In her book Forgiveness After Trauma: A Path to Find Healing and Empowerment, Christian minister and scholar Susannah Griffith explores what the Bible says--and doesn't say--about the biblical call to forgive. She helps readers understand a "trauma-informed forgiveness" that is healing and restorative, framing forgiveness within broader concerns around lament, anger, accountability, release and rebirth, and reconciliation.

Susannah Griffith (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is an independent scholar whose work focuses on the intersection of biblical studies and trauma. She is also a licensed minister of the Mennonite Church USA, a role she embodies to advocate and care for the marginalized outside the walls of the church. Her first book, Leaving Silence, was a Christianity Today Book Award finalist for Christian discipleship. Griffith resides in Northern Indiana with her husband and three young daughters.

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American history has profoundly shaped, and been shaped by, Christianity. In her book Turning Points in American Church History: How Pivotal Events Shaped a Nation and a Faith, Dr. Elesha Coffman tells the story of Christianity in the United States by focusing on 13 key events over four centuries of history. Elesha helps us understand our faith and the landscape of American religion.

Elesha J. Coffman (PhD, Duke University) is associate professor of history at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She previously served as the editor of Christian History magazine and has taught at the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary. She spent a year as a fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University. Coffman is the author of The Christian Century and the Rise of the Protestant Mainline, Margaret Mead: A Twentieth-Century Faith, and numerous articles on American religious history.

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The Beatitudes are some of the most-quoted and least-understood words of Jesus. Pastor and author Ryan Post helps us hear the Beatitudes anew as good news to form us into Christlikeness.

Ryan Post is the lead pastor of Village Church in Burbank, CA and the author of Healthy Prayer: Integrating Structure, Silence, and Spontaneity and the book we talked about in this converastion, Jesus People: Communities Formed by The Beatitudes.

You can connect with Ryan and his work at ryanpost.com.

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Many Christians and churches are rediscovering that God cares deeply about justice, but opinions abound as to what an approach to biblical justice might look like in contemporary society. We talk with biblical scholar Michael Rhodes about justice-oriented discipleship that is critical for the formation of God's people, which is the theme of his new book Just Discipleship: Biblical Justice in an Unjust World.

JUST DISCIPLESHIP BOOK GIVEAWAY: In partnership with IVP, we are giving away two copies of Michael Rhodes' book Just Discipleship. Go to gravitycommons.com/justdiscipleship to register.

Michael J. Rhodes (PhD, Trinity College/University of Aberdeen) is the lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College. He is the author of Formative Feasting: Practices and Virtue Ethics in Deuteronomy's Tithe Meal and the Corinthian Lord's Supper; Practicing the King's Economy: Honoring Jesus in the Way We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give (with Brian Fikkert and Robby Holt); and numerous articles in popular outlets such as Christianity Today and The Biblical Mind. Rhodes has spent more than fourteen years involved in community development and urban ministry work, and is an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. He currently lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife, Rebecca, and their four children.

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Children are marginalized in our churches, dismissed into Sunday school or silenced for lengthy sermons aimed at adults. Ryan Stollar has spent his career advocating for the rights of children, and in his book The Kingdom of Children: A Liberation Theology, he proposes a liberation theology of the child, whereby we can avoid stunting their spiritual growth and passing on trauma.

Ryan Stollar is a child-liberation theologian and an advocate for children and abuse survivors. He holds an MHS in child protection from Nova Southeastern University and an MA in Eastern classics from St. John's College.

You can connect with Ryan and his work on his website rlstollar.com.

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Pastor, podcaster, and public theologian Trey Ferguson knows that faith can get messy. In his book Theologizin' Bigger: Homilies on Living Freely and Loving Wholly, he encourages us to re-engage our imaginations and construct theologies that speak to our current contexts. Our conversation covers topics like how we read the Bible, our inherited traditions, accountability, our value, and what the gospel is.

Trey Ferguson is a minister, writer, and speaker, with an M.Div from the Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University. You can find him podcasting on Three Black Men: Theology, Culture, and the world around us and New Living Treyslation, writing in The Son Do Move newsletter and Substack, and tweeting (@pastortrey05 on the social media platform formally known as Twitter). He lives in South FL with his wife and three children.

You can connect with him and his work on his website pastortrey05.com.

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We talked with biblical scholar Pete Enns about how the Bible actually works, what to do when your faith takes turns you never saw coming, and lots more. This is kind of a mashup conclusion for our past series on the Bible and our series on deconstruction.

Pete Enns is the Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University, and the host of The Bible for Normal People podcast. He is the author of The Sin of Certainty, The Bible Tells Me So, Inspiration and Incarnation, and the book we're mostly chatting about two of his latest books today today, How the Bible Actually Works and Curveball: When Your Faith Takes Turns You never Saw Coming.

You can connect with Pete and his work at thebiblefornormalpeople.com.

Show Notes:

• Resident Alien (TV Series)
• How to Practice Digital Minimalism

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