Podcast
Mere Fidelity
Hosted by Mere Fidelity · EN
From the Mere Orthodoxy Podcast Network: The Podcast reflecting on God's Word and our world. Thoughtful weekly conversations about theology, the culture, and the church, hosted by Derek Rishmawy and Alastair Roberts. Featuring Andrew Wilson, Brad East, James Wood, and Joseph Minich.
33episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Idolatry And The Shape Of Worship
1w ago00:59:15Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailIdolatry is one of those Bible words that can feel obvious until you try to use it carefully. We live far from Baal temples, yet we still talk about idols constantly and sometimes we label everything as an idol until the word loses its bite. Derek and Alastair slow down and rebuild the category from the ground up, starting where Scripture starts: the Ten Commandments, the golden calf, and the question of what it means to worship the true God rather than a controllable substitute.—Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Classical Theism: A Christian Introduction, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelityApply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships
Transcribe →The Christian Life with Kelly Kapic
2w ago00:52:24Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailKelly Kapic's The Christian Life — the newest volume in the New Studies in Dogmatics series — frames Christian living as a response to divine love, arguing that human agency is always Christological and ecclesial before it is personal. With Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, and James Wood.—Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Classical Theism: A Christian Introduction, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelityApply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships—00:48A Summit Work04:01False Dichotomies in Evangelical Thought08:19Anthropology and Life11:33A Little Summa12:32What's New About the Christian Life?14:35Forgiveness vs. Reconciliation15:42The Response to the Love of God19:20Christ's Vicarious Love and Agency24:44Understanding the Law and Gospel Distinction29:58Capital 'S' Sin37:11Obedience to the law41:38The Role of Liturgy in Corporate Worship49:42Living Out the Christian Life in Community
Transcribe →The Desecration of Man with Dr. Carl Trueman
3w ago00:54:49Tap to summarizeSend us Fan Mail Carl Trueman joins Mere Fidelity to discuss his book The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity. They examine why "desecration" captures something "disenchantment" misses — the frenzied, ecstatic violation of what is still recognized as sacred — and trace its implications for abortion, gender, technology, and end-of-life ethics. Trueman argues the church's answer is consecration: creed, worship, and a code of hospitality that restores genuine personhood. With Derek Rishmawy and Alastair Roberts. — Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Classical Theism: A Christian Introduction, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships — Chapters 00:00 - Introduction 01:10 - Why "Desecration" and Not Just "Disenchantment" 06:16 - The Pleasure of Desecration and Alternative Sacralizing 10:07 - Is This a Perennial Problem or Something New? 14:27 - Power, Impotence, and Promethean Shame 17:35 - Dizziness, AI, and the Nothingness of Radical Freedom 22:41 - Nietzsche, Nature, and the Denial of the Given 28:42 - Consecration as Response: Creed, Cult, and Code 33:14 - The Church and End-of-Life Ethics 39:18 - Vitalism, False Friends, and the Logic of the Cross 45:38 - Two Cheers for Christianity and the Opportunity Before Us 48:51 - Freedom, Belonging, and the Gospel
Transcribe →Virtues For Living Well with Dr. Alan Noble
4w ago00:47:55Tap to summarizeSend us Fan Mail What does it mean to live well in morally incoherent times? Alan Noble joins the show to discuss his new book To Live Well: Practical Wisdom for Moving Through Chaotic Times, which uses the four cardinal virtues and three theological virtues as a framework for navigating choice paralysis, the loneliness epidemic, and contemporary anxiety. The conversation covers why courage and temperance feel especially urgent today, the difficulty of writing on justice, hoping all things for political opponents, the sunk cost fallacy in vocational discernment, and why friendship requires intentional cultivation. Grace, not optimization, grounds the virtuous life. Hosted by Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, and James Wood. — Get the Spiritual Formation for the Family ebook for free at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family. Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Classical Theism: A Christian Introduction, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships — Chapter Markers 00:00 - Welcome and introductions 00:52 - The pitch for To Live Well 03:30 - Diagnosis: alienation or anomie? 06:30 - The four cardinal and three theological virtues 08:14 - What is a virtue? 10:11 - Office hours and the paradox of choice 14:54 - Fortitude in an anxious age 18:41 - The sunk cost fallacy and pivoting well 21:40 - The heap of broken images and Christian wholeness 25:07 - Hoping all things for political opponents 29:36 - The hardest chapter to write: justice 32:17 - What pastors and churches can do 34:40 - Grace, virtue, and the Protestant hesitation 38:55 - Friendship as the practice of love 44:31 - Closing thoughts
Transcribe →On Paul and The Law
Apr 3001:13:30Tap to summarizeSend us Fan Mail Was the Apostle Paul Torah-observant — not just before the Damascus road, but throughout his apostleship to the nations? Brad East stakes out a thesis drawn from Messianic Judaism and the Paul Within Judaism school: that Acts 21 should be read straight, that James is telling the truth about Paul, and that Genesis 12 and 17 still bind Jewish believers. Derek Rishmawy and Alastair Roberts push back hard, working through Galatians 2, 1 Corinthians 9, and the question of whether the law's force after Christ is divine command or Hookerian adiaphora — with the future of Jewish identity in the church in view. — Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family. Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering A Biblical Vision For Lifelong Discipleship, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship: https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships — Chapters 00:00 - Welcome and the Disclaimer 01:00 - The Thesis: Paul Remained Torah-Observant 01:34 - Messianic Judaism and Paul Within Judaism 04:29 - Acts 21: Is Paul Lying or Walking the Law? 08:04 - Alastair's First Move: Affirming, Not Practicing 10:33 - A Law You Need Not Obey Is Not a Law 12:17 - Law as Covenant vs. Law as Instruction 15:34 - Circumcision as the Test Case 16:13 - Adiaphora, Hooker, and Binding Authority 17:40 - 1 Corinthians 9 Enters the Conversation 18:08 - The Halakhic Question: Should Elders Discipline? 21:11 - Acts 15 and Internally Differentiated Norms 23:13 - Alastair on Existing Authorities and Custom 26:36 - The Canonical Vision: Revelation 7 29:50 - Adiaphora's Sociological Problem 33:22 - Galatians 2: What Was Peter Doing? 38:18 - Permission vs. Prohibition 41:04 - Why Reduce Genesis 12–17 to Local Custom? 44:02 - Baptism, Circumcision, and Covenant Signs 47:55 - Does God Want Jews in the World? 50:10 - Providence and the Future Conversion 56:42 - One Body in Christ and the Complementarian Parallel 57:08 - Reinterpreting "Under the Law" 1:01:18 - Difference Without Division 1:04:13 - The Empirical Problem for Both Views 1:07:51 - Reading Our Situation Back into Paul 1:10:46 - Closing
Transcribe →How To Approach God
Apr 2200:55:17Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailHow do we hold together confidence before God and a proper sense of his holiness? Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, and Joe Minich take up a pastoral question at the heart of Christian worship and prayer. Working from the Lord's Prayer, the Psalms, Job, and John 8, they discuss the dangers of both presumption and paralyzing anxiety, the relationship between knowledge of God and knowledge of self, and why assurance is less a fact we verify than a relation we inhabit. Along the way: Isaiah's vision, Calvin on "stupid" prayer, and what Alcoholics Anonymous teaches about showing up. — Spiritual Formation for the Family ebook: http://mereorthodoxy.com/family Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering A Biblical Vision For Lifelong Discipleship, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship: https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships — 00:00 - Introduction 01:17 - Confidence and holiness: the central tension 02:52 - The Lord's Prayer and the dynamic of approach 04:48 - The honesty of the Psalms and Job 09:16 - Boldness in prayer: the unjust judge and friend at midnight 11:11 - Hebrews and the two mountains 13:45 - Name-it-and-claim-it vs. petitionary prayer 14:45 - Being seen by God rather than seeing God 16:50 - John 8 and the woman caught in adultery 19:50 - Owen, Calvin, and "hard thoughts about God" 23:51 - "There is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared" 24:34 - Judgment and absolution in forgiveness 29:13 - The joy of approach and the glory of God 31:13 - Calvin, Isaiah, and the knowledge of God and self 33:58 - The erasure of sin in Waugh and Eliot 36:25 - Assurance as relation, not calculation 39:13 - Adoption, marriage, and secure identity 41:11 - Two kinds of self-absorption 45:48 - Alcoholics Anonymous and staying in the game 50:10 - Distorting the game itself: Jeremiah and the den of thieves 52:30 - Pastoral wisdom: who needs what 55:05 - Closing
Transcribe →Replay: Protestants & History with Paul Gutacker
Apr 1500:51:12Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailOn this episode of Mere Fidelity, historian of history Paul Gutacker joins Matt, Derek, and Alastair to talk about the changing and sometimes fraught relationship that Protestants have had with the notions of "history" and "tradition." Paul's book, The Old Faith in a New Nation, particularly examines how nineteenth century debates about slavery, etc., influenced our ideas about the roles of Scripture and Church in regard to history. — Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family. Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering A Biblical Vision For Lifelong Discipleship, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship: https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships — Timestamps: Neo-Calvinism [0:30] My Fellow Subjects [2:08] Meta-history [3:22] What is Biblicism? [4:37] Misusing History [9:54] Scripture's Changing Role [14:42] Tradition or History [18:41] Church Disputes [23:36] Foreigners [27:06] Spirit and Letter [29:35] Hermeneutical Precedent [42:42] How should pastors use history? [46:05]
Transcribe →Between Nature and Grace
Apr 900:54:02Tap to summarizeSend us Fan Mail Derek Rishmawy, James Wood, and Joseph Minich trace the nature-grace debate from de Lubac's challenge to neoscholastic "pure nature" through Blondel, Bavinck, and Betz's Christ the Logos of Creation — asking what's actually at stake: the gratuity of grace, the coherence of theological anthropology, and the twin dangers of secular dualism and pantheist collapse. — Get Spiritual Formation for the Family ebook for free at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family. Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering A Biblical Vision For Lifelong Discipleship, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonPhD — Chapters 00:00 - Introduction: Why Nature and Grace? 02:30 - The Debate in Context: Neo-Calvinism, Catholic-Protestant Dialogue, and David Bentley Hart 05:00 - James on De Lubac: Challenging Pure Nature and Extrinsicism 08:30 - Blondel, Desire, and the Political Consequences of Separation 11:30 - Derek's Five-Year-Old Explanation: What Is Actually at Issue 13:30 - Joe: Natural Ends, Supernatural Ends, and the Beatific Vision 16:00 - Steel-Manning the Two-Tier View: Gratuity of Grace 18:30 - Bavinck, the Donum Superadditum, and Terminological Convergence 22:00 - The Neo-Calvinist Peril: Immanentizing the Eschaton 24:00 - Reception History: Did De Lubac Get Thomas Right? 27:00 - Betz, Chavarra, and Philosophy's Openness to Theology 31:00 - Participatory Metaphysics and Non-Competitive Freedom 33:30 - Derek's Worry: The Pantheist Ditch 36:00 - Horton's Trilogy and the Irenaean/Origenist Distinction 39:00 - The Two Ditches: Extrinsic Dualism vs. Pantheistic Monism 43:00 - Desire, Idolatry, and the Hook Into the Real 47:00 - Was the Incarnation Part of the Plan? Creation in Christ 50:00 - Closing Thoughts: Bavinck's Affirmations and Where to Go Next
Transcribe →Replay: The Age of AI with Jason Thacker
Apr 100:59:53Tap to summarizeSend us Fan MailWhen students started turning in papers written by artificial intelligence, educators were caught flat-footed. We knew that machines would replace many human tasks, but we thought the humanities were immune to that. Have our writing standards fallen so low that we can no longer write better than computers? Or are we about to experience the awakening of Artificial Consciousness? Matt and Alastair discuss this situation with Jason Thacker, the Chair of Research in Technology Ethics at the ERLC. — Get the ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family. Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering A Biblical Vision For Lifelong Discipleship, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity — Timestamps: Written by a Bot [0:00] The ChatGPT Panic [2:45] What is human? [6:48] Is intelligence important? [11:09] Going Full Hobbit [20:57] Did we do this on purpose? [28:00] Inevitable Arms Race [34:44] Covid Tech-lash [45:20] AI(dolatry) [52:34]
Transcribe →The Fall Before The Fall with Philip G. Porter
Mar 2501:22:03Tap to summarizeSend us Fan Mail What if death's presence in the cosmos is not native to creation but a wound running all the way down to its foundations, inflicted before Adam ever reached for the fruit? Philip Porter joins Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, and Brad East to discuss his new book, which retrieves Augustine, Aquinas, Milton, and Tolkien to argue that the angelic fall precedes and precipitates every other form of evil, and that contemporary theology has been too quick to make peace with death. —— Hosts: Derek Rishmawy, Alastair Roberts, Brad East Guest: Philip Porter, assistant professor of theology at Saint Louis University (Madrid) and author of Unnatural Death: Creation, Sin, and the Angelic Fall. He completed his doctoral work under Paul Griffiths at Duke Divinity School. —— Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family. Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership. Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, Keeping Kids Christian: Recovering A Biblical Vision For Lifelong Discipleship, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonPhD —— Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 3:50 - Porter's thesis: why death as enemy matters and what contemporary theology gets wrong 8:40 - Augustine's rationes seminales: the seed-like reasons at the heart of creation 10:15 - Angels as administrators of creation and how their fall wounds the cosmos 13:30 - Tolkien's Silmarillion, Melkor's discord, and the felix culpa logic 17:30 - The conditio and administratio: God's atemporal creation vs. its unfolding in time 20:00 - Three false paths: Kelsey, McCabe, and Darwin 27:00 - Does scripture naturalize death? The grain of wheat, 1 Corinthians 15, and Alastair's question 39:10 - The double fall: Romans 5, the angelic fall, and how they fit together 42:00 - Satan's envy of the hypostatic union: what Lucifer saw and why he turned 52:00 - Refracted and diffracted light: a metaphor for holy and fallen angels 1:01:40 - Deep time, hominins, and what it means for Adam to be unfallen in a devastated cosmos 1:05:05 - The Johannine thread: destroying the works of the devil and what the devil actually wants 1:12:30 - Universalism, David Bentley Hart, and the problem the angelic fall poses for it 1:20:35 - Supralapsarianism and the incarnation-anyway position Books Mentioned Philip Porter, Unnatural Death: Creation, Sin, and the Angelic Fall Paul Griffiths, Decreation David Kelsey, Eccentric Existence J.R.R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion David Bentley Hart, That All Shall Be Well Ambrose of Milan, On the Good of Death
Transcribe →