Podcast
Queen of the Sciences
Hosted by Sarah Hinlicky Wilson · EN
Conversations between a Theologian and Her Dad
15episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Tradition
2d ago00:59:41Tap to summarizeTradition is a buzzword in confessional polemics: Protestants (supposedly) say Scripture only, while Catholics and Orthodox (supposedly) say Scripture-and-Tradition without hierarchical triage between them. Of course, it has never been that simple! Luther and Melanchthon and the Formula of Concord all insist that they were in fact more faithful to the tradition of the church against Roman innovation. Roman Catholics rightly point out all that is not explicit in Scripture and yet adhered to faithfully by the church, including Protestants (e.g. the word “Trinity” or infant baptism). For that matter, Scripture itself is a form of Tradition and full of Tradition—as the opening words of I Corinthians 15 attest, and much biblical scholarship of the past two hundred years has excavated. So what do we even mean by Tradition? How do we judge it or select from it—because everybody in fact does just that? How do we know what is a faithful development from the original apostolic gospel and what is a treacherous deviation? What “principle of critical judgment” or “clear method of discrimination”? David Bentley Hart and his book Tradition and Apocalypse to the rescue! ... maybe. Related episodes: Theology & Experience 1, Theology & Experience 2, Islam, Bondage of the Will, St Paul among the Philosophers We're in our EIGHTH year! Shouldn't such a tradition be supported? Demonstrate your little-o orthodoxy by backing us on Patreon!
Transcribe →How Are the Dead Raised?
Apr 2201:28:30Tap to summarizeYou foolish person! I Corinthians 15 isn't the place to come for an instruction manual, but for a redirection toward the one who was raised from the dead for the glory of God. In this episode Dad and I talk through what is—and isn't—the subject matter of the apostle's treatise on resurrection, where to be exuberant (i.e. doxology), where to be sober (i.e. the mechanics of the life to come), and why it makes all the difference to the living of this mortal life right now. We're in our EIGHTH year! And you haven't backed us yet? You foolish person! Demonstrate your phronesis by backing us on Patreon!
Transcribe →2026 Bonus 1: Crossover with All About Agatha
Mar 3101:51:54Tap to summarizeSarah discusses "The Water Bus," the last story to be covered from the collection Star Over Bethlehem by Agatha Christie Mallowan, with Kemper Donovan of the All About Agatha podcast!
Transcribe →Christian Bodies
Mar 1901:12:35Tap to summarizeEverything is authorized to me—but I will not let just anything have authority over me. And therein lies the path of discernment for a baptized Christian body in the world. Sex, marital and otherwise? Food, idolatrous or not? What has the promised resurrection to do with the mortal body in this life? In this episode Dad and I work our way through the 6th, 7th, and 8th chapters of I Corinthians to see both what the Apostle Paul concludes and how he gets there—and what that means for Christian bodies all these centuries later. We're in our EIGHTH year! What other podcast is both authorized and beneficial? Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Transcribe →Wisdom and Folly
Feb 1901:10:35Tap to summarizeWhere is the debater of this age? All over the internet, apparently. The Apostle Paul would not be impressed, and neither should you. If the wisdom of this world is foolishness in the eyes of God, how much more its folly! In the meanwhile, however, there is the real and contentious question of what, exactly, makes for God's wisdom and God's strength. Hint: if the answer does not include the cross of Christ, it fails the test. In this episode, Dad and I talk our way carefully through I Corinthians 1, 2, and a bit of 3 to discover how the foolishness of God exceeds human wisdom. We're in our EIGHTH year! And you still haven't backed us? Now that is the wrong kind of foolishness. Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Transcribe →Lenten Postil on the Passion
Feb 1800:04:02Tap to summarizeA quick introduction to a new ebook from Sarah: sermons on all four Passion accounts from all four Gospels. Download your free ebook of Lenten Postil on the Passion here.
Transcribe →Transfiguration 2026: Elijah and the Eschaton
Feb 200:30:55Tap to summarizeTransfiguration Sunday is coming soon -- the 15th of February! Arm yourself against the inevitable rehashing of the same with this, the second of seven ways of looking at the Transfiguration. Or better yet, treat yourself to all Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration.
Transcribe →Resurrection Revisited
Jan 2001:18:02Tap to summarizeSO MANY PROBLEMS when you try to think about the resurrection of the dead... one of the reasons it is abandoned as much by naive faith and scientific sophistication. Should we take such a challenge lying down? No, we shall not! In this episode, Dad and I rise to the occasion (see what I did there?) to think through, with the guidance of the gospel, what it even means to say that Jesus rose from the dead or that we too shall rise, what it doesn't mean, and why it would even be good news. We're in our EIGHTH year! And you still haven't backed us? Craziness! Show your support by becoming a Patron!
Transcribe →Sermon on the Mount for Epiphany 2026
Jan 600:21:26Tap to summarizeThe Sermon on the Mount will make its once-every-three-years appearance in the lectionary starting in late January, so here is a re-release of Sarah's poetic paraphrase thereof. For downloads and print purchases of Sermon on the Mount: A Poetic Paraphrase visit Thornbush Press.
Transcribe →Niebuhr on The Destiny of Man
Dec 1601:18:30Tap to summarizeAfter a three-year interim, Dad and I finally return to Reinhold Niebuhr's magisterial work, The Nature and Destiny of Man, first delivered as the Gifford Lectures in 1939, then revised and published in 1943. In this episode on vol. 2, we discuss what Dad cribbed from Niebuhr upon his first reading this book 55 years ago (!), the question of metanarratives and what we can (and can't) know about history, why the atonement is necessary, and of course, Sarah's favorite topic, the Parousia of Christ. This year of podcasting ends not with a whimper, but a bang! Looking toward an EIGHTH year of Queen of the Sciences? Show your support by becoming a Patron! Notes: 1. Related episodes: Niebuhr on the Nature of Man, Resurrection according to Macrina and Nyssa, Before Auschwitz, Doctrine to Bible (and Back Again), Cybertech and Personhood, Propaganda, The Image of God 2. Antti Raunio, "Martin Luther and Love" 3. Need more on communism? Try this very digestible approach in Sarah's memoir, I Am a Brave Bridge, about the Hinlicky family's year in Slovakia just after the fall of the iron curtain 4. Need more on the Parousia? Sarah's Forty Facets of the Ascension is now out on all platforms! And, guess what, lots on the Parousia in her Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration, too!
Transcribe →