Podcast
Seminary Dropout
Hosted by Shane Blackshear: Interviews with N.T. Wright, Christena Cleveland, Greg Boyd & More! · EN
Interviews with Christian authors, leaders, and thinkers.
11episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Rich Villodas on the subversive way of Jesus
Mar 1300:47:00Tap to summarizeRich Villodas is the Brooklyn-born lead pastor of New Life Fellowship, a large, multiracial church with more than seventy-five countries represented in Queens, NYC. His award-winning book, The Deeply Formed Life, was released in September 2020, followed by his second book, Good and Beautiful and Kind. His most recent book, The Narrow Path, released July 2024. He and his wife, Rosie, have two beautiful children and reside in Long Island, New York. You can connect with Rich through his website, www.richvillodas.com. We live in a culture that wants it all. More is seen as better – whether it’s more money, social media fame, more choices, or power. For those chasing this way of life, ‘narrow’ seems negative. Who wants to narrow their options, or be seen as narrow-minded? Which is why the most well-known talk in history – the Sermon on the Mount – is also the most paradoxical. In it, Jesus holds up the narrow path as the most spacious … and the broader path as the more confining one. Rich Villodas, bestselling author of The Deeply Formed Life, helps us to diagnose whether we are following the broad or narrow path, in order to help us pursue the way of Jesus more deeply. The Narrow Path reintroduces the counterintuitive wonder of Jesus’s timeless wisdom for this age, one fraught with anxiety, depression, polarizing politics, and online vitriol. The path of Jesus is most certainly narrow, but it is the only one filled with the ever-expanding life of God . . . and it is available now for all who want it! Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →Erin Moniz on how our intimate relationships reflect our theology
Mar 1301:11:55Tap to summarizeRev. Erin F. Moniz is a deacon in the Anglican Church in North America and associate chaplain and director for chapel at Baylor University, where she disciples emerging adults and journeys with them toward healthy, gospel-centered relationships. She is a trained conciliator, mediator, and conflict coach. She enjoys playing music, being outdoors, and narrating the inner monologue of her two cats. She lives in Waco, Texas, with her husband, Michael. You can see more of Erin at her website, erinfmoniz.com. “I can live without sex, but I can’t live without intimacy.” In today’s landscape of digital interactions, many people long for deeper connections. We have a desire to move from being lonely and disconnected in our relationships to be seen, known, and wholly loved. From friendships to romantic relationships, meaningful and genuine personal connections remain our heart’s desire. College chaplain Rev. Erin Moniz is deeply attuned to the questions and concerns of today’s emerging adults. In Knowing and Being Known, she explores the essential elements of healthy relationships, addresses the complexities of intimacy, and shines a light on the barriers that can impede genuine connection. With her compelling storytelling and expert insights from her research with emerging adults, she emphasizes the significant role of identity and self-worth in fostering meaningful relationships. This comprehensive resource goes beyond the subject of sex, providing a holistic perspective on intimacy that resonates with single emerging adults and married couples alike. Begin to experience healthy relationships and transform your relational world as you ask better questions to get better answers. To know that we are loved by God is to know our identity in Christ. And this knowing provides us the tools and the path to a healthy, sustainable intimacy that allows us to be at home in our fullness in the gospel and with each other. Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →Beth Felker Jones on the Theology of Sex
Apr 12, 202500:56:32Tap to summarizeBeth Felker Jones (PhD, Duke University) teaches theology at Northern Seminary, and loves to write for the church and the academy. She lives in the Chicagoland area with her husband Brian, four kids, two dogs, and Dwight, her theology cat. To participate in Dr. Jones Seminary Now course and many others, go to seminarynow.co/blackshear for a 25% off discount! Many believers accept traditional Christian sexual morality but have very little idea why it matters for the Christian life. In Faithful, author Beth Felker Jones sketches a theology of sexuality that demonstrates sex is not about legalistic morals with no basis in reality but rather about the God who is faithful to us. In Hosea 2:19-20 God says to Israel, “I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.” This short book explores the goodness of sexuality as created and redeemed, and it suggests ways to navigate the difficulties of living in a world in which sexuality, like everything else, suffers the effects of the fall. As part of Zondervan’s Ordinary Theology series, Faithful takes a deeper look at a subject Christians talk about often but not always thoughtfully. This short, insightful reflection explores the deeper significance of the body and sexuality. From the Publisher This introductory theology text helps students articulate basic Christian doctrines, think theologically so they can act Christianly in a diverse world, and connect Christian thought to their everyday lives of faith. Written from a solidly evangelical yet ecumenically aware perspective, this book models a way of doing theology that is generous and charitable. It attends to history and contemporary debates and features voices from the global church. From the Publisher Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →My Interview with Tony Campolo
Nov 21, 202400:33:49Tap to summarizeThis is a rebroadcast of my 2012 interview with Tony Campolo. Dr. Campolo died this week at the age of 89. Dr. Tony Campolo shot at Bethany Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Crystal Lake, IL. Brad Siefert.
Transcribe →Dale Allison on Religious Experiences and the Resurrection
Dec 24, 202300:55:16Tap to summarizeDale C. Allison, Jr., is the Richard J. Dearborn Professor of New Testament at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA, and the author of many books, including Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History and the International Critical Commentary on James. Despite widespread skepticism on the matter, a significant number of people today have stories of religious experience—moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions. How should rationally minded people respond?What would your reaction be if someone told you that, one night while sitting alone, she saw through the window a brilliant light descend from the sky until it was so large that it filled the room—and that it radiated a feeling of “pure love”? And what would you say if a friend confided that one night he woke up and could not move, felt he was being suffocated, and sensed an evil spirit in the room?By default in the secular age we are skeptical about anything mysterious or supernatural. More likely than not, most people would respond to the stories above with embarrassment and concern about the person’s grasp of reality, or they would attempt to explain them away through rational or scientific means. But the truth is that religious experiences like these are not as uncommon as they seem—although talking about such experiences often is. This is the case even in a faith tradition such as Christianity, despite the Bible’s numerous accounts of miraculous and mysterious happenings.In Encountering Mystery, noted biblical scholar Dale Allison makes the argument that stories of religious experience are meaningful and not to be marginalized—and that we have a moral prerogative to lovingly engage with such stories regardless of whether we have had similar experiences. Through a close look at phenomena such as moments of inexplicable terror or rapturous joy, visions, near-death experiences of the afterlife, encounters with angels, heavenly voices, and premonitions, Allison shows how ordinary practices of faith need not be at odds with individual religious experiences. Above all, he enjoins us to be honest about the persistence of religious experience in a secular age and to make space for those who encounter mystery in their lives. From the Publisher Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →Some Big Life News from Shane
Dec 4, 202300:22:31Tap to summarizeIn this special episode, Shane brings an update about a significant change in his life (which might lead to a change in the podcast title), and talks about what that will mean for the future of the podcast. As always, thanks for listening (and if you missed it, be sure to check out the conversation with N.T. Wright from the previous episode) Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →A Deep Dive Into the Heart of Romans With N. T. Wright
Oct 18, 202300:47:08Tap to summarizeN. T. Wright is the former Bishop of Durham in the Church of England and one of the world’s leading Bible scholars. He serves as the chair of New Testament and Early Christianity at the School of Divinity at the University of St. Andrews as well as Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford University. Wright is the award-winning author of many books, including Paul: A Biography, Simply Christian, and Surprised by Hope. You can get everything from N. T. Wright at NTWrightonline.org. Romans is often and for good reason considered a crux of Christian thought and theology, the greatest of Paul’s letters. And within Romans, chapter 8 is one of the most spectacular pieces of early Christian writing. But to many readers, Romans can be a deceptively difficult book. Its scope and basic meaning may be clear, but it can be hard to see how it all fits together into a cohesive, if complex, doctrinal argument. N. T. Wright—widely regarded as the most influential commentator and interpreter of Paul—deftly unpacks this dense and sometimes elusive letter, detailing Paul’s arguments and showing how it illuminates the Gospel from the promises to Abraham through the visions of Revelation. Wright takes a deep dive into Romans 8, showing how it illuminates so much else that God reveals in Scripture: God the Father, Christology, and the Spirit; Jesus’ Messiahship, cross, resurrection, and ascension; salvation, redemption, and adoption; suffering and glory; holiness and hope. Into the Heart of Romans will help you become familiar with the book of Romans in a deeper way that will also deepen your understanding and appreciation of the Gospel itself. From the Publisher Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →Esau McCaulley on How Far To The Promised Land
Sep 13, 202301:04:18Tap to summarizeRev. Esau McCaulley, PhD is an author and associate professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. His writing and speaking focus on New Testament theology, African-American Biblical interpretation, and Christian public theology. His new memoir How Far to the Promised Land, questions the narrative of exceptionalism that he, and other Black survivors, are conditioned to give when they “make it” in America. His book Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope won numerous awards, including Christianity Today’s Book of the Year. Esau is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. His writings have also appeared in The Atlantic, Washington Post, and Christianity Today. Find Esau McCaulley at esaumccaulley.com. For much of his life, Esau McCaulley was taught to see himself as an exception: someone who, through hard work, faith, and determination, overcame childhood poverty, anti-Black racism, and an absent father to earn a job as a university professor and a life in the middle class. But that narrative was called into question one night, when McCaulley answered the phone and learned that his father—whose absence defined his upbringing—died in a car crash. McCaulley was being asked to deliver his father’s eulogy, to make sense of his complicated legacy in a country that only accepts Black men on the condition that they are exceptional, hardworking, perfect. The resulting effort sent McCaulley back through his family history, seeking to understand the community that shaped him. In these pages, we meet his great-grandmother Sophia, a tenant farmer born with the gift of prophecy who scraped together a life in Jim Crow Alabama; his mother, Laurie, who raised four kids alone in an era when single Black mothers were demonized as “welfare queens”; and a cast of family, friends, and neighbors who won small victories in a world built to swallow Black lives. With profound honesty and compassion, he raises questions that implicate us all: What does each person’s struggle to build a life teach us about what we owe each other? About what it means to be human? How Far to the Promised Land is a thrilling and tender epic about being Black in America. It’s a book that questions our too-simple narratives about poverty and upward mobility; a book in which the people normally written out of the American Dream are given voice. From the Publisher Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →John Barclay on Paul and divine gift-giving
Jul 28, 202300:53:44Tap to summarizeJohn M. G. Barclay is Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University in England, one of the most highly regarded professorships in the theological world. John is President of TRS-UK, the body that represents and coordinates all the Departments of Theology and Religion/Religious Studies in the UK, together with twelve subject associations. Out of the study, he enjoys cycling, music, and watching rugby. Having spent three sabbatical periods in New Zealand (where Dan, the editor of Seminary Dropout, is based), he is also a fan of their national rugby team, the All Blacks! John is married to Diana, and they have three grown children. In this book esteemed Pauline scholar John Barclay presents a strikingly fresh reading of grace in Paul’s theology, studying it in view of ancient notions of “gift” and shining new light on Paul’s relationship to Second Temple Judaism. Paul and the Gift centers on divine gift-giving, which for Paul, Barclay says, is focused and fulfilled in the gift of Christ. He offers a new appraisal of Paul’s theology of the Christ-event as gift as it comes to expression in Galatians and Romans, and he presents a nuanced and detailed discussion of the history of reception of Paul. This exegetically responsible, theologically informed, hermeneutically useful book shows that a respectful, though not uncritical, reading of Paul contains resources that remain important for Christians today. From the Publisher Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →Kyuboem Lee on the disruptions to Christian higher ed, especially theological education
May 12, 202301:05:44Tap to summarizeDr. Kyuboem “Kyu” Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea and raised in Nairobi, Kenya. He was educated in evangelical and reformed institutions in the US. He has lived, church planted, and ministered cross-culturally in Philadelphia since 1993. He has also taught urban mission at the graduate level since 2006, has edited the Journal of Urban Mission since 2010, and serves as a leading voice with Missio Alliance. Kyuboem is married to Christe and is the father of two sons, Amoz and Theo. You can follow Kyuboem on Twitter, @kyuboem. In this episode, Kyu and Shane talk all things seminary – from the challenges Christian higher-ed currently faces, to its importance for the local Church… and not shying away from the irony of appearing on a podcast hosted by someone who dropped out of seminary. Subscribe/Rate/Review Seminary Dropout on Apple Podcasts Get 40% off Shane’s book Go and Do: Nine Axioms on Peacemaking and Transformation From the Life of John Perkins.
Transcribe →