Explore every episode of the podcast Queen of the Sciences

Or, how God took a burned, unwilling, and fearful pastor, and turned her into a joyful one. With, of course, a few bumps along the way. In this episode Dad and I reflect together on my six and a half years of missionary ministry in the world's biggest megalopolis, and what the very specific circumstances of church life here can teach us about renewing the church in the U.S. and elsewhere.

We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron!

Related episodes: Japanese Theologian Kazoh Kitamori, Holy Communion: Discipline, Virtual Communion, The Inhumanity of Lockdown

Also, if you haven't ever signed up for my e-newsletter, Theology & a Recipe, now's a good time to do so! I have recommendations for Japan-related books, and some upcoming main issues on Japan-related themes.

Dad gets interviewed on Wipf & Stock's Theology Mill podcast to talk about his book, Lutheran Theology: A Critical Introduction!

Sarah once again joins Kemper on the All About Agatha podcast to discuss Agatha Christie's very Christian (though also very weird) short story, "In the Cool of the Evening" ... and theology abounds!

We are theologians who read the Bible. That is not a self-evident statement. But let's back up further... why does Christianity have a Bible at all? And now that we have it, how do we read it? In this episode we explore how we as theologians depend on the discipline of biblical studies, our appreciations and critiques thereof, and how Bible gives rise to doctrine... or is it maybe the other way around?!

We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron!

Notes:

1. Check out Sarah's Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration

2. And Dad's Before Auschwitz and commentary on Joshua

3. As well as Dad's related articles: “Scripture as Matrix, Christ as Content: A response to Johannes Zachhuber and Anna Case-Winters” in Luther Refracted; “Prima Scriptura: Saving Sola Scriptura from Itself,” Dialog 55/3 (2016) 223-230; “The Lutheran Dilemma,” Pro Ecclesia VIII/4 (1999): 391-422.

4. Levy, Introducing Medieval Biblical Exegesis

5. Juel, Messianic Exegesis

6. Hill, Paul and the Trinity

7. Wright, Surprised by Hope

Dad and I continue our discussion of the Ascension of Jesus in the New Testament: how John's entire Gospel is a cosmic parabola of descent and ascent, with a twist; why the Ascension is the crux of the matter for Hebrews's Day of Atonement interpretation of Jesus' sacrifice; and the apostle Paul's apocalyptic orientation to the ascended Lord.

From there we look at the presence, not absence of the ascended Jesus in our midst: in the preached word, in the Lord's Supper, and in the very bodies of his baptized believers.

Notes:

1. Torrance, Space, Time, and Resurrection

2. Barfield, Poetic Diction and Saving the Appearances

3. Luther, Confession Concerning Christ's Supper in Luther's Works 37

4. Moffitt, Rethinking the Atonement

5. Related episodes: Ascension in Luke and Acts, Holy Communion: Discipline, Holy Communion: Doctrine, Brain Mind Soul

Forty Facets of the Ascension, Sarah's new book, is coming to Kickstarter in mid-March! Sign up now to be notified the moment it launches.

In this episode, Dad and I discuss whether Jesus was a rocket ship, a hot air balloon, a cosmonaut... or maybe just the risen Lord whose bodily existence is integral to gospel proclamation! We look at some of the differences between Luke 24 and Acts 1's version of the Ascension (be prepared for some surprises) and the many things Luke had to argue against in order to argue for Jesus. If the Ascension has left you perpetually perplexed or scientifically stressed, fear not! This episode is for you.

Notes:

1. Once again, folks, that's Forty Facets of the Ascension coming to you on Kickstarter in mid-Marcy 2025!

2. Also, Transfiguration is sneaking up on you soon (March 2)! If you didn't already get Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration, you can get it instantly in ebook or audiobook, or order a print copy right now.

3. If you count among that exalted elite who need good fiction and good theology at the same time, you'll be raptured over my novel A-Tumblin' Down. You can also sign up for my Substack for more theologically luminous storytelling.

4. Related episodes: Luke Part 1, Luke Part 2, The First Two-Thirds of Acts, The Last Third of Acts

5. Hans Frei, The Eclipse of Biblical Narrative

We're in our SEVENTH year! Show your support by becoming a Patron!

From Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration, Sarah reads the first chapter, "Metamorphosis : Jesus." Keep listening, or read by getting your copy at Thornbush Press, Audible, Amazon, or Bookshop.org!

How often do you celebrate the 1700th anniversary of anything? 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, which gave us most (though not quite all) of the Nicene Creed (completed and perfected at the Council of Constantinople in 381, but frankly, nobody wants to say "The Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed"). Dad and I talk you through what's at stake in the trinitarian assertions of this Creed, compare and contrast it with the Apostles' Creed, and strongly urge you to make it a centerpiece of your preaching and teaching in this year of grace!

We're in our SEVENTH year! (not quite our 1700th) Show your support by becoming a Patron!

Notes:

1. Phillip Cary, The Nicene Creed (if you read only one theology book this year, make it this one)

2. Hinlicky, Divine Complexity (this is your second theology book of the year: tracing the movement of New Testament witness to conciliar trinitarian confession)

3. Related episodes: Baptism, Infant and Otherwise; Athanasius Against the World; Gregory of Nazianzus; Islam

Sarah makes her third appearance on the fantastic All About Agatha podcast! With host Kemper Donovan she discusses Agatha's short story "Promotion in the Highest."

Happy new year!

We have a quick look over our stats for 2024, and unveil some big news about 2025!

Click here to be notified when Sarah's Kickstarter for a book on the Ascension goes live (~March 2025)!

Here for her Transfiguration book in case you missed it the first time around... Transfiguration Sunday is only a couple months away!

Subscribe here to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack!

And if none of those moved you, then just hop on over to Patreon to express your appreciation for the Queen of the Sciences podcast!

The first of a series of five episodes in which Sarah discusses I Thessalonians with John Drury of the Fresh Text podcast. Remarkably apt for the end of one church year and the beginning of another!

Subscribe to Fresh Text to listen to the next four episodes with Sarah and John!

It's the ultimate smackdown! In this episode we discuss the covert work done by theories and doctrines of history, in church and saeculum alike, and why we can't stop theorizing about history once we've noticed it. We also drill down on two particular approaches to time and history within Christian discourse, what they mean, what they imply, and how (and how not) to deploy them.

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Notes:

1. Related episodes: Second Peter and the Second Coming, Unbaptized God, Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul, The Bible in One Hand and the Newspaper in the Other?, Buddhism, Our Democracy?, Hegel

2. Augustine, Confessions (specifically, the second half on time that you always skip over)

3. Hinlicky, Luther and the Beloved Community

You may have missed the recent U.S. presidential election, since it was kinda inconsequential and nobody was paying any attention to it. Oh wait... In today's episode, Dad and I take up the topic of "our democracy" as it has been talked about in the U.S. during this grueling election year, why Christians have an investment in flourishing democratic government (especially considering the alternatives), how the distinctions between church and state, and God's two kingdoms, play out in a democratic nation, and what we can faithfully do in our callings as Christians and citizens. Plus, Sarah reminds you that you are not Bonhoeffer.

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Notes:

1. Related episodes: Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, Howard Thurman, Martin Luther King Jr, Two Kingdoms 16th Century Edition, Two Kingdoms 20th and 21st Century Edition

2. Tocqueville, Democracy in America

3. Heise, The Gates of Hell (on the elimination of the Russian Lutheran Church during the Soviet period)

4. Bonhoeffer, Ethics and Letters and Papers from Prison, plus DeJonge's Bonhoeffer on Resistance

5. Hofstadter, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics"

Many religions are historically entangled with one another, but no relationship is as close, fraught, or dangerous as that between Judaism and Christianity... kind of like a pair of biblical brothers, in fact. In this episode Dad and I discuss the enormous number of things these two have in common, why that makes the not negligible difference of assessment about Jesus so explosive, how we might learn from one another, and how we might learn to wait for God to confirm our faith, one way or another.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Islam, World Religions, Unbaptized God, On Hamas's Attack on Israel, Before Auschwitz, Galatians 1, Galatians 2, Nehemiah, Luther and the Jews, The Relationship of the Old and New Testaments

2. Nostra Aetate

3. Cohen, Everyman's Talmud

4. Levenson, The Death and Resurrection of the Beloved Son

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What's that story about the medieval monk who tried to find peace through religious good works, got wise to the power and corruption of the religious establishment, had a breakthrough to trust in the mercy of the transcendent one who became immanent for our salvation, and as a result left the monastery, got married, had children, and worked among ordinary folks? No, not Luther. Shinran! In this episode, Dad and I explore the rather startling parallels between the True Pure Land school of Buddhism in Japan and Lutheran Christianity, then discuss what the implications of these overlaps may, or may not, mean from our theological perspective.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Islam, World Religions, Justification by Faith, The Certainty of Faith, Justification by Faith Revisited, Faith Just Faith, Japanese Theologian Kazoh Kitamori

2. Most of the information in this episode I drew from Jodo Shinshu: A Guide; you might also be interested in Taitetsu Unno, River of Fire, River of Water: An Introduction to the Pure Land Tradition of Shin Buddhism

3. Armstrong, Buddha

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Subscribe at Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories on Substack to join the communal reading of A-Tumblin' Down!

Six years of top-quality theological podcasting... Show your support by becoming a Patron!

After considering "World Religions" as such, in this episode Dad and I turn our attention to considering a specific world religion. But our burden here is not to discuss the details or the disputes about or within Islam, but mainly to inquire about it as a challenge to Christian theology. Do we wrongly exalt the finite man Jesus to the status of the infinite? Does our complex creed betray a fatal weakness compared to Islam's simple one? How did God as Christians know him allow a competing monotheism to arise under his providence? Not surprisingly, we also put some theological questions of our own to Islam.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: World Religions, John of Damascus, Fear and Phobias, Two Kingdoms 16th Century Edition, Two Kingdoms 20th and 21st Century Edition, On Hamas' Attack on Israel, Luther and the Jews

2. Some resources for more in-depth study of Islam on its own terms: Fletcher, The Cross and the Crescent; Saeed, Islamic Thought: An Introduction; A Common Word: Muslims and Christians on Loving God and Neighbor

3. Qureshi, Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, and see also Janosik, John of Damascus: First Apologist to the Muslims

4. Sanneh, Summoned from the Margin

5. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur'an

6. Manji, The Trouble with Islam

7. Also consider listening to this episode I did with Enter the Bible on the variety of millennialisms and the temptations of interpreting history

Exactly what the title says it is!

And please check out Crackers and Grape Juice!

You know that there is such a thing as "world religions," and you know which ones they are. But why? Where did such a notion even come from? And why are some in but some aren't? Is "religion" even the right word for everything categorized under it? And if not, why has "religious studies" come to dominate, not to say replace, "theology" at virtually every college in America? In this episode Dad and I trace the genealogy of the concept of both "religious studies" and "world religions," take a look at what one might dare to call a crisis of faith within these disciplines, and give some ideas about how religious studies and theology can actually do each other some good.

Notes:

1. James, The Variety of Religious Experience

2. Masuzawa, The Invention of World Religions

3. Shoemaker, Creating the Qur'an

4. Orsi, Between Heaven and Earth

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The more ecumenical dialogues establish agreement, the more they turn up disagreement. Why, 115 years into multilateral Christian dialogue and 60 years into bilateral dialogue, does Christian unity look farther away than ever? Why can't we all just agree? In this episode, Dad and I delve deeply into Lutheran theologian Robert W. Jenson's book Unbaptized God, which posits that the problem isn't disagreement at all—it's disastrous agreement on a faulty premise at the root of the theological enterprise. We agree and disagree with Jenson, both of which reactions prove to be tremendously fruitful.

Notes:

1. Jenson, Unbaptized God

2. Apocalyptic and the Future of Theology

3. Related episodes: Apologetics, Second Peter and the Second Coming, John of Damascus, Chalcedon vs Luther, Bonhoeffer's Christology, A Hegel with all the Fixin's

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Is the apologetic enterprise coercing people outside the Christian faith into a decision on which their eternal fate depends, conceding the terms of the debate to the culture's notion of what's important, or making fruitful contact in ways specific to the person and situation? (I bet you can guess our answer.) In this episode, Dad and I examine some worse ways of making a defense for the faith that is within us en route to some recommendations of a more excellent way. Plus, Sarah complains even more about Tillich.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: The Bible in One Hand and the Newspaper in the Other?, Chalcedon vs Luther, The Resurrection, Good Tillich, Bad Tillich, Niebuhr, Critical Social Theory, An Unlikely Marriage, Luther and the Jews

2. McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict

3. Pannenberg, Jesus: God and Man

4. Tillich, Systematic Theology vol. 1

5. Lindbeck, The Nature of Doctrine

6. Sarah's book of law-gospel parables, Pearly Gates

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Whose all-time favorite NT epistle is Second Peter? Yeah, I thought so, i.e., nobody's. Terse yet wordy, full of highly developed doctrine yet also threats of judgment, and most likely pseudepigraphal, it's a tough nut to crack. In this episode, Dad and I haul out our exegetical nutcrackers and extract the sweetmeat (to push an already overstrained metaphor too far—though you gotta admit, it fits with Second Peter's prose style), which, oddly enough, proves to be the Parousia of Christ and God's astounding patience, desiring that all, yes all, come to repentance. Plus, more on the Transfiguration!

Notes:

1. Sarah's book on the Transfiguration is now in print and available for general purchase! Get Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration as an ebook and audiobook direct from Thornbush Press, print (or any other format) from Amazon.

2. Bauckham, Jude–2 Peter

2. Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings

3. Harink, 1 & 2 Peter

4. Saarinen, The Pastoral Epistles with Philemon & Jude

5. Related episodes: Jude, The Transfiguration, I Peter, Faith Just Faith

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Sarah talks with Amber Noel of The Living Church Podcast about ... the Transfiguration! If you've skipped all the others on the Transfiguration, listen to this one. The sheer force of our exuberance will bring you around.

Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration is now available in all formats (ebook, audiobook, paperback, hardcover) from Thornbush Press, Amazon, and Bookshop.org!

If you'd like to request it from your library, make sure to furnish your librarian with the ISBN! Ebook 979-8-9899141-1-1 ; audiobook 979-8-9899141-2-8 ; paperback 979-8-9899141-3-5 ; hardcover  979-8-9899141-4-2.

Take a sad song and make it better? In this episode, Dad and I explore the oft-overlooked Epistle of Jude, including theories of authorship, its lavish use of apocryphal sources not included in either Christian or Jewish scriptural canons, its incipient trinitarianism, and the ongoing urgency of its charge against antinomianism. Also, is Jude the middle term between Paul and James?

Notes:

1. Bauckham, Jude–II Peter

2. Schnelle, The History and Theology of the New Testament Writings

3. Saarinen, The Pastoral Epistles with Philemon and Jude

4. Hengel, Judaism and Hellenism

5. My "little book of parables" that Dad referred to is Pearly Gates (my #1 bestseller!)

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The one in which we totally betray our convictions and bargain for material blessings in return for our immortal souls. Oh no wait, that's a different podcast and a different hashtag. In this episode, Dad and I sort out what a blessing actually is and does, how it is that God can bless us but we can also bless God, and the implications for pastoral practice. Along the way, we also discuss the recent Catholic declaration from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith on blessing, Fiducia Supplicans.

Notes:

1. Fiducia Supplicans

2. Johannesson, Thérèse and Martin

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My conversation with James Hazelwood, host of the Everyday Spirituality podcast, on... wait for it... the Transfiguration! And more specifically, my book Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration. Get yourself the ebook or audiobook right now from Thornbush Press! Print edition coming next month.

What do women want? For that matter, what do men want? Is it (ever) the same thing? Is sex God's greatest joke on his long-suffering creation? Dad and I entertain these and a number of other notions, as we solve all problems of the war of the sexes in an hour and twenty minutes. Plus, good news: the patriarchy is over. I beat it.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Seminex, Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, Critical Social Theory, Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul

2. See Dad's articles "Why Women May Be Ordained" in Different Voices/Shared Vision and "Whose Church? Which Ministry?" Other than my book on Elisabeth Behr-Sigel, my main contribution to the conversation is "The Epistle of Eutyche"

3. Manne, Down Girl

4. Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture

5. Harrington, Feminism against Progress

6. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

7. Solberg, Compelling Knowledge and A Church Undone

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Ruth-exclamation-point, because evidently Podbean won't let you do four-letter titles. Hmm. Well anyway, in this episode Dad and I talk through this absolutely delightful little book of the Old Testament, one of only two named for a woman and the only one named for a Gentile. In particular we explore the necessary and good yet self-contradicting and troubling aspects of the Law, why neither Law nor Love are improved by being reduced to one another, the personal nature of hesed (the Hebrew word for loving-kindness), and why none of it works without... God! God-exclamation-point!

Notes:

1. LaCocque, Ruth

2. Smit and Fowl, Judges and Ruth

3. Related episodes: Joshua, The Saul Saga, How to Hack the Law

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Preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, so we are told. Maybe Karl Barth told us so. Maybe someone in your church with an axe to grind. Or a sensitive conscience eager to be compassionate and relevant. Should we? In this episode, we continue our explorations of technique and propaganda with the help of Jacques Ellul, pressing the question: how can we possibly propagate the gospel with integrity in a media landscape polluted with propaganda?

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Technique and Propaganda with Jacques Ellul, The Image of God, Powers and Principalities, Howard Thurman

2. And speaking of propaganda... I actually have yet another podcast, The Disentanglement Podcast, in which my husband Andrew and I try to figure out loud and in the midst and mess of life how to extricate ourselves from all the digital systems that entangle and ensnare us. It's half practical and half philosophical. Oh, and a whole lot shorter per episode than Queen of the Sciences. If that sort of thing matters to you.

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Nearly everyone thinks the world has gone off the rails, and nearly everyone has a theory why, from kids these days to the moral breakdown of the West to the internet. We return to the conversation started by French Protestant philosopher Jacques Ellul more than 80 years ago, and find him startlingly, alarmingly prescient. In this episode we consider his proposal that technique, in the sense of efficient means by technological instruments, has become our all-defining reality, and answer the question that haunted us some time back: is it propaganda all the way up and all the way down? (Yes.)

Notes:

1. Ellul, Presence in the Modern World and Propaganda

2. Plekon, Hidden Holiness, Saints As They Really Are, Living Icons

3. Related episodes: Private Public and Propagandistic, Cybertech and Personhood, Postmodernism for the Perplexed, Hannah Arendt

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Popularly considered the last of the church fathers, John of Damascus gathered up the fruit of early church reflection on the Trinity and the person of Christ in his learned tome, The Orthodox Faith. But in addition to the usual wrangling with the Greek philosophical heritage and the monotheistic challenge of Judaism, John had a new adversary to consider: the even more radically monotheistic Islam. In this episode, Dad and I sort through John's record of Chalcedonian orthodoxy from the 8th century, his "double-mindedness," and what pressures led to the enormous internal doctrinal tensions that he passed on to the generations to follow. Such that, in this episode, Sarah admits defeat.

Notes:

1. Can't get enough of Trinity and christology, especially with respect to Greek metaphysics? Then by all means rush right out and get yourself a copy of Dad's Divine Complexity and also Divine Simplicity

2. John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith (and generally speaking checking out the great selection in the Popular Patristics series)

3. Related episodes: Atonement, Image of God, Melanchthon's Loci Communes, Oh, Anselm!!!, Gregory of Nazianzus, Irenaeus, Athanasius

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The Council of Chalcedon (451) gave us the famous christological formula that Jesus Christ is one person in two natures, without change, division, separation, or confusion. It also gave us a lot of conundrums, enough to cause the first major split of the church between the Syriacs and the Greeks. Among others trying to sort out the perplexities of Chalcedon was Martin Luther himself, whose own christological formulations might just run afoul of Chalcedonian orthodoxy. So in today's episode we entertain the question: was Martin Luther a Chalcedonian heretic? Or should we possibly say, was Chalcedon a Lutheran heretic?

Notes:

1. Zachhuber, Luther's Christological Legacy

2. Cross, Communicatio Idiomatum

3. McCormack, The Humility of the Eternal Son

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What's worse, being bound by the Law or untethered from it entirely? It probably depends on where you're standing. In this episode, Dad and I trace out two kinds of challenges Christians have had to work out with respect to the Law—whether the Law given to Israel applies also to Gentile believers in Jesus Christ, and whether the Law in any respect contributes to justification. Then, we explore working definitions of legalism and antinomianism as misconstruals of the Christian's relationship to the Law, leading to the ultimate question: are legalism and antinomianism really, at root, the same thing after all?

Related episodes: Galatians 1, Galatians 2, Romans, Luther and the Jews, Sermon on the Mount, Atonement

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My second appearance on the All About Agatha podcast, talking to host Kemper Donovan about Agatha Christie's speculative-mariology-fanfiction story, "The Island"!

Here's a link to my previous All About Agatha appearance: Star over Bethlehem

And if that still isn't enough Agatha Christie for you, check out my article in the new issue of the fabulous magazine The Mockingbird, "Agatha Christie, a Very Elusive Christian."

Death! Disaster! Panic in the streets! In this episode Dad and I try to understand how fear and fear-mongering have come to grip our wealthy and (historically speaking) unprecedentedly free societies. Toward that end, we also explore the metastasis of the psychiatric diagnosis of debilitating phobias to a biopolitical strategy for accusing and shutting down anyone who doesn't agree with or approve of certain things. But above all, it's a call to the courage of conscience for anyone tired of having the bullies run the show. Fear not! The Lord is with you.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: Transfiguration, Perpetua and Felicitas, Private Public and Propagandistic

2. Read, mark, and inwardly digest Luther's commentary on the First Commandment in the Small Catechism to "fear, love, and trust in God above all things"!

3. Horn, People Love Dead Jews

4. The Scriptural Reasoning inter-faith dialogue project

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The prayer our Lord Jesus taught his disciples, in address to his and their heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit! And probably the most-prayed prayer of all time. (Well, except maybe "HELP!") In this episode Dad and I pore over each petition, with a great deal of help from Luther's Catechisms, discuss why it is we should pray, and the greater truth that we can and are invited to pray.

Notes:

1. Related episodes: All About Prayer, Sermon on the Mount, Revival and Renewal with the Blumhardts

2. Sarah's Sermon on the Mount: A Poetic Paraphrase

3. Luther's Small Catechism (and Sarah's Memorizing Edition therof) and also his Large Catechism

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Sarah sits down to chat with Roger Lowther of the Art Life Faith podcast!

Also, in the unlikely event you missed it, the Transfiguration book Kickstarter mentioned in this episode has already ended (after exceeding all expectations!). But you can preorder the ebook on Amazon, where it will be published on August 6, 2024.

In remembrance of an event that took place 50 years + 1 week ago, Dad tells the story of the internal schism in the Missouri Synod, the "walkout" of professors and students from Concordia Seminary St. Louis, and the founding of a seminary in exile, popularly known as Seminex. It is the founding story of why American Lutheranism looks the way it does today and mirrors the wider cultural polarization, yet with uniquely theological elements all its own. Triumphalists on either side beware; this is a tragedy.

Notes:

1. Todd, Authority Vested

2. Burkee, Power, Politics, and the Missouri Synod

3. Tietjen, Memoirs in Exile

4. A Statement of Scriptural and Confessional Principles (LCMS)

5. See more on Dad's new blog with a number of essays on this history, Theological Ramblings,

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Andrew Christiansen of Doth Protest and Dad discuss Karl Marx's reception and use of Martin Luther.

We've discussed the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, Anselm and Aulen, and salvation itself all over the place... but until now, never "the Atonement." Could that be because the word itself tends to dictate the outcome? In this episode we talk about the origins of the English word "atone," exchange some thoughts on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and then dive deep into an essay by theologian Robert Bertram commenting on Luther commenting on Galatians. Joyful exchanges abound!

Notes:

1. Bertram, "How Our Sins Were Christ's"

2. Sarah's article "The Law of God," now also published in Common Places in Christian Theology

3. Luther's 1531/35 Galatians commentary in Luther's Works vols 26 and 27

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In church, do your sins actually get forgiven, or are you only assured that in general God likes to forgive sins? Do you have to be penitent for the absolution to work? How penitent? Can a mere human absolve on God's behalf? And if so, how do absolvers know whether they ought to loose something or whether they'd better keep it bound up? In this episode, Dad and Sarah discuss Luther's little known 50 Theses on the Remission of Sins, from the year 1518, which has been dubbed by scholar Oswald Bayer as really truly the first Reformation text. From there we talk about general and corporate absolution in public worship in comparison with specific absolution of a private confession, and what qualifies as a faithful, evangelical liturgical practice of absolution.

Notes:

1. Luther's 1518 Theses on the Remission of Sins

2. Institute for Ecumenical Research in Strasbourg

3. Studying Luther in Wittenberg

4. Bayer, Promissio

5. Liturgical resources for confession and absolution from the Lutheran Church in Australia and New Zealand

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Sarah talks with Katie and Gretchen of Freely Given about her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

Sarah talks with Katie and Gretchen of the Freely Given podcast about her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

John Drury of Fresh Text and Sarah discuss all things Transfiguration in light of her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

And, if you want to hear their next two conversations about the Transfiguration, including the mind-blowing discussion of the Gospel of John, be sure to subscribe to Fresh Text right away!

Jason Micheli of Crackers and Grape Juice and Sarah discuss all things Transfiguration in light of her forthcoming book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Kickstarter's closed, so look for it in July 2024!).

All about the Transfiguration of our Lord! And, to be perfectly honest, all about Sarah's new book, Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (which, as you'll hear, launched as a Kickstarter, and will be available for purchase starting July 2024). Among other topics: Why Elijah and Moses of all possible visitors from Israel's past? Why does Peter offer to build booths, of all weird things (and is he really as much of a dope as every Transfiguration sermon you've ever heard claims)? How does the apostle Paul handle the Transfiguration? And why, for heaven's sake, does Second Peter of all oddball epistles feature the Transfiguration??

Holy moly! Six years of top-quality theological podcasting! Why not show your support by becoming a Patron?

I have a new podcast! For people who need good fiction and good theology at the same time. Two final episodes here to whet your appetite—so if you enjoy them, please hop on over and subscribe to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories so you won't miss a single episode!

My lecture at the Parkville Plus seminar hosted by Australian Lutheran College in Adelaide, South Australia, on "Three Nineteenth-Century German Lutheran Saint Calendar Proposals."

I have a new podcast! For people who need good fiction and good theology at the same time. Two more episodes here to whet your appetite—so if you enjoy them, please hop on over and subscribe to Sarah Hinlicky Wilson Stories so you won't miss a single episode!

Dad speaks about preaching to political and cultural issues as an exercise of both Christian discipleship and lefthand-kingdom stewardship at the Love Teach Heal Academy for lay preachers and teachers.