New Creation Conversations Episode 031 - Rodney Clapp on the Church as a Peculiar People, Exegeting Pop-Culture, Living as Citizens of a New Creation, and Naming Neoliberalism

Welcome to episode thirty-one of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by well-known author and editor Rodney Clapp. Rodney served as associate editor for Christianity Today until 1999 when he became the senior editor for academic and general books at InterVarsity Press. He later moved to Baker Books where he founded one of my favorite theological presses – Brazos Press. He currently. Is one of the founders and editors of Wipf and Stock Publishers and Cascade Press.

 I got to connected with Rodney’s work as a writer 25 years ago through his award-winning book A Peculiar People: The Church as Culture in a Post-Christian Society. It is one of my favorite books on the unique political nature of the church. It is a book I have gone back to and re-read about every five years, and I think it may be as (if not more) relevant to the political and culture wars we find ourselves in today, than it was in 1996 when it was first published. Clapp has written a number of other books including:

·       Border Crossings: Christian Trespasses on Popular Culture and Public Affairs

·       Tortured Wonders: Christian Spirituality for People, Not Angels

·       Families at the Crossroads: Beyond Tradition and Modern Options

·       The Consuming Passion: Christianity and the Consumer Culture

·       Johnny Cash and the Great American Contradiction

·       (and another one of my favorites) People of the Truth [written with Robert Webber]

We talk about A Peculiar People and his two most recent books:

·       New Creation: A Primer on Living in the Time Between the Times

·       Naming Neoliberalism: Exposing the Spirit of Our Ag

Rodney is unique not only in his personal, and substantial writing career, but for his incredible help getting dozens and dozens of other biblical and theological authors’ thoughts onto paper. A really humble and gracious theologian and thinker, it’s a joy to bring you this conversation with Rodney Clapp