The Apologetics Podcast Josh Chatraw: Blaise Pascal and Apologetics that Appeals to the Heart + “Superstition” (Stevie Wonder)
Faith happens, and this week’s episode of Three Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast is all about how faith happens. In the first half, Garrick and Timothy are joined by Josh Chatraw, the apologist extraordinaire who has been freshly forgiven for his many missteps when it comes to being conversant in the art of rock and roll. Josh deftly sidesteps Garrick’s many queries about music and remains focused on the ways that seventeenth-century mathematician and apologist Blaise Pascal aimed people toward faith. In the end, your intrepid cohosts discover that the strongest apologetic is an apologetic that aims not only at the intellect but also at the heart. U2, Jackson Brown, and Kenny Rogers show up as Garrick and Timothy do their best to compensate for Josh’s manifold musical deficiencies.
In the second half, it’s the most Stevie Wonder-full time of the year! That's because the dynamic duo delves into a number-one hit from 1973 entitled “Superstition.” According to Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition,” people should never have faith in anything they don’t understand. When Garrick and Timothy lay the lyrics of “Superstition” alongside Scripture and the works of Augustine of Hippo, they recognize that Stevie wasn’t completely wrong on this point but he also wasn’t completely right. In some sense, it’s faith that opens the door to understanding. Along the way, Timothy reveals his heretofore untold tale of how Stevie Wonder obtained one of his brothers-in-law for him.
The Toybox Hero Tournament descends into utter madness as Garrick attempts to use his oldest daughter’s spa kit to give a pedicure to a marsupial from the underside of the planet. The aftermath cannot be described in human words; it can only be experienced through the sheer shock and horror of listening to this week's Toybox Hero Tournament. Also, if there’s a bush band from Australia that needs a name, “The Kangaroo Paw Spa Band” is the name you’ve been looking for. The new cover art for this season was created by Dani Wallace (daniwallace.myportfolio.com).
This Week’s GuestJosh Chatraw is the director of New City Fellows at the Center for Public Christianity and resident theologian at Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. His writing and speaking focuses on public theology, apologetics, and culture. His latest book is Telling a Better Story: How to Talk About God in a Skeptical Age.
Links to ClickTruth Matters: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Truth in a Culture of Doubt: book by Andreas Köstenberger, Darrell Bock, and Josh Chatraw
Pensées: book by Blaise Pascal
City of God: book by St. Augustine
Running on Empty: song by Jackson Browne
Superstition: song by Stevie Wonder
Telling a Better Story: book by Josh Chatraw
SBTS Preview Day Urban Ministry Podcast
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The Closing CreditsThree Chords and the Truth: The Apologetics Podcast thanks B&H Academic for their sponsorship. Music for the podcast has been licensed through Artlist.io and performed by Trent Thompson. Brief excerpts of music played in each program are included solely for the purposes of comment and critique as allowed under the fair-use provision of U.S. copyright law. “The fair use of a copyrighted work … for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, … scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright” (U.S. Code § 107, Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use).