New Creation Conversations Episode 043 - Dr. Brent Strawn on His Scholarly Influences, Teaching Law Students, Honest to God Preaching from the Old Testament, and God and Guns

Welcome to episode forty-three of New Creation Conversations. In today’s conversation I am joined by my first repeat guest. When I started this podcast ten months ago my very first conversation was with Dr. Brent Stawn. Forty-something episodes later, I hope I've become a better interviewer. Nevertheless, that first episode still is one of my favorites. In part, because Brent is such a good friend, but also because I get such a joy out of talking Old Testament theology and all other things related to church and seminary life with Brent. Thankfully, Brent has a brand-new book out on preaching the Old Testament, and so we have the perfect excuse to pick up our conversation where we left off last time.

Brent is a Professor of Old Testament, and now also a Professor of Law, at Duke Divinity School and at Duke University. He's a graduate of Point Loma Nazarene University and has both a Master Divinity degree and PhD in Old Testament Studies from Princeton Theological Seminary. Brent is in his third year of teaching at Duke. Prior to that, he taught at Asbury Theological Seminary and at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He has authored or contributed to a number of books, journals, and scholarly magazines. He has also appeared on CNN, invited to share his expertise on issues ranging from Easter celebrations to Pope Francis to gun violence, and he served as both a translator and a member of the editorial board for the Common English Bible.

In our last conversation, we talked about his recent book, Lies My Preacher Told Me: An Honest Look at the Old Testament; published early in 2021. This conversation primarily centers on his brand new book - just released a few days ago and published by Fortress Press - entitled, Honest to God Preaching: Talking Sin, Suffering, and Violence. We also talked about his contribution to another recently released book entitled God and Guns: The Bible Against American Gun Culture - edited by Christopher Hayes and Carly Crouch.

Brent is truly one of my favorite people to get to talk to about life, theology, and ministry. Our conversations are always filled with laughter, joy, and occasionally even an insight or two. I hope that you enjoy this second New Creation Conversation between two friends.