Discovering the relevance of Leviticus, understanding the values behind its laws, reflections on living Levitically, exploring the impact of ritual exercises, perception of shame in biblical law, and understanding justice in Leviticus.

The Biblical Mind and the Center for Hebraic Thought are entering a new phase after ending a formal partnership with The King’s College. Additionally, CHT director of operations and TBM editor Celina Durgin will leave her position at the center on July 28, 2023. In this mini episode, Dru and Celina provide a bit more context, and Celina bids the CHT goodbye and shares a little about where she's going next. The Biblical Mind magazine and podcast will keep publishing during this transition, though less frequently and regularly than it had been until recently. The CHT’s other partnerships and affiliations will be unaffected. We hope and pray for a new partnership to allow the CHT to emerge from its period of dormancy and resume full programming in the coming months. Thank you for continuing to follow us.

Dr. Michael W. Austin is a Professor of Philosophy at Eastern Kentucky University, an author, and a speaker. He has published 12 books; most recently, he co-edited and contributed to QAnon, Chaos, and the Cross: Christianity and Conspiracy Theories. Most of his teaching, writing, and speaking is focused on ethical questions related to character and human flourishing. He believes that philosophy has much to offer us, in our individual, social, and spiritual lives. For many years, he's also been a speaker for the Kentucky Humanities Council, and he contributes to a blog for Psychology Today, “Ethics for Everyone.” 

Matt LaPine, PhD, pastor at Cornerstone Church, discusses the gap between seminaries and churches. They explore challenges in theological education, balancing academic knowledge with real-world experiences. The conversation delves into controversial teaching topics for children, innovations in Christian higher education, and feedback mechanisms in Christian leadership. The discussion highlights the need for seminaries to adapt to the needs of aspiring ministers already serving in churches.

Terms like "systemic sin" or "structural injustice" immediately make many people think of contemporary ideologies that they either strongly embrace or strongly oppose, such as socialism or the much-discussed (but poorly understood) critical race theory. These charged terms are often employed in vague or unhelpful ways. The Bible has many examples of sin and injustice that are not purely individual—of evil that is bigger than the sum of the evildoers, and iniquity that reverberates through generations. How can we think more clearly and biblically about the nature of evil and injustice? Sin is many things in Scripture: an action, an identity, an agent or power, and the brokenness of structures and systems. People err when they don't grasp the Bible's full, complex picture of sin. Michael Rhodes (PhD, Trinity College Bristol/University of Aberdeen) is a Lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College. He is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, author of Formative Feasting: Practices and Virtue Ethics in the Deuteronomic Tithe Meal and Corinthian Lord’s Supper (2022), and co-author of Practicing the King’s Economy: Honoring Jesus in How We Work, Earn, Spend, Save, and Give. Show notes: 00:26 Unjust kings don't act alone; the state is more than the sum of its parts 06:46 The positive side: people were created to be mediators of God's blessing 12:34 English hides the second-person plural 14:32 The structures of society create incentives and disincentives for behaviors 15:38 Intergenerational sin in Scripture 18:14 People's inconsistent resistance to the idea of systemic injustice and sin 22:49 What is sin? It's both individual and communal, personal and systemic 31:10 Is this leaning toward socialism or critical race theory? 41:06 Cornel West for president? 41:56 Exercising power faithfully in different kinds political, economic, and cultural contexts 43:48 Paradigmatic depictions of God's kingdom should be announced and emulated in the church Show notes by Celina Durgin

From social media, to the printing press, to artificial intelligence, to the pencil, technologies have often been regarded as things that can't be good or bad apart from how people choose to use them. Jason Thacker doesn't think any technology is merely a neutral tool, because as people use technology to shape the world, it also shapes them and their culture. Jason Thacker serves as an assistant professor of philosophy and ethics at Boyce College in Louisville, KY. He also is a research fellow in Christian ethics and director of the research institute at The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. He is the author of several books including Following Jesus in the Digital Age and The Age of AI: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity.  He is a graduate of The University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies. He also holds a Master of Divinity from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he is currently a PhD candidate in ethics, public theology, and philosophy.  Show notes:  00:26 What is technology? 04:25 Jacques Ellul on "technique" and how technology forms us 08:19 Two views of technology: instrumentalist and deterministic 16:05 Optimism, pessimism, and realism about technology 22:27 Some tools don't have good uses 28:23 A biblical theology of technology? 31:54 Technology and the vulnerable Show notes by Celina Durgin

This episode was originally published in May of 2021. We thought it was worth a reissue for our newer listeners. A new episode is coming next week. Why do we say "come to Jesus"? This Christianese phrase doesn't just show up in church—it shows up in offices, homes, and schools around America, where we speak of "come-to-Jesus moments." What about words like "community" or "intentional"? Do we even know what those words mean? Unless we attend to our words and try to express our thoughts more carefully, our religious language can end up thin, impotent, and laden with clichés. In this episode, Dru Johnson talks to Dr. Valerie Hobbs, a Senior Lecturer and linguist at the University of Sheffield. Dr. Hobbs specializes in the construction, use, and progression of religious language in contemporary discourse. They discuss the definitions and origins of religious language and Christianese, and how they can be distinguished from simple "in-group" or technical language. Then, they consider how our most powerful (or just persistent) ideas about death, God, and spirituality find their way out of the church and into corporate discourse, or vice-versa. They conclude with remarks on how to think about prayer, apologizing, and even the idea of racial reconciliation, to help us choose better words and think more deeply. Show notes: 0:00 Defining “religious language” and "Christianese" 2:18 How religious language is constructed 4:26 The difference with in-group language 6:37 Religious language in the secular world 9:27 Corporate discourse and our values 13:25 Where we get our Christianese clichés  19:09 Learning how to express our experiences 23:43 Becoming sensitive to the way we speak 26:47 Apologizing 29:30 The problem with terms like "racial reconciliation" Learn more about Valerie Hobbs and her work. Her most recent book, An Introduction to Religious Language Show notes by Micah Long. Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

This episode was originally published on May 5, 2021. We thought it was worth a reissue for our newer listeners. "It was most fitting for God to come save the people he made in the first place," says Dr. Lucy Peppiatt, Principal at Westminster Theological Centre. The early church loved to discuss the "fittingness of the Son to become human," because it implies that God has a passion for man. He purposed from the beginning of time that He would come to save us, as one of us, and that means that there is something about humans that is fitting to be united with God. And that is the gospel. In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson and Dr. Peppiatt talk all about Jesus of Nazareth: Who was he? Who did people think he was? Why did he teach and present himself indirectly rather than just revealing himself to man? Dru and Dr. Peppiatt address challenging questions about the hiddenness of God in Christ, the incarnation, the union of the divine and the human in the Son, and more.  Show notes: 1:55 Why didn’t Jesus reveal himself to man while he was on Earth? 5:24 Athanasius of Alexandria on Jesus 7:13 Wrestling in the church: Jesus intellectually reasoned with us 15:40 Is there value to the struggle? 19:50 Is there something human about God? 24:37 Impoverished theology Show notes by Serena Tuomi. Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.

You might have heard that being made in the image of God refers to human rationality, relationality, moral agency, or some combination of these qualities. Dr. Carmen Imes disagrees.  She and Dru discuss what they think the author of Genesis was actually referring to with the phrase "image of God," in light of Carmen's latest book Being God's Image: Why Creation Still Matters (forthcoming in June, 2023). Along the way, they discuss artificial intelligence, the resurrection and renewal of creation, and why Eve should have been more assertive. Carmen (PhD in Biblical Theology, Wheaton College) is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Biola University. She is also the author of Bearing God’s Name: Why Sinai Still Matters. Carmen is an active member of the Evangelical Theological Society, the Institute for Biblical Research, the Society of Biblical Literature, and the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. Carmen keeps a blog called Chastened Institutions and releases weekly Torah Tuesday videos on her YouTube channel. 00:25 Rediscovering the biblical doctrine of the Imago Dei 08:47 "Male and female he created them" 12:17 The importance of the body 17:38 Eve wasn't too bossy—she wasn't assertive enough 20:18 Artificial intelligence and ChatGPT 28:08 Abdication of creation care and the renewal of the earth 38:02 Implications for how we should treat people   Show notes by Celina Durgin This episode's music was generated by artificial intelligence.

Herem warfare is the commandment to exterminate all survivors. The law of herem warfare appears in the Book of Joshua and contravenes the usual motivations for going to war in the ancient Near East. Armies in that context typically killed only males and took women, children, and possessions before turning the conquered nation into a subjugated satellite nation. The law of herem warfare, on the other hand, forbade enslavement and required that all be killed. Dru and Paul R. Hinlicky discuss this topic and more within the Book of Joshua. Dr. Hinlicky wrote Joshua for the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible series. Dr. Hinlicky (PhD, Union Theological Seminary, 1983) is an internationally known theologian who has published more than seventy articles and many books. He teaches theology at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia. He is an authority on the theology of Martin Luther and how Luther's theology played out in history since the time of the Reformation.  Show notes: 00:26 Why don't we hear many sermons on the Book of Joshua? 02:55 The context of "be strong and courageous" 10:39 Herem warfare—does God command genocide? 15:17 The plan of herem warfare fails 25:32 The theological emphasis of the Book of Joshua Show notes by Celina Durgin