Gospel Conversations podcast

Drawing on Nietzsche, Professor Volf will explore two pervasive and mutually reinforcing nihilisms of our time—our misplaced search for meaning, and our wrongheaded pursuit of pleasure—and counter common critiques of religion by arguing that faith in God intensifies and deepens the enjoyment of the world, uniting both meaning and pleasure.Professor Volf will tie this in with his personal story, his speech at the UN at the time of 9/11, and his participation in the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Drawing on Nietzsche, Professor Volf will explore two pervasive and mutually reinforcing nihilisms of our time—our misplaced search for meaning, and our wrongheaded pursuit of pleasure—and counter common critiques of religion by arguing that faith in God intensifies and deepens the enjoyment of the world, uniting both meaning and pleasure.Professor Volf will tie this in with his personal story, his speech at the UN at the time of 9/11, and his participation in the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Councils. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

In this fourth talk Tony explores Hebrews 7-10 where Apollos brushes aside Moses' law as 'useless' and in its place paints an epic picture of Christ's grand entrance to the heaven of heavens after his ascension and his establishment of a new covenant between God and humanity, and his building of a true eternal tabernacle—a new created order in which matter and physicality can finally contain glory and thus commune with God freely. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

In this talk we move past the grand opening of Hebrews into the guts of the argument; how Jesus is superior to the entire religious system of the law but not only that—how he has totally eclipsed the religious system of law and Moses with the 'system of the resurrection'. All of these grand themes are crystallised in the strange governing theme of 'Melchizedek'. We unpack all of that in this talk—and we also confront the scariest passage in the NT along the way! May this bless you and help transform your minds. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Hebrews opens with two very important chapters that take Jesus out of the religious box, lifting him to the Maker of the Universe. From that lofty position, Apollos makes his biggest move and uses Psalm 8 to put humanity right there beside Jesus—ruling the cosmos. Through his explorations, Tony will translate these rich theological themes into in language that speaks to our world today. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

The Epistle to the Hebrews breaks new ground in the debate over religion and grace. In this talk we look at who wrote it, and what problem it is trying to solve—really important questions since it is such an alien book to us modern people in many ways. We delve into the book of Acts in detail and uncover the deep struggle between Jerusalem and Rome that defined the faith in its early days. And we find in the writer to the Hebrews, the man who arguably took over the baton of thought leadership in the early church from Paul and pushed the gospel to its natural boundaries far from the confining views of Jerusalem. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith will be giving her second talk on "Reading the Bible as Literature". In her first talk, she introduced us to the rich resources that a literary reading brings to the Bible. In this talk, she will take a deeper dive in Genesis and give us a more detailed picture of these exciting tools at work in a major book. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Dr Sarah Golsby-Smith takes us on a journey to discover the riches of reading the Bible using the toolkits and methods of literary analysis. She argues that Christians tend to read the Bible as an instruction manual—not literature—and this narrows its richness and indeed our view of God. Instead, she opens up the more living and vast world of reading the Bible literature. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

What do we mean when we say "The Bible is the Word of God"? Does the Bible itself make this claim? In today's postmodern world we cannot afford to make glib claims like this—we need to think through what we mean. In this talk, Tony goes back to literary and rhetorical theory to lay a much stronger foundation for how we should treat the Bible, and interpret it. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

To wrap up the year we structured this event differently. Instead of a talk, we had a time of dialogue structured by the question, “What areas of interest and questions have Gospel Conversations raised for you this year?”We push the boundaries in Gospel Conversations, but often don’t have the time to explore the ideas further on the nights after the talks. We didn't aim to always arrive at clear cut answers since some topics may simply be too complex for us to come to easy conclusions about. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe