Gospel Conversations podcast

More and more philosophers recognise that the three giants of classical thought, and the shapers of western thought down to our day, are Plato, Aristotle and—Paul. In large part, Plato and Aristotle refined and codified a tradition much older than themselves. But Paul represents the great turning point of western thought away from the hold of classical tradition.In three recent seminal talks, Professor Edwin Judge demonstrated how the story of Jesus implied three great shifts:from Closed Cosmos to Open Cosmosfrom Closed Society to Open Societyfrom Closed Heart to Open HeartIn three further sessions Mark, who studied with Edwin, will show how Paul’s translation of the Gospel affected these three shifts. Taking Paul out of the religious framework where many have boxed him, Mark will help us appreciate the vast, pervasive, and revolutionary impact he has had on the whole world, not just Christianity. Mark will base his sessions on Paul’s extraordinary letter to his friends living within the shadow of Caesar in Rome. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

More and more philosophers recognise that the three giants of classical thought, and the shapers of western thought down to our day, are Plato, Aristotle and—Paul. In large part, Plato and Aristotle refined and codified a tradition much older than themselves. But Paul represents the great turning point of western thought away from the hold of classical tradition.In three recent seminal talks, Professor Edwin Judge demonstrated how the story of Jesus implied three great shifts:from Closed Cosmos to Open Cosmosfrom Closed Society to Open Societyfrom Closed Heart to Open HeartIn three further sessions Mark, who studied with Edwin, will show how Paul’s translation of the Gospel affected these three shifts. Taking Paul out of the religious framework where many have boxed him, Mark will help us appreciate the vast, pervasive, and revolutionary impact he has had on the whole world, not just Christianity. Mark will base his sessions on Paul’s extraordinary letter to his friends living within the shadow of Caesar in Rome. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

This month we welcome Rikk Watts from Regent College, Canada to talk on Mark's Gospel. In Gospel Conversations, we like to peel back the layers and get close to the core of what we believe. You can’t get closer to the core than Mark’s Gospel—the shortest and the first of the four biographies of Jesus. It used to be viewed as the simplest and least sophisticated of the gospels but that has changed in recent times, and now Mark is viewed more and more as a great literary text in its own right. Rikk Watts is one key thinker leading this new appreciation of Mark and of Mark's role, in giving the world its greatest every story.But can we believe the story?Is it myth or history?And if we can believe it, how do we read it intelligently?How can we get back behind two thousand years of culture to read like the world Mark wrote it for?How do we get a new conversation going with Mark's gospel?Most importantly what does Mark tell us about Jesus?Does he really claim that Jesus was the Son of God? If so, what did he mean by this?Rikk will build us a breathtaking picture of Jesus, as viewed by Mark. He will peel back the layers of tradition and put us squarely in the first-century world that was first rocked by this story. But we won’t stop there, we will also ask the ‘So what?’ question.What are the consequences of this story?How should we then live?We will answer these questions through three minds. Rikk, Mark Strom and Tony Golsby-Smith have been talking about this ‘so what’ world for years together, and this is our first opportunity to get on the same stage together. So Rikk will address it from the perspective of Mark’s gospel. Mark Strom will then address it through the window of history (How did the story change the world of the first and second centuries?). And Tony will address it through the world of a twenty-first-century business consultant encouraging large organisations and their leaders to redesign themselves. We three believe that we have put the gospel in a religious box for too long and it is time to take it out. After all, we believe that this big story changes EVERYTHING, not just church and religion. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe

This month we welcome Rikk Watts from Regent College, Canada to talk on Mark's Gospel. In Gospel Conversations, we like to peel back the layers and get close to the core of what we believe. You can’t get closer to the core than Mark’s Gospel—the shortest and the first of the four biographies of Jesus. It used to be viewed as the simplest and least sophisticated of the gospels but that has changed in recent times, and now Mark is viewed more and more as a great literary text in its own right. Rikk Watts is one key thinker leading this new appreciation of Mark and of Mark's role, in giving the world its greatest every story.But can we believe the story?Is it myth or history?And if we can believe it, how do we read it intelligently?How can we get back behind two thousand years of culture to read like the world Mark wrote it for?How do we get a new conversation going with Mark's gospel?Most importantly what does Mark tell us about Jesus?Does he really claim that Jesus was the Son of God? If so, what did he mean by this?Rikk will build us a breathtaking picture of Jesus, as viewed by Mark. He will peel back the layers of tradition and put us squarely in the first-century world that was first rocked by this story. But we won’t stop there, we will also ask the ‘So what?’ question.What are the consequences of this story?How should we then live?We will answer these questions through three minds. Rikk, Mark Strom, and Tony Golsby-Smith have been talking about this ‘so what’ world for years together, and this is our first opportunity to get on the same stage together. So Rikk will address it from the perspective of Mark’s gospel. Mark Strom will then address it through the window of history (How did the story change the world of the first and second centuries?). And Tony will address it through the world of a twenty-first-century business consultant encouraging large organisations and their leaders to redesign themselves. We three believe that we have put the gospel in a religious box for too long and it is time to take it out. After all, we believe that this big story changes EVERYTHING, not just church and religion. Get full access to Gospel Conversations at gospelconversations.substack.com/subscribe