Deep Talks | Cultural Theology with Paul Anleitner

Paul Vander Klay returns once again for a discussion on the evidence for the looming end of the secular age in America. We talk: the link Comic book movies & ancient mythology, Fight Club & Mammon, The Good Place theology, Jordan Peterson, Joe Rogan & psychedelics , Jonathan Pageau vs John Vervaeke, hyper-woke culture and the French Revolution, & did Blockbuster Video cause church decline?   Paul Vander Klay’s YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/c/PaulVanderKlay If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together.   https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner  

The Death of Superman. Kingdom Come. Fight Club.  These are just a few of the cultural artifacts emerging from our collective cultural consciousness that give evidence to an imminent shift away from secularity in the West. Our modern myths are showing signs of a shifting cultural moment. We were told that if we killed God we'd have a religionless world, but what we got instead were new gods. Now, we're not so sure that we like these new gods better. Who or what are the new gods? Let's look at a couple of significant cultural stories to see evidence of this growing discontent with the new gods of the secular age.   Plus, I'll discuss what happened in the 1960's and 70's in the New Age phenomenon, the psychedelic counter-cultural movement, and the Charismatic renewal movements which poked holes in the secular frame and how that eventually led to the New Atheism in the mid-2000's; and we'll see how New Atheism spawned the contemporary counter-movements to the meaning crisis like Joe Rogan pscychedllic resurgance, Jordan Peterson's intellectual dark web, Sam Harris materialist meditation practices, and John Vervaeke.  If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together.   https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

Kenneth Tanner is the pastor of Holy Redeemer Church, a Charismatic Episcopal church in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He is also a writer who weaves theological insights from the ancient witness of the global, historic Church into contemporary issues. He’s written for Patheos, Christianity Today, Mockingbird, and the Huffington Post. You can read some of his articles over at his blog: https://kennethtanner.medium.com/ If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together.   https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

As someone who loves cultural theology, I’m completely fascinated by ancient and modern myths and how those mythological stories serve as guiding stories for entire civilizations. Whether it is the ancient tales of Zeus and the Greek Olympian gods or the myths of virtuous super-human heroes and lazer sword wielding wizards that fill our comic book pages & big box office movie screens, I’m fascinated by what these stories reveal about our views on God, reality, what is good and evil, and what the telos of life is all about. The secular narrative has claimed that human progress is hindered by religious narratives, and that just as Christianity displaced the old pagan stories, secularism has come to displace Christianity and will bring about a better world. But the era of secularity may be approaching its end as more and more people begging to question that story. The clues that we are moving towards a post-secular Western world are increasingly finding their way into being embedded into our popular cultural stories. Take the recent DC comics movie “Zack Snyder’s Justice League” where the death of God, symbolically represented by the death of Superman, awakens an ancient sinister force to come and fill the vacuum of power- a sinister force that was once kept at bay by the old pagan gods. In today’s episode, we’ll try to step into the ancient pagan world and understand their relationship to their guiding stories, grapple with the early Christian responses to pagan culture & mythology, and begin to see why the secular goal of creating a religiously “neutral” cultural space never actually creates a religiously neutral space. For the article on C.S. Lewis and paganism that I quote in this episode, see here: https://www.sacredarchitecture.org/articles/god_the_father_of_lights_c._s._lewis_on_christianity_and_paganism If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together.   https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

My dear friends Ted Kim, John Mark McMIllan, and Andy Squyres are all back on the podcast this week to discuss a range of topics all centered around re-enchanting our secular (or post-secular?) cultural frame. Ted Kim is senior pastor of Evanston Vineyard. He did his undergrad degree at the University of Chicago and has Masters of Divinity from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. His first time on the podcast was in Episode 86. You can listen here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-tazax-fb65ff John Mark McMillan is a Platinum-selling songwriter & artist best known for his songs How He Loves, Future/Past, & King of My Heart. You can listen to the first conversation I had with John Mark back in Episode 40 here: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-gm2i7-c15274   Andy Squyres is a singer-songwriter & pastor from Charlotte, North Carolina best known for his song Cherry Blossoms. Andy recently released a masterful record entitled Poet Priest.  Andy's been on the podcast twice before.  He was last on back in Episode 59: https://www.podbean.com/ew/pb-ii4s6-db4a29   If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together. Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

This is the finale to our 3 part series on salvation in a pluralistic world. In part two, I made the case that Christocentric inclusivism makes the best sense of the Biblical narrative. In today's episode, I will show you that this was the belief of some of the earliest and most important church fathers and make the case that it was during the era of Constantine that the "no salvation outside of the church" doctrine perverted what the Scriptures and earlier Christians believed. The Roman Catholic church has since changed its ecclesiocentric exclusivist stance (since Vatican II). Should other Christian traditions do the same? Who were some others throughout history that held to this inclusivist hope?   Along with our discussion forum on Patreon, I will also be posting a resource list if you wanted to read more on this subject that you may want to download. (See the Deep Talks Patreon links below) f you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together. Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

In part two of our series, we will go through the Biblical narrative and explore some of the "pagan saints" of the Bible to see that the Biblical story has always affirmed a variety of epistemological paths to salvation in Christ alone.  Plus, have we completely misunderstood the Apostle Paul's argument in the book of Romans to make the Good News of Jesus Christ feel more restrictive than Paul intended? Listen and let me know what you think in our Patreon Discussion Forum for this episode (see the link below) If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together. Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

Ever since I was a kid, there was a nagging question in my mind about what happened to the indigenous people who lived and died on this continent long before missionaries ever brought the message of Jesus to them. Or what about the Daoists who lived in China in the 1st century? Did they have access to salvation? What about a Muslim child in Syria who died in the rubble of another bombing?   Is there a biblically supported and historically Christian option between believing that either all religions are equally salvific or believing that many, if not most, humans who have ever lived died without access to the possibility of salvation? This is part one in our multi-part series exploring what I believe are better answers to the questions many Christians have about salvation in our pluralistic world. If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together. Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

Jon Guerra is a singer-songwriter based in Austin, Texas. His album Keeper of Days is a brilliant work of "devotional music" that's among one of my favorite records in recent years.  He also composes music for the soundtracks of Terrance Malick films. In today's episode, I talk with Jon about his spiritual journey and what drew him to music, what once caused him to become cynical about God and music, and what brought him back to his calling. What is it about an experience of beauty that disarms our cynicism and invites us into a journey of wonder with God? You can find out more about Jon Guerra at: https://www.jonguerramusic.com/ Listen to Keeper of Days on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/album/0flP7iXzaUHPPyOeizocTn?si=2YXkF7GdSEONwUqrzq1jZw If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together. Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner

Dan Kent is an author and pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He also co-hosts with Greg Boyd a podcast called "Apologies & Explanations with Greg Boyd." Dan joined me way back in episode 21 to share his personal story and insights from his book "Confident Humility". So if you want to know more about Dan's back story, then go back and listen to that episode. Dan also has his Master's in Christian Thought from Bethel Seminary and is a major proponent of Open Theism and  his friend Greg Boyd's "warfare view." We've talked on several occasions together about why I am no longer convinced by the Open view and thought it might be fun to hash out some of our differences together in a way that lets other people listen in. After I completed my finale of the Problem of Evil series, several listeners in our Patreon community reached out with questions and respectful objections in defense of the open view, so I thought it would be a good idea to work through some specific issues relating to open theism, Satan and spiritual warfare, and even animal suffering & veganism!   You can find out more about Dan Kent at: https://thatdankent.com/ If you find this podcast to be helpful and you want to see it continue ad-free, would you consider becoming a supporter on Patreon? Members of the Deep Talks Patreon Community receive bonus Q & A Episodes, articles, charts, forum discussions and more. STARTING THIS MONTH, WE'LL HAVE AN PATREON COMMUNITY GROUP ZOOM HANG-OUT to build relationships with others across the world and to do theology and meaning-making together. Help us reach our first goal of 300 patrons in order to sustain weekly, ad-free theological and philosophical education to anyone with an internet connection! https://www.patreon.com/deeptalkstheologypodcast To Subscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-talks-exploring-theology-and-meaning-making/id1401730159   Connect with Paul Anleitner on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/PaulAnleitner