

Homebrewed Christianity
Dr. Tripp Fuller
Our goal is to bring the wisdom of the academy's ivory tower into your earbuds. Think of each episode as an audiological ingredient for your to brew your own faith. Most episodes center around an interview with a different scholar, theologian, or philosopher.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Aug 22, 2025 • 1h 44min
When the Church Forgets Christ with Tim Whitaker
In this episode, Tim Whitaker from the New Evangelical joined me for one of those sprawling conversations that somehow manages to connect Christian nationalism, the Democratic Party's moral cowardice, process theology, and whether buying burritos on payment plans signals the end of civilization. We started with our upcoming "God of Justice" class and quickly dove into the bewildering reality of watching people worship a brown-skinned immigrant named Jesus on Sunday, then cheer for the deportation of brown-skinned immigrants on Monday. Tim shared his jarring experience at the DNC, where he found himself more aligned with the leftist protesters outside than the military-industrial complex celebration inside, while I vented about Democratic senators who can't figure out why state-run grocery stores aren't communist plots. We wrestled with that familiar ex-evangelical dilemma of trying not to recreate the same purity culture dynamics we escaped from, just with new villains and shibboleths. The whole thing was anchored by this persistent question that haunts anyone trying to follow Christ in empire: where exactly is God when the people wearing Jesus name tags are the ones building alligator moats, and the politicians who should know better are too bought off to acknowledge that maybe poor people deserve vegetables?
You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube
UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing
This transformative online class brings together distinguished scholars from biblical studies, theology, history, and faith leadership to offer exactly what our moment demands: the rich, textured wisdom of multiple academic disciplines speaking into our contemporary quest for justice. Here you'll discover how ancient texts illuminate modern struggles, how theological reflection deepens social action, and how historical understanding opens new possibilities for faithful engagement with our world's brokenness and beauty. Join John Dominic Crossan, Peter Enns, Casey Sigmon, Aizaiah Yong, & Malcolm Foley
As always, the class is donation-based, including 0. INFO & Sign-Up at www.FaithAndPolitics.net
Theology Beer Camp is a unique three-day conference that brings together of theology nerds and craft beer for a blend of intellectual engagement, community building, and fun. Guests this year include John Dominic Crossan, Kelly Brown Douglas, Philip Clayton, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Jeffery Pugh, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Andy Root, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Noreen Herzfeld, Reggie Williams, Casper ter Kuile, and more! Get info and tickets here.
_____________________
This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 70,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 50 classes at www.TheologyClass.com
Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 21, 2025 • 1h 30min
Randall Balmer: Myth Busting Evangelical Activism & Its Origins
What if everything you thought you knew about why evangelical Christians became politically active was completely wrong? Today I sit down with one of America's greatest historians of religion, Randall Balmer, to do some serious myth-busting. We dive deep into what Balmer calls "the abortion myth" - the widely believed but false story that evangelicals mobilized politically in the 1970s over Roe v. Wade. The real origin story? It's much more uncomfortable - it was actually about defending racial segregation in Christian schools when the IRS threatened their tax-exempt status. Balmer takes us through this hidden history he discovered firsthand at a 1990 gathering of religious right leaders, where architect Paul Weyrich admitted abortion "had nothing to do with" their political mobilization. We trace how a religious community that once championed prison reform, women's rights, and abolition transformed into today's Christian nationalist movement, and explore what this means for the future of American religion. From Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump, from the Jesus movement to Project 2025, this conversation reveals how evangelicalism lost its prophetic voice and became, in Balmer's words, dangerously "worldly." It's a sobering but essential look at how we got here - and whether there's any hope for course correction.
You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube
Randall Balmer is one of America's leading historians of religion and a prominent scholar of evangelicalism. A professor at Dartmouth College, Balmer grew up in the evangelical subculture as the son of a preacher before earning his PhD. Balmer is the author of numerous influential books, including Bad Faith: Race and the Rise of the Religious Right, God in the White House, and America's Best Idea: The Separation of Church and State.
UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing
This transformative online class brings together distinguished scholars from biblical studies, theology, history, and faith leadership to offer exactly what our moment demands: the rich, textured wisdom of multiple academic disciplines speaking into our contemporary quest for justice. Here you'll discover how ancient texts illuminate modern struggles, how theological reflection deepens social action, and how historical understanding opens new possibilities for faithful engagement with our world's brokenness and beauty. Join John Dominic Crossan, Peter Enns, Casey Sigmon, Aizaiah Yong, & Malcolm Foley
As always, the class is donation-based, including 0. INFO & Sign-Up at www.FaithAndPolitics.net
Theology Beer Camp is a unique three-day conference that brings together of theology nerds and craft beer for a blend of intellectual engagement, community building, and fun. Guests this year include John Dominic Crossan, Kelly Brown Douglas, Philip Clayton, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Jeffery Pugh, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Andy Root, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Noreen Herzfeld, Reggie Williams, Casper ter Kuile, and more! Get info and tickets here.
_____________________
This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 70,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 50 classes at www.TheologyClass.com
Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 18, 2025 • 1h 34min
Guillermo Bervejillo: The Structure of World History
So I got pulled into this fascinating email exchange with Brian McLaren about Kojin Karatani's The Structure of World History, and it turns out there's this whole crew of organizers and academics who've been quietly working with these ideas to rethink everything from social movements to economic theory. My guest Guillermo Bervejillo—who went from being a disillusioned neoclassical economist to writing his dissertation on Chinese imperialism using Karatani's framework—breaks down this mind-bending approach to history that shifts from Marx's "modes of production" to "modes of exchange." We're talking about how gift-giving nomads, tribute-paying states, commodity markets, and the possibility of free exchange (think: exile Judaism, early Christianity) have shaped literally everything about how power works. It's one of those conversations where suddenly all these questions you've been carrying around about why organizing feels so hard, why capitalism feels so totalizing, and what actual alternatives might look like start clicking into place. Plus, we barely scratched the surface on Jesus, which means we definitely need a follow-up.
You can WATCH the conversation on YouTube
Guillermo Bervejillo is an economic geographer and community organizer who bridges critical theory and social movement practice. After earning his PhD in Economic Geography from Ohio State University, where he studied dependency theory and Chinese imperialism through the lens of Kojin Karatani's modes of exchange framework, Guillermo has dedicated his work to translating complex theoretical insights into tools for grassroots organizing.
You can find the YouTube playlist of videos outlining Karatani’s work here.
UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing
This transformative online class brings together distinguished scholars from biblical studies, theology, history, and faith leadership to offer exactly what our moment demands: the rich, textured wisdom of multiple academic disciplines speaking into our contemporary quest for justice. Here you'll discover how ancient texts illuminate modern struggles, how theological reflection deepens social action, and how historical understanding opens new possibilities for faithful engagement with our world's brokenness and beauty. Join John Dominic Crossan, Peter Enns, Casey Sigmon, Aizaiah Yong, & Malcolm Foley
As always, the class is donation-based, including 0. INFO & Sign-Up at www.FaithAndPolitics.net
Theology Beer Camp is a unique three-day conference that brings together of theology nerds and craft beer for a blend of intellectual engagement, community building, and fun. Guests this year include John Dominic Crossan, Kelly Brown Douglas, Philip Clayton, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Jeffery Pugh, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Andy Root, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Noreen Herzfeld, Reggie Williams, Casper ter Kuile, and more! Get info and tickets here.
_____________________
This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 70,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 50 classes at www.TheologyClass.com
Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 15, 2025 • 2h
Why Your Politics Need a Better Cosmology (Whether You Know It or Not) w/ Matthew Segall & Aaron Simmons
You can join the Democracy in Tension online summit and get access to all the lectures today.
You can WATCH this conversation on YouTube
Dr. Matthew Segall is a transdisciplinary researcher and teacher who applies process philosophy to various natural and social sciences, including consciousness. He is also an Assistant Professor in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA.
Make sure you check out SubStack Footnotes to Plato, his YouTube channel and recent book.
Previous Podcasts with Matt
the Meaning Crisis in Process
Processing the Political
Cosmology, Consciousness, and Whitehead’s God.
Science, Religion, Eco-Philosophy, Etheric Imagination, Psychedelic Eucharist, Ecological Crisis and more…
Aaron Simmons is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Furman University. You can follow his Substack ‘Philosophy in the Wild.’
UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing
This transformative online class brings together distinguished scholars from biblical studies, theology, history, and faith leadership to offer exactly what our moment demands: the rich, textured wisdom of multiple academic disciplines speaking into our contemporary quest for justice. Here you'll discover how ancient texts illuminate modern struggles, how theological reflection deepens social action, and how historical understanding opens new possibilities for faithful engagement with our world's brokenness and beauty. Join John Dominic Crossan, Peter Enns, Casey Sigmon, Aizaiah Yong, & Malcolm Foley
As always, the class is donation-based, including 0. INFO & Sign-Up at www.FaithAndPolitics.net
Theology Beer Camp is a unique three-day conference that brings together of theology nerds and craft beer for a blend of intellectual engagement, community building, and fun. Guests this year include John Dominic Crossan, Kelly Brown Douglas, Philip Clayton, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Jeffery Pugh, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Andy Root, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Noreen Herzfeld, Reggie Williams, Casper ter Kuile, and more! Get info and tickets here.
_____________________
This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 70,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 50 classes at www.TheologyClass.com
Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 snips
Aug 11, 2025 • 1h 18min
Ryan Burge: Gen Z Revival?: The Next Chapter in American Religious Life
Ryan Burge, a professor at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, dives into the fascinating landscape of Gen Z's relationship with faith. He reveals that the much-discussed 'Gen Z revival' is more myth than reality, backed by compelling data. They tackle the decline in belief and church attendance, the peculiarities of modern dating among youth, and how technology complicates relationships. Additionally, the conversation turns to the intersection of religion and politics, emphasizing the moral outrage across party lines in today’s society.

Aug 7, 2025 • 1h 35min
The Sacred, The Political, and Why We're All Vulnerable with Aaron Staufer & Aaron Simmons
In a dynamic conversation, Aaron Stauffer, a theologian and community organizer from Vanderbilt University, joins fellow philosopher Aaron Simmons to tackle how sacred values influence political life. They explore the balance between faith and critical thinking in mainline churches, and why good theology sometimes produces terrible music. The duo humorously discusses radical democracy, vulnerability, and the challenges of multiculturalism. They also ponder what happens when sacred values collide with democratic ideals, all while advocating for a more inclusive, engaged community.

Aug 4, 2025 • 1h 15min
Brian McLaren & Jacob Erickson: Ecological Crises & Lament
What's up Theology Nerds! We're diving deep into one of the most powerful sessions from last year's Theology Beer Camp in Denver - a conversation that honestly left me speechless. Brian McLaren kicks us off with a gut-punch keynote on ecological crisis and the power of lament that'll challenge everything you think you know about faith in our current moment. Then Jacob Erickson responds with some brilliant eco-theological insights that had the room scribbling notes like crazy. We're talking about overshoot, oligarchy, the impotence of religion, and what it looks like to let nature save us instead of the other way around. Plus, there's this incredible discussion about "rebellious mourning" that I'm still pondering. Fair warning - this is raw, honest, and necessary conversation about faith in the face of climate crisis. And hey, if this gets you fired up, there are still about 100 tickets left for Theology Beer Camp 2025 in St. Paul this October. Trust me, you don't want to miss what we're cooking up this year!
You can WATCH this conversation on YouTube
Theology Beer Camp is a unique three-day conference that brings together of theology nerds and craft beer for a blend of intellectual engagement, community building, and fun. Guests this year include John Dominic Crossan, Kelly Brown Douglas, Philip Clayton, Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Jeffery Pugh, Juan Floyd-Thomas, Andy Root, Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Noreen Herzfeld, Reggie Williams, Casper ter Kuile, and more! Get info and tickets here.
UPCOMING ONLINE CLASS - The God of Justice: Where Ancient Wisdom Meets Contemporary Longing
This transformative online class brings together distinguished scholars from biblical studies, theology, history, and faith leadership to offer exactly what our moment demands: the rich, textured wisdom of multiple academic disciplines speaking into our contemporary quest for justice. Here you'll discover how ancient texts illuminate modern struggles, how theological reflection deepens social action, and how historical understanding opens new possibilities for faithful engagement with our world's brokenness and beauty. Join John Dominic Crossan, Peter Enns, Casey Sigmon, Aizaiah Yong, & Malcolm Foley
As always, the class is donation-based, including 0. INFO & Sign-Up at www.FaithAndPolitics.net
_____________________
This podcast is a Homebrewed Christianity production. Follow the Homebrewed Christianity, Theology Nerd Throwdown, & The Rise of Bonhoeffer podcasts for more theological goodness for your earbuds. Join over 70,000 other people by joining our Substack - Process This! Get instant access to over 50 classes at www.TheologyClass.com
Follow the podcast, drop a review, send feedback/questions or become a member of the HBC Community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jul 30, 2025 • 1h 26min
Transcendence, Immanence, and Why Charlie Kirk is Bad at Theology with Kevin Carnahan & Aaron Simmons
Kevin Carnahan is a Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Central Methodist University, with expertise in ethics and pragmatism. Aaron Simmons teaches Philosophy at Furman University, focusing on the philosophy of religion. They dive into the intersection of Christian citizenship and democracy, tracing historical links from Jesus to Bonhoeffer. The discussion highlights the need for meaningful engagement in a polarized society and critiques the role of religion in democracy, while navigating the complexities of addressing modern issues like Palestine.

Jul 28, 2025 • 56min
Josh Scott: Parables - Putting Jesus's Stories in Their Place
Josh Scott, minister at GracePointe Church and author of "Parables: Putting Jesus Stories in Their Place," dives into the transformative power of Jesus' parables. He explores how these stories challenge societal norms and reflect on community struggles. Scott shares insights on making faith relevant today, emphasizing inclusivity and dialogue in navigating theological questions. He discusses the role of the Post-Evangelical Collective in fostering connections among faith leaders, advocating for a church that embraces grace and understanding.

Jul 24, 2025 • 1h 14min
Sitting on Dietrich's Bed: A Theological Debrief from Berlin
Andrew Root, a scholar in youth and family ministry, shares insights from his recent trip to Berlin, where he taught about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They discuss the pressing question: "Is this our Bonhoeffer moment?" This leads to reflections on faith and resistance amid modern challenges like ICE raids. Root examines whether ethical principles from Christianity can endure without traditional structures, while humorously contrasting heavy theological discussions with the significance of memes and social media in today’s culture.