Forging Ploughshares

Jordan Wood introduces the alternative logic of the incarnation in which the symbol is the symbolized, and usual modes of ordering cause and effect and time and eternity, the apophatic and cataphatic, or the Platonic and Aristotelian are surpassed. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

The two on the Road to Emmaus, illustrate that the embodied, the fleshly, the historical, the scriptural is inadequate in recognizing Christ. To be stuck with the literal, which describes this theological/political moment in the United States, can be likened (according to Maximus and Origen) to being consumed by fleshly desire, while desire directed to God in Christ is infinitely stretched out. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Jordan Wood answers a series of questions concerning how Christ is to be conceived in regard to hierarchy, lower and higher, cause and effect, and Jordan depicts his embrace and occupation of the inside and outside of hierarchical order. He also discusses contemporary issues of biblical interpretation concerning the body and sexuality and how conscience and progress are to be applied to Bible reading. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Christ precedes and makes possible the fact of Scripture, both in its writing and formation, but also in the continuing reading and exegesis of Scripture. This fact is the unifying center of the faith, in answer to the multiplicities of Christian faiths now exposed in this politic moment, pointing to a deep theological crisis. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

In this discussion of Maximus' paradoxical view of the space and time bending elements of the Word/Scripture as the continuation of incarnation, Scripture is set in the context of Christ as Word - the Word incorporating and incorporated into all things. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

This sermon on coming to Christ outside the city (Hebrews 13:12-14) traces the inevitable collapse of every civilization, and the attempt of Republican politicians such as JD Vance, Josh Hawley, and Donald Trump, and cultural warriors like Jordan Peterson and Peter Thiel, to weaponize Christianity to aid in civilizational war is equated with the offer of the Devil to Christ. This is a paraphrasing and reapplication of the important talk of Paul Kingsnorth in a talk at First Things. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Maximus, unlike N. T. Wright or Peter Enns but like Origen and the Apostles, equates Scripture with the body, soul, and spirit of Christ, treating the inspiration of Scripture as continuing to occur through Christ, and not through the letter. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

The logic of Christ defeats the necessary logic surrounding death, in which life is fragmented and sequential in its beginning and end, but Christ's defeat of death introduces an order in which life reigns over death, and in this logic the life of Christ is an eternal reality, bringing together time and eternity, God and incarnation in a reciprocal relation in which beginning and end are united. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

In this conclusion to part 4, Jordan takes on the scholastic notion that creation and incarnation are not a necessity, suggesting that such a notion leaves us with no particular understanding of God or his love. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

The Gospel of John depicts a real world deliverance from fear, real world healing from sin and slavery, and this is captured in John's deployment of Passover and treatment of Isaiah and the Suffering Servant, in which human evil (not God) results in his suffering and God brings mercy and healing from out of his oppression. This stands in contrast to Calvin's depiction of God punishing Jesus because he is identified with the Azazel Goat, identifying him with sin and, in many Calvinist's view, hating Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

The death of Christ encompasses all dying and the life of Christ encompasses all of life, so that every individual true beginning and end is to be found in Christ. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Yom Kippur, the sacrifice of the Yahweh Goat and the sending of the Azazel Goat into the Abyss is the primary holy day for understanding the work of Christ. Clearly dividing and understanding the work of each goat arrives at a different meaning then those theories (like Calvin's) which fuse the work of the goats. Christ's life and death, like that of the Yahweh Goat, cleanses from sin, and the result of this cleansing is an end of exile and Sheol (the place of exile). If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Jordan Daniel Wood explains how Maximus' notion of the end is the beginning constitutes an understanding of salvation that encompasses and goes beyond legal understandings or ideas of Christus Victor. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Christ connects to himself a long anti-sacrificial tradition in the prophets, connecting sacrifice with disobedience and violence, and not instituted by God. Christ sees himself as exposing the history of murder and murderous religion, but to reduce Christ to a propitiating sacrifice erases this central part of his message. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

In this repeat episode, Ryan Hemmer explains the significance of Paul Ricoeur, René Girard, and Sigmund Freud, in regard to the role of culture. What role for evil and desire or goodness and deity in language and culture? To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron! Music: Bensound

In Galatians, Paul explains that Christians are to read the law allegorically for their edification and to cling to the law for interpreting Christ is to continue to be enslaved by the elementary principles. As Origen explains, to cling to the violence and lust of the law by reading literally and historically rather than applying spiritually is to continue in enslavement to lust, idolatry, and violence. To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

Here is a repeat of an earlier podcast on Girard and Peter Berger. Jonathan, Matt, Brian, Brent, and Paul discuss Ephesians 4-5 and the singular lie exposed by Christ creating entry into love. The function of a hostile lie in the reification of culture and religion, as in the work of Peter Berger and Rene Girard, and the necessity of this lies exposure so as to be "rooted and grounded in love" is discussed. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron! .

Joy is integral to the Christian life as described by Peter, commanded by Paul, and as defined by love and mutual indwelling by Dionysius and Maximus, who describe this joy and love as ecstatic longing and giving, culminating in the kenotic love of Christ. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Become a Patron!

In this episode, Paul Axton discusses Girard's atonement theory - over against propitiation and penal substitution. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin, Rene Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In this repeat edition of a PBI course discussion on science and language, Tim, Tyler, Trenton, and Paul discuss how Girard's theory might or might not fit evolutionary theory, or a deterministic or a free will universe, and how modern science accords with a particular theological understanding of language. To register for the course René Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Here is a repeat of an earlier interview with Michael Hardin, who will be teaching a class with PBI beginning in the second week of October. In this fascinating interview with Michael, author of some ten books dealing with René Girard he tells of his relationship with both Girard and Walter Wink and he describes the essential element which Girard brings out in the Gospel and the Christian journey. To register for the course René Girard and Nonviolent Atonement, go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In this conversation, Michael Hardin introduces his class with Ploughshares Bible Institute on the work of René Girard. He describes the 8 week course which will begin the second week of October. Michael was a friend of Girard and was present at the founding of the Colloquium On Violence and Religion, and he will share published and unpublished work from Girard and others detailing the important work of this key thinker. To register for the course go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Here is a repeat of an earlier episode on René Girard pointing to our upcoming class with Michael Hardin. Paul and Frank have a conversation about the work of Girard, who has given us a tremendously useful and biblical understanding of the scapegoat mechanism which shapes all culture. (To register for the upcoming class on René Girard with Michael Hardin go to https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings. The Course will run from the second week of October to the first week in December.) Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Jordan Wood answers a series of question on duality and nonduality, contemplation, embodiment, and time, in his explanation of Maximus the Confessor. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood delineates two forms of evil, privation and false incarnation in Maximus, and also discusses the object of human desire as the determinate good of incarnation. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The Lamb sacrificed from the foundation of the world is the singular Logos from which creation proceeds and holds together. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood explains how it is that the processes of being human are exceeded by the telos of deification, the fulfillment or end but also the beginning of what it means to be human. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The comprehensible yet infinite depth of the universe grounding modern science and medicine arises both through the understanding that God is legislator and creator and that in Christ this person is working not only as designer and sustainer but healer and controller, such that the person and not the laws are in control. This understanding was extended into science by the philosophy of Michael Polanyi who saw the necessity of the personal in faith for understanding the world. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood, in this conclusion to the discussion on the person of Christ answers a series of questions on personhood and provides a unique insight into the foreknowledge of God in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood, in this lecture discusses the personhood of Christ, the role or meaning of such terms as natural, Logos, and hypostatic union, and he critiques the work of David Bentley Hart in failing to grasp the implications of the neo-Chalcedonian understanding. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood focuses in on the key passage in Maximus explaining the whole mystery of Christ as this pertains to all things, but particularly the role of personhood and identity in Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Daniel Wood concludes the discussion of Maximus and synthesis, explaining how Christ, even in the midst of sin and false synthesis or through the passions, brings all things together in his life and the life of the Christian. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The Western tradition from Augustine and Descartes has developed focus on thought, propositions and doctrine separated from practice and ethics. This disembodied form of the faith stands in contrast to Paul's description of being embodied - living sacrifices and it contrasts with the Eastern understanding exemplified in Maximus the Confessor. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Wood introduces the controversies surrounding the life of Maximus and also introduces the framework of his theology as cosmic incarnation, providing a synthesis for all things. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In 2 Corinthians Paul describes the letter or scripture as deadly, as this unenduring reality is not an end in itself. Absolutizing the symbolic order in law or in some form of moral imperative leads directly to evil, not because this is a possible reality but because it obscures the truth that freedom comes from God and there is no autonomous realm of law, nature, reason, or will. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In this concluding discussion of Orientalism Jon, Tim, Jim, Simon, Brian, Jonathan, and Paul, consider how human understanding is subject to cultural and nationalistic ideology, shaping science, psychology, and impacting Christianity, particularly in Japan and the United States. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Peter says we are partakers of the divine nature, which the early church called theosis or divinization. This is a concept obscured by western atonement theories and the taking up of Greek philosophical thought, but which in G.W.F. Hegel is reappropriated and expressed as obtaining God's consciousness. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

John, Jim, Brian, and Paul discuss how Japan reversed western notions of orientalism, particularly in psychology, so as to create a unified national identity dealing in death in both inward self-identity and outward colonialism. Japan is a case in point of how cultures reify death and obscure the truth of what it means to be human. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

In Philippians 2 Paul spells out an alternative picture of God and reality which is often thought to be an exception, but God poured out in Kenotic love on the cross is an alternative conception of God, reality, truth, thinking and consciousness. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt explains to Jon, Tim, Simon, Jim and Paul how Sergius Bulgakov's sophia provides and explanation for the wisdom to be found in the Gita and world religions. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Christian nationalism, the Trump Bible (including the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence in the Bible), and Christian Zionism, confuse the City of God with the city of man and the Word of God with the word of man. It is a blasphemous religion on the order of the faith of Judaizers who would displace the Gospel with law and with the anti-Christ John warned would infiltrate the Church. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Matt Welch, explains to Simon, Jim, Tim, Matthew, Jonathan, Brian, and Paul the work of Sergius Bulgakov on sophiology and how this provides an opening for understanding world religions. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Christianity is proven in a lived faith, obedience, and love and does not depend upon arguments or evidences other than those living proofs of the embodied faith. Sign up for the next class, Imaginative Apologetics which will run through the first week of July through the week of August 23rd. https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jonathan, Matt, Jim, Brian, Matthew and Paul review the development of Girard's picture of the development of sacrificial religion, the darkness of human desire and rivalry, and tie this into shame and the Janus faced God in Hinduism, Vedantic religion, and Christianity gone bad. Sign up for the next class, Imaginative Apologetics which will run through the first week of July through the week of August 23rd. https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Apologetic arguments often implicitly misconstrue the nature of Christian truth, which John describes as being witnessed to by the Trinity and this divine Testimony, John says, is present within the believer. Sign up for the next class, Imaginative Apologetics which will run through the first week of July through the week of August 23rd. https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Paul, Tim, Jim, Matt, and Simon discuss how it is that Rene Girard's theory explains and exposes myth and how this applies to the human condition in general. Sign up for the next class, Imaginative Apologetics which will run through the first week of July through the week of August 23rd. https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

The only route to knowing God as Abba, according to Jürgen Moltmann, is through the crucified God on the cross. This God displaces the oppressive law-giving God of wrath, the God of paganism, but also the oppressive super-ego father of the human psyche. Through Christ we are liberated from the defense mechanism inclusive of the Unmoved Mover - the defense mechanism against death which enslaves. Sign up for the next class, Imaginative Apologetics which will run through the first week of July through the week of August 23rd. https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jim, David, Tim, Simon, and Paul discuss the work of Rene Girard and its unfolding in the novel, as illustrated in both Western and Japanese literature. Sign up for the next class, Imaginative Apologetics https://pbi.forgingploughshares.org/offerings Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Tim, Simon, Matt, and Paul discuss how a practical salvation is a 4th category, distinguished from inclusivism, exclusivism, and pluralism in that it is simultaneously universal and specific to the salvation to be found in Christ. How this then provides an approach to other religions is discussed. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.

Jordan Peterson is not simply promoting conservative values but is setting forth his own notion of truth, which has captured many Christians. This sermon sets forth the alternative in which Christ is the Truth, which contrasts with the world's truth as set forth by Peterson. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work.