
The Bible For Normal People
413 episodes — Page 5 of 9

Episode 208: David Farrier - What's Going On With Megachurches?
EIn this episode of The Bible for Normal People, David Farrier joins Pete and Jared to discuss what he has uncovered while researching the downward spiral of megachurches. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 207: Pete Enns & Jared Byas - Respecting the Bible for What It Is (And Isn’t)
Does the Bible address modern moral questions? In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete and Jared dive into a discussion on the uniquely modern tension between an ancient text and modern ethics. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 206: Dale C. Allison - Approaching the Resurrection of Jesus as a Historian
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Dale Allison joins Pete and Jared to discuss historical criticism and the resurrection. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 205: Amy Kenny - My Body Is Not a Prayer Request
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Amy Kenny joins Pete and Jared to discuss what we have been taught about disability and invites us to reconsider how we think about disability being portrayed in Scripture. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 204: Pete Enns - Pete Ruins Leviticus
We almost named this episode of The Bible for Normal People “Pete Rescues Leviticus,” because for most of you, Leviticus is ruined already. Not easily deterred, Pete Enns dives right in and helps us wrap our heads around what Leviticus is saying about God. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 203: Andre Henry - Systemic Racism in the Church
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Andre Henry joins Pete and Jared to discuss the cultural and theological underpinnings of systemic racism in the church. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 202: Jeff Chu - Grief as a Biblical Practice (REISSUE)
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Jeff Chu joins Pete and Jared to discuss what the Bible has to say about grief and what grief looks like as a personal, communal, and spiritual practice. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 201: Debra Rienstra - Eco-Theology: Beyond Stewardship
How are faith and nature interwoven? In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Debra Rienstra joins Pete and Jared to discuss the value of the created world in scripture and what it looks like to care for the earth properly. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 200: Pete Enns & Jared Byas - Does the Bible Still Matter?
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete and Jared celebrate their two-hundredth episode by discussing why the Bible still matters, looking at the Bible as a book of wisdom, and approaching the Bible without being an expert. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 199: Becca Stevens - Reimagining Scripture for a Suffering World
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Becca Stevens joins Pete and Jared to share how the embodiment of faith can be an engine toward great good in the world. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 198: Anna Sieges - The Minor Prophets and Why We Shouldn't Call Them That
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Anna Sieges joins Pete and Jared to elaborate on the benefits of viewing the Minor Prophets as a literary whole. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 197: Jared Byas - Making of the Modern Mindset, Part 3
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Jared Byas explores how fundamentalist evangelicalism has bought into the modern mindset in some important ways, while condemning it in other ways. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 196: Chris Hoklotubbe - The Bible and Native American Spirituality
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Chris Hoklotubbe joins Pete and Jared to discuss the concept of the trickster, the value of learning from nature, and what a few biblical stories look like through an Indigenous lens. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 195: Gary Rendsburg - History and the Exodus
How does the Bible interact with history? In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Gary Rendsburg joins Pete and Jared to discuss how history, epic, and theology are interwoven to create the biblical narrative. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 194: Pete Enns - Staying Christian Is Hard, Isn't It?
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete works through some common issues that make it hard to stay Christian and shares a few personal reasons why he stays Christian anyway. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 193: Lisa Sharon Harper - The Meaning of the Image of God
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Lisa Sharon Harper joins Pete and Jared to discuss the impact that colonization and enslavement had on Scripture and how to begin the humble business of decolonizing our faith. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 192: Bishop Michael Curry - Love Makes Room for Us All
What parts of our faith are worth holding onto? In this episode of The Bible for Normal People Podcast, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry joins Pete and Jared to discuss ways to think differently about scripture and the importance of keeping love at the center of your being. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 191: Pete & Jared - Creative Interpretation as Necessary
In this episode, Pete & Jared discuss the inevitability of reading our own context into the Bible and how reading the Bible creatively can help connect it to our own universe. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 190: Austin Channing Brown - Preaching the Bible in the Black Church (REISSUE)
In this episode, Austin Channing Brown joins Pete and Jared to discuss her experience within various faith traditions and the importance of the Bible, sermons, and community within the Black church. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 189: Pete Enns - Faith and the New Normal
Why is the adjustment of beliefs based on experience often misunderstood or even maligned? In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete Enns explores how our formational experiences are not the enemy of faith and that making adjustments to our beliefs based on experience is a normal part of the spiritual journey. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 188: Willie James Jennings - The Book of Acts & the Acts of the Spirit
Isn’t Acts just about the founding of the church? In this episode, Willie James Jennings joins Pete and Jared to discuss how the book of Acts reconstitutes what it means to be the people of God. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 187: Kirsten Powers - How Grace Saves Us
In this episode, Kirsten Powers joins Pete and Jared to discuss toxic public discourse, non-dualistic thinking, and a look at how grace might hold a different meaning than we previously imagined. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 186: Jared Byas - Making of the Modern Mindset, Part 2
In this episode, Jared Byas explores the impact of reason and rationalism as he continues his deep dive into the origins of the modern mindset. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 185: Randy Woodley - Following Jesus as a Native Traditionalist
In this episode, Randy Woodley joins Pete and Jared to discuss the impact of dualistic thinking on theology and how Jesus can be accessed outside of scripture. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 184: Heather Macumber - Monsters in the Bible
What comes to mind when you think about monsters? In this episode, Heather Macumber joins Pete and Jared to discuss monster theory and how monsters are more prevalent in scripture than most people realize. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 183: Jennifer Bashaw - What Did the Crucifixion Do?
In this week’s episode, Jennifer Bashaw joins Pete and Jared to discuss how various atonement theories attempt to explain Jesus’s death. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 182: Pete & Jared - The Evolution of Adam
Can Christianity and evolution coexist? In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete and Jared discuss a path forward for Christians who accept evolution and want to take the Bible seriously. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 181: Kate Bowler - The Prosperity Gospel & a Theology of Suffering
In this week’s episode, Kate Bowler joins Pete and Jared to discuss how suffering can cause us to adjust what we think God is like and how harmful the prosperity gospel can be. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 180: Brian K. Blount - Revelation for Today
The book of Revelation is just plain weird. For this episode, Pete and Jared sit down with Brian K. Blount to discuss how to read and understand the book of Revelation. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 179: Paul Deal - Integrating Faith and Psychology
EOn this episode, Pete and Jared sit down with Paul Deal to discuss the intersection of mental health, psychology, and faith. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 178: Pete Enns - Pete Ruins Isaiah
In this episode of the Bible for Normal People, Pete Enns continues his habit of ruining things for everyone. Today’s topic is the book of Isaiah, and Pete shares five fun facts that biblical scholars like to talk about that will ruin your life—probably not. We’ll see. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 177: Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. - Social Justice & the Radical Gospel
For this episode, Pete and Jared are joined by Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., who walks us through pervasive biblical evidence for social justice. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 176: Jared Byas - The Making of the Modern Mindset, Pt. 1
For this episode, Jared Byas takes a deep dive into the origins of the modern mindset and how understanding our own context impacts our study of the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 175: Jodi Magness - The Jesus of Archaeology
In this episode, Pete and Jared sit down with Jodi Magness to discuss what archaeology can teach us about Jesus in his Jewish context. And also - quiches, frittatas, and toilets. Oh my! Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 174: Brian McLaren - The Four Stages of Faith
In this episode of The Bible for Normal People, Pete and Jared sit down with Brian McLaren to discuss stages of faith, the prevalence of doubt, and what paths to faith after doubt might look like. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 173: Cheryl B. Anderson - The Ethical Impact of Biblical Interpretation
Can biblical interpretation have an ethical impact? Our guest this week, Cheryl B. Anderson, combines her background as a practicing attorney with her Ph.D. in Biblical studies to create a compelling discussion on ethics, law, and how we read our Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 172: Pete Enns - A Whole Different Way of Reading Genesis
In this episode, Pete looks at Genesis from an angle we’re guessing will be new to many of you. We’re going to focus on the big picture. What is Genesis as a whole about? For what purpose was it written? What is it doing? Those are the big questions we’re going after. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 171: Ted Lewis - The Origins of God
The word of the day is "complicated" and the nerd-o-meter is set to the max. Join us on this week's episode as Pete & Jared explore the messiness of history and the origins of Yahweh with Dr. Ted Lewis. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 170: Kristin Kobes Du Mez - A Modern Church History of Toxic Masculinity
Where did white Evangelical support for men like Donald Trump come from? Pete & Jared sit down with Kristin Kobes Du Mez to discuss toxic patterns of masculinity and patriarchy that have surfaced over the past seventy years in the white Evangelical church. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 169: Pete & Jared - The Bible and the "Problem of History"
What do you do when you notice something in the Bible that doesn’t pass the muster of historical research? In this episode, Pete & Jared discuss the problem of history found within the pages of the Bible and the implications of history on Christian life and faith. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 168: Xavier Pickett - When Did White Christian America Lose Its Mind? (REISSUE)
In this reissued episode, Pete & Jared converse with Xavier Pickett about ways in which the Bible and the church have been shaped by hundreds of years of systemic racism and white privilege. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 167: Joshua Harris - A Story of Public Deconstruction
On this episode, Joshua Harris discusses his public deconstruction and how he has wrestled with questions of accountability for harmful ideas while also making room for grace. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 166: Matthew Paul Turner - Teaching God to Our Kids
How should we talk to our kids about God and the Bible? On this episode, Matthew Paul Turner discusses the importance of allowing children the space to explore spirituality and ask questions about God. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 165: Stephanie Tait - Disability Theology is for Everyone
We invited Stephanie Tait to discuss the cultural lens of ableism and how disability theology shapes the way she views God and the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 164: Pete Enns - Where Did Our Bible Come From?
On this episode, Pete talks about where our Bible comes from, its messy history, and what that means for us today. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 163: Tripp Fuller - Thinking About Jesus Today
EWe brought in Tripp Fuller, host of the podcast Homebrewed Christianity, to share his perspective on the Jesus of history and the Christ of theology and its relevancy in our lives today. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 162: Jared & Sarah Byas - Parenting in a Faith Transition
Wondering how Jared and his wife, Sarah, have navigated parenting amidst their transitions of faith? They cover what they tell their kids about Christianity, the Bible, and how their parenting is different because of it. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 161: Amanda Mbuvi - Finding Ourselves in the Stories of the Bible
Why were the stories of the Bible written down? On this episode Amanda Mbuvi shares about how the Bible plays a role in identity formation and how that affects how we read it. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 160: Pete and Jared - The Risk of an "Errant" Bible
Why is Bible inerrancy so hard for people to give up? Pete and Jared dive into some possible explanations and take a look at the history of the belief that the Bible is inerrant. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Episode 159: Richard Elliott Friedman - Who Wrote the Pentateuch?
We love a good discussion on the formation of the Bible. Listen in as we talk to scholar Richard Elliott Friedman about the various texts that make up the Hebrew Bible, what clues we have to date them, and what makes the Bible a unique work of writings. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices