The Bible For Normal People

There’s many difficult stories the Bible but one people struggle with the most are those dealing with the death of children. On this episode, we are joined by Maria Doerfler who shares rich perspectives on the stories of Jephthah’s daughter, the sacrifice of Isaac, and how people throughout history have interpreted them. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We had a great conversation with Nadia Bolz-Weber about what is compelling about Christianity, why we all need to stop trying so hard, and what in the world there is to be hopeful about. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we are answering some of the most asked questions on our Ask Pete page. We get into a lot of topics like how other cultures interpret Jesus, how normal people can study the Bible on their own, and how we make meaning out of the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Praying can feel difficult during hard times and especially after a faith deconstruction. Sarah Bessey joins us on this episode of the podcast to talk about what inspired her to write a book on prayer and shares what has been helpful in her discovery of what it means to pray. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It shouldn’t be a surprise to us now that people can read the same text and walk away with vastly different meanings. On this episode of the podcast, we’re talking with Amy-Jill Levine and Marc Brettler who share some reasons why Jews and Christians use and understand the Bible in different ways. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

James Kugel is back on the podcast sharing about how people during the biblical period understood God and how their views changed overtime. How does their understanding of God influence our understandings today? Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re back with Season 5! On this episode, Pete shares what makes Christianity distinct for him. He discusses the beginning of the Jesus movement, explains how New Testament writers probably understood their faith, and how first century Christians made sense of Jesus’ crucifixion. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

2020— What a year. We’re wrapping up the year and the fourth season of the podcast with a look back onto what we learned from this season and from the year as a whole. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode features linguist and professor Christopher Rollston who helps us understand the importance of studying languages when it comes to dating and understanding the Bible. We talk about other ancient Near Eastern languages, biblical manuscripts, inscriptions, and more! Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many of us have encountered a type of Christianity that preaches an impending rapture and a call to repent of our sins as soon as possible. But where did that interpretation of Christianity come from? On this episode we ask psychology doctoral student Dan Koch what he’s learned from studying the movement and the history behind it. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How has theology developed alongside the findings of science? On this episode, Pete is sharing his reflections on what quantum physics and the theory of evolution tell us about the Bible and how we should interpret it light of scientific findings. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Benjamin D. Sommer is back on the podcast telling us all about his work on a biblical understanding of God’s body. He takes us through the history of thought on God’s body, the material God’s body is made out of, what God looks like, and how the Trinity actually has a lot of continuity with texts of the Hebrew Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jared has been breaking down Jonah for us on his solo episodes this year and this is his last segment! He delves into what the over all message of Jonah is, what questions it leaves us with, and what it teaches us about the questions of ancient Israelites. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We invited Emilie Townes on the podcast to talk about womanist ethics but our conversation morphed into so much more. We touched on the role of the Bible in ethics, the relevance of the Bible in our lives today, and why it is important to chose hope. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this reissued episode, Pete and Jared sit down with Austen Hartke to discuss what the Bible has to say about transgender people. They get into unexamined Bible passages, mysterious Hebrew words, and how to make your church a welcoming space for people with gender identities outside of the binary. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Getting into the Halloween spirit? Don’t miss this spooky episode talking about all things apocalypse in Second Temple Judaism! Our guest Martha Himmelfarb is an expert on the subject and she tells us all about the key features of apocalyptic literature, some theories on its popularity, and shares about some apocalyptic literature that didn’t make it into the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is the second installment of Jared’s deep dive (no pun intended) into the book of Jonah. In this episode, Jared gives us a taste of how rich this book is in metaphors and how a fuller understanding of the ancient Near East brings out the context of this book. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

John Franke joins the podcast to discussing his new book, Missional Theology. John shares some key components of missional theology and discusses how to overcome plurality, what evangelizing looks like through a missional lens, and why the church needs the world. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are so excited about the Everyday Life in Ancient Israel class Cynthia is teaching for us we just had to reissue her podcast episode from back in season 2. Cynthia talks with Pete and Jared about what she does as an archaeologist, how it has informed her view of the Bible, her favorite finds, and more! Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What separated Judaism from the Christian movement during the Second Temple Period? In this episode, Paula Fredriksen breaks down the beginnings of the Jesus movement and how it came to flourish. She gets into what religion looked like in the broader culture, how religion was defined, and what clues people left behind for us to know these things. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of the podcast is filled with listener question from our Ask Pete and Jared page on the website. Pete answers questions about Job, ancient Egyptian letters, the world of biblical scholarship, shifting faith views, and much more! Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What does it mean to “speak the truth in love?” On this episode we’re taking about Jared’s new book Love Matters More and what it should actually look like for Christians to interact with people they disagree with. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ancient interpreters made all sort of assumptions about the Bible much like we do today. What do their assumptions tell us about how to interpret the Bible today? James Kugel breaks down the function of the Bible throughout history and how it has changed from antiquity to today. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just because someone claims to hold the truth doesn't mean they actually do. On this episode, investigative journalist Ariel Sabar tells us the fascinating story of how a Harvard professor was duped into believing she made a discovery that would turn the Christian world upside down. But as it turns out, truth is not always subjective. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is sin? It’s something we talk about often but rarely take the time to define. Gary Anderson has written a book on the subject so we brought him on the show to explain it to all us normal people. He sheds light on some common misconceptions and explains the history behind our modern understandings of sin. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this episode, Pete and Jared discuss the intersection of faith and science with scientist and theologian Ilia Delio. They get into why these two subjects have historically been at odds and why it holds us back to continue believing they actually are. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's the deal with Job? In this episode, Pete gives an overview of the book, pushes back on some readings you might have heard in the past, and points out some significant features that can help us better understand it. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Gordon is a professor at Johnson University in Tennessee. In this episode, we talk with him about his book Divine Scripture in Human Understanding. We discuss what it means for the Bible to be inspired and how that affects how we read and use the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re answering some listener questions from the Ask Pete page and answering the bigger question: Did the Bible get it wrong? We talk about the return of Jesus, David being a man after God’s own heart, and if there is a right or wrong way to read the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re revisiting an episode from Season 1 in which Dr. Drew G. I. Hart shares about the Bible and white supremacy. We get into what exactly white supremacy is and how it has influenced how we read the Bible and our theology. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brooke Prentis is an Aboriginal leader and CEO of a Christian organization in Australia called Common Grace. On this episode, she shares with us some Aboriginal perspectives on the Bible and how the Bible speaks to the injustices that Aboriginal people have faced and continue to face. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happened during the time the writings of the Old Testament stopped and the New Testament writings began? People didn’t stop writing and what they wrote helps us better understand the context of the Bible. On this episode we talk with Dr. Matthias Henze who studies this in-between time period and he shares with us what he's learned about the world in which Jesus lived. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Many of us believe that our interpretations of the Bible are generally the same as everyone else's. But does that make them good? On this podcast episode, we talk with Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies, Miguel De La Torre about why we all need to examine where our biblical interpretations come from and why we need to diversify our understandings of the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, Jared and Pete are joined by political correspondent Kirsten Powers, to talk about her journey of faith, her openness to the mystery of God, and how she’s learning to treat others with a higher level of grace. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Biblical scholarship has grown a lot over the centuries but there are some ideas that are just so good they never go away! On this episode of the podcast, Pete looks at one of those foundational ideas: Julius Wellhausen’s documentary hypothesis. Wellhausen and others saw inconsistencies in the Old Testament and their discoveries shaped how we understand the historicity of the Bible. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Under the hood of America, we see an interesting history of using the book of Revelation to talk about immigration. Our guest, NT scholar Yii-Jan Lin walks us through the profound impact the book of Revelation has had on the US dialogue about people coming into our “City on a Hill.” Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode Jared begins to tackle the book of Jonah by asking, “What kind of book is this?” as well as introducing the first chapter. Just because Jesus mentions Jonah does that mean we have to believe it’s historical? What is the historical context for the book? And what is the message it’s trying to convey? Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The writings of formerly enslaved people tell us a lot about how they viewed the Bible. We sat down with Professor Emerson Powery to talk about how the Bible was used around the institution of slavery and how it can be both a book of oppression and a book of liberation. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On this week's episode, Pete and Jared are talking about the afterlife. What is it and what does the Bible say about it? Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If we look under the surface, we find a fascinating conversation about the Spirit of God in the Bible. Considering the word for Spirit, Wind, and Breath of God is often the same in the Bible, how are we to understand the relationship between them? We talk to Jack Levison about this mysterious and interesting intersection. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Martin Luther King says “All people are caught in an Inescapable network of mutuality.” So what does that mean when it comes to the gospel, the Bible, and how we navigate racial equality? In this episode, we talk to Xavier Ramey about diversity, inclusion, and how our Christian faith impacts how we see community, organizations, and institutions today. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Pete & Jared talk to Meghan Henning about hell. She shares with us her knowledge of the ancient world Jesus and the New Testament writers were familiar with and how they might have understood hell. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That 50 cent word describes something many Bible readers have noticed: the way the New Testament writers quote the Old often has little to do with what the Old Testament writers were actually trying to say. Jesus was in fact a surprise development in Israel’s story, but the New Testament writers nevertheless believed Jesus to be the true purpose or goal (Greek telos) of God purposes. And that belief led them to some pretty creative interpretive adventures that Christians today are still trying to wrap their heads around. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Translating the Bible is more than just about being woodenly accurate. We’re humans after all. In this episode, Pete and Jared talk to Sarah Ruden, who talks about using our imaginations to put ourselves in the place of the biblical writers, emotions and aesthetics and all. With a background in translating classical literature, she helps us read the Bible within a fuller context, both humanly and literarily. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sometimes it can be easy to forget the psychological ramifications of our faith. The way our faith shapes the language we use to talk about tragedies and sadnesses in our life can be life-giving or it can really mess us up. In this episode we talk to Alison Cook, an expert on the intersection of faith and psychology, about some of the ways, as Christians, our views on our emotions can be harmful and better ways to frame our feelings. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s hard to know where the Bible fits into our political views, our ethical stances, and how we live out life. Pete and Jared point out how many of us might be using the Bible in disrespectful and irresponsible ways as well as parsing out why we even need to bother with the Bible at all in 2020. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Christianity is diverse and so are all the ways Christians have read the Bible through the centuries. James Martin helps us understand a Jesuit practice of reading Scripture that engages both the head and heart. Also, he’s met with the Pope. So of course he has good things to say. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here's what's coming up in Season 4 of The Bible For Normal People podcast. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here in our last episode for Season 3, Pete & Jared take a deeper dive into Pete’s latest book and how we can further answer these questions, “What is the Bible and what do we do with it?” Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, Pete & Jared sit down with Tom Oord and discuss the things God can and cannot do and how that affects our view of the world, the Bible, and salvation. Show Notes → Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices