Theology in the Raw

A.J. Swoboda a brilliant thinker, a relational pastor, and possesses an uncanny ability to think critically about the intersection of faith and culture. In this conversation, we talk about a lot of things related to his own journey of deconstruction and reconstruction, progressive vs. conservative Christianity, politics, and our cultural moment. A.J. has a Ph.D. from University of Birmingham (U.K.) and currently serves as Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies and World Christianity at Bushnell University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

My buddy Ed joins me on the show to talk about Critical Theory and race relations in America. Ed has a Ph.D. in American Cultural Studies from Bowling Green University and basically spent most of his doctoral work interacting with Critical Theory. Ed also has lots of thoughts about the race conversation and race relations inside and outside the church. Heads up: this conversation is super raw, super honest, and a bit of a "rough draft." Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

John is back for the 3rd time to give us an update on where we're at with all things Covid-19. Wearing masks, the future vaccine, what should churches do, where will this whole thing end up? John is a Senior Biosafety Officer for The University of Chicago – Howard T. Ricketts Laboratory, a Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, as well as a Registered Biosafety Professional with ABSA International (American Biological Safety Association). John was a lead trainer with the Duke Infectious Disease Response Training (DIDRT) Program, funded through an NIEHS-NIH Grant, that was designed to prepare workers at risk of infectious disease exposure. Additionally, he is a certified HAZWOPER/HAZMAT Trainer. John has over 15 years’ experience working in high containment laboratories (BSL3) with high consequence pathogens (i.e. anthrax, plague, highly pathogenic avian influenza, Brucella abortus), with an effective history of training lab workers, clinical care workers, first responders, first receivers and custodial workers to safely work with and control high consequence pathogens such as MERS, SARS and Ebola. Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Whenever people consider the reliability of the Bible, they usually look to historical or archaeological evidence. And indeed, I covered that in the previous video. But in this final video of our 3 part series on the reliability of the Bible, I want to consider the message of the Bible itself as evidence for its authenticity. The Bible critiques power, humanizes women (compared it its surrounding culture), has a deep concern for the poor and marginalized, and exhibits many other values that go against the views of its surrounding culture. Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Does archaeology prove or disprove the Bible? What about ancient historical records? Do they correlate or conflict with the biblical account? Is the Bible historically accurate or inaccurate? In this talk, I discuss the reliability of the Bible in light of ancient historical and archaeological records. As we'll see, the Bible actually has a very good track record when it comes to history and archaeology. Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Bible didn't just fall from heaven. There was actually a rather complex and sometimes messy journey from writing the biblical books to putting the "Bible" into your hands. In this episode, I discuss the so-called Canonization of the Old and New Testaments, asking questions like: why are these books included in the Bible--no more, and no less? What about the Apocrypha? What about other books like the Didache or the Gospel of Thomas--who decided that those books shouldn't be in the Bible? And what was the criteria for determining (or recognizing?) which books should be in the Bible? And, why does all of this matter? Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tony Scarcello is a friend, pastor, and the author of the forthcoming book: "Regenerate: Following Jesus After Deconstruction" (Oct 2020) Tony is also attracted to other guys and is married to a woman. How does that work? We talk a lot about this in our conversation. Their marriage is actually one of the most vibrant and healthiest marriages I've ever seen. Because marriage is so much more than a place to satisfy your sexual desires. We also talk about his journey in and out and back into Christianity, how he's had to restructure his view of God and the world around what the Bible actually says, and we discuss the perennial problem of evil. This is where we get super raw and real about our own struggles with the faith. Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Sandy Richter is LEGIT!! In this fascinating conversation, Sandy helps us understand the alleged "marry your rapist" law in Deuteronomy 22:28, which has been mistranslated as you'll see. She also walks us through the "marry your conquered enemy's wife" allowance in Deuteronomy 21. These texts have troubled me for YEARS and have raised questions in my own mind about whether the Old Testament dehumanizes women. Actually, it does the opposite. When you understand it in its own cultural context, you'll see that the Bible actually humanizes women much, much more than we realize. Sandy's awesome book ("The Epic of Eden") that I referenced can be found here Sandra Richter is the Robert H. Gundry Chair of Biblical Studies at Westmont College. Richter earned her PhD from Harvard University’s Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department and her MA in Theological Studies from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. She has taught at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY, Wesley Biblical Seminary in Jackson, MS and Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. Due to her passion for the "real space and time" of the biblical text, she has spent many of those years directing an Israel Studies program focused on historical geography and field archaeology. Richter is best known in the Academy for her work on the “name theology” of the Deuteronomistic History and a socio-historical assessment of the economic backdrop of the Book of Deuteronomy (The Deuteronomistic History and the Name Theology: lešakken šemo šam in the Bible and the ANE [BZAW 318, 2002]; “The Place of the Name in Deuteronomy” [VT 57, 2007], “Placing the Name, Pushing the Paradigm: A Decade with the Deuteronomistic Name Formula” in Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, Hexateuch, and the Deuteronomistic History [FAT 56; Mohr Siebeck, 2012]; “The Question of Provenance and the Economics of Deuteronomy”" JSOT [2017]; “What’s Money Got to Do With It? Economics and the Question of the Provenance of Deuteronomy in the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Periods” in Paradigm Change in Pentateuchal Research [BZAR 22, 2019]). She has a commentary forthcoming with Eerdmans on The Book of Deuteronomy. In the Church, Richter is best known for her work, The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry into the Old Testament (IVP 2008) and a number of DVD curriculums stemming from the project (Zondervan and Seedbed). She has just published Stewards of Eden: What the Scripture has to Say about Environmentalism and Why It Matters (IVP, 2020). Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The Rev. Canon #EsauMcCaulley, PhD is a New Testament scholar and an Anglican Priest. He completed his doctoral studies at the University of St Andrews where he studied under the direction of N.T. Wright. His research and writing focus on Pauline theology, African American Biblical interpretation, and articulating a Christian theology of justice in the public square His doctoral dissertation, called Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance, was published by T & T Clark in 2019. Sharing in the Son’s Inheritance looks at the role Jewish messianism played in Paul’s argument in Galatians that Jesus has made believers heirs in the Messiah to the Abrahamic promises. His second book #ReadingWhileBlack: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope will be published by Intervarsity Academic press (September 1, 2020). Reading While Black looks at the tradition of African American biblical interpretation and argues that the Bible rightly understood and read from a decidedly black perspective can speak a word of hope to African Americans in the United States. Alongside these more academic works, he writes popular pieces. He is a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times. He has also appeared in outlets such as Christianity Today and the Washington Post. He is also the host of the Disrupters Podcast and functions as a Canon Theologian for his diocese. Dr. McCaulley, currently, serves as assistant professor of New Testament at Wheaton College in Wheaton, IL. He is married to Mandy, a pediatrician and a Navy reservist. Together, they have four wonderful children. AUTHOR: Esau McCaulley BOOK: Reading While Black WEBSITE: https://esaumccaulley.com/ Follow him on Twitter: @esaumccaulley Follow him on Facebook: @officialesaumccaulley Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I asked THE Dr. John H. Walton to come on my YouTube channel and talk about the Bible and science, and I can't believe he say "yes!" This dude is LEGIT! I mean, this scholar is very qualified to speak into this topic with much wisdom and sound biblical knowledge. Anyway, in this episode, we talk about the biblical creation account and science, the historicity of Adam and Eve, the meaning of the tower of Babel, and much much more. Watch this episode of the podcast on YouTube Support Preston Support Preston by going to patreon.com Venmo: @Preston-Sprinkle-1 Connect with Preston Twitter | @PrestonSprinkle Instagram | @preston.sprinkle Youtube | Preston Sprinkle Check out his website prestonsprinkle.com If you enjoy the podcast, be sure to leave a review. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.