Mark Strom: What if Christianity Was Never a Religion?

Mark Strom: What if Christianity Was Never a Religion?

This week I get to talk with author, speaker and consultant, Mark Strom. Mark is the author of the popular books Reframing Paul, the Symphony of Scripture, and lead with Wisdom. He also served as principal of Laidlaw College in NZ FROM 2005 - 2009, where our paths crossed, despite never actually meeting. Mark is Pauline scholar, and so in this conversation we centre mainly on the thinking of Paul in his letters, and the way he seems to be doing something revolutionary with his understanding of the way the gospel changes the world. This was a dynamic and inspiring conversation that helps us to not sell short, as Mark says in his words, this wild good news. Enjoy!

Dr Leah Payne: The Complicated History of Christian Pop Music

In this episode I get to speak with Leah Payne. Leah is an award-winning historian and Professor of American Religious History at Portland Seminary. She also is the author of God Gave Rock & Roll to You: A History of Contemporary Christian Music, which was the Christianity Today Book of the Year for History and Biography, and her research on religion, politics, and popular culture has appeared in The Washington Post, Harper's Magazine, The Economist, BBC Radio, and NBC News. She co-hosts the podcast Rock That Doesn't Roll and created Weird Religion, a religion and pop culture podcast. In his conversation Leah and I talk about the story of contemporary Christian music and the way that Christians have engaged in cultural formation, politics and markets through it, as a way of understanding the story of the church over the last 60 years or so. In the middle I actually take some time to go through her book with some music snippets! https://www.drleahpayne.com [https://www.drleahpayne.com] Rock that Doesn’t Roll podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/6duv0G8igy2tL0W1aW8mCU?si=5aa859c1aab348d5 [https://open.spotify.com/show/6duv0G8igy2tL0W1aW8mCU?si=5aa859c1aab348d5]

Edward David: The Spiritual Narratives of Generation Z

This week I get to chat with Edward David, the director of associateship and lecturer of ethics and values at King’s College London, as well as a research fellow at Oxford. Edward has recently lead a research team in a pioneering study into the spirituality of generation Z. Instead of just asking questions, this study uses story completion—letting young people finish the narrative to reveal the hidden spiritual maps they’re actually using to navigate the world. They have identified 5 main ways people are understanding spirituality today and so in this conversation I chat with Edward about what these results mean for teachers, but also how they help us to understand the spiritual climate our young people are growing up in.

Dean Ashenden: The Tensions in Australian Education

This week our guest is Dean Ashenden, a former teacher, researcher, political advisor, and veteran observer of the Australian school system and the author of Unbeaching the Whale. Dean’s work cuts through the political noise to examine the structural bones of our education system. He’s a regular contributor to mainstream publications and one of the sharpest minds in the country when it comes to the politics of the classroom. This conversation is a challenging one, as Dean presents us with big questions to ask of Australia’s education system, and the inequalities present within it.

Chris Watkin: The Questions AI is Forcing Us to Answer

Our first guest this season is a returning guest, Chris Watkin, author of Biblical Critical Theory and more recently, The State of Nature and the Shaping of Modernity. Chris speaks into a variety of areas, one of them being AI. He’s launching a course on the underlying philosophy of this, so we jump on to talk through some of the contours of the content. We go big picture here, not so much about how to use AI, but asking the questions that need to be addressed before we do. Chris's upcoming AI course through Notre Dame: https://events.nd.edu.au/artificial-intelligence-and-christian-wisdom?fbclid=IwY2xjawSByi9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFSZ094R25qMDg5YVdFcHJhc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkv0daT6xEstpG1EeXocgOiqFcp7hGt0fKmAJdydFirrFJLHj8LE7L8fyZQ3_aem_6-WQpxGkSZU9Zfxba777lA [https://events.nd.edu.au/artificial-intelligence-and-christian-wisdom?fbclid=IwY2xjawSByi9leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFSZ094R25qMDg5YVdFcHJhc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHkv0daT6xEstpG1EeXocgOiqFcp7hGt0fKmAJdydFirrFJLHj8LE7L8fyZQ3_aem_6-WQpxGkSZU9Zfxba777lA]