Ever run out of preaching material for a major feast day? May today's episode inspire you. It's funny how the gospel unveils and then veils itself to us in seasons of our ministry and preaching. There are so many times when there's more than we can capture. And then other times it feels lilke the well runs dry on the same passage we've come to for …

The one in which we totally betray our convictions and bargain for material blessings in return for our immortal souls. Oh no wait, that's a different podcast and a different hashtag. In this episode, Dad and I sort out what a blessing actually is and does, how it is that God can bless us but we can also bless God, and the implications for pastoral…

My conversation with James Hazelwood, host of the Everyday Spirituality podcast, on... wait for it... the Transfiguration! And more specifically, my book Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration. Get yourself the ebook or audiobook right now from Thornbush Press! Print edition coming next month.By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

What do women want? For that matter, what do men want? Is it (ever) the same thing? Is sex God's greatest joke on his long-suffering creation? Dad and I entertain these and a number of other notions, as we solve all problems of the war of the sexes in an hour and twenty minutes. Plus, good news: the patriarchy is over. I beat it. Notes: 1. Related …

Ruth-exclamation-point, because evidently Podbean won't let you do four-letter titles. Hmm. Well anyway, in this episode Dad and I talk through this absolutely delightful little book of the Old Testament, one of only two named for a woman and the only one named for a Gentile. In particular we explore the necessary and good yet self-contradicting an…

Today we've got live music in the studio, reminding us of God's faithfulness in conflict and pain, and why beauty, the arts, and artists are so vital to and for the Church. Singer-songwriters Leila Way and Ryan Flanigan join us from Resurrection South Austin to play some new tunes for us and talk about the intersections of music with church life, f…

I'm closing down this podcast at the end of June 2024. But, life goes on. I've moved all my written, audio and even video over to www.jameshazelwood.substack.com Join me there. It's been great Thank you JamesBy James Hazelwood

Preachers should preach with the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other, so we are told. Maybe Karl Barth told us so. Maybe someone in your church with an axe to grind. Or a sensitive conscience eager to be compassionate and relevant. Should we? In this episode, we continue our explorations of technique and propaganda with the help of Jac…

Listen to our first Conversation Across Difference, Episode 102. Join us at the God at 'I' Level photography exhibit. Progressive and conservative: do ever the twain meet? What are safe spaces across current divides on topics that matter? And, when we do talk across divides, how do we get below the surface? Today's Conversation Across Difference is…

Nearly everyone thinks the world has gone off the rails, and nearly everyone has a theory why, from kids these days to the moral breakdown of the West to the internet. We return to the conversation started by French Protestant philosopher Jacques Ellul more than 80 years ago, and find him startlingly, alarmingly prescient. In this episode we consid…

What's the proper scope of Christian politics? Should Christians be politically active, and if so, how? Is the political sphere and its options a place of anxiety and ceaseless activity that should be avoided? Is it a place of possibility to "bring heaven to earth"? Does it have value as a place of failure and limitation? And what do politics have …

Popularly considered the last of the church fathers, John of Damascus gathered up the fruit of early church reflection on the Trinity and the person of Christ in his learned tome, The Orthodox Faith. But in addition to the usual wrangling with the Greek philosophical heritage and the monotheistic challenge of Judaism, John had a new adversary to co…

Episcopalians have a love-hate relationship with evangelism. Everyone is welcome into an Episcopal church, but how do they get there? Is it true that "everyone who should be an Episcopalian, is"? Isn't evangelism what other Christians do who have lots of enthusiasm but less natural restraint and good taste? Is there an Episcopal, or even an Anglica…

The Council of Chalcedon (451) gave us the famous christological formula that Jesus Christ is one person in two natures, without change, division, separation, or confusion. It also gave us a lot of conundrums, enough to cause the first major split of the church between the Syriacs and the Greeks. Among others trying to sort out the perplexities of …

Learn more about the Human Pilgrimage conference. Learn more about Steve Prince's work. Learn more about Jessica Hooten Wilson's work. A disgruntled white southern intellectual named Walter lives on his family's farm. They all think his fancy learning makes him good for nothing. On top of that, Walter thinks he's dying. Walter decides to pretend, t…

What's worse, being bound by the Law or untethered from it entirely? It probably depends on where you're standing. In this episode, Dad and I trace out two kinds of challenges Christians have had to work out with respect to the Law—whether the Law given to Israel applies also to Gentile believers in Jesus Christ, and whether the Law in any respect …

Donate to the Ahli Arab Hospital. Today's is a short and very special conversation captured on the fly at the Episcopal Parish Network Conference in Houston, Texas, with Dr. Suhaila Tarazi. If you haven't heard of Suhaila, then you have certainly heard of her workplace. She is the director of the Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, which was recently in th…

My second appearance on the All About Agatha podcast, talking to host Kemper Donovan about Agatha Christie's speculative-mariology-fanfiction story, "The Island"! Here's a link to my previous All About Agatha appearance: Star over Bethlehem And if that still isn't enough Agatha Christie for you, check out my article in the new issue of the fabulous…

I read the opening chapter of my new book, Ordinary Mysteries: Reflections on Faith, Doubt & Meaning. The book launches on April 30, 2024. But I've got a pre-launch special of a hardbound color edition. More information at www.ordinarymysteriesbook.com or my website www.jameshazelwood.net Book Description Journey between two realms—the sacred and t…

Death! Disaster! Panic in the streets! In this episode Dad and I try to understand how fear and fear-mongering have come to grip our wealthy and (historically speaking) unprecedentedly free societies. Toward that end, we also explore the metastasis of the psychiatric diagnosis of debilitating phobias to a biopolitical strategy for accusing and shut…

Follow Philip Yancey's blog. Read Philip's new book, Undone. No man is an island, Entire of itself. Each is a piece of the continent, A part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less. As well as if a promontory were. As well as if a manor of thine own Or of thine friend's were. Each man's death diminishes me, For I am inv…

The prayer our Lord Jesus taught his disciples, in address to his and their heavenly Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit! And probably the most-prayed prayer of all time. (Well, except maybe "HELP!") In this episode Dad and I pore over each petition, with a great deal of help from Luther's Catechisms, discuss why it is we should pray, and the g…

Check out John Behr's new translation of Gregory of Nyssa's On the Human Image of God. What does it mean to be human? We pay attention to our broken humanity more during Lent. And there's that phrase, when we make a mistake, "I'm only human!" True. But what about the glory and promise of being human? What kind of humanity we see in the pattern of C…

Sarah sits down to chat with Roger Lowther of the Art Life Faith podcast! Also, in the unlikely event you missed it, the Transfiguration book Kickstarter mentioned in this episode has already ended (after exceeding all expectations!). But you can preorder the ebook on Amazon, where it will be published on August 6, 2024.…

In remembrance of an event that took place 50 years + 1 week ago, Dad tells the story of the internal schism in the Missouri Synod, the "walkout" of professors and students from Concordia Seminary St. Louis, and the founding of a seminary in exile, popularly known as Seminex. It is the founding story of why American Lutheranism looks the way it doe…

Get in touch with Fr. Nate for further conversation. Check out Fr. Nate's book, Festive School. Read Fr. Nate's article on neurodivergence in the classical classroom. Learn more about Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI). When trying to consider budget as well as mission and ministry, churches of many sizes offer educational service, from a s…

Andrew Christiansen of Doth Protest and Dad discuss Karl Marx's reception and use of Martin Luther.By Sarah Hinlicky Wilson

We've discussed the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, Anselm and Aulen, and salvation itself all over the place... but until now, never "the Atonement." Could that be because the word itself tends to dictate the outcome? In this episode we talk about the origins of the English word "atone," exchange some thoughts on the Epistle to the Hebrews, and …