Best The Henry Center For Theological Understanding Podcasts (2024)

1
What Does the New Testament Say about God | Bruce McCormack 1:38:53

3h ago1:38:53

1:38:53

2011 Kantzer Lecture #4 - The God Who Reveals Himself: The Mystery of the Trinity in the New TestamentIn the fourth lecture, Professor McCormack provides dense exegesis of the relevant biblical material regarding the problem of the trinity in the New Testament. This pertains in particular to the biblical witness to deity of the Son, His relationshi…

1
What Does Modern Theology Say about God | Bruce McCormack 1:35:25

1d ago1:35:25

1:35:25

2011 Kantzer Lecture #3 - The Great Reversal: From the Economy of God to the Trinity in Modern TheologyIn this survey of the Doctrine of God in the modern world, professor McCormack narrates the rise of modern theology from Spinoza, through Kant’s critique of classical metaphysics and on to the philosophical theology of Hegel, all of which engender…

1
How Did the Doctrine of the Trinity Develop | Bruce McCormack 1:34:47

2d ago1:34:47

1:34:47

2011 Kantzer Lecture #2 - From the One God to the Trinity: The Creation of the Orthodox Understanding of GodBruce McCormack inaugurated his Kantzer Lectures by surveying the contemporary theological and ecclesiological landscape in America, including denominational transformation and doctrinal erosion in the evangelical church. In particular, McCor…

1
What Do Evangelicals Think about God | Bruce McCormack 1:34:44

3d ago1:34:44

1:34:44

2011 Kantzer Lecture #1 - Is the Reformation Over? Reflections on the Place of the Doctrine of God in Evangelical Theology TodayBruce McCormack inaugurates his Kantzer Lectures (the first of seven) by surveying the contemporary theological and ecclesiological landscape in America, including denominational transformation and doctrinal erosion in the…

1
Where Can We Find Assurance | Stephen Williams 1:35:01

17d ago1:35:01

1:35:01

2009 Kantzer Lecture #6 - An Exposition of Romans 9-11 with a Positive Proposal Professor Williams' sixth and final lecture dwells on the relation of election to several key themes: universalism, justification, perseverance and above all, assurance. Though he insists that election grounds assurance, nevertheless, all must heed both the promises reg…

1
What is the Paradox of Election & Agency | Stephen Williams 1:22:53

18d ago1:22:53

1:22:53

2009 Kantzer Lecture #5 - Election, Regeneration, and Faith The fifth lecture turns more explicitly toward systematic theological formulation. Williams’s primary questions here include the paradox of man’s freedom and God’s call, and the question of God’s justice and mercy in the decision to elect some but not all. In keeping with much of Williams …

1
How is Election Particular | Stephen Williams 1:01:59

19d ago1:01:59

1:01:59

2009 Kantzer Lecture #4 - The Question of Election and Particular Atonement In his fourth lecture, Professor Williams turns to election in the New Testament. He is particularly concerned here with predestination and election statements and the proper deployment of such statements in systematic formulation. Williams himself advocates reading these s…

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How is Election Both Privilege & Responsibility | Stephen Williams 1:19:56

20d ago1:19:56

1:19:56

2009 Kantzer Lecture #3 - The Question of Election as a Determination of Destiny This third lecture begins the biblical consideration of the doctrine of election with a consideration of election in the Old Testament. The primary trajectory of Williams lecture is towards evaluating the dichotomy of election as privilege and election as responsibilit…

1
How did Barth Understand Election | Stephen Williams 1:00:15

23d ago1:00:15

1:00:15

2009 Kantzer Lecture #2 - Barth on Election Integrated with Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms In this lecture, Williams takes account of the enduring influence of Barth’s doctrine of election. He briefly lays out the major contours of Barth’s construction before going on to evaluate its merits. The lecture, however, becomes as much about instruction in …

1
How Should We Understand Election | Stephen Williams 52:43

24d ago52:43

52:43

2009 Kantzer Lecture #1 - The Election of Grace: A Riddle without Resolution? Stephen Williams brings a discussion of the issues that arise in debates about election. In subsequent days, Dr. Williams details Karl Barth’s view on the topic of election and the related topics of Christian perseverance and particular atonement, including an exposition …

1
How is the Church Dependent upon Christ | John Webster 1:15:51

25d ago1:15:51

1:15:51

2007 Kantzer Lecture #6 - He Will Be With Them In his sixth and final lecture, Professor Webster turns to the Church. Webster begins by appraising the recent trend of elevating Ecclesiology to a sort of first theology. Ultimately his remarks are critical, especially regarding the movements ontological re-ordering of Christ and the Church. Webster’s…

1
How is Christ Exalted Present to Us | John Webster 1:20:01

26d ago1:20:01

1:20:01

2007 Kantzer Lecture #5 - The Presence of Christ Exalted The primary focus of Professor Webster’s fifth lecture is upon the presence of the exalted Christ as the Church’s head. The task of filling out the presence of the exalted Christ entails developing Christ’s fulfillment as Prophet, Priest and King. The location of the exalted Christ’s presence…

1
Why did the Word Become Flesh | John Webster 58:02

27d ago58:02

58:02

2007 Kantzer Lecture #4 - Immanuel In the fourth lecture of the series, Professor Webster carefully explicates each word of the all-important phrase, “The Word became flesh.” In so doing, Webster’s discussion spans an impressive breadth of theological relationships, including the relationships of immanence and transcendence, created and uncreated, …

1
How is God Present Everywhere | John Webster 1:18:12

30d ago1:18:12

1:18:12

2007 Kantzer Lecture #3 - God Is Everywhere but Not Only Everywhere In this third lecture, Professor Webster addresses three primary subjects relating to God’s presence with God’s creatures: the omnipresence of God to creaturely reality, divine providence, and the covenant between God and creatures. With respect to the omnipresence of God, Webster …

1
What are the Divine Perfections | John Webster 1:20:38

1M ago1:20:38

1:20:38

2007 Kantzer Lecture #2 - God’s Perfect Life Webster second lecture is composed of three sections. First, Webster offers an initial orientation to God’s perfections, most notably, the notion of God’s aseity. Second, he moves to a description of God’s perfections in God’s own life, namely, in God’s Trinitarian life. Third and finally, Webster moves …

1
How is God Present with Us | John Webster 56:11

1M ago56:11

56:11

2007 Kantzer Lecture #1 - Immanuel, God's Presence With Us In this first lecture, John Webster introduces the project at hand. Webster first reviews several proposals for the nature of Christ’s presence to us that have been offered in the last half-century, he then goes on to outline his own proposal. Webster indicates that in the coming lectures, …

1
James K. A. Smith, Love's Knowledge (Philippians 1:8–11) 25:00

2M ago25:00

25:00

In this chapel message, James K. A. Smith speaks to life in theological education with the Augustinian insight that in order to know rightly, our loves must be healed, particularly through the Spirit-charged practices of corporate worship and spiritual discipline.

1
Craig Carter on Augustine and Modernity 34:20

2M ago34:20

34:20

A conversation with Craig Carter about Augustine and modernity, and how we should think about Christ and culture.

1
Kevin Vanhoozer, The Human Person: A Grammatical Subject 50:18

2M ago50:18

50:18

Who or what am I? Who can say? This lecture surveys different theological accounts of personhood as it shows how human persons are echoes of God—Homo respondens.

1
John Perkins, Love Is the Final Fight 1:31:26

2M ago1:31:26

1:31:26

John Perkins, born in rural Mississippi in 1930, shares an autobiographical journey of pursuing justice in a world overwhelmed by oppression and brokenness. His perseverance through the Civil Rights Movement and his voice within the evangelical church continue to shape how Christians understand justice and reconciliation. With his vast ministry exp…

1
Walter Kim, A Catechesis of Civic Discipleship 42:41

2M ago42:41

42:41

Today’s moral and social challenges are complex, and Christians are often ill-equipped to address the disruptions and disputes of ideological battles. Malformed responses to the challenges expose not only deficiencies of theological imagination but also a frailty of discipleship. How does Scripture encompass culture and human flourishing as an esse…

1
Dennis Edwards, Power and Humility in Theological Education 45:45

5M ago45:45

45:45

Christians in the first century were largely marginalized in their world, yet possessed power to develop communities of love and justice that transformed lives. Humility was a chief identity marker for early Jesus-followers. Christian Scripture presents paradoxes related to power and humility: (1) God’s power is often most evident in those society …

1
Christina Bieber Lake, 'O Taste and See': Poetry as Theological Invitation 43:10

5M ago43:10

43:10

In Leisure the Basis of Culture, Josef Pieper explains that stillness and quietness of soul are necessary to see the real—especially that all things have been created through Christ and for him. But bounded by a culture of “total work,” we live lives of quiet desperation, exhausted and unable to slow down and attend to the arts. This lecture explai…

1
Winn Collier, Ancient Vision and Fresh Courage: Reawakening Our Pastoral Imagination 40:03

8M ago40:03

40:03

Suffering from an epidemic of scandal, the scourge of celebrity, and the general malaise (if not antipathy) toward the church, it’s a difficult time to be a genuine pastor. Truthfully, though, it’s always been a difficult time to, as St. John of the Cross said, put “love where love is not.” The good news is the Spirit always stirs amid the ruins. W…

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Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt, The Art of Confession (Or, How the Art You Don't Like Can Grow Your Love for God) 40:51

9M ago40:51

40:51

Contemporary art can often be unexpected or downright unsettling in its form and subject matter. In that, it may actually remind us of the startling actions and embodied metaphors employed by Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel and Isaiah. They intentionally disrupted their audiences for the purpose of calling them to repentance. By likewise refram…

1
Joshua Jipp, Going to Seminary with the Apostle Paul 52:13

10M ago52:13

52:13

What is theological education for? In times of tumult, transition, and upheaval, returning to this most basic question can provide guidance for what we’re doing. Likely, all of us would agree that the pursuit of learning—some type of knowing—is at the heart of theological education. But given that the subject matter of theological education centers…

1
Kelly Kapic, Go Therefore and Make Humans: Discipleship in an Inhumane World 1:27:46

1y ago1:27:46

1:27:46

We live in a frenetic age of unrealistic expectations, fostered by unrelenting voices both outside and inside of us. Through subtle and not so subtle forces we are constantly expected to do more and be more. Exhaustion, shame, and anxiety pervade, and all too often they also shape the church’s life. In this context, one of the great gifts Christian…

1
Chris Ganski, The Ascension of Christ and the Renewal of Christian Mission 1:22:20

1+ y ago1:22:20

1:22:20

We live in an age of increasing anxiety about the future of the church, as many are asking about what makes the church relevant within the world today. The true relevance of the church, however, is not found by looking to the world, but above the world. The theological backdrop of the church’s mission is Jesus’ ascension into heaven. The distinctne…

1
Kristen Deede Johnson, Reconsidering the Great Commission: Discipleship and Cultural Engagement 1:28:18

1+ y ago1:28:18

1:28:18

Many are asking questions about what it means to fulfill the Great Commission today, wondering how we are to be formed as disciples who can live faithfully in this complex cultural time. Exploring the origins of the term, “the Great Commission,” and the role this final command of Jesus has played in shaping contemporary conceptions of discipleship …

1
Amy Peeler, Embodied Discipleship: Mary, Jesus, and Engendered Faithfulness 1:18:32

2y ago1:18:32

1:18:32

The New Testament does not say much about the mother of Jesus, but what is recorded offers a powerful example of Christian faithfulness. In some instances, however, she has been lifted up only as an example for women, especially for those of the Catholic or Orthodox expressions of the faith. Attention to her story reveals both an affirmation of fem…

1
Oliver O'Donovan, Creation, Law, and History 42:24

2y ago42:24

42:24

It is usual to expound the idea of creation by referring to "law" as the principle of regularity and predictability that inheres in the order of the world. But the term "law" is often supposed to be equivocal, meaning one thing as applied to creation and something else as a norm of free human conduct. In this lecture, O'Donovan argues that in its v…

1
Han-luen Kantzer Komline, The Art of Willing: God’s Grace & Human Willing in Augustine’s Preaching 1:21:23

2+ y ago1:21:23

1:21:23

Augustine is well known for his abstract reflections, early in his career, on the role of human free choice in introducing sin into God's good creation. But this, for Augustine, was just one small part of the larger story of human willing in relationship to God. In this lecture, we will consider how Augustine understood God's grace and human willin…

1
Russell Moore, Paradox Lost: Longing, Alienation, and the Mystery of Humanity in a Technological Age 1:33:53

3y ago1:33:53

1:33:53

The Christian concept of creation is contested in the present age for many reasons, but one of those reasons is the incredibility of a distinctiveness of humanity beyond the explainable and the material. Figures from the past century—from Walker Percy to Wendell Berry to Marilynne Robinson—though have drawn from theology, biology, psychology, and t…

1
Oliver O'Donovan, Good, Doing Good, and the Goods 1:33:24

3y ago1:33:24

1:33:24

When we explore the goodness of any thing, we encounter it through a complex network of interactions: there is the good of its occurrence, the good it does for us and those who enjoy it, the good it may elicit from us in response. Philosophical accounts have discussed whether the good is one or many, whether it is a “description”, whether it is pri…

1
Max Lee, Paul and the Pursuit of Pleasure 1:27:39

3+ y ago1:27:39

1:27:39

Paul, in his debate with a wisdom group at Corinth, addresses Greco-Roman attitudes toward (idol) food (1 Cor 8:1–13; 10:23–30), sex (6:12–20), and entertainment (15:32). He engages with a kind of moral naturalism which motivates the Corinthians’ behavior. While he acknowledges that natural desire can serve as partial index of what is good, Paul ne…

1
Katherine Sonderegger, The Inner Life of God 1:28:28

3+ y ago1:28:28

1:28:28

The long-awaited second volume of Katherine Sonderegger’s Systematic Theology arrived in 2020. It is a book about the Inner Life of God, exploring the Immanent Trinity, the Holy Life of the One God. It is, admittedly, an “unusual dogma of Trinity,” having not Persons but Processions as its foundation and insisting that the doctrine is a deliverance…

1
Paul Nedelisky, The Myth Of The Fact/Value Gap 1:26:59

3+ y ago1:26:59

1:26:59

Our knowledge of nature is based on observation and experiment, and thus is objective. Our knowledge of ethics—the good—is based on culture, religion, and philosophy, and so seems subjective. If this usual story is correct, then how can these orders be united? How can this “gap” between facts and values be overcome? I will argue that understood in …

1
Eleonore Stump, Suffering and Flourishing 1:35:01

3+ y ago1:35:01

1:35:01

Although we sometimes praise a person who suffers for not sinking under his suffering, we still suppose that the sufferer is to be ranked more among life’s losers than among life’s winners. The disability rights movement is an exception to this general attitude—it wants others to see that those with disabilities are people to celebrate. The Christi…

1
Christian Miller, Falling Short and Becoming Virtuous 1:29:04

3+ y ago1:29:04

1:29:04

Most of us realize we’re not as good as we could be. But can we become better? In this lecture Miller outlines some steps that we can take to grow in virtue and become better people. He begins by clarifying what virtue is, and why it is important, and then discusses how most of us fall short of virtue, an idea familiar from the Christian tradition …

1
Christopher Wright, The Goodness, the Glory, and the Goal of Creation 1:24:34

3+ y ago1:24:34

1:24:34

Much Christian thinking about creation and environmental issues focuses only on the creation narratives and the concept of stewardship that they generate. We need to look further at the Bible’s insistence that creation itself constitutes a part of the glory of God, such that our actions in and with creation either enhance or diminish God’s glory. A…

1
Craig Keener, Signs of the Kingdom: Miracles in the New Testament and Today 57:57

4+ y ago57:57

57:57

From its earliest moments, the Christian community pointed to miraculous events—paradigmatically, the resurrection of Jesus—as disclosing the truth about God and his saving action on their behalf. In spite of their centrality in early Christian proclamation and belief, Christians in the modern era have tended to approach the category of ‘miraculous…

1
Jennifer Powell McNutt, Keeping Time with the Divine Clockmaker 1:02:37

4+ y ago1:02:37

1:02:37

Time is an inescapable reality of human life and one of the fundamental building blocks of human society. To be bound to time and aware of our finitude is a unique characteristic of human anthropology. Christianity’s robust theology of time teaches believers to relinquish our limited time into the hands of a God, who freely created time, entered ti…

1
William Abraham, Divine Action, Healing, and Providence 48:19

4+ y ago48:19

48:19

Robust forms of Christian theism are unapologetically committed to the possibility and actuality of healing. In some cases this healing takes place through natural causes; in others through direct divine intervention. Moreover, in many cases healing does not take place. Once we allow both these propositions, devout believers are faced with two very…

1
Marc Cortez, Defining Humanity in an Age of Plasticity 52:24

4+ y ago52:24

52:24

Modern discourse about the human person often emphasizes the extent to which humans are “plastic” and thus capable of being transformed in remarkable ways. Our brains are malleable, we have the technological capacity to reshape our bodies in seemingly countless ways, and even things we once imagined to be relatively stable features of human identit…

1
Rosalind Picard, AI, Spirituality, and Human Flourishing 1:05:12

4+ y ago1:05:12

1:05:12

What happens when an electrical engineer and computer scientist starts to give AI the skills of emotional intelligence? This talk will highlight cutting-edge capabilities being given to technologies, such as robots that appear to have emotion, and wearable technologies that can measure and in some cases, forecast human mood and stress. Where is thi…

1
Kevin Vanhoozer, Divine Interjection: How God Puts Morphemes into Motion in the Great Theater 58:34

5y ago58:34

58:34

Probably no greater obstacle complicates the dialogue between theology and science than the notion of divine intervention, commonly understood to involve divine interference in the laws of nature. Many scientists and some theologians complain that divine intervention complicates and, at the limit, subverts the project of explanation by causation. A…

1
William Ury, Imaging the Image: A Relational Anthropology 1:27:38

5y ago1:27:38

1:27:38

In this lecture, Ury will examine the decline of the concept of personhood in the modern era along with its corresponding separation from the doctrine of the Trinity, and then trace the theme of personhood—both human and divine—through the creation narratives. The question of evolutionary or creationist perspectives will be addressed as they pertai…

1
C. John Collins, The Place of the Fall in the Overall Vision of the Hebrew Bible 42:06

5+ y ago42:06

42:06

The notion of the “fall” of Adam and Eve, our first parents, has played an important role in Jewish and Christian theology. It has been used to explain the “brokenness” of the world, and it has also been declared unbiblical, or at least of little historical and theological consequence. This paper will focus on sound reading strategies and show, fir…

1
Mickey Mattox, Goodness that Abides? Martin Luther’s Adam, for Today 48:42

5+ y ago48:42

48:42

Scholars frequently note Martin Luther’s powerful imaginative capacity for entering into the world of the Bible, which was nowhere more vividly displayed than in his interpretation of “the dear Genesis.” This lecture will introduce Luther’s dramatic reading of the story of Adam and Eve, exploring the powerful connections he finds between God’s good…

1
Paul Blowers, Patristic Interpretations of the Fall: Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Tragedy 46:12

5+ y ago46:12

46:12

Christian interpreters from very early on presumed that the Adamic fall was a primordial cataclysm with ramifications for the whole human posterity; but they did not all concur on the precise nature of its causes and consequences. Blowers’ lecture will track three major trajectories of patristic interpretation. First is a tradition viewing the fall…

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