Episodes

  • Sejong Chun, "Paul’s New Creation: Vision for a New World and Community" (Lexington Books, 2023)

    Sejong Chun, "Paul’s New Creation: Vision for a New World and Community" (Lexington Books, 2023)
    Feb 23 2025
    In Paul’s New Creation: Vision for a New World and Community (Lexington Book, 2023), Sejong Chun presents inter(con)textual readings of Paul’s new creation passages from the perspective of the Korean immigrant church in America. Chun focuses on Paul’s new creation’s cosmic dimension and ecclesiastical character and proposes the ekklēsia as a tangible embodiment. The author suggests that Paul, as a middleman, accomplishes the collective project of the Jerusalem collection with his Gentile churches to declare independence from the Jerusalem church authority and to demonstrate God’s alternative economy against the exploitative system of the Roman Empire. Sejong Chun completed his PhD at Vanderbilt University. He currently serves as a visiting professor of the New Testament at Yonsei University as well as founder and senior pastor of New Creation Church in Daegu, South Korea. Jonathon Lookadoo is Associate Professor at the Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary in Seoul, South Korea. While his interests range widely over the world of early Christianity, he is the author of books on the Epistle of Barnabas, Ignatius of Antioch, and the Shepherd of Hermas, including The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch (Cascade, 2023). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    30 mins
  • Martyn Percy, "The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire, Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England" (Hurst, 2025)

    Martyn Percy, "The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire, Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England" (Hurst, 2025)
    Feb 21 2025
    The Crisis of Colonial Anglicanism: Empire, Slavery and Revolt in the Church of England (Hurst, 2025) by Dr. Martyn Percy offers a bold and unsettling truth: the British Empire and Great Britain are primarily English constructions, and the Church of England benefited from English enterprise and exploitation, serving as the spiritual arm of the imperial project. English Anglicanism has cast itself as the lead character in its own ‘serious fiction’—the main religious player in a drama of Church and Empire. Yet, in collusion with colonialism, it is now trapped by historical amnesia. Dr. Percy examines the English interests concealed in appeals to Britishness, showing how slavery, exploitation, classism and racism upheld elitist and hierarchical worldviews that bolstered both Empire and Church. By viewing the rest of the world as lesser, both institutions have declined in global standing, now reduced to minor national players on the world stage. Religious, social and political imperialism thrived on deprecating others, but those once marginalised have fought for equality and independence. Today, the worldwide Anglican Communion faces a new era of moral reckoning. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose new book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 mins
  • Mario Cams and Elke Papelitzky, "Remapping the World in East Asia: Toward a Global History of the 'Ricci Maps'" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)

    Mario Cams and Elke Papelitzky, "Remapping the World in East Asia: Toward a Global History of the 'Ricci Maps'" (U Hawaii Press, 2024)
    Feb 20 2025
    When we think of the sixteenth-century arrival of European missionaries in East Asia, there is a tendency to imagine this meeting as a civilizational clash, a great meeting of two fixed cultures. This clash is symbolized in the ‘Ricci map(s)’: a map created by a Jesuit missionary to bring scientific cartography to East Asia. Remapping the World in East Asia: Toward a Global History of the “Ricci Maps” (Hawai’i University Press, 2024) rethinks these maps and this encounter. By taking a global approach, Remapping the World in East Asia explores how the ‘Ricci map,’ far from being one map by one man, was not only collaboratively made, but was also endlessly reinterpreted and contextualized through copying, circulation, and reproduction across East Asia. Editors Mario Cams and Elke Papelitzky have put together a broad range of chapters that explore different kinds of maps, mapping practices, and connections. This book highlights the interconnectedness of China, Japan, Korea, the Ryukyu Kingdom, Vietnam, and the Philippines, as well as the importance of paying attention to materiality. This edited volume should be of interest to those in East Asian studies and early modern history, as well as anyone interested in maps, mapping, and what is possible when you pay close attention to issues of production, circulation, and reception. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 mins
  • Colleen C. B. Weaver, "The Fruits of Listening: Applying Qualitative Research Methods in the Design of Contextually Responsive Theological Education" (Wipf and Stock, 2024)

    Colleen C. B. Weaver, "The Fruits of Listening: Applying Qualitative Research Methods in the Design of Contextually Responsive Theological Education" (Wipf and Stock, 2024)
    Feb 16 2025
    Theological seminaries and Bible institutes find themselves at the crossroads of preserving biblical faithfulness and of maintaining contextual relevance. What does faithful contextual relevance look like? How can theological institutions steer a course that will engage and serve the church through the men and women they equip for ministry and service? In The Fruits of Listening (Wipf and Stock, 2024), Colleen Weaver designed a qualitative research project in the Protestant evangelical community in Madrid, Spain. Intentional listening was conducted on three seminary campuses and in the faith community. Seminary faculty and students and church attenders shared their perspectives, experiences, and hopes for transformative theological education. Congregants envisioned theological education that equips leaders to relationally empower the church to give witness in the society. Faculty and students described the contextual challenges they face as Protestant believers in Spain. They voiced narratives of how they must find ways to persevere amid pervasive scarcity and in a rapidly changing society. Seminaries and churches around the world may recognize details of their own experiences in these stories and, importantly, receive resources for being contextually responsive in their situations. Dave Broucek is a retired cross-cultural missionary/coordinator of continuing education/international ministries director. He interviews authors who provide critical reflection on the theology and practice of Christian mission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    53 mins
  • Erik Freas, "Palestine's Christians and the Nationalist Cause: The Late Ottoman and Mandatory Periods" (Routledge, 2024)

    Erik Freas, "Palestine's Christians and the Nationalist Cause: The Late Ottoman and Mandatory Periods" (Routledge, 2024)
    Feb 16 2025
    Palestine's Christians and the Nationalist Cause: The Late Ottoman and Mandatory Periods (Routledge, 2024) provides an historical overview of Palestine's Christian communities and their role in the Palestinian nationalist movement during the late Ottoman and British mandatory periods. More than being a history of Palestine's Christian Arabs, the book focuses on Palestine's Christians during the formative period of Palestinian Arab national identity, attentive to the broader topic of the relationship between nationalism and religion--in this case, between Arab identity and Islam. Whereas until recently historians have tended to assume that national and religious identities are distinct and mostly mutually exclusive things, more recent scholarship has addressed the fact that often there exists considerable overlap between the two, though it should be noted, often in ways that are not by any means inherently exclusive of those not belonging to the majority faith, as is the case here. The relationship is also an ever-changing one, hence the final chapter of the book, which functions as something of an epilogue regarding the current status of Palestine's Christians vis-à-vis their place in the nationalist cause and relationship with the broader Muslim population. The book will be of interest to historians and scholars focused on the modern Middle East, Palestinian history, Muslim-Christian inter-communal relations, and the relationship between nationalism and religion. Roberto Mazza is currently a visiting scholar at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs at Northwestern University. He is the host of the Jerusalem Unplugged Podcast and to discuss and propose a book for interview can be reached at robbymazza@gmail.com. Blusky and IG: @robbyref Website: www.robertomazza.org Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • Glen L. Thompson, "Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China" (Eerdmans, 2024)

    Glen L. Thompson, "Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China" (Eerdmans, 2024)
    Feb 15 2025
    Many people assume that the first introduction of Christianity to the Chinese was part of nineteenth-century Western imperialism. In fact, Syriac-speaking Christians brought the gospel along the Silk Road into China in the seventh century. Glen L. Thompson introduces readers to the fascinating history of this early Eastern church, referred to as Jingjiao, or the “Luminous Teaching.” Thompson presents the history of the Persian church’s mission to China with rigor and clarity. While Christianity remained a minority and “foreign” religion in the Middle Kingdom, it nonetheless attracted adherents among indigenous Chinese and received imperial approval during the Tang Dynasty. Though it was later suppressed alongside Buddhism, it resurfaced in China and Mongolia in the twelfth century. Thompson also discusses how the modern unearthing of Chinese Christian texts has stirred controversy over the meaning of Jingjiao to recent missionary efforts in China. In an accessible style, Thompson guides readers through primary sources as well as up-to-date scholarship. As the most recent and balanced survey on the topic available in English, Jingjiao: The Earliest Christian Church in China (Eerdmans, 2024) will be an indispensable resource for students of global Christianity and missiology. Glen L. Thompson is professor emeritus of New Testament and historical theology at Asia Lutheran Seminary in Hong Kong. He has retired to Milwaukee, where he researches, works with students, and expands his Fourth-Century Christianity website. New Books in Syriac Studies is presented by Kristian Heal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Stephen T. Pardue, "Why Evangelical Theology Needs the Global Church" (Baker Group, 2024)

    Stephen T. Pardue, "Why Evangelical Theology Needs the Global Church" (Baker Group, 2024)
    Jan 24 2025
    Christian theologians and students are aware that evangelicals in the Majority World now outnumber those in North America and Europe, and many want to know more about emerging voices in the global church. At the same time, these voices are largely absent from Western evangelical theology. In Why Evangelical Theology Needs the Global Church (Baker Group, 2024), Stephen Pardue seeks to bridge this divide by arguing, biblically and theologically, that it is imperative for Western evangelical theology to engage with the global church, and he provides examples of how this can be done. Case studies throughout the book illustrate opportunities for fruitful engagement with non-Western theology in various areas of Christian doctrine. Dave Broucek is a retired cross-cultural missionary/coordinator of continuing education/international ministries director. He interviews authors who provide careful reflection on all aspects of the theology and practice of Christian mission. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 3 mins
  • David G. Hunter et al., "Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity: Authors, Texts, and Ideas" (Brill, 2024)

    David G. Hunter et al., "Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity: Authors, Texts, and Ideas" (Brill, 2024)
    Jan 8 2025
    The Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity: Authors, Texts, and Ideas (Brill, 2024) focuses on the history of early Christianity, covering texts, authors, ideas, and their reception. Its content is intended to bridge the gap between the fields of New Testament studies and patristics, connecting a number of related fields of study including Judaism, ancient history and philosophy, covering the whole period of early Christianity up to 600 CE. The BEEC aims both to provide a critical review of the methods used in Early Christian Studies and also to update the history of scholarship. The BEEC addresses a range of traditions, including iconographic, martyrological, ecclesiastical, and Christological traditions, as well as cultic phenomena, such as the veneration of saints. The history of the transmission of texts and the reception of early Christian writers are also addressed. The BEEC focuses on early Christianity from a historical perspective in order to uncover the lasting legacy of the authors and texts until the present day. David G. Hunter is the Margaret O'Brien Flatley Chair of Catholic Theology at Boston College. Caleb Zakarin is editor at the New Books Network. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins