RTN Theology

This podcast is the second (listen to Pt 1) of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features co-authors Soong-Chan Rah & Mark Charles talking about lament, imagination, history, politics, and a call to conciliation. Deeply theological thinkers, Charles and Rah, their partnership came about from repeatedly crossing paths speaking about the topics of the Doctrine of Discovery and lament. Currently Mark Charles is running for Presidency of the United States of America as an independent.

This podcast is the first of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features co-authors Soong-Chan Rah & Mark Charles talking about lament, imagination, history, politics, and a call to conciliation. Deeply theological thinkers, Charles and Rah, their partnership came about from repeatedly crossing paths speaking about the topics of the Doctrine of Discovery and lament. Currently Mark Charles is running for Presidency of the United States of America as an independent.

Bob joins Bishop Gene Robinson, the chaplain of the Chautauqua Institution for a special talk about his life of faith as a professional musician, father, and friend. Their remarkable CHQ Assembly conversation comes during such a difficult time for so many, and remembers how his faith in Jesus grew amidst the crisis of his daughter, Hallie’s, brain tumor and treatment. Bishop Robinson brings pastoral sensibility and keen spiritual insight. Featured music comes from Winston-Salem’s The Pharaoh Sisters and their album Civil Dawn.

RTN Theology #30 features two longtime Portlanders— D.L. Mayfield and Liz Vice (little known fact: before she was a gospel and R&B star she worked on Portlandia!). D.L. Mayfield is the author of "The Myth of the American Dream" (IVP, 2020). Liz and Danielle reflect on their own experiences of Portland's virtues and vices, and how protest might just be the mode of worship we all need right now.  The sacred music collective, Common Hymnal, provides our soundtrack for the episode.

RTN Theology #29 features two theologians who’ve both recently written brilliant books about 4th Century North African Bishop and theologian St. Augustine: Natalie Carnes (Baylor) & previous guest, James K.A. Smith (Calvin). This wide-ranging and luminous conversation spotlights Dr. Carnes’ new book, Motherhood: A Confession (Stanford UP) and branches out to talk about her previous writing on iconoclasm and monuments, justice, memory, and parenting during COVID-19. Paul Zach (featuring Liz Vice) provides our soundtrack with songs from his EP, God is the Friend of Silence.

This podcast is the second of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features guest host Liz Vice and spoken word artist Micah Bournes talking faith, art, and activism. Liz and Micah have collaborated on each’s albums, including Micah’s most recent record, A Time Like This. This wide-ranging conversation between two brilliant artist of faith was too good to cut short, so we kept the tape running and turned it into a two-part episode.

This podcast is the first of a special 2-part episode of RTN Theology features guest host Liz Vice and spoken word artist Micah Bournes talking faith, art, and activism. Liz and Micah have collaborated on each’s albums, including Micah’s most recent record, A Time Like This. This wide-ranging conversation between two brilliant artist of faith was too good to cut short, so we kept the tape running and turned it into a two-part episode.

This special RTN Theology conversation features two renowned artists, Scott Avett and Makoto Fujimura, at the table to talk creativity, hope, artistic process, and faith in a time of pandemic. Scott Avett is a member of the Avett Brothers and a visual artist recently exhibited at the North Carolina Museum of Art. Makoto Fujimura is internationally known for his Nihonga works. He founded the International Arts Movement (IAM), leads the Fujimura Institute, and recently co-founded the Kintsugi Academy. His book, Art + Faith: A Theology of Making releases in January 2021 via Yale UP. Josh Garrels provides our soundtrack with songs from his newest release, Peace to All Who Enter Here.

RTN Theology #26 partners with the NC Study Center for a brilliant end-of-semester concert and conversation between Duke Divinity bible scholar Ellen Davis and Nashville songwriter Sandra McCracken. Director of Spiritual Formation, Bill Boyd guides a conversation around the hopeful resources of the Psalter in times of disorientation and displacement. (Apologies for some broken audio and the limitations of Zoom recording, some performances were augmented with studio recordings, all featured music is available for purchase and stream.)

Everyone is working and worshipping at home these days and all of our social lives outside of our homes are mediated by technology. RTNT 25 enlists guest co-host John Jay Alvaro to join in on a conversation with author Jay Kim (Analog Church: Why We Need Real People, Places, and Things in the Digital Age, IVP 2020). about the ways we use technology to connect to each other and to God in this time of our widespread reliance. The Welcome Wagon provides our quarantime soundtrack.

Our Holy Week episode features author and liberation theologian Kelley Nikondeha. Not only do we get into her new book, Defiant: What the Women of Exodus Teach Us about Freedom (Eerdmans 2020), but also her previous book Adoption: The Sacrament of Belonging in a Fractured World. Kelley brings a ferocity and loving imagination to help us see and recover the stories of these “hidden figures” of liberation in the Exodus story. Her experience as both an adopted person and an adoptive mother, along with her marriage and work in Burundi, give her a keen vision for Christian scripture’s call towards justice, and God’s heart for those on the margins. Episode features Lenten and (new) Easter music by Austin church musician Mac Meador.

Community is on all of our minds during this time of social-distancing in order to help flatten the curve of the spread of coronavirus. Fittingly, Bob and Chris connect with the founders of Reality Ministries, a highly relational, Christ-centered community of persons with and without disabilities in Durham, NC. Jeff and Susan McSwain share the theological convictions which led to and have been gathered from the creation of a community of mutuality and presence. Episode features new communal worship music from the Meek Squad.

After an intense couple of weeks, Bob and Chris get back together to reflect on the beginning of the Lenten season, the Coronavirus outbreak, and the Democratic Primaries. RTN Theology #22 features archival audio of author and organizer Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove from November 3, 2019 when he spoke at Oak Church. Part of an ongoing series of profiles of saints (holy ones, past and present), Jonathan shared about his mentor and spiritual mother, Ann Atwater. A Durham legend, Ann’s life and work known more widely from the book and movie about her life called Best of Enemies. Ann’s words and actions are a provocative witness towards healing and collaboration bourn from the gospel in divisive and polarized times. Her story shows how transformation is possible on the way to working for wholeness and help for society’s most vulnerable. Throughout the episode is featured music from Lincoln, NE soul singer Mona Reeves.

RTN Theology #21 features Esau McCaulley—priest, professor, writer, and theologian— talking about the Christian season of Lent. Our wide-ranging conversation includes how the darkest day of the church calendar is the exact day when he found a new and permanent church home. While Esau repeatedly attempts to convert and confirm Chris into the Anglican Church, they also talk about how the vast biblical narrative is communicated with but a few liturgical words and actions, what it is like to do liturgy with kids, why people from different Christian traditions change church environments, how emerging leaders of color are connecting with and transfiguring liturgical traditions, and even a little bit about N.T. Wright and Kanye West. Featuring Lenten music from Liturgical Folk throughout.

Far from the end of the world, apocalypse mostly means unveiling what’s been under the surface the whole time. In this episode of RTN Theology, Chris and Bob converse with writer Amy Peterson on what happens when the things you grew up taking for granted are revealed as less than reliable, true, or solid. Amy’s new book Where Goodness Still Grows: Reclaiming Virtue in an Age of Hypocrisy (W Publishing Group, 2020) artfully examines the virtues of her evangelical subcultural youth and crafts a way forward in a post-2016 world. While some deconstruct, “salt the fields,” or add to the increasing number of “nones,” Peterson chooses to instead reinvest in the soil of her youth. Starting with Lament and ending in Hope, she writes with a steadfast insistence that these reframed virtues might actually be compost for new creation.

RTN Theology podcast launches out on it own with a new season featuring Christian philosopher James K.A. Smith. Bob and Chris talk with Jamie about his new book On The Road With Saint Augustine: Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts (Brazos Press, 2019). By deeply exploring the primal image of the journey for our human condition, Smith unlocks the many ways St. Augustine knows us better than ourselves when it comes to core human longings for freedom, ambition, friendship, and desire. Augustine’s is a wisdom which comes not from above, but from alongside of us in our darkest, most confused, and restless. Augustine’s magnum opus, Confessions, reveals that the antidote for a restless heart is not more running on the road, rather to find rest in the Home which only God gives and is for us. New music by A.S. Wilson is featured throughout.

For many, the Christian liturgical calendar is often a bit mysterious or just plain strange. Bob and Chris dig into the start of the year, the four weeks leading up to Christmas known as Advent, with theologian and arts pastor David Taylor of Fuller Seminary. David wears many hats, and in our interview we discuss how he teaches his students about time, joy, and lament, and he also shares about a multiyear liturgical songwriting project he’s leading. Finally, we preview his forthcoming book Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life (March 2020), which features a forward by Eugene Peterson and afterward by Bono. Throughout the episode we’ll also hear some brilliant new Advent and Christmas music from the likes of Sandra McCracken, Nathan Partain, the Gentle Wolves, and Liz Vice (ft. Hannah Glavor).

Bob and Chris sit down with baker and writer Kendall Vanderslice for a special Thanksgiving episode of RTN Theology centered on food, faith, and a movement of church communities built around the table. Vanderslice’s 2019 book, We Will Feast (Eerdman’s) is a veritable buffet in its own right: part journalism, part food studies, part memoir, and part sacramental theology. Lastly, we’re treated to a perfect sweet treat: music from Nashville musician Sandra McCracken’s Psalms, We Will Feast in the House of Zion. Happy feasting!

Bob and Chris talk with Megan and Isaac Wardell, who shepherd a Christian music collaborative out of Charlottesville, VA made up of dozens of musicians, theologians, pastors, and faith leaders from many places and traditions. In 2017 they released the project’s debut album, Work Songs, about vocation. Last week came the follow-up Neighbor Songs. This diverse musical collection is the product of a beautiful and challenging gathering exploring themes of hospitality in and across difference, disability, gender, race, theology, and tradition. You’ll be treated to these sacred sounds built in the Church from and for the life of the world.

Bob and Chris sit down with Richella Parham to talk about her debut book, Mythical Me: Finding Freedom from Constant Comparison. Richella talks about the trap of comparing ourselves to others and the way that a distorted picture of ourselves and others creates a distorted picture of God, and vice versa. Richella’s writing is as interesting, accessible, and deep as this interview. We touch on the work of Richella’s mentor Dallas Willard, as well as some of Richella’s favorite hymns.