Many American Christians assume an over-familiarity with the Bible. Whether because we were raised in the church, or because we think we have it all figured out, or because of sheer laziness, we rarely turn to Scripture with diligent and curious eyes, guided by a community of other Bible-readers. At the same time, we often erect barriers between our faith and work or between the state of our souls and the state of our bodies. Perhaps the two issues are connected: we see the Bible and our churches as dealing with spiritual things but tend to isolate them from our everyday lives.

Dr. Luke Bobo is an author, theologian, professor, and Director of Strategic Partnerships for an organization called Made to Flourish. His work ranges from encouraging biblical literacy among everyday churchgoers to helping pastors think holistically about the interaction between faith and work, including implications for poverty alleviation. In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson interviews Dr. Bobo about biblical interpretation and the dignity of work. Dr. Bobo wants us to do two things: first, dive deeper into Scripture, and second, figure out how the church can serve in the economic order.

Questions addressed include: How can Christians develop an asset-based approach to ministry, instead of a need-based one? How can churches work in concert with the biblical story the affirm the dignity of work? What does an economically flourishing church look like? How Christians read the Bible better?

Show notes:

• 0:26 The basics of the Bible and biblical interpretation
• 3:50 Practices that help and hinder biblical literacy
• 7:18 Interpretation through your social location
• 11:57 Interpretation as an individual and communal exercise
• 17:19 Made to Flourish and the dignity of work
• 22:16 Helping pastors think about vocation
• 32:00 The church as an economic agent

Learn more about Dr. Luke Bobo's writing and work at Made to Flourish.

Dr. Bobo's book A Layperson's Guide to Biblical Interpretation: A Means to Know the Personal God

Show notes by Micah Long.

Since the 19th century, the term "wisdom literature" has been associated specifically with the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. When we look for wisdom in the Bible, then, we will often turn to these books. However, to divorce these works from the larger biblical corpus may have blinded us to their fuller narrative context and prevented us from seeing wisdom in other stories, poetry, and laws of Scripture.

Will Kynes, Associate Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Samford University, wants to broaden and challenge our understanding of wisdom and wisdom literature in the Hebrew Bible. In this episode, he talks with Dr. Dru Johnson about the Hebrew context for wisdom in the Bible, including 1 Kings, Deuteronomy, Genesis 1–3, and even contemporary Egyptian texts. Instead of limiting ourselves to the modern definitions of wisdom, perhaps we can begin to read Scripture on its own terms and enrich our understanding of its persistent and complex wisdom tradition.

Show notes:

• 0:28 The problem with the way we think of wisdom in the Bible
• 2:39 Different views of wisdom
• 6:38 Focusing on the concept of wisdom instead of "wisdom literature"
• 9:00 Understanding "the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom"
• 10:41 Reading 1 Kings 1-11 and Proverbs
• 17:15 Culturally-based versus universalized pictures of wisdom
• 23:26 The narrative framework of Scripture
• 25:19 A new word for "wisdom"?
• 28:13 Understanding Scripture on its own terms

For more of Will Kynes's work on wisdom in the Bible, check out An Obituary for "Wisdom Literature": The Birth, Death, and Intertextual Reintegration of a Biblical Corpus.

Will Kynes's Samford University page with bio and more writings.

Show notes by Micah Long.

As we've already discussed on The Biblical Mind podcast, the Torah (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) is more than just a bunch of old stories with some laws thrown in. Instead, it is an interwoven collection of literature, carefully crafted to shape the Israelites into the people of YHWH. However, many people still regard the the Old Testament laws as inapplicable to modern Christianity. They may see the Israelite religion as a "religion of works" while seeing Christianity as a "religion of faith."

In this episode, Dr. Carmen Imes, Associate Professor of Old Testament at Prairie College in Alberta, Canada, talks with Dr. Dru Johnson about the role of the Old Testament laws. Fulfilling individual Old Testament laws is meant to shape the wisdom and character of God's people in response to God's already accomplished work of salvation. Dr. Imes talks about biblical oath-making, the difference between ancient and modern views of law codes, and how God secures his faithfulness by swearing on Himself. If we learn to read the law as an extension of our love for God, we can see how the practices and guidance of the Torah can shape our modern life as Christians.

Show notes:

• 0:00 Why the Torah isn't what gave salvation to the Israelites
• 2:28 Why there are rules in the Bible
• 7:44 Oath-making in the Hebrew Bible
• 13:07 What the Ten Commandments were really like
• 17:23 The uniqueness of the Hebraic covenants and Old Testament laws
• 25:04 What it means to "love the LORD your God with all your heart"

Carmen Imes's blog: Chastened Institutions

Her most recent book: Bearing God's Name: Why Sinai Still Matters

Show notes by Micah Long.

Author and speaker Aimee Byrd believes that a close and careful reading of the biblical texts should inform the church's view on sex and gender. Instead of resorting to 21st-century (or 20th-century) Western models of gender and sex or going with our gut instincts, perhaps the church can craft a biblical theology of gender that both preserves the categories of man and women while affirming their active and necessary roles in creation.

In this episode, Aimee Byrd and Dr. Johnson discuss a theology of gender rooted in Scripture. Along the way, they examine some of the most negative assumptions about women within Protestantism, consider biblical portrayals of women, and discuss the self-sacrificial roles of both sexes. Questions answered include:

• What does it mean to be a man or be a woman?
• Is the term "gender roles" inherently damaging to a discussion of biblical masculinity and femininity?
• What negative cultural assumptions about the body do we import into Scripture?
• What is the significance of the marriage motif in Genesis and Revelation?

Show notes:

• 0:00 Contemporary debates about gender
• 2:45 Femininity and masculinity
• 7:33 Cultural assumptions about the body
• 8:58 Admirable women in the Bible
• 13:20 Negative assumptions about women within Protestantism
• 15:57 Developing a biblical theology of gender
• 23:03 Protection and self-sacrifice
• 29:00 Marriage in Scripture

Learn more about Aimee Byrd and her work.

Her most recent book: Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Show notes by Micah Long.

When people assume that they are already familiar with the Bible, they may fail to read it with a critical or careful eye (if at all). The truth is that Western people's imaginations are usually far more shaped by social media and the entertainment industry, or by even the Greco-Roman world, than by the structures and styles of the Bible. Hence, even faithful churchgoers often need additional guidance and practice reading Scripture to become biblically literate.

In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson talks with Dr. Heath Thomas, President Professor of Old Testament at Oklahoma Baptist University, about how we should approach reading Scripture. Among other things, readers should consider the grammar, literary devices, motifs, and type-scenes that begin in the Torah and then unfold throughout the prophets and the New Testament. Reading Scripture well requires habituating one's imagination toward that of the authors and their conceptual worlds. When we are fully immersed in the texts, we can join the project of contextualizing and applying the Bible to the modern world.

Shownotes:

• 2:19 How the prophets re-contextualize the Torah in new situations
• 7:35 The kind of thinking required to live out God's law in new ways
• 12:03 How the New Testament retells the Torah like the minor prophets
• 14:42 Introducing Dr. Heath Thomas
• 17:10 Habituating ourselves to reading Scripture
• 21:18 How to combat biblical illiteracy through performance
• 30:42 Reading other literary works alongside Scripture
• 36:40 The complexity of the biblical narratives

Dr. Thomas's commentary on Habakkuk.

Dr. Thomas's work with the Hobbs College Library, an accessible collection of works that help people read Scripture.

Show notes by Micah Long.

When most Westerners think of "philosophy," they are inclined to think of Greco-Roman arguments or Anglo-American academics. "Philosophy" as approached this way is really nothing more than one culture's philosophical tradition, rather than a global, multicultural collection of thinkers, ideas, and methods. If we expand our definition of philosophy, we have the chance not only to challenge our own Western ways of thinking, but also to understand other cultures, from those of China to India to Ancient Israel.

In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson talks to Dr. Bryan Van Norden about multicultural philosophy. Dr. Van Norden is a chair in philosophy departments at both Vassar College and Wuhan University, where he specializes in Chinese philosophy. They begin with one very difficult question: "What counts as philosophy?" From there, they discuss different definitions of philosophy, the diverse literary techniques wielded by both Eastern and Western authors, and often-overlooked philosophical texts. If people can start examining Confucius and the Hebrew Scriptures like they do Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, and Kant, their eyes will be opened to cultural traditions that are not only novel and diverse, but also equally intellectually rich and thought-provoking.

Shownotes:

• 0:00 Philosophy beyond the Greeks
• 2:12 Why people don't think of Asian philosophy as philosophy
• 7:23 Defining philosophy and Taking Back Philosophy
• 13:40 Different literary techniques in Chinese philosophy
• 17:50 A multicultural approach to philosophical thinking
• 22:20 Approaching texts like the Bible and the Bhagavad Gita
• 27:14 The Milindapanha and the chariot argument against the self

For more information about Dr. Van Norden and his work, visit his website, where you can find his world philosophy bibliography.

Dr. Van Norden's New York Times op-ed on multicultural philosophy: "If Philosophy Won't Diversify, Let's Call it What it Is"

The ensuing book: Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto

Dr. Van Norden is James Monroe Taylor Chair in Philosophy at Vassar College (USA), and Chair Professor in Philosophy in the School of Philosophy at Wuhan University (China). Van Norden has published ten books on Chinese and comparative philosophy, including Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy (2011) and Taking Back Philosophy: A Multicultural Manifesto (2017). A recipient of Fulbright, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Mellon fellowships, Van Norden has been honored as one of The Best 300 Professors in the U.S. by The Princeton Review.

Show notes by Micah Long.

Many modern people, in both the church and the academy, don't believe that the early narratives of the Hebrew people reflect historical events. They might consider the exodus account to be, for example, a collection of inchoate legends, or a 5th-century B.C.E. exilic invention of the Jews.

Others simply regard the historicity of Scripture as a matter of "blind faith." Does it really matter when Exodus was written, or if the story even took place? Is there evidence from the biblical texts or ancient Near Eastern archaeology that these events occurred?

For some, the answer is a definitive "yes."

In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson talks with Dr. James K. Hoffmeier about the history of Israel and the exodus. Dr. Hoffmeier has the distinction of being both an Egyptologist and a biblical scholar, skilled in the archaeology, culture, and history of the ancient Near East. After discussing "Egyptianisms" in Hebrew (loan-words), the etymologies of biblical names, and intersections of literature and archaeology, Dr. Hoffmeier argues that the exodus was a historical event.

This perspective, while somewhat unfashionable in contemporary scholarly debates, provides a foundation for the practices and principles of modern-day Jews and Christians.

Shownotes:

• 0:00 Introducing James K. Hoffmeier, his work, and his life
• 5:12 Being a "third-culture kid"
• 7:29 How studying and living in Egypt informs a reading of Scripture
• 14:30 Evidence that the Torah contains firsthand experience of Egypt
• 21:18 Etymologies of the names Moses and Korah
• 25:45 Cultural contextualization in the Torah and the character of God
• 32:27 Is the exodus account early Hebraic history or a Persian-era literary invention?
• 40:25 Why the historical exodus matters for theology and how it informs Hebraic law and rituals

Dr. Hoffmeier's book on the historicity of the exodus is Israel in Egypt.

Show notes by Micah Long.

How should Christians engage with the visual arts? Many forms of "Christian art" (films, children's Bibles, music) make in-your-face, moralistic claims. Other Christians condemn art because of its "bad messages." Still others believe that making art is nothing more than expressing yourself or your emotions. Ned Bustard possesses a very different perspective.

Ned is an artist and graphic designer based in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He believes that provocative, visually fascinating pieces are not necessarily in tension with Scripture. Instead, they can be used to heighten biblical themes or show us parts of the text that we had not yet noticed. Ned's book Revealed: A Storybook Bible for Grown-Ups exemplifies this approach, with gritty and novel depictions of often-whitewashed or ignored passages of Scripture.

In this episode, Dr. Dru Johnson talks with Ned about a couple of the most provocative pieces in Revealed. They also discuss the tearing down of Confederate statues, how art can be used as an argument, and how making woodcuts of the Bible is actually a lot like preaching.

Show notes:

• 1:26 What should we do about putting up and tearing down statues?
• 6:00 How art is like preaching
• 10:13 Good versus bad Christian art
• 15:35 Ned's work on his book Revealed
• 24:00 Integrating faith and art
• 26:29 Ned's depiction of Judges 19
• 34:20 Art with a "slant"
• 40:12 Why people miss the arguments in Biblical poetry and the visual arts

See more of Ned Bustard's work through his graphic design company, World's End Images.

Read more about the proposed cylinder around the Robert E. Lee statue.

Christians in the Visual Arts (CIVA) promotes a diverse group of artists rooted in orthodox Christianity.

Show notes by Micah Long.