The People’s Theology is a show exploring theology and culture. In each episode, we explore a question, theme, or topic in dialogue with our faith. Today that question is, “how do we count?” Maybe that sounds weird, but we all have a way of “counting” especially when it comes to success. We believe, as Chris Hughes noted, that the hustle is holy and that hard work should lead to more and higher. That’s the underwriting narrative of the American story; Zuckerberg and Facebook, Apple and even Enron. And like with those examples, sometimes we love it the result and sometimes we hate it but for some reason, we rarely ask was the “direction right?” Is the Hustle virtuous? Is 10 always greater than 1?  Why do we count that way? And more importantly, is it good?

Season 3 of The Peoples Theology is coming. Here, as a bonus is an interview with author and lawyer Luke Goodrich about his new book, Free to Believe.

In this episode of The Peoples Theology we are talking to Leonce Crump former player for New Orleans Saints, founding pastor of Renovation Atlanta, and author of the book Renovate (2016).

Our history is full of saints and radicals who have asked the question, “is this how it has to be” and then revealed to us that it doesn’t. If the only image of the “Church” we have is the modern American white evangelical community than, well, we should all go home and give up. I’m not interested in that. But that isn’t the only image nor is it even the primary image of the church. Our history is full of communities of dissent that have revealed, if even for just a moment, the Kingdom of Jesus because they had no other option.

What do we do about our world? How do we change it for the better? In our final episode of 2018, we look at one of our primary tools of defiance and protest. Something we desperately need, especially at this time of year.

In this season of The Peoples Theology we’ve been asking two questions: why is the world the way that it is? And what can we do about it? But the truth is, we haven’t really been asking the first question instead we’ve asked “why is the West the way that it is?” We have a habit of prioritizing and privileging our experience but it comes at the cost of missing and ignoring the stories and experiences of the global Church. And we don’t want to miss that because if we start paying attention we might just being to see what God is doing in this world.

Interview with Dan Stanford author of the book, Losing the Cape. What kind of person does it take to impact the world? Do we need to be powerful, wealthy, charismatic? Or is there another option? In our interview with Dan we talk about the difference between the kind of people our world celebrates and the kind of people God calls and uses.

On this episode of The Peoples Theology, we continue exploring the role of the church in engaging our cultural moment. In this episode, we have a conversation with Charles Kiser about living out the good and beautiful life of Jesus as the Church.

The Peoples Theology is back after our long summer break. In the first part of season two we looked at the question, why is the world the way that it is? In the second part of our season we want to focus on the question, what do we do about it? How do we engage our world? How do we make it better? To help us answer that question we interviewed author, professor, and pastor David Fitch. Fitch is interested in how the church, which is so often compromised by culture, can become a community that serves and loves the world well. How we can be the people Jesus intended us to be. 

David Foster Wallace, in his now very famous commencement speech, tells a story about two fish and in it, he asks a question, "what is water?" Meaning, what are the pieces of our world we don't recognize but are fundamental to its existence. In this episode we try and answer that question, what is water. *podcast includes two expletives. 

In this episode, we continue exploring the feelings of our current cultural moment but to best understand our feelings we need to understand how we got here. We need a history of the now.

How do we explain and make sense of our world today? Author Pankaj Mishra says we live in, an "age of rage" but the real question is why.

In our final episode of 2017, we have a conversation about sexual assault and the role of friends, family, and the church with Pastor Heather Thomas. Historically, the Church hasn't been a place that cultivated conversations about sexual assault and abuse. In fact, the institution of the church has often been complicit. The question on the table then, is what can we do differently? How do we become a people that advocates for victims, creates safe places, and always offers mercy? 

How do we make sense of the violence in the Old Testament and the person of Jesus in the New? In part 2 of our conversation about holy war we look at the "drastic marching" orders Israel recievs.

How do we reconcile the goodness of Jesus and the violence of the Old Testament that is seemingly attributed to God? In this episode we begin a 2 part series exploring Holy War with pastor and author Josh Butler

It's been said that AI is the single greatest threat to theology since Darwin. Is that true? Does it really threaten so much of what we believe and hold dear? How should we think about AI?