MLK Day- Bernie, West, Turner and Killer Mike

This is a pretty relevant weekly talk because of the recent MLK day and the rise of Bernie in the polls. If you do not really know much about what Bernie is running for then check out a video series he does with the rapper killer mike or some interviews he has with vox. Those are good ways to get to know what Bernie Sanders is running for. I mention those, because Sander's proposed policies are not the central theme of this but rather implied and if you don't know what he is calling for then you might not know how he lines up with king.

All in all, just a great panel of speakers and it made me want to get Cornel West's new book "the Radical King", a collection of some of  Martin Luther King's more liberal teachings.

Discussion about Christianity in Politics

 I really enjoyed this Discussion between Greg Boyd, Chuck Colson and Shane Claiborne about christianity in politics and find it very relevant with the 2016 election approaching.

H. Orton Wiley Lecture Series Archive

Here is a great resource!

Pointloma University in Sandiego runs a yearly conference titled "H.Orton Wiley lectures in Theology". This conference has brought in some great speakers and covered some great topics. The two I have listened to are:

James K.A Smith - Whose Afraid of Relativism?

John Polkinghorne - Science and Theology

Jurgen Moltmann and Miroslav Volf (Theology of Joy)

Documentary on Creation and Evolution Conversation

Talk by MIT Chemist on the integration of science and faith (two thumbs up)

Intro to Modernism and Postmodernism

john Stackhouse : Postmodernism: A Bad Thing? A Good Thing? Or Just a Thing? from CSPS on Vimeo.



An informative and entertaining presentation of the last few hundred years of western philosophy and society from "modernism to post-modernism".

Interesting new thoughts for me was calling postmodernism a "ptsd" movement...a reaction to the war, disappointment and failure of the enlightenment process. I like and agree with his consensus of Postmodernism as not a good thing, a bad thing but just a thing

Two talks on productivity

After two weeks of vacation I am jumping back into work...yesterday I decided to listen to a few random talks on productivity from youtube....It was inspiring and had some good practical ideas.

Robert Jenson on the Reading the OT

I was back in the states for two weeks on vacation and the only talk I listened to during that two weeks was this one. My brother was listening to it and I sat along. Enjoyed it. It was my first time listening to Robert Jenson, but it will not be my last.

History of Interpreting the Bible

While I was in Bangladesh for the past two weeks I watched this video by Walt Russell from Biola University on the "the history of interpretation". It is a good basic run through of the history of hermeneutics and how it affects us as readers of the Bible today.


You can go the youtube page for the teaching and find the whole course that it is a part of on there as well.

Jurgen Moltmann (misc clips 1)

Weekly Talk: The Uncertain Future of Protestantism

I found this talk on First Things Website, a website that has recently become a regular favorite of mine, about the future of protestantism. It is a long two hour talk that features opening 10-15 minute introductions by three speakers (peter leithart, fred sanders and carl trueman) and then a 1 1/2 hour conversation between the three of them and the moderator. If you don't have time to watch all of it, I at least recommend watching the opening introduction presentations. Below is a summary from the first things website about the talk: (find the talk and whole summary here)

"Peter Leithart, an ecumenically-oriented apostle of “Reformational catholicism” faced down Fred Sanders of Biola, a spokesman for the “unwashed masses of low-church evangelicals” and Carl Trueman of Westminster Seminary, an unapologetic representative of Calvinistic confessionalism. Those hoping for a hard-hitting debate, or a quick and full resolution of the questions, were bound to be disappointed: the three interlocutors were much too patient, irenic, and thoughtful for that. No, it was a conversation, and like almost all good conversations, inconclusive, an invitation to further conversation."

Two Smaller Videos by David Bentley Hart

These are two shorter clips, the first one longer than the other, by David Bentley Hart (what a name!). The first clip is him talking about God using three different words: being, consciousness and bliss. It is a short snip of one of his newest books entitled "The experience of God". A book that guardian newspaper called the "one book every atheist must read". The 2nd clip is only 12 minutes and is a short bit of him talking about allegorical readings of scripture and how it ultimately destroys fundamentalist views of God and the Bible.

Hart is a greek orthodox theologian who will possibly be a little bit startling or puzzling for some evangelicals listening to him. But he is well worth the listen even if their are points of disagreement (for the most part I have none with these two clips)...it is worth watching just to see an amazing display of intellect and knowledge, Christianity fully explored using the mind...I love it! It is jumping into the deep end, even if it seems a bit confusing...hold on (i had to rewind a few spots to listen to them again)...at the very least you'll increase your vocab a bit, at the most youll be inspired...in the middle, what better things are you gonna watch on youtube?!

NT Wright on the Resurrection

In honor of easter, two vids from N.T Wright on resurrection. The first one gives a short snippet of some of his thinking on eschatology from his book "suprised by hope", the 2nd video is more of the apologetics angle, where he talks about whether a scientist can believe the resurrection.

NT Wright on new book "Paul and the Faithfulness of God"

I have really enjoyed N.T Wright's writings in the past few years, and have even launched myself into his huge "christian origins and the question of God" series. Thus far, I have only read things by Wright concerning Jesus, the gospels and the resurrection. I have yet to read anything he has had to say concerning Paul. I have heard people I respect and listen too say that "his work on Jesus is amazing but his stuff on Paul you should stay away from." I believe the controversy of Wright and Paul is mainly concerning his views of justification, a view that gained popular light in the evangelical world when it went in a back and forth tussle with Piper a few years back. Anyways, because of the controversy I have always stood afar from his thoughts on Paul, but with his new book out I decided I would listen to this lecture about the book and justification. It's worth the listening too!

Weekly Talk- Willard on knowledge and spiritual formation

Weekly Talk- Hays on the Gospels teaching us how to read the OT

This is a great talk by Richard Hays, dean of duke divinity, on how the gospels teach us to read the OT. This is one of the last talks at the end of a conference, so if you like it there are more on youtube.

My favorite thing about this talk is how he clearly summarizes the unique and distinct aspects of each gospel. It is worth listening just to hear his summary and thoughts about each gospel.

Weekly Talk- Francis Chan at Ihop

I have quite a few weekly talks backed up from the last few months, but I figured I would start with this one. Francis Chan at the most recent "ihop one thing" gathering. I like it because his message was good, but also I like it just to observe the event at play of a well known evengelical figure going to the charismatic prayer group questioned and squinted at by many. I like to see people step out of there circle and fellowship with people who don't do everything exactly like they do. IHOP is a growing ministry in both the evengelical world as well as the ministry I am a part of (ywam), so I was interested to see what Francis would say and I liked it!

Dallas Willard on Transforming the Will

Weekly Talk- Andy Crouch on Power

Andy crouch on power at Qideas

This is a 17 minute talk by Andy Crouch entitled "when Christians have power". Thats not really what he talks about though, he just talks about "jussive power"...they "let it be" power in Gen.1-3, power and idolatry and some interesting stories at the end about Steve Jobs and a "hero/idol" of Crouch's.

I really like it because it is just an appetizer to crouch's new book Playing God: Redeeming the Gift of Power. A book that looks really good, this is just a small appetizer of that new book.