Progressive Spirit

David Felten, co-creator of Living the Questions, is also pastor of The Fountains in Fountain Hills, Arizona.  He found himself under attack by fellow clergy who do not approve of his brand of Christianity.  These clergy have used the op ed page of the local paper, newspaper advertisements, and expensive banners to campaign against David and progressive Christianity.   David spoke with me about it as well as the strange times we are in regarding religious faith.

I am doing a three part series on the Bible, what it is and how to read it.   Three excellent scholars and teachers will be our guides, Harvey Cox, John Dominic Crossan, and Jennifer Grace Bird.   Leading off is Harvard University professor, Harvey Cox, author of the famous Secular City in 1965.  He was with me two years ago on Religion For Life to discuss his book, The Future of Faith.  He returns to talk about his latest book How To Read the Bible.

Spend the apocalypse with someone you love.  Carolyn Baker returns to Religion For Life to talk about her book, Love in the Age of Ecological Apocalypse:  Cultivating the Relationships We Need to Thrive.   The Long Descent is not a pretty picture.  As industrial civilization hits its limits, resilience will be the primary characteristic of those who survive and thrive.  Preparing emotionally and building relationships will be just as important if not more important than preparing materially for the future.  Dr. Baker, a former psychotherapist and professor of psychology and history, offers life coaching for people who wish to live more resiliently.  Catch her radio program, The Lifeboat Hour on Progressive Radio Network.

Doug Pagitt is the pastor of Solomon's Porch in Minneapolis and the author of Flipped:  The Provocative Truth That Changes Everything We Know About God.    We talk about many different emergent movements including emergent atheism as well as the progressive evangelical movement.   We also talk about "God" and the problem of transactional" religion.  It is an exciting time of change and creativity and Doug Pagitt is a forerunner.

Lloyd Geering is a Presbyterian minister and scholar from New Zealand.  He has written over a dozen books.   His latest book is a collection of essays that chronicle his intellectual and spiritual journey, Reimagining God:  The Faith Journey of A Modern Heretic.    He was tried for heresy in the Presbyterian Church of New Zealand in 1967 for an article he wrote about Resurrection.    He was accused of disturbing the peace of the church to which he responded: “I would like to suggest that what my accusers have been pleased to call the peace of the Church is more properly called the sleepiness of the Church and we should be thankful to God that it has been disturbed.” A documentary was made about him called, The Last Western Heretic.

Wayne Winkler is the General Manager of WETS and the author of Walking Toward the Sunset:  The Melungeons of Appalachia.  His picture is in the December 2014 issue of Psychology Today as part of a chapter in a book on DNA and genealogy.  He speaks with me about the article, "The Past Is Written on Your Face" by Christine Kenneally, and the fascinating Melungeon history.

Donald Wagner (pictured) is the National Program Director of Friends of Sabeel:  North America and Walter Davis is co-chair of the education committee of the Israel-Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) and professor emeritus at San Francisco Theological Seminary.  They have co-edited Zionism and the Quest for Justice in the Holy Land that explores the theological foundations of political Zionism.    The study guide that accompanies this book, Zionism Unsettled, is available at the IPMN website.

Amy-Jill Levine is University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Vanderbilt University.   She is editor of the Jewish Annotated New Testament and is author of  The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus.  Her latest book is Short Stories By Jesus:  The Enigmatic Parables of A Controversial Rabbi.  She talks with me about the historical Jesus and the stories he told.

Stephen Patterson is George H. Atkinson Professor of Religious and Ethical Studies at Willamette University.  He is Fellow of the Jesus Seminar and is the chair of the steering committee on the Jesus Seminar on Christian Origins.  His latest book, The Lost Way:  How Two Forgotten Gospels Are Rewriting the Story of Christian Origins shows the diversity of early Christianity and paints a portrait of Jesus as a teacher of wisdom as opposed to a martyr dying for the sins of the world. 

Joel Baden is Professor of Hebrew Bible at Yale University and is the author of The Historical David:  The Real Life of An Invented Hero.   David is portrayed in the Hebrew Scriptures as one who had a heart for God.  The Psalms are credited to him.  But the real life guy was ambitious and ruthless.  Dr. Baden reads between the lines to uncover a David far more human and thus more interesting than the idealized character of the Bible.

Peter Enns (Blog, Twitter, Facebook) is Abram S. Clemens Professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University in St. Davids, Pennsylvania.  In this latest book, The Bible Tells Me So:  Why Defending Scripture Has Made Us Unable to Read It, he takes us on a journey of biblical interpretation as well as a faith journey of wrestling with the Bible and most importantly, God.   He writes that the "Bible just as it is isn't a problem to be fixed.  It's an invitation."  With humor and insight, Professor Enns invites us to open our minds as we open the text.

What is the character of God, violent or non-violent?  Is justice retributive or distributive?   Sea Raven (Twitter) explores these questions and more in her three commentaries on the Revised Common Lectionary, called  Theology From Exile.  Her latest commentary on the year of Mark is just out!  Matthew and Luke were published previously.  Join us for a discussion of the interaction of progressive theology and the Christian liturgy.

Before Tennessee voters are several amendments to the state constitution.   Amendment One will allow the state legislature to make restrictions regarding abortion.   My guest is Ruth Taylor Read.   We talk about politics, reproduction, and religion.

Dr. Heath Rada was elected moderator of the 221st Presbyterian Church (USA) General Assembly in June of 2014.   He and his wife, Peggy, are traveling across the country and around the world as ambassadors for the church.   They visited with me in the WETS studio to talk about some of the controversial decisions as well as the hope they see regarding the church of the 21st century.

This week my guest is Linda LaScola who along with Daniel Dennett, co-authored Caught in the Pulpit:  Leaving Belief Behind.  This book reports on a study of clergy who are no longer believers.   Are these clergy unusual or are they the canaries in the coal mine signaling the demise of institutional religion?  While that question may not have a clear answer, you will be intrigued by what Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola discovered.  Linda LaScola was one of the organizers of The Clergy Project and she blogs at Rational Doubt.  *(In the interview she stated there are 800 members of the clergy project but meant to say 600).

Bill McKibben is the founder of 350.org and the author of numerous books regarding our planet in peril, including Eaarth and The End of Nature. He talks to me about his latest book, Oil and Honey: The Education of An Unlikely Activist.  He also speaks candidly about the destructive role and lack of vision of the fossil fuel industry and of the urgency for each of us to become unlikely activists on behalf of life.

Dr. Thomas Hill has taken 30 trips to Iraq as a peace builder.  He is a Clinical Assistant Professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.  He has been on Religion For Life twice before to speak of his work between NYU and the University of Duhok.  He was there this summer and spoke to me about the new threat from the Islamic State and what he hears from his friends in Iraq.

Marcus J. Borg has written over twenty books.   His influence is widely known in the progressive Christian movement.   His latest book, Convictions:  How I Learned What Matters Most, is in part a memoir, but much more.  He articulates a way of living in the world that seeks to embrace what is best and most wise in the Christian tradition.  He returns to Religion For Life to speak with me about progressive Christianity, God, and how one might go about discovering and living what matters most. 

Religion, social justice, and public life is the tagline for Religion For Life.  The nuns on the bus are at the center of that intersection driving for faith, family and fairness.  Sister Simone Campbell of Network, a National Catholic Social Justice Lobby, talks to me about her bus tours to speak on behalf of the 100%.   Her book, A Nun on the Bus:  How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community is an uplifting and serious call to get off the couch, rediscover our values and reclaim our democracy.

Kiran Singh Sirah is the director of the International Storytelling Center in Jonesborough, Tennessee.  He says his family is a mini United Nations as it is a huge mix of religions and ethnicities.  He believes in the power of story to unite and to make for peace.  He speaks with me about the power of stories, his Sikh religious tradition, and the exciting work of the International Storytelling Center.