The McKrakenCast
Episodes
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Karl Barth: Spiritual Writings - A conversation with the editors
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Join me for a conversation with Dr. Ash Cocksworth (Twitter, University of Roehampton) as we talk about our recently released co-edited volume, Karl Barth: Spiritual Writings, in the Paulist Press Classics of Western Spirituality series. We discuss how Ash and I got to know each other and came to work together on this volume, what our favorite things about the book are, who should read the book, how politics relates to spirituality, and much more. Marmite even comes up at one point and a brilliant bit of wordplay by yours truly falls totally flat. It was a fun conversation.Ash and I were joined by my friend, Dr. Kate Hanch (Twitter, First St. Charles United Methodist Church), who functioned as our special guest host and moderator for the conversation. Once you’ve ordered your copy of Karl Barth: Spiritual Writings, head over to Fortress Press to pre-order Kate’s forthcoming book, Storied Witness: The Theology of Black Women Preachers in 19th-Century America.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Monday Jan 13, 2020
Monday Jan 13, 2020
More on Barth’s first dogmatics lectures! This episode addresses the relationship between dogmatics and preaching. We get a number of Barth “greatest hits” – like an early form of his approach to the three-fold Word of God (revelation, scripture, and preaching), and his distinction between regular and irregular dogmatics. But the central issue is the relationship between God’s word and the human word of preaching. Also, I use the idea of Sachkritik to expand on Barth’s definition of theology.
This is part 3 of a multi-part series, and you can find the series index here. It is also available on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe via your preferred site.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Wednesday Dec 18, 2019
My Top 5 Books of 2019
Wednesday Dec 18, 2019
Wednesday Dec 18, 2019
I read a lot of books in 2019. Here are my top 5.
Featured Books:
Balmer, Evangelicalism in America
Heschel, The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence
Hunsinger, Karl Barth and Radical Politics, 2nd edition
Marable, Malcolm X: A Life of Reinvention
Weinberg & Bealer, The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World's Most Popular Drug
Also available on Youtube.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Tuesday Aug 13, 2019
Barth's "Göttingen Dogmatics" - §1: The Word of God as the Problem of Dogmatics
Tuesday Aug 13, 2019
Tuesday Aug 13, 2019
Continuing our dive into Karl Barth's first attempt at writing a dogmatics, this episode tackles the first section: The Word of God as the Problem of Dogmatics. He discusses what it means to think of dogmatics as a science, and we also encounter an early version of his doctrine of the three-fold Word of God (revelation, Scripture, and preaching). Barth also reflects on why he thinks a prolegomena is necessary when doing theology, and I riff a bit on his recommendations for how to go about studying theology. This is part 2 of a multi-part series, and you can find the series index here. It is also available on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe via your preferred site.=========================
I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Thursday Jul 18, 2019
Barth's "Göttingen Dogmatics" - Introduction
Thursday Jul 18, 2019
Thursday Jul 18, 2019
Travel with me back to the early 1920s and Karl Barth's first attempt at writing a dogmatics. Launched while teaching at the University of Göttingen, this was the genesis of the material that would become Church Dogmatics approximately a decade later. What we call the Göttingen Dogmatics in English is especially interesting to me because it is much closer to Barth's work as pastor-cum-socialist organizer. This is the first of a multi-part series, and it is the first series that I have produced primarily for the podcast medium. It is also available on YouTube. Make sure to subscribe via your preferred site. Find episode 2 here, and get the series index here.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Monday Jun 17, 2019
My Top 5 books of 2018
Monday Jun 17, 2019
Monday Jun 17, 2019
I read a lot of books in 2018. Here are my top 5.
The original tweet:
https://twitter.com/WTravisMcMaken/status/1079844334571347970
Also on Youtube: https://youtu.be/JnJypQXwqEc
Featured books:
Taylor, “From BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation” – DET post: http://derevth.blogspot.com/2018/03/what-am-i-reading-keeanga-yamahtta.html
Cone, “Martin & Malcolm & America” – DET post: http://derevth.blogspot.com/2018/05/brief-book-note-james-cones-martin.html
Niebuhr, “Moral Man and Immoral Society” - https://www.amazon.com/Reinhold-Niebuhr-Immoral-Society-Politics/dp/B00HTK2CQ4/
Brown, “Ransom of the Soul” – DET post: http://derevth.blogspot.com/2019/01/brief-book-note-peter-browns-ransom-of.html
Pedersen, “The Eternal Covenant” – DET post: http://derevth.blogspot.com/2019/03/brief-book-note-pedersens-eternal.html
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I write books! Check them out here:
https://www.amazon.com/W.-Travis-McMaken/e/B00CHN7FWE/
I run a blog! Check it out here:
http://derevth.blogspot.com/
I teach! Check me out here:
https://www.lindenwood.edu/about/directories/faculty-staff-directory/details/WTMcMaken/
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Music credit:
Sliabh - Cathal by Aislinn is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Congdon & McMaken - The Torres Interview
Monday Jun 10, 2019
Monday Jun 10, 2019
For this recording, David Congdon and I sat down (metaphorically) with Juan Torres for a wide-ranging interview about Dialectical Theology, universalism, religion and politics, and more.
Juan Torres on Twitter
David Congdon on Twitter
Travis McMaken on Twitter
Order Congdon's The God Who Saves
Order McMaken's Our God Loves Justice
This content is also available in video format on YouTube.
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
Reformers in the Wings - Book Review
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
Tuesday Jun 04, 2019
In this installment I review David Steinmetz's book, Reformers in the Wings, and talk a bit about Reformation history and some of its lesser known figures.
This content is also available in video, if you prefer.
If you'd like to learn more about the Reformation, there's lots of material waiting for you at at DET (the theology blog that I run).
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
Helmut Gollwitzer: Forgotten Left-Wing Barthian
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
This is the live recording of my presentation to the Karl Barth Society of North America at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Boston (2017), with a brief, informal introduction by George Hunsinger.
Get my book on Gollwitzer here!
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
Biography of a Calvin Reader (How I Read John Calvin, part 1)
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
Wednesday Apr 24, 2019
This is the first in a three-part series on How I Read John Calvin. Thanks to Joshua Torrey (Twitter: @JoshuaTorrey) for sparking the idea.
At one point I say that McNeill published a selection of the Institutes; I should have said that Donald McKim did so.
Elsie McKee's book is entitled, The Pastoral Ministry and Worship in Calvin’s Geneva (Geneva: Droz, 2016).