The McKrakenCast
Episodes
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
Part 5 - Scots Confession, History & Theology (final installment)
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
Saturday Sep 10, 2022
This is the 5th and final part in a series of adult education (Sunday School) classes that I taught at St. Charles Presbyterian Church (USA) in the early months of 2020. It provides a fairly thorough discussion of the Scots Confession's history and theology targeted (hopefully, effectively so) at the generally educated churchgoer. Part 5 continues exploring the background of the Scots Confession. It deals with life and times of John Knox, the principal author of the Scots Confession, cover his departure from England in 1554 to avoid the reign of "Bloody Mary" Tudor, his time in Geneva and Frankfurt, his return to Scotland in 1559, and his legacy. It also explores chapters 21 - 25 in the confession itself, addressing topics like the purpose of the sacraments, the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Holy Spirit's work in the sacraments, government and civil authority, and the two gifts given to the church.This is Part 5 in a 5-part series. You can find the series index here. Click here for the blog post corresponding to this episode, and click here to access this content on YouTube.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
Sunday Mar 13, 2022
This is the second of what should be a three part series of adult spiritual formation / education (Sunday School) classes that I'm currently teaching at St. Charles Presbyterian Church (USA), here in March of 2022. The date for this particular recording was March 13, 2022. During this series, I will be leading discussion of the Revised Common Lectionary texts for these Sundays in Lent. Many thanks to my sisters and brothers who joined in the conversation.
This Sunday's readings were:
Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18
Psalm 27
Philippians 3:17-4:1
Luke 13:31-35
You can access these readings here.
We discussed things like:
Abram / Abraham's 318 "trained men" and what he could possibly have to be afraid of
Suzerain treaties
Genesis 15:6 and its influence on the Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)
Depictions of Jesus's relationship with the Pharisees and the place of Jesus-following Pharisees in the early days of what would become Christianity
The apocryphal Lives of the Prophets
Feminine imagery for God / God and gender
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
Reflecting on the Lectionary Texts for the First Sunday in Lent (RCL Year C)
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
Sunday Mar 06, 2022
This is the first of what should be a three part series of adult spiritual formation / education (Sunday School) classes that I'm currently teaching at St. Charles Presbyterian Church (USA), here in March of 2022. The date for this particular recording was March 6, 2022. During this series, I will be leading discussion of the Revised Common Lectionary texts for these Sundays in Lent. Many thanks to my sisters and brothers who joined in the conversation.
This Sunday's readings were:
Deuteronomy 26:1-11
Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16
Romans 10:8b-13
Luke 4:1-13
You can access these readings here.
We discussed things like:
My complicated relationship to the liturgical year and lectionary
Lent, Zwingli, and the origins of the Reformed tradition
How maybe Ash Wednesday should come before Mardi Gras
How we should treat "aliens" / immigrants
How observation of the Sabbath is explained differently in Exodus 20 compared to Deuteronomy 5
How the Jewish and Christian traditions identify God and God's people by telling stories / recounting history
The protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15 and the Reformed tradition's problems with replacement theology / supercessionism
Calling on the name of the Lord and why LORD shows up in all capital letters in the Old Testament
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Saturday Feb 19, 2022
Part 4 - Scots Confession, History & Theology
Saturday Feb 19, 2022
Saturday Feb 19, 2022
This is Part 4 in a series of adult education (Sunday School) classes that I taught at St. Charles Presbyterian Church (USA) in the early months of 2020. It provides a fairly thorough discussion of the Scots Confession's history and theology targeted (hopefully, effectively so) at the generally educated churchgoer. Part 4 continues exploring the background of the Scots Confession. It deals with life and times of John Knox, the principal author of the Scots Confession, from the history of Scotland leading up to his birth to Knox's departure from England in 1554 to avoid the reign of "Bloody Mary" Tudor. It also explores chapters 16 - 20 in the confession itself, addressing topics like the marks of the church, universal salvation, the supersessionism in Reformed ecclesiology, the afterlife, and the authority of Scripture.
This is Part 4 in a 5-part series. You can find the series index here. Click here for the blog post corresponding to this episode, and click here to access this content on YouTube.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Thursday Apr 01, 2021
Part 3 - Scots Confession, History & Theology
Thursday Apr 01, 2021
Thursday Apr 01, 2021
This is Part 3 in a series of adult education (Sunday School) classes that I taught at St. Charles Presbyterian Church (USA) in the early months of 2020. It provides a fairly thorough discussion of the Scots Confession's history and theology targeted (hopefully, effectively so) at the generally educated churchgoer. Part 3 continues exploring the background of the Scots Confession. It deals with John Calvin and the Swiss Reformation, including Calvin's teachings on the knowledge of God, as well as providing a very brief overview of the English Reformation. It also explores chapters 11 - 15 in the confession itself, addressing topics like Christ's intercession at the right hand of the Father, the afterlife, faith, "total depravity," "good" works and merit, and the Christian's ongoing struggle against sin.
This is Part 3 in a 5-part series. You can find the series index here. Click here for the blog post corresponding to this episode, and click here to access this content on YouTube.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Barth's "Göttingen Dogmatics" - §4: Man and His Question
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
Tuesday Jan 26, 2021
The androcentric nature of Barth's language notwithstanding, in this section he addresses the human condition and the "contradiction" at the heart of our existence, as well as reflecting on how it can be that God encounters us in the midst of that contradiction as "the answer to our question" (Diktatsatz).
This is part 5 of a multi-part series. You can find the series index here. Click here for the blog post corresponding to this episode, and click here to access this content on YouTube.
I begin the audio recordings by reading Barth’s Diktatsatz, so I will begin reproducing that here as well. The bold is mine and indicates where I find emphasis:
God's revelation, which is the basis of Christian preaching, is the answer to our question how we can overcome the contradiction in our existence, which we have to view not as our destiny but as our responsible act, and which we know that we cannot overcome. But we know ourselves in this regard only as God makes himself known to us. We would not ask about God had God not already answered us. Because of this, we can neither evade the question about God nor settle it in any sense.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Barth's "Göttingen Dogmatics" - §3: Deus Dixit (“God has spoken”)
Tuesday May 26, 2020
Tuesday May 26, 2020
We return to Barth’s first dogmatics lectures, and to the elaboration of one of his key theological concepts – both in this earlier period as well as throughout his later Church Dogmatics, although there it recedes into the background a bit despite continuing to be of foundational importance: Deus dixit, God has spoken.
This is part 4 of a multi-part series. You can find the series index here. Click here for the blog post corresponding to this episode, and click here to access this content on YouTube.
I begin the audio recordings by reading Barth’s Diktatsatz, so I will begin reproducing that here as well. The bold is mine and indicates where I find emphasis:
Christian preachers dare to speak about God. The permission and requirement to do so can rest only on their adoption of the witness of the prophets and apostles that underlies the church, the witness which is to the effect that God himself has spoken and that for this reason, and with this reference, they too must speak about God. This assumption can arise only because they take it that God’s address is directed to them as well. It means that with fear and trembling they recognize God as the true subject of the biblical witness and their own proclamation.
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I write books. I run a blog. I have a YouTube channel. I teach.
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
The Belhar Confession: An Introduction
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
Thursday Mar 19, 2020
The Belhar Confession is about speaking the gospel in a time of rampant racial oppression. Those currents continue to run strongly in the USA, and the current COVID-19 crisis has only fanned the flames. The PC(USA)’s newest confession has much for us to hear in this moment lest the temporary social distancing necessary for physical help ultimately result in exacerbating white supremacism's harmful social distancing from racial and otherwise minority communities.
The PC(USA) adopted the Belhar Confession as part of its Book of Confessions at the 222nd General Assembly in 2016.
Presbyteries and local congregations were asked to engage with the confession as part of the church’s process of discernment. So in the Fall of 2015, I worked with some of the other leaders of my congregation – St. Charles Presbyterian Church – to organize a four-week adult education series on the confession. It was my job to provide the introductory session, covering Belhar’s background and significance.
I didn’t record that material at the time, but I came across that material again recently and thought that it might be worth sharing. Follow the links above for more resources on Belhar, as well as the text of the confession itself.
Also available in video.
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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.
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.