1 Corinthians – The Two Cities

Contesting Languages: Tongues vs. Multilingualism with Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu (Podcast)

Dec 14, 2022

In this episode we discuss whether “tongues” in 1 Corinthians refer to ecstatic and unintelligible speech, or whether they refer to multilingualism. For this conversation we’re joined by Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu, who is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Portland Seminary and George Fox University, and the author of the new book that we’re discussing on this episode, Contesting Languages: Heteroglossia and the Politics of Language in the Early Church (published by Oxford University Press)....

Gender & The Trinity with Dr. Madison Pierce (Podcast)

Feb 24, 2021

On this episode we discuss various topics related to gender and the Trinity, including: the gendered language about the family of God (i.e. “sons”) and the gendered language for the persons of the Trinity (i.e. Father and Son), the representation of God with maternal imagery in the Bible, and the topic of the Eternal Functional Subordination of the Son (EFS), which is a proxy discussion for a complementarian approach to gender. For this discussion we...

Women in 1 Corinthians with Dr. Lucy Peppiatt (Podcast)

Dec 16, 2020

Carrying on in our conversation on gender, we turn to discuss women in 1 Corinthians with particular attention given to the passage about head coverings in 1 Cor. 11 and women being silent in the church in 1 Cor. 14. In this episode, Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Brandon Hurlbert, and Dr. Logan Williams are joined by Dr. Lucy Peppiatt, who is Principal of Westminster Theological Centre in the UK and author of a number of...

Whiteness in Biblical Scholarship with Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu (Podcast)

Dec 2, 2020

In this episode a group of team members from The Two Cities (Dr. John Anthony Dunne, Grace Emmett, Grace Sangalang Ng, Rev. Daniel Parham, Dr. Chris Porter, Dr. Logan Williams) are joined by Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu, who is Assistant Professor of New Testament at Portland Seminary, to discuss his recent piece published with the Public Theology Network, entitled, “The Stubborn Invisibility of Whiteness in Biblical Scholarship” (Here is the link: https://politicaltheology.com/the-stubborn-invisibility-of-whiteness-in-biblical-scholarship/). Dr. Tupamahu explains that...

The Participatory Anthropology of 1 Corinthians: Reflections on Susan Eastman’s Paul and the Person

Jan 22, 2018

Reading through Susan Eastman’s wonderful little study Paul and the Person over Christmas break has afforded me a chance to re-examine the kind of anthropology Paul takes for granted in his first letter to the Corinthians. The task of reevaluating traditional concepts of anthropology as a whole is enjoying something of a moment in biblical studies (e.g., the Los Angeles Theology Conference just concluded their annual meeting this weekend covering the theme of Theological Anthropology)....

Send Them Well

Dec 19, 2012

A few weeks ago my wife and I were officially appointed as missionaries for a sending agency based out of Orlando Florida. For many, being accepted by a mission agency represents an important milestone on the path to the mission field. In our case, this moment was exciting but it was not the most significant event on the path to the mission field. That designation belongs to my home church in Parker Colorado, where I...

Women Be Silent in Church! …Uhm, Did Paul Actually Write 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36?

Mar 20, 2012

What I want to discuss here is controversial. Additionally, what I want to address is not novel. Here is the thought I’d like to ‘think aloud,’ so to speak, in the provocative world of the blogosphere: Is 1 Corinthians 14:33b-36 original? I should say up front that my focus is not on Complementarianism vs. Egalitarianism per se. There are Egalitarians and Complementarians who take 1 Cor 14.33b-36 to be original, yet each have different interpretations about...

“Karl Barth is Evil”: The Strong and the Weak

Oct 17, 2011

In the undergraduate class I am teaching this semester, one of the research assignments students can choose is an analysis of the Barth and Bultmann debate over the nature of Jesus’ resurrection. One student who chose this assignment later changed their mind; this person sent me an email asking if it would be possible change to another assignment because, they asked rhetorically, “Isn’t Karl Barth heretical?” In fact, this person went so far as to...

Memphis Church Hosts Ramadan

Aug 22, 2011

In an interesting story made more intriguing by its setting, last year a church in the Bible belt joyfully agreed to host Ramadan. The Memphis Islamic Center was closed for renovations, sending the leaders of the mosque looking for an alternate venue with relatively little notice. Having a hard time finding a place that could host nightly prayer events during the month-long festival, Muslim leaders turned to their next-door neighbor, Heartsong Church. They asked pastor...