Since today is Harry Potter’s birthday (#HBDHP) I thought that I’d invite you all to consider joining us in October for the annual academic Harry Potter Conference at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. Due to COVID-19, the conference will be held virtually this year. This is a genuine bummer because there are so many fun festivities that take place in Chestnut Hill over the weekend that I so look forward to like a massive cosplay...
In this episode Amber Bowen and John Anthony Dunne are joined by Dr. Aaron Griffith (Th.D., M.Div., Duke Divinity), who is currently Assistant Professor of History at Sattler College (Boston, MA), to discuss his upcoming book God’s Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020). Over the course of our conversation we discuss the history of the evangelical posture towards criminal punishment, the way that the criminal...
Continuing our conversation on Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory (CRT), we conclude our series with some ecclesial reflections as it pertains to pastoral concerns and the nature of Christian engagement with CRT. Along the way we talk about what it means to be a Christian peacemaker, whether evangelical quest for political power is an objective good worth pursuing, and if the Bible contains hegemonic discourse. This episode, which builds upon the previous episodes with...
Following up on our previous conversation on Critical Theory from last week (“Understanding Critical Theory with Dr. Scott Coley”), in this episode Amber Bowen, John Anthony Dunne, and Logan Williams are joined by ethicist and political theologian, Dr. Matthew Arbo, who is Associate Professor of Theological Studies at Oklahoma Baptist University. Over the course of our conversation we explore the ethics of Critical Theory (and Critical Race Theory), noting its relationship to ideologies such as...
In this episode, Amber Bowen and John Anthony Dunne discuss Critical Theory with special guest Dr. Scott Coley, who is Lecturer in Philosophy and Director of the Global Encounters program at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland. Over the course of the conversation we address the history and origin of Critical Theory, including its chief aim to upend Modernity’s conviction that empirical science is the ultimate arbiter of truth, splitting apart all statements into...
During much of quarantine I was helping to co-run an “Equipping Hour” class at my church (our version of Adult Sunday School). The class was called “The Gospel According to Oscar,” which I co-led with my good friend J. D. O’Brien, a filmmaker, documentarian, and videographer (check out his documentary about homelessness in Minneapolis called Out in the Cold on Amazon Prime). This class was sort of a follow-up to one that we did last...
There are many ongoing debates about “Black Lives Matter” v. “All Lives Matter,” though it does seem that, broadly-speaking, people have been coming around to recognizing what the slogan “Black Lives Matter” truly means, and why it’s crucial that we all affirm it without qualification. Yet, some disputes obviously persist. As a possible way forward, we discuss the topic of Transcultural Identity. Transcultural Identity is about the ways in which our identities are sometimes not...
Last week, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled 5–4 against President Trump’s attempt to repeal former President Obama’s executive order on Immigration, known as DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). In this episode, John Anthony Dunne and Rev. Daniel Parham are joined by Jon Garcia, a PhD student in Religion at USC. Over the course of our conversation we talk about the implications of this ruling, President Trump’s possible determination to try...
One of the few widely shared sporting events many of us have been able to experience together during the “Covid Exile” has been ESPN’s “The Last Dance”—the uber-entertaining docuseries set to a masterful, boom bap 90’s soundtrack, offering an insider’s look back at the greatest team in history, led by its greatest player, Michael Jordan. So yes, contrary to the click-bait title, I am not arguing that Kobe was better than MJ on the court....
Our newsfeeds are inundated with memes and videos promoting all sorts of ideological perspectives, and much of that is curated by the networks that we choose to incorporate into the spheres of our respective social media accounts. As a result, it’s easy to create insular and isolated social bubbles that keep us from understanding where others outside those bubbles are coming from, or from knowing what’s truly going on in the world. In this episode,...
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