Theology

And I think that's getting better over time.

I think even in the last 15 to 20 years that I've been thinking about theology, that I've been studying theology, I think the church has come a long way.

I think the academy has.

has come a long way in thinking about church history better, thinking about interpretation in the pre-modern period better, understanding that allegory, for example, is very complicated and has a complicated history.

Welcome to Christ Overall, a podcast dedicated to helping the church see Christ as Lord and everything else under His feet.

My name is David Schrock, and today I'm introducing Steve Wellum's long-form essay, Reflections on the Law of God in Scripture and Theology.

This essay leads us into our month on the Ten Commandments.

Already, we have had one essay on the Ten Words and their exposition by Moses in Deuteronomy, and another on the relationship between the Ten Commandments and the natural law.

You can do that at ChristOverall.com slash give, or you can follow the link in the show notes.

We are grateful to God for all those who have made this ministry possible, and we are praying for the Lord to continue to fund this work in the days to come.

For now, what we have in store is a new long-form essay by professor, theologian, author, husband, father, grandfather, and friend Stephen Wellam, Reflections on the Law of God in Scripture and Theology.

Reflections on the Law of God in Scripture and Theology.

So you touched upon a, a couple of them, a couple of the points here that are important with parables.

One of them is, uh, that, uh, that f- um, uh, in more recent days, the effort to try to, um, reconcile the Christian church with Judaism has become a, a primary feature of the church and its theology.

And one of the ways that that was done was to try to say that the church really should consider itself an offshoot of Judaism or a sect of Judaism, and that Jesus himself is a rabbi, a rabbinic teacher, uh, and, and that is what makes him Jewish.

By the way, that is Not actually what makes him Jewish, and Jesus definitely and certainly, uh, was and, uh, is, uh, Jewish

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For information on the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, go to sbts.edu. For information on Boyce College, just go to boycecollege.com. I'll meet you again tomorrow for "The Briefing." [upbeat music]

I am your host, Kyle Keimer, and today we're going to be talking with Elizabeth Backfish and Cynthia Schaefer Elliott about their new book, newish book.

It didn't get to it as quickly as it wanted, but it just came out last year, Grounded Theology in the Hebrew Bible, Exploring the Cultural Context that Formed Ancient Israel.

And Libby is Associate Professor of Biblical Studies at Jessup University in California and specializes in Hebrew poetry, book of Psalms, textual criticism.

And Cynthia is associate professor of Hebrew Bible and Old Testament in the Department of Religion at Baylor University.

And so when we think of the archaeology, and the archaeology is representative of that diversity that you do see in the text.

And I think when we think of northern Israel versus Judah in the south, or if we think about people who live in more city-type environments or people who live in rural environments, people who come from elite backgrounds versus more peasant backgrounds, men or women, young or old, Just like we have today, we have a plurality of voices and experiences, and there's going to be some continuity, but I also think it's the differences that are quite fascinating and interesting.

Let me come back to the title of the book, Grounded Theology.

Can you unpack for the listeners what exactly you mean by this? Because it's, I mean, obviously it's not only a title, but it's a thread that runs through and you've already hinted a little bit at what you're doing here with the book, but just unpack it a bit more for the listeners.

We are joined today by Dr. Shively Smith to talk about crucifixion and lynching, about hermeneutics, womanism, and Howard Thurman, all topics covered in Dr. Smith's new book,

Reverend Dr. Shively T.J. Smith serves as Associate Professor of New Testament at Boston University School of Theology in Boston, Massachusetts.

As a scholar of New Testament, Smith writes and teaches on all 27 books of the New Testament, but her particular focus is on the traditions of Peter and the general letters of the New Testament, diaspora studies, approaches to biblical interpretation, i.e. hermeneutics.

Womanist and African American Biblical Interpretation, and Howard Thurman.

to religious congregation in the United States.

He founded that in San Francisco, California in 1944.

And just 11 years later, he comes to Boston University to become dean of the historic Marsh Chapel and professor of spiritual and religious disciplines and theology here at the School of Theology.

to become the first African American to become a dean at a predominantly white university, 1953.

Is George Bush.

[laughs] Is Joseph Smith in a 65-day working translation, no notes, head in the hat, producing a text that is insanely intricate with hundreds of proper names, a non-linear storyline, an interwoven narrative of different peoples, struggles of good and evil, righteousness and impurity, and then you have prophecy, you have theology, you have doctrinal implications, as well as ample complex storylines.

You're weaving in Hebraic wordplay, Hebraic poetry styles, Hebraic legal systems.

You're using Hebrew names.

I wanted to talk about the series that you've written and why you wanted to write it.

So it's called Toddler Theology.

I have one of her books here.

I know not everybody lis- or watches, but I'm holding it up.