How can Christians stay embedded within our culture while pursuing virtue and rejecting vice, in personal and in public life? Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Stephen Presley, author of Cultural Sanctification: Engaging the World like the Early Church (Eerdman's, 2024), about what the modern church has to learn from Christians of the second and t…

What has God to do with politics? What has the kingdom to do with the cross? And what does it mean to work for a kingdom whose origin lies beyond creation, but whose destiny lies within it? Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Mike Bird, deputy principal and lecturer in theology at Ridley College in Melbourne, Australia, about insights unpack…

What do Christians miss when we extol the cross of Christ (three cheers!), but fail to place emphasize correspondingly the resurrection of Christ, with all its implications for our lives today? How do we turn up the volume on this critical element of the gospel message? Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Tim Patrick (Principal, Bible Colleg…

Sam Fornecker speaks with Paul Miller about his recent book, A Praying Church: Becoming a People of Hope in a Discouraging World (Crossway, 2023). Why does God care if I pray with other Christians? Is a prayer meeting really the best use of my time? What would God do through corporate prayer that He wouldn't do in response to private prayer—or, for…

Sam Fornecker speaks with Rosaria Butterfield, about her most recent book, Five Lies of an Anti-Christian Age (Crossway, 2023). What's the difference between being a Christian in 1992 and 2024? What distinguishes a post-Christian, from an anti-Christian, age? To paraphrase St Paul (Rom. 13:11–14), do we know what time it is? In this conversation, S…

No affirmation more roundly rebuts the modern presumption that humans are merely "brains-on-sticks" than the core Christian confession that, in Jesus, God assumed human nature. To reckon fully with this fact is to enter into "a complex set of practices oriented toward the transformation of one's being and understanding of the world," the learning o…

Sam Fornecker chats with philosopher R.J. Snell about his latest book, Lost in the Chaos: Immanence, Despair, Hope (Angelico, 2023). What have frenzied activists, scheming rationalists, and men in Gandalf garb got in common? Why is each symptomatic of societal despair? And what hope can the Church offer a world no longer pining for the forgiveness …

Sam Fornecker chats with theologian Helen Collins about her recent book, Charismatic Christianity: Introducing Its Theology through the Gifts of the Spirit (Baker Academic, 2023). What is "charismatic Christianity"? What are its signal emphases, its prevailing values, its cardinal foci? How is it to be understood in relation to Pentecostalism, on t…

Sam Fornecker chats with philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek about her book, Doorway to Artistry: Attuning Your Philosophy to Enhance Your Creativity (Wipf & Stock, 2023). The implicit philosophical outlook of the modern world thwarts and damages our humanness, severing us from the "real." Modernity aims to master nature by arrogantly reducing things …

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with C. Kavin Rowe (George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Vice Dean for Faculty, Duke Divinity School). Drawing on Rowe's recent book, Leading Christian Communities (Eerdman's, 2023), this conversation focuses on how the New Testament enables the communities it shapes to envision a…

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with David Gustafson (Chair of Mission and Evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). Drawing on insight's from David's book, Gospel Witness through the Ages (Eerdman's, 2022), this conversation focuses on how Christians can learn to fulfill our charge to "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Tim. 4:5) by learning…

What is gender, how does it relate to sex, and what's love got to do with it? Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Fellipe do Vale, Assistant Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Drawing on do Vale's recent book, Gender as Love: A Theological Account of Human Identity, Embodied Desire, and Our Social W…

Happy Thanksgiving! On this episode, Sam chats with Abigail Hull Whitehouse (a fellow priest in the Diocese of the Carolinas) about the season of Advent that begins this Sunday. Sam and Abigail discuss the meaning of the Advent season, the apocalyptic theology it brings to the fore, and how listeners can "bring Advent home" through spiritual discip…

In this episode, Sam Fornecker chats with Michael Rhodes (Lecturer in Old Testament at Carey Baptist College). Dipping toes into Michael's recent book, Just Discipleship: Biblical Justice in an Unjust World (IVP Academic, 2023), this conversation considers a range of questions: What is justice? Does God care about justice—and if so, why? What does …

Would the discovery of "alien life" overturn the Christian faith? As we gain a clearer picture of the universe — it is estimated that there exist around 400 billion billion potentially habitable planets — it's important that Christians answer with a ready, "Of course not"! Join Sam Fornecker and Andrew Davison, Starbridge Professor of Theology and …

If God is love (1 Jn 4:8, 16), why does the Bible make Him look like a bully? Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Dr. Paul Copan (Pledger Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University) about violence in the Bible: from criminal justice to divine smiting, from cursing psalms to holy war. This conversation draws on Paul's recent boo…

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Dani Treweek, founding director of the Single Minded ministry and adjunct teacher at Moore Theological College, about the Christian vision of singleness. Dani's recent book on the subject—The Meaning of Singleness: Retrieving an Eschatological Vision for the Contemporary Church (IVP Academic, 2023)—assesses the Ch…

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Paul Louis Metzger, professor of Christian theology and theology of culture at Multnomah University and Seminary, about the role of personhood in Christian ethics. This chat focuses on Paul's remarkable book, More than Things: A Personalist Ethics for a Throwaway Culture (IVP Academic, 2023). The "reader's…

Season 3 kicks off with Steve Tong, History Master at Sydney Grammar School in Sydney, Australia. Drawing on Steve's new book, Building the Church of England: The Book of Common Prayer and the Edwardian Reformation (Brill, 2023), this episode looks at how the English Reformers sought to give visible form to the invisible Church, through a gospel-ce…

Join Sam Fornecker, Alice Soulieux-Evans, and Jake Griesel, as the gang draw together many of the key themes and insights that have arisen from the seminal reformation texts studied thus far on the New Parker Society series. The New Parker Society series will return after a hiatus, and The Ridley Institute Podcast will be back, Fall 2023!…

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Brian Rosner (Principal of Ridley College, Melbourne) about how the gospel addresses the collective identity crisis of modern society. Exploring the real-life implications of what scholars call expressive individualism, this conversation looks at how the gospel addresses arguably the most urgent question o…

"Make good men wish [Christianity] were true," wrote Blaise Pascal, "then show them that it is." Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with Chris Watkin, Associate Professor in French Studies at Monash University, about how a robust understanding of the Bible's story equips Christians to follow Pascal's advice. Introducing listeners to the riot of ideas in…

In 1556, imprisoned in London's Tower, two Protestant bishops, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, encouraged one another through smuggled letters as they awaited the day of their demise. Those letters became the basis of a publication in 1556, which spurred on evangelical believers to stick to Christ, even when their life was at stake. Join Sam Forn…

Join Abigail Whitehouse and Sam Fornecker for a conversation with Leah Savas, coauthor with Marvin Olasky of The Story of Abortion in America: A Street-Level History, 1652–2022 (Crossway, 2022). Synthesizing the book's key findings and implications, this conversation equips Christians to (re)integrate reflection on abortion—including its history an…

Sam Fornecker and pastor/apologist Andrew Fellows discuss why "worldliness" is so poorly understood, and weakly challenged, in contemporary Christianity. Drawing on Fellows' recent book, Smuggling Jesus back into the Church: How the Church Became Worldly, and What to Do about It (IVP, 2022), as well as his experience in Christian leadership (includ…

Join Sam and political theorist Michael Lamb, to see how St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 A.D.) helps us to navigate the bleak and cynical political culture of our day. Key to Augustine's approach is the virtue of hope — the virtue that prevents one from veering into the ditches of presumption or despair. Michael Lamb serves as F. M. Kirby Foundatio…

In this episode, Sam speaks with Teresa Morgan, McDonald Agape Professor in New Testament and Early Christianity at Yale Divinity School, about the role of trust in the Christian life. Drawing on insights found in Morgan's most recent monograph, 'This Rich Trust': The New Testament and the Theology of Trust (Oxford University Press, 2022), this cha…

In this latest installment of the New Parker Society, Sam is joined by Jake Griesel and Mark Earngey (Head of Church History at Moore Theological College, Sydney), to discuss selections from the preaching of the English Reformer, Hugh Latimer (c.1487–1555). To follow along with the Sermons on the Cards and the Sermon on the Plough, click here (see …

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with D.C. Schindler, Professor of Metaphysics and Anthropology at the John Paul II Institute in Washington, D.C., about Christianity's gift to the world—the gift of freedom. Drawing on a wealth of insights in Schindler's new book, Retrieving Freedom: The Christian Appropriation of Classical Tradition (Notre Dame, 2022)…

In this episode, Sam is joined by Micheal O'Siadhail, Distinguished Poet in Residence at Union Theological Seminary, to reflect on themes inspired by O'Siadhail's latest collection of poetry, Testament (Baylor University Press, 2022).

Join Sam, Alice, and Jake for a conversation about the English reformer and Marian martyr, John Bradford (1510–1555). In this episode of the New Parker Society series, the team focuses broadly on Bradford's devotional works, homing in especially Bradford's meditations on the Lord's Prayer. Read along here.…

Join Sam, as he sits down with Abigail Favale, professor at the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame, to discuss the ideas, insights, and stories told in her recent book, The Genesis of Gender: A Christian Theory (Ignatius, 2022). Among other things, Sam and Abigail discuss the shape of an authentically Christian femini…

Sam speaks with Simon Gathercole, Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at Cambridge University, on early Christian gospel literature, the theological message uniting the gospels of the New Testament canon, and why The Da Vinci Code is probably not the ideal source for information on Jesus Christ (or, ahem, New Testament scholarship). G…

In this episode, Sam chats with Michael Niebauer about the theology of mission sketched in his provocative recent book, Virtuous Persuasion: A Theology of Christian Mission (Lexham Press, 2022). Drawing on lines of thought developed in Virtuous Persuasion, Sam and Mike survey current models of Christian mission, considering where each breaks down t…

For those desiring to understand Anglican teaching on Holy Communion, one could do worse than turn to the writings of the English reformers themselves. In this episode, Sam Fornecker and Alice Soulieux-Evans revisit the great English reformer, Thomas Cranmer (1489–1556). Having previously examined Cranmer the preacher, this episode considers Cranme…

In this finale of the inaugural season of The Ridley Institute Podcast, Sam talks with Norman Wirzba, Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School. Drawing on themes from Wirzba's forthcoming book, Agrarian Spirit: Cultivating Faith, Community, and the Land (University of Notre Dame Press, 2022), Sam and Norman explore how the cult…

Sam talks with Gracy Olmstead, author of Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind (Sentinel, 2021), about local culture, the American dream, and the challenges and possibilities of living with roots in a transient society.

What would happen if you put Abraham Kuyper in a microwave with Catholic social teaching? Just possibly, something like Jake Meador's most recent book, What Are Christians For? Life Together at the End of the World (IVP, 2022). In this episode, Sam is joined by Jake, editor in chief of Mere Orthodoxy, to discuss a number of issues, ranging from pla…

In this latest installment of the New Parker Society — the first of two on the great English reformer and Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Cranmer — Sam is joined Jake Griesel and Steve Tong to discuss the genre of the sermon. Key to the conversation is Cranmer's role in the construction of the Book of Homilies (1547), and the theological and pasto…

In this episode, Sam chats with speaker, writer, and social critic, Os Guinness. Discussing themes developed in his most recent book, The Great Quest: Invitation to an Examined Life and a Sure Path to Meaning (InterVarsity, 2022), Os and Sam explore big questions about faith, reason, and the meaning of life. In the spirit of great Christian thinker…

In this episode, Sam is joined by Jason Baxter, Associate Professor of Fine Arts and Humanities at Wyoming Catholic College, to discuss the "British Boethius," C.S. Lewis. Unfolding aspects of Jason's recent book, The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind (InterVarsity Academic, 2022), Jason and Sam discuss why Lewis trea…

On this much-anticipated episode, Sam is joined by Fred Sanders, professor of theology in the Torrey Honors College at Biola University. Drawing on insights from Fred’s recent book, Fountain of Salvation: Trinity and Soteriology (Eerdman’s, 2021), Sam and Fred discuss why properly relating the doctrines of the Trinity and salvation can foster enorm…

Join Alice, Jake, and Sam for the third installment of the New Parker Society series. This time, the gang meets to discuss the bishop of Gloucester and of Worcester, John Hooper's 1547 work, A Declaration of Christ and His Office. The late David Steinmetz described Hooper as a "volcano of energy, who shook the indifferent out of their self-satisfac…

On this episode, Sam is joined by David Ford, Regius Professor Emeritus of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, to discuss his recently published The Gospel of John: A Theological Commentary (SPCK/Baker Academic, 2021). Drawing on decades of theological reflection distilled in that book, this conversation brings into focus key aspects of John's…

On this episode, Sam chats with Sam Storms, Lead Pastor at Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City and author of numerous books, including the recently published A Dozen Things God Did With Your Sin (And Three Things He'll Never Do) (Crossway, 2022). Join Sam (and Sam) as they discuss the cross of Christ, the grace of God, and the glorious possibility—fo…

On this episode, Sam is joined by Jasmine Holmes, to discuss her new book, Carved in Ebony: Lessons from the Black Women Who Shape Us (Bethany House, 2021). Drawing on the stories of ten remarkable Black women of mid-nineteenth century American history, Jasmine and Sam discuss what it meant for women like Nannie Helen Burroughs, Frances Ellen Watki…

On this second installment of the New Parker Society series, Sam is joined once again by Alice Soulieux-Evans and Jake Griesel, for the friends' first deep dive into a key work of the Parker Society Library: this week, a work of the English reformer, William Tyndale (c.1494–1536). Tyndale's The Obedience of a Christian Man (1528) remains — second o…

On this episode, Sam is joined by Josh Reeves, Director of the Samford Center for Science and Religion at Samford University. This conversation, building on insights from Reeves' new book, Redeeming Expertise: Scientific Trust and the Future of the Church (Baylor University Press, 2021), explores a variety of related concerns, including the relatio…

On this episode, Sam chats with Ulrich Lehner, William K. Wood Professor of Theology at the University of Notre-Dame, who believes that reason lies at the heart of the good life. Drawing on themes explored in his book, Think Better: Unlocking the Power of Reason (Baker Academic, 2021), Lehner outlines an approach to reasoning that is intimately sha…

Happy Reformation Day! On this episode, Sam is joined by two friends, Alice Soulieux-Evans and Jake Griesel, to discuss the Parker Society Library — a collection of key texts from the English Reformation during the sixteenth-century. In coming episodes, Sam, Alice, and Jake will guide listeners through select works from the Library. But first, the …