#79. John Dear in conversation with scripture scholar and author Wes Howard-Brook: "We're faced with the choice between the religion of empire or the religion of creation."
About this episode
Fr. John Dear discusses biblical literacy and the choice between the religion of creation and the religion of empire with scripture scholar Wes Howard-Brook.
On today’s new episode of “The Nonviolent Jesus Podcast,” I speak with my friend scripture scholar Wes Howard-Brook, author of several great books, including his commentary on the Gospel of John, Becoming Children of God. He also has a free YouTube channel “The Radical Bible,” his study of the Bible as a whole called, Come Out My People!: God’s Call out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond . He also just published a smaller, more accessible version of it called: Creation or Empire: A Choice of Religions in the Bible and Beyond. He tells us: "The Bible is not a bunch of rules or a bunch of pull quotes." “Most Christians treat the Bible like someone who's been on a one-week tourist trip with a bad tour guide, which is to say, they've gotten a superficial overview and had it interpreted wrongly, and then concluded, ‘Why would I want to go there again?’ he says . “The heart of my work is trying to re-establish a passion for biblical literacy, because as all indigenous cultures know, as a people, you are the stories that carry you forward. “The Bible is a set of narratives, poems, proverbs, and other texts that were written by our Israelite and Judean ancestors to get their children to…
People in this episode
Host: Fr. John Dear
Guest: Wes Howard-Brook
Topics covered
- biblical literacy
- religion of creation
- religion of empire
- scripture scholarship
- Christianity
- interpretation of the Bible
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Becoming Children of God, Come Out My People!: God’s Call out of Empire in the Bible and Beyond, Creation or Empire: A Choice of Religions in the Bible and Beyond
Places: Jerusalem
More episodes of The Nonviolent Jesus
- #81. John Dear with scholar, author and international leader in racial healing Dr. Catherine Meeks: "The culture in the US reinforces the notion that people of color are inferior to white people."
- #80. John Dear in conversation with author and theologian Fr. Ron Rolheiser: " In my lifetime I've never lived through darker days."
- #78. John Dear with theologian/author/activist Lisa Sharon Harper: "We were three floors below ground, it was hot and the walls and floor were covered with roaches."
- #77 John Dear in conversation with Zoughbi Zoughbi of Bethlehem, Palestine: "The West Bank is a prison, Gaza is a concentration camp."
- #76 John Dear with Mel Duncan, co-founder of Nonviolent Peaceforce about his work all over the world, more recently in Palestine and St. Paul, MN: "Organized nonviolence led to ICE leaving Minneapolis."
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