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Am I Just My Brain? with Sharon Dirckx

To hear the podcast (22 minutes), click here.

Am I Just My Brain? (2019) is a book by Sharon Dirckx dealing with an ancient and modern question.  Are we more than our brains? 

Are humans self-aware only because of neuro-chemical reactions or electrical activity or are we something more?

Dr. Dirckx lives in Oxford with her husband and two children.  She is a speaker, author, and adjunct lecturer for OCCA (The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics). 

She earned her PhD in brain imaging at Cambridge University and spent more than a decade researching brain function. 

She joins David Capes on “The Stone Chapel Podcasts” to talk about her book and to summarize her upcoming lecture.

To see and hear the lecture that took place in fall 2022, click here. 

The question of human identity is an ancient one, but it is one that fascinates modern minds as well. 

At the heart of it is a question: what exactly is a human being?  Are we advanced apes? Are we machines?  Are we brains on sticks?

In fact, we can address those questions without having to leave the realm of neuroscience.  But we are more than our brains.


We have a brain.  But we also have a mind.  We have thoughts, feelings, and memories and a sense of self that appears unique in the world. 

Human consciousness remains a mystery but there are aspects of it that neuroscience can address. 

Dr. Capes and Dr. Dirckx talk about human experience, functional MRIs, data analysis, the question of soul and consciousness among animals, and the data sets from near death experiences.  

If you want more information about Dr. Sharon Dirckx as a speaker and author follow her on Twitter @sharondirckx or you can email her at sharon@dirckx.org. 

In an earlier book, Why?, she addressed the question of evil and suffering.  Her next book, entitled Broken Planet, deals with  natural disasters and finding a way through them.

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How to Insult with a Consonant with Cathy McDowell

Dr. Catherine McDowell is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, having previously taught at Wheaton College. She also serves part-time as a professor of Hebrew and Old Testament at Séminaire Théologique Mondelus in Milot, Haiti. With Philip Towner, she authored, The Rewards of Learning Greek and Hebrew: Discovering the Richness of the Bible in Its Original Languages, among other things. How does the knowledge of the Biblical languages contribute to deepened understanding of the Bible, and what are some of its fruits?

To hear the podcast, click here.

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Reefs or Stains, and Other Challenges in Jude with Christian Askeland

Dr. Christian Askeland, Senior Researcher at Museum of the Bible, is interested in the origins and diversity of early Christianity, endeavoring to reconstruct historically the movements from which the relevant texts and manuscripts arose. He has authored John’s Gospel: The Coptic Translations of its Greek Text. Jude 12 poses a series of challenges for the interpreter, including the sorting out of the original wording amidst differing manuscripts (textual criticism).

“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.

If you’re interested in going deeper, learn more about Wheaton’s undergraduate degree in Classical Languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Latin) and our MA in Biblical Exegesis. 

You can hear Exegetically Speaking on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If you have questions or comments, please contact us at exegetically.speaking@wheaton.edu. And keep listening.

To hear the podcast (12 minutes) click here.

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Is the Kingdom Advancing Forcefully or Suffering Violence?

To hear the podcast (9 minutes) click here.

Bradley Trout is a Ph.D. student at North-West University, Potchefstroom, South Africa, and he teaches Greek and Hebrew at George Whitefield College, Cape Town, South Africa. His current research is on the law in Matthew’s gospel within the Greco-Roman milieu. Today’s topic: A key verb in Matt. 11:12 could be taken as passive or middle voice leading to opposing translations, negative and positive. Jesus may be declaring that the kingdom of God is being subjected to violence or that it is forcefully advancing. There are contextual reasons to favor the passive, negative sense.

“Exegetically Speaking” is a weekly podcast of the friends and faculty of Wheaton College, IL and The Lanier Theological Library. Hosted by Dr. David Capes, it features language experts who discuss the importance of learning the biblical languages—Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek—and show how reading the Bible in the original languages “pays off.” Each podcast lasts between seven and eleven minutes and covers a different topic for those who want to read the Bible for all it is worth.

If you’re interested in going deeper, learn more about Wheaton’s undergraduate degree in Classical Languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Latin) and our MA in Biblical Exegesis. 

You can hear Exegetically Speaking on Spotify, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube. If you have questions or comments, please contact us at exegetically.speaking@wheaton.edu. And keep listening. 

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George Whitefield College with Mark Dickson

Mark Dickson, Principal of George Whitefield College

To hear the podcast click here.

George Whitefield College is ably led by its Principal, Mark Dickson.  It is set on the coast in a beautiful part of Africa, not far from Cape Town.  

I had the opportunity to teach a two week intensive, Honours-level course there in fall 2022.  While there, I found time to visit with the Principal.  

Mark Dickson describes George Whitefield as an evangelical Anglican college with a bit of Reformed theology for good measure.  Bottom line: they take the Bible seriously. Since its founding in 1989, it has served as a training ground for clergy members in one denomination.  But it has become clear that their reach must increase to train pastors and teachers from various denominations who want to take the Gospel all across Africa.

There are 1.2 billion people living on the African continent.  That is more than twice the population of North America (USA and Canada).  In addition, there are more Christians in Africa than there are people in the United States.  But few pastors and church leaders have any theological training.  

The biggest challenge now is to “grow their own wood,” that is, raise up from among their student ranks faculty members to perpetuate the mission of the college. 

George Whitefield College offers various degrees accredited in the South African context.  They are also developing more and more online course work so they can reach further north into Africa. 

The president has big designs on a library for a college.  He would like to see a library suitable for the school to offer a PhD.  This means developing their print collection but also their digital collection.  One of the impressive features of the library is that it houses the books of Leon Morris, one of the best known and prolific New Testament scholars in the world.  

If you’d like to know more about George Whitefield College, their website is https://www.gwc.ac.za

Two of their faculty members, Drs. Vuyani Sindo and Nathan Lovell, came to deliver a lecture in the Stone Chapel in November 2021.  To hear that lecture click here. 

For information on upcoming lectures at the library, click here.