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Does the Church Have a Future?

To hear the podcast (20 min.) click here.

Dr. Pablo Deiros gave a lecture at the Lanier Theological Library to an audience of about 300 people in April 2024.  He lectured in his heart language, Spanish, the heart language of a growing number of people in the United States. 

Every year the Lanier Theological Library sponsors a lecture in Spanish.  Pablo stopped by the library to talk with David Capes for this episode of the Stone Chapel Podcasts.

Who is Pablo Deiros?

Pablo was born in Paraguay to medial missionaries who were from Argentina.  Today he makes his home in Argentina. 

He has served as a pastor for fifty years.  He has also taught and written books, mainly about the history of the church. 

You can find some of his books at the Lanier Theological Library in the Spanish collection.  For a time he taught at Fuller Seminary in California.

Does the Church Have a Future?

The topic of Dr. Deiros’s lecture at the Lanier Library was the church in the 21st century.  His focus was on Latin America and Hispanic churches in America. 

However, the principles he shared are important for other parts of the world and church too.

Deiros believes we need to rethink the whole idea of church and how we “do” church.  There must be a new orientation to ministry. 

Not so much pastor-centered and denominational.  But with a greater sense of “the priesthood of all believers.” 

This was a Reformation focus that got lost in Christendom.  This means relying less on a professional clergy and relying more on training every gifted person. 

Or everyone, because everyone has a ministry gift.  And this means a greater emphasis on the gifts and power of the Spirit.  There is a lot more here, so just take a listen!

Resources

 To watch the video of Dr. Deiros’ lecture in Spanish click here.

Here’s a link to LTL’s Spanish lecture in 2023, click here.

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here

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How We Got the New Testament

To hear the podcast (20 min.) click here.

One of the questions I often get is “How did we get our Bible?”  As you’re going to hear on this podcast, there is not a quick, easy answer. 

It’s an important historical question that had a few questions marks around it.  Dr. Lee McDonald has given a lifetime to the question and has authored more than a dozen books on the topic.  You can find a link to some of those down below.

Dr. McDonald joined David Capes on the Stone Chapel Podcasts to talk about this question.

Who Is Lee McDonald?

Lee McDonald earned his PhD at the University of Edinburgh.  Prior to that he earned his masters at Harvard. 

Today he is retired.  But he spent many years as professor of New Testament Studies and President of Acadia Divinity College in Nova Scotia. 

He has written a number of books on the canon of the Bible.  See the notes below for some of those.  In retirement he lives in southern California. 

How We Got Our New Testament

McDonald is interested in the question of how we got our Bible.  But this podcast deals only with part two of the Bible, the New Testament. 

The issues are challenging.  We have minimal historical sources that discuss the canon.  The presence of manuscripts themselves help us somewhat. 

Canon is a technical term for the list of inspired books referred to today as the New Testament.  There are historical forces and factors that led to the development of the canon. 

Capes and McDonald outline a few of these in the podcast.   But there are also theological factors and concerns at the same time.  Geographically, the church was scattered.  So, practices in Ethiopia were different than those in Italy. 

Early Christians were a very bookish people.  They wrote a lot of books.  I suppose you could say they also read a lot of books. Some of those books were included in the canon, but many were excluded.  In this podcast Capes and McDonald discuss the criteria for apostolic authorship. 

Resources

Click here for a transcript of today’s podcast.

A key book on the question which he wrote with interested lay people in mind:

Formation of the Bible: The Story of the Church’s Canon (Hendrickson, 2012).

A bit more technical is:

The Biblical Canon: Its Origin, Transmission, and Authority (Baker Academic, 2006)

To see a lecture by Dr. Lee McDonald at the Lanier Theological Library click here.

More Resources

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here

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The Letter to the Hebrews with Amy Peeler

To hear the podcast (20 min.) click here.

Amy Peeler has been with us before on The Stone Chapel Podcasts.  Her first podcast has two parts and she talked about her book Women and the Gender of God.

There is a link in the show notes below to find those two podcasts.  She joins David Capes today on the podcast to discuss her new commentary on the letter to the Hebrews.

Who Is Amy Peeler?

Amy Peeler is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies at Wheaton College. The former holder of that chair was Dr. Doug Moo. 

She earned her PhD at Princeton Theological Seminary and today is ordained as a priest in the Anglican Church.  She serves as associate rector of St. Mark’s Episcopal church in Geneva, IL.

The Letter to the Hebrews

For all practical purposes the letter to the Hebrews is one of the most complicated and robust of biblical books. 

It has attracted Dr. Peeler’s attention since grad school.  She loves it, first, because of its heavy engagement with the Scriptures of Israel.  She also loves it as a historian because of the way you can see Greek influences in the book.

We call it a letter today.  It also has the overtones of a sermon and deep encouragement to a community under stress.

The commentary is part of a new series on Spiritual Formation.  For Dr. Peeler the essential questions are: (1) who is God as revealed in Hebrews? (2) how are we to live in the light of this revelation? (3) how does reading this book change your life? 

Joshua Jipp, professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Chicago, said on social media that this is his all time favorite commentary.  High praise, indeed! 

So if you want to know more about the letter to the Hebrews, listen to this podcast first.  Then find Dr. Peeler’s book.

Resources

For a link to Part 1 of her earlier podcast click here.

Part 2 can be found by clicking here.

For a link to her book, Hebrews in the Series Commentary for Christian Formation (Eerdmans 2024), click here.

For a link to her book, Women and the Gender of God (Eerdmans 2022), click here.  

Want more Stone Chapel Podcasts on some great topics? Just click here.

You can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library by clicking here

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Elevation to Apostolic Status with John Dickson: Philippians

To hear the podcast (13 minutes) click here.

In the first lines of Paul’s letter to the Philippian church he says he is praying in joy because of their “partnership in the gospel” (NIV). From the end of the same letter we learn what this means (material support of Paul’s mission) and its implications. Rev. Dr. John Dickson is Jean Kvamme Distinguished Professor of Biblical Studies and Public Christianity at Wheaton College. He previously taught at Macquarie University, University of Sydney, and Ridley Theological College, Melbourne. Since 2015 he has held the research position of Visiting Academic in the Faculty of Classics at the University of Oxford. His many publications include Mission-Commitment in Ancient Judaism and in the Pauline Communities: the shape, extent and background of early Christian mission.

Check out related programs at Wheaton College:

B.A. in Classical Languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew): https://bit.ly/3JPabE2 

M.A. in Biblical Exegesis: https://bit.ly/44B8iEp 

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Ignatius and John on the Spirit

To hear the podcast (10 minutes) click here.

The Church Father, Ignatius (likely died within the first two decades of the 2nd century), in his Letter to the Philadelphians, uses wording that suggests dependence on the Gospel of John (likely written in the last decade of the 1st century), and also reveals something of Ignatius’ own dependence on the Spirit in his preaching. Dr. Jonathon Lookadoo is Assistant Professor at Presbyterian University and Theological Seminary, Seoul, South Korea. His publications include The Epistle of Barnabas: A Commentary (Apostolic Fathers Commentary Series) and The Christology of Ignatius of Antioch (Studies in Early Christology, ed. Michael Bird, David Capes, and Scott Harrower).

Check out related programs at Wheaton College:

B.A. in Classical Languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew): https://bit.ly/3Wc2vms

M.A. in Biblical Exegesis: https://bit.ly/3JRocRx