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The State of Evangelicalism (USA) with Ed Stetzer

To hear the podcast (18 minutes) click here.

Ed Stetzer and David Capes were colleagues for a time at Wheaton College.  They enjoyed a good working relationship.

Dr. Stetzer is a missiologist, which means he knows the history of Christian missions and the current state of culture, especially in America. 

He joins David Capes on The Stone Chapel Podcasts to talk about the state of evangelicalism in the USA.

Who is Ed Stetzer? 

For eight years he was the Billy Graham Distinguished Chair of Church, Mission, and Evangelism at Wheaton College. And the Executive Director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College. 

In July 2023 he became the Dean of Talbot School of Theology. 

Dr. Stetzer is a prolific writer, popular speaker, church planter and missiologist.

He gave a lecture for the Lanier Library lecture series, “The Stone Chapel Lectures,” in November 2023.  See the link below. 

Ed hosts a weekly podcast, The Stetzer ChurchLeaders Podcast.  For a link to his podcast click here.

He also hosts a weekly radio program that airs on 250 stations entitled (cleverly) Ed Stetzer Live.  For more information about that show on Moody Radio click here.

Dr. Stetzer has a national platform, but beyond that he is the North American Regional Director of Lausanne International. 

You can follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @edstetzer.

The State of Evangelicalism (USA)

In this episode of the podcast David and Ed Stetzer discuss the current situation facing evangelicalism, particularly in North America. 

Ed studies culture and knows most of the key players in the evangelical tradition. 

So he is in a unique position to have his finger on the pulse of evangelical life in North America. 

He and his wife, Donna, were residents in fall 2022 at Yarnton Manor while Ed taught courses for Wycliffe Hall.  As many of you know, Yarnton Manor is a new project of the Lanier Foundation. 

More Resources

For a link to an earlier podcast on the Stone Chapel with Stetzer click here.

To view Stetzer’s lecture at the Lanier Theological Library on the topic of the future of Evangelicalism, click here.

Click here for a link to Mark Lanier’s interview of Ed Stetzer for Biblical Literacy.

You can find a transcript of this podcast 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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Maternal Paul, with Amy Peeler

To hear the podcast (8 min) click here.

In Gal. 1:16 Paul uses the arrestive phrasing that God had revealed his Son “in me.” Taken together with other expressions used by Paul in Galatians, it looks as if one of the ways Paul thought of the gospel was through a pregnancy/maternal metaphor. Amy Peeler is the Kenneth T. Wessner Chair of Biblical Studies Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College. One of her most recent publications is Women and the Gender of God and she is presently working on Paul’s Letter to the Galatians.

Check out related programs at Wheaton College:

B.A. in Classical Languages (Greek, Latin, Hebrew): https://bit.ly/48pRa5t

M.A. in Biblical Exegesis: 

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The Gender of God, Part 1, with Amy Peeler

To hear the podcast (18 min) click here. 

There is a lot of talk about gender today.  Some people introduce themselves along with their pronouns (in my case: he, him).  The pronouns give you a sense of how people understand their genders.  According to some websites, there are over fifty genders.

Well, what does this focus on gender have to do with God?  Does God have a gender too? 

In the Bible, the pronouns of God are rendered masculine because it does reflect the original languages of the Scriptures: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.  But does God really have a gender?

In this podcast we explore the concept of “The Gender of God.”  This is part one of the podcast.  Our special guest is Dr. Amy Peeler. 

Who Is Amy Peeler?

Amy Peeler is an Associate Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College.  She has been in that position twelve years.  Dr. Peeler is well known as a wonderful researcher and writer. 

Amy has spent a good deal of time writing about the book of Hebrews.  She is also a minister at an Episcopal Church near Wheaton, IL.  

Recently she wrote a book entitled Women and the Gender of God.  It has attracted a lot of attention.  She hopes to help women find a more meaningful place in the Church today.

The Gender of God

The audio for this podcast is taken from a radio show co-hosted by David Capes called A Show of Faith on AM 1070 The Answer Houston. 

On this show are David and two co-hosts Father Mario Arroyo, Catholic priest, at St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church in Houston, and Rudy Kong, a millennial theology student who works in the space industry. 

This episode is focused on the book written by Dr. Peeler which deals with the question of gender as it relates to God. 

She dives deeply into the Christian tradition, across the ages, in order to construct a productive way toward thinking about God. 

Is God male or is God genderless?  Might God be beyond gender?  Is God the fullness of  both genders? 

In this podcast Father Mario mentions another book by Abigail Favale, The Genesis of Gender  Published by Ignatius Press, 2022.  It is written from the Catholic perspective.  Both books seem like marvelous studies of the topic. 

Stay tuned for Part Two next week!

More Resources

The weekly radio show A Show of Faith”has its own podcast on Spotify.  Click here to access it.  It presents the whole hour radio show, unedited, with commercials and “bump” music.

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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No Inn in Which to Have No Room, with Ben Witherington III

Dr. Ben Witherington III argues passionately against burnishing the nativity stories of Luke and Matthew with unfounded speculation and mistranslations. He gives particular attention to the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2:7. Prof. Witherington is the Jean R. Amos Professor of New Testament for Doctoral Studies at Asbury Theological Seminary and is an emeritus professor of New Testament at St. Andrews University, Scotland. He has published widely including commentaries on every book of the New Testament. Two of his books won the Christianity Today annual top biblical studies book award: The Jesus Quest: The Third Search for the Jew of Nazareth and The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus. His Biblical Theology; The Convergence of the Canon (Cambridge) won the Prose Prize National Book of the Year award in 2020 for books in religion and philosophy.

To hear the podcast (12 min) click here.

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Lord Jesus Christ, with Dan Treier

To hear the podcast click here.

Recently, David Capes was on the campus of Wheaton College in Wheaton IL.  He had the chance to sit down with Dr. Dan Treier, head of the PhD program in Biblical and Theological Studies at Wheaton College. 

Dr. Treier has written a terrific new book entitled Lord Jesus Christ in a new series by Zondervan Academic. The series is called New Studies in Dogmatics. We welcome Dan for his first appearance on The Stone Chapel Podcasts.

Who Is Dan Treier? 

Dan Treier grew up on a farm in Ohio and memorized thirteen books of the Bible in his teenage years.  Not little books mind you.  But big ones like Romans, John, Matthew and 1 Corinthians.  Dan confesses that this one discipline has been formative in his life. 

His did his PhD under Kevin VanHoozer at Trinity Evangelical Theological Seminary in Deerfield IL.  For twenty-three years he has taught Theology at Wheaton College.  He’s the author of other books, which you can find under “More Resources” below. 

Lord Jesus Christ

Like any good book, this one has been in process for several years.  It is a contemporary, reformed reading of biblical Christology. 

So Dan begins with exegesis.  He selects ten of the most important passages for Christology in the New Testament. He reads them through the church fathers, the reformation, and theological insights of the church. 

Dan writes this book for pastors, students, and anyone interested in understanding how we arrived at the Orthodox Christology of Nicea and beyond. 

Though Dan did not hear much emphasis on Christology in preaching in his early years, he is convinced that Christology is very “preachable.” 

He is concerned that many evangelical churches today have a deficient understanding of Jesus’ person and work.  When that is lacking, so many other aspects of Christian faith will be lacking as well. 

Scholars review Lord Jesus Christ

Here is what Daniel Hill of Truett Seminary, Baylor University, has to say about Dr. Treier’s book:

“Christian theology, if it is worth anything at all, must continually return to the scandalous claim that Jesus Christ is Lord. Daniel J. Treier’s Lord Jesus Christ is an outstanding and illuminating examination of Christology in light of Holy Scripture’s dramatic arc from God’s life in himself to creation’s eschatological communion with God.

Rooted in a series of characteristically brilliant theological expositions of the names of Christ, this is a book you will find yourself reading and rereading to great benefit. It is a book that will drive you to the text of Holy Writ to hear anew its affirmation of the risen Lord. One would expect nothing less from a theologian of his caliber.”

More Resources

Click here for a transcript of this podcast.

See Dan’s award winning (2020) book Introducing Evangelical Theology.

With Dr. David Lauber Dan wrote Trinitarian Theology for the Church: Scripture, Community, Worship

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.