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The Surprising Rebirth of Belief with Justin Brierley

Justin Brierley, a broadcaster, author, and speaker, will join us September 22, 2023 at 7.00 pm in the Stone Chapel. He will offer a talk on his book, The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God. The subtitle of the book is actually the big idea of the book: Why New Atheism Grew Old and Secular Thinkers Are Considering Christianity Again. 

Who is Justin Brierley? 

Justin lives in London.  For decades he has been hosting conversations between atheists and believers on his popular show, The Unbelieveable Show.  His show has been at the cutting edge of what is happening in culture. 

A few years ago, he had Mark Lanier as a guest on his show, and he recently came into our Houston orbit.  He is an amazing thinker, a gifted communicator, and hospitable host for people with differing worldviews.

To hear the podcast click here.

About Brierley’s first book

After hosting his show for ten years, he wrote his first book: Unbelievable: Why After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists I’m Still a Christian.  He shares some of that story here, in this podcast.

Here is what Philip Yancey has said of Justin’s upcoming book:

“[T]his wide-ranging and stimulating book sounds a hopeful note… a fearless engagement with the most daunting issues of our time.”

And John Lennox:

“Eminently readable… Brierley has done us a huge service… This is a first-rate book: get it, read it, and give it to others.”

The Surprising Rebirth of Belief podcast

This is a great podcast, one you will not want to miss.  He is addressing very pressing issues of our time. 

More Resources including The Surprising Rebirth of Belief book

For a link to his first book click here: Unbelievable: Why After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists I’m Still a Christian.

 For a link to his newest book (2023) click here: The Surprising Rebirth of Belief in God: Why New Atheism Grew Old and Secular Thinkers Are Considering Christianity Again.

To hear the podcast click here.

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The Visual Museum of Women in Christian Art

Sandra Glahn

Lynn Cohick and Sandra Glahn recently joined David Capes on The Stone Chapel Podcasts to talk about a new initiative and project, The Visual Museum.

Dr. Lynn Cohick is Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Director of the Houston Theological Seminary at Houston Christian University.  Dr. Sandra Glahn is Professor of Media Arts and Worship at Dallas Theological Seminary.

To hear the podcast click here.

What is the Visual Museum?

This project began with Sandra Glahn taking students to Europe to study medieval art and spirituality.  What she and her students noticed in the artwork were images of women taking on leadership positions in the church. 

Often the written record does not tell much about this, but the art does.  It is a lost part of the church’s history. 

So, Sandra, Lynn and her team have created a website to tell that part of the story.  You can find it in Beta version at visualmuseum.gallery. 

Lynn Cohick

Women in art and the early Christian church

Not only do you see good quality images of this artwork, you also are introduced to the stories of these remarkable women. 

Not all can be identified, but the art is clear in representing women at high levels of leadership. Now this is true not only in the medieval era; it was evident in earlier centuries as well. 

The Visual Museum is about gathering these images and telling these stories.  Others who are traveling to Europe are taking photographs and doing some research for them. 

Students are researching and writing.  In addition, to learning something of art history, they are learning about their own history.  Make sure you hear the two touching stories at the end.

More Resources

Lynn Cohick (with Amy Brown Hughes), Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries (2017)

Sandra Glahn, Nobody’s Mother: Artemis of the Ephesians in Antiquity and the New Testament (2023)

To hear the podcast click here.

For a transcript of this podcast, click here.

More resources

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

What’s more, you can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library. Just click here.

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The Sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church with Father Mario Arroyo

Father Mario Arroyo and David Capes have cohosted a radio show in Houston for 15 years.  It is called A Show of Faith on AM 1070 The Answer. 

Father Mario stopped by the Lanier Theological Library and Learning Center to talk with David Capes about the sacraments of the Catholic Church. To hear the podcast (22 minutes) click here.

Who is Mario Arroyo? 

Father Mario Arroyo has been the pastor of St. Cyril of Alexandria Catholic Church in Houston, TX.  He was born in Havanna, Cuba, and immigrated when he was boy to the USA during the Cuban revolution. 

This life-long Catholic grew up in Denver and had a dramatic, life-changing “conversion” at the age of 21. Since then, he has served God in the priesthood.

What are the sacraments? 

Father Mario describes a sacrament as an encounter with the real presence of God.  He emphasizes the notion of “common-union” with Christ.  He describes all the sacraments as God-initiated.

Every church has sacred practices they do.  Many Protestant churches recognize two: the Lord’s Supper (Communion or the Eucharist) and baptism.

Because some want to avoid the word “sacrament,” they use other words like “ordinances.” That’s because Jesus “ordered” his disciples to do these practices. 

So here are the seven sacraments with a one-line description. 

  1. Eucharist—an entering into a common-union with the Lord Jesus; the real presence of Christ is encountered in the bread and wine
  2. Baptism—not our choice of God, but God’s choice of us
  3. Reconciliation—Christ absolves people from their sins
  4. Confirmation—God firming up and fulfilling his children through the gift of the Spirit
  5. Anointing of the Sick—God’s power to carry people through difficult illnesses
  6. Holy Orders—God ordering certain people into his service as bishops, 
  7. Marriage—the couple gives this sacrament to each other, acting as a priest to the other, while the priest simply superintends the ceremony.

There are a lot of great bits of information in this podcast. Be sure to listen to the end and hear Father Mario’s nugget of wisdom. 

To hear the “A Show of Faith” Podcast  on BuzzSprout click here. For a transcript of this podcast, click here.

More resources

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

What’s more, you can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library. Just click here.

To hear the podcast (22 minutes) click here.

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The Dead Sea Scrolls (Part Two) with Timothy Lim

To hear the podcast (22 minutes) click here.

Recently, David Capes was in Edinburgh, Scotland, and had the chance to sit down and talk with Dr. Timothy Lim about the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

This discovery was one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Who Is Timothy Lim?

Timothy Lim is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh.  Born in Canada, Timothy and his family made their home in Scotland during his illustrious career. 

He is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

He loves running, playing tennis, working out, AND he is good guitar player.

What Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Tell Us About the Shape of the Cannon?

One of the many contributions the Dead Sea Scrolls have made is that they give us some insight into the books that made up authoritative scripture.

We’d probably like to think of the Bible as containing the same books, in the same order, and using all the same words for all time.

In fact, the Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate the fluidity of the biblical text at the time of the turn of the millennium from BC to AD, or if you prefer BCE to CE.

It may be good to remember that the Dead Sea Scrolls were the library of a Jewish community contemporaneous to the time of John the Baptizer, Jesus, Peter and Paul.

What Do the Dead Sea Scrolls Tell Us About Biblical Interpretation?

The people of the scrolls had a particular view of the world and that came out in the way they interpreted their biblical books.

Among the books recovered have been biblical commentaries that go by the title pesharim (Hebrew plural). Dr. Lim has done a great deal to illuminate this kind of commentary (pesher is the Hebrew singular). 

It is both a method or approach to Scripture and the results of that method. We find a number of places in the New Testament where writers employed a similar method (though not altogether the same).

To hear the podcast (22 minutes) click here.

Books by Dr. Timothy Lim

Among his many books are:

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2017)

The Formation of the Jewish Canon (Yale University Press, 2012)

The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls (with John Collins, Oxford University Press, 2012)

For a transcript of this podcast, click here.

More resources

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

What’s more, you can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library. Just click here.

Posted on

The Dead Sea Scrolls (Part One) with Timothy Lim

To hear the podcast (18 minutes) click here.

Recently, David Capes was in Edinburgh, Scotland, and had the chance to sit down and talk with Dr. Timothy Lim about the Dead Sea Scrolls. 

This discovery was one of the most important archaeological discoveries of the 20th century.

Who Is Timothy Lim?

Timothy Lim is Professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Edinburgh.  Born in Canada, Timothy and his family made their home in Scotland during his illustrious career. 

He is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the Dead Sea Scrolls.

He loves running, playing tennis, working out, AND he is good guitar player.

What Are the Dead Sea Scrolls?

About seventy years ago, the first of eleven caves was found containing scrolls from the first century BC to the first century AD. 

This is about the time the Jesus movement started. Today, and this is controversial, a 12th cave appears to have been found. More about this on another podcast.

These scrolls are significant in many ways because they give us a window into that period like no other. 

In all, between 800-1000 manuscripts have been discovered.  About twenty-five of those are relatively intact. 

All the rest are fragments.  Scholars have been piecing them together and exploring their significance since the 1950s.

Qumran is the area where these scrolls were found. So, they are sometimes referred to as the Qumran scrolls. 

Both biblical (Old Testament) and non-biblical manuscripts were discovered there. There are many documents we never knew existed. 

Every book of the Hebrew Bible was found except for the book of Esther. There are theories about that. 

In part two of this podcast we explore more about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Books by Dr. Timothy Lim

Among his many books are:

The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction, 2nd edition (Oxford University Press, 2017)

The Formation of the Jewish Canon (Yale University Press, 2012)

The Oxford Handbook of the Dead Sea Scrolls (with John Collins, Oxford University Press, 2012)

For a transcript of this podcast, click here.

To hear the podcast (18 minutes) click here.

More resources

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

What’s more, you can get information on upcoming lectures at Lanier Theological Library. Just click here.