Christians who feel uneasy with tricky texts in Scripture have something to learn from Jewish Bible readers. Jews actually seek out challenges in the Bible, because they believe these are God’s invitation to develop and use wisdom.
In this episode, Dru Johnson interviews Rabbi Dr. Ari Lamm, a “historian of religion who is interested in the role of religion, religious values, and tradition in shaping the global moral discourse.” His Orthodox Jewish upbringing taught him to embrace the view of the Hebrew Bible as layered, complex, and challenging—for, the very idea of God suggests that He has complex and layered ideas to communicate with His creation. Dr. Lamm encourages Christians to be similarly comfortable with questioning biblical stories on a deeper level.
Don’t forget to check out Dr. Lamm’s podcast Good Faith Effort, where he “speaks with thinkers, writers, artists, and faith leaders to explore how the Bible continues to inform our lives today, from politics to psychology to pop culture, bringing Americans of different traditions and persuasions closer together as so much else threatens to pull us apart.”
Show notes:
Show notes by Serena Tuomi
Credits for the music used in TBM podcast can be found at: hebraicthought.org/credits.
Rituals Teach: Why We Can’t Ignore Leviticus (Mark Scarlata)
Update: Now Accepting Questions for Upcoming Q&A Episodes!
What Can Non-Jewish Clergy Learn from Jewish Studies? (Jeff Jacoby)
The Sexual Reformation: What Does the Bible Actually Say about Gender? (Aimee Byrd)
A Look Back at Rethinking ’Quiet Time’ (Jen Wilkin)
Beyond Bible Study: From Consumers to Participants (Caroline Smiley and Kyle Worley)
What Do Rituals ’Do,’ and What Makes a Ritual Sacred? (Ben Noonan)
The True Causes and Purposes of Religious Doubt (Matthew LaPine)
Love Enemies Better through Knowing the Biblical Land (Danielle Parish)
Still Trying to Find Yourself? Try Losing It First (Alan Noble)
The Church Needs African Hermeneutics (Liz Mburu)
The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America (Aaron Griffith)
Extreme Violence, Nahum, and Reconciliation in the Congo (Jacob Onyumbe Wenyi)
What Biblical Racial Reconciliation Actually Looks Like (Anthony Bradley)
The Torah Is Not a Law Book (Jerry Unterman)
No One Asks for Forgiveness in the Bible? (Joshua Berman)
African Americans Understood Paul‘s Words While Slave Owners Twisted Them (Lisa Bowens)
What Are Sermons for, and How Can They Be Improved? (Jonathan Pennington)
Three Grinches in a Pod: Complicating Christmas
Toward an Integrated Liturgy of Work and Worship (Matthew Kaemingk)
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