Episode: In this episode, Chris Tilling interviews Crispin Fletcher-Louis about his new book, The Divine Heartset: Paul’s Philippians Christ Hymn, Metaphysical Affections, and Civic Virtues (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2023). This work combines keen theological insight with rigorous scholarship to explore one of the most significant questions in Christian theology—the identity of Jesus Christ. Fletcher-Louis takes us on a remarkable journey through Paul’s Christ Hymn in Philippians 2:6–11, engaging with both Greco-Roman literature and Second Temple Jewish texts to craft an entirely new reading of this key text. The book is large, but surprisingly accessible—not to mention daring, filled with one original insight after another.

In our conversation, we delve into Crispin’s background, from his studies at Oxford during the heady days of E. P. Sanders, N. T. Wright, and Rowan Williams, to his teaching roles at Durham, King’s College London, and Nottingham, and his founding of Westminster Theological Centre. Now focused almost entirely on research and writing, Crispin is at the cutting edge of discussions relating to early Christology. We discuss why Philippians 2:6–11 became a thousand-page exploration, the wider textual frame of the letter, and Crispin’s navigation of Paul as a Jewish thinker within the broader Mediterranean world. Topics include Christ as a divine shape-shifter, the metaphysical implications of to einai isa theō, Paul’s innovative reworking of Greco-Roman concepts of divinity and virtue, and much more besides.

Crispin’s book has a dedicated website: www.divineheartset.com. There you can buy a digital copy, find reviews and additional resources, including links to videos in which Crispin summarises the book by chapter and section.

Guest: Dr. Crispin Fletcher-Louis completed his doctoral work on angels in Luke and Acts and has taught at Durham, King’s College London, and Nottingham. As the founder of Westminster Theological Centre and a postgraduate supervisor at the University of Gloucestershire, Crispin has spent decades researching and writing early Christology, publishing numerous important books and essays.

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Episode: Dru and Shai have a wide-ranging conversation about the use of Jewish sages in theology, gratuitous suffering, Jesus's interpretation of Torah, and more on love. Shai Held's work innovatively explores non-romanticized realities of love, including the practicalities and theologies of loving the stranger.

Guest: Rabbi Shai Held is a philosopher, theologian, and Bible scholar, and is President and Dean at the Hadar Institute. He received the prestigious Covenant Award for Excellence in Jewish Education, and has been named multiple times by Newsweek as one of the fifty most influential rabbis in America and by the Jewish Daily Forward as one of the fifty most prominent Jews in the world. Rabbi Held is the author of Abraham Joshua Heschel: The Call of Transcendence (2013), The Heart of Torah, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (2017), and Judaism is About Love (2024) and he is the host of Hadar's newest podcast, Answers WithHeld. (from the Hadar Website).

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Episode: Matt and Dru go on a myth-busting spree of Josianic proportions. The topic? Sacrifice in the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible, and several ways that modern readers "butcher" the subject. Enjoy the host-only back-and-forth discussion of sacrifice, decoding Leviticus, ritual, Girard, law, and more!

Hosts: Matthew Lynch (Ph.D., Emory University) is Associate Professor of Old Testament at Regent College, and is a co-founder of OnScript. He’s the author of Portraying Violence in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge, 2020), Monotheism and Institutions in the Book of Chronicles (Mohr Siebeck, 2014), First Isaiah and the Disappearance of the Gods (Penn State University Press/Eisenbrauns, 2021) and Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God (IVP). Matt is particularly interested in helping students grasp the theological and literary contours of the Old Testament, wrestle through its ethical and historical challenges, and understand its ongoing significance. With Matt Bates, he’s the co-founder of OnScript.

Dru Johnson (Ph.D., University of St Andrews) is the Templeton Senior Research Fellow at Wycliffe Hall, University of Oxford, adjunct professor at Hope College, and the director of the Center for Hebraic Thought. His main area of research has focused on the philosophical and intellectual world of biblical literature. His recent books include What Hath Darwin to Do with Scripture? Comparing Conceptual Worlds of the Bible and Evolution (IVP Academic); Biblical Philosophy: A Hebraic Approach to the Old and New Testaments (Cambridge University Press); Human Rites: The Power of Rituals, Habits, andSacraments (Eerdmans); The Universal Story: Genesis 1–11 (Lexham); Epistemology and Biblical Theology: From the Pentateuch to Mark’s Gospel (Routledge); and Knowledge by Ritual: A Biblical Prolegomenon to Sacramental Theology (Eisenbrauns). More at his website: drujohnson.com. He is an editor for the Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Biblical Criticism monograph series, so you can also send him proposals for monographs!

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Image Attribution: By Illustrator of Henry Davenport Northrop's 'Treasures of the Bible', 1894 - http://www.lavistachurchofchrist.org/Pictures/Treasures%20of%20the%20Bible%20(Moses)/target20a.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6611903