You have heard that it is said: love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Translations might differ, but what follows comes across well in most translations: Jesus enjoins those hearing the Sermon on the Mount to love enemies and pray for persecutors. Those unsettling commandments never stop scandalizing those who spend time meditating on them, and those who contemplate the New Testament and pray the Old Testament run into another problem: certain of the Psalms pray regarding enemies, but few readers would mistake them for loving intercessions. How can a follower of the one who forgave his enemies from the cross pray onthe same God that God break those enemies’ teeth? That question has always been before us, whether we know it or not, and Dr. Trevor Laurence’s book Cursing with God takes it as seriously as Holy Scriptures demand, articulating a theology of Scripture, of forgiveness, and of the role of the faithful along the way. Christian Humanist Profiles is glad to welcome Dr. Laurence to the show.
David Grubbs interviews Jonathan Pennington about his recent book "The Sermon on the Mount and Human Flourishing."
David Grubbs talks with Derek Olsen about his recent book "Reading Matthew with Monks."
Nathan Gilmour has a long conversation about Jesus, Jesus, and more Jesus with Tripp Fuller as they discuss Fuller's new book "The Homebrewed Christianity...