Shifting Culture

Joshua Johnson
  • 4.9 (72)
  • Christianity

On Shifting Culture we have conversations at the intersection of faith, culture, justice, and the way of Jesus. Hosted by Joshua Johnson, this podcast features long-form conversations with authors, theologians, artists, and cultural thinkers to trace how embodied love, courage, and creative faithfulness offer a culture of real healing and hope. 

  1. 1d ago

    Ep. 452 Pricelis Perreaux-Dominguez - We Have Mistaken Sameness for Unity

    In this episode, Pricelis Perreaux-Dominguez argues that much of what the American church calls peace is really just quiet — and that what we call unity is often sameness, congregations gathered around shared opinion rather than around Christ, where difference gets managed, silenced, or shown the door. We talk about how sameness took root in the church, why our opinions became idols we defend like God, what it means to hold truth with an open hand, and why discomfort is a practice rather than a personality trait. It's a conversation that confronts, but toward something better than the false peace we've settled for. Pricelis Perreaux-Dominguez (MSW, MSEd) is a Black Latina and daughter of immigrants who’s committed to truth telling and helping the body of Christ be pro-neighbor. She is the founder and CEO of Full Collective and creator of the annual Sowers Summit in New York City. She is the author of Being a Sanctuary and the new book False Peace releasing on August 25th. She just graduated a master’s in biblical and theological studies from Denver Seminary. She is on staff at the NYC chapter of Safe Families for Children and is an associate pastor at Renovation City Church in the Bronx, New York, where she lives with her husband and son. Pricelis' Book: False Peace Pricelis' Recommendation: From Genesis to Junia Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 452 Pricelis Perreaux-Dominguez - We Have Mistaken Sameness for Unity

  2. 5d ago

    Ep. 451 Scott Cairns - Why Mystery Makes Better Meaning Than Certainty

    In this episode, Scott Cairns talks about certainty and mystery and getting glimpses of the unknowable God. Scott has spent forty years wrestling with, investigating, navigating words to help make meaning in our lives. In this conversation, we talk about words as things rather than labels, about reading a text the way the rabbis did - layer on layer, meaning that never closes - about prayer as communion rather than petition, and about what a culture loses as it stops reading. Underneath it all is a God who is endless, which means the knowing is never fully attained, but it's a beautiful pursuit. Librettist, essayist, translator, and author of multiple poetry collections, Scott Cairns is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at University of Missouri. His poems and essays have appeared in Poetry, Image, Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The New Republic, and many other venues, and both have been anthologized in multiple editions of Best American Spiritual Writing. He has blogged for the Religion Section of The Huffington Post. His recent poetry books include the recently released Against Certainty (2026), Correspondence with My Greeks (2024), Lacunae (2023), Anaphora (2019), Slow Pilgrim: The Collected Poems (2015), and Idiot Psalms (2014). His spiritual memoir, Short Trip to the Edge, first appeared from HarperSanFrancisco in 2006, and has been translated into Greek and Romania. His Endless Life (translations and adaptations of Christian mystics, appeared in 2014, and his book-length essay, The End of Suffering: Finding Purpose in Pain, was first published in 2009, and has also been translated into Greek. He wrote the libretti for two oratoria, The Martyrdom of Saint Polycarp and A Melancholy Beauty. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2006, and the Denise Levertov Award in 2014. His current projects include Descent to the Heart, verse adaptations of selections from the homilies of Saint Isaak the Syrian, and a new poetry collection, Ways of Not Knowing. Scott's Book: Against Certainty Scott's Recommendations: Lauras A History of the Island Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 451 Scott Cairns - Why Mystery Makes Better Meaning Than Certainty

  3. Aug 11

    Ep. 450 Ian Morgan Cron Returns - Beauty Is a Doorway Home: What St. Francis Knew 800 Years Ago

    In this episode, Ian Morgan Cron and I talk about Chasing Francis, the novel he wrote twenty years ago (before anyone called it deconstruction) about a megachurch pastor who loses his faith mid-sermon and goes looking for St. Francis in Italy. We get into a 13th-century church that looks a lot like ours, beauty as a doorway back to God, why Francis walked across a battlefield to meet a sultan, the difference between spotlight attention and lantern attention, and why the sermon on the mount should be read as instructions. Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, Episcopal priest, trained psychotherapist, Enneagram teacher, Dove Award-winning songwriter, and one of the most sought-after voices in American spirituality today. His Enneagram primer The Road Back to You has sold over one million copies and launched a global conversation about self-knowledge and spiritual formation. But Chasing Francis is where it all started — and where it still leads. Ian’s work spans psychology, theology, the arts, and pastoral care. He speaks from lived experience: he has sat with the burned out, the doubting, the spiritually shipwrecked — and he has been all three himself. He is the host of the widely popular podcast Typology and has appeared on media across the country. Ian's Book: Chasing Francis Ian's Recommendations The Master and His Emissary The Myth of Normal Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 450 Ian Morgan Cron Returns - Beauty Is a Doorway Home: What St. Francis Knew 800 Years Ago

  4. Aug 7

    Ep. 449 Natalia Terfa - God Got There Before You Did

    In this episode with Natalia Terfa we talk about her book It All Counts, why questions deepen faith instead of eroding it, how to tell human authority from God's, what love looks like when a protest turns ugly, and why the prosperity gospel falls apart at a child's funeral. We get into loneliness and the risk community asks of us, the incarnation as an argument for the goodness of bodies, and how breath and creation return us to who we are. Natalia is a Lutheran pastor, podcaster, and author who lives in Minneapolis with her her loves, Sam and Layla, and kitty babies. When she’s not working or writing, you’ll find her reading in her couch nest, ideally with a cat on her lap, watching Turkish television, taking walks in the neighborhood, looking at trees, or making good food for the people she loves. Natalia's Book: It All Counts Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 449 Natalia Terfa - God Got There Before You Did

  5. Aug 4

    Ep. 448 Scot McKnight - The Pharisees Weren't Who You Think

    In this episode with Scot McKnight, we ask whether the perception that the Pharisees were hypocrites, legalists with a religious spirit is the right way to view them. We move the conflict between Jesus and the Pharisees from one of theological debate to one in response to charisma, the crowds, and power. We talk about what charisma actually is, why economic justice sat at the center of Jesus' movement, the seven things the Pharisees really were, and what it means to stop weaponizing the word against anyone we disagree with. Scot McKnight (PhD, Nottingham) has been a Professor of New Testament for more than four decades. He is the author of more than ninety books, including the award-winning The Jesus Creed as well as The King Jesus Gospel, A Fellowship of Differents, One.Life, The Blue Parakeet, Revelation for the Rest of Us, and Kingdom Conspiracy. Scot's Book: Jesus, People, Pharisees Scot's Recommendation: Furious Minds Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 448 Scot McKnight - The Pharisees Weren't Who You Think

  6. Jul 31

    Ep. 447 Matthew Soerens & Issam Smeir - There are 120 Million Forcibly Displaced People Around the World, How Should We Respond?

    In this episode with Matthew Soerens and Issam Smeir, we touch on something that has shaped my faith - sitting across a table from refugees until a statistic became a person with a name. A decade after the first edition of Seeking Refuge, the number of forcibly displaced people has doubled to roughly 120 million, yet care for the vulnerable has become one of the most politicized issues in American culture and the American church. We work to untangle fear and misinformation from biblical conviction, dig into the parable of the Good Samaritan, and ask what it looks like to stop, come closer, and respond. Matthew Soerens is the Vice President of Advocacy and Policy for World Relief. Dr. Issam Smeir is a psychologist focused on trauma treatment for victims of persecution and torture who also works at World Relief. They're coauthors, along with Stephan Bauman, of the newly updated book Seeking Refuge: The Human Face of the Global Refugee Crisis (Moody Publishers, 2026). Matthew and Issam's Book: Seeking Refuge Matthew's Recommendation: The Faithful Innkeeper Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 447 Matthew Soerens & Issam Smeir - There are 120 Million Forcibly Displaced People Around the World, How Should We Respond?

  7. Jul 28

    Ep. 446 Joshua Luke Smith - Why the Life You Have is the Main Event

    In this episode with Joshua Luke Smith we sit with the idea that the life in front of you is the main event – even when it is limited, when it is unglamorous, when it’s not what you hoped for. We talk about lament and shame, consecration and wonder, what the cell and limits teach us about freedom, how we need to put ourselves in the way of beauty to bring us back to who we are. It’s a conversation about attention and presence. Joshua Luke Smith is a poet for the people. He’s a songwriter, community builder, podcaster and author. He’s the founder of The Psalmists, a charity cultivating creative practice in prisons and among those on the margins of society. His new book "This is The Main Event" comes out in July 2026. He lives with his family in London, UK. Joshua's Book: This is the Main Event Joshua's Recommendation: The Odyssey Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 446 Joshua Luke Smith - Why the Life You Have is the Main Event

  8. Jul 24

    Ep. 445 Graham Joseph Hill - Are We Following Jesus, or Cultural Idols Disguised as Jesus?

    In this episode, Graham Joseph Hill joins me to talk through how every culture tends to read Jesus through their own lens and how we tend to remake Him in our own image. And when we do that, we tend to follow idols rather than Jesus. In his latest book Ten Movements of the Jesus Way, Graham maps ten typical idols and the turn we need to make to follow Jesus instead. Are we following Jesus, or just following our own culture with Jesus attached? Graham Joseph Hill (PhD, Flinders University) is an adjunct research fellow and associate professor in the School of Theology at Charles Sturt University. In 2024 he received the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) for service to theological education. His books include Global Church, Healing Our Broken Humanity, and World Christianity, shortlisted for the 2025 Australian Christian Book of the Year. He lives in Sydney with his wife, Shyn. Graham's Book: Ten Movements of the Jesus Way Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com Go to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy. Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTube Support the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

    Ep. 445 Graham Joseph Hill - Are We Following Jesus, or Cultural Idols Disguised as Jesus?
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4.9
out of 5
72 Ratings

About

On Shifting Culture we have conversations at the intersection of faith, culture, justice, and the way of Jesus. Hosted by Joshua Johnson, this podcast features long-form conversations with authors, theologians, artists, and cultural thinkers to trace how embodied love, courage, and creative faithfulness offer a culture of real healing and hope. 

Information

  • Creator
    Joshua Johnson
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    455
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Shifting Culture
  • Show Website
    Shifting Culture

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