The Ridley Institute Podcast Sam Fornecker

No affirmation more roundly rebuts the modern presumption that humans are merely "brains-on-sticks" than the core Christian confession that, in Jesus, God assumed human nature. To reckon fully with this fact is to enter into "a complex set of practices oriented toward the transformation of one's being and understanding of the world," the learning of "habits of body and mind that... draw [us] from foundational faith to beatific knowledge."



So writes Alex Fogleman (Institute for Studies of Religion; founding director, ⁠Catechesis Institute⁠), in his new study of early Christian formation, ⁠Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation⁠. In this episode, Sam Fornecker chats with Alex about the diverse ways in which early Christians were led to know the triune God revealed in Christ.



For more on this week's conversation, see Alex's Knowledge, Faith, and Early Christian Initiation.



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To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, stay connected with us online: Website: ⁠https://ridleyinstitute.com/⁠. Twitter: ⁠@RidleyInstitute⁠. Ministry Apprenticeship: ⁠https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/⁠.

Sam Fornecker chats with philosopher R.J. Snell about his latest book, Lost in the Chaos: Immanence, Despair, Hope (Angelico, 2023).



What have frenzied activists, scheming rationalists, and men in Gandalf garb got in common? Why is each symptomatic of societal despair? And what hope can the Church offer a world no longer pining for the forgiveness of sins?



In this conversation, Sam Fornecker speaks with R.J. Snell (Director of Academic Programs at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, NJ; editor-in-chief of Public Discourse) about the profound despair of contemporary exclusive humanism— its malaises, false hopes, and deepest needs.



For more on this week's conversation, see R.J.'s Lost in the Chaos.



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To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, stay connected with us online: Website: https://ridleyinstitute.com/. Twitter: @RidleyInstitute. Ministry Apprenticeship: https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/.

Sam Fornecker chats with theologian Helen Collins about her recent book, Charismatic Christianity: Introducing Its Theology through the Gifts of the Spirit (Baker Academic, 2023).



What is "charismatic Christianity"? What are its signal emphases, its prevailing values, its cardinal foci? How is it to be understood in relation to Pentecostalism, on the one hand, and the wide world of evangelicalism, on the other? What deficits of the wider Christian family does it seek to redress?



In this conversation, Sam Fornecker speaks with Helen Collins (Vice Principal, Trinity College Bristol) about what charismatic Christianity is, how we understand it biblically and theologically, and what it offers the church today.



For more on this week's conversation, and to consider the connections between charismatic practice and biblical-historic Christian faith, see Helen's Charismatic Christianity.



Enjoying this podcast?



To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, stay connected with us online: Website: https://ridleyinstitute.com/. Twitter: @RidleyInstitute. Ministry Apprenticeship: https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/.

Sam Fornecker chats with philosopher Esther Lightcap Meek about her book, Doorway to Artistry: Attuning Your Philosophy to Enhance Your Creativity (Wipf & Stock, 2023).



The implicit philosophical outlook of the modern world thwarts and damages our humanness, severing us from the "real." Modernity aims to master nature by arrogantly reducing things to bits and uses. Nothing is legitimate in its own right. This is the anti-philosophical philosophy of our modern world.



In this conversation, Sam Fornecker speaks with Esther Lightcap Meek (author of Longing to Know: The Philosophy of Knowledge for Ordinary People, and A Little Manual for Knowing) about how modernity's "loss of the real" can be put right, enabling us to exchange the blind, irresponsible, exploitative, and dismembering vision of modernity for a different vision that sees and consents to joyful, festal communion with the real.



For more of this week's conversation, and to probe further its relevance to craft, artistry, and making, see Esther's Doorway to Artistry.



Enjoying this podcast?



To keep abreast of what's going on at The Ridley Institute, or to learn more about opportunities to grow and train for Christian discipleship and mission, stay connected with us online: Website: https://ridleyinstitute.com/. Twitter: @RidleyInstitute. Ministry Apprenticeship: https://standrews.church/ministry-apprenticeship/.

Join Sam Fornecker for a conversation with C. Kavin Rowe (George Washington Ivey Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Vice Dean for Faculty, Duke Divinity School). Drawing on Rowe's recent book, Leading Christian Communities (Eerdman's, 2023), this conversation focuses on how the New Testament enables the communities it shapes to envision a faithful and compelling vision of Christian leadership.

Join Sam Fornecker for a chat with David Gustafson (Chair of Mission and Evangelism at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School). Drawing on insight's from David's book, Gospel Witness through the Ages (Eerdman's, 2022), this conversation focuses on how Christians can learn to fulfill our charge to "do the work of an evangelist" (2 Tim. 4:5) by learning from the evangelistic strengths—and weaknesses—of the Church throughout the ages.