357 episodes

Conversations to help us develop a Christian spirituality rooted in love that fosters resilient faith in everyday life

Gravity Commons Podcast Gravity Commons

    • Religion & Spirituality
    • 4.8 • 209 Ratings

Conversations to help us develop a Christian spirituality rooted in love that fosters resilient faith in everyday life

    David W. Peters: How the Post-Traumatic Jesus Heals Our Wounds

    David W. Peters: How the Post-Traumatic Jesus Heals Our Wounds

    After twenty years of war in Iraq and Afghanistan, a global pandemic, protests against racial violence, and frequent shootings, more Americans than ever are living with the effects of trauma.
    Our conversation with Army veteran and Episcopal priest David Peters helps us see the good news that Jesus was born and died in a traumatized world, and his story speaks forever to wounded people worldwide.
    Peters' book Post-Traumatic Jesus: Reading the Gospel with the Wounded explores Jesus' life story through the post-traumatic lens with which the Gospel writers first wrote it--as people who had seen their leader executed by the same oppressive government that had already shrouded their whole lives in anxiety and fear. Meeting the post-traumatic Jesus--the only Jesus the world has ever known--can be a balm to the wounds of modern Christians and spiritual seekers.
    David W. Peters served as an enlisted Marine and Army Chaplain, who deployed to Iraq in 2005. He is the author of several books, notably Death Letter: God, Sex and War and Post-Traumatic God: How the Church Cares for People Who Have Been to Hell and Back, and Post-Traumatic Jesus: Reading the Gospel with the Wounded. Today he serves as the vicar of St. Joan of Arc Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas.
    Connect with Gravity Commons:
    Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravitycommons.com.

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    • 1 hr 12 min
    How to Find a Church After Experiencing Church Abuse

    How to Find a Church After Experiencing Church Abuse

    Matt and Ben respond to a listener question about finding a place in the body of Christ after clergy sexual abuse.
    Connect with Gravity Commons:
    Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravitycommons.com.


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    • 51 min
    Beau Underwood: How the Mainline Helped Build Christian Nationalism

    Beau Underwood: How the Mainline Helped Build Christian Nationalism

    In the face of the rising threat of Christian Nationalism to both church and democracy, Beau Underwood joins us to talk about how some of the hidden undercurrents are present not just among evangelical Christians, but in the mainline church, which is the theme of the book he co-wrote with Brian Kaylor, Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism.
    Beau Underwood is the senior minister at Allisonville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Indianapolis, a contributing editor for Word&Way, and is pursuing a doctorate in public affairs. He has graduate degrees from the University of Chicago in both religion and public policy. His writing as appeared in Sojourners, The Christian Century, and Religion and Politics.
    Connect with Gravity Commons:
    Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravitycommons.com.

    Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donations

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    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    • 51 min
    Join Us For a New Online Book Club

    Join Us For a New Online Book Club

    We're starting a Book Club, and you're invited! We talk about why we wanted to do this, how you can be involved, and the first book we'll discuss: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by journalist Tim Alberta.
    The Book Club will be a weekly discussion on Fridays at 12pm ET starting August 2, 2024 (recordings available to all members). To participate, get yourself a paid membership to the Gravity Community.


    Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donations

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    • 20 min
    Joel Looper: Why Evangelicals are Drawn to Christian Nationalism

    Joel Looper: Why Evangelicals are Drawn to Christian Nationalism

    Though evangelicals emphasize fidelity to the gospel above all else, many have fallen in step with "a different gospel" of Christian nationalism. Analyzing Scripture, church history, and current events in the United States and Russia, Joel Looper offers evangelicals a theological rationale for resisting Christian nationalism.
    Joel Looper teaches at Baylor University where he serves as coordinator for Shalom Mission Communities, a network of international Christian communities. He's the author of Bonhoeffer's America: A Land Without Reformation and the book we talked about on this episode Another Gospel: Christian Nationalism and the Crisis of Evangelical Identity.
    Show notes:
    The article we referenced about the Texas school board member who disavowed the far-right platform she campaigned on: "A GOP Texas school board member campaigned against schools indoctrinating kids. Then she read the curriculum."Connect with Gravity Commons:
    Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravitycommons.com.

    Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donations

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    Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

    • 54 min
    Andrew Rillera: Debunking Penal Substitutionary Atonement

    Andrew Rillera: Debunking Penal Substitutionary Atonement

    There is no such thing as substitutionary death sacrifice in the Torah, which changes everything we thought we knew about Jesus's death. The consistent message throughout the entire NT is not that Jesus died instead of us, rather, Jesus dies ahead of us so that we can unite with him and be conformed the image of his death. It's not about substitution, it's about participation, and Andrew Rillera helps us see this in his book Lamb of the Free: Recovering the Varied Sacrificial Understandings of Jesus’s Death.
    Andrew Rillera is Assistant Professor of Biblical Studies and Theology at The King's University in Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada.
    Connect with Gravity Commons:
    Leave us a message or ask a question about this or any other episode and we'll answer it on a future episode.Join the Gravity Community to interact with other listeners, and get our list of curated links each week to all things edifying and interesting.Are you interested in advertising on the Gravity Podcast? Contact us at podcast@gravitycommons.com.

    Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/gravity-leadership-podcast/donations

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    • 1 hr 14 min

Customer Reviews

4.8 out of 5
209 Ratings

209 Ratings

Ms Zinnia ,

Consistently amazed!

I love this podcast! It never ceases to amaze me how these podcasts provide exactly the words or resources I need to assist with processing through a specific spiritual issue. I feel a solidarity with these people. I am grateful that they don’t shy away from the hard stuff. My faith continues to be nourished and stretched here.

Rachpach73 ,

Like a candy store

I stumbled on this podcast via someone's recommendation on Instagram. All of the topics and people on here are fascinating. I am so curious about them all I want to just be able to listen to all of them right away.
Thank you for making this podcast! It’s awesome!

If you haven’t already, you’ve got to get Dr. Stephen Backhouse on here as soon as you can!

FrannyZooey ,

Mostly great, but…

I love the guests and topics on this podcast, but many times I have been stopped from sharing specific episodes with others because of the long pre-show chatter and the dad jokes at the end. I feel like you assume everyone listening already knows and loves you and would find it endearing, but when I’m wanting to share with people unfamiliar with your podcast I think it’s a barrier. Most recent episode (Five Challenges) is perfect example, a thoughtful conversation was deflated by Matt’s dad joke. Maybe you could offer extended episodes with chatter and bonus jokes to Patreon subscribers or something? 😬

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