Mythologizing the Bible

A Humanistic look at religious texts
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Mythologizing the Bible (MTB) explores the Bible through the lens of “sacred myth.” Each week, we dive into three Bible readings, analyzing these ancient texts to uncover any helpful lessons that don't require belief in the supernatural. Whether you identify as a Christian, a non-believer, or somewhere in between, MTB offers fresh insights and new ways of thinking about stories you may already know well. www.thecodaproject.com

  1. 1d ago ·  Bonus

    When Adaptability Becomes Capitulation

    Adaptability can be a virtue. But what happens when politicians change, not because the evidence changed, but because standing firm has become too costly? Our main episode this week celebrated adaptability. I told you that changing your mind can be a sign of growth, that changing course when something isn’t working can be wise, and that stubbornly clinging to an old position simply because you’ve already committed to it isn’t necessarily integrity. And I stand by all of that. But watching the Republican Party’s relationship with Donald Trump raises a much more uncomfortable version of the same question. What happens when the evidence doesn’t really change, but the political incentives do? What happens when standing by your principles and opposing someone can cost you influence, leadership, or even your political career, while accommodating that person, regardless of your principles, allows you to remain inside the circle of power? At what point does adaptability stop being intellectual flexibility and become something else entirely? So, let’s dive into that… in this episode of Afterthoughts! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  2. 2d ago

    When Standing Your Ground Holds You Back

    Adaptability isn’t weakness. Growth means knowing when to change course, loosen our grip, and change our minds when circumstances demand it. Have you ever noticed how often we praise people for refusing to change their minds? We call it strength, conviction, or standing their ground. But sometimes the strongest thing we can do is recognize that something isn’t working and then change . As we reflect on the readings for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we’ll explore how adaptability allows us to change direction when our behavior isn’t working, loosen our grip on always having things our own way, and change our minds when reflection gives us good reason to do so. In this episode, we’re asking a challenging question: When does standing our ground stop being strength and start becoming stubbornness? Together, we’ll uncover some useful wisdom underneath these ancient texts and explore why adaptability isn’t about surrendering our values… it’s about becoming willing to grow! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  3. Sep 19

    When Scripture Became a Cage

    The Bible evolved through centuries of adaptation and reinterpretation. So how did a changing tradition become an argument against changing our minds? There’s a wonderfully convenient escape hatch available whenever a religious belief stops making sense: God’s ways aren’t our ways. Ask why an all-powerful God permits something horrible, question an ancient moral rule, or point out a theological contradiction, and Isaiah 55 can suddenly appear like a divine Get Out of Logic Free card. We’re human. God knows better. Stop asking questions. But there’s a delicious irony hiding behind that argument. The Bible itself wasn’t created by people who simply preserved an unchanging collection of ideas exactly as they received them. Its writers and editors lived through wars, exile, political upheaval, and cultural change—and they repeatedly interpreted, adapted, expanded, and reworked their traditions in response. So how did texts created through a remarkably dynamic human process eventually become arguments against changing our own thinking? So, let’s dive into that… in this episode of Afterthoughts! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  4. Sep 18

    The Way Things Have Always Been

    Innovation begins when we question what we've learned to accept, solve problems that matter, and imagine better ways of doing things. Have you ever stopped to wonder why we do something a certain way and realized the only real answer is, “Because that’s how we’ve always done it”? This week, we’re exploring innovation and what happens when we become willing to question the assumptions, solutions, and systems we’ve learned to accept. As we reflect on the readings for the 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we’ll explore how innovation begins by questioning the limits of our current thinking, focuses our creativity on problems that actually matter, and sometimes requires us to redesign the rules themselves. In this episode, we’re asking a challenging question: What happens when we stop assuming that the way things are is the way they have to be? Together, we’ll uncover some surprising wisdom underneath these ancient texts and consider how curiosity and intellectual humility can open the door to something far better. CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  5. Sep 12 ·  Bonus

    Your Brain Is Still Tribal

    Our brains evolved for small tribes, but our problems are global. Social mastery means deliberately expanding our moral circle beyond our natural one. Paul’s statement in our reading from Romans this week, that “none of us lives for oneself”, is something that sounds almost tailor-made for the modern world. Climate change, pandemics, global supply chains, economic inequality, migration, war… we now have overwhelming evidence that what happens to people thousands of miles away can eventually affect people sitting at our own kitchen tables. For perhaps the first time in human history, we can actually see just how interconnected we are. There’s just one problem: our brains weren’t built for this world. Human social cognition developed in relatively small communities where cooperation meant dealing with people we actually knew, while outsiders were a lot easier to distrust or ignore. Today, we’re asking those same brains to care about eight billion people, and then we’re surprised when we retreat into political tribes, national borders, and online echo chambers. What if becoming a genuinely global citizen isn’t something that comes naturally at all but a skill we have to deliberately learn and practice? So, let’s dive into that… in this BONUS episode of Afterthoughts! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  6. Sep 11

    The “Gospel of Love” Problem

    If forgiveness is motivated by fear of divine punishment, is it really moral maturity? The Gospels complicate the modern image of a purely loving Jesus. There’s a version of Jesus that almost everyone seems to know, including people who’ve never opened a Bible. He’s the gentle moral teacher who tells us to love our enemies, turn the other cheek, forgive endlessly, and replace the wrath and violence of the Old Testament with compassion and grace. I’ll admit… that’s a very appealing picture of Jesus and there’s certainly material in the Gospels to support it. But there’s other material you don’t tend to see on inspirational posters or coffee mugs. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus also threatens people with Gehenna, fire, outer darkness, weeping and gnashing of teeth, and—in the passage from Matthew that we read in this week’s main episode—being handed over to torturers. What happens to the “Gospel of Love” when we stop cherry-picking the comforting passages and read the threats alongside them? And more importantly, if we’re trying to develop genuine moral mastery, can fear of divine punishment ever really get us there? So, let’s dive into that… in this episode of Afterthoughts! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  7. Sep 10

    Mastery Is a Practice

    Mastery isn’t perfection. It’s learning to govern ourselves, recognize our impact on others, and deliberately practice the person we want to become. Have you ever thought about what it actually means to master something? We usually associate mastery with expertise; becoming exceptionally good at a skill, reaching the top of our field, or accomplishing something difficult. But what if some of the most important things we can master aren’t external skills at all? What if excellence is also about learning to manage our anger, recognizing how our choices affect other people, and deliberately practicing the values we’ve chosen even when resentment and scorekeeping would be easier? As we reflect on the readings for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, we’ll explore how mastery begins with managing our emotions, grows when we recognize that excellence is bigger than ourselves, and develops through deliberate practice rather than perfection. In this episode, we’re asking an important question: What does it actually mean to practice mastery? Together we’ll explore why emotional control doesn’t require suppressing our emotions, why personal excellence carries responsibilities beyond ourselves, and why becoming the person we’ve chosen to be requires practice rather than scorekeeping! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

  8. Sep 5 ·  Bonus

    Who Really Wrote the Rules?

    What if Jesus never gave the church its rules? Matthew 18 reveals something more human: communities adapting old traditions to meet new problems. There’s a phrase in Matthew’s Gospel that probably doesn’t sound strange at all to modern Christians: “Tell it to the church.” Jesus is supposedly explaining how believers should resolve conflicts, and involving the church seems perfectly reasonable. Except there’s a problem. When Jesus was alive, there was no Christian Church as a separate institution. So why is Matthew’s Jesus giving instructions about how such a church should operate? That little historical wrinkle opens a much bigger conversation about how Scripture was actually created. What if Matthew wasn’t recording a timeless rule handed down from heaven? What if he was preserving a solution developed by Christians decades later as they struggled to hold their own community together? If so, the passage doesn’t show us God delivering a finished moral blueprint. It shows us human beings seeking, adapting, and creating new rules when the old answers weren’t enough. And if they had permission to do that, maybe we do too. So, let’s dive into that… in this episode of Afterthoughts! CODA Project is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to CODA Project at www.thecodaproject.com/subscribe

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Mythologizing the Bible (MTB) explores the Bible through the lens of “sacred myth.” Each week, we dive into three Bible readings, analyzing these ancient texts to uncover any helpful lessons that don't require belief in the supernatural. Whether you identify as a Christian, a non-believer, or somewhere in between, MTB offers fresh insights and new ways of thinking about stories you may already know well. www.thecodaproject.com

Information

  • Creator
    A Humanistic look at religious texts
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    203
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Brandon Jubar
  • Show Website
    Mythologizing the Bible