45 episodes
Strange New World Matthew Myer Boulton - SALT Project
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- Religion & Spirituality
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5.0 • 129 Ratings
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Welcome to “Strange New World,” a show about understanding the Bible, the world’s most influential, misunderstood book - a podcast tailor-made for skeptics, believers, and everybody in between.
Hosted by SALT’s own Matthew Myer Boulton, who’s spent twenty years teaching the Bible and theology to students at Harvard Divinity School and seminaries in New England and the Midwest, “Strange New World” will take a fresh look at the world’s bestselling book of all time, the ancient community library we call “the Bible.”
The show’s title, “Strange New World,” is borrowed from an essay written by a Swiss theologian a hundred years ago, in which he wrote of “the strange new world within the Bible,” a world so ancient, so different, so familiar, so strange that it presses us to think new thoughts from new points of view, “to dare and to reach,” and ultimately “to grow out beyond ourselves.”
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Jesus, Wendell, and Henri - Part Six: Holy Week
What’s the greatest work of art in Christian history? And how can Berry’s Sabbath poems and Matisse’s Chapel of the Rosary, which Matisse himself considered his masterpiece, help us understand the many mysteries in the holiest week of the Christian Year?
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Jesus, Wendell, and Henri - Part Five: Cross
Why was Jesus, an unarmed, peasant rabbi, seen as such a threat to the powers that be (including the mighty Roman Empire) that they had him killed? The prophet Ezekiel gives us a clue, and Berry’s poem about resurrection and Matisse’s transformative painting shed light on the deep meanings of the cross.
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Jesus, Wendell, and Henri - Part Four: Sight
The story of the cross, and many of the stories leading up to it, contain a kind of trap – and if we’re not careful, it’ll catch us unaware. The story of Jesus and the man born blind is no exception, and as we explore it, Wendell Berry and Henri Matisse can help us “see.”
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Jesus, Wendell, and Henri - Part Three: Lines
Guided by Wendell Berry’s poems and Henri Matisse’s line drawings, a romp through time, eternity, “eternal life,” the Sabbath - and the often overlooked way many of the Bible’s books, including the Gospel of John, generate meaning.
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Jesus, Wendell, and Henri - Part Two: Light
A deeper dive into Henri Matisse’s luminous vision of the artist, Wendell Berry’s meditations on divine joy, and one of the most famous (and misunderstood) verses in the New Testament, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…”
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Jesus, Wendell, and Henri - Part One: Trust
In this episode, we explore how both Wendell Berry’s practice of Sabbath walking (and writing) and Henri Matisse’s approach to “realism” can shed light on Matthew’s famous story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.
Customer Reviews
Inspired!
Thank you, thank you to the creators of this podcast. I have come to look forward to your voice and insights in these pivotal seasons of the liturgical year. Your loving and refreshing theology, in combination with deeply spiritual connections to visual and written art, are truly food for my soul. Thank you, once more.
Enlightening and thoughtful
As an artist I am drawn to their series focusing on art and artists. They are beautiful and so well researched and so very thoughtful. I love these and am often brought to tears. Thank you for making such a wonderful podcast!
A work of art
Through a masterful weaving of images and ideas Matthew Myer Boulton invites us into the creative discovery of the relevance of biblical scripture in our lives today. Beautiful and thought provoking.