
196 episodes

The Sectarian Review Danny Anderson
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.7 • 34 Ratings
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Cultural criticism, with an emphasis on art, politics, religion, and education.
Discussion, opinion, and reviews.
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Sectarian Review 194: Clarence Jordan's Inconvenient Gospel
Today, Danny talks with Dr. Frederick L. Downing, scholar and editor of a new book for Plough Books called The Inconvenient Gospel. The book is a collection of writings by Clarence Jordan, founder of the famous Koinonia Farm in Georgia. Downing was a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement and ran into vitriolic opposition from his fellow Southern Christians. Downing discusses how Jordan's theology and activism was years ahead of his time and how mainstream Christianity has finally come around to his thinking on these issues.
More on the book as well as purchasing options, can be found here: https://www.plough.com/en/topics/community/intentional-community/inconvenient-gospel
Here is the contact info for Koinonia Farm:
koinoniafarm.org 1324 GA-49, Americus, GA 31719 229 924-0391
Follow Danny Anderson's writing and podcasting at https://untaking.substack.com/
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Sectarian Review 193: Prince of Darkness
The 2022 Christian Humanist Halloween crossover is here! This year, Nathan Gilmour and Carter Smith-Stepper join Danny Anderson for a discussion of John Carpenter's under-rated classic Prince of Darkness. The film presents an alternative theological universe in which Satan has spent millenia as the prisoner of a secret sect of the Catholic Church. As he begins to stir, a group of academics, along with a priest, join together to try and stop him from bringing his father, an ancient dark god, back to Earth.
The film has heavy Lovecraftian themes and Carter, Nathan, and Danny have a spirited (and largely unresolved) theological debate about cosmic horror.
Update:
Danny's article "John Carpenter and the Origin of Evil" for Pop Culture and Theology: https://popularcultureandtheology.com/2022/10/31/john-carpenter-and-the-origins-of-evil/
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Sectarian Review 192: Elvis Costello Retrospective
Returning to the today is C. Derick Varn. This time he joins Danny Anderson to discuss the unique and incredible musical career of British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello. Emerging out the British pub rock, punk, and New Wave scenes, Costello forged an almost unparallelled career of musical variation and experimentation. Varn and Anderson discuss what makes him so important.
Links
Varn Vlog https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMuZYE1Q9yNpzn4dzsPtmcQ
To follow this podcast and the writing that Danny Anderson does, go to https://authory.com/DannyAnderson and sign up for a weekly newsletter update. It's free and Danny promises not to clutter up your inbox. -
Sectarian Review 191: Contemplative Christianity, Liminality, and Film
This week, Arthur Aghajanian joins the show for a fascinating discussion of mystical, contemplative traditions in Christianity. Part of the discussion is the role that liminality, or experiences at the margins, play in building a deeper, non-credal faith. A great discussion about liminality and filmgoing is included. A real treat, for Danny.
Links:
Arthur's twitter: https://twitter.com/ArtAghajanian
Arthur's website, Image and Faith: https://www.imageandfaith.com/
To follow this podcast and the writing that Danny Anderson does, go to https://authory.com/DannyAnderson and sign up for a weekly newsletter update. It's free and Danny promises not to clutter up your inbox. -
Sectarian Review 190: Black Panther, Moral Development, and Comics
This episode, we take another look at the power of comics for teaching. This time, Dr. Justin Martin, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Whitworth University, joins the show to discuss Black Panther and how comics can help us learn about moral development and civics education. A lot to unpack here and a lot to learn.
Links:
Dr. Martin's Academia.edu page
Justin's Twitter
R-Squared Comicz
To follow this podcast and the writing that Danny Anderson does, go to https://authory.com/DannyAnderson and sign up for a weekly newsletter update. -
Sectarian Review 189: How Should We Then Live?
This week, historian and teacher Jonathan Wilson returns to the show to discuss Francis Schaeffer's influential documentary series How Should We Then Live? Long before the Benedict Option, Schaeffer offered Christians a grand narrative of societal decline and put forth a call for "Bible Believing" Christians to rescue society from decadence. In 2021, Dr. Wilson wrote a series of blog posts about the series, exploring its historical method and paranoid worldview. He joins us today to explain.
Links:
How Should We Then Live Bluebook Life series by Jonathan Wilson
How Should We Then Live? on YouTube https://labri.org/resources/how-should-we-then-live-series/
Sarah Edwards, "Sharing the Bad News: Regretting Francis Schaeffer's 'How Should We Then Live,' Forty Years On" https://thebaffler.com/latest/should-live-schaeffer-edwards
Barry Hankins, Francis Schaeffer and the Shaping of Evangelical America https://www.eerdmans.com/Products/6389/francis-schaeffer-and-the-shaping-of-evangelical-america.aspx
Frank Schaeffer, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back https://www.dacapopress.com/titles/frank-schaeffer/crazy-for-god/9780306817502/
Edith Schaeffer, L'Abri (New Expanded Edition) https://www.crossway.org/books/labri-tpb/
L'Abri Fellowship International as it exists today https://labri.org/
To follow this podcast and the writing that Danny Anderson does, go to https://authory.com/DannyAnderson and sign up for a weekly newsletter update.
Customer Reviews
Great stuff.
This podcast is just plain good. Always earnest and insightful, with great guests.
Gnostic Fanatics
These two Gnostic fanatics scramble to explain away the over 100,000 words of ‘coincidences’ which I presented in Sacred Scroll of Seven Seals. I have repeatedly challenged these clowns to an on-air debate but my request has repeatedly fallen on deaf ears. It is time that the two smartest guys in the room get a good old-fashioned education. This was nothing more than a cheap shot too try and garner fans.
Intellectual and Spritual Growth
As a former student of Danny Anderson, I was excited to find his podcast. The classroom discussion that we had during his Kafka course helped to foster my love for literature. Although encompassing a wider range of topics, including pop culture and religion, the conversations on The Sectarian Review are reminiscent of those discussions. In order to awaken intellectually and spritually, one must question one's understandings and beliefes by examining them from different perspectives. The Sectarian Review is a wonderful platform to facilitate this awakening.