100 episodes
Upstream Colson Center
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.9 • 320 Ratings
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There are no ordinary things. We can meet God in the most surprising places…if we only know how to look. Go Upstream, discover a world charged with the grandeur of God—and learn to live in that bigger world.
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Why Does Believing in God Feel Like Work? | Joseph Minich
Atheists like to tell a story in which religion declined because of scientific evidence and arguments. But what if unbelief became a plausible option because of the way modern people work, live, and relate to the world, and the way these changes make us feel? Shane welcomes Dr. Joseph Minich to discuss his book, Bulwarks of Unbelief.
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The Five Lies Coming for Your Church and Your Children | Rosaria Butterfield
Homosexuality, “spirituality,” feminism, transgenderism, and more; an alternative creed is making inroads into Christianity and false claims on young lives. Shane welcomes Dr. Rosaria Butterfield, someone who once believed and lived those lies, to explain how God set her free and can do the same for anyone.
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What Has the Internet Done to Our Brains ... and Souls? | Samuel James
Christians often think of technology as morally neutral, but a closer examination shows that assumptions about the world and humanity are built into inventions like the internet. These “liturgies,” or repeated patterns of formative behavior, shape us mentally and spiritually in ways that contradict God’s design for us. Shane welcomes Samuel James to discuss his new book, Digital Liturgies: Recovering Christian Wisdom in an Online Age.
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God Is Speaking ... If We Will Listen | Os Guinness
A dandelion, a song, a mother’s love, even the reality of evil; God has used all of these to pierce the godless worldviews of real men and women. In this Upstream re-air, Shane welcomes Dr. Os Guinness to tell their stories using his book, Signals of Transcendence.
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When Girls Decide They’re Boys | Katie McCoy
We’re witnessing an unprecedented epidemic of teenage girls who want to change their gender and think transition will make them happy. What’s really going on, and how can Christians respond? Shane welcomes Dr. Katie McCoy to answer these hard questions using her new book, To Be a Woman.
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The Whole Bible Is a Creation Story | Edward Klink
When we hear pastors or theologians refer to “creation,” we assume they’re talking about the beginning of the world. But what if the whole story of Scripture is about the purpose, function, and glorious destiny of God’s handiwork—including us? Shane welcomes Dr. Edward Klink to discuss his book, The Beginning and End of All Things: A Biblical Theology of Creation and New Creation.
Customer Reviews
Grateful for Upstream!
The conversations are always thoughtful and make me think more deeply and in new ways about a variety of topics. I’ve ordered a couple of books after hearing the interviews with the authors. I’ll keep listening!
Psalms
Greatly enjoyed the psalms episode. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (quoted in Michael Jenkins “In The House of the Lord”) offers this observation “Whenever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure is lost to the Christian church. With its recovery will come unexpected power.”
While the psalter is not completely lost to the American evangelical community, the sad truth is that a major group of psalms (the laments) have been lost. Among others, Walter Brueggemann has written extensively on this topic.
“It is a curious fact that the church has, by and large, continued to sing songs of orientation in a world increasingly experienced as disoriented…It is my judgment that this action of the church is less an evangelical defiance guided by faith, and much more a frightened, numb denial and deception that does not want to acknowledge or experience the disorientation of life… At least it is clear that a church that goes on singing "happy songs" in the face of raw reality is doing something very different from what the Bible itself does.”
In a letter to his son Christopher in 1945, J.R.R. Tolkien echoes this need to recover the practice of lament. “... while Genesis is separated by we do not know how many sad exiled generations from the Fall, but certainly there was an Eden on this very unhappy earth. We all long for it, and we are constantly glimpsing it: our whole nature at its best and least corrupted, its gentlest and most humane, is still soaked with the sense of ‘exile’.”
I so appreciate this podcast
Excellent thoughts by Shane regarding prayer. I have struggled with praying because I have believed that God would hear my prayer, but also understood that I could not have any influence in how God would work…except to change me. I found Shane’s perspective eye opening, and his quotes from Lewis have given me much food for thought. Thank you.