The Further Up, Further In Podcast

Episode 11 - A Book Unlike Any Other (Part 1)

As we begin our reflection on the second main theme of the podcast - stand under the Word of God, the Bible is foundational and authoritative - we begin by examining reasons why we should take the Bible's claims to speak for God seriously.

Episode 10 - At the Crossroads

As we transition from the first big theme of this podcast - embrace the life of the mind, the Christian Faith is rational - to the second - stand under the Word of God, the Bible is foundational - we pause for an episode at the crossroads to discuss a few things, including a candid look at some of the less intellectual but perhaps more direct reasons why we tend as a church to linger in the shallows.

Episode 9 - What We Long For

As we wrap up our reflection on general revelation and beyond that our first big theme - embrace the life of the mind, the Christian Faith is rational - we look at the argument from religious experience, the aesthetic argument and the argument from human longings. Having done this, we briefly overview the pros and cons of these kinds of arguments as we prepare to move from reflecting on general revelation to special revelation.  

Episode 8 - What the Heavens Declare (Part 2)

This episode continues our discussion of embracing the life of the mind and applying that to general revelation, and it overviews three more arguments for God's existence - the cosmological argument, the moral law argument and the argument from human goodness. 

Episode 7 - What the Heavens Declare (Part 1)

This episode begins a three episode arc in which we contemplate some of the benefits of applying the life of the mind to general revelation, mainly through considering some of the classic arguments for God's existence. We begin in this episode with what is often called the telelogical argument for God's existence, though often such arguments now are simply called arguments from intelligent design.

Episode 6 - The Retreat of the Church from the Life of the Mind

This episode overviews the hallmarks of Modernism and Postmodernism and how the rise of these things helps to explain the retreat of the American Church from the life of the mind. It also overviews some of internal reasons why the church retreated from the life of the mind, since there are and were reasons why this happened that can't be laid at the feet of any outside force or factor.

Episode 5 - Revisiting Our Intellectual History (Part 2)

In this second part of our two week overview of our intellectual history, we examine some of the things that led contemporary western culture away from the central tenets of Christian theism, and at the initially optimistic and later more pessimistic ideas that emerged. As we introduce the concepts of Modernism and Postmodernism, we are preparing to look more closely next week at the retreat of the American Church from the life of the mind.

Episode 4 - Revisiting Our Intellectual History (Part 1)

As we continue to discuss embracing the life of the mind as part of our pursuit of a deeper Christian life, we survey our intellectual history in an effort to understand some of the things that have brought us where we are. In this first part of a two week overview of that history, we look at some of our classical and Christian roots. 

Episode 3 - God Wants to be Known

Episode 3 begins our exploration of the first of our four big themes - embrace the life of the mind, the Christian faith is rational - as we discuss the importance of both knowing God and loving God, and of embracing both mind and heart in our walk with God. 

Episode 2 - Crowding the Shallows

The waters of the Christian faith are deep, and yet all too often, the American church is content to remain in the shallows. In this episode - the second part of the two-part introduction to the podcast - we talk a little bit about the shallowness of the church and reiterate the invitation to go deeper.