Best Pittsburgh Theological Seminary Podcasts (2025)

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S1, E12: Secularization, Church Structures, and the Missional Witness of Unity 1:16:08

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2d ago1:16:08

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As a broad, national church the Protestant Church in the Netherlands holds together different wings with very different theological perspectives. Different from the USA, where many experience unity and purity of the church as opposites, the PCN believes the church’s unity expresses its purity. In this episode we host Marco Batenburg, who for five y…

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S1, E11: Theological Education for a New Missional Era 1:22:41

9d ago1:22:41

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When contexts change, ministry changes; and when ministry changes, theological education will also need to change. In this conversation we talk about the ways in which the Protestant Church in the Netherlands approaches the education of its (future) pastors, and how the praxis of ordained ministry itself changed over the last decades. Our conversat…

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S1, E10: Preaching within the Immanent Frame 1:08:20

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How do you preach about God, eschatology, or salvation to people who have no sense of the transcendent at all? How do you introduce them to what the Christian faith is all about? This is not just a question relevant to those reaching out to the unchurched; the same challenge holds within the church. In this episode we speak with Kees van Ekris. He …

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S1, E9: Secularization and Salvation 1:20:22

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What is the unique thing we find in Christianity but nowhere else? Recent research among Dutch pastors and church planters revealed that while most of them would answer this question with “Jesus” – but that they find it difficult to express what difference he makes. Older soteriological models no longer seem to resonate; past language no longer fee…

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A Happiness Prayer | Ep 58 | Ps. 90 - Finding God in the Psalms 29:35

29d ago29:35

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Highlights: A Happiness Prayer Episode 58 (Ps. 90) Is there any hope for happiness that lasts? Level One: Happiness in the Present Tense What are realistic expectations for the present life? A counter-intuitive answer: Happiness is not something we find by looking for it. It’s a by-product of other pursuits. Ultimately, happiness is a by-product of…

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S1E8: Church, Art, and Secularity 1:26:16

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While society might be secularizing, many are still drawn to the beauty of religious art. Over the last couple of decades, traditional Anglican Choral Evensong became very popular in the Netherlands. This is highly surprising, since the Netherlands is neither Anglican nor religious anymore. In this episode we talk to Hanna Rijken, who in cooperatio…

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S1 E7: Being Church in Groningen 1:08:17

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Pieter Versloot was a missionary in central-Asia, worked at the national offices of the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, and now is pastor of the Martini Church in Groningen, a church at the center of a small, Medieval city in the north of the Netherlands. In this traditionally-minded Protestant community he re-introduced the confessional as a…

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S1, E6: Being Church in the Frisian Countryside 1:25:07

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Hinne Wagenaar studied theology in the Netherlands and at Union Seminary in New York, taught theology in Cameroon, but then returned to his roots in the Frisian countryside where he started a new worshipping community rooted in the old, Medieval church building in this farmer town with 350 inhabitants. This church plant grew into a monastic communi…

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If You Were to Die Tonight...? | Ep. 57 | Finding God in the Psalms 33:51

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Highlights Episode 57 | If You Were to Die Tonight...? Relent, O LORD! How long will it be? Have compassion on your servants. (Psalm 90:13) Thankfully, we are meant to stand before God not on the basis of our merit but on the basis of his mercy? If you were to die tonight, and God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into my eternal kingdom?” Wha…

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S1, E5: Church Planting in Amsterdam 1:16:34

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In this episode we remain in Amsterdam, but this time focus on the work of church planting in such a highly secular context. David van der Meulen, also known as “dominee David’ (pastor David) or “the millennium pastor” (dubbed as such by a secular newspaper in Amsterdam) focuses his ministry on post-Christian successful millennials, who have no int…

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S1, E4: Being Church in Amsterdam 1:21:51

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Rosaliene Israel is an ordained minister and was until January 1, 2025 the secretary-general of the Protestant Church in Amsterdam, overseeing twenty-five faith communities in the city. For a number of years she lived in and led a new monastic community located right at the center of the Red Light District in Amsterdam. She also is a PhD candidate …

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S1, E3: Secularization in the Netherlands: Exploring the Landscape 1:10:58

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David Boogerd is a journalist working for Dutch public television and radio. Since 2019 he presents a weekly podcast about religion that has become highly popular. In this podcast, together with missiologist Stefan Paas, Boogerd interviews religious leaders, philosophers, psychologists, journalists, and politicians about secularization and its effe…

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S1, E1: Being Church in a Post-Christian World 17:55

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In this first episode, Kendra Buckwalter Smith and Edwin Chr. van Driel introduce the concept of this podcast: stories from the Dutch church for the sake of the missional conversation in North America. They discuss the nature of secularization in the Netherlands, the ways in which the Dutch church is a generation or two ahead of the North American …

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S1, E2: What Do We Mean by a Post-Christian World? 38:51

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In this episode, Kendra and Edwin delve more deeply into what we mean by a “post-Christian world.” A post-Christian culture is one in which, not only does the church have less power or influence, but in which for a growing group of people the Christian faith, or any kind of religious outlook, is increasingly implausible or irrelevant. Kendra and Ed…

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A Moment that Changed Everything! | Ep. 56 | How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short - Ps. 90 Part 2 - Finding God in the Psalms 31:33

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Highlights A Moment that Changed Everything! (Episode 56) How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short - Part 2 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Only when we take into account the full measure of our mortality do we have any chance of taking timely and appropriate action. Denial is our enemy. That’s why the first prayer …

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How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short | Ep. 55 | Ps. 90 Part 1 - Finding God in the Psalms 32:10

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Highlights: How to Cope with a Life That’s Too Short Psalm 90 (Part 1) : Finding God in the Psalms Two responses to the brevity of life: Resignation: Learn to accept the brutal reality of a life that’s too short. Admit defeat. Resistance - Affirm that there IS something wrong with the way things are. Death is a tyrant. An enemy to be defeated. Our …

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The Pathway to Paradise | Ep. 54 | Psalm 16 - Finding God in the Psalms 30:59

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Highlights: The Pathway to Paradise - Psalm 16 Finding God in the Psalms (Episode 54) The most unhappy people in the world are not those who have nothing, but those who have everything and have learned that it doesn’t make any diﬀerence. Paradise is an ever-receding horizon. Paradise is not a place, it’s a Person. Every vision of “the life we’ve al…

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Fulfill Your Purpose! | Ep. 53 | Finding God in the Psalms 32:55

9M ago32:55

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Highlights - Episode 53 Fulfill Your Purpose! Finding God in the Psalms First - Start with Humility Second - Connect with the Coach To understand anthropology begin with theology. Discovering the purpose of life begins and ends with God. When God made us in his image, it means we were created to speak and act on his behalf…on behalf of the King, as…

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Antidote to Fear | Ep. 52 31:00

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Highlights - Episode 52 | Antidote to Fear The answer for our fears is not a what, but a who. First: Remember, God is BIGGER than our problem. Second: Pursue your friendship with God BEFORE you face a crisis. Third: Pray earnestly. Fourth: Take Action. God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things …

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Three Reasons Our World’s a Mess and What We Can Do About It.” | Ep. 51 | What’s on My Bookshelf 28:37

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Highlights Live No Lies, by John Mark Comer Deceptive ideas play to disordered desires that are normalized in a sinful society. The Devil The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. Disinformation is at the root of almost every single problem we face in our society and our souls Soak your mind and imagination …

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Is Reading the Bible the Fastest Way to Lose Your Faith? | Ep. 50 | A review: How NOT to Read the Bible. 36:21

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Highlights: How NOT to Read the Bible (Episode 50) The road to atheism is littered with Bibles that have been read cover to cover. To most Christians, the Bible is like a software license. Nobody actually reads it. They just scroll to the bottom and click “I agree.” Never Read a Bible Verse By lifting verses out of context, they can easily be misun…

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A Review: Plagues Upon the Earth, by Kyle Harper - The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse Part 3 | Ep. 49 | What’s On My Bookshelf? 34:51

2+ y ago34:51

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What’s On My Bookshelf? A Review: Plagues Upon the Earth, by Kyle Harper - The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse | Part 3 - Highlights Coronaviruses and influenza viruses are the ones that we are currently worried about. H5N1 (a bird flu)...if it ever gets airborne...it’s got a 60% death rate. (Dr. Larry Brilliant, Harvard Magazine) It is the advan…

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A Review: Plagues Upon the Earth, by Kyle Harper - The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse - Part 2 | Ep. 48 | What’s On My Bookshelf? 34:45

2+ y ago34:45

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What’s On My Bookshelf? A Review: Plagues Upon the Earth, by Kyle Harper The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse | Part 2 Highlights We still have much to learn from the experience of those who lived and died before us. It is urgent that we do so. The long history of disease counsels us to expect the unexpected. The worst threat may be the one we can…

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A Review: Plagues Upon the Earth, by Kyle Harper - The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse - Part 1 | Ep. 47 | What’s On My Bookshelf? 27:53

2+ y ago27:53

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What’s On My Bookshelf? Part 1 | A Review: Plagues Upon the Earth, by Kyle Harper The Fourth Horseman of the Apocalypse Highlights Up to around 1700 life on earth was short and full of sorrow. Life expectancy was below 30 years. Most people died of infectious disease...around 1900 a great threshold was crossed for the the first time in the history …

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What’s On My Bookshelf - Part 1 | Ep. 46 | Eight Ways to Make This Your Best Year Ever 36:25

3y ago36:25

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What’s On My Bookshelf | Eight Ways to Make This Your Best Year Ever 4000 Weeks, by Oliver Burkeman We’ve been granted the mental capacities to make almost infinitely ambitious plans yet practically no time at all to put them into action...Stop trying so hard...It’s ok to give up on what’s impossible in the first place. One: Accept the limitations …

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 8 | Ep 45 | Six Reasons We Don’t Listen and What to Do About It 31:54

3y ago31:54

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Highlights Ears: The Soft Power of Listening - Part 8 (Episode 45) Six Reasons We Don’t Listen and What to Do About It Six reasons most of us don’t listen well: 1. We’ve never been taught how. We are encouraged to listen to our hearts, and listen to our gut, but rarely are we encouraged to listen carefully and with intent to other people. ( Kate Mu…

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 7 | Ep 44 | Miracle Grow for Relationships 28:26

3y ago28:26

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Highlights Ears: The Soft Power of Listening - Part 7 (Episode 44) Miracle Grow for Relationships Marriage The decision to get married is weighted heavily toward what we see...is this person physically attractive to me? But the decision to stay married is weighted more toward what we hear...do I have satisfying communication with my spouse? Thirty-…

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 6 | Ep. 43 | Persuasion Starts Here 25:45

3y ago25:45

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HIghlights - Ears (Part 6, Episode 43) Persuasion Starts Here People don’t care what we know until they know that we care.” To listen well is the first step in caring. Persuasion begins with listening well. Four scenarios: 1. When someone is angry 2. When you are trying to make a sale I discovered early on that people don’t buy from me because they…

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 5 | Ep. 42 | Help! I’m Hurting! 28:44

3y ago28:44

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Ears: The Soft Power of Listening - Part 5 (Episode 42) Help! I’m Hurting! Highlights Be kind to everyone you meet because everyone you meet is fighting a battle. When it comes to helping the hurting...this is almost always true of our words. Less is more. Job’s comforters did everything right for the first seven days, and so do we when we do the s…

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 4 | Ep. 41 | Seven Habits of Highly Effective Listeners (4-7) 24:27

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Ears: The Soft Power of Listening - Part 4 (Episode 41) Seven Habits of Highly Effective Listeners (Continued) HIghlights Listening well means to pay careful attention to what’s being said in a way that encourages people to continue to share even more of their story The fourth habit of highly effective listeners: Don’t use your own stories to compe…

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 3 | Ep. 40 | Seven Habits of Highly Effective Listeners (1-3) 24:19

3y ago24:19

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Highlights: Ears | Seven Habits of Highly Effective Listeners (1-3) A checklist for listening well First, keep the focus on the other person A support response does this by asking questions and reflecting/paraphrasing what the other person is saying. While listening...One of the most helpful things we should be listening for is an open door to ask …

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 2 | Ep. 39 | The Secret Sauce of Great Conversations 27:55

3y ago27:55

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Highlights: Ep. 39 | Ears | Part 2 | The Soft Power of Listening - The Secret Sauce of Great Conversations Curiosity...it’s the single most important factor in listening well. It’s the secret sauce. Great conversations are driven by curiosity. So follow your curiosity. The obvious tool of my trade is the tape recorder, but I suppose the real tool i…

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Ears : The Soft Power of Listening - Part 1 | Ep.38 | Five Reasons This May Be Our Most Important Life Skill 28:53

3y ago28:53

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Highlights: Ep.38 | Ears | Part 1 | Five Reasons This May Be Our Most Important Life Skill Definition: Listening well is more than just hearing with our ears. It’s hearing with our hearts. One: Listening well creates a unique and almost sacred bond between people. Those who listen longer than most people ever listen will hear things that most peopl…

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Ep. 37 | Mere Christianity | Part 16 | The Road Less Traveled 38:57

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Highlights - Ep. 37 | Mere Christianity | Part 16 | The Road Less Traveled I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity. (God in the Dock) Christ says, “Give me all. I don’t want so much of your time and so…

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Ep. 36 | Mere Christianity | Part 15 | Next Steps Toward a Greater Destiny 31:22

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Highlights: Ep. 37 | Mere Christianity | Part 16 | The Road Less Traveled The secret to the abundant life is not our responsibility but our response to God’s ability. (E.Stanley Jones) First: The Imitation of Christ - “Let’s Pretend.” Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already. That is why chil…

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Ep. 35 | Mere Christianity | Part 14 | Your First Step Toward a Greater Destiny 40:00

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“Everything which really needs to be done in our souls can be done only by God.” “If Christianity only means one more bit of good advice, then Christianity is of no importance. There has been no lack of good advice for the last four thousand years! A bit more makes no difference!” Christianity is about being a friend of God. It’s relational. It’s n…

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Ep. 34 | Mere Christianity | Part 13 | More Than What We've Become 29:04

4y ago29:04

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Highlights: Ep. 34 | Mere Christianity | Part 13 | More Than What We've Become When we draw our circle bigger we’re enriched. When we don’t we’re impoverished and diminished. Streams of Living Water, (Richard Foster) If you’ve benefited from the writings of C.S. Lewis, it’s because a few key people a generation ago decided to draw their circle bigg…

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Ep. 33 | Mere Christianity | Part 12 | Failure - A Defining Moment 33:08

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Highlights: Ep. 33 | Mere Christianity | Part 12 | Failure - A Defining Moment “The main thing we learn from a serious attempt to practice the Christian virtues is that we fail… God has been waiting for the moment at which you discover that there is no question of earning a pass mark in this exam. The first result of real Christianity is to blow th…

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Ep. 32 | Mere Christianity | Part 11 | To Go The Distance 31:16

4y ago31:16

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Ep. 32 | Mere Christianity | Part 11 | To Go The Distance Highlights Faith as Lewis uses it here means “spiritual tenacity.” “Faith is…a necessary virtue. Unless you teach your moods “where they get off,” you can never be a sound Christian…but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of it…

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Ep. 31 | Mere Christianity | Part 10 | The Gift of Tomorrow 32:38

4y ago32:38

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Highlights: Ep. 31 | Mere Christianity | Part 10 | The Gift of Tomorrow What happens when we die? Only a fool ignores this question. “Think of yourself just as a seed patiently waiting in the earth; waiting to come up a flower in the Gardener’s good time, up into the real world, the real waking. I suppose our whole present life, looked back on from…

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Ep. 30 | Mere Christianity | Part 9 | Just Do It 29:52

4y ago29:52

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Highlights: Ep. 30 | Mere Christianity | Part 9 | Just Do It Love is the litmus test for authentic Christian living. It’s the one signature quality above all others that defines us as Christ-followers. “Love in the Christian sense, does not mean an emotion. It is a state not of the feelings but of the will…It would be quite wrong to think that the …

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Ep. 29 | Mere Christianity | Part 8 | The Greatest Sin 30:35

4y ago30:35

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Highlights - The Great Sin According to Christian teachers, the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice. Pride, in all its forms is essentially “self-conceit.” Vanity: People…

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Ep. 28 | Mere Christianity | Part 7 | A Terrible Duty 27:30

4y ago27:30

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Highlights: A Terrible Duty - Episode 28 I said in a previous chapter that chastity was the most unpopular of the Christian virtues. But I am not sure I was right. I believe the one I have to talk of today is even more unpopular: the Christian rule, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Because in Christian morals “thy neighbor” includes “thy …

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Ep. 27 | Mere Christianity | Part 6 | How to Make Marriage Work 28:59

4y ago28:59

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Highlights: How to Make Marriage Work: Two important keys to making marriage work. First - The determination that marriage is for life. “Christianity teaches that marriage is for life…a man and wife are to be regarded as a single organism…”one flesh.” They (various churches) all regard divorce as something like cutting up a living body…some think t…

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Ep. 26 | Mere Christianity | Part 5 | Good Sex 29:33

4y ago29:33

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Mere Christianity | Part5 | Good Sex - Highlights “Some muddle-headed Christians have talked as if …sex, or the body, or pleasure, were bad in themselves. But they are wrong. Christianity is almost the only one of the great religions which thoroughly approves of the body - which believes that matter is good, that God Himself once took on a human bo…

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Ep. 25 | Mere Christianity | Part 4 | Beyond Politics! 32:06

4y ago32:06

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About Politics: “Christianity has not and does not profess to have, a detailed political program. We are given the golden rule, ‘Do as you would be done by.’ But how that should be applied…to a particular society at a particular time is not specified for us. “That is why people who are fighting for quite opposite things can both say they are fighti…

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Ep. 24 | Mere Christianity | Part 3 | Time to Come Home 32:57

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“Enemy occupied territory - that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed…landed in disguise…But why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is de…

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Ep. 23 | Mere Christianity | Part 2 | Why is there so much evil? 30:06

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Highlights - Mere Christianity (Part 2) Episode 23 Lewis is more than a pipe-smoking, ivory tower, arm-chair academic. He had literally/personally agonized and bled in the “trenches” over this question: If there is a God, then why is there so much evil and suffering? He knew first-hand, in a way that few of us have ever experienced, that “something…

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Ep. 22 | Mere Christianity | Part 1 | A Clue to the Meaning of the Universe 26:42

4y ago26:42

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Lewis appeared on the September 8, 1947 cover of Time Magazine. This slightly stooped, round-shouldered, balding professor of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University was an international “rock star.” One irony…originally Mere Christianity was a series of radio talks! They were never written to be a book! Lewis gave these talks on t…

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Ep. 21 | Teach Us To Pray | Part 10 | A Relationship to Be Pursued 33:42

4+ y ago33:42

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Highlights - Episode 21 - Teach Us…A Relationship to Be Pursued Nine prayer practices that have helped me continue to make progress in my own relationship with God. First: Think more relationally…less transactionally. It’s not what we say, it’s who we’re with. “Prayer is not a button to be pushed; it’s a relationship to be pursued.” (Carey Nieuwhof…