Gospel Conversations

For this episode Andrew is in conversation with Leisa Aitken as they discuss Andrew's paper on the "Sacrifice of Isaac". The paper was a short exegesis on Genesis 22 and can be found at this  link  

Tony continues looking at Ezekiel 12 - 14, this time through the lens of Dostoievsky’s ‘Grand Inquisitor’.  Tony takes us into Dostoievsky’s famous imaginary confrontation where the Inquisitor berates Jesus for ‘overestimating’ humanity and wanting too much from them - love rather than servility. He draws a deep comparison between this and the idolatrous mindset.

Tony looks to the passage Ezekiel 12 - 14 to address the subject of ‘Idolatry in the OT and how modern Christians get it wrong’.  “Getting rid of idols in our hearts” is a common refrain in lots of preaching.  But is it true to scripture - both in the NT and the OT? Tony dives into the worldview behind idolatry and the real challenge it presented to the Mosaic vision of the one true God.

Ezekiel chapter 6 - Ezekiel and the ‘angry God’ of the OT.  In this BWJ episode Tony confronts the question of the so-called ‘angry God’ or ‘just God’ of the Old Testament and whether this picture contradicts the loving and ‘broken’ God revealed in Jesus.

Introduction;  Breakfast with Jesus kicks off again after a short break with a series of meditations on Ezekiel.  Tony begins with a big picture introduction in which he compares Jeremiah and Ezekiel, their overlapping lives, and the way Ezekiel pioneers apocalyptic thinking and the hope of resurrection.

In this episode, Andrew and Tony explore a radical alternative view of the Fall – as ‘lost dominion’.  To do this they go back to the creation account and expand the concept of our being made in the image of God, and the implications of God calling humanity to have ‘dominion’.

This is the second conversation with Andrew Baartz in our series on the increasingly controversial doctrine of ‘penal substitution’. The title of our series is ‘The Cross and Creation; can atonement combine both?’ This week Tony and Andrew explore the question - ‘What are the challenges in creation for which the cross was the solution?’ 

In this latest BwJ talk of Jeremiah Tony investigates ‘allegory’ as a way to read the OT in particular. Is it an outdated, and fanciful method – or were the Patristics really onto something in their attraction to allegory as a legitimate way to read the OT stories and prophets?

This is the first conversation with Andrew Baartz in our series on the increasingly controversial doctrine of ‘penal subsititution’. The title of our series is ‘The Cross and Creation; can atonement combine both?’ True to our approach at GC, we want to explore the topic rather than wading into the blow by blow debate. Our guest is Andrew Baartz. Andrew and Tony talk about the big picture – what are the questions for which atonement is the answer? And what are the assumptions behind those questions? The discussion stretches our conceptual landscape to allow for some broader perspectives. True to our theme at GC, we will position this topic within the horizon of the ‘creation gospel’. The conversation will continue next month.

Jeremiah 17:9 is often taken as a proof text for ‘original sin’ and “total depravity”.  But is that a correct reading and is the human heart indeed ‘desperately wicked’? In this talk Tony explores this question and along the way uses the text – and its typical mishandling – as a starting point to explore smarter and more authentic ways to read Jeremiah – and indeed the Old Testament.  This is pretty important as it unlocks the text from its cage of assumptions and lets it speak for itself – and so challenge and transform us.

Tony takes an extensive look at the way Jeremiah uses the image of the ‘Valley of Hinnom’ (or Gehenna) in his prophecies about Jerusalem and its impending doom.  He then looks at how the gospels, Matthew in particular, deliberately position Jesus as the modern ‘Jeremiah’ or ‘prophet’.  This positioning shines a new light on what Jesus may have meant by his use of the metaphor of ‘Gehenna’ (the Aramaic for ‘Valley of Hinnom’).  Finally Tony looks at the neglected high point of the new covenant in Jeremiah – which is the apparent redemption of the Valley of Hinnom as ‘sacred to the Lord’…. All of this leaves us with a different view of ‘hell’ (Gehenna) that is much more grounded in the Biblical text.

Tony Golsby-Smith interviews, Matt Clarke, on the subject of slavery in the 21st century – and how the normal Christian model of retribution and justice can get in the way of innovative solutions. Matt has worked in this field for years and became frustrated at the short sighted interventions of many Not-for-profits in this space. He has just written a great book, called ‘Disrupting Mercy’ about the topic which argues that we don’t just need a more holistic approach – we need a new paradigm of mercy. This interview is a prelude to our upcoming series on ‘The Cross and Creation’ where we will be examining the pros and cons of the controversial doctrine of ‘penal substitution’.

This is Tony’s follow up talk on Jeremiah 32 – the story of Jeremiah buying a field. In this talk he dives into the analogy and explores just what insight it offers us as to how to live in the present through the lens of hope. He argues that the lens of ‘self denial’ is not what the analogy really is teaching us about the way our hope for the future influences our lives in the present.

Welcome to 2023 and our first Breakfast with Jesus talk for the year. in this talk Tony discusses the famous story of Jeremiah buying a field in the face of Jerusalem’s doom – a very stupid thing to do – and how this shines a light on how we might act in our lives according to the logic of hope. I position this talk inside a hot topic of modern Christendom;  the ‘end times’ and how our fascination with predicting the future has obscured the eschatological dimensions of the gospel.

Tony builds on his recent talk on the new covenant in Jeremiah by exploring how the Epistle of Hebrews uses this new covenant promise in the NT. Hebrews 8 quotes the Jeremiah passage in full – the longest OT quotation in the NT. What is interesting is how the writer uses the Jeremiah passage and takes it further by explaining how the contract based law of Moses failed to deliver what God wanted.

Leisa finishes the year off for GC with a profound summary of her doctorate on ‘hope’. It is full of gems and very relevant for an anxious and despairing world.  Her doctorate was targeted at the secular world of clinical psychology, but in this talk we get a ‘Christian’ version of this important work where Leisa can be explicit about the theological grounds for her ideas. She aligns her work with Esther’s message on knowing as a form of desire and anticipation.

This is the second of three short talks from Gospel Conversations supporters as a response to Esther Meek's Covenant Epistemology. Mark Ridgeway explores the thought of Esther Meek in the context of Discipleship. He follows the contours of Covenant Epistemology, explores the practice of inviting the real and concludes with some practical recommendations for the Church.

This is the first of three short talks from Gospel Conversations supporters as a response to Esther Meek's Covenant Epistemology.   In this talk Ron Winestock addresses the big questions of the universe and how Covenant Epistemology can help us see clearly through the two levels of knowing. Ron argues that since Isaac Newton we have emphasised the focal and discredited the subsidiary.

In this closing section of the conference Esther Meek finishes with the question, how does the Real Invite Us?

In this talk Tony explores the extraordinary declaration of the ‘new covenant’ in Jeremiah 31 and asks “What is ‘new’ about this new covenant?” He argues that is far more ‘new’ than most Christians assume:  it is a paradigm shift that overturns the very nature of contract and conditions.