Forging Ploughshares

Jason, Vangie, and Paul discuss how Christian's are to perceive this present political moment in which a vast number of Christians have aligned themselves with a particular political party.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Part I - Jason and Vangie Rodenbeck and Paul Axton discuss the significance of the Netflix portrayal of the election of Pope Francis and the resignation of Pope Benedict. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches - The way of peace can be equated with the Gospel while the way of violence is that taken by the enemies of the cross of Christ. It should be oxymoronic to speak of “violent Christianity” or “Christian warfare.” Peace is the Christian way established by the Cross and instituted in God's Kingdom, the Church. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In Part 2 of this interview with Dr. Deborah Saxon the roll of self care is explored more completely and this gives rise to a discussion of how this understanding relates to other cultures such as Japan. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches - The story of Herod's lying guise of wanting to worship Jesus and his subsequent slaughter of the innocents calls upon us to consider the moral cost of the perpetual battle for power in which political leaders will put on the façade of religion and where the powerless and the poor are slaughtered for the powerful.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In Part 1 of this 2 part conversation with Dr. Deborah Saxon we discuss some of the missing texts written by and focused on women in the early Church. Dr. Saxon has focused on gender and the care of the self in early Christianity and she explains what this meant and its implications for Christians today. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Deep and full joy and laughter are a rebellion against the darkness of the world. Laughter and Christ are synonymous. To miss the laughter, to miss the joy, is to miss Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In part 2 of this discussion between Brad Jersak, Matt Welch, and Paul Axton the approach to the Old Testament understanding, in light of Christ, is worked out. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches: Humans are deadly. We are deadly for other creatures and for ourselves. The revelation of Christ witnessed to in Scripture is not about God’s anger being appeased or satisfied. It is about the human predicament, the exposure of the destructive nature of human logic, and the positing of life on a different principle.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In this episode Paul Axton and Matt Welch talk with Brad Jersak about his journey of discovery of peace and the Christ centered nature of that peace.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches - There is a waiting – that is simply fear driven inaction. Advent is not this sort of waiting. It is the expectation of the birth of Christ, reimagined and infused with hope of the Parousia, so that “God with us” identifies the nature of the absence.  Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches: A Girardian interpretation of the Eucharist exposes the murder covered over by the myths of the nation as in Thanksgiving.   Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Martin Heidegger was at once the the greatest metaphysician of the 20th century and a despicable idiot in his involvement with National Socialism in Germany. In this talk Paul Axton suggests the evil of the man is present in his thought while the thought still contains great insight. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches - Is conscience and guilt the voice of God or part of the human disease deluding the self. The history of human suffering and its peculiar shape according to time and place indicate the human creation of suffering and this points to the the therapy or healing of Christ. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound    

In this lecture on Japanese religion and culture Paul Axton delves into the problem of defining religion, especially as it is often defined in connection with Christianity. This is a sample of the approach that will be employed in the upcoming class on Religion and Culture offered through Ploughshares Bible Institute. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches: The New Testament is focused on achieving peace. This peace is certainly inclusive of a physical non-violence, but it also includes corporate peace – an enacted peace in the body of Christ, and a psychological peace which we are to discern and cultivate. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Jonathan Totty and Paul Axton describe how approaches to Thomas (in Neo-Thomism, Nouvelle Theology, Radical Orthodoxy, Post-liberalism, Reformed Theology) may account for Trad-Catholics, Evangelical apologetics, analytical philosophy, and the rise of nominalism and secularism. The peculiar understandings of Thomas help explain the divisions of modern thought and theology. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

The ultimate sacrilege occurring in churches today is the sacrifice of women and children, the outworking of the Fall characteristic of Moloch worship, in the name of Christ. This is the potential tragedy connected with reifying traditional roles captured in complementarianism. It misses the fact that the Gospel is overturning fallen norms of what it means to be male and female.   Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

Paul Axton Preaches: Love in the body of Christ is our assurance it is our certainty.  This is not the certainty of a principle or formula (which is without life or presence) but the certainty of a promise of real presence of my brother on the right and my sister on the left. Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound

In this interview with Michael Hardin, the author of the "Jesus Driven Life," we discuss the work of Rene Girard as it is integrated with a non-violent hermeneutic. Hardin is an acclaimed author who has written extensively on Girard and in addition to his other books also edited the important compilation, "Stricken by God." Become a Patron! If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider donating to support our work. Music: Bensound