Undeceptions+ with John Dickson: Recent Episodes
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Unlock this Undeceptions premium feed by subscribing to Undeceptions+ here. As an Undeceptions+ member, you will enjoy subscriber-exclusive bonus content including first looks at our new shows, unedited interviews and extended episodes. Every week on Undeceptions we’ll explore some aspect of life, faith, history, culture, or ethics that is either much misunderstood or mostly forgotten. With the help of people who know what they’re talking about, we’ll be trying to ‘undeceive ourselves’ and let the truth ‘out’.
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's Master Lecture series by Russ Ramsey, Rembrandt is in the Wind. Click here to get 50% off your first 3 months subscription with the code UNDECEPTIONS50.
Since their publication between 1950 and 1956, the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis have sold more than 100-million copies in 47 languages.
And despite their dated references and sometimes controversial worldviews, they continue to sell over a million copies a year.
They’ve also inspired theatre performances, radio plays, television series, and three major films that earned a healthy one and a half billion US dollars.
So it’s understandable that many people know of C.S. Lewis only as a fantastically successful children’s author, unaware that he is also the author of a huge collection of books commending and defending the Christian faith, Mere Christianity, Miracles, The Screwtape Letters, and so on.
Narnia is wonderful. But it’s a pity people don’t know more about the man, his career, and his famous town–all of which form the backdrop for the incredible fantasy world he created for millions of readers.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
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Hosted by John Dickson
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From John Dickson: While we’re working hard on our next Season of Undeceptions, I’ve asked the Rev Dr George Athas to have a chat to you about how we can be sure our old stuff - artefacts we’ve found from thousands of years ago - is actually old. George is Director of Research, Old Testament and Hebrew at Moore Theological College in Sydney. We spoke to him at length for our super popular episode called ‘Between Testaments’, so go check that out if you haven’t heard it already. It’s one of my favourites. George has done a huge amount of research on the Tel Dan Inscription, a fragmentary stele that dates to the 9th Century BC. It’s considered the most important - and controversial - inscription found in Israel in recent years. And George wrote the first book about it. So, over to him.
One of the surprises when we turn the pages of the New Testament is how little the word “Christian” actually comes up. Given this is the book for Christians you’d expect it to be littered with the words “Christian” and “Christianity.” But the word “Christian” only comes three times, whereas the language of being “in Christ” comes up over 200 times. It’s pretty much everywhere.
Listen back to our first LIVE Q&A session with John Dickson where he answered all your questions about on Transgender, after our extremely popular episode 69 earlier this year.
The basic aim of ‘critical theory’ is to make visible the hidden structures of a culture, so as to critique society and then, in the best forms of critical theory, bring about improvements. Our guest today reckons the Bible has its own way of exposing the flaws of our culture–and, of course, pointing to the Good. The Bible, in other words, has a critical theory of its own.
PLUS Subscribers receive an EXTENDED episode, with almost 10 extra minutes of Christopher Watkin's and John Dickson's discussion.
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book Five Views of Christ in the Old Testament, edited by Brian J. Tabb and Andrew M. King.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Online Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
It's our seasonal Q&A episode and there are actually quite a few curly questions about the future of the universe, heaven, as well as plenty of other questions about a bewildering range of topics, some of which push John to the edge of what he knows–perhaps beyond!
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics for Everyone, Volume 1 - The Doctrine of the Word of God: A Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners and Pros, by Marty Folsom.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
Our UNDECEPTIONS PLUS Subscribers are getting almost about 8 minutes of extra time with Tom McLeish in this extended episode. We hope you enjoy!
It may just be that science is an imaginative, creative, and emotive enterprise, just as it is obviously a rational, mathematical, evidence-based discipline. Which, to John Dickson's mind - and that of our expert guest - makes perfect sense. After all, the Creator is an artist and logician in one!
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture by Christopher Watkin.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
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Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
We take a closer look at 15 words that are often misunderstood, or sometimes forgotten. And my guest today reckons these words communicate the heart and soul of the New Testament, of the Christian faith, of God himself.
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic’s new book Bright Hope for Tomorrow by Chris Davis.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
Even after making our recent episode on euthanasia the longest episode yet, we had some stuff that we just couldn’t fit in. We asked our guests, Baroness Ilora Finlay and Professor Melanie Lovell, what euthanasia does to the doctor/patient relationship. And their answers were fascinating. So, just for our PLUS subscribers, here’s what they said.
This episode, we’re laying out the best arguments for and against legalising euthanasia and asking: What view of the human person should a good society embody in its laws?
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book Seasons of Sorrow by Tim Challies.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
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The death of religion was the conventional wisdom in the social sciences during most of the twentieth century. Turns out, they were wrong. Religion is not dead. It’s still here. Actually, it’s growing.
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book The Lost Letters to the Twelve Prophetsby John Goldingay.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
John had a total nerd-fest in his recent interview with Seb Falk, an historian of medieval science and medicine at the University of Cambridge. We're sure most of you Undeceivers are also part-nerd, so enjoy this full, unedited interview to complement our recent episode on ‘Medieval Science’.
The period 500 to 1500 - the Middle Ages - was anything but dark. In fact, it was one of the most lively periods in world history.
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book The Beauty Chasers by Timothy Willard.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
Buddhism probably takes the prize today for World’s Most Lovable Religion. But is this widespread appreciation of Buddhism matched by widespread understanding?
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan Academic's new book 15 New Testament Words of Life by Nijay Gupta.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
John so thoroughly enjoyed his discussion with Rosalind Picard for our recent episode titled ‘Emotional Intelligence’ that we wanted to share the full story of how this titan of MIT came to trust in Jesus Christ. So, here’s Rosalind telling that story in full.
This episode of Undeceptions is sponsored by Zondervan’s new bookGlobal Christianity: A Guide to the World’s Largest Religion from Afghanistan to Zimbabweby Gina Zurlo.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan Academic's book Bully Pulpit by Michael J. Kruger.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Librarian: Siobhan McGuiness
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
The song 'Christmas Time' was written by John's mate Ben Shaw, with some help from John himself. We recorded Ben’s beautiful guitar parts just 4 weeks before he died of cancer.
Ben was on this podcast a couple of times in his last months, so we hope regular listeners think of him as their friend, too.
He died a year ago today, June 17. And we’re releasing the song in his memory – it was one of his last big wishes that we take this song, which he and John had performed many times over the years but had never recorded, and rework it with a full band and release it. That’s what we’ve done.
You’ll hear the entire song at the end. In the meantime, we sat down with our long-time music producer Colin Benvenuto (and his guitar) and Ben’s wife Karen, a backing vocalist in the song, and we chatted about … well, Ben … and how the song came together.
If you want to see a little more, we’ve produced a video montage for the song over at undeceptions.com/christmastime.
In our episode called ‘The Artist' we explored the question: 'What is beauty'? As is often the case with multiple experts in the one episode, we couldn't possibly fit everything into the episode, and left a significant amount on the cutting room floor. Instead of leaving it there, we've add it here! So, here's Makoto Fujimura in conversation with John Dickson. It was a conversation that John really enjoyed and we're excited that our Undeceivers will get to hear it in full.
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book The Beauty Chasers by Timothy Willard.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Religious Freedom in a Secular Age by Michael F. Bird.
Visit the undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.
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Email the show with your comments / feedback: admin@undeceptions.com
Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Typology-Understanding the Bible's Promise-Shaped Patterns: How Old Testament Expectations are Fulfilled in Christ by James M. Hamilton Jr.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book Malestrom: How Jesus Dismantles Patriarchy and Redefines Manhood by Carolyn Custis James
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
Christianity used to be a big deal in Denmark, going right back to the Vikings. In a follow up to our epic two-part episode on the Vikings, John has a brief chat with the lead pastor of Hillsong Denmark, Thomas Hansen, about how Christians are trying to reinvigorate the faith in Scandinavia.
You might have thought we’d be done with the Vikings after a full two episodes, but you thought wrong! Christianity in Scandinavia has such an interesting history, and I have to admit, I went a little overboard while I was in Denmark earlier this year. So, here’s a full interview with Professor Kurt Larsen, from the Lutheran School of Theology in Aarhus. Kurt and I spoke mainly about how Denmark went from Catholic (which was around since the Vikings) to Lutheran during the Reformation. Enjoy.
This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book The Sexual Reformation by Aimee Byrd.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
We're launching our longboats on to the seas of myth and popular culture… and discovering over two in-depth episodes what we can actually say with some confidence about the Vikings - their origins, exploits, culture, religion and - perhaps the best-kept Viking secret - their eventual decision (and it was their decision!) to become Christians.
This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us by Michael Horton.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
In our episode called ‘Kingdom Come’, all about what the Bible does and doesn’t say about Heaven and eternity, we included a brief cameo with Professor Peter Kreeft, getting his take on the Beatific Vision - a venerable Catholic traditional idea that warranted a closer look in the episode. But John also asked him a few other things about the specifically Catholic vision of Heaven, including about purgatory. We thought you might like to hear the full interview.
What happens beyond death is one of those areas—like the idea of a Rapture prior to a Second Coming—where myths have crept into popular Christian thought which have little connection either with the Bible or with what the church has taught throughout the centuries.
The modern myth is: When Christians die, their bodies decay once and for all, while their spirits (whatever they are) go eternally into God’s presence in heaven.
The Bible’s claim is: When Christians die, they rest safe in God’s presence, until they are bodily raised to life to enjoy forever a new creation.
ABOUT UNDECEPTIONS
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book Good News of Our Limits by Sean McGever.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
American pastor and theologian Tim Keller is one of the great ‘Undeceivers’ of the 21st Century. And I was thrilled that, despite some of the challenges Tim has faced in the last little while, that he said yes to what ended up being a rather long interview. And I’m even more thrilled that you guys will get to hear that interview, uncut, right now. I hope you get a lot out of it. I sure did.
The Joshua Tree National Park in California is a good starting place for Laurel Moffatt's reflection on our struggles to see the light.
The park is full of interesting characters as well as a compelling number of stars - most of which are invisible to the outside world. Because of the amount of artificial light we use each night, more than a third of people can no longer see the Milky Way.
But the brightness of the light in deep darkness can show us how faint, how small, how very weak and narrow our own attempts at lighting our own way are.
LINKS
- Paul Bogard, The End of Night: Searching for Natural Darkness in an Age of Artificial Light.
- Emily Dickinson, “I saw no Way – The Heavens were stitched –” , Fr633 (1863) J378
- Fabio Falchi, et al. “The new world atlas of artificial night sky brightness”, Science Advances,10 Jun 2016, Vol 2, Issue 6
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Tim Keller is the founding pastor of New York’s Redeemer Presbyterian Church and the author of several New York times best-selling books.
It's also fair probably fair to say that he is something of a Christian prophet for our secularizing 21st century.
This is a chat with one of our world’s most trusted ‘undeceivers’. Whether you believe or doubt, we're sure what you’re about to hear will bring fresh clarity about the Christian faith in doubting times.
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book Good News of Our Limits by Sean McGever.
Visit the undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
In this bonus tid-bit, exclusively for Undeceptions+ subscribers, John Dickson talks to David Hutchings and James Ungureanu about Augustine and how in the world he has been viewed by some as the archenemy of human intellectual progress: the gateway to the Dark Ages.
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book Religious Freedom in a Secular Age by Michael F. Bird.
Visit the undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.
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Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Social Media by Sophie Hawkshaw
Administration by Lyndie Leviston
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2022
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Rembrandt is in the Wind by Russ Ramsey.
For the full show notes for this episode head to Undeceptions.com.
Greg Sheridan is one of Australia's most influential foreign affairs analysts, as well as an acclaimed author. In short, he's not afraid of sharing an opinion.
He and John Dickson take a stroll through his latest book, Christians: The urgent case for Jesus in our world, and take a close look at the key elements of the faith.
Greg bravely shares how he thinks the Christian faith makes perfect sense to the rational mind.
Undeceptions is proud to announce that the popular podcast, With All Due Respect, is joining the network as of today.
To mark the occasion hosts Megan Powell du Toit and Michael Jensen have crafted a single about the power of storytelling to transform lives.
You can find out more about their awesome show over at The WADR Project website.
It's our first season in the run down to Season 6 of Undeceptions, and John Dickson asks friend of the show Laurel Moffatt to share some uncommon wisdom earned from teaching her daughter music during the COVID lockdown.
Laurell tells us how listening to Bach's Goldberg Variations - the way they chop and change but still stay the same - has given her a new way of viewing life during a pandemic.
In this final episode of the Bullies And Saints super-series, John Dickson reflects on Jesus' instruction to His disciples to look at the log in their own eyes before reflecting on others' shortcomings and asks whether this might equally apply to those outside the church.
John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.
In this episode, John up-ends a four-hundred-year-old fallacy that has been promoted since the Enlightenment: the Christian faith is a brake on scientific and literary progress. The Dark Ages - were they really that dark?
Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.
And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.
John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.
In this edition, John Dickson introduces us to two characters that display all that’s been good and bad about the followers of Jesus - Ebolus the crossbowman and Bernard of Clairvaux.
Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.
And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.
John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.
In this edition, John investigates the accusation that Christianity is a faith that was propagated by the sword rather than peace. Are Christians guilty of their own jihad?
Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.
And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.
John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.
In this episode, John Dickson gives us an insight into the invention of charity, and just how revolutionary the Christian call to love one another proved for the ancient world.
Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.
And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.
John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.
In this edition, John uncovers the character of the earliest Christians, how it contrasted with the world around them, and how ‘in tune’ it was with the beautiful melody that Jesus set them to sing.
Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.
And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.
John Dickson's Bullies and Saints is a super-podcast providing excerpts of the book by the same name - a no-holds-barred look at the best and worst of church history.
In this episode, John Dickson takes us to the Crusades and introduces one of the most infamous crusaders of all: Peter the Hermit, a fire and brimstone Christian if ever there was one.
Click here to buy a copy of Bullies and Saints, or here to own the entire audiobook.
And for even more on the history of Christianity, and how well the church is mirroring the message that Jesus handed on, head over to the Undeceptions website.
What if we rededicated ourselves to the ancient wisdom of rest. “Rest” not understood as the mere absence of work, but “rest” as the rejuvenating partner to work.
What would our lives look like? How would it feel? What impact would it have?
Content warning, friends: this episode could change your life.
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan’s new book ‘Confronting Injustice without Compromising Truth’ by Thaddeus J Williams.
Visit undeceptions.com for more content, including the full show notes for this episode.
Follow the show on Twitter and Instagram
Email the show with your comments / feedback: admin@undeceptions.com
Undeceptions is the flagship podcast of Undeceptions.com: Letting the truth out.
Theme music: JS Bach's Cello Suites, Prelude, performed by the Undeceptions Band.
Hosted by John Dickson
Produced by Kaley Payne
Directed by Mark Hadley
Audio Editing by Richard Hamwi
Copyright Undeceptions Ltd 2021
Dr. Chris Forbes brings his expertise in the Greco-Roman world to bear on why historians believe the story of the three magi and the star over a stable might actually be based in fact.
Join John Dickson as these two historical boffins discuss astrological formations, ancient king-makers and a reasonable explanation for an interstellar night light in Bethlehem.
It's out Q&A episode! Whats with all the violence in the Bible? Can men and women ever just be friends? Why should we pay for the sins of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden so long ago? Was God doing anything outside the Middle East during biblical times, like in Asia? All that and plenty more!
The cliche is: ‘faith’ is the antithesis of knowledge … of wisdom.
And therefore “Christian philosophy” is an oxymoron, right?
Our guests today, though are professional philosophers and they reckon that, while Christians could do with a healthy dose of philosophy, so could sceptics. We all need to think deeply about what we believe, and why we believe it.
And if you think – as atheists like Sam Harris and many others do – that scepticism or atheism doesn’t involve any mere ‘beliefs’, well, you probably especially need to think this stuff through.
This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Believing Philosophy by Dolores G. Morris.
OUR GUESTS
Douglas J. Moo is a New Testament scholar who, after teaching for more than twenty years at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois, has served as Blanchard Professor of New Testament at the Wheaton College Graduate School since 2000. His latest book is A Theology of Paul and His Letters. Lynn H. Cohick is an American New Testament scholar and author. Since January 2021 she has been Provost, Academic Dean and Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary.
For the full (and often rather extensive) show notes, head to Undeceptions.com.
This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book Person of Interest: Why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible by J. Warner Wallace.
Meet Our Guests
- Nigel Biggar: Regius Professor of Moral & Pastoral Theology, and Director of the McDonald Centre for Theology, Ethics, & Public Life, University of Oxford.
- Andrew Hastie: Australian Federal Member for Canning and Assistant Minister for Defence. Former Officer, Australian Defence Force.
- Mike Bird was one of our 'phone a friend' guests for this episode. He wrote The Story of God commentary for the Book of Romans for Zondervan and is a lecturer at Ridley College.
- Jarrod McKenna was another of our lovely 'phone a friend' guests for this episode. He is an advocate for non-violence direct action.
For our full show notes and links to everything we mention in this episode, go to undeceptions.com.
The period between the Old and New Testaments - often called the 'intertestamental period' - has also been called a period of silence. Turn the page from Old to New and - whoosh! - you skip over almost 500 years, including huge historical figures like Alexander the Great!
But plenty of important stuff happened in this period that set the world up for Jesus. So why is the Bible silent about it? Is it silent about it?
Some would say that an ancient faith like Christianity won’t survive outer space -- especially as we explore further than we ever have before.
This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book 'The Theology of Paul and His Letters' by Douglas J Moo.
For the full show notes, with links to everything we mention in this episode, go to undeceptions.com.
Download the transcript for this episode here.
COMPETITION!We’re celebrating our 500,000th download this month - half a million! And so, with the help of our major sponsor, Zondervan, we are giving away a book pack of five of Zondervan’s newest titles. We’ll throw in a copy of my new book Bullies and Saints AND an Undeceptions T-Shirt.
To WIN, all you have to do is leave us a review on Apple Podcasts (what used to be called iTunes), take a pic of the review and send it to us. Producer Kaley will pick the best-written review on October 25 (and I mean ‘best-written’ not necessarily most glowing). So be quick, you’ve got two weeks!
LINKS
- Meet our guests:
- Sam Allberry, author and pastor.
- Ronald Sharp, author of Norton Book of Friendship
- Read Sam Allberry's book Seven Myths about Singleness and find his other books here.
- Here are the links to all the studies we referenced in this episode:
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- Death of a close friend: Short and long-term impacts on physical, psychological and social well-being, PLoS ONE * Friendship enriches your life and improves your health: Mayo Clinic * The State of American Friendship, 2021 American Perspectives Survey
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- More on Plutarch.
- Read the Tu Fu poem, To Wei Pa, A Retired Scholar, translated by Kenneth Rexroth
- Learn more about the Book of Proverbs, and read it for yourself.
- Read more about the debate over anti-semitism in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice, in this article from the Smithsonian Magazine.
- Read about David and Jonathan's close friendship from the book of 1 Samuel.
- Read more about Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep from Ancient Egypt in this New York Times article.
- Further Evidence that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were Twins, Journal of Ancient Archaeology
- Learn more about the friendship between King Richard I and King Philip II.
- Here's The Guardian's article about whether Jesus was gay.
- Read Ronald Sharp's article, Mateship, Friendship and National Identityfor the Australian Book Review.
- Never seen Crocodile Dundee? It's probably about time...
- Learn more about CS Lewis' 'four loves'.
- Listen to previous episodes of Undeceptions with John and his best mate, Ben Shaw (who died in June 2021 after a battle with cancer).
Christianity is a ‘western’ religion and a religion of individual freedom, right?
Eastern traditions emphasise family and community above the individual. The Christian mind and the Chinese mind are two venerable yet incompatible things. So, Christianity should have a problem in China. It is just one of the attempted foreign invaders.
And, yet, Christianity is alive and growing in China. Is this a western-controlled religious insurgency or is there an Eastern Jesus many in the West have missed?
We are now more able than ever to consider whether we are living a happy life. But one of our guests today - the great Miroslav Volf - reminds us that there is a difference between life going well, which triggers those feelings of happiness… and living life well.
So, what is true happiness - if that’s even the right word - and how do we get it!?
This Henry Lawson poem, though written in the Australian outback in the 19th Century, still captures what a lot of people see as wrong with Christianity and what they wish it was like.
Shabnam Safa was just 15 years old when she arrived in Australia as a refugee. As a young child, her family had fled war-torn Afghanistan to a refugee camp on the border of Pakistan where she grew up listening to stories of the terror of life under the Taliban. She spoke to John Dickson about her distress about the Taliban retaking control of Afghanistan and her fears for her home country.
As so many of us watch from our lounge rooms, is there anything we can actually do to help those fleeing danger?
Author and highly sought-after speaker Sam Allberry talks us through 'intersectionality' and ponders the wisdom and boundaries of this way of bestowing moral authority.
"Just as those who stand at an intersection can see in more directions than those who don't, so too - according to this thinking - those at the intersection of multiple minority and victim groups have more insight to bring to society."
Today is the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, a series of coordinated terrorist strikes in the US that killed almost 3000 people and changed the world forever.
Our guest for this single, Hans Kunnen, was one of several Australians in New York that day and has told his story many times over the last 20 years. But what struck us about his story was not how close he was to the action, or how he described the flames, the smoke, the hurtling bodies.
It is how he talks about the kindness of a stranger - the hope amidst the chaos of what was the most traumatic day of his life.
On the anniversary of the France's Reign of Terror, John asks where we got the idea that three centuries of the Spanish Inquisition represented the height of human cruelty.
In any objective history of human violence it would hardly rate a mention, especially when it stands alongside the terrors of the French Revolution.
Just when you imagine Christians are all so heavenly minded they’re of no earthly use … the Bible itself brings us back to the earth. That’s where the action is. In fact, the final great scene of the Bible doesn’t have us all floating up to heaven. It has heaven coming down to earth.
Down … to … earth. There’s a lot in that phrase.
As far as religions go, Christianity is arguably the most down-to-earth perspective you could imagine.
LINKS
- Winnie The Pooh loves honey in the books and every movie he's in, but particularly the 2011 version we quoted from.
- This episode is sponsored by Zondervan's new book, Becoming All Things by Michelle Ami Reyes
- Meet our guests for this episode:
- Andrew Wilson, London pastor and author of a new book called God Of All Things: Rediscovering the Sacred in an Everyday World
- Tish Harrison Warren, Anglican priest and author of Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life
- Read Psalm 19, which begins "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."
- Read more about CS Lewis' "supposals" ... and check out The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobewhile you're at it.
- Watch the heartwarming Old People's Home for Four Year Olds. This one's the Australian version.
- Or, for a similar feeling, watch Ted Lasso on Apple TV. John Dickson called it "the best show since The West Wing" ... and that's high praise!
- Read more from James K.A. Smith on cultural liturgies.
- Read more about CS Lewis' conversion to Christianity.
- More reading, this time on Wendell Berry from the New Yorker.
The parting of the red sea is legendary today, and most people treat it as just that … legend. Like many things in the Bible, the exodus from Egypt is looked on with great scepticism by secular scholars - and some Christian scholars even! So, what evidence is there that this ISN'T just legend?
We all know Christianity thrives on ignorance, sunk us all into the dark ages, and has resisted human rights and equality for most of its 1500 year reign.
What have the Christians ever done for us?
Our guest today - who says he’s not a believing Christian - reckons many of us have things completely back to front. It’s Christianity, he insists, that gave us many of the secular humanitarian ideals we hold so dear.
LINKS
- This episode was sponsored by Zondervan's new book Person of Interest: Why Jesus still matters in a world that rejects the Bible by J Warner Wallace
- Meet our guest, Tom Holland
- Read Holland's latest book, Dominion: The making of the Western Mind
- Or check out his YouTube channel, where you can watch one of the documentaries he made with the BBC on Islam
- Here's a 5 minute primer on stoicism from Ted-Ed. Want more? Here's a good place to start to learn more about Stoicism.
- Watch the trailer for HBO's award-winning series, Rome. Be warned... it's brutal.
- More on the Pax Romana ("Roman peace")
- Watch this segment from the Centre For Public Christianity's documentary, For the Love of God, on the origins of western healthcare.
- Here is Stephen Greenblatt's book The Swervefrom 2012, which offers a contrary argument about Christianity's influence on the world. Full disclosure: Tom Holland, while an admirer of Greenblatt's work on Shakespeare, thinks The Swerve is by far his worst book.
- So ... the Dark Ages? Not so dark. We'll undoubtedly do a whole episode on that soon enough, but in the meantime, John Dickson's new book Bullies and Saints has a bit to say about it too.
John Dickson is taking a bit of a break to grieve the passing of his friend, Ben Shaw. So, in the interim, Producer Kaley and Director Mark have decided to choose their favourite Undeceptions episodes to drop into your podcast feed for two weeks.
Week number two is brought to you by Director Mark. He has chosen to re-share the Remembering Women episode. John visits Dr. Lynne Cohick to chat about how early Christians valued and celebrated women in the first centuries of the church.
Director Mark recommends it because unveils a side of feminine history he'd missed, gets us outdoors again in the middle of an Australian lockdown, and includes a whole gamut of contributions, including Producer Kaley's favourite music.
John Dickson is taking a bit of a break to grieve the passing of his friend, Ben Shaw. So, in the interim, Producer Kaley and Director Mark have decided to choose their favourite Undeceptions episodes to drop into your podcast feed in the next two weeks.
Producer Kaley's favourite is the very first episode of Undeceptions, called ‘Old Papers’. It harks back to a time when we were allowed to travel overseas, and John visited the University of Michigan’s Papyrology department to get his hands on some of the earliest manuscripts we have for the New Testament.
Producer Kaley reckons it’s what Undeceptions does best: it’s historical, it’s hands-on and it laid the groundwork for what this podcast wants to sound like - friendly and factual, with a little nerdy excitement thrown in.
Ben Shaw and John Dickson were friends since childhood, became Christians together in their teens, formed a rock and roll band in their 20s, and went on to study theology and minister in the fields God opened up to them.
The death of Ben Shaw has provided John with an opportunity to reflect on the sort of book his best friend felt was worth using his last months to write, and the spiritual lessons he has learned from decades of standing beside him.
John Dickson invites solicitor and social commentator Stephanie Kate Judd to offer an opinion on the sexism that simultaneously abuses and silences women.
Outrage, she says, is an appropriate response to significant wrongdoing, but unchecked rage can corrode the very hearts that feel that injustice most keenly.
Instead, Stephanie suggests a way in which we can confront a problem but still keep our anger healthy.
Jesus was once a teenage boy, right? Was he a rascal? Who did he hang out with? Was he considered the ancient equivalent of a jock, a cool kid, a nerd, or something else?
And how on earth did he get through the normal teenage years of angst and still be … the perfect incarnation of God?
There’s a bit of speculation about teenage Jesus. And we promise to cover all the evidence for it in this episode.
LINKS
- This episode is brought to you by Zondervan's new Bible commentary on the Gospel of Mark
- More about 10 Things I Hate About You, which you heard at the beginning of this episode.
- Check out the Infancy of Thomas, an apocryphal document that purports to narrate episodes from Jesus’ youth from the age of five up until his twelfth year.
- Get to know our guest, Dr Chris Forbes.
- Listen to Canon Fodder, from Season 3 of Undeceptions, which also features Dr Forbes. It's all about how the Bible was put together and why which books were chosen as scripture and some books weren't.
- Here's that TedTalk on raising rebels. Good luck to listeners attempting to do so!
- The Lost Years of Jesus documentary.
- The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ by Nicolas Notovitch (Yeah, we're not suggesting your rush out and get this one!)
- Here's a travel diary to follow if you want to try to "walk in the steps of Jesus" in Nepal, even if he didn't actually go there! Articles like these just keep popping up.
- Check out this talk that John Dickson gave on the difference between the teachings of Jesus and the teachings of Buddhism or Hinduism.
- Here's the one passage in the gospels that talks about Jesus as a teen... Luke 2:42-51.
- More on David Flusser, the great Jewish Professor of History and Religion from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
This is the second part of our two-part series on the Crusades. For Part One, click here.
A brutal slaughter at the Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem marked the end of the first crusade. The Crusaders had recaptured Jerusalem and the Holy Lands. They had regained control and care of The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, probably medieval Christianity’s most sacred site, built over what was believed to be Jesus’ empty tomb.
Their job was done and most of the crusaders packed up and went home, bolstered in their belief that God had been with them and seized their victory. Job done!
So, why the need for a 2nd Crusade? Or a 3rd, 4th or 5th for that matter?
LINKS
- This episode is brought to you by Zondervan's new book Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History by John Dickson. There's plenty more on the Crusades that we couldn't fit into this episode.
- Meet our distinguished guest, Professor Christopher Tyerman and check out his magnum opus, God's War: A New History of the Crusades.
- Here's more on that terrible movie, King Richard and His Crusadersfrom 1954.
- The 50 Worst Films of All Time, according to Wikipedia.
- Learn more about Saladin, the most famous of Muslim warriors.
- Meet Francis of Assisi, one of the most charismatic and influential clerics of the Middle Ages.
- Here's some more on Rabbi Hillel, who John quotes from in this episode's Five Minute Jesus.
- John quotes extensively from David Flusser's book The Sage of Galilee: Rediscovering Jesus' Genius, also in this episode's Five Minute Jesus.
- Watch President George W Bush's full remarks from 16 September 2001, where he said of the 9/11 terrorist attacks: "This is a new kind of -- a new kind of evil. And we understand. And the American people are beginning to understand. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while."
- Here's the Wall Street Journal article, 'Crusade reference reinforces fears this war on terrorism is against Muslims'
- Read up on the Ottoman Empire here.
- The Crusader City - Caesarea - and its archaelogical ruins make for an interesting travel destination, according to The Washington Post.
- Just one example of the Crusades misinterpreted history: 'The New Zealand massacre and the weaponisation of history'from Al Jazeera.
This is the first of a two part episode on The Crusades.
Over nine hundred years after the launch of the first Crusade, world leaders are still invoking their memory to explain ongoing conflict. But how plausible is that?
Chances are, whether you're a Christian or a skeptic, what you think you know about the Crusades is wrong. Or so says our guest for this episode.
What were the Crusades? How did they start? What did they achieve? Why did they stop?
And does their shadow really fall over modern tensions between the West and Muslim lands?
LINKS
- Get John Dickson's new book Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History,published by our sponsor Zondervan. It's got a heap more on the Crusades than we could fit into this episode.
- Meet our distinguished guest, Professor Christopher Tyerman.
- Check out Tyerman's magnum opus, God's War: A New History of the Crusades.He has a written a bunch more, too.
- Watch the full news segment from France 24 about the Charlie Hebdo caricatures that enraged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
- Listen to this fascinating episode of The New York Times podcast The Daily, all about the killing of French teacher Samuel Paty and the raging debate in France over the relationship between government and religion - primarily the idea of Laïcité - the constitutional principle of secularism in France.
- Listen to the Undeceptions Single all about 'The Troubles' of Northern Ireland.
- Here are the Old Testament references where God commands violence:
- In 1 Samuel, when God commands Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites.
- Read this article from The Gospel Coalition writer and blogger Steve McAlpine, Indefensible? Saul and the Amalekite Genocide
- In the book of Joshua, God ordains a holy war against the Canaanites.
- And then check out this article 'But, what about Canaan?' quoting John Dickson giving an explanation about what in the world is God doing in the Book of Joshua with the Canaanites.
- You might also like to check out this explanation, Why did God demand the invasion of Canaan in the Book of Joshua? by The Bible Project.
- In 1 Samuel, when God commands Saul to completely destroy the Amalekites.
- Check out Saint Augustine's City of God for more on his broad principles of just war.
- Read Pope Urban II's full speech at the Council of Clermont in 1095, where he officially called for the First Crusade.
- Here's more on Ridley Scott's 2005 film, Kingdom of Heaven.
It’s often said that it was the intolerance of Christians, from the apostle Paul to the Renaissance Popes, that led to the Enlightenment’s secular cry for “freedom of religion” - and even freedom from religion.
Religion fosters bigotry and violence toward difference. Enlightened secular thought fosters peace and pluralism. Right?
But did you know there are religious origins to religious freedom?
People sometimes speak of ‘religious guilt’ or ‘Catholic guilt’ and it’s almost always used negatively. The assumption is that if you are religious, you are dealing with much more guilt than the regular person; much more than is healthy.
But maybe guilt is actually good?
Perhaps you’ve heard it before - religion is bad for your mental health. It triggers feelings of guilt, self-loathing and bigotry.
But, actually, there are many ways in which the opposite is true. Karen Pang's story is testament to that, which you'll hear in this episode.
There’s also a growing body of research - authoritative, real-life, peer-reviewed research - that reports a significant benefit to wellbeing if you are religious.
That’s right. You are more healthy if you are religious.
Do you need help?
- If you're in Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
- In the UK? Call The Samaritans on 116 123.
- If you're in the US, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255
LINKS
- This episode is brought to you by Zondervan Academic's book, Three Views on Chrisitanity and Sciencewith contributions from Alister McGrath, Bruce L Gordon and Michael Ruse.
- Meet our guest, Karen Pang
- Meet our guest, Professor Tyler VanderWeele
- Meet out guest, Lyn Worsley
- Listen to the full interview with Buff and John Dickson on ABC's The Spirit of Things
- Watch the full Playschool series on feelings, How do you feel today?
- Read the full data on the risk of suicide for people with bipolar, from SANE Australia
- Read the biblical accounts of the deaths of Saul and Judas.
- Read St Augustine's City of God
- Check out Tyler VanderWeele's research on deaths of despair and religious service attendance. Full paper here.
- Tyler's research on mental and physical health and the effects of religious service attendance (also check out his full list of research papers in his profile above!)
- Watch Tyler VanderWeele consider whether the results of his research that concluded religious service attendance had a significant positive impact on mental health might be reverse causation.
- Get the Oxford Handbook of Religion and Health
- See for yourself the strong evidence of an association between attending religious services and happiness and life satisfaction.
- Need help to pray? Try the Book of Common Prayer, which Buff Dickson talks about praying through when she just couldn't find the words on her own. Here's an example, the prayer for Sunday 2 May 2021:
Almighty God,
who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ
have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life:
grant that, as by your grace going before us
you put into our minds good desires,
so by your continual help
we may bring them to good effect;
through Jesus Christ our risen Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
It is the day after ANZAC Day, that occasion when Australians and New Zealanders commemorate those who died in the defence of our country.
At a time like this, it is worth considering the inscription bourne by many military tombstones across the world - 'Unknown Soldier - Known Unto God'.
This is not just a way of saying, "We don't know who he is; I guess God does." It has a profound meaning about the peculiar way in which God knows His creatures.
Critics of Christianity have often pointed to The Troubles in Northern Ireland as proof that, "Religion ruins everything."
But how accurate is the statement? How accurate is it to even label The Troubles a religious conflict?
John Dickson shares a chapter of his upcoming book, Bullies And Saints, on how the Troubles got started and how Christianity helped to bring them to an end.
Click here to order a copy of John Dickson's Bullies and Saints.
Gordon Menzies advised the federal government on the deregulation of the Australian dollar, underlining his credentials when it came to liberalism.
However, his new book titled 'Western Fundamentalism' suggests a more conservative way of seeing the world.
He tells John Dickson, though, that a Christian is capable of rejecting definitions of both left and right to forge a distinctly different path.
Dr. Laurel Moffatt rejoins the Undeceptions team to consider the state of the American soul.
Researchers have revealed that this nation of the bold and the free is now united more by the things that its citizens hate than those they love.
Is there any way out of this emotional and moral quagmire? Dr. Moffatt thinks so.
How do you face the rapidly approaching end of a battle with cancer?
In Series 2, Episode 13 of Undeceptions, John Dickson met up with his friend Ben Shaw to discuss his recent diagnosis of that dreaded disease.
The It's Cancer episode raised serious questions about what place pain has in a world created by a good God.
Now, in the run-up to Easter, John returns to ask Ben if the call to face cancer has brought on new spiritual insights.
Some would argue that Christianity itself is racist. Given the sweep of history, this is a charge that has to be confronted.
So we’re going to speak to a couple of people who, despite all the things the church has done wrong -- and continues to do wrong -- and despite all the things the church should be doing but just isn’t - still see Christ as Lord. They are still part of the church. They still think Christianity is beautiful, even if parts of the church are not.
You as listeners - whether you believe or not - are going to have to be the judges here.
This is not an episode in which I feel competent to lecture anyone.
I don’t know what it’s like to be a minority. That’s why we’re speaking to people today who do know.
LINKS
- Meet our guest, Jemar Tisby
- Read his latest book, How to fight racism
- Read Jemar’s other book The Colour of Compromise: the truth about the American Church’s complicity in racism
- Check out The Witness
- Get to know Brooke Prentis
- Find out more about Common Grace
- Watch Brenda Salter McNeil’s full talk on her ‘response to racism’
- This episode is supported by Zondervan Academic’s book Evangelical Theology by Michael Bird
- Full CNN report on the global protests sparked by the death of George Floyd
- Read more about the Black Lives Matter movement in this series from The New Yorker
- Divided by Faith: Evangelical religion and the problem of race in America, Michael Emerson and Christian Smith
- Listen to Tim Keller’s full speech on Racism and Corporate Evil
- Also read Tim Keller’s series on justice and race in the Gospel In Life Magazine
- The Bible and Race
- The Sin of Racism
- A Biblical Critique of Secular Justice and Critical Theory
- Justice in the Bible
- Read more about the Southern Baptists and Critical Race Theory
- And a little more about Critical Race Theory more generally: Are all white people racist? Why Critical Race Theory has us rattled, Sydney Morning Herald
More on Australia’s Aboriginal history
- Mapping the massacres of Australia’s colonial frontier, The University of Newcastle
- More on the Aboriginal reserves and stations
- Close the Gap 2020: The annual report of Parliament on progress in Closing the Gap and achieving equality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in health and life expectancy
- Bringing Them Home Report 1997 - A Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children From Their Families.
- Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says “Sorry” on behalf of the Australian Government in 2008
- Watch Australia’s National Aboriginal Bishop in the Anglican Church, Chris McLeod’s full interview on Black Lives Matter and the Church
- Brooke Prentis gave us three pieces of content she believes all Australians should consume to learn more about the true history of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia:
- Dark Emu, by Bruce Pascoe
- Talking to My Country, by Stan Grant
- First Australians documentary, SBS
Here's the alternate view on racism in America
- Candace Owens is a conservative US commentator who has a very different take on the Black Lives Matter movement and how she thinks her country should be dealing with racism.
- On what she believes is the real goal of the Black Lives Matter movement
- On White Guilt
- Ben Shapiro is one of the most popular conservative commentators in the US. He disagrees with the idea of systemic racism. More here.
Undeceptions T-Shirts are here! Click here to get yours now.
You may not feel ready to experience heaven or hell quite yet but Undeceptions listeners certainly had a lot of questions about it! In this season’s Q&A episode, John Dickson attempts to answer at least some of the questions you’ve thrown at us this year.
Christianity has plenty to say about the future and what the end of the world might look like -- though some think it says a lot more than others.
Christians have, in fact, been accused of being obsessed with end times, so much so that they stop caring about the world they’re in right now. And sometimes that’s true.
But apocalyptic Christians aren’t the only ones dwelling on all this. Plenty of us are more interested than ever - especially this year! - in how the world will end. The stories we tell ourselves in culture are becoming increasingly apocalyptic.
Why is that?
This episode is brought to you by our season sponsor Zondervan Academic, publishers of the Collected Essays of N.T. Wright.
LINKS
- Have a read through The Book of Revelation.
- Watch Australia’s Secretary for Home Affairs, Michael Pezzullo’s, full speech on ‘Securing Australia’ here.
- Get to know our guest, Alissa Wilkinson from Vox
- And read Alissa’s book How to Survive the Apocalypse: Zombies, Cylons, Faith, Politics and the End of the World
- Pssst… here’s an except of the book, a chapter on ‘The Myth of the Secular Apocalypse
- Get to know our guest, Professor Richard Bauckham, one of greatest living theologians.
- Professor Bauckham has written many, many books. But since our discussion revolved around the Book of Revelation, you should check out his book on that subject, The Theology of the Book of Revelation
- Here’s the 2010 New York Times article Alissa mentions by Chuck Klosterman, My Zombie, Myself: Why modern life feels rather undead.
- For a more in-your-face example of how pop culture continues to use biblical imagery from The Book of Revelation, just watch the trailer for the 2016 blockbuster, X-Men.
- The film’s director Bryan Singer told the LA Times that Apocalypse - an immensely powerful and ancient mutant - views himself not as a mutant but as a god. Singer says, quote “For all intents and purposes, he is potentially the God of the Old Testament. After being buried for 4,000 years, he awakens to a society that has become interconnected and developed hubris. Humans have created nuclear weapons and assumed godlike proportions in the buildings they build and the things they create. So he sets about to eradicate those things and build what he considers a cleaner, purer world.”
- Check out Alissa’s Syllabus for the End of the World - her list of stories that tell us how to live during -and after - a pandemic.
- Here’s the Al Jazeera tape of Harold Camping’s apocalypse prediction in 2011
- Here’s the Left Behind book series… but John reckons you should skip it. Read C.S. Lewis’ Narnia Series instead.
- More on the US National Evangelical Leaders survey of 2011, which found that 65 per cent of evangelical church leaders in the US identify with premillennial theology, which grounds this rapture idea.
- Watch REM’s Michael Stipe’s full Coronavirus message.
- More on the Macquarie Dictionary’s Word of 2020, “Doomscrolling”
- John quotes from the pseudepigraphal work (not in any biblical canon) Psalms of Solomon in this episode’s 5 Minute Jesus. Read more about them here.
Movies and TV referenced in this episode
- Game of Thrones
- The Walking Dead
- Cormac McCarthy’s novel, The Road, and the “very fine” movie.
- Wagner’s Ring Cycle
- The Hunger Games
EXTRAS
Here’s John Dickson and Professor Bauckham’s discussion on ‘the Millennium’ in the Book of Revelation. Listen here.
WIN!
We’re giving away 20 copies of John's book, 666 And All That: The Truth about the End Times, which he co-wrote with Dr Greg Clarke. If you’d like to win a copy, you just need to be one of the first 20 new subscribers to the Undeceptions e-newsletter. So quick! Head to undeceptions.com, scroll down to the bottom of the homepage and subscribe now. We'll be in touch with the winners in the first week of January.
Proselytise: to convert or attempt to convert (someone) from one religion, belief, or opinion to another.
Why are Christians such god-botherers? Is it possible to share your belief system with someone who doesn’t accept without being a jerk?
Many people today would have you believe that there is no context in which proselytising could be considered a good thing.
This episode is supported by Zondervan's MasterLecture Series.
LINKS
- Find out more about our guest, Dr Sam Chan
- And check out his latest book, How to talk about Jesus (without being THAT guy)
- And here's a rather extensive review of Sam’s book here.
- Sam's book Evangelism in a Skeptical World: How to Make the Unbelievable News About Jesus More Believable won Christianity Today's Book of the Year in evangelism and apologetics.
- PS -- How to Talk about Jesus (without being THAT guy) is the popular-level version of the more textbook-style Evangelism in a Skeptical World.
- Sam quoted Mark Sayers, co-host of the podcast This Cultural Moment.
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Transhumanism is the transformation of the human condition through sophisticated technologies that modify our physiology and intellect.
This episode, we continue our conversation about Artificial Intelligence with Professor John Lennox, and Dr.s Vicky Lorrimar and Grenville Kent.
This episode is brought to you by series sponsor Zondervan Academic, publishers of How to talk about Jesus without being THAT guy by Sam Chan.
LINKS
- Meet Professor John Lennox
- Get Professor Lennox’s book 2084: Artificial intelligence and the future of humanity
- Say hi to episode guests Dr Grenville Kent and Dr Vicky Lorrimar
- Watch this primer on ‘Transhumanism’ from BBC Ideas.
- Read The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil (Lennox called him one of the most insightful people on this topic last episode)
- Watch this Ted Talk on how close we are to be able to ‘upload our minds’
- This is the article on The Washington Post in which Elon Musk talks about AI as summoning the demon (as mentioned by Lennox)
- Here’s a useful explainer on Utilitarianism from University of Texas
- Read this profile on Peter Singer from 1999 in The Guardian: The most dangerous man in the world
- Dig deeper into Peter Singer’s utilitarianism views, critiqued by John Lennox here.
- More on Naturalism.
- Read CS Lewis’ essay ‘On living in an atomic age’ in his book of essays ‘Present Concerns’
- Learn more about quantum mechanics in 60 seconds on BBC with Brian Cox
- Read 'The strange link between the human mind and quantum physics', BBC
Movie and Television referenced in this episode:
- The Bourne Identity
- Altered Carbon
- Gattaca
- Westworld
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today
"I'm all for technology being used in a good sense. I often say to people, AI is like a knife, a very sharp knife. You can use it to operate with, or you can use it to kill people." -- Professor John Lennox
Artificial Intelligence is the buzz phrase of the 21st century.
For some, it’s a welcome step into a future that promises all manner of good. For others, AI is damaging at best and, at worst, a step towards our own destruction.
This episode, with the help of the great John Lennox, we ask the question: is Artificial Intelligence an under-estimated threat… or the saviour we’ve been waiting for?
This episode is brought to you by series sponsor Zondervan Academic, publishers of Telling a better story: how to talk about God in a skeptical age by Josh Chatraw.
LINKS
- Meet Professor John Lennox
- Get Professor Lennox’s book 2084: Artificial intelligence and the future of humanity
- Read more about how China is using surveillance technology to keep tabs on its citizens in this article from The Atlantic: 'The Panopticon Is Already Here'
- Check out George Orwell’s masterpiece 1984
- Learn more about the Singularity with this article from Futurism: 'Singularity: Explain it to me like I’m 5 years old'
- Why Elon Musk fears artificial intelligence, Vox
- Lennox called Google’s Chief Futurist, Ray Kurzweil, “one of the great gurus in this field”. Read more about him here.
- Find out more about Yuval Noah Harari, author of Sapiens and Homo Deus
- Watch the Astronomer Royal, Lord Martin Rees, talk about the potential dangers of science and technology over the next 50 years
- Read more about science fiction author Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics and why they’re a little out of date
- Say hi to episode guests Dr Grenville Kent and Dr Vicky Lorrimar
- Read a recent ABC opinion piece by Dr Lorrimar, What hope? Dreams of immortality in the time of a pandemic
- More on Beowulf, the longest epic poem in Old English.
- Here's some ancient ‘technology’ to find out more on (as mentioned in this episode's Five Minute Jesus)
- Trojan Horse
- The Roman battering ram
- Stuff designed by Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius
- Read the whole story of the Tower of Babel from the Book of Genesis
- More on deus ex machina (not the Australian motorcycles)
- Read the Asilomar Ethical Principles
- Watch Rosalind Picard’s TedTalk about the smartwatch she has developed that can detect seizures.
- Then, watch her story of how she became a Christian
All the movies referenced in this episode:
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- Star Wars ... all of them.
- Terminator (the original!)
- Bladerunner (1982)
- Interstellar
- Wall-E
- Her
- Avengers: Age of Ultron
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
How did the New Testament actually come together? Some have argued that is a “chaotically cobbled-together anthology of disjointed documents” that has been revised and ‘improved’ over centuries.
Others have argued it is a deeply political document, created to quell rebellions and placate a growing and agitated movement.
Millions of people put their trust in the New Testament. It’s time to get to the bottom of how it was created.
This episode of Undeceptions is brought to you by Zondervan Academic, publishers of 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John Lennox.
LINKS
- Producer Kaley is actually the one who likes Survivor. She thinks you should watch it, too.
- Richard Dawkin’s quote about the Bible being a cobbled-together anthology was from The God Delusion.
- If you really have to, you can read The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown or watch the movie.
- But then listen to this 5-part series with John Dickson on Hope 103.2FM (Sydney Christian radio station), Why the Da Vinci Code is a very novel history
- Find out more about our guest Dr Chris Forbes, who has actually just retired from Macquarie University.
- Find out more about Dr Michael Bird from Ridley College.
- And check out Michael's latest book The New Testament in It's World(with N.T. Wright)
- Watch John Dickson talk about the conversion of Constantine the Great from this clip from the Centre For Public Christianity’s documentary For the Love of God
- Learn more about Justin Martyr, the first Christian apologist.
- What’s with the ending in the gospel of Mark? Check out this article from The Gospel Coalition, written by Elijah Hixson from Tyndale House in Cambridge: Was Mark 16:9-20 originally part of Mark’s Gospel?
- Get to know Irenaeus, bishop of Lyon
- More on the Muratorian Canon
- Here is John’s beloved copy of The Apostolic Fathers
- Read the New York Times report on the discovery of the Gospel of Judas, from 2006
- Read more about the Gospel of Judas in this article by John Dickson in 2008 from The Centre for Public Christianity
- For more on the Gnostic Gospels, get your hands on The Christ Files, a documentary with John Dickson. Here’s a preview.
- You can have a look for yourself at the beautiful Codex Sinaiticus at this link. You can scroll through the pages online -- so go check out the Shepherd of Hermas and the Epistle of Barnabas at the back!
- Get to know Eusebius of Caesarea
- And read his Ecclesiastical History too.
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
In Episode 28 (Creation's Music) we spoke with Jeremy Begbie and Kirsty Beilharz about how music can point us to God. But what if it's music we just don't like? What about music that's genuinely bad. Or dissonant. What is the purpose of that type of music? Can music that's really hard to listen to still point us to the divine?
Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor, publishers of How to Talk about Jesus (without being that guy) by Sam Chan.
LINKS:
- Find out more about our guest Professor Dr Jeremy Begbie here.
- Find out more about our guest Professor Dr Kirsty Beilharz here.
- Seek out Jeremy Begbie's book Theology, Music and Time.
- Get your hands on Kirsty Beilharz's book Music Remembers Me: Connection and Wellbeing in Dementia.
- Listen to 20th century composer Arnold Schoenberg's works on Spotify. Jeremy Begbie talks about Schoenberg and his creation of new methods of musical composition involving atonality.
- Kirsty talks about 20th century composer Olivier Messiaen. This is a great article about his 'Turangalîla-Symphonie', from NPR: Finding God, Love And The Meaning Of Life In Messiaen's 'Turangalîla-Symphonie'
- Listen to more of Olivier Messiaen on Spotify, too.
- And another insightful article, this time from The Guardian on Messiaen's 'Quartet for the End of Time', which he composed while in a Nazi concentration camp.
- Check out this live recording of Handel's Messiah from early this year, by the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, performed at the Sydney Opera House.
- And here's some more history about Handel's Messiah from the Smithsonian Magazine.
- Read more about Luther and Calvin's approach to music.
- Jeremy Begbie says Oscar Peterson can move him to tears. Let it move you. Listen on Spotify, here. Also, Brahms (here).
- Kirsty Beilharz went through the Life of Jesus course as she wrestled with Christianity. Check out that course, here. (Pssst... it's a John Dickson course!)
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
What is music and what is it about music that stirs the human soul?
Is it just a series of sound waves producing neurological responses … or could music be - as so many ancients believed - a signal from God?
Join us for this episode as we take a look at the enduring love affair between music and the human heart.
Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor, publishers of Evangelical Theology by Michael F Bird.
LINKS:
- Find out more about our guest Professor Dr Jeremy Begbie here.
- Find out more about our guest Professor Dr Kirsty Beilharz here.
- Check out this interview Professor Begbie did with Christianity Today in 2018, about Christian artists and their need for a firm grounding in Scripture.
- Read more about the conundrum of consciousness here.
- Seek out Jeremy Begbie's book Theology, Music and Time.
- Want to start listening to St Matthew Passion but don't know where to start? Check out this helpful guide from NPR (America's National Public Radio).
- Get your hands on Kirsty Beilharz's book Music Remembers Me: Connection and Wellbeing in Dementia.
- Kirsty spoke to Eternity News in 2016 about dementia care and music. Read the article here.
- Do Mark Hadley a favour and read The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.
- Centre For Public Christianity fellow Barney Zwartz wrote this piece for the Sydney Morning Herald, titled 'The power of music is a path to God'.
- Read the story of AN Wilson's conversion back to Christianity in The New Statesman, where he says "The existence of langauge is one of the many phenomena - of which love and music are the two strongest - which suggest that human beings are very much more than collections of meat. They convince me that we are spiritual beings, and that the religion of the incarnation, asserting that God made humanity in His image, and continually restores humanity in His image, is simply true."
- From this episode's 5 Minute Jesus, read the Parable of the Prodigal Son.
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Christianity has a weird relationship to the climate cause. On the one hand, in theory they have more reason than most to care for the Earth — they believe it is God's good creation, after all. On the other hand, quite a number of the faithful are … sceptical.
Professor Katharine Hayhoe is a rock star in the climate world -- one of the earth's best climate science communicators. She's also a Christian. And she says the chasm in the Christian world when it comes to climate doesn't have to be this deep.
In the first episode of our third season, we're taking a close look at the New Testament - the second part of the Bible. Many scholars have pointed out historical inaccuracies in the gospels, or inconsistencies between the gospels that would surely call into question their reliability as sources for the historical Jesus. Some have suggested that the gospels weren't actually written by who we think they were written by. Or claim that many of the letters written by Paul that appear in the Bible weren't penned by Paul at all.
Professor Craig Blomberg has spent a lifetime digging around these 'Bible mistakes'. And he's not convinced that they are, in fact, mistakes.
LINKS
- For more on Professor Craig Blomberg, check out his website.
- And while you're clicking, have a look at Undeceptions.com for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world.
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor, publishers of the Collected Essays of N.T. Wright.
- Read more about the famous 'Wicked Bible' in this Washington Post article.
- Grab Craig Blomberg's latest book, The Historical Reliability of the New Testament,here.
- Other scholars who have written about the Book of John: Martin Hengel and Richard Bauckham.
- Episode 7 of Undeceptions, called Gospel Truth with Peter Williams is a good sister-podcast for this one. Check it out.
- Read Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus by Donald Harman Akenson (mentioned in this episode's 5 Minute Jesus)
Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
We're back with a new season of Undeceptions. Join us as we chase down facts and explore the best arguments, to explode some of the myths about history, science, psychology, and the good life … and how it all relates to the Christian faith.
This season, we're talking climate change, public health, why belief in God is natural, how music points to the divine, mistakes in the Bible, and … the end of the world.
John Dickson takes a deep dive into the murky world of church finances to discover the pagan ruler responsible for granting Christian congregations their special financial privileges.
When the most powerful man in the world becomes a believer, things are definitely going to change.
But what did this ruler actually have in mind when he gifted churches and clergy their tax free status? Press play to find out.
Dr. Laurel Moffatt makes a return to Undeceptions with a single aimed at making us consider the level of our indifference.
The Black Lives Matter campaign has focussed America's attention on statues that commemorate the great military leaders and politicians of the slave-supporting Confederacy.
Should these symbols be taken down and our values rebuilt? Or would that leave a greater human failure still standing?
Matt Andrews makes a guest appearance on Undeceptions, tackling the thorny topic of slavery in Australia.
Have Aboriginals been enslaved at various times in Australia's history? Certainly. Was that the intention of its British leaders? Certainly not.
There are two key things to undeceived of here, but you'l have to click play to find out what they are.
Eligius of Noyon was a French jewellery smith of uncommon talent who counted royal families and the highest nobility amongst his clients. As a young man, his success allowed him to dress so exorbitantly, his sense of luxury made it into the history books.
However when Eligius' attention turned from kingly clients to the Kingdom of God, an incredible transformation took place. He became so concerned for the slaves around him, that his finery became the means for setting them free.
In this fourth single on the hidden Christian history of slavery, John Dickson shares how Eligius impoverished himself so that others might know the grace of God.
St. Augustine was the Bishop of Hippo and the leader of the Christian church in a city that had become a hub in the ancient world's slave trade.
He led his followers in an ambitious buy-back program for those captured by unscrupulous traders. But when church funds failed, these meek and mild believers didn't hold back from carrying out dangerous slave raids.
Join John Dickson as he takes us through a first hand account of what early Christians risked to save less fortunate men and women.
The fourth century bishop, Gregory of Nyssa, led the charge on ending slavery centuries before modern champions like William Wilberforce and Frederick Douglass ever stepped on to the stage.
His arguments regarding the value of human beings would fuel abolitionists and civil rights movements fifteen hundred years after he was dead.
If only we'd listened sooner.
John Dickson delves into the history of the abolition of slavery in the 19th century and discovers its deep roots in Christian theology.
His investigations reveal secular claims that Christianity was a leading cause of slavery are without foundation. In fact, the campaign for freedom arose from a distinctly Christian world view that had existed for well over a thousand years.
Yet the church could clearly have done a lot more, a lot sooner.
Dr. Laurel Moffatt is a writer and researcher based in Sydney, and a special guest for our Undeceptions 'Single' this week.
On a recent kayaking trip, she discovered a connection between our desperate need for 'places of safety' during this pandemic, and international statistics that show a growing desire to communicate with the Almighty.
Leveraging the wisdom of Augustine, she shares how prayer can become your safest place.
A remarkable event occurred on this day at 11:30am, 25 June, 1788. The 21 year old convict, Samuel Peyton, entered into eternity courtesy of the hangman's noose.
But unlike many of his convict comrades who suffered a similar fate, Peyton left behind a testament to his belief that, even in death, he was “firmly relying on the merits of a Blessed Redeemer.”
Listen in for one of the most heartfelt stories of repentance Australia's colonial history has to offer, as well as a pointer to a Christian hope that still holds true today.
Rachel Gilson says she grew up knowing two things instinctively: she was romantically attracted to women and Christians were NOT ok with that.
Smart, sophisticated, with a love for big ideas not small minds … Rachel Gilson sounds like she’s the poster girl for that common critique of Christianity - that it’s unhelpful and unhealthy for those with lesbian, gay, or bisexual orientations. But that is not her story.
Rachel discovered that it was possible to walk a round that led between her same-sex attraction and a love of God. Her conclusions, including her life choices will surprise you.
Yet Rachel’s quest to understand God and His opinion of her desires provide one of the most provocative, interesting and inspiring stories Undeceptions has had privilege to present.
LINKS
- For more on Rachel Gilson, check out her web site.
- And while you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- Undeceptions would like to encourage you to check out Zondervan Academic's latest publication, Collected Essays of N.T. Wright, 3: volumes: Interpreting Scripture, Interpreting Jesus, and Interpreting Paul
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the Life In Wartime podcast with David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine.
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
The end of the second season of Undeceptions is drawing night, so it's time to start unpacking all of the questions we've collected.
This episode John Dickson tackles everything from is the Old Testament History to is the New Testament a re-write of Jesus' real perspective?
If you enjoy listening to hosts squirm, you'll love season's two's Undeceptions Q and A.
LINKS
- Both atheistic evolutionists and literalistic creationists want you to read Genesis the same way, but is there a different take on the foundational book of the Bible? John asks Professor C. John Collins, Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, in the Undeceptions episode Six Days.
- Undeceptions brings to life the forgotten women of the early church so we can learn just how significant the fairer sex were for the spread of the Gospel with international expert Dr. Lynn Cohick in our episode Remembering Women.
- Studies continue to show that most people have a fairly positive view of the founder of Christianity. But that’s a long way from accepting that there’s any history - let alone relevance - in the alleged events of Easter. John tackles the top questions in Easter Myths.
- While you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- We encourage you to especially check out Zondervan's new book, 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity by John Lennox.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the Life In Wartime podcast with David Robertson and Stephen McAlpine.
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
This episode, we’ll be zooming in on the early Christian women, for whom we have good evidence, and who had a profound impact on the church and its teaching in their time.
Our guide is Dr. Lynn Cohick, who's written books on the topic, including Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through the Fifth Centuries (co-authored with Amy Brown Hughes) and Women in the World of the Earliest Christians.
She paints a vivid picture for us of what life in ancient Rome might have been like for the first women to hear the gospel.
LINKS
- For more on Dr. Lynn Cohick, check out her web site.
- And while you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Greg Sheridan cut his teeth at the legendary news magazine, The Bulletin, before moving on to the national daily newspaper, The Australian, where he’s been the foreign editor since 1982.
John catches up to talk to him about Christianity's struggles in Australia and why, of all times, he would choose to out himself as a believer.
However, Greg is not so glum on the future and underlines that because the faith is beholden to no particular political party it has the ability to reinvent itself that is more inline with its roots.
LINKS
- For more on Greg Sheridan, check out his web page at The Australian
- Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the Salt podcast with Jenny Salt
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Ian Hutchinson is Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Plasma Science and Fusion Center.
Among many, many other things he wrote the standard monograph on measuring plasmas, Principles of Plasma Diagnostics. That's right, he literally wrote the book on plasmas.
He’s also a fellow of the American Physical Society, a fellow of the Institute of Physics, and of the American Scientific Affiliation.
And… he believes in miracles - healing, resurrection, all of it.
Find out why.
LINKS
- For more on Professor Ian Hutchinson, check out his web site.
- Check out his book, Can A Scientist Believe In Miracles? by Ian Hutchinson
- And while you're clicking, have a look at the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
It’s a popular misconception. If science is your guiding light, you’re going to see the world a particular way. And if you hold to religion well, you’re going to imagine the world a particular way. At least that’s how it seems.
But Alister McGrath is the Professor of Science and Religion at Oxford University, and he makes a pretty convincing case that, while science and religion are fundamentally different, they remain complementary.
So what does Alister do with the all the objections scientists throw at him? Play them back with a perfectly straight British bat. Tune in and tally the score for yourself!
LINKS
- For more on Dr. Alister McGrath, check out his web site.
- Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin is a learned, feisty academic who's not afraid to confront the challenge that this two thousand year old faith has run its course.
Claims of institutionalised homophobia, that religion is bad for us, and scare tactics surrounding the teaching of Hell - they all surface in this episode.
Faced with the most challenging questions of the day, Dr. McLaughlin offers a spirited defence of Christianity that John Dickson thinks amounts to the best answer to troubling questions since Tim Keller's Reasons For God.
LINKS
- For more on Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin, check out her web site.
- Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard questions for the World's Largest Religion, by Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin
- Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the With All Due Respect podcast with Michael Jensen and Megan Powell du Toit
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
What do you do if you devote your entire life to one religion, then slowly realise you belong somewhere else?
This episode isn’t an exploration of a forgotten piece of history, a tricky topic, or an ethical dilemma, but a story, plain and simple about a search for personal peace, which is just what our anxious world needs right now.
Rahil Patel was one of the Hindu world's leading evangelists, who spent decades establishing temples all over Europe and Russia, until one day he woke up to discover that his heart belonged to someone else.
LINKS
- Rahil Patel's web site
- Found By Love: A Hindu Priest Encounters Jesus Christ, by Rahil Patel
- Check out the Undeceptions web site for all sorts of cool stuff related to undeceiving the world
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- You can click here to sign up for the Salt podcast with Jenny Salt
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Was the story of Jesus’ final days a fiction, cobbled together from a range of earlier myths. Did Jesus actually died on a cross, and, if so, was it part of his own plan or just a tragic failure. And, of course, what can be said about him rising from the dead?
In ancient Carthage, those who faced the Cyprian Plague discovered that there were two sets of symptoms to contend with: those that afflicted the outer body, and those that afflicted the inner person.
COVID-19 is having a similar effect. It is turning out to be not just a physical trial but a moral test.
The pandemic is revealing the best and the worst of our characters. The former we can celebrate together. Our faults, though, are also worth our contemplation.
If you’re preparing yourself for an assault on conservative Christian doctrine regarding women in church leadership, or different approaches to women teaching … you’re going to be disappointed.
This is an episode about a more fundamental ‘deception’ the western world seems to hold: that Christianity places no value on the contribution of women, or offers them any pride of place.
However, Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing is the Joint Director of the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics and the counter to that claim.
She is an academic, world-traveller, social media queen, and born persuader who is gaining significant influence in Britain and Europe as she advocates for the Gospel.
LINKS
- Special thanks to Zondervan Academic, our show sponsor
- Find out more about Dr. Amy Orr-Ewing at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries
- The Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- The Salt podcast by Jenny Salt
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Church leaders and impassioned Christians want to suggest that the Bible promises a special deliverance from COVID-19 for those who put their faith in the Son of God. However John Dickson resurrects the wisdom of an ancient bishop who also faced a massive plague to give us a different perspective.
Last season we brought you John Lennox, talking about the compatibility of faith and a scientific mind, and Ard Louis discussing the evidence for a rational universe … but we sidestepped one obvious debate.
Creation versus evolution - 6 days versus 13.8 billion years - young earthers vs. ancient universe-ers.
It’s a pretty hot argument in the minds of some believers and non-believers alike. Sometimes both sides think there’s only one way to take Genesis, and that’s at face value.
This episode, though, we talk to Professor C. John Collins, Professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary, who suggests there's another way that honours both the message and the intellect.
LINKS
- Find out more about C. John 'Jack' Collins at Covenant Theological Seminary.
- Reading Genesis Well: Navigating History, Poetry, Science, and Truth in Genesis 1-11, by C. John Collins
- How To Follow Jesus, by Craig Springer
- Zondervan Academic
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- Want to send John Dickson a question? He loves them. Just click here to provide a query for our next Q and A show!
- Undeceptions is part of the Eternity Podcast Network, an audio collection showcasing the seriously good news of faith today.
Simply taking care of yourself and those closest to you might seem enough - even the most important thing - at this time of international concern. But John Dickson picks out the story of a wealthy, ancient woman to suggest another way. Rome's Fabiola powerfully demonstrated the level of sympathy that hearts changed by Christ can hope to rise to.
In this episode we’re delving into that frightening world.
According to the World Health Organization, cancer is the second leading cause of death internationally, accounting for an estimated 9.6 million fatalities in 2018 - that’s 1 in 6 deaths. Cancer is an undiscriminating disease. It can appear in almost any part of the body, and any age group. Each year, 300,000 cases of cancer are diagnosed in children alone. And the costs for those who can pay for treatments and preventative measures are staggering - cancer costs the world economy 1.16 trillion US dollars a year.
But cancer isn’t just a medical battleground, it’s a spiritual one as well. Through the ages, myriad human voices have cried out, “My God, why!?" How do people who reckon there is some kind of good God in the world - which surveys say is most human beings - cope with cancer in the world? Meet Ben Shaw and his wife Karen who heard those two words in the title, and the epic faith journey they travelled together.
LINKS
- Find out more about Ben Shaw through his page at The Boathouse Church, Putney
- This episode is brought to you by Zondervan Academic and its new book The New Testament in Its World by N. T. Wright and Michael Bird
- A special just for Undeceptions listeners! Get free access to Zondervan Academic's Master Lectures for 14 days, and then save 25% for the next 6 months. Just type in the code UNDECEPTIONS at the check-out.
- Ridley College, where John lectures in Public Christianity
- The podcast Salt (conversations with Jenny Salt) is available on The Eternity Podcast Network
The return of Undeceptions for 2020, kicking off with God and cancer, a better way of reading Genesis, woman leading the charge in explaining Christianity, Easter myths exploded and proof the faith you grow up with isn't the final word on what you believe. Plus much, much more! Let the Undeceptions begin... Monday, March 16.
It's February 4, and the anniversary of Australia's first church service. But this wasn't a morality lesson from the chaplain to the prison colony. The Rev. Richard Johnson had something much more significant on his mind.
On the day we commemorate the history and character of our nation, it may be worth considering how we build healthy, respectful lamenting into our national celebrations.
This Christmas, as you rightly enjoy the good things God's given you and share them with your nearest and dearest, spare a moment to consider how your generosity might spread further afield.
Links that might prove helpful:
- World Vision
- International Justice Mission
- Anglican Aid
- Open Doors Australia
- Tear Australia
- Save The Children
Thanks for being great supporters of the first season of Undeceptions! We hope you enjoy this little gift from us, and have a happy Christmas with your loved ones and the God who made this all possible.
Yours in all truth,
John, Kaley, Bella and Mark
Jesus was born in a manger, right? But what does that mean exactly? And how about that inn? Or the star hovering over the stable? How does history address our most cherished images of the birth of the King of Kings? And what did The Life Of Brian get right? Join John as he undeceives us about everything that can and can't be said about the birth of Jesus.
Thanks to our season sponsor – Selah – for all your travel needs, whether you’re a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.
Links related to this episode:
- Read John's Nativity Naivete for an account of how the 'Quirinius problem' is resolved by historians, as well as many other common misconceptions about supposed historical problems in the Christmas story.
- For a more general summary of the historical truths of the Christmas story, there's Truth In The Story Of Christmas
- For those wanting to dig deeper into the historical evidence for Jesus' existence, John also wrote this reply to an assertion that the baby in a manger wasn't a real person for ABC Religion & Ethics.
- And since it's that time of year, you might also want to have a look at John's article, Halloween Vs. Christmas, discussing the historical basis for both.
Send us a question
Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.
Each week of our first season of Undeceptions, we've asked you to tell us some of the things you'd like to be 'undeceived' about. This episode John Dickson tackles the top questions sent in, covering everything from questions raised by our various guests to crackers you've come up with on your own.
Press play to hear more about whether Islam actually invented science, why historians still reject the idea of a resurrection, and what the difference is between New Testament and Old Testament Miracles. Plus West Wing references and Jesus own 'top questions' to ask!
Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.
Links related to this episode:Curiosity aroused by others' questions? Easy links to...
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- Episode 1 - Old Papers, with Brendan Haug
- Episode 2 - Football Free, with the Greenbay Packers
- Episode 6 - Rational Universe, with Ard Louis
- Episode 7 - Gospel Truth, with Peter Williams
- John refer's to the 'post hoc ergo proctor hoc' fallacy. Did he leave you in the dust? Here's a video that explains the idea
- But if you'd prefer Jed Bartlett to explain it to you, you can find it here
And check out the beautiful new Undeceptions web site!
Want to send John a question for our next Q and A? Here's the place to do it!
Send us a question
Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.
This episode, we've put John Dickson in the hot seat to talk about his new book: Is Jesus History. Anita Savage is our guest host, and she grills John on one of the greatest questions out there: did Jesus really exist?
Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.
Links related to this episode:
- Get John Dickson's latest book Is Jesus History?
- Read more about the supposed 'lost tomb of Jesus' in this CNN report. And watch James Cameron's documentary here.
- Read more about the 'lost gospel of Judas' from the National Geographic Society.
- Jeffrey Archer's fiction book, The Gospel According to Judas
- After The Da Vinci Code, John Dickson wrote several articles responding to some of the conspiracies theories that surrounded the book and the life of Jesus. Here's one of them on The Secret Gospels.
- Read the article from Time Magazine listing Jesus as the most influential person of all time.
- In Episode 7 of Undeceptions, John interviewed Peter Williams, author of Can We Trust the Gospels. You should definitely go back and listen to that episode if you enjoyed this one!
Get to know our guest host
Anita Savage is a TV and radio journalist who has worked for 2UE, Sky News, Channel 9, Bloomberg Television and ABC TV and radio. In 2019, Anita joined the Hope Media team to lead the new Hope Media News Service. She joins us for this episode of Undeceptions as guest host, interviewing John Dickson.
Send us a question
Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.
When Sarah first arrived at Cambridge on a scholarship, and then later took a job at Oxford, she thought Christians were anti-intellectual.
And perhaps that’s what we’ve come to expect. Smart people have no time - no headspace - for God. They know too much. They think too deeply for the ‘shallows’ of theology.
This episode, we’re talking with people who’ve witnessed the opposite. Universities like Oxford and Cambridge are melting pots, where people can find their beliefs - or unbelief - turned upside down, just like Sarah.
Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.
Links related to this episode:
- Read more of Sarah's conversion to Christianity during her studies here.
- Check out Vaughan Robert's ministry at St Ebbe's in Oxford.
- Read Peter Harrison's The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science
- Find out more about philosopher Peter Singer
- John Dickson's 5 minute Jesus in this episode is all about Christianity and the Apostles' Creed. Learn more about the creed here.
- Read more about CS Lewis' conversion to Christianity while at Oxford
- Get GK Chesterton's book The Everlasting Man
- More on Oxford banning the Christian Union at Fresher's Week in 2017
Get to know our guests
Dr Sarah Irving-Stonebraker is senior lecturer in Modern European History at Western Sydney University. She was awarded a PhD in History from Cambridge University in 2007.
Vaughan Roberts is Rector of St Ebbe's Church in Oxford. He studied law at Cambridge University and theology at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford before entering ministry. Roberts is also Director of the Proclamation Trust, an organisation that encourages and equips Bible teachers. He is a popular conference speaker and author of several books.
Send us a question
Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.
In episode 4 of Season 1 of Undeceptions, John spoke with Professor Teresa Morgan about the ethic of love at the heart of the New Testament. It sounds like ‘common sense’ to many today – it’s what any rational person would think about the good life.
But it certainly wasn’t ‘rational’ in the Roman world, and it hasn’t been for most of world history. Listen to the full interview with Professor Morgan, a Fellow and tutor at Oriel College in Oxford University in this special bonus episode. You'll get more insight on how radically Christianity changed the moral values of the ancient world … and how we continue to see the results today.
This episode of Undeceptions was a difficult one for us to make. But we believe it's an important one. It's a myth that there's no such thing as slavery in modern times. And just as Christians were at the forefront of anti-slavery work way back in the 5th century, and again in the 19th century, we’ll be speaking to today’s heroes, continuing that tradition and fighting for the absolute end of slavery in their lifetime.
In episode 7 we ask Dr Peter Williams, author and academic from Cambridge, can we really trust the Gospels in the Bible? And how do the gospels - considered our best evidence for the existence of Jesus - stack up against the evidence for other historical figures of the day?
Professor Ard Louis is one of the world's leading theoretical physicists. He sat down with John Dickson to talk about why he fervently believes that we don't need to prove God exists.
Ard is serious in his quest to have a coherent system that makes some sense of the world. It’s what he gets out of bed to discover every day. And he's not afraid that the more he discovers, the less he'll need God. Quite the opposite:
"Science is one of the parts of the world that actually increases the likelihood of God being there," he says.
Thanks to our season sponsor - Selah - for all your travel needs, whether you're a doubter or a believer. Find out more at myselah.com.au.
Links related to this episode:
- Watch the Why Are We Here documentary that Ard Louis helped create.
- Check out Morgan Freeman's documentary series The Story of God. He interviews Ard Louis in the episode called 'Proof of God'.
- Read Simon Conway Morris' book Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe
- Watch the full interview from Centre For Public Christianity with Simon Conway Morris on evolution, convergence and a purposeful universe.
- Read more about Sir Fred Hoyle, the man who made famous the 'tornado in the junkyard' analogy.
- Check out this article by science historian Peter Harrison on The Reformation and the Rise of Science
- Watch Ard Louis talk more about evolution and intelligent design.
Get to know our guests
Ard Louis is Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Oxford where he leads an interdisciplinary research group studying problems on the border between chemistry, physics and biology. From 2002 to 2010 he was a Royal Society University Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and the University of Oxford. He is also an associate of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.
He also has a keen interest in molecular gastronomy, applying science to the art of cooking.
On a lighter note, Ard says in his bio, his Erdos-Bacon number is 6. "I have an Erdos number of 4 through Jonathan Doye and I have a Bacon number of 2 through Morgan Freeman."
Send us a question
Oh boy, does John love questions. So don’t be afraid to send them in. In season one, we’ll be dedicating an episode or two for John to answer all your burning questions about Christianity. Want to know something more about a previous episode? Or perhaps you’ve got a question about faith that you’ve been struggling to find an answer for? Let us know here, or leave your question as a voicemail at 02 9870 5678.
Federal MP Andrew Leigh says Australians are disconnected. And he thinks the decline of religion - amongst a few factors - is making social cohesion worse. Andrew is an atheist, which made John Dickson want to speak to him even more. If he can’t sign on to the church’s beliefs, why does he think society benefits when it has more religious believers?
In episode four of Undeceptions, John Dickson speaks with Teresa Morgan, a professor of Graeco-Roman History at Oriel College, Oxford University about what life was like for the average person living on the outskirts of Rome at the time of Jesus. What did they believe and what shaped their ideas of the 'good life'. And how did the arrival of Jesus change everything?
"I think some people can ... deceive themselves into thinking that science will keep them going, but they're usually people who are having a very good life and they're not hitting the big existential problems of existence where science doesn't really help very much." That's John Lennox, one of Christianity's great 'Undeceivers'. He has debated Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Peter Singer on the question of 'Can science explain everything'? This episode, he sits down for tea with John Dickson in the gardens of Green Templeton College.
Religion often makes an appearance in elite sports. But does it do any good? John Dickson speaks to Green Bay Packers star Mason Crosby, team chaplain Troy Murphy and long-time Packers trainer Pepper Burruss, to discover the surprising place of faith on the field.
"We’re getting about as close to the writings of the New Testament as you can get." John Dickson enters the climate-controlled vault housing the earliest manuscripts of the epistles of Paul, and speaks to head archivist Brendan Haug about where these "papers" came from and what they mean.
Coming soon, a new podcast series from author and historian John Dickson. Prepare to be undeceived.