The Westminster Podcast

In this episode, Nate Shannon interviews Rev. Dr. Justin Poythress about his forthcoming book Who Am I and What Am I Doing With My Life? The conversation explores the modern “identity crisis” often expressed in debates about sexuality and gender but argues that these are only surface manifestations of a much deeper question: what it means to be human. Poythress explains that contemporary culture’s emphasis on radical self-creation, amplified by social media, limitless vocational options, and hyper-individualism, has produced both unprecedented freedom and profound instability. When identity becomes something we must invent rather than receive, the result is anxiety, paralysis, and constant comparison. This pressure affects everyone, not just teenagers or those wrestling with gender questions; adults experience it through work, retirement, politics, and online self-presentation. The gospel, Poythress argues, reframes identity entirely. Rather than constructing ourselves from scratch, we discover that much of who we are is “given”, created by God and shaped in relationship to Him and others. Christianity does not suppress the human desire for growth and transformation but redirects it: true becoming happens through union with Christ, not self-invention. What modern self-help and identity movements seek, meaning, stability, and a better self, is fulfilled in conversion and sanctification. The Christian life therefore answers the identity crisis not by rejecting identity language, but by redeeming it, grounding our being and becoming in communion with God.

In this episode of the Westminster Podcast, host Nate Shannon engages with Dr. S.A. Fix, an Old Testament scholar, to discuss the significance of John Thompson and his work on the Shorter Catechism. They explore the historical context of American Presbyterianism, the Adopting Act, and the impact of the Great Awakening on the church. Dr. Fix emphasizes the importance of confessionalism and the value of understanding theology as a means to glorify God and deepen one's faith.

In this episode of the Westminster Podcast, Nate Shannon is joined again by Jeremy Manacuchi for a searching exploration of the Book of Lamentations, one of Scripture’s most haunting and least-studied books. Beginning with the stark poetry of Jerusalem’s fall, they situate Lamentations within its historical context: the Babylonian siege, exile, and the covenantal judgment foretold in Deuteronomy. The discussion traces why the book is so emotionally and theologically difficult: its graphic imagery, its honest depiction of divine wrath, and its profound sense of abandonment, while also arguing for its enduring pastoral value. Far from being marginal, Lamentations confronts suffering head-on as the just response to sin, spoken from within the lived experience of God’s people. At the heart of the conversation is Lamentations 3, the structural and theological center of the book. Jeremy presents a compelling Christological reading in which “the man who has seen affliction” bears the full weight of God’s wrath, descends into the pit, and yet emerges with renewed hope grounded in the steadfast love of the Lord. Read as a carefully crafted whole, Lamentations moves from darkness to a single, blazing moment of hope, one that ultimately points beyond Jerusalem’s ruin to Christ himself. In that light, Lamentations is not merely a book of grief, but a profound witness to God’s covenant faithfulness, offering hope to sinners and sufferers alike through the one who was forsaken so that God might once again say to his people, “Do not fear.”

In this episode, Paul Woo recounts how his academic path converged with his personal theological journey. Though initially trained in seventeenth-century theology, his long-standing passion for Presbyterian history led him to accept an unexpected invitation to pursue doctoral research on John Murray. Murray’s influence, was first felt in reading Murray on Romans 6. Definitive sanctification gave him new categories for understanding the Christian struggle against sin as a battle fought from union with Christ, where Scripture’s imperatives rest on real spiritual power rather than desperation. That spiritual and theological foundation made the doctoral opportunity compelling. Surveying Murray’s lecture notes on the Westminster Standards revealed a meticulous historical theologian, overturning the common assumption that Murray was only a precise biblical exegete rather than a scholar deeply engaged with primary historical sources. Paul then outlines his emerging dissertation project, provisionally titled John Murray the Westminsterian, which will explore how Murray’s Scottish Presbyterian heritage and confessional commitments shaped his theology, and how in turn he helped shape Westminster Seminary and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church through his work on the denomination’s confession. The conversation widens to his recent research on Trinitarian doctrine at the Westminster Assembly, particularly debates over the Son’s aseity and Calvin’s doctrine of autotheos, showing how historical dogmatics and confessional theology intersect in his work. He also discusses his editorial research for P&R Publishing’s Warfield reprints, describing the painstaking but rewarding labor of tracing Warfield’s vast multilingual sources, and reflecting on how modern digital access has transformed historical scholarship. The episode closes with reflections on Murray’s enduring legacy as both scholar and pastor, his reputation for prayer and piety, and recommendations for readers approaching Murray for the first time (especially his sermons and Redemption Accomplished and Applied) as an entry point into a theology where rigorous exegesis, historical consciousness, and lived communion with Christ remain inseparable. If you enjoy this episode, you can access tons of content just like this at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wm.wts.edu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you would like to join us in our mission to train specialists in the bible to proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and his global church, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wts.edu/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thanks for listening!

In this episode of the Westminster Podcast, host Nate Shannon welcomes Dr. Brandon Crowe to discuss the relationship between Scripture and the Nicene Creed in the 1700th anniversary year of the Council of Nicaea. Drawing from his recent paper, Christology: Mark on the Road to Nicaea, Crowe explains how creeds arise from Scripture rather than being imposed upon it, functioning as faithful summaries and syntheses of the Bible’s teaching. He explores how extra-biblical theological language—such as homoousios and the doctrine of the Trinity—serves to clarify Scripture’s meaning when purely biblical phrasing proves vulnerable to misinterpretation. The conversation highlights the “hermeneutical spiral” between creed and Scripture: the creed guides faithful reading of the Bible, while Scripture remains the final authority that continually tests the creed. Crowe then turns to the Gospel of Mark to demonstrate how Nicene Christology emerges from the biblical text itself. Challenging historical-critical approaches that fragment the Gospel or diminish its theology, he argues for reading Mark as a coherent narrative shaped by Old Testament imagery. He outlines four key ways Mark presents Christ’s divine identity: the Father-Son relationship, theophanies, divine saving works, and divine claims made by Jesus. Particular attention is given to episodes such as Jesus walking on the water, interpreted as an Old Testament-shaped theophany revealing God’s presence in Christ. The episode concludes by emphasizing that classical creedal Christology does not restrict careful exegesis but provides theological guardrails that enable deeper, more faithful reading of Scripture. If you enjoy this episode, you can access tons of content just like this at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wm.wts.edu⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. If you would like to join us in our mission to train specialists in the bible to proclaim the whole counsel of God for Christ and his global church, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠wts.edu/donate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Thanks for listening!