Currents in Religion

In today’s episode, Claire is joined by Tyshawn Gardner to discuss his Baylor University Press book I Heard the Preaching of the Elder. Kelly Miller Smith, Sr. is noted as preacher extraordinaire,civil rights leader, theology professor and assistant dean, and pastor. Born and raised in the all-Black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, Smith stands apart as one of only twelve African Americans to deliver the distinguished Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale University and was recognized by Jetmagazine as one of the most prolific preachers of the twentieth century. In I Heard the Preaching of the Elder, Tyshawn Gardner examines Smith’s ethical development, preaching, and ministry as one of America’s most distinguished leaders and one of Christianity’s most effective gospel proclaimers. Gardner provides an in-depth analysis of the understudiedprofile of this pastor-activist to present Smith as a unique leader who leveraged three platforms in shepherding a city to overcome its racially unjust past. Smith’s platforms as preaching pastor of First Baptist Church, CapitolHill (Nashville), professor and assistant dean at Vanderbilt Divinity School, and local champion of civil rights proved a rare combination and marked him as one of the nation’s most admired leaders. Smith’s ability as strategist and organizer is only eclipsed by his skillful ability to bring the Word of God tobear on social crises as a herald of the good news. I Heard the Preaching of the Elder provides valuable insights for a new cadre of contemporary women and men emerging as Christian leaders as they prepare to carry the message of Christ from the sanctuary to the street. Gardner’s masterful narrative celebrates Smith and his distinctive preaching model, which bears striking similarities to the political and civic rhetoric of the ancient Greco-Roman rhetoricians. The homiletical innovations of Smith have broader reach and implications than the concerns of the Black church—they are contributions to the preaching task of the whole church. Tyshawn Gardner currently serves as associate professor of Preaching and holder of the David E. Garland Endowed Chair in Preaching at George W. Truett Theological Seminary, where he teaches Preaching I, Preaching During the Civil Rights Era, and courses in the PhD in Preaching program. Dr. Gardner is an ordained Baptist minister and a seasoned pastor withover twenty years of pastoral experience. His research interests include Christian preaching, Kelly Miller Smith, Sr., social crisis and prophetic preaching, and the African American preaching tradition. Dr. Gardner is a decorated veteran of the U.S. Navy and served in both Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm aboard the USS Saratoga (CV-60). He has published two books, Sacred Anthropology: Prophetic Radicalism for Pulpit and Pew with Fortress Press (2022), and Social Crisis Preaching: Biblical Proclamation for Troubling Times with B&H Academic (2023) which wasnamed Book of the Year by Preaching Magazine in 2024. Prior to his appointment at Truett Seminary, Dr. Gardnerserved as associate professor and director of the Preministerial Scholars Program at Samford University, Birmingham, Alabama, as Senior Pastor of Plum Grove Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as Vice President for StudentAffairs at Stillman College (2019-2022), and as the President of the Tuscaloosa Chapter of the SCLC from 2016-2019. Dr. Gardner received a BA in Business Administration from Stillman College in Tuscaloosa and MDiv from Beeson Divinity School at Samford University, in Birmingham, where the Dean and faculty selected him as the Most Distinguished Student in 2014. Dr. Gardner served as a teaching assistant for the renowned homiletician Robert Smith, Jr. while matriculating at Beeson Divinity School. He earned the ThM and PhD in Christian Preaching with distinction from the Southern BaptistTheological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

Welcome to Season 12! In this episode, Claire is speaking with Philip Jenkins about hisnew book through Baylor University Press, American Empire, American Faith: Conquest, Christianity, and the Shaping of a Nation. The subject of empire and empires is now one of the mostactive fields of historical writing, and that is especially true in the context of religion. Throughout history, religions and religious ideas have contributed powerfully to making successive empires, and in turn, the history of thoseempires is crucial for understanding the development of religious systems worldwide. In recent years, historians have become increasingly awareof the imperial character of American history, from colonial days through the modern era. Although Americans have often been reluctant to admit the fact of their empire, it has always been a reality, from initial contacts with Native peoples through later expansion into new territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean, and subsequently into the Cold War era. Throughout this imperial history, religion has played an essential role. Religious beliefs originally justified the colonial enterprises into the New World, while later generationsclaimed to trace the divine will in a Manifest Destiny to conquer the whole continent. In turn, missionary dreams provided the justification for overseas expansion and often supplied the practical means for undertaking such ventures.Repeatedly too, imperial confrontations have affected the homeland, and have done much to form American both racial and religious stereotypes and nightmares. But the relationship between religion and empire in theAmerican context is anything but a story of cynical alliances between church and state, between faith and political power. To the contrary, religious beliefs have often provided the conquered with an essential basis for resistance and have mobilized anti-imperial movements. Without understandingempire, we are missing a vital part of the history of American religion. Empire, in fact, is the missing dimension in that story. Acknowledging that fact is all the more urgent in a United States increasingly populated by the descendants of nations and societies that were themselves the subjects of thatsprawling American empire. Philip Jenkins was educated at Cambridge University, wherehe received his Ph.D. in History. From 1980 through 2011, he taught at Penn State University, where he holds the rank of Emeritus Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities. In 2012, he became a Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University. He has published 35 sole-authored books, which have beentranslated into sixteen languages. These include The Next Christendom: The Coming Of Global Christianity (2002) and The Lost History of Christianity (2008). His most recent works include A Storm of Images: Iconoclasm and Religious Reformation in the Byzantine World and He Will Save You from the Deadly Pestilence: The Many Lives of Psalm 91 (both2023); and also Climate, Catastrophe, and Faith: How Changes in Climate Drive Religious Upheaval (2021). A historian by training, Jenkins has been active in manydifferent disciplines including sociology, criminology, and religious studies. Indeed, the Economist magazine has called him “one of America’s best scholars of religion.” He has published extensively on global and world Christianity, and on new and emerging religious movements. In teaching and research, he has a special interest in recent US history, from 1975 onwards.

In today’s episode, Claire meets with Angel D. Santiago-Vendrell to talk about his book Justo L. Gonzalez: Missionary of Hispanic Theology in the United States. Two of celebrated Hispanic theologian Justo L. González’s major works, The Story of Christianity and A History of Christian Thought, continue to be used as primary textbooks in undergraduate and seminary programs throughout the United States. But few of his literary students and admirers know the details of his biography, in particular the significance of his contribution to the emergence of Hispanic theology in the United States during the past five decades. In this biography, Angel Santiago-Vendrell gives fresh attention to González’s role in a rapidly changing theological landscape. Born in Cuba in 1937 and profoundly shaped by the "revolutionary decade" of the 1950s, González studied theology at Yale, Basel, and Strasbourg, where he encountered George Lindbeck, Karl Barth, and Yves Congar. He became good friends with Martin Luther King, Jr., during the 1960s while teaching at the Evangelical Seminary in Puerto Rico. He later went on to serve at Candler School of Theology and then to take various denominational positions in the United Methodist Church. His work for the Fund for Theological Education led to the creation of the Hispanic Theological Initiative in 1998. Although González is best known as a prolific author, Santiago-Vendrell argues that his most enduring contribution to Western Christianity is as a pioneer in Hispanic theology. González’s story reveals new strategies for the advancement of Hispanic people, the largest ethnic/racial minority in the United States but with the lowest proportion of educated leaders, pastors, and professors. His example of perseverance in Christian vocation calls Hispanic believers to remember and reignite their witness. Santiago-Vendrell presents González’s life and work as embodying a missional passion rooted in the gospel of incarnation, of God’s work in history. This incarnational theology is the center of an unwavering commitment in González’s life to equip and unite Christians in their proclamation of the faith. This painstaking engagement with and for the church—Hispanic and otherwise—continues to bear much fruit. Dr. Angel D. Santiago-Vendrell is a professor ofworld Christianity and witness. He was born and raised in Puerto Rico and came to faith in Christ at the age of nineteen after hearing a sermon by Rev. Ludy González, a Puerto Rican female Pentecostal pastor. He served as a youth pastorand assistant pastor in Puerto Rico, and as senior pastor of Iglesia Metodista Unida San Andres in Jamaica Plains, MA, for three years. Before coming to Truett, from 2008 to 2010, he was an assistant professor of mission studies at Memphis Theological Seminary, and from 2010 to 2023, he served as the E. Stanley Jones associate professor of evangelism at Asbury Theological Seminary, Orlando Campus. Dr. Santiago-Vendrell is passionate about missionary historiography, especially biographical studies, and how those stories could shape current Christian practices that aretransforming and liberating. He also enjoys surfing, playing basketball, and building Star Wars Lego. He lives in the Waco area with his wife, Misoon Im, and their two sons.

In today’s episode, I am speaking to Alicia Myers about herarticle titled “Jesus’ Apotropaic Theophany: Guarding and Sanctifying Believers in John’s Gospel.” It speaks about how Jesus makes God’s presence available in his physical form. While Jesus’ physical protection is apotropaic, there is asuperior protection that comes after Jesus’ death and resurrection through the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit does the same work as that of Jesus and that of the Father through their divine unity. The divine unity is also in itself apotropaic because it protects believers from the evil one. They are protected and guarded for eternal life. Spirit-filled believers who love one another are God’s continued apotropaic presence in the world. Myers says that believers are “assuredof their place in God’s household and their participation in the divine unity regradless of their physical distance from Jesus himself.” Alicia Myers joined the Department of Religion in fall 2025after teaching at Campbell University (2014-2025) and United Theological Seminary (2011-2014). As a member of the Colloquium Ioanneum (John Colloquy), she is also a Research Fellow in the Department of Old and New Testaments atthe University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Her current projects include a book and a commentary on 1-3 John, a short volume on Hebrews, and a collection (co-edited with Catrin H. Williams) on the Johannine writings. She is married and has two sons as well as a large spotted dog whokeep her busy when she’s not writing or teaching.

In today's episode, Claire meets with Chris Hoklotubbe and Danny Zacharias to discuss their book, Reading the Bible on Turtle Island, and North American Indigenous lenses for interpreting the Bible. In Reading the Bible on Turtle Island, Indigenous scholars Chris Hoklotubbe and Danny Zacharias explore what it means to read the Bible from the lens of Indigenous peoples in North America. Exploring the intersection of Scripture, Cultural Traditions, Hearts and Minds, and Creation, they affirm Creator's presence with Indigenous people since the beginning. By recovering these rich histories, this book offers a fresh reading of Scripture that celebrates the assets, blessings, and insights of Indigenous interpretation. Indigenous culture has often been dismissed or deemed problematic within Western Christian circles, and historical practices have often communicated that Indigenous worldviews have little to offer the church or its understanding of Scripture. Hoklotubbe and Zacharias challenge this perspective, reasserting the dignity of these cultures that were condemned through colonial practices and showing how Indigenous interpretations bring invaluable insights to all of God’s people. Join the dance of North American Indigenousinterpretations of Christian Scripture Danny Zacharias grew up in Winnipeg (Treaty 1 territory),with his maternal ancestors (Cree/Anishinaabe) inhabiting the areas of Treaty 1 and Treaty 5 territory for many generations. After completing his Bachelor of Arts at Providence College, he and his wife Maria moved to Mi’kma’ki (Nova Scotia) to complete his Master of Divinity and Master of Arts (Theology) at Acadia Divinity College. While working part-time at ADC, Danny completed his PhD in New Testament studies through Highland Theological College (University of Aberdeen). During his time serving at ADC, Danny also completed the processof ordination with the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada and serves regularly in his local church. Danny also carries administrative responsibilities as Associate Dean and Director of the Hayward Lectures. In addition to his role at ADC, Danny is a faculty member of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community. More than any of these achievements, Danny is most proud to call Maria his wife, Lex, Jack, and Hudson his sons, and Ella-Rose his daughter. Christopher Hoklotubbe (ThD, Harvard) is a proud member ofthe Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. He is the director of graduate studies of NAIITS: An Indigenous Learning Community, the first accredited Indigenous designed, developed, delivered, and governed theological institute. He is also assistant professor of classics at Cornell College (Mount Vernon, Iowa). He is the author of Civilized Piety: The Rhetoric of Pietas in the Pastoral Epistles and the Roman Empire, which was awarded the Manfred Lautenschläger Award for Theological Promise. He and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters and live near Cedar Rapids, Iowa.