Love Rinse Repeat

In the latest panel on BLM in the church in Australia and Oceania, Tamsyn Kereopa joins Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, and myself in a discussion on Indigenous theology, the struggle for racial justice in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the shifting forms of colonisation, and her work towards a Wahine Maori Theology of Liberation.

Rev Tamsyn Kereopa is of Te Arawa & Tuwharetoa descent. She is a PhD candidate with the Univ...

I sat down with Shannon Craigo-Snell to discuss turning to theatre to ask: Why Church? We discuss what led her to this conversation, how performance as event/interaction/doubleness illuminates the nature of the church, reading Delores Williams with Bertolt Brecht and much more.

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Shannon Craigo-Snell is a systematic and constructive Christian theologian. Since 2011, she has served as professor of theology at Loui...

I sat down with Peter Kline to talk about the fun and flexibility of teaching theological anthropology, talking sex and gender in the classroom, differences in theological academies and institutions he encountered moving from the US to Australia, and what drew him to negative/apophatic theology.

Peter Kline is the academic dean and lecturer in systematic theology at St Francis Theological College in Brisbane (part of Charles Sturt ...

I sat down with Jione Havea to discuss his new book, Losing Ground. We discuss the book of Ruth, reading it amidst climate catastrophe, how Jione built this book through talanoa and bible studies with Pasifika people across Australia, Aotearoa, and the Pacific, opening up academic biblical studies, and how this book "seeks to make any notions of white supremacy absurd."

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Rev Dr Jione Havea is a native pastor (Methodist ...

Grace Ji-Sun Kim returns to the podcast to talk about the racism and sexism encountered presently and historically by Asian American women, before exploring what it might look like to live into a Theology of Visibility.

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Grace Ji-Sun Kim was born in Korea, was educated in Canada, and now teaches in the United States. She is the author or editor of 20 books, most recently, Invisible, Hope in Disarray; Keeping Hope Alive;...

Skyler Jay Keiter-Massefski returns to the pod to answer the question: why read a poem. We discuss our mixed histories with poetry, how they approach the craft, and poetry's embodiedness and relation to breath. We also discuss the "how" of reading poetry and then Skyler finishes the chat by talking about the connection for them, between going out dancing and reading/writing poetry.

Skyler Jay Keiter-Massefski is a theological...

I sat down with German theologian, Florian Klug, to talk about the contingency and legitimacy of doctrine. We discuss the importance of God's initiative preceding human speech, that language is not something we possess but are born into and how this gives us a horizon of preconditioned knowledge that is expanded and shattered by God's intrusion. We also discuss how his book holds together an emphasis on God’s sovereignty and God’s ...

I sat down with Hannah Bacon to talk about sin, salvation, and women's weight loss narratives. I ask Hannah what drew her to this project and why there are seemingly so few theological works concerning weight/weight loss. We also discuss her focus on the theological doctrinal loci of sin and salvation and how are these shaping/resurfacing contemporary weight-loss narratives. We end by discussing what it might look like for salvatio...

I sat down with anthropologist Ellen Lewin to discuss her recent work, Filled with the Spirit: Sexuality, Gender, and Radical Inclusivity in a Black Pentecostal Church Coalition. The book (and our interview) focuses on Lewin’s time participating in and researching the Fellowship of Affirming Ministries. Through our discussion Lewin shares about the emergence of the coalition, its values, how she became connected, and why spirituali...

I spoke to Ali Robinson about teaching the New Testament, that little book of Jude, harsh language, conflict, and struggling to stick to a topic of research.

Dr Ali Robinson hold a PhD from Macquarie University, a BTh with Honours from Charles Sturt University. She has a strong interest in the General Epistles, Greco-Roman Rhetoric, Invective, Second Temple Judaism and Biblical Greek. Ali is the author of Jude on the Attack: A Comp...

This is a portion of the most recent Black Lives Matter and the Church in Australia panel discussion where Dr Anne Pattel-Gray joined the group to talk about Indigenous Theologies. She offers insight into the cost of developing a theology based in sovereignty and anti-colonialism, the work that remains, and what she's working on now.

The monthly panels are hosted by Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi of the Uniting Church Chaplaincy at C...

I sat down with Emmy Kegler to discuss easing the burden on the walk with mental illness. We discuss how this book emerged out fo a deep need for compassionate Christian talk about mental illness, something that critiqued harmful Christian approaches but still had something to offer. I ask about her chapter on sin, which helps us rethink where the 'sin' in conversations about mental health should be located. We then discuss prayer ...

I spoke with Sally Douglas about becoming the community Jesus speaks about. We discuss the versatility and surprise of the image of salt when thinking about the church, her engagement with early church writings, salty wombs, and the importance of being a place where people can cry in times such as these.

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Sally Douglas is a Uniting Church minister, who works in the mode of ‘scholar pastor’. She ministers with an inner...

I spoke with Gillian Townsley about queer reading across 1 Corinthians 11:2-16. We talk about attending to the ideology of reception and how reading across helps us move beyond the 'tired old debates'. I ask about how the work of Monique Wittig shapes her project (specifically about bringing men/masculinity back into focus). We also discuss her analysis of the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and Christians for Biblical E...

I sat down with Christiane Tietz to discuss the challenges and rewards of writing a biography of Karl Barth, and what theology gains from biography. We discuss Barth's time as a pastor in Safenwil and his siding with factory workers in a local labour dispute, and I ask how this event influenced (or was shaped by) his understanding of the kingdom of God and whether she feels this commitment to the vision of heaven come to us as an i...

I sat down with president of the Søren Kierkegaard Society (USA), Aaron Simmons to talk all about the existential Dane. We discuss who Kierkegaard was, what drew Aaron to his work (including the surprising points of resonance between Søren and pentecostalism). I also ask about Kierkegaard's work on Abraham and faith, how one can be led through existentialism to corporate struggles for liberation , and what theologians who study Kie...

I sat down with Eve Rebecca Parker to discuss an Indecent Dalit Theology. We talk about her book where she theologises with the Dalit women who from childhood have been dedicated to village goddesses and used as ‘sacred’ sex workers. We talk about how she came to this project, and what theology and the reading of Scripture gains through engagement with the lived religiosity and daily struggles of these dedicated women, known as dev...

Rev Dr Garry Deverell and Rev Dr Chris Budden join Rev. Tau’alofa Anga’aelangi, Rev Dr Katalina Tahaafe-Williams, and myself to discuss the preamble to the Uniting Church in Australia's constitution. Garry opens by discussing his critique of the document from an Indigenous perspective as one which rein-scribes colonial narratives, Chris then offers some insights into the motivation and process behind the production of the document,...

I sat down with Sathi Clarke to discuss his calling as a theologian, how his theological development was shaped by living with communities of untouchables in India, why a theologian needs to have concrete commitments to communities in their struggles for justice, how to teach global/world Christianity, responding to religious fundamentalism, and being passionately Christian and compassionately interreligious.

In the interview we d...