This has been a long time coming, but something we wanted to share. Most people have probably listened to the Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast at this point, if you haven’t, go do it now. The pod mini-series is a broad work that isn’t just about Mars Hill, but uses events/people/mindsets there to discuss ongoing issues in the Evangelical work more broadly. We, unfortunately (like most people), have had issues with church leadership, not dissimilar than Mars Hill. We discuss a little of our story, as well as where we agree/disagree with some of the assessment/conclusions and hopefully offer some useful takeaways. Hope you enjoy the podcast and the episode below, feedback and comments are always welcome. Listen below, find us on YouTube and wherever podcasts are found, or listen on our home page at Modern Cloister.
Modern Cloister podcast has turned one this past weekend. You can listen to our review of what we’ve taken a away from a year of podcasting, and our plans for the future. We will be back on an every other Sunday schedule for a while. Next up is a Mars Hill reaction pod, then a six part series on the five solas. Plenty of other ideas in the works, if life will let us get to them.
For MMT, I will hopefully be back in with book reviews soon, along with a few other post topic. I’ve started a new job in my real life, and that is taking quite a bit of bandwidth.
Hope you enjoy the podcast and the episode below, feedback and comments are always welcome. Listen below, find us on YouTube and wherever podcasts are found, or listen on our home page at Modern Cloister.
The Modern Cloister is back with a new mini-series with help on picking Translations, Study Bibles, and Commentaries. We start it off with Translations, which is based on a post I wrote last year, cleverly titled – On Bible Translations.
You can listen on the player below (if you are coming to this later, you may have to scroll), or on your favorite podcast platforms. If you prefer YouTube, we have a channel there, and you can listen to this episode here.
As always, we’d love to hear any thoughts or questions.
It has been about six months since my last post, which is probably the longest I have ever gone. Life has been a little off the past few month, so we haven’t done a podcast, nor have I written anything. So, we sat down and did a quick update, which you can listen to below.
I’m pretty behind on my books. I think I only read about 20 this year and I’ve only reviewed one or so of them. Hopefully, I’ll post more regularly next year and get back on track with the podcast.
Part four of the Modern Cloister series on the Psalms is out, you can find info on Part 1 – a Guide to Understanding the Psalms – here, Part 2 – How to Use the Psalms – here, and Part 2 – Praise and Thanksgiving in the Psalms – here, or listen in the player below. In this Episode, we continue diving into different genres of Psalms. We have broken them into eight genres, and we cover Lament and Confession, which are related, but also a little different. I think most people are familiar with confession, but having Biblical examples are helpful. I do not think most people are familiar or comfortable with lament. Mostly because it seems like we are just whining and complaining to go. Fortunately, there are numerous examples of Lament in the Psalms. Many show how to appropriately bring complaint to God. We do always have to be happy or positive, but can readily bring real sadness and distress to God and plea for His help.
You can listen to the Pod on the player below, or subscribe anywhere podcast are found. You can also listen at our YouTube Channel. Or, of course, come check us out at ModernCloister.com. Hope you enjoy, feedback is always welcome.
Part three of the Modern Cloister series on the Psalms is out, you can find info on Part 1 – a Guide to Understanding the Psalms – here and Part 2 – How to Use the Psalms – here, or listen in the player below. In this Episode, we start diving into different genres of Psalms. We have broken them into eight genres, and we start with Praise and Thanksgiving, which are related, but also a little different.
You can listen to the Pod on the player below, or subscribe anywhere podcast are found. You can also listen at our YouTube Channel. Or, of course, come check us out at ModernCloister.com. Hope you enjoy, feedback is always welcome.
In this episode of the Modern Cloister, we discuss some news from May, including the Supreme Court deciding to hear a Mississippi abortion law; Russell Moore steps down as president of the Ethics and Religious Life Commission; the upcoming ‘God Bless the USA’ Bible; and the updated CDC guidance on masks and gatherings (like church).
It will be about a year before we hear anything else about the abortion case. It could be a more in the right direction, but I remain skeptical (I’ve written before about Trump and the Supreme Court). It has been a wild six or so years with Evangelicals in the news for politics. We (or at least 81%, though less in 2020) abandoned our morals (we went from most likely to say character matters in 2012, to least likely in 2016) and often the reason told was, ‘for the judges’. So, not is the chance, I suppose, to see if it was worth it. It is important to remember that this case would not ban abortion in America (nor would overturning Roe), which is one reason I’ve written that Evangelicals shouldn’t be single issue voters. I’m tired of writing about politics, and even more tired of talking about it. Hopefully, In the News next month won’t have any, though that seems unlikely.
After we published, news also came out that roughly 15% of Americans believe in QAnon; though it looks like some, including 538, have issues with the polling. However, apparently, even asking different ways, at different times, surveys still finds support to be around this level (and up to 20%). Supporters are disproportionately Evangelical whites and Hispanics. Meaning it is a huge part of our church. So, while major denominations and famous pastors are obsessed with ‘wokeness’ and rooting out CRT (while denying the Trinity, as I’ve written about before), a huge proportion of our people in our pews believe things such as a global pedofile ring is in control of the media/Washington or that Biden is a body double. Meanwhile, 60% of people can’t tell you the Great Commission, and only 9% of people can name the 10 Commandments (a staggering 14% can name only 1). The disconnect is so great that the current hero for the SBC is an atheist, while Russell Moore no longer works for them (if you are curious as to why we brought up the SBC again).
Also, and I can’t seem to find too many good sources on this, but we mentioned Zondervan was part of the Bless the USA Bible. It appears the content is published elsewhere, Zondervan was only involved as they are the copyright holder to the NIV. It appears that they have pulled their licensing and will not be involved. I’ll try to update as more comes out. I applaud them for their decision, but they still allowed the NIV in the ‘Patriot’s’ Bible, which similarly doesn’t have any commentary or notes, but a few articles interspersed throughout, that have incorrect historical notes about American from an amatuer ‘historian’ (looking at his bio, he has neither pastoral or history training from any accredited institutions.) Also, you can read a good article from the perspective a non-American, that I mentioned during the Pod.
Part two of the Modern Cloister series on the Psalms is out (you can find info on Part 1 – a Guide to Using the Psalms – here, or listen in the player below). In it, we discuss using the Psalms for praying, reading, and singing, both privately and corporately. We take a look a reading plans, various ‘divine hours’ in which Psalms are incorporated (including medieval monks who read the whole book once a week), how to use Psalms as prayers and in learning how to pray, and finally, Mrs. MMT teaches you had to sing the Psalms.
You can listen to the Pod on the player below, or subscribe anywhere podcast are found. You can also listen at our YouTube Channel. Or, of course, come check us out at ModernCloister.com. Hope you enjoy, feedback is always welcome.
Over at Modern Cloister, we are excited to launch a new six part series on the Psalms. We start with todays episode, A Guide to Understanding. The next episode will get into how to use the Psalms. In the remaining four, we will dig into the different types/genres of Psalms (variously broken down, typically, between five and 12, we landed on eight).
Over the past few years, the Psalms have become one of the most important books to me. As I read how much the book was used in history – reading, singing, praying – it is almost disheartening how little we (most protestants) use them today.
You can listen to the Pod on the player below, or subscribe anywhere podcast are found. You can also listen at our YouTube Channel. Or, of course, come check us out at ModernCloister.com.
We are almost at the end of the month, so it is time for our latest Modern Cloister edition of In The News. Last month we did more of a deep dive on a major story, a smaller story, then one story from each of us. This time we are trying something a little different, with just firing relatively quickly, through five stories over the past month. Please let me know if one is better than the other.
Monday Morning Theologian 