As a followup to my best books post, here is a list of the best interviews and lectures that I listened to this past year. (It was easier to follow a conversation than a heady, involved book, no matter how interesting, even if it was an audiobook.)
Marlena Fiol and Joshua Coleman, "The Roots of the Tree: Family dynamics, forgiveness, and reconciliation"
I stumbled on this interview in the days and nights after my mom died, as I was searching for answers to how to connect estranged siblings and heal family brokenness. I haven't got answers yet, but I benefited from the perspectives of Marlena Fiol and Joshua Coleman, who each wrote several books of their own: Fiol wrote a memoir called Nothing Bad Between Us based on her experience of being the headstrong daughter of a stern Mennonite missionary-doctor father in Paraguay, painful experiences of spanking and community shunning, wayward years after re-entering the US, marriage and divorce, studying French literature and then business and leadership and becoming a professor and consultant, and finally reconciling with her father in his last few years. It's a powerful story. Coleman, on the other hand, is a counseling psychologist who became estranged from his adult daughter for several years after a divorce and remarriage, and he wrote two books of advice based on this experience: When Parents Hurt and Rules of Estrangement. The books are comprehensive, but what really helped me was watching his webinars and reading his email newsletters, which package the concepts into bite-sized pieces -- understanding the other party, giving them space, writing an amends letter, accepting what you can't fix, and understanding how the rules and expectations for family relationships have changed in America in the last hundred years. Coleman looks and talks like a smart and dignified grandpa, sort of like Jordan Peterson, which presentation I think really helps parents and pre-millennials to understand and listen to him, while he has also been listening to the youngsters and so he knows what the parents can say to make them feel heard.
Christopher Watkin, (1) "Cultural Marxism and Cancel Culture" and (2) "Critical Theory Encore"
Christopher Watkin is a young Englishman who lectures at Monash University in Australia -- his field is post-Structuralist French philosophy. Because of this, he is able to fairly and respectfully assess our current cultural context from the perspective of the writers whose thoughts underpin it, and then point out the biblical themes that they echo, and then gently critique them from a Christian point of view. I also love his two websites: his academic one where he gives study hacks and snippets of research, and his explicitly Christian one with posts on biblical cultural theory. I listened to the two-part interview linked above while I was in Covid lockdown in Yangon in 2020, and immediately dived into his blog posts. I recently listened to the interview again while driving home from work, and enjoyed it just as much the second time.
David French, "Intersectionality and Identity Politics" (3-part lecture series)
David French (the pundit, not the kid I knew in church when I was a teen) is a voice of moderation in the middle of political polarization. He started as a First-Amendment lawyer, and then went to Iraq with the US Army as a Judge Advocate General, came back and wrote for the National Review and other conservative papers, started The Dispatch, positioned himself as a "never-Trump-er", adopted a girl from Ethiopia, and pretty much inserted himself in lots of controversies. But his manner of speaking to those controversies is always winsome and respectful, and that helps a lot. In this three-part lecture series on identity politics, given at Southern Seminary, he covers much the same ground as Christopher Watkin, but longer and with a specifically American application to things like Twitter mobs and academic politics. Basically, he says that the progressive movement has become like a church, with its own unique form of allyship and lending one's voice to representatives of disadvantaged groups, who rise to the top of a new kind of hierarchy. It's fascinating stuff, and again, what I love about him is how he can analyze these trends and still be respectful of the good that is behind the bad, which can help us respond to people in a loving and humane way, no matter what their political tribe may be.
Tom Schreiner, "Mentoring the Next Generation of Scholars"
This ten-minute interview segment follows another interview where Schreiner, who is a New Testament professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, talks about his life and vocation as a pastor-scholar. In this clip, however, he gives some advice to young people starting out on an academic career:
Stick close to the text, rather than following methodological fads, so that your work will have lasting relevance after the fads are gone. Stick close to the Lord and the people in the church, so that your spiritual life stays humble and relational and you're not always alone in your scholarly cave. Get off your phone, get off social media and all its gotcha-debates, and discipline yourself to read, read, read.
Robert Yarbrough, "Populism and Elitism in New Testament Theology" Part 1 and Part 2
I can't remember a whole lot about this interview, but I know it was interesting. Yarbrough, a New Testament professor at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, adds a historical dimension to the debates about biblical inerrancy and asks whether it is better to be academically popular in terms of accommodating unbelief, or to write for a popular (non-scholarly) audience in the church, and keep one's theological integrity. He says that the latter has had more vital staying power in church history. Especially interesting is how the latter approach has been picked up by the church in the global south, helping them stay strong during persecution. For more, see his book Clash of Visions: Populism and Elitism in New Testament Theology.
Preston Sprinkle, "Digital Leaders Forum"
Preston Sprinkle got his PhD in New Testament at Aberdeen, and then taught for several years at Francis Chan's Eternity Bible College. He moved his family to Idaho in order to start an extension campus, but it fizzled out. What he has been doing since then is writing books and producing high-quality videos and study materials on a Christian approach to sexual issues related to same-sex orientation and transgender identity. What really sets him apart is his winsome and compassionate approach (again like David French and Christopher Watkin). He interviews a number of Christians (and non-Christians, and former Christians) who experienced same-sex attractions or gender dysphoria, and really listens to their experiences in life and in the church, good and bad. And through it all, he maintains a faithful biblical theology that only allows for sexual relationships within opposite-sex monogamous marriage. The several hours of videos and position papers are oriented for church leaders, and well worth the $50 per year it costs to access them.
Erin Jones, "Community Spotlight: Erin Jones"
Erin Jones is a bi-racial (black-white) woman in the Seattle area, with an amazing life story. She was given up for adoption to a white couple in the mid-west who became teachers at an international school near the Hague, where she made friends with the children of Palestinian and Israeli ambassadors and caught the vision for helping bring about world peace. Then she went back to the US for college and experienced racism for the first time, and in a time of great personal anguish and listlessness, met a group of hopeless inner-city black kids playing basketball in Philadelphia and decided to become a teacher. She uses her cross-cultural knowledge of white and black cultures in the US and her wider experiences in Europe as leverage for creating intercultural understanding. After an unsuccessful run for state-wide office in the Washington State education department, she became a consultant and trainer and motivational speaker for schools on issues of racial inclusion and reconciliation. I like how she talks about her personal growth journey as a listener in tense situations and how she used her experience to broaden networks of understanding across communities.
