Trauma-Informed Church Kid

The Gospel is Bigger Than You Think (Book Review) -- BONUS

Today, I will give you a bonus holiday episode where I will be reviewing a book I have read recently: Anthony Delgado's The Gospel Is Bigger Than You Think. In this book, Delgado examines the "gospel of Middle America" that is focused on a moment of decision and conversion, often at the expense of discipleship and spiritual transformation. He presents a (biblical) alternative to this "cultural folk religion" that is deeper, broader, more enchanting, and "bigger" than we might have thought.Hope you like it!
 
(disclaimer: I was given a free copy of the Audible book for review purposes)
 
Amazon link to buy the book
 

Beauty-First Healing from Trauma -- EXPERT-TEAS

Today we sit down for "tea" with Dr Timothy Patitsas, who quite literally wrote the book on a beauty-first approach to healing from trauma. In our discussion today, we embark on a bit of a mystical journey: attempting to grasp with words the ineffable power of beauty to heal the soul. What is beauty? How does it impact the soul? How can it undo the intra/interpersonal excommunication, schism, and heresy caused by trauma? Why is beauty the foremost of the three transcendentals (beauty, goodness, and truth)? How does the modern psychoanalytic approach to counseling fail trauma sufferers? And how can we recapture a beauty-first approach to healing?
 
This is an interview I have been looking forward to having for a long time, and I am delighted to share it with you now! Please forgive the audio quality issues; I hope it will not detract too much from the important information we explore here. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share this content to get the word out!
 
The Ethics of Beauty — St Nicholas Press
Home | beauty first films
 
Some emerging research on how beauty, wonder, awe, and other ventral vagal states are being recognized as essential factors in the healing process
Research Reveals the Healing Power of Beauty and Awe | Psychology Today
Awe as a Pathway to Mental and Physical Health - Maria Monroy, Dacher Keltner, 2023
Awe: A Systematic Review within a Cognitive Behavioural Framework and Proposed Cognitive Behavioural Model of Awe | International Journal of Applied Positive Psychology
GGSC-JTF_White_Paper-Awe_FINAL.pdf
 

Prodigal Sons of God

What does it mean to be sons of the promise, or sons of perdition? Does this mean that generational curses are real? What does it mean to be "elect"? Are they always the "good guys" in the story? Why does Cain build a city, and what is the relationship of a city to "empire"? What role do divine beings (elohim) play in the descent of humanity into depravity? How does that relate to the mythos of the surrounding ANE cultures? Are things like music and dancing and makeup bad in and of themselves? And what does it mean to be a "father" to someone, in the biblical text? Is there any hope for rebellious sons?Here, we spend an entire episode on genealogies! (don't leave!) We take a look at the parallel yet inverse lines of Seth and of Cain, and dive deep into both the physical and spiritual dimensions of that "sonship" and "fatherhood". Along the way, we discover that we are all in one way or another prodigal sons of God, and that Adonai our Father is longing for our return to receive the inheritance he has promised us. Join us on the journey of searching for resurrection on the other side of deconstruction.
 
Two Themes, Two Days, Two Goats; with Caleb Lewis - Episode 083 (Genesis Marks the Spot podcast)
 
Through the Waters: A biblical theology of the book of Genesis (Caleb Lewis)
 
Naked Bible Podcast transcript: Episode 262, Exodus 3, Part 2b (Dr Michael Heiser)
Article about the book of Enoch and the Watchers
 
Dr. Michael Heiser's graphic on the parallel genealogies of Seth and Cain
 
Gobekli Tepe: The World’s First Temple? | Smithsonian
 
A YouTube video about the Apkallu (Seven Sages), using AI
 
The Five(ish) Falls of Angels | Ancient Faith Ministries
 
Technology and the Story of Redemption: Being the People of God in a Mechanized World - The Symbolic World

The Crouching Sin-Beast

Why was Cain's sacrifice not accepted? What even is a sacrifice, and what makes it acceptable? What does it mean to master temptation? What does it mean to be mastered by temptation? What does it mean to be cursed by God? Who needs to repent: only the oppressors, or all of us? And what does repentance look like, for both? Does God actually hear the cries of the victims, and how does he bring justice?
 
In this return to the text of Genesis and our walkthrough of the Scriptures, we see that each of us can at any time become either Cain or Abel. We look at the ways in which some portions of this narrative have been used to cause hurt, and we examine what it means for God to call both the innocent and the guilty to master the crouching sin-beast in at the doorway of their own hearts.
 
A Demon at the Door? | memoirandremains
 
Genesis 4 – What History’s First Criminal Report Can Teach Us - Cerebral Faith
 
Cain, the Sinner - The Whole Counsel Blog

The Life of the Age and the Second Death -- NERD ALERT!

What is gehenna? Is it the same as hell? What is the Age to Come? Is it only something for the far-off future, or is it something for here and now as well What is the second death? Is that the Lake of Fire? What does it mean for a human being to experience the second death? Will all be saved, or only some? Is this something we should be afraid of, and to whom are these warnings directed? Can we really trust that Adonai is merciful and gracious, when all this threat of punishment is hanging over us?
 
Today, we explore one of the thorniest, most shadowy, and least certain topics we've encountered so far. It is also the source of much of the pain, hurt, and loss of trust that has caused deconstruction. In this episode, I try to take a slow walk (almost double-length!) through the biblical language surrounding final judgment and the Age to Come. My hope is that you are able to hear within these stumbling words a picture of a Father who desires that none should perish, and that all should be brought to repentance.
 
Was “Gehenna” a Smoldering Garbage Dump? – The Baker Deep End Blog
 
NB 441 Transcript
 
What Is It Like to Be a Bat?
 
Hades is Embittered — Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick (ancientfaith.com)

Life, Death, and the Afterdeath -- NERD ALERT!

As we've been walking through Genesis 1-3, a few "plot holes" have emerged. What is life? What does it mean to be "alive" or a "living being" (nefesh)? What then is death? Did Adam and Eve actually die the day they ate of the Tree of Knowing? And what happens after death? What is Sheol? Abaddon? Abraham's Bosom?  What is the Old Testament idea of what happens when we die? Are we talking about heaven and hell here?In this episode, I give some trauma-informed and biblically/traditionally grounded responses to these questions. Along the way, we discover a God who is himself the source of life, who laments over the death of his children, and who will enter as deep as possible into enemy territory to rescue and redeem his children.
Naked Bible 440: The Afterlife Part 1 | The Naked Bible Podcast
An image of the Old Testament cosmology, including the Underworld
Azazel and the “Scapegoat” (Leviticus 16) | Zondervan Academic
1 Enoch (earlyjewishwritings.com)
Naked Bible 347: Jonah and the Chaos Dragon | The Naked Bible Podcast
Holy Sonnets: Death, be not proud | The Poetry Foundation
Lift Up Your Heads, O Ye Gates - Psalm 24 and the Harrowing of Hades - The Whole Counsel Blog (ancientfaith.com)

Attached to the Father -- THE HOW OF HURT

In this episode, I tell my story of how I grew up without a clear sense that God liked me. I discuss my encounter with God up in the mountains, using contemplative prayer as a vehicle for that experience, and what that taught me about the heart of my Heavenly Father toward me. I dig a little bit into attachment science, discussing how it works in our relationship with both people and with God, and explore how experiencing "vertical" attachment repair affects our ability to also experience (and give) "horizontal" attachment repair. This episode is meant as a follow-up to the previous one: the Expert-Teas episode with Nicholas Soellner on contemplative prayer.Attachment patterns infographic
Anatomy of the Soul (Curt Thompson)   There is an excerpt of a contemplative prayer exercise from that book HERE
Attached to God (Krispin Mayfield)

Possessed by Hope -- EXPERT-TEAS

Today we sit down for "tea" with Nicholas Soellner! He is a friend of mine online who I collaborate with frequently on the Cosmic Corner, hosted by the Faith Unaltered YouTube channel. Find the playlist for that segment here:Cosmic Corner (FAU, hosted by Joshua Davidson)
 
In this episode, we look at the practice of contemplative prayer. This connects back to what we have been discussing with the human experience "in Adam": slavery to death, through sin. What does it mean to invite the presence and light and love of God into ALL the spaces of our lives, with one foot in the "already" and one foot in the "not yet" of redemption from that slavery? How can we build up a relational connection with Adonai through contemplative prayer? How does contemplative prayer purify and illuminate our minds (nous)? How can it bring healing to our memories -- not just our cognitive memories, but our somatic and emotional memories as well? What shaping effect does that have on our embodied identity? What is the hope of the resurrection and full redemption of our bodies? And what does it mean to be "possessed" by that hope?
 
This is an episode that had deep resonances for me in my life; I hope you enjoy it! Below are some resources to look into for contemplative prayer. As always with resources like this, these are suggestions for your own exploration: not a burden to tie up and place on your shoulders. Do what you can, when you can, in whatever way you can... and always seek to give yourself as much mercy and grace as Adonai does.What is Contemplative Prayer and How to Do a Contemplative Prayer Practice (guidedchristianmeditation.com)
 
Centering Prayer - The Contemplative Society
 
An example of contemplative prayer
 
A good video that explores the uncertainty and mystery of contemplative prayer
 

LIVE -- Genesis 1-3 Question and Response

This is the edited audio from our very first live Q&R episode taking questions from the live audience as well as the Facebook discussion group. In this episode, we dive very deep into a challenge from one of the listeners who sees "hierarchical headship" in Genesis 1-2 before the Gen 3 fall. We also look closely at the incarnational nature of the Scriptures as a joint divine-human revelation and work, and explore the extent to which we should adopt or privilege the cultural norms of the biblical authors.The audio is somewhat warbly due to the live recording; please forgive the quality. Hope you enjoy!

The First and Final Enemy -- NERD ALERT!

What does it mean to be slaves of sin and/or death? Who is paying "wages of death"? What, or who, exactly is the serpent-stomper promised to be? Do we possess a "sinful human nature" now, and what does that mean? What does it mean to have our natures "justified"? And who gets this gift? What does it mean to be "saved"? Who gets that reward, and how?We've been looking at the Genesis 3 fall narrative and its consequences for the sons of Adam. Now, we step away from Genesis 3 and look at how this passage of Scripture is interpreted by Paul in Romans 5-6. Along the way, we survey the apostolic witness (in the rest of the New Testament) as well as the Patristic witness (in the early centuries after the apostles) to uncover a way to respond to all of those questions above. In order that we might reconstruct religion for the hurting, with theology that doesn’t hurt.Instead of original sin and inherited guilt, we find ancestral consequences and personal guilt. Instead of a master demanding obedience upon pain of death, we see a Father who freely gives to all the gift of his own life, if only they will trust him enough to shema his voice. Instead of an implacable Judge demanding death, we see a gracious Son entering into death on our behalf: to turn the prison of Hades from a tomb into a womb.Jesus and John Wayne (Kristen DuMez)
Romans 5-6 (NKJV)
 
Verses discussing the scope of justification (NKJV)
 
Library of Church Fathers (search to find referenced quotes)