The Pastor Theologians Podcast

CPT board member Doug Sweeney joins the podcast today. He previews his topic for the 2025 CPT Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. What are good Christian pastors supposed to be like? On the other hand, what malformative models of pastoral identity are common in our culture today? Doug also tells us about his 2024 book, Substance of Our Faith: Foundations for the History of Christian Doctrine. Check it out on today's episode! Living Church - Awe and Pres...

Casey Hough joins us to talk about his recent book,When Poets Were Warriors: Retrieving a Biblical Vision of Masculinity (B&H Publishing, 2025). “Masculinity” is an increasingly popular subject for public discourse. Drawing on his experiences as a pastor and father, Hough argues that Christians ought to return to the complex and challenging example of Jesus, instead of relying on cultural stereotypes, to form our vision of masculinity. If we consider Jesus Christ to be a model for m...

What is culture, and what is our relationship to it as Christians? Dennis Greeson joins the podcast today to talk about his recent book The Way of Christ in Culture: A Vision for All of Life (Lifeway 2024), coauthored with Benjamin T. Quinn. In the book, the authors provide a framework for knowing one’s time in God’s story, one’s place in creation, and following wisdom. He also shares about the Alexandrian Institute, a cohort-based model for theological education focused on engaging Scripture...

This week, James Arcadi joins the podcast to talk about his latest book, Holiness: Divine and Human (2023). He also shares about his dual calling to both pastoral ministry as a full-time Anglican rector, and to academic theology as a guest professor at Wheaton College. What is the relationship between abstract ideas and practical application? What does it mean for something to be "consecrated" or "holy"? This and more on today's podcast! Living Church - Awe and Presence

On the podcast this week, Adam Copenhaver shares with us about his early ministry caring for an older congregation, and his education and research on Colossians. He also tells us about his current pastoral context leading a church in a small, migrant farm town which had previously been led by an abusive pastor. He previews the breakout topic he will lead at the 2025 CPT Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. How can our churches become both helpful and wel...

This week we are joined by CTP Fellow Ben Burkholder. Ben shares how he developed an interest in learning how people grow as disciples. Reflecting on his time as a student, Ben also shares insights about the relationship between psychology and spiritual formation. This and more on today’s podcast! Living Church - Awe and Presence

Join us this week as we get to know Eric Rivera. Eric will be a plenary speaker at the 2025 Pastor Theologians Conference, Good Shepherds: Pastoral Identity and the Future of the Church. On this episode, Eric talks about how his story shaped his interests and calling in church history and pastoral ministry. Drawing from his context as a pastor at a multi-ethnic church in the greater Chicago area, he also shares what he has learned it means to be a Good Shepherd in the 21st Century. Livi...

Samuel Parkison joins the podcast today to talk about his recent book, To Gaze upon God: The Beatific Vision in Doctrine, Tradition, and Practice (InterVarsity Press 2024.) He also shares with us his story and calling to academic ministry at the Abu Dhabi Extension Site at Gulf Theological Seminary in the United Arab Emirates. What is the beatific vision? What does the beatific vision have to do with this moment in history for the church? This and more on today's podcast! Living Church ...

For our April episode on books, we, the CPT staff, have been reading: CR Wiley, In the House of Tom Bombadil (2021)Ryan Holiday, The Obstacle Is the Way (2014)Percival Everett, James (2024)Harold Netland, Religious Experience and the Knowledge of God (2022)Living Church - Awe and Presence

Nadya Williams joins the podcast to talk about her recent book, Mothers, Children, and the Body Politic: Ancient Christianity and the Recovery of Human Dignity (IVP Academic, 2024.) How do our attitudes towards motherhood reflect either a commodification of human life or, by contrast, a rich affirmation of the imago dei? This and more on today’s podcast! Living Church - Awe and Presence

Stephen Campbell joins us today on the CPT podcast. Stephen tells us about witnessing his family's ministry through his childhood. He also shares how the Lord prepared him for his current context pastoring in Germany, and his research on the book of Deuteronomy. This and more on today's podcast! Living Church - Awe and Presence

Matt O'Reilly joins us today to talk about his recent book Free to Be Holy: A Biblical Theology of Sanctification. What does the Bible teach us about holiness? How can the broader Evangelical community learn from historically Methodist theologies of sanctification? How can ecclesial styles of theological writing serve pastors and congregations as they work through topics like this one? This and more on today's podcast! Living Church - Awe and Presence

Brad Littlejohn joins the podcast today to talk about his new book, Called to Freedom: Retrieving Christian Liberty in an Age of License. What is human "freedom"? Where do American theological, moral, and political concepts of freedom and liberty come from? How do Scripture and our culture view "freedom" differently, and how can pastors help the Church's ability to think Biblically about "freedom"? This and more on today's podcast! Living Church - Awe and Presence

Steve Turnbull joins the podcast to share his journey of becoming a pastor and Biblical scholar. As a pastor theologian, Steve has worked to develop a rich Biblical narrative imagination. Today, he serves as a senior pastor of Upper Arlington Lutheran Church in Ohio, as well as the provost and professor of New Testament at The Master's Institute in Minnesota. Living Church - Awe and Presence

We are excited to have Carl Trueman on the podcast today. Carl discusses his some of his recent books, including To Change All Worlds: Critical Theory from Marx to Marcuse, which provides an introductory intellectual history of Critical Theory, primarily non-polemically. In this episode, Carl walks us through the key figures and orienting ideas of Frankfurt School and Critical Theory. What is the connection between Critical Theory and Critical Race Theory? How can pastors steward the chu...