Shifting Culture
Shifting Culture
Ep. 147 Blaine Eldredge - The Paradise King
In this episode, Blaine Eldredge and I look at the Bible in a new light, so we can see the stories come alive and we can fall in love with them once again. Blaine is a fantastic storyteller and he helps us see how we can follow Jesus in a time of decline, what we can learn from history for our time and place, and how we can eliminate the familiarity with which we read the Bible. Join us as we discover the fascinating insights the story of the Bible brings to our lives today.
Blaine is a teacher and writer from Peyton, Colorado. For the past decade, he has built platforms to help the Church thrive in late modernity. Blaine loves to read, write and talk about culture, history and theology. He really loves to contemplate the Gospel of Jesus and make resources to convey its astonishing beauty. He’s part of Kindred Church in Colorado Springs and holds a Masters Degree in Language from the University of British Columbia. He spends his free time bowhunting, chopping wood, and at poetry readings.
Blaine's Website:
www.blaineeldredge.com
Blaine's Book:
The Paradise King
Blaine's Recommendations:
The Priority of Christ by Robert Barron
Supernatural by Michael Heiser
Men and Women are from Eden by Mary Healy
The Lord of Spirits podcast
Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@allnations.us
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People are able to perceive when they're in the presence of something holy and good and beautiful. It activates in the soul. And he says there are times at which we're able to perceive the moral grain of the universe to perceive the transcendent purpose behind reality, which hopefully, some of us have experienced once or twice, in worship or in fellowship with people or even in the Bible that faculty turns on. So we don't have to invent the faculty. What we need to do is foster it. And I can say guys, that if I can become enamored with Jesus in terms of the biblical story, anyone can.
Joshua Johnson:Hello, and welcome to the shifting culture podcast in which we have conversations about the culture we create, and the impact we can make. We longed to see the body of Christ look like Jesus. I'm your host, Joshua Johnson. Go to shifting culture podcast.com to interact and donate. And don't forget to hit the Follow button on your favorite podcast app to be notified when new episodes come out each week, and go leave a rating and review. It's easy, it only takes a second and it helps us find new listeners to the show. Just go to the Show page on the app that you're using and hit five stars. It really is that easy. Thank you so much and find us anywhere on social media at shifting culture podcast, I post a lot of video clips and quotes. It'll be great to interact with you on social media. Previous guests on the show have included HUGH HALTER Mark er house, and Jamie Winship. You could go back listen to those episodes and more. But today's guest is Blaine Eldridge Blaine is a teacher and writer from Payton, Colorado. For the past decade, he has built platforms to help the church thrive in late modernity. Blaine loves to read, write and talk about culture, history and theology. He loves to contemplate the gospel of Jesus and make resources to convey its astonishing beauty. He's part of kindred church in Colorado Springs and holds a master's degree in language from the University of British Columbia. He spends his free time bow hunting, chopping wood, and at poetry readings. Blaine and I look at the Bible in a new light, so that we could see the stories come alive and we could fall in love with them. Once again. Blaine is a fantastic storyteller, and he helps us see how we can follow Jesus in a time of decline, what we can learn from history for our time and place and how we can eliminate the familiarity with which we read the Bible. So join us as we discover the fascinating insights the story the Bible brings to our lives today. Here's my conversation with Blaine Eldridge. Blaine, I'm really excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much for joining me,
Blaine Eldredge:Joshua, thank you. It's an honor to be here.
Joshua Johnson:I love your book, The Paradise king. And I think it's really important for people to to see things from a different perspectives, to be able to see the stories of Scripture to see Jesus in a way where it feels a little bit more like Lord of the Rings, or it feels more like something where I want to get my hands in and live in this this space. It feels fascinating, in a way where sometimes reading scripture, although it is fascinating, but oftentimes, we don't actually see the nuances of it. We just read because we're supposed to read. And so I think what, what your book does is it leaps off the page and helps bring a new fresh perspective and helps me really fall in love with Jesus even more. So I'd love to, to figure out. So why in the world, would you you write a book like this? What gave you this impetus to set a book up in a way that you wrote it in the Paradise King?
Blaine Eldredge:Thank you. Great question. I'll answer that with a story that I think is a good illustration. It's one of my favorite bizarre things that happened in the Age of Exploration. So it's the 1600s. That's our backdrop. And if you were an Italian nobleman, you did not have to wonder what you were going to do with your life. You were going to be an explorer. So a man named Petro dilla vi EA wound up in Mesopotamia. He was kind of like Indiana Jones 400 years before Indiana Jones. He was fascinating. He negotiated on the battlefield with the kings of multiple empires he wound up through an odd series of events married to an Assyrian princess and Damascus, and he wanted to see Baghdad. But when he was there 1615 It was besieged, there was a war over Baghdad between the Ottoman Turks and Persia. So he hires his own guides. And these things, I'm here, I'll go explore the desert, several days into the journey, they wake up, and there's this line of horsemen on the horizon. And the guides inform him that we are in grave danger, we need to find a place to hide immediately, and they look around and off to the right is what appears to be a line of low hills. Let's get over there. Well, when they get there, the sand has blown in, everything is decayed, but Petros an explorer, so as they're hiding from this other regional power, he starts exploring, and he realizes this is a city. He took copious notes, he has this incredible line or, you know, he says, I perceive what it had been, I could not understand. But I found that it had been built with bricks, most of which were stamped with unknown letters, which appeared very ancient. What he doesn't know is that he's in war, and is one of the first Europeans to stumble into the empire of ancient soumare. I tell the story, because I that is my experience and the experience of many people stumbling in to the riches of Christianity, the biblical story, that wildness, of the composition of the ancient texts, church history, all these things. And all I can say about writing this book is I didn't mean to, but something like what happened to Pietro delivey happened to me at a time that I wasn't sure that I wanted to keep following Jesus, but felt challenged by God to go and see, come and see go and look. And in the course of doing so, simply by diligently looking, I love that Jesus wants to be found, I love that he says, Seek and you will find. So I'm a history nerd. I love the formation of language, semiotics, things like that. And in the peculiar language of my heart and story, Jesus really began to meet me as I read and scoured and read Patristics and all of these things. And I realized that I'd love to share some of this. At an at the end of that I know, I had written this book, but at the very beginning, I was just looking for a way to share some of what I was discovering, and to trick my less interested friends into talking about history. So it was a bit of a slippery slope that got us here.
Joshua Johnson:So why, why history? What is it for you to see the ancient texts for to see history unfold to tell stories of of people in 1615? Why does history resonate so much in today in our modern age that we're living in for you?
Blaine Eldredge:I'm so glad you asked that question. The writer Carl Truman has become something of a divisive figure. So all, all writers that I'm going to name here, get a pinch of salt, and you're getting the Blaine Eldridge version of 20th century academia. So be warned. But something I think he got right in the rise and triumph of the modern self is that our age is anti historical. And if I know because I looked at your podcast guests, that our friends listening are nerds. So I'm confident they can come along for this, and they seem like my kind of people. So here's what it is, in an anti historical age, your culture looks to the future, rather than to the past, for solutions, and in particular, for hope. And so it's kind of amazing to look at the entire human tradition to look at world history, and to see that for almost all of that. tradition was a source of authority, and people look to the past to catch a vision of a desirable future. We don't do that anymore. Our influencers are young or entrepreneurs are young, even our ideas are young, often disastrously so. So you know it. Some of my friends say that new ideas should come with a warning label on them because they haven't been tested. It's so wonderful book that you get the substance of the book from the title, it's called ideas have consequences. That's true, often unforeseen consequences, especially if it's a new idea. So a few things is that one, we're wired to display, the beauty of Jesus. And I have almost always been a nerd for some people is music, some people is math business, I started playing through the history of the Roman Empire, when I was probably six or seven years old. And with my brothers, we'd start with the founding dynasties and play our way through kind of the decline in the five hundreds and then just start again. And there's something about that drama, the heroic, that personality of history that has always seemed interesting to me. And I think what happened in exploring the worldview and history and nature of the biblical story, which is a story about the nature and purpose of reality is that several disciplines that had siloed suddenly came together, accidentally. And it was like adding color layers, one at a time to a black and white image. And I thought, man, all of a sudden, I can see the reds and all of this new texture. Oh, now I can see the greens, blues, yellows. And that happened, as you know, reading Daniel, to all of a sudden, I'd been reading about the Babylonians and the Neo Babylonian Empire in particular, you want to talk about a cool personality. If you had to design an archrival of a world emperor, someone like NABARD Kaduri, would Tsar Nebuchadnezzar the second, you would pick the need Shinshu rush Can I can even if we ever spend time together, and we don't have to stay focused, on digress over and over into, isn't this fascinating that God has unfolded reality in a narrative way and that he's empowered people with what Blaise Pascal called the dignity of causation. And so much of what happened comes down to three beings interacting, and their personalities are often really interesting. That interest suddenly began to penetrate the story and planted the Bible. And let me over time begin to see what they were. And I'll tell you, I was just blown away by how good it was. And by how smart it was, the sophistication of the biblical portrait of reality is pretty incredible. And I had missed it for most of my life.
Joshua Johnson:So then how do we get back to it? What does it look like to rediscover it? What does it look like for us to put away the way that we have you been reading the Bible? I mean, some people read the Bible say, hey, there's some rules in here I could follow it's a moralistic type of thing, I could live a moral life. And it's gonna give me these, these definitions for that. And it's great. But how do we we live into the story of the Bible and read it as, as a narrative from from beginning of creation to the consummation, new Heaven, New Earth, new Jerusalem? What does it look like for the narrative to come alive? We'll
Blaine Eldredge:re question a bit of prologue. Because I know that our friends listening are missionaries of church leaders and deeply invested in making it on earth as it is in heaven. So many of you listening already know, even if you are not familiar with the data, that in the West, we're living in a time of catastrophic decline in terms of Christianity and its presence in the world. Now, I've looked at data from Barna. I've looked at data from Pew, I've looked at data from the Carnegie Foundation for world peace, they're fascinating scholars. And here's the deal. Over the past 20 years in the United States, we've seen a 50% decline, in essence, in prac it to seeing Christians, people actively following Jesus, and that decline has taken place across demographics. It's not just new people. So elders and Boomers are giving up on faith in Jesus at the same rate as millennials and xers incredible though that may seem and that trend holds around the world in the developed world at the same time, if I'm sure our friends listening, know what's happening in the Iranian church and what's happening in Latin America, and something that I think could be called just in terms of the numbers too. greatest move of God in history is happening. The if our friends haven't read a wind in the house of Islam, that book will strengthen you for our time. It's not unprecedented in human history for the Holy Spirit to directly convert a pitbull. This does happen on occasion. But the rate at which it's happening in what's called dar Islam, the house of Islam is unbelievable. And generations have prayed. And the moment is here, it's I was with some missionaries in Lebanon recently, they were saying, we would have been okay, if our whole job was to pray for a harvest we never saw. But generations of missionary missionaries have prayed and see nothing. And we now are rolling into their field. And it's reaping time, and it's unbelievable. So the problem for us in the West is, we need Jesus to invite him do what you're doing in the rest of the world here in Christ as he makes sense of the human experience. I love Dallas, Willard, all of the resources of heaven are now available to you rethink your plans for living in view of this new opportunity. So God is moving on the earth, but we're in a time of decline. And that is the the context inside of which I want to answer your question of how do we recapture simply the wonder, the coherence, the intelligence of the Christian story, the revelation of God and Christ. The pity is, is that we are wired for this. So God has designed human beings, there was a English Cardinal Dawn and Renu men who called it the relative sense. And he said that people are able to perceive when they're in the presence of something holy, and good and beautiful, it activates in the soul. And he says, there are times at which we're able to perceive the moral grain of the universe to perceive the transcendent purpose behind reality, which hopefully, some of us have experienced once or twice, in worship, or in fellowship with people or even in the Bible that faculty turns on. So we don't have to invent the faculty, what we need to do is foster it. And I can say, guys, that if I can become enamored with Jesus in terms of the biblical story, anyone can, what is required is you have to ask and embrace the posture of the students and do a number of things that we don't want to do. Like, I think numb, I realized, I go long, so you can feel compassion for my wife right now. But two things are in the way, false familiarity. And the stories that we have lived so far, and the kind of aggregate fatigue and disappointment and the everyday stuff that over time, Alice says the soul to the beauty of Jesus, and that's normal. God has designed people to be resilient. But what it took for me to recapture the Bible, right? Two steps, really easy one, eliminate perceived familiarity and just ask the question, what is this? So when I teach the Bible in church, I use, I love to use a method that was developed by the organization, every home for Christ, wonderful missions organization, and they call it B fam. But all it is, is ask the obvious questions, you'll learn a ton. I can't tell you how true that is. So ask the questions like, Who are the characters? What are the actions? What are the potential emotions and motives? What's weird in this text? Whenever the scholar Michael Heizer, used to say, if you see something weird, it's important. And so asking yourself when you read a story, what's strange what's what detail is the most strange can open up the door into new themes and dimensions of the biblical story? And I think the other one is, just to be honest with wonder is the natural ability of the healthy heart. And there is a sense in which and, you know, again, our friends are missionaries and church leaders, so they know this, that it's much harder to preach a better gospel than you are living and when you're unlife is resourced. In Jesus, you kind of find the fruit of the Spirit. You know, that's the image words coming out of you. Let's say you had the capacity to be swept away by the drama of the biblical story. It is that cool. And Jesus is that incredible. What is in the way after false Familiarity is often just fatigue or hurried living or unaddressed disappointments. And so I can tell you that addressing those things can actually do as much for us, as we follow Jesus as reading a great scholarly book on Romans.
Joshua Johnson:Well, but it is fun to read a good scholarly book on Romans. We
Blaine Eldredge:love that, hey, no shade on that. Yeah, I
Joshua Johnson:know. You know, you wrote in your book, talking about reading the Gospel of John and Jesus felt a little flat to you. So as we're talking about how to make the story come alive, how did how did Jesus for you become more three dimensional, more embodied, more rapturous, in your estimation, in your own journey, after after that time in the book of John,
Blaine Eldredge:so many ways, simply by discovering what it was that he was doing, what the story is that Jesus brings to a climax. So I'll give like several examples. There's a concept that I love, which is called the ecumenical gift exchange. And it's the idea that that various expressions of Christianity have preserved some things really well. And at at its best, God's one church is able to trade back and forth, what do you do great, what have you held on to? So as I began, you know, I grew up in the Protestant West and read very little Catholic scholarship, very little orthodox scholarship and done me wrong. The pricing tradition has produced some incredible scholars, and has actually prioritized that in a really wonderful way. Now at the same time, and reading Ratzinger aka Pope Benedict, who is a fascinating character, you know, his nickname, God's Bulldog for his doctrinal acumen of a truly brilliant men jump, and on the heels of John Paul, the second who many modern Catholics think could be called a doctor of the church because he's so brilliant, and the Holy Spirit didn't move through those people. I'm reading Benedict has a book on Jesus, that's excellent that he begins by asking the question, was Israel waiting more for a prophet, or for a king? You know, we know that the three offices that are anointed are Prophet, Priest, and King, and those are like the measurements of humanity. But if you look at the end of the Torah, the anti climax of the opening composition of the Bible, it doesn't say, you know, Moses is kind of a prophet, priest, King all rolled together. But it says, and since that time, no prophet has been like Moses, who the Lord, face to face, but Moses has signaled, you know, in his Farewell Sermon, God will raise up a prophet like me from among you, and to him, You shall listen was fascinating is that at the Mount of Transfiguration, one of the ways that the father designates Jesus as the fulfilment of the story is simply by referencing that ancient line and saying, This is my son, the beloved to him, You shall listen. And it goes on, because I was reading about royal succession in Israel, and how do you figure out who the true king is? And what are the names that get attached to that? Well, beloved, after David became the king's title, and that had to be applied in some way, so when the prophet Nathan comes to say, yeah, it's Solomon, he says, You shall call him Jetta Dinah, which is another form of the name, beloved. And as the story goes forward, the great reformers Keynes Hezekiah, Josiah, they're going to be connected to the great royal title in some way. jetted the earth Josiah his mother famously, Jeddah, dA is named Beloved. Well, when this girl from Nazareth Mary shows up you know her name refers to Moses his brother, it's Egyptian Miriam. It means bitterness, but also means beloved, and when that happens, you Any Jew with their saw, their ears would pick up and go, Wait a second. This relates in so many ways to the royal succession, this need for this king who is going to succeed where David failed and facilitate and operate the reign of God on the earth. Well, then, at the baptism, what happens? This guy splits open and this rough, you know, this read, see reference. And the Holy Spirit descends. And God said, This is my son, Valve beloved, and bestows upon him the royal title indicating yes, indeed, the Davidic King is here. So what happened at 100 places was, I saw began to discover most of the time by patiently reading and praying, trying to be a, an adduct, humble student of the gospel in the way, the through lines that make the story makes sense, I'll give you one more is that different church traditions often have, you know, emphasized one part of humanity's problem, at their worst at the expense of the other. So if you ever read patristic theology, if you read Augustine and Cyprian, these people, you'll notice that they are sometimes for theological reasons, sometimes ratios of personality, tend to emphasize one part of the biblical portrait of evil over and against all the others. And but you really have it was discovering Wow. In the biblical text, and the theological tradition and patristic theology, humanity has three problems. I grew up, you know, Protestantism has done a good job of being like a sin is a big deal. And I was not exposed as much growing up to questions of the presence of death in the world. What are what does it mean to live in a world that subject to decay? And then the issue of spiritual oppression and the disinheritance of the nations, which has a major through line in the biblical story, let alone things like transgression, iniquity, how do all of these things fit together to offer a compelling picture of the world? And the cost to us who are following Jesus is that we, we diminish our ability to beautifully and accurately orient people to their situation? So right now, you know, in the field of genetics, that people really fascinated with this thing called epigenetic slash intergenerational trauma, which is the ability of memory, trauma, personality traits, things like that, to flow in the human genome to about a third generation. And, and I think, you know, an intelligent agnostic, and they talk to these all the time when I say, Okay, well, I mean, what does the Bible have to say about epi genetics, I would say, a lot in a really brilliant way, actually, a nuanced way that is deeply merciful, will also be very serious, and Frank, and there's this concept iniquity, that has this hole through line in the biblical story, the environmental consequences of sin, inherited evil. The Bible describes the need for a cane to come predominantly in Isaiah, and to carry away the the kind of sin disasters fear and restore in the body and in the earth, God's original design. So you begin to discover these things. And what came online with Jesus was, Oh, I did not know enough about the biblical picture of reality and the biblical assessment of the human condition, and even the integrity of the story for the brilliance of what Jesus does when he shows up on the scene, God incarnate to make sense, but when you do, it's like watching you know, an expert gymnasts do a quadruple backflip through a flaming hoop. As you say, oh my gosh, I get it. You are unraveling the Gordian knot of sin death, spiritual oppression, you're dressing iniquity or dressing transgression. You're addressing the disinheritance of the nations and the scattering of Israel and like you're doing it. Beyond all expectation is a man of mercy and wit, kindness and power. You are incredible. But you need the interpretive lenses first, to make Jesus intelligible.
Joshua Johnson:Well, I think that if we go back I think I want to hit you briefly mentioned King Josiah. He was a he was a really young king. He came to power very young. And you mentioned to him and he was a reformer King. What is it that we can learn from from his story as a young reformer? How the the difficulties in our world today the things that need to be reformed, and I think there's a lot of reformation that's needed. How can we engage? What did you learn while looking at Josiah story about reformation and the young?
Blaine Eldredge:Wow, great question. I think what's fascinating about Josiah who is an absolute just incredible character, real person, character story. So it's all woven together. And this is what fascinates me about Josiah is that, you know, the book of Daniel opens with the deportation of kind of the aristocratic class, right, and you get these intelligent and promising Judea and youths who are sentenced to the heart of the Babylonian Empire, and they lose their identity so thoroughly that even most of us Christians don't know them by their Judaism names like Hannah, nyan, Michelle and Azariah. We know them as Shadrach Meshach and Abednego. Sure Babylonian neighs. Well, it's fascinating to ask just from a social from a human perspective, way, way, Wait, how did this happen? These four guys go are taken away from him young. They are put into the equivalent of the Babylonian university system. They are embedded in Imperial culture with every kind of Imperial advantage at their fingertips. And not only do they not want it, they have a vibrant and living attachment allegiance to yacht way. How this is just how is this possible who formed these met? And you have to go back and say well, these are you know, the grandchildren and great grandchildren of a remarkable generation of reformist generation of the likes of hilchot. chiffon, Jeremiah and Josiah, whose mark on the human tradition is visible generations later, whether they They prepared a people to survive in exile, Josiah knows his whole job is to prepare a remnant because the wheel is not going to be stopped all hold a tells him is that you've repented. So the disaster, the natural consequences of your national sin won't come in your time, but they will still come. How incredible that he goes for it anyway. And I mentioned already. He's the perfect character for our moment, because in the West, we are living in a time of decline. And there are kind of three options right. One is the option which is the eschatological hope of Christianity, Jesus comes back in our time, haste the day, Lord. Option two. There's a movement of the Holy Spirit such as there has been at other times in history, what can be called an awakening or a revival that's worth praying for and would be awesome. We would be asking different questions if it was, how do we organize all of these new believers into churches? We don't even we can't even keep up with the need for discipleship models. You know, pastors, what are we going to do to run after what God is doing? That may happen it pray it doesn't would be amazing. Option three is you're preparing a generation for a time of decline you're vowed saving the gospel into the future. And what you learned from Josiah is the beauty of go for it your life can be pleasing to God. And when you are in a time of decline, you need a kind of ardor, a kind of passion. That is pretty unique. What what separates Josiah from the other reformers, most notably Hezekiah, who gets so close but doesn't quite finished the job is that the situation for Josiah is markedly worse. And he's far more intense. And so to think that we could have as a companion and model someone like Yoshi Yaku, saying, Oh, listen, go all in because the future will feel the ripple effect. So your allegiance to God, and what it looks like, what's amazing too about that story is he does start with what's available. And then God provides the revelation on time Chronicles is a bit more serious in its portrait of Josiah, he knows that there is one true God, Yahweh. So he started off and he's implementing reforms. But it's not until they're bidding out the temple. And the laws discovered that they go what? So he kind of gets the playbook, it shows up. But it shows up as he's begun to respond to the invitations that he already knows. I feel that so deeply, which is like, yeah, what we need is greater love, greater intimacy with God. We're a union with Christ by the Holy Spirit. And I think basically, all of us, if we were to sit down and ask the question, Jesus, where are you already working to bring your kingdom in my life, I could see where that was happening, because God is at work. And then our job is to lean in. Because those of us who are faithful with little, the playbook will show up, the eyes of the Lord are still roaming to and fro looking for people who are four, and so lean into what God is doing. And the provision will come. Those strike me as some of the main lessons from the real illustration that is passionate, Josiah.
Joshua Johnson:That's so good. I wish. I mean, I wish we had like four hours, we could pull on a lot of different threads. And we could go a lot deeper. But unfortunately, we don't have that much time. But so I would love to say, you know, everybody should go out and read your book, Paradise King, I know you don't need a commercial. But what what we do need is is books like this, so that could I think rejuvenate our heart into a way that makes us fall in love. Once again. And I think that you do a beautiful job. If you could say anything to your readers or the to the listeners now, what would you like them to get out of this book?
Blaine Eldredge:Well, I'll tell you. The book combines storytelling and scholarship, creative retellings of stories, and then reflection, that relies heavily on the Christian theological tradition and on church history in the ancient exploration of those texts to make them intelligible. And the best thing that I've begun to hear from readers is it it hast heard my love for Jesus, it reminded me what kind of story that I'm living in. And it rekindled my passion for the Bible. And I love people are reading this book with the Bible right next to it. Because before I tell every story is, you know, you've seen the book, I say, this is from chapter and verse, which is an encouragement to go look, dive in God is waiting to encounter you. And I think if I were to, say, the takeaway, I would say, Oh, I hope that Jesus blesses you and strengthens your heart and billows calls you back more deeply to the love that you had. At first, it is not easy to follow Jesus in a time of decline, it simply is not. So the pressures that those of us who are trying to proclaim and embody the gospel in our time are pretty severe. And even to the best of us, that will have consequences over time, it will wear down the soul. Now we can be replenished by God. We need Jesus to lead us into doing that. So my oh would be Oh, I pray that you would comprehend together with all the saints, the love of God, that you would have a new experience of being surrounded by the cloud of witnesses cheering you on, and sense the depth of the affection of God for you. Because I suspect that our friends listening are the kinds of people who are doing good, right, it's going after it to follow Jesus. Well done. They probably most need is the breath of his life, just bringing refreshment to those of us who want to hold them up in our time. That's what I hope happens.
Joshua Johnson:Yes, amen. I hope so too. Anything that if you can go back blind to your 21 year old self, what advice would you give
Blaine Eldredge:Wow. I think about this a lot. I was a well intentioned knucklehead at 21. It sounds so classic. But I would tell 21, Blaine, be patient and ask more often, you know, 21 year old Blaine's spent a lot of time praying for the sun to rise. And I would say that same question it is blame. God is actually really at work in you, and in your life. To make you look like Jesus, you need to slow down a bit and ask the question more often. Where are you moving in my life right now that I can lean and young Glenn was younger Blaine was so interested in reinventing the wheel over and over again, in designing, you know, new ways to live and follow Jesus and trying to architect something top down. Dude, you're doing great, God is growing his love and you and you got to slow down and ask and understand that the gift of being a student is that you don't know the answer already. You learn. And so press in to being a student of Jesus it he will not let you down.
Joshua Johnson:That's good. Anything you've been reading or watching lately, you could recommend
Blaine Eldredge:Oh, so many bigs. If you are a scholarly type, that Catholic Bishop Robert Barron is a fascinating, I think just gift to the church in our time. He has a book on Christology for you super nerds, that is so good. It's called the priority of Christ. Absolutely awesome. If you want to pull a little bit from the Orthodox stream, and you don't know about the podcast called The Lord of spirits, Father, Stephen dang understood, and they make their orthodox priests and, you know, PhDs and scholars in the ancient world, and they are trying to resource their, you know, room of the church to recover the worldview of the Bible to think of the world the way Jesus does great aspiration. So that is worth listening to. It is quite good. If you have not discovered the book supernatural by Dr. Michael Heizer. Wonderful, wonderful read. And then just last one. It's so good. And it's short. If you haven't read Dr. Mary Healy's book, men and women are from Eden, which is, again from the Catholic stream that I just my experience, and I'm not Catholic, is that those of us who are not, don't draw very often from that stream? Well, there are some amazing things that God has done through the Catholic Church, because he's kind of he partners with people and the Theology of the Body of Pope John Paul, the second has been described as a time bomb inside late modernity. It really is. And I had heard about that. And theology, the body is buzzworthy. I'd never read it in interdite, but very few of you makes an introduction to it. And if you haven't explored that at all, wow, it will just shock you. The biblical scholarship, looking at the themes in the testimony of scriptures to say what can we learn about God designed for humanity in terms of our embodied goodness, so that book is amazing. I realize that's a lot but
Joshua Johnson:no, look at what those are. Those are great recommendations. I'm excited to dig in and point people to those where would you like to point people to to get your book? Is there this specific place? I know you can get it anywhere, but where would you like to point people to?
Blaine Eldredge:Yeah, there's a I would point people to if you want to learn about it, and kind of the the central hub is Blaine eldridge.com. And you can read a chapter there, you can read the chapter on Josiah, get a taste for what the book is like, you can listen to some of the book there. And then it's pretty easy to tree out from there to buy it where you would like people really are preferring the audio book. Because I grew up in a theater family and I read it myself and had a great time kind of exploring. How should I do to a raz voice? What would he sound like? So that's available? If you're an audiobook listener, wherever you get your audio books, you might enjoy that.
Joshua Johnson:Awesome. You said Blaine eldridge.com anywhere else that they could people could connect with you.
Blaine Eldredge:You know that's the hub So if you want to find out what I'm about connecting the various platforms go there.
Joshua Johnson:Perfect. Well, Blaine, thank you so much for this conversation. I think it was enlightening. It was invigorating. It helped us really look at the Bible in a new light in a way where we could see the stories come alive, Scripture come alive so that we could start to fall, fall in love and see that all of Heaven is ours here. And now that Jesus has done some incredible things with the story and that it could actually impact our lives here and now, today. So thank you for your work. Thank you for your scholarship. And thank you for your writing. And thank you for this conversation. It was fantastic.
Blaine Eldredge:Thank you, I love what you're doing on this show to resource your people and it's been a blast to have a conversation. Thanks for such a generous interview and I pray that it goes well for you.
Joshua Johnson:Thank you
