On The Line
OTL is the Lutheran, Long-Form podcast that engages Theology and Culture. New Episodes Every Monday!
Episodes
98 episodes
Dr. Louis Markos: What C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien Saw Coming
Join us at the long table as we explore how C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien fused reason and imagination, Athens and Jerusalem—showing how truth, goodness, and beauty still shape the Christian mind. In an age ruled by cynicism, reductionism, and ...
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Season 1
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Episode 98
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2:01:12
Dr. Benjamin Kwashi: Archbishop Exposes Christian Genocide in Nigeria
Join us at the long table as we hear the story of persecution and faith in Nigeria, where thousands of Christians have been killed for confessing Christ. Archbishop Benjamin Kwashi bears witness to the cost of discipleship, the power of forgive...
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Season 1
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Episode 97
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1:33:56
Col. Willie Grills: What the LDS Church Really Believes
Join us at the long table as we retrace the forgotten corners of American religion, from frontier revivalism and folk magic to the birth of Mormonism, and ask what these movements reveal about faith, authority, and the hunger for revelation in ...
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Season 1
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Episode 96
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1:51:43
Evan Scamman: Defending Confessional Lutheranism & Infant Baptism
Join us at St. John's Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin, as we rediscover the treasures of confessional Lutheranism, explore why beauty, truth, and order still matter, and confront what’s lost when the Church trades her birthright for the fa...
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Season 1
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Episode 95
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2:05:09
America is a Christian Nation: The History We've Forgotten | Dr. Jared Longshore
Join us in Moscow, Idaho, as we recover a biblical vision of politics, family, and freedom—exploring how God orders nations and households, why secular neutrality is a myth, and how Christians can live publicly and courageously in the world wit...
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Season 1
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Episode 94
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1:18:22
Dr. Angus Menuge: Artificial Intelligence, Transhumanism, and C.S. Lewis' Warning About the End of Man
Join us at Concordia University Wisconsin as we wrestle with the philosophy of mind, the challenge of materialism, and the promise and peril of new technologies—from AI to transhumanism—and ask what it means to be truly human in light of God’s ...
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Season 1
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Episode 93
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1:40:35
Jason Braaten: Grit, Determination, and Overcoming Challenges
Join us at St. John's Lutheran Church in Racine, Wisconsin, as we talk about resilience in the pastoral life, the discipline of daily habits, and the courage to face adversity—not as exceptions to the Christian life, but as God’s very means of ...
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Season 1
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Episode 92
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1:54:47
Dr. John Bombaro: Why the Lutheran Teaching on the Eucharist & Liturgy Surprises Catholics
Join us at Concordia University Wisconsin as we enter a conversation that refuses to leave Christ as a vague center-point, but insists on Him as the very logic of theology, worship, and the Church itself. From liturgy to sacrament, from ontolog...
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Season 1
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Episode 91
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1:50:51
Doug Wilson: Christian Nationalism, Feminism, & Restoring Sanity
Join us in Moscow, Idaho, as we confront the shifting ground of culture and politics, consider what it means for Christ to be Lord over nations, and ask how households, churches, and schools can stand firm against the forces unraveling our comm...
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Season 1
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Episode 90
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1:24:29
Dr. Susan Mobley: This Idea Changed Everything (And We Barely Noticed)
Join us at the long table as we trace the story of education from the Reformation to today, uncover how classical models form character and cultivate virtue, and ask what it means to recover wisdom, truth, and beauty in a modern age of confusio...
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Season 1
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Episode 89
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1:43:07
Dr. Joel Biermann & Rev. David Ramirez: Debate on Christian Nationalism
Join us at the long table as we open our debate series with a pressing question for the Church: What does it mean to speak of “Christian nationalism,” and how should Lutherans think about Christendom, the state, and our public witness in a frac...
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Season 1
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Episode 88
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2:28:53
President Rev. John Hill: Where is the Lutheran Church Going? Leadership, Education, and Renewal
Join us at the long table as we reflect on the challenges and opportunities facing confessional Lutheranism today, from sustaining faithful congregations in rural America to building institutions that serve future generations of the Church....
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Season 1
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Episode 87
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2:07:59
Dr. James Lee: Lutheranism After Luther (The Untold 1800s Story)
Join us at the long table as we explore the Lutheran confessional revival of the nineteenth century, uncover the lives and thought of its key theologians, and consider what their witness offers the Church today in an age of doctrinal confusion ...
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Season 1
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Episode 86
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1:27:42
Tim Wood: What the Data Says About the Future of Lutheranism
Join us at the long table as we take an unflinching look at the numbers shaping the future of Lutheranism—and consider how honesty, clarity, and confessional faithfulness can guide the Church through challenge and change.About Today’s Gu...
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Season 1
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Episode 85
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2:17:25
Col. Willie Grills: Reality is Not What You Think: Aliens, Demons, and Cryptids
Join us at the long table as we question the official story, explore the rise of conspiracy thinking, and ask how Christians can remain anchored in truth and humility while navigating a world of collapsing narratives and contested realities.
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Season 1
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Episode 84
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1:53:10
Dr. Louis Markos: Awakening the Christian Mind: Paganism vs. Modernism vs. Christianity
Join us at the long table as we recover the moral imagination, rediscover the wisdom of the ancients, and explore how story—rooted in truth, beauty, and goodness—forms the heart and mind for Christian living in an age of fragmentation.Ab...
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Season 1
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Episode 83
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2:22:35
Jacob Benson: Reigniting Wonder: How All Great Stories Echo the One True Story
Join us at the long table as we explore how stories shape the Christian imagination, from the parables of Christ to the poetry of Tolkien, where beauty, suffering, virtue, and vocation meet in the narrative of redemption.About Today’s Gu...
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Season 1
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Episode 82
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1:38:42
Dr. Joel Biermann: How Lutherans Understand Good Works (Hint: It’s Not What You Think)
Join us at the long table as we dig into what it means to be wholly citizens of both heaven and earth, recover a robust Lutheran ethic, and consider how virtue, identity, and vocation shape Christian witness in a fragmented age.About Tod...
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Season 1
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Episode 81
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1:39:37
Dr. James Lee: How the Early Church Defeated Heresies & Preserved Christian Doctrine
Join us at the long table as we trace the roots of Christian tradition, wrestle with the legacy of the Church Fathers, and recover a vision of doctrine, discipline, and ministry shaped by the clarity and strangeness of the early Church.D...
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Season 1
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Episode 80
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1:59:54
Dr. David Petersen: The Seven Deadly Sins (and Why You Should Know Them)
Join us at the long table as we confront the seven deadly sins not just as abstract categories, but as real spiritual threats—and explore how humility, gratitude, and daily repentance lead us toward the virtues that shape faithful Christian lif...
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Season 1
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Episode 79
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2:15:44
Dr. David Petersen: A Lutheran Renewal is Happening Against the Odds
Rev. Dr. David H. Petersen has served as Pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, since 2000. A graduate of Central Michigan University and Concordia Theological Seminary (M.Div., S.T.M., D.Min.), he is known for his deep comm...
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Season 1
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Episode 78
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2:14:53
Dr. Christian Preus: Epic Bible Study on Genesis
Rev. Dr. Christian Preus is pastor of Mount Hope Lutheran Church in Casper, Wyoming, and Chairman of the Board of Regents for Luther Classical College. He holds a Ph.D. in Classics from the University of Iowa and an M.Div. from Concordia Theolo...
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Season 1
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Episode 77
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1:34:09
Dr. Jamison Hardy: Major Updates on the Concordia Universities
Rev. Dr. Jamison J. Hardy is a former district president in the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and a member of the President of the Concordia University System. A lifelong Lutheran, Hardy was born in Bay City, Michigan, and attended Lutheran sc...
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Season 1
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Episode 76
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2:13:12
Dr. Joel Okamoto: What Hinduism and Buddhism Believe (and How Christianity Differs)
About Today’s GuestDr. Joel P. Okamoto is the Waldemar and Mary Griesbach Professor of Systematic Theology at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, where he has served on the faculty since 1998. A former MIT graduate turned theologian, he brings r...
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Season 1
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Episode 75
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1:50:31
Caleb Keith: Wrestling with Sanctification & the Theology of the Cross
Caleb Keith is a Lutheran theologian and podcast producer at 1517, where he serves as the voice behind The Thinking Fellows and Outlaw God podcasts and oversees the 1517 Podcast Network. He graduated summa cum laude as an Honors Scholar from Co...
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Season 1
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Episode 74
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2:19:39