“Consent is the depth of love…” Jonathan Foster shares about his book, Theology of Consent, where he blends René Girard’s scapegoating theory with open and relational theology. The guys talk about anthropology, mimetic theory, and the nature of love. This is a conversation for those already deep in the forest of theopoetics, life, love, the church, and theology.

And yet, the vision of the open road had somehow impregnated them… you know, these kind of visions, they don’t let go so easily…

Vision is powerfully dangerous, at least, the true ones. You know when they are true because they try to kill you. And yet I am learning that to fully posses them, you must first let them kill you…

Here’s the thing, if we believe God is about control, it affects everything. Every experience and encounter is filtered through the insecurity of our relationship with a small God. A control-based perspective of God is evidenced by the subtle anxiety we experience in our heart when the furnace breaks down, to the blatant sense of righteousness when a rapist gets the death penalty.

God’s sovereignty revealed by Jesus through cruciform, self-giving love, the nature of trust, intimacy, and union, and the transforming truth that there is no shadow of turning with God, in this podcast the guys explore Jason’s upcoming book, Leaving (& Finding) Jesus. This conversation juxtaposes an inclusive, reconciling, self-giving, unconditional view of God’s love against an excluding, hierarchal, punishment-focused, conditional view of God’s love. 

Derek and Jason dive into our union in Christ and how that impacts everything from knowing our identity to loving our “enemies,” to evangelism, to navigating cross moments in our lives.

“The world is accelerating in the wrong direction. It feels like all we’re doing is trying to fix what’s broken. And it isn’t working. We’re exhausted, overwhelmed, and losing heart. Where is God in all this? Well, he’s living a different story. A story he’s inviting us into.” That’s the back cover introduction to Allen’s new book, The Eden Option. In this conversation, the guys dive in and explore a homeward journey, not to the Eden of the past, but a new Eden discovered in Christ. Union, rest, community, creativity, miracles, and hope, in this podcast Allen shares his journey into trust and maturing faith.