The Way We Practice

My guest today is Jonathan Bailey. Jonathan, as you’ll find out, is a careful and wise guide to the practice of the spiritual disciplines. He writes about those disciplines at The Inward Odyssey, his newsletter on Substack, where he draws on the wisdom of the past as a guide to the journeys of the present. Jonathan also serves on the board of Renovare, where he teaches at Renovar

In my continuing explorations of the book of Romans, I couldn’t help thinking about Andy Crouch’s important book, The Life We’re Looking For: Reclaiming Relationship in a Technological World. It is a wise and insightful exploration of our device driven culture, but I was surprised in reading it, to find a thread on Romans and Paul’s revolutionary insights into personhood. I

This is my fourth and final conversation on the Gospel of Mark with the Rev. Dr. Joshua Daniel. In this episode we dig into everything from blaspheming the Holy Spirit to the new family Jesus is making. To read along, look at Mark, chapter 3. Get full access to The Way We Practice at thewaywepractice.substack.com/subscribe

Our Holy Week exploration of the Gospel of Mark continues with a vision of a Jesus who gets down into the messy, dirty realities of life to bring God’s healing. This conversation leans heavily on the mini-arch of the gospel found in Mark 2-3. Reading those chapters will be helpful for following along. Get full access to The Way We Practice at thewaywepractice.substack.com/subscri

Today’s episode digs into chapters 2-3 of Mark’s Gospel. In these two chapters we can find a mini-narrative that offers a summary of the whole. Along the way we’ll jump to some other challenging passages in Mark, such as that one about cutting off a hand if it causes you to sin. How might we read such a passage if we trust that Jesus is always about leading us toward fullness

The Gospel According to Mark is a profound text that works as both great literature and a radical call to live into the way of Jesus. My friend Joshua Daniel has undertaken a deep exploration of this Gospel by committing it to memory. Drawing on that work, Joshua is narrating an embodied portrayal of Mark’s first ten chapters at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C

We are continuing our series on Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, this time with the husband and wife scholars, Sylvia Keesmaat and Brian Walsh. Their book Romans Disarmed: Resisting Empire, Demanding Justice is one of my favorite explorations of Paul. Sylvia and Brian aren’t scholars who are content to stay in the Ivory Towers of academia. They combine close and thoughtful

This episode is a bit different than anything I’ve tried—a short exploration of a biblical text with my bible and notes open before me. To read along, take a look at the passage below. And let me know what you think! I plan to offer more of these podcasts in the near future.Romans 1.1-7 (Common English Bible)From Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set ap

This Lent, I’m offering a weekly exploration of the Paul’s letter to the church in Rome. Along the way, I’ll be posting interviews with a variety of New Testament scholars who will help us understand Paul’s major themes and the context of his letter. To get us started, here is a conversation with Beverly Roberts Gaventa, whose book When in Romans: An Invitation to Linger wi

Sometimes I read a writer whose words burn with energy and light; setting blaze to my thoughts in a way that keeps burning for weeks after the initial spark. That was my experience when I began reading Graham Pardun’s Sabbath Empire newsletter. I immediately reached out to Graham and he agreed to have a conversation. It was as good to talk with Graham as to read him and I’ve co