Interviews
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By In Art, Interviews, Music

Interview with musician Smith Leithart of Iron Effigy

Iron Effigy is the musical alias of Smith Leithart, based in Birmingham, Alabama. His 6-song EP, Pieces of Me, was released in March 2019. I corresponded with Smith and asked some questions about his music. Read the exchange below and check out Iron Effigy on Spotify and all streaming platforms.

McIntosh: Explain your musical background. When did you discover your love of music and when did you start writing your own music?

Leithart: I grew up listening to film scores. As a kid, I’d mow the lawn listening to music from Star Wars, Gladiator, Blood Diamond, etc. My mom said I wasn’t allowed to listen to music with words, so film scores and classical music were pretty much my only options.

Images and design by Chris Williams
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By In Interviews, Podcast

Episode 48, The Gospel According to Ruth; A conversation with Uri Brito

In this interview, Mr. Dustin Messer speaks with co-author of a newly published commentary on Ruth. They discuss a host of questions pertaining to the content of Ruth, how to preach through Ruth, the role of application in Ruth’s story, and the influence of James B. Jordan in this Ruth project.

Brito says:

What we argue is that Ruth is actually a political tract making the case for the Davidic Kingdom…in other words, Ruth makes the case for why Israel needs a faithful King who will be strong like Boaz, loyal like Ruth, and whose fortunes will turn like Naomi’s.

Purchase the commentary on Amazon or Athanasius Press.

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By In Interviews, Podcast

Episode 41, Leslie Newbigin and Mission, KC Podcast

Esteemed theologian and missiologist Michael Goheen sits down with Dustin Messer to discuss ecclesiology, election, ecumenism, and other themes from his new book, The Church and its Vocation: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missionary Ecclesiology.  

Dr. Goheen has authored, co-authored, or edited ten books, including A Light to the Nations: The Missional Church and the Biblical Story(IVP, 2014), Introducing Christian Mission Today: Scripture, History, and Issues (Baker, 2011), and The Church and Its Vocation: Lesslie Newbigin’s Missional Ecclesiology (Baker, forthcoming, 2018). He spends time each year in Brazil and Hungary training pastoral leaders.

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By In Interviews, Podcast, Theology

Episode 40, Vocation as Sacred Work, KC Podcast

For our 40th show, Pastor Brito interviews KC contributor Pastor Dustin Messer concerning his recent piece published at the Theopolis Institute entitled Sacred Work in a Secular World. The discussion begins with a false distinction between “full-time Christian ministry” and “secular work” so mistakenly proclaimed in the evangelical church. Dustin traces the history of vocation in the work of the Reformer Martin Luther and articulates a fuller vision of vocation based on the creation account of Genesis. Messer concludes by discussing how he would encourage a young person who is uncertain about what vocation to pursue.

Additional Resources:

Sacred Work in a Secular World by Dustin Messer

Visions of Vocation by Steve Garber

Quotes from Interview:

“Most folks start in Genesis 3 to think about vocation…but if you start with the Fall explaining what’s wrong with work you can lead people to believe that work is just a necessary temporal good… We should go to Genesis 1 and ground your view of vocation in the creation of the world.”

“God is ruling over all creation through mortal humans and he has chosen a church for his mission so that what you do has real meaning and value.”

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By In Interviews, Podcast, Theology

Episode 39 of KC Podcast: Interview with Chris Larson of Ligonier Ministries

On this episode, we examined the recent State of the Church Theology Survey produced by Ligonier Ministries. Pastor Uri Brito interviews CEO and President of Ligonier Ministries, Chris Larson. We discuss the status of Ligonier Ministries after the death of its beloved president, R.C. Sproul, and also the state of theology survey which asks a host of questions to the evangelical population concerning the doctrine of Christ, salvation, and sexuality.

Chris Larson

Chris Larson is president and CEO of Ligonier Ministries. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisLarson.

Additional Resources:

The State of Theology

A Renewed Mind, A Transformed Mind

Ligonier Ministries

Reflecting on the Life of R.C. Sproul

Quotes from Chris Larson in the Interview:

“The higher educated and the higher income brackets, the less orthodox people are across America.”

“Our politics and our sociology flow out of our theology.”

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By In Interviews, Podcast

KC Podcast: Episode 33, Proverbs for Young Men

In this interview, Pastor Uri Brito interviews Rev. Mark Horne on his ongoing project on the book of Proverbs. Horne observes that while Proverbs is for everyone, it has a particular application for the young men. Proverbs’ themes and purposes are generally overlooked because of the pietistic way it has been read and the failure to grasp Proverbs’ place in the wisdom literature. You will want to listen to this interview.

 

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By In Books, Culture, Family and Children, Interviews, Men, Podcast, Politics, Scribblings

The Importance of Earnest Being

The digital ink spilled over Canadian clinical psychologist and author Jordan Peterson by now could fill a metaphorical ocean, but I want to venture what I think may be an unexplored cause of his popularity: his lack of guile or pretense.

Anyone who has spent any time in comment box debates or hasn’t been living in an undersea cave since the 2016 presidential election knows the tone of news commentary, opinion writing, and even journalism has taken a nasty turn. Of course, if you had asked someone following the 2012 election whether the partisan rancor in America could get any worse, he might have shrugged and said, “I don’t see how.” That person is probably hiding in a dark place right now, embarrassed by his lack of imagination.

Image result for jordan peterson beard

It’s not enough to disagree with someone, anymore. If a person favors a different policy, has come to a different quotient after dividing the benefits of his or her political party by its drawbacks, or even fails to subscribe to an ascendant gender theory of more recent provenance than my five-year-old daughter, such a person is not merely wrong. He or she is too stupid to be classified as a vertebrate (in which case we mock), or else irredeemably wicked (in which case we call him or her a Nazi or a Cultural Marxist). These mutually exclusive attacks are alternated from day to day, often against the same people.

But what if not just merely wrong, but pitiably wrong–even deceived–were still serviceable categories? What if instead of automatically sorting ourselves into warring ideological or partisan factions hurling insults and abuse at one another, we called a ceasefire, met on neutral ground, and admitted, “Hey, I am just playing the part I thought I was supposed to play, but I don’t really think you are a venomous arthropod. Let’s calm down and figure this out.”?

That’s where Jordan Peterson seems to be coming from. (more…)

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By In Interviews, Podcast

Episode 31: Apocalyptic Novels with Brian Godawa

The Left Behind Series was captivating because of its fast-paced rhythm and its dispensational appeal. It sold millions of copies. But imagine if a work of fiction was published based on an eschatological position that has gravitas in Church History but also a work of fiction which is based on actual historical events! This is what Hollywood Screenwriter Brian Godawa does in his new series The Chronicles of the Apocalypse. 

In this interview with Pastor Uri Brito, Brian delves into controversial theological areas and explains his rationale behind this successful series. Take a listen and visit godawa.com for more resources on worldview and writing.

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By In Culture, Film, Interviews, Politics, Theology, Worship

Top Ten KC Posts for 2017

Here is a list of the most popular articles from Kuyperian Commentary in 2017.

We will begin with a few honorable mentions that we thought were important to our vision.

In June, there was a broad discussion on how to teach Christian Worldview that Dustin Messer was part of. He wrote A Few Cheers for Worldview Education interacting with a number of bloggers on the issue and in particular Rod Dreher’s critique. There were two posts in this series with Dustin defending the purpose and goal of worldview discussions. Here is the second part which lists out several of the key bloggers in the discussion.

A second honorable mention goes to David Koyzis. He joined the Kuyperian team this year and he had a series in August on Abraham Kuyper and Pluralism: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and  Part 4. In these pieces, he sketches the pluralism we find in our world and suggests a way forward by looking at how Kuyper would view this issue.

Now to the countdown:

10 Uri Brito, our founder, wrote a post titled 10 Ways to Keep Easter this Easter Season. Lots of good practical ideas here for that season of the year.

9 Steve Macias wrote a post about The Prayer of Humble Access. This is a discussion on one of the prayers for communion that is found in the Book of Common Prayer.

8 Steve had another popular post on The Unlikely Ascension of Jesus. This article unpacks the significance of this moment in Jesus’ life and how the message of the gospel is that Jesus is seated as king right now.

7 Steve also took a swing at Feminism arguing that it is a Self-Defeating Movement. Feminists have sought to throw off submission to particular men and have looked to the state to give them this freedom. The result is that they now find themselves in subjection to “The Man”.

6 Dustin Messer wrote a piece connecting the Disney musical from this year and Revelation: Beauty and the Mark of the Beast. In this piece, he argues that the movie emphasizes the importance of waiting on redemption just as the Beast lets Belle go even though she is his last hope.

5 Uri was back with a post on Musical Segregation. In this post, he makes the claim: “Churches that segregate musically are bound to segregate corporately.”

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By In Books, Family and Children, Interviews, Scribblings, Wisdom

A Very Kuyperian Book List

Another journey around the sun is almost complete and some of our contributors have compiled a list of book recommendations just in time for Christmastide. Be sure and plunder the Egyptian’s After-Christmas sales before Twelfth Night. (more…)

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