The Ask a Theologian Podcast

In this episode , I talk with Dr. Daniel Tomberlin, a practical theologian and longtime Pentecostal pastor, about why he wrote on Pentecostal sacramentality. He says his pastoral experience left him sensing something missing in worship, which led him to recover a richer view of Holy Communion beyond mere memorial symbolism. He argues early Pentecostals often used “sacrament,” and that Pentecostals are intuitively sacramental because they expect to encounter God’s presence in practices like communion and tongues. He defines sacraments as Spirit-mediated means of grace, describing a “para-physical” Spirit presence with elements rather than transubstantiation or consubstantiation. We discuss four key practices—Eucharist, water baptism, foot washing, and anointing with oil—why they matter for formation, and how neglected they’ve become, especially foot washing and regular communion.

I talk with Dr. Joy Qualls, a Biola communications professor and author of God Forgive Us for Being Women, about what drew her into studying gender and the church and why the gap between what we claim theologically and what we practice creates hardship. We discuss Pentecostal history of women’s leadership, how movements often lose egalitarian practice when they institutionalize, and how seeking broader evangelical acceptance can weaken distinctive Pentecostal theology and hermeneutics. Dr. Qualls also shifts to “next generation” theology, arguing kids, youth, and young adults are the church now, not just the future, and that language shapes who is heard and seen as a leader. She critiques segregating children’s and youth ministry from the gathered church and warns the church is losing women by limiting their callings, urging intergenerational worship and space for Spirit-led voices.

I return from a short hiatus and talk with Dr. Andrew Ray Williams, a pastor theologian who serves the church while also teaching in the academy. We discuss his book Reconstructing Prayer and how deconstruction isn’t monolithic or the same as deconverting; it can be a faithful, generative process that leads toward reconstruction involving both theology and spirituality (head and heart). Andrew describes reconstruction as “mature dependence,” where Christian maturity means deeper reliance on God, and he highlights faithful doubt, lament, and protest as biblical practices that keep questions turned toward Jesus (like Job, the Psalms, Mark 9, and John the Baptist). We explore suffering and theodicy through “God is great, God is good,” arguing the “answer” to evil is ultimately a person—Jesus—not a tidy idea. We also warn pastors not to play savior, to listen well, and to use resources like the Psalms and Beyond Doubt.

In this episode, I talk with Reverend Dr. Sam Hole from Durham University about theology, liturgy, and why he wrote Nourishing Prayer: A Handbook on Holy Communion. He explains liturgy as a structured, sensory, often repetitive way of worship, and notes even “non-liturgical” churches have patterns. His book aims to help newcomers understand what’s happening in Anglican services—like “The Lord be with you / And also with you”—and to see communion as a whole act of prayer that can feel different across seasons like Lent. He argues liturgical worship is deeply biblical, rooted in Scripture and early Christian order, and frames communion through meal images (communion, thanksgiving, sacrifice, wisdom’s feast, nourishment). We also connect this to St. John of the Cross, especially emotion, God’s seeming absence, and spiritual formation. The book is published by Canterbury Press.

We had some unknown technical issues in today's show and some of the audio is garbled but I think you will still enjoy it. I talk with Dr. Rick Wadholm Jr. about why Christians shouldn’t avoid Ezekiel, even though it’s weird, graphic, and theologically challenging. We explore how Ezekiel opens with God’s glory showing up with the exiles in Babylon, then leaving the temple on a mobile throne and moving toward the displaced, which becomes a powerful message that God hasn’t abandoned people under judgment. I discuss Ezekiel’s strange prophetic actions, the “Son of Man” theme, and the mysterious figure who looks like a man near the throne, including connections to Revelation. We also unpack the Valley of Dry Bones as hope for return from exile and the Spirit’s “already/not yet” restoration.

In this Ask a Theologian podcast episode, I talk with practical theologian Dr. Aizaiah Yong, executive director of the Collegeville Institute at a Benedictine monastery in central Minnesota, about his book Trauma and Renewal, co-written with his parents. He shares how a near-death motorcycle accident in 2018 led him—after a chaplain friend’s urging—to write a spiritual memoir, healing guide, and theological argument that emphasizes trauma as relational and healing as communal rather than individualistic. We discuss how the book draws on Acts 2, diverse cultural traditions, internal family systems, contemplative practices, and Pentecostal spirituality, including a theology of healing that holds mystery, suffering, and the “already/not yet.” Pastorally, he reframes “not enough faith” as learning to receive God’s love, often through community and everyday mercies. He notes writing itself deepened healing and perspective. The book is available from Orbis and also on Amazon.

In this episode of Ask a Theologian, I talk with Dr. Jeffrey Lamp, senior professor of New Testament at Oral Roberts University, about eco-theology—what he prefers to call “creation care”—and why it belongs at the center of biblical theology. We walk through Genesis 1–2 to rethink “dominion” as serving and protecting creation, and we discuss how sin turns vocation into exploitation. Dr. Lamp also explains how Hebrews can be read for ecological implications through themes of creation, incarnation, Psalm 8, and the expansion of “land” into Christ’s inheritance of all things. We explore how Pentecostal eschatology has sometimes made creation care difficult, how renewed-creation thinking changes that, and why pastors may need new language in politicized contexts. We also touch on AI’s environmental costs and Dr. Lamp’s book, Geo-liturgy.

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Ed Gungor about forgiveness and the real tension between justice and mercy. We explore how justice names the wrong and demands accountability, while mercy insists that people are more than their failures and holds out the hope of restoration. We discuss how the cross is the one place where, theologically, justice and mercy don’t compete but converge—mercy expressed through justice—and how this grounds Christian forgiveness. Dr. Gungor reflects on Corrie ten Boom’s prayer against bitterness, and we examine the idea that forgiveness can free the wounded without excusing harm. We clarify forgiveness as unilateral and reconciliation as conditional, requiring remorse, change, and rebuilding trust, including loving people who are unsafe from a distance. We end with forgiveness as a long, repeated practice of “sending away” pain to God.

In this Ask a Theologian episode, I talk with Dr. Joseph Dutko about his book The Pentecostal Gender Paradox and define complementarianism (role limits for women, especially in church) versus egalitarianism (no gender-based limits on calling or leadership). We explore why Pentecostalism can be egalitarian “on paper” yet restrictive in practice, including how church language like “allow women to speak” signals power dynamics. We dig into Ephesians 5 and the theological issue that “submit” is tied to mutual submission in verse 21, with translation headings shaping interpretation; we note the NLT’s helpful framing. Dr. Dutko argues early Pentecostals justified women leaders through an eschatological, Scripture-based hermeneutic (Acts 2, Genesis 1–2, Galatians 3:28), then later shifted hermeneutically and limited women (e.g., AoG data: under 0.5% women-led churches). We close on the need for movements to develop theology that supports their egalitarian practice.

In this episode of Ask a Theologian, I talk with Dr. Josh Brahinsky, an anthropologist, ethnographer, and neuroscientist from Stanford and McGill, about his new book, Tongues of Fire: How Charismatic Prayer Changes Evangelical Brains and Inspires Spirit-Filled Activism. He explains that his project doesn’t try to prove God or not-God, but examines embodied religious experience: how theology, practice, and neurobiology “loop” together. After years of interviews, he ran an NSF-funded MRI study comparing praise prayer to speaking in tongues to isolate surrender/letting go. He found decreased activity in a motor-planning region during tongues, consistent with reduced control, and links between surrender in prayer and increased divergent thinking (creativity), which helps explain reports of renewal, hearing God, and new ways of seeing the world.