Understanding Easter - Part Seven: Rethinking Easter

Part Two of our two-part series, “The Bible and Climate Change” - exploring what Jesus has to do with climate change, zeroing in on his last public teaching, the final words he wants ringing in our ears. Drop us a line at [email protected].

Rethinking the Bible from the ground up, in the face of the greatest global challenge in human history. In this episode, we start with Genesis, and uncover how "climate change" - though it's never mentioned in the Bible - is on virtually every page. Drop us a line at [email protected].

Rethinking the holiday from the ground up, with help from Mary Magdalene and one of the most harrowing, fascinating stories in scripture: the story of Rizpah.

What’s the greatest work of art in Christian history? And how can Berry’s Sabbath poems and Matisse’s Chapel of the Rosary, which Matisse himself considered his masterpiece, help us understand the many mysteries in the holiest week of the Christian Year?

Why was Jesus, an unarmed, peasant rabbi, seen as such a threat to the powers that be (including the mighty Roman Empire) that they had him killed? The prophet Ezekiel gives us a clue, and Berry’s poem about resurrection and Matisse’s transformative painting shed light on the deep meanings of the cross.

The story of the cross, and many of the stories leading up to it, contain a kind of trap – and if we’re not careful, it’ll catch us unaware. The story of Jesus and the man born blind is no exception, and as we explore it, Wendell Berry and Henri Matisse can help us “see.”

Guided by Wendell Berry’s poems and Henri Matisse’s line drawings, a romp through time, eternity, “eternal life,” the Sabbath - and the often overlooked way many of the Bible’s books, including the Gospel of John, generate meaning.

A deeper dive into Henri Matisse’s luminous vision of the artist, Wendell Berry’s meditations on divine joy, and one of the most famous (and misunderstood) verses in the New Testament, John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…”

In this episode, we explore how both Wendell Berry’s practice of Sabbath walking (and writing) and Henri Matisse’s approach to “realism” can shed light on Matthew’s famous story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness.

It's a question at the heart of everything: What is love, anyway? It’s nothing less than the key to understanding God, Jesus’ teachings, and Christmas itself, and yet we rarely explore what it really means. With E. E. Cummings and Mary Oliver as our guides, we set out to find an answer.