Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Podcast Index | RSS
Barna’s American Worldview Inventory in 2021 found that approximately 6% of American Christians have a Biblical worldview, and Barna’s 2022 Worldview Inventory found that approximately 37% of pastors have a Biblical worldview. Though I am somewhat cautious around statistics and especially interested in questions and methodology of such studies, Barna is a reputable firm and these surveys spell out a significant if not perilous problem for the American church.
In this episode, I talked with Todd WIlson, the co-founder and president of the Center for Pastor Theologians, about the this disturbing trend, how we arrived here, and how we can better instill a Biblical worldview and equip church leaders and committed Christians to thoughtfully engage culture with Biblical principles.
Key Takeaways:
- The importance of pastor theologians throughout the church’s history (Augustine, Luther, etc.)
- A great quote from Moby Dick, “The pulpit leads the world”–and its implications for today.
- How the study of theology became formalized and lost its churchly focus, and how the church became pragmatic and lost its theological focus.
- How CPT is working to change this dynamic and equip church leaders to thoughtfully engage the culture with Biblical principles.
- The application of this principle in the specific arena of human sexuality and why the church must speak clearly, often, and persuasively about the Christian sexual ethic.
- Key principles from his book Mere Sexuality and a work he edited, Beauty, Order, and Mystery: A Christian Vision of Human Sexuality.
- Lessons from the sexuality of Jesus (before you send me a nasty email about heresy, please listen to the section. This framing of the topic caught my attention as well, and I was deeply moved by what Todd shared on this point).
- Why we have a responsibility to be hospitable, not just tolerant.
- Why we should all be public theologians.