Show Notes

Season 1 Episode 16: Apocalypse Never, Part II

Works Cited and Consulted:

Cu Chulainn, Irish Epic

Casey Ryan Kelly, Apocalypse Man: The Death Drive and Rhetoric of White Masculine Victimhood. (Ohio State, 2020)

Catherine Keller, Apocalypse Now and Then: A Feminist Guide to the End of the World, (Fortress, 2004).

Steven Moore, Untold Tales from the Book of Revelation: Sex and Gender: Empire and Ecology (SBL Press, 2014).

Tina Pippin, Apocalyptic Bodies: The End of the World in Text and Image (Routledge, 1999).

Erin Runions, The Babylon Complex: Theopolitical Fantasies of War, Sex, and Sovereignty (Fordham, 2014).

Season 1 Episode 15: Apocalypse Never, Part I

Sherman Alexie, “Crow Testament,” from One Stick Song.

Season 1 Episode 14: Conversions Part 2

Jeanne and Jennifer dig back into Nick Flynn’s poem “harbor (the conversion),” exploring a range of scholarly view about Saul/Paul, and unpacking central images from Flynn’s poem: harbor, sea, boat, horse.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Reza Aslan, Zealot (Random House, 2014).

Pamela  Eisenbaum, Paul was not a Christian: The Original Message of a Misunderstood Apostle (HarperOne, 2010).

Shelly Matthews, The Perfect Martyr: The Stoning of Stephen and the Construction of Christian Identity (Oxford University, 2010).

Shelly Matthews, The Acts of the Apostles: An Introduction and Study Guide: Taming the Tongues of Fire (T&T Clark, 2017).

Antoinette Clark Wire, The Corinthain Women Prophets (Fortress Press, 1991).

Season 1 Episode 13: Conversions Part 1

Acts of the Apostles tells the story of a Roman police officer called Saul who became known as Paul after a conversion experience he had on the road to Damascus. This episode explores a poem by living American poet Nick Flynn called “harbor (the conversion)”.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Caravaggio, Conversion of the Way to Damascus, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_on_the_Way_to_Damascus

Nick Flynn, “harbor (the conversion)” https://poets.org/poem/harbor-conversion

Eric May, Bedrock Faith, Akashic Books, 2014.

Mischa Richter, harbor, https://nickflynn.org/og-archive/richter.htm

Season 1 Episode 12: The Humanity of Jesus

This episode takes a deeper dive into Ann Sexton’s poem “Jesus Walking”. In addition to providing more tips for reading poetry, the episode discusses how each gospel contains different ideas about Jesus.

Works Cited and Consulted:

https://oldenglishpoetry.camden.rutgers.edu/dream-of-the-rood/

Season 1 Episode 11: Ann Sexton and the humanity of Jesus

Ann Sexton’s poem “Jesus Walking” refers to the Gospel of Luke Chapter 4, in which Jesus faces temptation in the wilderness. The poem and the gospel story engage concepts of divinity, humanity, temptation, and mission.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Joseph Campbell, The Hero’s Journey, 2018.

Homer, The Odyssey.

Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation of Christ, translated by P. A. Bien. Simon and Schuster reprint, 1998.

Martin Scorsese, The Last Temptation of Christ, 1988

Season 1 Episode 10: Annunciation and Virginity

Edward Muir’s “The Annunciation” draws on a story from the Gospel of Luke in which an angel visits the young woman Mary. This episode explores ideas of purity, conception and motherhood.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Meltem Aktas, Courage to Be, https://www.flickr.com/photos/jennisimmons/1381844495

Tony Kushner, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, 1991.

Edward Muir, “The Annunciation,” https://www.journeywithjesus.net/poemsandprayers/3637-Edwin_Muir_The_Annunciation

Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire, 1987.

Season 1 Episode 9: Mrs. Lazarus and the Idea of Resurrection

Jennifer and Jeanne explore “Mrs. Lazarus,” a poem by the Scottish Carol Ann Duffy. The poem remixes the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Anna Akhmatova, “Lots Wife,” https://poets.org/poem/lots-wife

Wil Gafney, Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne. Westminster John Knox Press, 2017.

Terese Mailhot, Heart Berries: A Memoir, Counterpoint, 2018.

Sylvia Plath, “Lady Lazarus,” https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49000/lady-lazarus

Fr Richard Rohr, https://cac.org/

Debra Yepa-Pappan, https://www.centerfornativefutures.org/

Season 1 Episode 8: Rainer Maria Rilke’s Love Poems to God

Jeanne and Jennifer talk about the “Problem of Representation” as it relates to representing God.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Rainer Maria Rilke, Book of Hours: Love Poems to God, translated by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy, Riverhead Books, 2005.

Rene Magritte, The Treachery of Images. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Treachery_of_Images

Season 1 Episode 7: Biblical Violence and Native American History

Bible stories contain brutal violence. Jennifer and Jeanne reflect on some real-life consequences connected to the violent stories at the center of Christian culture, using Sherman Alexie’s poem “Crow Testament” and American independent film Dead Man.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Sherman Alexie, “Crow Testament”

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. Beacon Press, 2014.

Joy Harjo, “Exile of Memory,” in An American Sunrise. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

Jim Jarmusch, Dead Man, 1995.

Tina Pippin, Apocalypse as Horror,

Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World. Oxford University Press, 1985.

Quentin Tarantino, Pulp Fiction, 1994.

Season 1 Episode 6: Genesis 3, Gender, and Power

Poet Vievee Francis contributed a poem entitled “Loving Me” to Nikole-Hannah Jones’s collection The 1619 Project. Jeanne and Jennifer discuss Francis’s use of Genesis 3 in this poem, which explores gender, sexuality, and power.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Nikole-Hannah Jones, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story. One World Press, 2021.

Laura Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in Visual and Other Pleasures, 2nd edition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

Angela Parker, If God Still Breathes, Why Can’t I?: Black Lives Matter and Biblical Authority. WM. B. Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2021.

Season 1 Episode 5: The Bible and Poetry

Large chunks of the Bible are written in poetry. In this episode Jeanne and Jennifer share observations about rhythm rhyme parallelism and imagery in the first three chapters of Genesis.

Works Cited and Consulted:

Emily Dickinson, “The Pedigree of Honey”

Mary Oliver, “Wild Geese”

Mary Oliver, “No Matter What”

Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

Hesiod, Works and Days

Season 1 Episode 4: Translation and Meaning

Sometimes, readers of the Bible underestimate the effects of translation on the meanings that arise from particular Bible stories. In this episode, Jeanne and Jennifer discuss the complexities of translation, exploring a number of specific examples in which changes made in the process of translation from Hebrew to English—or from Hebrew to Greek to Latin to English—introduce meanings that do not exist in the original language, or erase certain ideas or images that appear in the original but are missing from the English translation.

Season 1 Episode 3: What does it mean to read the Bible as myth?

While some understand the term "myth" to mean "something that's not true," that isn't what biblical or literary scholars mean when they use the term.  For scholars, "myth" is the literary term for certain kinds of storytelling. Jeanne and Jennifer explore a range of meanings for the term "myth," and discuss how reading the Bible as myth opens up a range of rich, valuable interpretations.