Leonard Cohen and Saint Paul - Matthew Anderson, Pauline scholar

02/08/24 • 59 min

Is the essence of Christianity basically Judaism through a Zen lens? Can we understand some great artists and theologians better if we assume performative masculinity? Is there really a crack in everything? Is it where the light gets in?

In Episode 92 of Beer Christianity we answer these and other important questions (like: Is later Leonard Cohen better than his earlier oeuvre? Is Avalanche the most devastatingly romantic song in history? Do you know what I'm thinking and who does vengeance belong to?) with Matthew Anderson, Pauline scholar, Leonard Cohen aficionado and author of Prophets of Love: The Unlikely Kinship of Leonard Cohen and the Apostle Paul.

New to Beer Christianity? Welcome!

Beer Christianity is an anti-capitalist, pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ+, anti-imperialist, post-post-post-evangelical podcast where we drink a bit and talk a lot. Our aim is to be real, to be helpful and entertaining.

Follow Beer Christianity on Twitter: @beerxianity and find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Beer Christianity also has a newsletter in which Jonty and guest authors comment on the news, theological issues and stuff that matters.

There's a connected Show With Music on Spotify called New Old Music. Check it out if you like eclectic music and weird chat. It's not terribly serious.

Jonty's novel, Incredulous Moshoeshoe and the Lightning Bird, is not available in all good bookshops, but if you bought it and left a review that would probably make that more likely.

We don't really want to preach at you, but some people like to know what we believe. It's this: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and came to teach us a better way to be while reconciling us to God and each other in a way we could never do without Him. He also changed water into wine. Nice.

New to Beer Christianity? Welcome!

Follow Beer Christianity on Twitter: @beerxianity and find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Beer Christianity also has a newsletter in which Jonty and guest authors comment on the news, theological issues and stuff that matters.

There's a connected Show With Music on Spotify called New Old Music. Check it out if you like eclectic music and weird chat. It's not terribly serious.

Jonty's novel, Incredulous Moshoeshoe and the Lightning Bird, is not available in all good bookshops, but if you bought it and left a review that would probably make that more likely.

Previous Episode

Episode 91: AI, ethics and dangers with JL Ecochard

AI is going to save the world. Or kill us all. Or another, secret, third thing.

Trying to find a pattern of truth within all the cultural noise about Artificial Intelligence is pretty hard right now, so we turned to someone who has been working on and with AI since the 1980s.

Jean-Louis Ecochard has been in on the development of everythting from caller ID and online banking to video conferencing and e-health, and was one of the people behind what became WebMD. He now heads up the Center for the Digital Nonprofit and is Senior Head of Innovation for Nethope, an organisation that acts as a bridge between large NGOs with Big Tech.

He's also a whole lot of fun, and helped us reframe our thinking about AI.

In this episode, we asked JL about the dangerous intersection between capitalism and AI (of course we did), the ethics of big data and what, if anything, humanity has to fear from this latest great jump forward in technology.

It's a fascinating conversation that we hope will help you think about this much-hyped subject in a fresh way.

We should also make clear that, if we didn't like JL so much or think this might reflect badly on him, this is the title we would have gone for:

See the kind of restraint we show? You are all very welcome.

You can find out more about the Center for the Digital Nonprofit, its mission and research here.

We also recommend The Eye of the Master: a Social History of Artificial Intelligence for a left-wing academic take of what, really, is being automated.

New to Beer Christianity? Welcome!

Follow Beer Christianity on Twitter: @beerxianity and find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

Beer Christianity also has a newsletter in which Jonty and guest authors comment on the news, theological issues and stuff that matters.

There's a connected Show With Music on Spotify called New Old Music. Check it out if you like eclectic music and weird chat. It's not terribly serious.

Jonty's novel, Incredulous Moshoeshoe and the Lightning Bird, is not available in all good bookshops, but if you bought it and left a review that would probably make that more likely.

Next Episode

Episode 93: Belonging - feeling at home, finding your people

Do you feel like you belong at your church? Have you found your people? Do you feel at home?

In this episode we explore how much dogma, belief, diversity, relatability and stage of life determine whether we feel 'at home' in church.

Along the way we ask what makes a really good home group (spoiler: it may be Jonty and Malky), we discuss wehter the Church of Jesus Christ and the Latter Day Saints is right for people who dislike Joseph Smith, and Laura stages a coup d' podcast with the help of her fancy new mic.

Identity, dogma, community and inclusion, all in this episode of Beer Christianity.

New to Beer Christianity? Hallelujah.

Beer Christianity is an anti-capitalist, pro-BLM, pro-LGBTQ+, anti-imperialist, post-post-post-evangelical podcast where we drink a bit and talk a lot. Our aim is to be real, helpful and entertaining.

Beer Christianity also has a newsletter in which Jonty and guest authors comment on the news, theological issues and stuff that matters. He updates it according to his own wildly inconsistent neurodivergent schedule, but it’s a good read. Sign up to the Beer Christianity newsletter on Substack.

Putting the show together costs a bunch of money in hosting fees, editing software, equipment and time. If you can, please help out by donating via Buy Me a Coffee (or in our case, a beer) where you can make one-off donations or do the membership thing.

Follow Beer Christianity on Twitter: @beerxianity and find us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube and, probably, loads of other places. We love hearing from listeners. You can email us at beerchristianity AT yahoo DOT com. We often respond to mails we get on the show. And if you leave us a voicenote on Insta we might air your question on an episode.

There's also a connected Show With Music on Spotify called New Old Music. Check it out if you like eclectic music and random chat.

Other things...

Malky’s design work has graced many good magazines and music videos. You can find his stuff and even commission him if he’s not too busy, here. Jonty's novel, Incredulous Moshoeshoe and the Lightning Bird, is not literature but it’s quite fun if you like Supernatural, Africa or the Goth scene.

We don't really want to preach at you, but some people like to know what we believe. It's this: Jesus Christ is the Son of God and came to teach us a better way to be, while reconciling us to God and each other in a way we could never do without Him. He also changed water into wine. Nice.