When Russell Moore first heard the title of Christopher Watkin’s new book, Biblical Critical Theory, his mind immediately went to the controversy around critical race theory. But, as this episode’s conversation with Watkin—a professor and senior lecturer at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, reveals—it’s about so much more.
Tune in for a rich discussion of what critical theory actually is (and isn’t), what it means to critique the status quo, and where the Bible fits into all of this. Moore and Watkin talk about the authority of Scripture and the role of morality in the lives of both Christians and non-Christians. Their conversation touches on social media, gender and sexuality, and moral relativism. And they consider what it means to let the Bible interpret the Bible, looking to Augustine as a model for cultural and political thought, and how to begin investigating the stories we tell ourselves.
Resources discussed during this episode include:
- Biblical Critical Theory: How the Bible’s Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture by Christopher Watkin
- A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
- City of God by Augustine
- Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason by John Milbank
- Gospel and Kingdom by Graeme Goldsworthy
- God’s Big Picture: Tracing the Storyline of the Bible by Vaughan Roberts
- Seeing Jesus in the Old Testament by Nancy Guthrie
- The Order of Things and The Birth of Biopolitics by Michel Foucault
- Heidelberg Disputation by Martin Luther
