Forging Ploughshares

Paul Axton preaches: When asked the reason for following Christ, Axton poses a one word answer upon which he builds an alternative understanding to the partial answer of being saved and shows that th…

In part 2 J. Denny Weaver, the foremost Mennonite thinker, describes the role of the Church as an alternative peaceable kingdom to the violent kingdoms of the world. 

(Sign up for the class Human Lan…

In part 1 of a 2 part conversation Paul and Brad interview J. Denny Weaver, the most prominent theologian among contemporary Mennonites, on his understanding of the atonement he calls "narrative Chri…

In this second part of our conversation with Girard expert, Anthony Bartlett, we discuss the upcoming class Anthony will teach and also discuss the necessity to go beyond Girard to the fulness of pea…

Anthony Bartlett describes his departure from the Priesthood and passage through The Little Brothers of Jesus and his discovery of René Girard and entry into a nonviolent reading of Scripture and an …

In Part 2 on discussion of the Eucharist the focus on the role of the Holy Spirit, the bringing together sign and signified, in a new humanity of peace realized in deep communion and practice are dis…

Paul Axton preaches: The kingdom of Christ, the church, is the all encompassing work of Christ in defeating evil, and the kingdoms of this world, so as to be all in all and to reign over all. 

(Sign …

What happens when a Baptist, an Episcopalian, an Eastern Orthodox, a Roman Catholic, and a non-denominational Christian discuss the Eucharist? Brad, Brian, Matt, Jonathan, and Paul arrive at a point …

Paul Axton preaches: The slaughter in Gaza demonstrates the bankruptcy of premillennialism, dispensationalism, and Christian Zionism, all of which deny the basic teaching that the work of the cross h…

In part 2 of our conversation with Benard Perret he describes the role of the satan, or the complex nature of mimetic desire and the obstacle cause of desire which gives rise to violence and murder. 

Paul Axton preaches: The point of judgement, "When you have done it to the least of these you have done it to me," puts the full weight of the eternal in the finite, which is the form of the incarnat…

In part 1 of a two part episode, Benard Perret explains the significant depth and development of Girard's theory as an alternative to Anselm and as a further development of Karl Rahner's understandin…

Paul Axton preaches: This sermon touches upon the possibility of acting upon the lie of radical evil, as in the case of Lamech, and the counter to this in the enactment of divine grace in infinite fo…

John Dear, the world renowned peace activist, describes his theological focus on practicing the Sermon on the Mount. 

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Brad and Paul discuss sin, not as a legal failure giving rise to guilt, but as a loss of the divine model due to the obstacle posed by sin (a very different understanding of missing the mark) and the…

John Dear describes to Brad and Paul his life of peacemaking with Jesus along with his friends the Berrigans, Mother Teresa, Desmond Tutu, and others, recommending doing the Sermon on the Mount rathe…

Paul Axton preaches: The vision of the apocalypse in which the slain Lamb reigns through nonviolent defeat of violence and death is the impetus behind the resistant nonviolence of the Sermon on the M…

William Desmond describes the danger of the "all and all" in an Eastern sensibility, of subsuming all things into one rather than preserving difference. He describes the prejudice against belief and …

Paul Axton Preaches: The Jewish confusion between God and evil results from the projection of their violence onto God, which Jesus identifies as marking their paternity as children of the Devil. The …

William Desmond explains his reading of the Metaxological as the recovery of metaphysics as a being between, and he describes his deep reading of Hegel and points out the failure of the positive read…