Episode: We all understand that statues were considered divine in the ancient Near East. But what about a god's sword, or concepts about a god? Could they also be divine? In this episode, Jennifer Singletary helps understand the conditions in which objects and attributes were divinized (if that's the right word) alongside the gods themselves and how this might help us understand biblical divinization.

Guest: Dr. Jennifer Singletary is Assistant Research Professor of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Jewish Studies at Penn State University. Her work explores ancient ideas regarding superhuman beings, methods used to communicate with them, relationships among religious specialists, and cognitive approaches to religion and linguistics. Her first book, Objects, Qualities, and Attributes as Deities in the Ancient Near East (Brill, 2025), examines deified objects, qualities, and attributes in the ancient Near East. She is currently working on her second book, Ancient Near Eastern Prophecy, which is under contract with the Cambridge Elements series, the Ancient Near Eastern World and the Bible. Her third book project (under contract with Brill) investigates the strategies that ancient diviners, including prophets, used to discredit their rivals or work cooperatively with their peers in Old Babylonian Mari, Neo-Assyria, and the Hebrew Bible. Her research on this topic was recently featured in an article in Archaeology magazine. She is also the area editor for the Early Alphabetic and Northwest Semitic section of Prayer in the Ancient World (Brill) and a series editor for the Religions in the Ancient Mediterranean book series (Eisenbrauns). (adapted from the Penn State website)

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Episode: In this episode, "follow the money" takes on a whole new (and old) significance. Co-host Amy Hughes talks with Malcolm Foley about his book The Anti-Greed Gospel: Why The Love of Money is the Root of Racism and How the Church Can Create A New Way Forward. The conversation begins with why greed is the root of race and racism instead of hate or ignorance and ends with how the Kingdom of God forms our imaginations and helps “drain race of its power” and work toward a world where “no person is a victim of injustice.”

Guest: Malcolm Foley (PhD, Baylor University, MDiv, Yale Divinity School) is a pastor, historian, and speaker who serves as special adviser to the president for campus engagement at Baylor University. He has written for Christianity Today, The Anxious Bench, and Mere Orthodoxy. Foley copastors Mosaic Waco, a multicultural church in Waco, Texas, where he lives with his wife, Desiree. In addition to the Anti-Greed Gospel, he is currently working on a second book which will, among other things, argue, with the guidance of the Greek and Byzantine Fathers, that the hope of deification is what jettisons our lesser hopes of material wealth, political power, and cultural influence.

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Episode: Gird your emotional loins! Dr. Sheblazm takes us on a journey inward, to those painful places that few want to go, in order to retrieve what no one thought existed, to bring about what no one thought possible.

Guest: Professor Dr. Irvine Sheblazm, Ph.D, Ph.D., is a theologian and a scientist with degrees from prominent institutions. He runs the “Center for Excellence” in the Lake District in the UK. He is the author of many many books, including:

• The Cheerful Taker: A New Economics for Pauline Christians in a Changing World (2025)
• Abraham's Bosom, Paul, and the Decline of Postmodernism (2024).
• Child Rearing with the Apostle Paul and the Book of Revelation (2022).
• The Emotionally Healthy Paul: Inner Emotional Intelligence with the Apostle Paul.

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