Thinking Christian: Bible, Theology, and Culture

Thinking Christian: Bible, Theology, and Culture Episodes

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  Johnson Amendment Lawsuit: Can Pastors Endorse Candidates? (Troy Miller) October 28, 2026 - 47 min
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  Why Should Christians Engage Politics? (Vincent Bacote) | Faith & Politics #13 October 26, 2026 - 72 min
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  Michael Rhodes on What the Bible Says About Politics | #12 October 22, 2026 - 71 min
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  Who Pays for the Data Center? AI, Politics, and Faith: Politics and Faith #14 October 22, 2026 - 67 min
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  Be Afraid: Horror, Trauma, and What Our Fears Are Discipling Us Into (Kutter Callaway) October 21, 2026 - 55 min
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  Karl Barth on Church and Politics: Is the Church at War? | Faith & Politics #10 October 21, 2026 - 64 min
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  Karl Barth on War as God’s Judgment: Romans 13 and Degrees of Guilt | Faith & Politics #9 October 20, 2026 - 63 min
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  Revelation and Empire: Shane Wood | Faith & Politics #11 October 19, 2026 - 53 min
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  Karl Barth's Letter to American Christians (1942) | Faith and Politics #8 October 8, 2026 - 63 min
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  The Secular Was a Strategy | Faith & Politics #7 October 5, 2026 - 63 min

About Thinking Christian: Bible, Theology, and Culture

Unsettling convention. Cultivating conviction. Thinking Christian is a podcast about the Bible, theology, and culture for Christians who sense that something in today's church isn't working and want to understand why.

Reading the Bible as the final authority for life and faith means questioning the assumptions of our culture, even our Christian culture, so that we don't settle for a narrower vision of reality than God's word offers. Each conversation goes past the headlines to the ideas and inconspicuous patterns underneath them: how we read Scripture, what shapes our politics, how technology shapes us, what faithful discipleship looks like, and where familiar Christian habits don’t fit the patterns emerging from the biblical text.

Hosted by Dr. James Spencer, president of the D. L. Moody Center and author of Digital Discernment (InterVarsity Press), with co-host Dr. Ashish Varma. Episodes include guided series on Scripture, theology, and church history alongside conversations with scholars, pastors, and authors.

Calm, careful, and theological conversations for uncompromising faith.

Episodes, articles, and questions: thinkingchristian.org

Meet your Host

James Spencer earned his Ph.D. in Theological Studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He believes discipleship will open up opportunities beyond anything God’s people could accomplish through their own wit and wisdom. As such, James seeks to help believers think Christianly about social, cultural, and political assumptions. His desire is to see Christians test God by trusting God so that they conform ever more closely to the image of Christ.

In addition to being a regular contributor to Christianity.com and Washingtontimes.com, James has published multiple works, including Christian Resistance: Learnign to Defy the World and Follow Christ, Useful to God: Eight Lessons from the Life of D.L. Moody, Thinking Christian: Essays on Testimony, Accountability, and the Christian Mind, and Trajectories: A Gospel-Centered Introduction to Old Testament Theology.

James currently serves as president of the D. L. Moody Center, an adjunct instructor at Wheaton College Graduate School, and faculty member at Right On Mission.

You can find out more about James at his personal website www.jamesspencer.com.