What an episode! Not one, but two amazing and articulate theologians in one podcast. This week Harvey Cox and Philip Clayton get together for a conversation about faith and theology for the future church. Harvey’s newest book ‘The Future of Faith’ and Philip‘s upcoming release ‘Transforming Christian Theology‘ create the backdrop for a quite engaging conversation you are sure to enjoy and share.
In addition to letting you know about the books themselves I want to let you know that Harvey and 
Philip will be hosting a session at the upcoming American Academy of Religion meeting this November in Montreal. The session is titled ‘A Conversation on Public Theology in the Emerging Landscape’ and will feature additional impressive participants (I’ll blog those details later). Right now I just want to let you know that Ryan and I will be recording video of the session to share over at Transforming Theology (check the new design out). The presentations will be TED style public theology, so hopefully they will create some more conversation. You will hear more about these two books during an upcoming duo-blog tour.
Did you end up snagging an interview w/ Moltmann?
@ Jeremy. Moltmann was great. I got to do one of the public interviews, chat for a while at the hotel about my dissertation and then have dinner with him where we heard sweet ‘when i was in grad school with the Pope’ stories.
Here’s my handheld video of the Molty interview. It will be professionally posted at Emergent Village by their media team soon. http://trippfuller.com/Downloads/molty.mov
This podcast was the best conversation that I have ever heard on faith and belief. Some of the themes/paraphrases of quotes that meant a great deal to me are the following: We are in a new revolution (speaking about the Emergent movement); Emergent is a fresh breath of the Spirit; faith remains constant but beliefs can come and go; belief is the thread that runs throw my life of faith,;belief is where you place your heart. They both agree that their faith in Jesus came first and then their beliefs. They both said that through all their trials, experiences, doubts and questions, their faith in Jesus remained even when they had times where they wanted to give up, they believed in Jesus. Both encourage our knowing and the writing down of what we believe today. It may change tomorrow, but continue to know what it is you believe. Changing beliefs does not mean that we throw anything away. We only add to the beliefs we already have though they may be changed now. When asked about the future both think there is HOPE. Not optimism, but genuine hope. They both believe that the Emergent movement, etc. is of God as it comes where all over the glove and to many people of various religions, education, beliefs, etc. On this I agree and with all of the statements above. They both agree that our experiences are vital and that we should all tell our stories (testimonies). Harvey Cox says the mystical should remain in our lives. The mystical and the spiritual should increase in us as individuals and congregations. We are in a new revolution. Thank you Tripp and Chad and convey my appreciation and love for both them and their work. Love Harvey Cox books and look forward to purchasing both their new books.
Wow is right Tripp. This was great. Ordered both books.
This doesn’t count as you interviewing Clayton. Still waiting for that one.
I remember both of these guys from Transforming Theology earlier this year. This was a fun one, thank you. I wondered, as Phil is talking about not keeping his spirituality in the closet so to speak, what he thinks about my statements that night as I encouraged the people there not to forget the pursuit of the Holy Spirit, and the pursuit of personal encounter with God. A lot of people laughed me off afterwords – I know because my husband was among them and when he said “that was my wife” they kinda disbanded. LOL
Thanks for this. I have been reading through Harvey’s book. Good stuff. And yet I still find myself frustrated. Can it be that there are some American subcultures (I am one that holds that most of our true subcultures are economic and not truly ethnic) that will eschew this kind of Revolution? Holding to traditional creeds or the baby-with-the-bathwater liberalist approach both deny this Revolution entirely. Both might even claim that this is simply a rebirth of traditional American Protestant liberalism. How do you all respond to that question?
And, again, thank you for the thoughtful podcast.
@ Theresa. Phil was a pentecostal and can get caught at a Friends meeting so I imagine he would know personally what you were describing. I personally have no idea what I would be doing as a minister or even a Christian if I didn’t have some dynamic experiences of the Spirit. Of course myself (philip and other process-relational types) believe the world to be drenched in the Spirit. That isn’t true for all ‘progressives.’
@ the other Tripp. I think the question is a good one. Philip is more explicit in his criticism of American liberalism, but I read Harvey’s book after meeting him and that influenced how I heard it. In person and conversation he comes across quite differently than the average liberal. BOTH of them have criticisms to American liberalism and different ones. Maybe I should ask them both when we do the video interviews to spell them out or ask, ‘how is this not a revival of american liberalism?’
@Fuller (How often do you encounter other Tripp’s? I don’t very often!) – That would be a great question to ask, I think. I did hear Philip speak about it, of course, in the podcast, and I think it could use a little more attention. The landscape is very familiar to “us liberals”. I do perceive that these guys are after something else other than straight-up liberalism (which is as enlightenment driven as fundamentalism), but I just need to hear more.
I’ve finished posting my thoughts on Harvey Cox’s book — invite everyone to stop by and peruse — and offer thoughts.
http://pastorbobcornwall.blogspot.com/2009/11/future-of-faith-recapping-blogging.html