Phillip Cary is a master of the lecture. He can keep any keen mind’s attention, get them excited, and send off thinking. I know this because I have all of his teaching company classes! When I ran into him at AAR this year I went in to ‘fan’ mode and just started talking to him about his amazing series of Luther and asked him to join me on the podcast. SO here he is! I am sure that after you hear our discussion you will want to check out his teaching company classes because if you dig the HBC then you dig sweet theological audio files and Phillip is a master.
Cary is a philosophy professor at Eastern University where is intimately involved in the Templeton Honors College. Below are a number of his books. I will personally vouch for quality of all his Teaching Company classes and the new Jonah commentary. Many thanks to Phillip for joining us. Enjoy the conversation!!!
Dr. Cary’s courses deserve to be highlighted. I like everything he has done for The Teaching Company as well.
This was a truly delightful conversation to listen in on.
However, I was somewhat shocked to hear Dr. Cary being at a loss to name people who are teaching and preaching Christ the way he argued that Luther did. Not surprisingly (or is it?), I ran into this theology in huge amounts at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. I am a recent graduate of that school (and presently am waiting for my first call), and since Cary seems to think that his style of theology isn’t being preached, I would love to put him in touch with a fair number of my peers – Lutherans manage to get themselves into all kinds of fights these days, but we are fortunate to have teachers who keep us focused on Christ alone in the manner Dr. Cary discussed.
Specifically, here are some names for people to chase down: Gerhard Forde, James Nestingen, Steve Paulson, Roy Harrisville II. He cited Robert Jensen understandably enough (since he’s an East-coast Lutheran), but a lot of these folks are still shaping the next generation of Confessional Lutheran clergy at Luther.
(Incidentally, I’ll don’t know many people who can talk Luther like Cary did without knowing Forde. I bet he knows a lot of these folks already.)
The single best primer on the planet is this: Luther for Armchair Theologians by Steve Paulson. This is the funniest theological book I know of which also manages to blow your mind. It follows the outline (and most of the content) of his Systematic Theology course on Jesus Christ.
I’ll also more generally recommend any book published by Lutheran Quarterly.
This stuff excites me.
Interesting lecture. The brother has a wonderful way of bringing theological history to life.
I’d like to hear Cary in conversation with some folks who may disagree with him. Do any such debates exist? One thing I really didn’t like was his dramatic “kids these days” portrayals of the horrors of current evangelicalism. Oh… and his denigration of all things spiritual and by extension any traditions that hold spiritual practices close to their heart. A bit harsh.
Wow Tripp this dude is sweet. His voice is almost as cool as his facial hair!