New Persuasive Words
"The revival in religion will be a rhetorical problem - new persuasive words for defaced or degraded ones." - Thornton Wilder
About the show
New Persuasive Words started as two guys talking about life with what we thought (hoped?) was wit and insight, on our good days anyway. Then...a podcast.
Episode List
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Episode 212: Prophet
April 21st, 2018 | 34 mins 22 secs
This is the first of a short series of podcasts we are doing on the identity of Jesus Christ.
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Episode 211: Kierkegaard and Comey
April 21st, 2018 | 29 mins 33 secs
In this episode we consider what Kierkegaard's philosophy can tell us about James Comey and Donald Trump.
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Episode 210: The Humor of Christ
April 13th, 2018 | 32 mins 19 secs
In this episode we reflect on and riff off of Bill's most recent contribution to "The Mockingbird", the magazine of Mockingbird Ministries (www.mbird.com). The issue's theme was humor and Bill's essay argues that Jesus really did have a sense of humor.
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Episode 209: The Future of the Politics of Freedom
April 12th, 2018 | 28 mins 29 secs
In this episode of the podcast, inspired by a conversation between Bill Kristol and Peter Berkowitz II, we consider the future of classical liberalism in light of contemporary challenges to it that come from both the Left and the Right.
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Episode 208: Jordan Peterson on the Significance of Easter
April 7th, 2018 | 27 mins 45 secs
In this episode we discuss a piece Jordan Peterson wrote for the London Times which appeared in the newspaper on Easter Sunday.
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Episode 207: God's Death, Our Life
March 31st, 2018 | 36 mins 32 secs
In this episode, recorded on Good Friday 2018, Bill and I talk about the events that preceded Easter and their meaning for us today.
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Episode 206: Bullgeschichte Session, with Todd Littleton
March 28th, 2018 | 30 mins 45 secs
Occasionally we invite someone on to talk with us about a host of things, or whatever comes to mind. We call it a "Bullgeschicte" Session. Our guest for this episode is Todd Littleton. He's a pastor, writer, consultant, professor, blogger and podcaster. We talk love, death, necrophobia and food.
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Episode 205: More on the Essence of Christianity
March 28th, 2018 | 25 mins 13 secs
From time to time on the podcast we reflect on the essence of Christianity. We return to this theme, with a little help from Hans Urs von Balthasar.
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Episode 204: Self-Deception
March 28th, 2018 | 35 mins 34 secs
In this episode of the podcast we talk about self-deception and how hard it is to know when you're deceiving yourself.
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Episode 203: Evangelicals and the Trump Temptation
March 15th, 2018 | 40 mins 23 secs
In this episode we talk about two recent pieces, one in the Atlantic and the other in the National Review, that discuss the continued support for Trump in the evangelical community. The authors, Michael Gerson and David French, are both conservative evangelical never Trumpers.
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Episode 202: Baptism
March 2nd, 2018 | 34 mins 35 secs
We're at episode 202, and we realized we have never talked about baptism! Thanks to Nathan Smith, a regular listener, for asking us to share our thoughts. Keep the suggestions coming friends.
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Episode 201: Billy Graham the Evangelist and Our Thoughts on Evangelism
February 26th, 2018 | 37 mins 8 secs
In this episode we reflect on the legacy of Billy Graham and consider the nature and future of evangelism in the modern world.
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Episode 200: Our 200th episode! With Special Guest Mark Oppenheimer
February 21st, 2018 | 58 mins 18 secs
When we began this podcast we never imagined we'd get to 200 episodes. It's been a wild ride. We were joined on our 200th episode by Mark Oppenheimer, Editor at Large at Tablet Magazine and co-host of the wildly popular Unorthodox podcast. We talk faith, politics, public life and even epigenetics. Thanks to all our listeners. Here's to 200 more!
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Episode 199: To Ash or Not to Ash...
February 11th, 2018 | 41 mins 21 secs
In this Saturday Night Special episode of the podcast we talk a little about Ash Wednesday, its origins and the practice of serving "ashes on the go."
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Episode 198: Two Natures? One Person?
February 10th, 2018 | 36 mins 47 secs
In this episode we continue our recent discussions of Luther and the Reformation. We focus specifically on Luther's Christology, asking whether or not it's really what's behind some of the 16th century sacramental controversies.