Top 15 Podcast Episodes on Monotheism

• John Vandivier

This article describes my top 5 Christian Podcast Episodes and 5 interesting podcasts on Islam and Judaism. I use the term podcast loosely as these are largely a selection of YouTube videos. I chose the podcasts on Christianity with a few criteria in mind:

  1. Cover Christian fundamentals, evidence, and compatibility with science
  2. Recommend content creators that I think are both intelligent, generally correct, and also demonstrate exemplary behavior. Avoid smarty-pants jerks.
  3. Show diversity in Christian thought. Demonstrate specific claims, but also demonstrate open-mindedness, humility, continuous learning, and areas to be further explored.
  4. Don't shy away from (hopefully polite) debate. The motivation here is to highlight some of the best anti-Christian arguments and thinkers. The motivation is not to encourage antagonism.

I specifically exclude topics that I feel are secondary, advanced, mysterious, or needlessly controversial.

The five podcasts on Islam and Judaism are hardly comprehensive, but I do make an attempt to review thoughtful conversations from two perspectives: A perspective from the other religion on itself from reputable thought leaders in that religion, and a perspective from Christianity on the other religion from reputable Christian thought leaders.

Let me also note that I am a protestant and I think protestant thought is optimal, but I deeply respect my Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox family. One podcast is from a Roman Catholic Bishop. I have not found any podcasts from the Eastern tradition worth mentioning. This doesn't mean I devalue the Eastern tradition. They have many interesting beliefs worth considering including the essence-energy distinction and deification. I simply find them lacking in quality podcast material.

Christian Podcasts

  1. Sean McDowell, \"Progressive vs. Evangelical: A Dialogue for Clarity\"
    1. One of Sean's great strengths is his model behavior. I wanted to start this list by prioritizing a model of mature conversation on religion, rather than prioritizing antagonism, animosity, aggressive or tactless proselytization, and so on.
    2. This video will also cover Progressive Christianity, a major denominational group.
  2. Capturing Christianity (Cameron Bertuzzi, featuring Dr. Chad McIntosh), \"Over 100 Arguments for the Existence of God\"
    1. This video documents the ocean of evidence for Christianity including scientific, peer-reviewed, and other high-quality arguments and evidences.
    2. This video prioritizes breadth of argument over analyzing each argument deeply.
    3. The cumulative case is important because it allows a believer to seriously consider that some arguments for and against Christianity are better or worse than others.
      1. Doubting specific beliefs and taking non-Christian arguments seriously is a sign of strong thinking, confidence, and maturity in the faith, not weakness.
      2. Shutting down important conversations is the real problem, not open-mindedness.
    4. Interesting follow-up here: \"Does Having 100+ Arguments for God Actually Matter?\"
  3. William Lane Craig, \"The God Debate II: Harris vs. Craig\"
    1. Sam Harris is a well-reputed neuroscientist and atheist thinker. He is one of the Four Horsemen of New Atheism.
    2. William Lane Craig has been a leading voice in the Christian response to New Atheism that has effectively rendered the arguments of New Atheism absolete by now.
    3. William Lane Craig is one of the best philosophers in the world, and perhaps the best public Christian Philosopher in the world. (Plantiga and others are also fantastic, but WLC is, I think, a much more vocal public speaker, whereas Plantiga occasionally speaks but is generally more recluse; these are my perceptions anyway).
    4. In addition to being a world-leading philosopher, WLC is also a very bright theologian. As one example, his thoughtful critique of John Darby and the Rapture View lead me to remove my support for the doctrine.
  4. William Lane Craig, \"Did Adam and Eve Live Recently? William Lane Craig + Joshua Swamidass\"
    1. WLC is the only person I will include on the list twice and he's my favorite single thinker on the list. He is strong in philosophy, science, and theology. He's simultaneously open-minded and ever-learning, but also opinionated and well-informed.
    2. I think WLC flexes his philosophy skills in the debate with Harris in 3, but here in 4 he emphasizes the scientific side of his thinking. His thought is fully compatible with, and even leading to further development in, modern science including evolutionary theory, cosmology, and more.
  5. J. Warner Wallace, \"J. Warner Wallace: Is the New Testament Just a Fairy Tale?\"
    1. J. Warner Wallace is a former atheist and an esteemed Cold Case detective, so he takes a firmly evidence-based approach. He directly investigates the reliability of the Bible and the reliability of witness testimony with the experience of a detective. His work is extremely approachable, concrete and directly relevant, not abstract, not complicated, and very convincing.
  6. textual guy that debates bart ehrman - more reliability of the bible
  7. Bishop Robert Barron, \"\"I am a protestant and I think protestant thought is optimal, but
    1. Let me also briefly rattle off a few other Roman Catholic thinkers that I like, although none have a single podcast or video that I prefer over supra. pints with aquinas,
  8. Mike Winger, \"My Response to Roman Catholic Apologist Trent Horn's Rebuttal of Me\"
    1. (end with specific theology) - contrast with roman catholicism, my favorite preacher and biblical interpreter, denominationally-specific

On Judaism and Islam

  1. Jordan Peterson Islam
  2. Lex Fridman on Judaism
  3. Lex Fridman on Conservatism (but it's two jews and they give lots of perspective on different views of judaism from within)
  4. David Wood on Islam
  5. One for Israel Ministry, \"Really?? You can't be a Jew and believe in Jesus?\"