
What’s on your mind?
A curated list of resources that we think may help you sort things out
About this page
Individual items within each category are broadly listed from most approachable up top, to most challenging/long at the bottom.
Just because a topic is listed on this page does not mean that it is something you need to be thinking about. Different people need to think through different issues at different times; that is part of being human.
We recommend you start with the issue(s) that feels most prominent to you right now. Ideally, you will find some podcasts, authors, and bloggers that resonate with you beyond these incomplete lists.
Don’t let the list overwhelm you or stress you out. Just start with one issue that’s been on your mind, and just take it one link at a time.
Keep in mind this list is being updated on an ongoing basis.
The Bible
Can I Say This at Church? Podcast: What is the Bible with Dr. Tim Mackie
You Have Permission Podcast: To Consider Inerrancy, Infallibility & Inspiration (#21)
Hermeneutics: An Introduction by Theology Matters YouTube channel
Unbelievable? Podcast: Brian McLaren and Andrew Wilson Debate Jesus and the Bible
Bible For Normal People Podcast: Rachel Held Evans - Unraveling and Re-raveling the Bible - and her book Inspired
Seminary Dropout Podcast: N.T. Wright on the New Testament in its World
Bible For Normal People Podcast: Richard Rohr - A Contemplative Look at the Bible
Homebrewed Christianity Podcast: Keith Ward Talks About the Bible
Bible For Normal People Podcast: Peter Enns - God’s Children Tell the Story - and his book How the Bible Actually Works.
Book: Peter Enns The Bible Tells Me So
Book: Christian Smith The Bible Made Impossible
Book: Kenton Sparks Sacred Word, Broken Word
Reconstruct Podcast: How Do We Interpret the Bible? & How Many Ways Can We Interpret the Bible?
Book: Bart Ehrman Jesus, Interrupted
Book: Justo Gonzalez Santa Biblia: The Bible Through Hispanic Eyes
Book: Walter Brueggemann The Prophetic Imagination
Yale Open Courses (Podcast): Introduction to New Testament History and Literature by Dale B. Martin
Hell, Atonement, & Salvation
You Have Permission Podcast: To Believe Some Non-Christians Are Saved (#1)
Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: 58 - Is Jesus the Only Way to Heaven?
Unbelievable? Podcast: Albert Mohler (Eternal Conscious Torment) debates Chris Date (Conditional Immortality/Annihilationism) on which has more Biblical support
You Have Permission Podcast: To Consider *ALL* the Atonement Theories (#6)
Can I Say This at Church? Podcast: Atonement with Brad Jersak
Almost Heretical Podcast: Mako Nagasawa - Beyond Penal Substitution
Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: 215 - Tim Gombis Absolutely Blew Our Minds About Why Jesus Had to Die
Documentary: Hellbound?
Can I Say This at Church? Podcast: It’s Time to Talk about Hell
A Review of of That All Shall be Saved with Chris Green & Brad Jersak on The Zeitcast with Jonathan Merritt.
Blog post: Readings in Universalism -- contains quotes and links to dozens of books arguing this position
You Have Permission Podcast: Brad Jersak on “The Argument for Universal Salvation”
Book: N.T. Wright Surprised by Hope
Book: Brad Jersak A More Christlike God
Book: Rob Bell Love Wins
Book: Steve Gregg All You Want to Know About Hell
Doubt, Deconstruction & Reconstruction
For the Love with Jen Hatmaker Podcast: Loving, Leaving & Finding the Church with Rachel Held Evans
Bible For Normal People Podcast: Faith and Doubt: No, You're Not the Only One
You Have Permission Podcast: Evil, Hell, & Evidence for God at a Christian College (#54)
Book: Bonnie Kristian A Flexible Faith
The Robcast: The River, the Mountain, and You
The Vox / Mike Erre Podcast: The Mystery of Spiritual Maturity
Reconstruct Podcast: Science Mike's Story -- Baptist to Mystic
nomad Podcast: Nadia Bolz Weber - How Not to be a Boring Christian
Book: Brian McLaren A New Kind of Christianity
Book: Rachel Held Evans Searching for Sunday
Reconstruct Podcast: Deconstruction, Reconstruction, and Our Stories
Women & Christianity
Blog Post (short): Rachel Held Evans “Esther Actually: Princess, Whore, or Something More…”
Fuller Seminary’s Statement on Women in Ministry
The Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: Heated Convo - Why We Changed Our Minds About Women in Church Leadership
Blog Post (medium): Rachel Held Evans “A Creative Interpretation of Colossians”
Gail Wallace dealing with 2 Timothy 2:12 here and here for The Junia Project
BadChristian Podcast: #477 Beth Moore Go Home, Says John MacArthur
The Zeitcast Podcast: Women and the Quest for Spiritual Freedom
You Have Permission Podcast: To Be Egalitarian / Ordain Women (#29)
Videos on womanist theologies from Union Theological, Union Presbyterian, Fuller Theological Seminaries.
Almost Heretical: Jesus Ended Hierarchy (and subsequent parts of this gender series)
Seminary Dropout Podcast: A Biblical, Historical, and Pastoral Defense of Women in Ministry
Book: Carolyn Custis James The Other Half of the Church
Podcast: Two Feminists Annotate the Bible (yes, the whole Bible)
The Creation of a Feminist Theology by Phyllis Trible (NYT, 1983)
Science & Faith
Biologos.org -- extensive Evangelical-adjacent resource on all things Science & Faith
You Have Permission Podcast: To Accept Theistic Evolution (#2)
ScienceForTheChurch.org — blog, resources, podcasts & more integrating mainstream science and Christianity
Language of God Podcast: Adam & Eve
Can I Say This at Church? Podcast: Genesis, Creation, and the Lost World of Scripture with Dr. John Walton
Language of God Podcast: Dialogue with Reasons to Believe
Book: Kenneth R. Miller Finding Darwin’s God
Book: Peter Enns The Evolution of Adam
Homebrewed Christianity Podcast: David Wilkinson: An Astrophysicist Talks Science & Religion
LGBTQ+ & Christianity
Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: 57 - LGBTQ When Can We Agree to Disagree
Sarah Bessey on how she changed her mind on LGBTQ+ issues
Liturgists Podcast: LGBTQ
Queerology Podcast: SueAnn Shiah - Why Isn't Your Identity in Christ? & Queerology generally
Blog Post: New Testament scholar Luke Timothy Johnson Homosexuality & the Church
Almost Heretical: LGBTQ - The So-called Divine Ideal (Part 1)
Book: Mel White Stranger at the Gate: To Be Gay and Christian in America
You Have Permission Podcast: To Be Gay Affirming (#10)
Queer Womanist Theology, an interview with Pamela Lightsey
Book: James V. Brownson Bible, Gender, Sexuality
Book: Jay Emerson Johnson Peculiar Faith: Queer Theology for Christian Witness
Video: Lianne Simon and Dr. Megan DeFranza: Intersex Christians and the Image of God
Trans identity and the Bible resources: Austen Lionheart and r/TransChristianity
YouTube Channel: The Reformation Project
Race & Christianity
Pass the Mic Podcast: Why Do Multi-ethnic Churches Fail? & their podcast generally
Inglorious Pasterds Podcast: 118 - Being Black In A White World w/ Austin Channing Brown
Book: Jemar Tisby The Color of Compromise - and the video study guide (currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video)
The Liturgists Podcast: Black and White: Racism in America, and their Black History Month Series including one on James Cone (the figurehead of black liberation theology).
For the Love with Jen Hatmaker Podcast: The Church’s Role in Racism with Lisa Sharon Harper
Conversing Podcast: Jemar Tisby on Race and the American Church
You Have Permission Podcast: To Acknowledge Evangelicalism’s Racial Blindspot (#14)
Conversations about Black Theologies at Fuller Seminary.
Videos on Womanist theologies from Union Theological, Union Presbyterian, Fuller Theological Seminaries.
Book: Jasmine L. Holmes Mother to Son: Letters to a Black Boy on Identity and Hope
Book: Michael O. Emerson & Christian Smith Divided by Faith
Rethinking God & Our Relationship to God
The Robcast: God Part 1
On Being Podcast: Greg Boyle -- The Calling of Delight: Gangs, Service, and Kinship
Unbelievable? Podcast: Is Open Theism a Heresy?
You Have Permission Podcast: To Give Reformed Theology a Fair Hearing (#32)
What in the World is Process Theology? video by Theology Matters
nomad Podcast: Richard Rohr - Catholic Spirituality for an Emerging Church
The Deconstructionists Podcast: Ep 10 - Greg Boyd - Religious Nationalism, Open Theism and Doubt
Crackers and Grape Juice Podcast: Karl Barth for Dummies
Homebrewed Christianity Podcast: Keith Ward: Religion in the Modern World
You Have Permission Podcast: To Consider Quakerism & Penentheism (God = Universe + Something) (#12)
Carry the Fire Podcast: John Cobb Jr.
Book: How I Found God in Everyone and Everywhere: An Anthology of Spiritual Memoirs and the editors’ Homebrewed Christianity interview
Book: Thomas Jay Oord God Can’t & his Homebrewed Christianity interview
Book: Richard Rohr The Universal Christ
You Have Permission Podcast: Looking for God in the Future, Not the Past (#46) & John Haught’s Homebrewed Christianity interview
Biblical Violence
Sermon Series: ISIS, Islam & Jesus
Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: 95 - Angry God and Peaceful Jesus - Guest Greg Boyd
Bible for Normal People Podcast: Pete Enns - Taking a Shot at Divine Violence
Book: Brian Zahnd Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God
You Have Permission Podcast: To Question the Canaanite Conquest & Divine Violence (#30)
Book: Peter Enns The Bible Tells Me So
Book: Greg Boyd Cross Vision
Family, Friends, & Parenting
The Place We Find Ourselves Podcast: Why Your Family of Origin Impacts Your Life More Than Anything Else
nomad Podcast: Brian McLaren - How to Pass On Your Faith When Your Faith is Evolving
Bible for Normal People Podcast: Teaching the Bible to Your Children
Inglorious Pasterds Podcast: 119 - Deconstruction & Marriage w/ Hillary McBride
You Have Permission Podcast: Faith Changes & Marriage, Family, Kids, Divorce and Dating (#40)
Bible For Normal People Podcast: Jared Byas - How To Talk to People You Disagree With
Book: Jonathan Haidt The Righteous Mind (Dan’s favorite book of the last 10 years)
You Have Permission Podcast: The Psychology of Religious Fundamentalism (#34)
Sex & Purity Culture
Bible for Normal People Podcast: Linda Kay Klein - Breaking Free from Purity Culture
Blog Post: Rachel Held Evans Christians and Masturbation: 7 Perspectives
Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: Reconciling Purity Culture
You Have Permission Podcast: To Critique Purity Culture (#22)
ThankGodForSex.org -- community-built website overseen by Christian sex therapist Tina Schermer Sellers
Book: Linda Kay Klein Pure
Book: Tina Schermer Sellers Sex, God, and the Conservative Church
Vox Podcast with Mike Erre: Healing the Wounds of Sexual Abuse
Book: Nadia Bolz-Weber Shameless
Book: Richard Beck Unclean (focus on psychology)
Book: Dale Martin Sex & the Single Savior (focus on New Testament)
Historical Jesus
Overview Video: Three Quests for the Historical Jesus
Blog Post: Mark Allen Powell Historical Jesus Studies Today: An Update
New Testament Review Podcast: 30. Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ
Word on Fire Podcast: The Quest for the Historical Jesus
Essay: Adela Yarbro Collins The Historical Jesus: Then and Now
Unbelievable? Podcast: Controversies in Jesus Studies
Podcast/Lecture: Dale Allison on the Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus
Video: Dale Martin lecturing at Yale on the Historical Jesus
Book: Luke Timothy Johnson The Real Jesus
Yale Courses New Testament History & Literature Podcast: The Historical Jesus
Unbelievable? Podcast: Bart Ehrman vs. Peter J Williams - debating ‘Misquoting Jesus’
Book: N.T. Wright & Marcus Borg The Meaning of Jesus: Two Visions
Book: Dale Allison The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus