A.J. Swoboda: A Teachable Spirit In Today's Divided World
Good Faith
Good Faith
5 • 1.8K Ratings
🗓️ 2 October 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Can Our Enemies Teach Us Anything?
A.J. Swoboda joins the Good Faith podcast to unpack how cultivating a teachable spirit and practicing true discipleship means learning from enemies, strangers, and neighbors in a divided world. He emphasizes how to recognize real experts amid alternate facts and subjective "truths," and tells how the countercultural practice of learning from anyone—regardless of agreement—fosters humility, empathy, and connection, insights drawn from his book A Teachable Spirit.
(03:11) - Cultivating a Teachable Spirit
(09:38) - Reverse Prophecy and Calling Out Your Tribe
(17:55) - Experts & Expertise
(22:09) - Sola Scriptura vs. "Solo" Scriptura
(23:27) - Jesus Would Be the Best At Anything
(32:04) - Replacing Our Neighbors With Technology
(45:03) - Learning From Enemies
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Mentioned In This Episode:
- A.J. Swoboda's A Teachable Spirit
- How John Calvin understood the Ten Commandments
- Erving Goffman's The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (pdf)
- More about Fuller Seminary's John Goldengay
- Roger Kneebone: The Path To Expertise and Why Experts Matter
- Understanding Erving Goffman's concept of Civil Inattention
- Dallas Willard's sermon: The Genius of Jesus, part 1 (video)
- Dallas Willard's Jesus the Logician (article)
- How Should Pastors Respond to Charlie Kirk's Assassination? (article)
Scriptures Referenced:
- The Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5-7 (ESV)
- Mark 12:30-31 (ESV)
- Deuteronomy 10 (ESV)
- Hebrews 13:2 (ESV)
More From A.J. Swoboda:
- A.J. Swoboda and Nijay Gupta's The Slow Theology Podcast
- A.J. Swoboda's Low Level Theology Substack
- A.J. Swoboda's The Dusty Ones: Why Wandering Deepens Your Faith
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If I'm talking to somebody who I disagree with politically and I learn something from them, |
| 0:05.1 | I don't want to give them the joy that they just taught me something. |
| 0:08.7 | And I don't because I don't want to lose power. |
| 0:10.9 | I don't want them to think they've won up to me. |
| 0:13.2 | Now, this is a problem with my heart. |
| 0:14.8 | I'm not saying this is a terrific thing. |
| 0:16.8 | I'm saying it's an evil thing. |
| 0:19.1 | I think I love learning from strangers and books |
| 0:21.9 | because I can take what they teach me |
| 0:24.6 | and it gives me power so that I look smart |
| 0:27.0 | with all the people I'm in person with. |
| 0:29.0 | And all of a sudden, knowledge is no longer being used to love. |
| 0:32.2 | Knowledge becomes a power play. |
| 0:53.9 | Yeah. play. Welcome to the Good Faith podcast where friends who follow Jesus help each other make sense of the world. |
| 0:55.1 | This podcast is a production of redeeming Babel, a 501C3 nonpartisan organization. |
| 1:02.0 | I'm Good Faith's director of content. |
| 1:04.0 | D.T. Sloughman. Curtis Chang is off this week. |
| 1:07.8 | Listeners, Scripture has numerous admonitions about how we treat one another. |
| 1:13.5 | And the sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches his followers to love their enemies and pray for |
| 1:18.5 | those who persecute them. And Mark, he says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. He was |
| 1:23.5 | quoting the Old Testament there. The author of Hebrews even reminds readers to show hospitality |
| 1:30.2 | to strangers. But what can we learn? And what should we learn from strangers, neighbors, enemies, |
... |
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