Welcome to the Onscript podcast, your home for world-class conversations on scripture and theology,

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Hello, friends. Welcome to OnScript. This is Amy Brownh Hughes, a co-host for the podcast with

Matt Lynch, Matt Bates, Aaronheim, Drew Johnson, Chris Tilling, and Jules Martinez-Aliari.

Today, I have the pleasure of speaking with Beth Felker Jones, Professor of Theology at Northern

Seminary in Illinois. She's the author of several books,

including a collection of pandemic prayers, faithful, a theology of sex, practicing Christian

doctrine, and marks of his wounds, gender politics, and bodily resurrection. I've known Beth for a

long time. During my doctoral program at Wheaton College, I was a teaching assistant in one of her

classes, and she served as my

second reader on my dissertation. She's a keen and generous scholar whom I have long admired. Today, we will be

spending a good bit of time talking about practicing Christian doctrine, an introduction to thinking

and living theologically, published with Baker Academic in 2014. If you're not familiar

with Beth and her work, I am delighted to introduce you to her today. Welcome, Beth.

Thanks, Amy. Glad to be with you.

All right. Let's start off with, I always love asking questions about one's journey into theology, like, how do we kind of get here, right?

So could you start us off by talking about what systematic theology is and what your journey into this discipline looked like?

And then maybe if there's a moment or two that stands out as being particularly formative for you.

Sure. I think the discipline title, Systematic Theology, can sound sort of intimidating and confusing.

And the truth is that even systematic theologians don't agree on what systematic theology precisely is.

Theology, of course, is just the study of the things of God. And when we do it systematically,

...