Jennifer Bird - Deconstructing Biblical Sex and Marriage (N338)

Nomad Podcast

Tim Nash

Christianity, Faithshift, Deconstruction, Christianmysticism, Religion & Spirituality, Christianspirituality, Progressivechristian, Christian, Religion, Emergingchurch

4.7 • 658 Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2025

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this episode, we sit down with biblical scholar Dr. Jennifer Bird to explore the Bible’s complex portrayals of marriage and sexuality. Jennifer shares her journey from conservative evangelicalism to a more nuanced, humanistic perspective, and helps us unpack, among other things, Jesus and Paul’s lack of enthusiasm for marriage, the Bible’s limitations as a guide for healthy relationships, and the risks of putting Jesus on a pedestal.

After the interview, Nomad hosts Tim Nash and Anna Robinson reflect on their own experiences with ‘biblical’ teachings around sex and marriage, and consider whether Jesus really offers an antidote to the Bible’s more problematic stances.

Interview starts at 16m 19s

Books, quotes, links →

Check out Tim’s new podcast Homegrown Faith, where he and his 10 year-old son Elliot explore a range of spiritual practices.

The creation of Nomad's thoughtful, wonderfully ad-free content is entirely funded by our equally thoughtful, wonderful listeners. Supporting us gives access to Nomad's online communities through the Beloved Listener Lounge, Enneagram Lounge and Nomad Book Club - as well as bonus content like Nomad Contemplations, Therapeutic Reflections and Nomad Revisited.

If you'd like to join our lovely supporters head to our Patreon Page to donate and you may even be rewarded with a pen or Beloved Listener mug!

If a monthly commitment isn’t possible right now, a one-off donation is always deeply appreciated—you can do that here.

If you're hoping to connect with others who are more local, you can also take a look at our Listener Map or join our Nomad Gathering Facebook page.

Additionally, we share listener's stories on our blog, all with the hope of facilitating understanding, connection and supportive relationships.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The Welcome back to Nomad podcast. I'm Tim Nash, and this is my beloved co-host. It's Anna Robinson.
0:42.2	Hello.
0:43.4	This is the first time we've chatted in 2025, isn't it? Anna. There's probably a lot to catch up on. Too much perhaps for this intro. So maybe you could tell us one thing that's been going on recently that's interesting you, stimulating you.
0:57.1	Oh, friendship, something I've been thinking a lot about. I got to hear somebody share some thoughts
1:02.6	who's done a PhD on power of friendship. Friendship is resistance. How friendship crosses,
1:08.2	divides and religion and class and difference and stuff, and how powerful
1:14.1	it is, this sort of symbartic kind of mutual relationship and just the power of it and how
1:20.1	kind of forces, you know, like powers that be. They don't supersede friendship, which I think is
1:25.1	really fascinating. That sounds super interesting.
1:32.0	Yeah, really interesting. It's like on a just human level and on a spiritual level, it's really landed with me. And I'm like, well, and, you know, this idea that Jesus talked about,
1:37.6	you know, his disciples were friends, being friends. Just, yeah, linking it into Christianity,
1:43.0	because, you know, that's what we're doing here.
1:44.9	But yeah, that's been really fascinating me.
1:47.0	And a little fact I learnt about oaks.
1:50.8	I love trees, I'm a big tree fan.
1:52.8	And I had a fact last week that about overgrown oaks.
1:56.7	I didn't know what an overgrown oak was.
1:57.9	I mean, I assumed it was just one that was like, you know, overgrown.
2:01.2	Yeah. I didn't know what an overgrown oak was. I mean, I assumed it was just one that was like, you know, overgrown. But it actually is to do with this idea of the saying goes, and it's true really.
2:05.8	And oak takes 300 years to grow, 300 years to live, and 300 years to die.
2:12.3	Wow.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tim Nash, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tim Nash and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.