S9 Ep927: The Scandal of Christmas, Part 1: Dr. Craig Keener
Theology in the Raw
Theology in the Raw
4.5 • 1.5K Ratings
🗓️ 13 December 2021
⏱️ 65 minutes
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Summary
I’ve invited 4 different New Testament scholars on the podcast to talk about the Christmas story. In this opening episode, I talk with world renown NT scholar Dr. Craig Keener about Luke 1-2, the politics and sociological scandal of Christ’s birth, his earthly vocation (as a tekton...woodworker? mason? None of the above?), the location of Christ’s birth, Matthew 1-2 (and the differences between Luke and Matthew), the problem of genealogies, and much, much more.
Dr. Keener did his Ph.D. work in New Testament and Christian Origins at Duke University and is known for his work as a New Testament scholar on Bible background (commentaries on the New Testament in its early Jewish and Greco-Roman settings). Well over a million of his thirty-plus books are in circulation and have won thirteen national and international awards. His award-winning, popular-level IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament (now in its second edition [2014], and available in a number of languages) has sold over half a million copies.
Craig is married to Médine Moussounga Keener, who holds a Ph.D. from University of Paris 7. She was a refugee for 18 months in her nation of Congo, and together Craig and Médine work for ethnic reconciliation in the U.S. and Africa. Craig is ordained by the National Baptist Convention, an African-American denomination, and for roughly a decade was one of the associate ministers at Enon Tabernacle Baptist Church in Philadelphia. Craig and Médine’s story together is Impossible Love: The True Story of an African Civil War, Miracles, and Hope Against All Odds (Chosen Books, 2016).
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of Theology in the Rock. This episode is sponsored by |
| 0:04.7 | the Intervarsity Press Bookdrop. The IVP Bookdrop is a monthly book club perfect for readers who |
| 0:09.5 | want to grow spiritually and hear from a diverse range of voices addressing today's most important |
| 0:14.6 | cultural topics. Okay, so for like 10 bucks a month, you get one book sent to you every month, |
| 0:19.3 | and that includes shipping. They start you off with Esomacoli's best-selling book, Readying |
| 0:23.9 | Wild Black, and then on the second Monday of every month, a new book will be sent to you. |
| 0:28.3 | Books written by emerging voices, along with well-known authors who are both diverse in ethnicity |
| 0:34.5 | and in gender. I love Intervarsity Press. They always publish books that are intellectually |
| 0:40.0 | responsible, well-researched, and also very readable, and like focused on the church. So many of my |
| 0:46.1 | guests on the show, I don't know if you know this, have published with IVP. So Lamar Hardwick, |
| 0:50.0 | Sandy Richter, Laurie Krieg, Georgiancy, Tish Harrison Warren, and, and, press and sprinkle. I |
| 0:55.3 | don't know if you know that, but I have a book out with IVP. Anyway, super easy to sign up, |
| 0:59.1 | just go to IVPress.com-forge-lash-t-i-t-r. That's IVPress.com-forge-t-i-t-r. |
| 1:06.6 | Hello, theology and the raw listeners. As you may have noticed, I have finally begun to host |
| 1:12.6 | various sponsors on this podcast. You know, you've heard some ads that I've given, and I want you |
| 1:17.1 | to know that I simply will not. I refuse to endorse any kind of product book organization that I |
| 1:23.4 | actually don't believe in. So we've had a lot of people hit us up for sponsor this, sponsor that, |
| 1:28.0 | and we've turned them all down, and you know, we get offers to sponsor all kinds of stuff, and we |
| 1:33.4 | heavily screen everything that comes our way. It has to be something that I believe in, and there's |
| 1:39.0 | a lot of great stuff out there. So I hope this will be helpful for you as you are thinking about |
| 1:44.0 | various resources, organizations, programs, or whatever. I will only talk about things that I |
| 1:50.5 | personally believe in. Hello, friends. Welcome back to another episode of Theology in the raw. |
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