“A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and pow’r are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his

Vol. 3 Ep. 9 Martin Luther's Afflictions and Death

Oct 27th, 2017 1h 28m

"Somebody, can you tell me just what make a man feel this way? Like river without its water, like night without a day. And it sure 'nuff got cold after the rain fell, Not from the sky but from my eye." The ninth episode in our volume on the Lut

Vol. 3 Ep. 8 Martin Luther as an Exegete

Oct 13th, 2017 1h 7m

“We don't need no education. We don't need no thought control. No dark sarcasm in the classroom. Teachers leave them kids alone.” Luther believed with urgency that every Christian should read and think about the Scriptures for oneself. When tha

Vol. 3 Ep. 7 Martin Luther's Most Influential Works - Part 2

Sep 29th, 2017 1h 15m

"Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take those sunken eyes and learn to see. All your life, you were only waiting for this moment to be free. Blackbird, fly." Jonathan and Adam talk about several more texts by Martin Luther, the good (incl

Vol. 3 Ep. 6 Martin Luther's Most Influential Works - Part 1

Sep 15th, 2017 1h 10m

"She had taken his hand. She had become like they are. Come on, baby, don't fear the reaper..." Or, at least, that's one way of restating Luther's advice in one of the texts we discuss in today's episode describing and contextualizing four of t

Vol. 3 Ep. 5 The 95 Theses of Martin Luther

Sep 1st, 2017 1h 8m

I hear the drums echoing tonight, But she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation... oh, wait, no, that's just the quill of Martin Luther, scrawling down his 95 Theses, the subject of our latest episode on Luther and the Protestant

Vol. 3 Ep. 4 Luther's Turn from Obedient Catholic to Loud Reformer

Aug 18th, 2017 59m

He's the wolf screaming in the lonely night... Shout, shout, shout, shout at the devil! At least, that's what Martin Luther did. In his early years as a monk, Martin Luther became the best monk anyone had ever seen. But it wasn't enough. He str

The Youth and Conversion of Martin Luther

Aug 4th, 2017 53m 56s

Mood swings. Dramatic statements. Eating incredible volumes of food. You know, typical teenager stuff. Well, Martin Luther was no exception, as you'll hear in our new episode on this man's youth and his conversion story. We also hit you up with

Vol. 3 Ep. 2 The Lutheran Reformation in Film

Jul 21st, 2017 1h 4m

Ah, the lights. The music! The acting! Film connects us with its subjects in a special way. We're still celebrating the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. Thus, this time around, Jonathan and Adam talk about representations of Mar

Vol. 3 Ep. 1 - Overview of the Reformation

Jul 7th, 2017 1h 23m

The boys are back in...recording mode as we launch volume 3 of An Oral History of the Church! If you're new to us, we have prepared a conversational church history podcast for our listeners. This time around, we're celebrating the 500th anniver

Vol. 2 Ep. 8 Examples of History Writing

Feb 10th, 2017 1h 47m

Unkar Plutt rewards you double portions today with the final episode of our volume on historiography! We dive deep into a brief biography of Augustine (chapter 1 of Gerald Bray's Augustine on the Christian Life) as well as a paper Adam wrote 4

Vol. 2 Ep. 7 History Writing

Jan 27th, 2017 1h 6m

What is history, and what is history writing? Is there a difference? What is the best way of writing history? The entire volume has culminated to this point, folks. We've looked at the individual tasks that make up the historian's work. Now com

Vol. 2 Ep. 6 Social Sciences and History

Jan 13th, 2017 56m 34s

What is the role of the social sciences as they relate to history? Aren't they just one and the same? We dig into this subject as deep as we can this week. It builds on the last several episodes - the use of primary, secondary, and even tertiar

Vol. 2 Ep. 5 Tertiary Sources

Dec 30th, 2016 38m 26s

The fifth episode of this volume focuses on dictionaries, encyclopedias, atlases, and bibliographies. What are they, and what are their uses for research? Join us next time for a discussion of the Social Sciences and Historiography.

Vol. 2 Ep. 4 Primary and Secondary Sources

Dec 16th, 2016 41m 28s

What are primary sources and secondary sources? How do they fit into academic work, especially the work of the historian? And how do they fit with the Three Canons we discussed last time? We discuss these questions and more in the fourth episod

Vol. 2 Ep. 3 The Three Canons

Dec 2nd, 2016 40m 21s

Jonathan breaks down the three canons, or tools, of the historian. We also get into materialism and anti-materialism, and more! P.S., we have a new companion podcast releasing on Monday, December 5th: "Saints Gone Before"! However you get our c

Vol. 2 Ep. 2 Christian Historiography

Nov 18th, 2016 58m 7s

This time around, we discuss the two schools for interpreting Biblical Historiography, as well as a comment about American Christian Historiography. This is the last one of our episodes discussing the worldview part of what supports the work of

Vol. 2 Ep. 1 Historiography Schools of Thought

Nov 5th, 2016 47m 15s

Welcome back to An Oral History of the Church! This episode kicks off our new 'volume' or season, in which we focus on the subject, "What is history?" This season is a study of how history is written. How do historians decide to include this,

Vol. 1 Ep. 17 Jonathan McCormick

Sep 23rd, 2016 1h 11m

Somebody stick a fork in this oral history because it is DONE. Episode 17 features an interview with co-host Jonathan McCormick, an alumnus of GGBTS and current Regional Librarian of the San Francisco Campus of Gateway Seminary. Jonathan makes

Vol. 1 Ep. 16 Adam Christman

Sep 16th, 2016 40m 48s

The GGBTS Campus Relocation Project finale begins! First up, we continue our methodology to interview co-host Adam Christman for his perspective on the relocation. We laughed, we cried, we lost 5 pounds. Come back next time for the second half

Vol. 1 Ep. 15 Dr. Kelly Campbell

Sep 9th, 2016 41m 29s

No need to be shushed, dear listener! This episode features the coolest librarian around. Dr. Kelly Campbell contributes her perspective to our oral history this week. She is the Associate Dean of Information Services and Director of the Librar

Vol. 1 Ep. 14 Dr. Brice Butler

Sep 2nd, 2016 59m 58s

The 14th episode in our GGBTS Campus Relocation project has finally arrived! This interview features Dr. Brice Butler, pastor of Tiburon Baptist Church and two-time alumnus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary. As the pastor of TBC, Dr.

Vol. 1 Ep. 13 Marc Jantomaso

Aug 13th, 2016 49m 16s

We're back with a brand new addition, an interview with GGBTS alumnus Marc Jantomaso! Marc is a church planter whose story demonstrates the kind of grounded, hard-working ministry you can see exhibited in seminary student after seminary student

Vol. 1 Ep. 12 Miguel Rodriguez

Jul 29th, 2016 1h 6m

Miguel Rodriguez is an alumnus and prior staff member of Gateway Seminary (nee Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary), as well as a pastor local to Marin County, where the Northern California campus of GGBTS was located for decades up until

Vol. 1 Ep. 11 Steve and Grace Howell

Jul 22nd, 2016 50m 4s

Steve and Grace Howell sat down with Jonathan and Adam for a rich discussion of GGBTS' now-closed music department, more about the preschool, and their return to GGBTS for Steve's second degree before they came on staff at a church near the sem