This week's episode features audio from a workshop by Phillip Johnston entitled, Bodies with Meaning: Christianity’s Liberating Sex Ethic.

The historic Christian understanding of sex – that the one proper place for sexual expression is in the covenanted marriage of one man and one woman – is often viewed in our day as an absurd vestige of outdated religion that places unrealistic limitations on human freedom. We describe such a view as traditional, but in the first-century world where Christianity was born, this ethic was both revolutionary and liberating. Could it ever be seen this way again?

Phillip Johnston’s L’Abri journey began in 2008 when he walked through the big red door at Southborough L’Abri and quickly realized his abundant cynicism was a vice, not a virtue. Though a Christian from an early age, this dawning awareness opened his heart to the beauty of Christ and left him a changed person.

In the ensuing years, Phillip spent time as a helper at Southborough and at English L’Abri before enrolling at Covenant Theological Seminary in 2012. After completing a Master of Divinity in 2015, Phillip took up a post as a worker at English L’Abri for over two years. While in England, he met a Nashvillian named Christa and returned to the USA to marry her in 2018. He now lives and works in East Nashville.

Phillip is an avid student of the Bible and culture, and finds great joy in helping people navigate the many barriers to Christian belief that proliferate in our distracting, secular world. He geeks out on slow movies, Bach cantatas, liturgical theology, and all things food. He’s also the curator of Three Things, a newsletter digest of three resources to help readers better engage with God, neighbor, and culture.

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