In this episode, I examine Isaiah, Chapter 11: 6-9 and compare it's depiction of a future paradise to the depiction the Greek philosopher Plato gives in Republic.

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In this episode, I focus my own reflections today on a portion of this well-known passage from Isaiah which often doesn’t get much attention. This is the portion at the beginning of the passage, from verses 2-3, where we learn that this messianic figure, who turns out to be Jesus was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain,a man whom people hide their faces from, who was despised and held in low esteem.

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In this episode, I look at the account of what is sometimes referred to as "Jacob's Ladder". I argue that this is a depiction of an opposite way of life to what we examined last show, with the tower of Babel.

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The passage I’ll look at for the next show will be Isaiah's account of a messianic figure in Isaiah 53: "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain."

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, I look at the story of the tower of Babel found in the Bible's book of Genesis. I argue that the picture of "building monuments" represents an existential act we human beings take to try to try to make meaning for our own lives. I also argue that this is a clear depiction of the nature of sin.

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If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

The passage I’ll look at for the next show will be the account of the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11.

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode I look at Jesus's response to the Pharisees and Herodians question about paying taxes to Rome. Jesus replies, "Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”

I argue that Jesus is urging us to shift our point of view entirely about worldly authority, and recognize instead the authority of a loving God.

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If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

The passage I’ll look at for the next show will be the account of the Tower of Babel, found in Genesis 11.

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, I look at Jesus's arrest and his words to Peter, "all who draw the sword will die by the sword," in the context of a culture which increasingly condones the use of force, and sometimes violence to attain one's ends.

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If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

The passage I’ll look at for the next show will be Jesus’s confrontation with the Pharisees about paying taxes to Caesar, found in Matthew 22.

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, I reflect on the following passage from Ephesians 4:14 in the Bible:

"Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work."

I discuss how this passage describes aptly, in its "blown here and there by every wind of teaching", the qualities of some of those who have committed recent violent atrocities in the name of some political identity they hold. I discuss how the only true solution to the problem of identity is the one Paul gives in Ephesians: giving ourselves and our ideologies up to the creator God, embodied in Jesus Christ.

I also discuss how Christians themselves must embody these qualities in their discourse. If we attach our identities to our politics, we need to either repent, or to question whether we are really Christians at all.

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com

In this episode, I explain the new format I'll be using for the Heart and the Head going forward. New episodes of the Heart and the Head subsequently will be released with the title "The Heart and the Head - Reflecting on Scripture", and will feature Bible passages as springboards to reflection. I discuss why I am making this change and justify it in this podcast.

If you have questions or comments about content from this episode, please send feedback to theheartandtheheadpodcast@gmail.com