Shane Rosenthal
Yes, about three decades. I started with a guy named Michael Horton. He’s a theologian at
Westminster Seminary. He and I had the idea to create a theological talk show back in 1990. We wrote some grant proposals, got some funding, and created this show called “The White Horse Inn.” That was 34 years ago. I was involved as the producer of that show for most of those decades. And then for three years I also hosted that show. It gave me access to theologians from all over the world. I got to meet R.C. Sproul, Jim Charlesworth, Richard Bauckham and D.A. Carson recording interviews, hanging out with them. We used to have them come out and speak at various conferences, but we get to talk with them informally afterwards. It’s just a great way to pick the minds of the best thinkers around the Christian world.
David Capes
That’s one of the great things about the Lanier Theological Library. We bring some of their best thinkers and idea people in the world, and we have a chance to sit with them and ask questions. What would you say the mission of “The Humble Skeptic” is, what are you really up to? What are you trying to accomplish?
Shane Rosenthal
My main goal is to inspire curiosity. What I want is for people to begin to be curious and even unsettling them. One thing I do when I have the opportunity is to talk to kids, I’ll spend time trying to pique their interest by saying, Hey, here’s what Bart Ehrman says. What are we going to do with that? Because they have to know these things before they get into the college classroom where they can really be rattled.
We need to discuss these important issues inspiring curiosity. I mean, think about the way we interpret the Bible. In a room with 100 Christians, thinking about a certain biblical text, there may be four or five different interpretive options just with this small group of people. You can’t just say, well, I am going to go with the interpretation that I’m comfortable with, that I was raised with. That’s part of my tradition. The question is, why do you think your traditions and interpretation are the right one? When you get curious and you start digging into these things, I think you bump into all kinds of interesting things.
You find things you’ve never noticed before. It’s another way of trying to remove our baggage as 21st century Christians and enter the 1st century world. When you get deeply seated in that world, it’s very interesting. When you understand the Old Testament context of all the things Jesus says and does, It explodes and then you really begin to understand the significance of the things that Jesus says and why it’s so profound.
David Capes
You’ve created this persona. You’ve created this idea and you’re asking questions. And one of the things is what you have on your merch. It’s a motto, “Truth isn’t afraid of questions”. How did you come to that?
Shane Rosenthal
As I was wrestling with issues of faith and doubt, there are a lot of people who just really think of faith as this kind of blind leap. That’s something I discuss on the first year of my podcast in almost every episode. One of the things that I do a lot is “man on the street” interviews. I’ve asked a lot of people, what do you think of faith? They say it’s not something that you can prove. It’s kind of a blind leap. Then I’ll follow that question up with, so why did you take this blind leap here in this direction, as opposed to in another direction with another holy book, or another religion or no religion at all. Often, they just don’t know how to answer that question. What I think is super important is that the questions get to what our ultimate convictions rely on if you’re doubting your faith, and you start asking questions.
A lot of people think that’s a bad thing, that they shouldn’t ask questions. That gets scary. If you look through the text, there are places where John the Baptist was asking questions. He says go ask Jesus if he’s really the one. He’s the guy that preached the sermon, saying behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
David Capes
Is there another guy coming that we should expect?
Shane Rosenthal
He has doubt in the words of his own sermon! But Jesus doesn’t scold him for asking that question. In fact when you look at that carefully (Matthew 11) it seems that Jesus gives him evidence. “Go tell him what you’ve seen”. He’s providing John with evidence of my witnesses and how the language used matches the Old Testament prophets.
David Capes
And when you look at the Psalms, the Psalms are full of questions. You look at the laments, they are full of questions. You look at the book of Job, it’s full of questions. And yet we are of the opinion that we shouldn’t ask these deep, theological, troubling, personal, sometimes spiritual questions. It seems odd to me that we have come to that point.
Shane Rosenthal
Well, yes. The Psalms in particular, say where are you God. Are you sleeping? If you were to utter those kinds of questions in church it could cause a stir. The biblical text allows room for those kinds of questions, even from a person who’s really struggling and doesn’t even know if God’s listening. It should all be on the table. The particular approach that I take is just the kind of approach that was there in the New Testament era. Paul didn’t mind people questioning his apostolic authority. Luke says that the Bereans asked and checked Paul to see whether the things he was saying were really what the Old Testament was saying. They were to be commended for that, so we shouldn’t have any trouble questioning things. Paul says, test all things.
David Capes
I love that. I haven’t really thought about it in those terms, but I like that about the Bereans. That’s terrific. What kind of responses do you get from listeners? Do they contact you? How does that work?
Shane Rosenthal
I’m getting really good response. I get questions from people who do struggle with issues related to their faith. I got a question recently asking can we even trust the story of Jesus birth. Asking about the trouble raised about Quirinius. I want to do a whole series related to that. The next time Christmas comes around, I want to talk about whether or not the Christmas stories are real or rooted in mythological ideas. I want to answer some of those challenges. I’ve heard a lot of people who say your podcast go into such a deep level yet without feeling weighed down. It’s inspiring me to dig on my own. And that’s really the goal.
David Capes
Yes, to get people to become students once again. You have great guest. I see Mike bird there. I see John Dixon, Peter Williams, Richard Baucom, Daniel Wallace, John Lennox, and Danny Hayes. You’ve had a lot of friends of mine on your podcast. What you do there is really unique, and I just commend you. I want people to go listen to it, because, again, the production value is fantastic, and you tell a wonderful story, and you dig into some very, very important places. You’ve got 63 episodes out there. How can people find you?
Shane Rosenthal
I’m online at humbleskeptic.com but you could also go to your favorite podcast portal, like Apple or Spotify and type in humbleskeptic. You’ll get me.
David Capes
If people want to support what you’re doing there’s a way to do that on your website too. humbleskeptic.com.
Shane Rosenthal
Yes, there’s a donate portal at the top, and a whole bunch of different ways to help. But the main thing is, it’s just a labor of love. You study the scriptures and you find all this stuff that you just can’t let sit with you. You have to share it, and then I want to find a creative way to express it. So since I had a background in radio, I thought my calling is less to the ivory tower and more to mediate that knowledge. So mediating knowledge in a well, produced medium, that’s what I do.
David Capes
It’s great! It’s called The Humble Skeptic so listen to Shane Rosenthal on a regular basis. I’m just delighted that we had a chance to meet recently. I look forward to having you back to the Lanier Theological Library in the future. Shane, thanks for being with us today on The Stone Chapel Podcast.
Shane Rosenthal
Oh, it was my pleasure.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
