Dealing with Pietism on a Mass Scale

Dutko and ThomaVery briefly… Things don’t always go as planned, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by nationally syndicated Christian radio talk show host, Bob Dutko, to do an interview regarding my new book about whisky. I accepted immediately. I was excited for the opportunity to talk about the volume and to promote it over the airwaves.

But the interview didn’t unfold as I’d hoped.

While sitting on the other end of the phone line listening to Mr. Dutko tee up the discussion, I began to realize that we weren’t really going to speak much about the book, but rather we were going to discuss the theological difficulties that many folks have with what some refer to as the “hook” of the volume: a Christian pastor writing about Scotch whisky. We were going to talk theology. And we did.

I prayed for the right words…and then jumped in.

Now because there was at one time a sign hanging on the front door of the Brothers of John the Steadfast site heralding “No Pietists Allowed,” and because I’ve read comments from some of the regulars suggesting that one of the authors jot something about Pietism, I was inclined to share the interview right here with the lively lot of you. Essentially, I did my best to summarize and communicate Pietism and Biblicism for the listeners, many of whom showed themselves to actually be Pietists and Biblicists in their follow up rants to the producer for allowing a heretic like me to speak. Pretty funny. Anyway…

It was an on-the-spot challenge, and yet it was a wonderful opportunity to give witness to the Holy Scriptures as the norma normans. I probably wasn’t as thorough as I could have been, but overall, I feel like it went pretty well. Oh yeah, and it was fun, too.

The interview itself is a thirty minute segment of Mr. Dutko’s show and is divided into three parts by commercial breaks. I have provided each of the three parts below.

Enjoy.

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Part One

Part Two

Part Three

 

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