Episode Details

What would happen if we stopped reading the Bible alone—and started reading it with two thousand years of saints, mystics, and theologians by our side?

In this episode of Complex Creatures, Rev. Dr. Jarrod Longbons sits down with writer, pastor, and theologian Jason Byassee to explore his book Surprised by Jesus Again: Reading the Bible in Communion with the Saints. From the early church fathers to the Song of Solomon, from Mary's role as the first theologian to the dangerous comfort of hiding from God in your own church—this conversation is rich, playful, and profoundly challenging.

Together, Jarrod and Jason explore:

• Why being "surprised" by Jesus requires letting go of what we think we already know
• The difference between reading Scripture for information and reading it for transformation
• How God flirts, lures, and woos us through Scripture—and why that's not as strange as it sounds
• The allegorical imagination of the early Church, and what Protestants lose when we ignore it
• The global future of Christianity—from Indonesia to South Sudan—and what it means for the Church in the West
• Where hope lives in a world that's given up on it

Whether you're a lifelong churchgoer, a curious skeptic, or someone who finds the Bible more complicated than inspiring, this conversation offers a way back in—rooted in the ancient, renewed for today.

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