Ep 292: Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation with Alex Bernardo

In this episode, Bethany Bernardo guest hosts the show to interview me about my new book Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation, which is now available for purchase on all major platforms! In this book I make an extended argument that the New Testament does not endorse authoritarian socialism. In biblical scholarship and theology, political and economic categories are imprecisely defined, which enables scholars to impose the modern popular paradigm of authoritarian socialism on the text, distorting both the interpretation of the New Testament and the ways in which the church applies the Bible to contemporary questions. I argue that the Austrian school of economics provides the only consistent, universally applicable, and irreducible definitions of socialism and capitalism, while the libertarian commitment to the nonaggression principle reframes our political categories as well. I discuss how these definitions should be employed in contextual, historically plausible readings of Scripture and explain why interpretive assumptions often obscure texts in the New Testament which relate to political and economic arrangements. I also discuss many of the passages I address in my book, explain how I conducted research, my motivations for producing such a large volume, and the impact I hope it has on Christian scholarship and discipleship. This episode I just a small taste of the much larger book, so please order a copy today! Media Referenced:Politics, Economics, and New Testament Interpretation on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0d8VdNwQOrder through LCI: https://libertarianchristians.com/store/politics-economics-and-new-testament-interpretation/ Sign up for LCI’s 2026 Conference in Cincinnati, OH on Saturday, October 17! Many LCI content creators, including myself, will be speaking at the event, and it will be an excellent opportunity to connect with likeminded, liberty-loving Christians. Check out the event and sign up here: https://libertarianchristians.com/conference/The Protestant Libertarian Podcast is a project of the Libertarian Christian Institute and a part of the Christians For Liberty Network. The Libertarian Christian Institute can be found at www.libertarianchristians.com.Questions, comments, suggestions? Please reach out to me at [email protected].  You can also follow the podcast on Twitter: @prolibertypod, and YouTube, @ProLibertyPod, where you will get shorts and other exclusive video content. For more about the show, you can go to theprotestantlibertarianpodcast.com. If you like the show and want to support it, you can! Go to libertarianchristians.com, where you can donate to LCI and buy The Protestant Libertarian Podcast Merch! Also, please consider giving me a star rating and leaving me a review, it really helps expand the show’s profile! Thanks!