PODCAST · religion
The Central Cast
by Central Avenue Church
Central is a healing and inclusive spiritual community for those hurt by religion and seeking the sacred. We are a fully affirming community that discusses challenging spiritual topics, reflects through progressive Christian liturgy, communes over food and drink, and serves our neighbors.
Episodes
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10/18/26: Making the Cut: How to Hold Spiritual Experience and Reason
This episode explores Rene Descartes' famed mystical "Night of Visions" and how spiritual experiences and rational inquiry can coexist. Using Jeff Kripal's idea of "making the cut," the host explains how to distinguish subjective meaning from material claims while honoring both, and outlines…
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10/11/26: Weak Theology, Big Truths: Choosing Stories Over Miracles
In this episode Aaron discusses Matthew 12’s “sign of Jonah,” arguing that Jesus and biblical miracle stories are best read as parables. The talk contrasts "strong" theology (literal miracles and an all-powerful deity) with "weak" theology (mystical, relational, and story-centered understandings…
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10-4-26: Yearning for Aliveness: Poetry, Nature, and Life Beyond Screens
In this episode the host reflects on deconstruction—not as loss of faith but as recognition that inherited systems have grown too small—and shares a personal yearning for aliveness in the face of technoculture. Through anecdotes about houseplants, a search for a kitten, romantic poetry (Tintern...
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9/20/26: Orthodox Heretic: Reconstructing God Through Dialectical Mysticism
In this episode the host uses a story about artist Stanislav Szukalski to explore how the death and deconstruction of the God of upbringing can lead to deeper spirituality and mysticism. Through theology, dialectics, and audience reflections—especially on identity, inclusion, and reclaiming...
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9/13/26: The Power of Weakness: Rethinking God and Authority
In this episode the host contrasts "strong" and "weak" theologies, reading Jesus and Paul as a radical critique of worldly power. Through reflections on the crucified peasant, John Caputo's "weak theology," hospice chaplain stories, and audience conversation, the episode reframes true strength as...
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9/6/26: The Gospel of Weakness: Jesus vs. the Power Grab
This episode contrasts a "might-makes-right" worldview with the radical message of the Gospels. The host argues that Jesus and early Christian writings redefined power as humility, love, and solidarity with the oppressed rather than domination. Using examples from scripture and history, the…
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8/23/26: Practicing Presence: Finding Calm When Everything Feels On the Brink
This episode explores practical ways to stay mentally, emotionally, and spiritually healthy—anchoring in presence through deep listening, simple body prayer, walking or running, and meditation. Drawing on hospice chaplaincy stories and audience Q&A, the episode offers everyday tools to feel...
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8/9/26: Deconstruction as Peacemaking: Healing Christianity’s Divide with Judaism & Islam
In this episode the host explores how deconstruction and reconstruction of Christian faith can become a form of peacemaking between Christianity and other religions, especially Judaism and Islam. The conversation examines anti‑Semitic tendencies in Christian tradition, reconsiders prophetic texts...
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8/2/26: The Endangered Art of Reflection: Reimagining Church
In this episode the host redefines "church" as a spiritual community that creates space for reflection, insight, and connection, and warns that technology, achievement culture, and modern institutions threaten our ability to pause and reflect. The episode offers practical responses — journaling...
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7/19/26: Christ, Consciousness, and the Cosmic Self
This episode (part two) continues the series on building a new Christian spirituality after deconstruction. The host contrasts strict materialism and traditional theism, and offers a hopeful metaphysic where the universe—or a cosmic mind—experiences itself through each being. The episode also...
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7/12/26: You Are the Universe: Reconstructing Faith Beyond Materialism
Pastor Aaron explores moving from deconstruction to reconstruction, offering a healing, hopeful metaphysical story: consciousness as fundamental — "you are the universe experiencing itself." He uses the "radio" analogy, discusses panpsychism and mystical experiences, and reflects on how…
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7/5/26: The Merger of Church and State: How Evangelical History Shapes Today
This episode examines the First Amendment, recent conservative religious commissions, and Texas’s new Bible curriculum; traces evangelical political influence from the Puritans to the modern Religious Right; warns of the rise of Christian nationalism and its authoritarian tendencies; and closes...
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6/21/26: Can You Pass the Test? Choosing Love Over Dogma.
This episode begins with a Mahabharata tale about a king who refuses paradise while his family suffers, using it to examine whether faith allows us to love others above doctrine. The hosts critique biblical inerrancy, discuss Jesus’ ethic of sacrificial love, and urge choosing empathy and human...
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6/14/26: Welcome the Stranger: Radical Inclusion in a Fearful Age
In this episode the host explores the scriptural and spiritual call to "welcome the stranger," tracing its roots from the Hebrew Bible to Jesus and arguing that genuine hospitality challenges social hierarchies, affirms LGBTQ people, and resists fear-based politics. The talk contrasts...
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6/7/26: Queer, Christian, and Loved: Reimagining God Beyond Shame
Julie tells her story of growing up evangelical, facing shame after realizing she was queer, and slowly reclaiming her God-given, authentic self. She contrasts a judgmental image of God with a life-changing vision of a gentle, waiting God and describes how Pride and supportive community can…
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5/24/26: The Critique of Idols: Reclaiming Christianity’s Iconoclastic Roots
This episode examines modern and ancient idolatry — from a 22-foot golden Trump statue to the idolization of religious law — tracing how early Christianity critiqued idols and how later traditions sometimes reproduced them. Speakers discuss Paul’s teachings, Jesus’s critique of hypocrisy,...
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5/17/26: The Third Testament: Rewriting Faith Beyond the Bible
This episode of The Central Cast explores the idea of a "Third Testament"—a living, relational faith that grows from experience rather than a fixed written text. Recorded live, the host reflects on a conference featuring leaders like Bishop Yvette Flunder and William Barber, and shares how those...
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5/10/26: Lazarus and the Afterlife: Why Resurrection Still Ends
In this episode the host explores ancient, non-biblical legends about Lazarus after his resurrection and uses those stories to probe what resurrection, suffering, and mortality mean for us. Blending reflections from hospice chaplaincy, listener conversation, and scientific ideas from Carl Sagan…
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5/3/26: How to Elevate Your Consciousness and Reclaim a Healthy Spirituality
This episode explores how unquestioning faith can limit consciousness and how doubt, curiosity, and resilient spiritual traditions can elevate it. Beginning with Galileo and the story of Doubting Thomas, the hosts discuss ideology, emotional maturity, and reclaiming spirituality as a…
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4/19/26: White Christian America: From Puritans to January 6
Dr. Littlefield (Pepperdine University) outlines her updated book tracing white Christian nationalism from the Puritans through January 6, 2021, defining the ideology, examining scripture about the kingdom of God, and reviewing how faith, race, and politics have been fused in U.S. history. The...
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4/12/26: Bonhoeffer at 81: God in Weakness, Courage Against Fascism
This episode marks the 81st anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s execution and explores his prison writings, and the shift to his “religionless Christianity.” The host reads and reflects on Bonhoeffer’s political theology and provocative lines about God’s weakness and solidarity with suffering.…
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4/5/26: Christ Consciousness: Love, Not War, as Resurrection
In this episode the host reflects on the Emmaus Road encounter from Luke to ask how we rightly discern the risen Christ today. Drawing on a quote from Father Pete Nunnally and insights from Richard Rohr, the conversation argues that Christ is revealed not through war or fear but through acts of...
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3/22/26: Fight Fascism and Take a Nap
This episode reinterprets "fishers of men" as a prophetic critique of empire and capitalism, not mere evangelism, and explores how Jesus’ call invited economic and communal resistance. It introduces Reverend Tricia Hersey’s "Rest Is Resistance" movement, offers practical steps like walking...
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3/15/26: Holy War? Evangelicals, End‑Times, and the Iran Conflict
This episode examines how end-times theology and Christian nationalism influence U.S. politics and the Iran conflict, traces historical roots from the Crusades to the Enlightenment, and explores how wealth, capitalism, and social inequality shape religious extremism. Hosts share personal…
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3/8/26: Give Me Your Hand: Community, Courage, and Change
Special guest, Mike Kinman, reflects on how community, listening deeply, and mutual aid—overcomes shame, fear, and discomfort to make justice possible. Using poems, personal stories from Ferguson and Minneapolis, and practical organizing examples, he shows how relationships turn compassion into...
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3/1/26: Fasting from Unjust Gods and Stories: Isaiah’s Call to a Truer Faith
In this episode Aaron reflects on Isaiah 58 and reframes Lent as fasting from injustice and spiritual bypass rather than merely from food or habits. The talk explores deconstruction as a kind of fasting, argues for reconstructing a healing story that affirms human dignity and divine connection…
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2/15/26: Facing Death, Choosing Love: A Baldwin-Inspired Lenten Meditation
In this episode the host reflects on Ash Wednesday and uses James Baldwin's words to explore mortality, racism, and the ways religion can both comfort and control. Drawing on radical theology and the image of a crucified God, the conversation asks how acknowledging death can lead us to love,...
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2/8/26: Moral Clarity & Courage: A Pastor's Call to Resist
In this episode Aaron unpacks Matthew 12 and redefines the "unforgivable sin" as calling compassion and liberation evil. He critiques spiritual bypassing and evangelical moral relativism, connects faith to historical fights against fascism and civil rights, and urges moral clarity, courage, and...
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2/1/26: Finding Sanity in a World Gone Mad: Lessons from James Cone
In this episode the host explores rising anxiety and the search for hope by turning to Black church wisdom and the work of Dr. James Cone. Topics include the cruciform meaning of the cross, how faith and story sustained resistance to white supremacy, the idea of a present-focused "cruciform"…
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1/18/26: Radical Humility: Self‑Doubt, Trauma, and the Gospel
The hosts explore Jesus’s radical humility (the Beatitudes, Philippians, and the cross) as a way to reframe weakness, and discuss vulnerability, power dynamics, rest, and the healing power of connection and compassion.
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1/4/26: Life Review: Finding Hope After a Year of Fires and Loss
In this episode the host leads a life review of 2025, reflecting on the Eaton and Palisades fires, political turmoil, community upheaval, and personal stories of trauma and recovery. Guests share how they found strength, faced loss, and began rebuilding their lives. Key themes include grief and...
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12/21/25: Jesus the Refugee: Rethinking the Nativity
Aaron reads Matthew’s nativity and argues Jesus began life as a refugee fleeing state violence, linking the story to the Exodus tradition. The episode challenges sanitized readings of scripture and urges Christians to care for migrants and the oppressed. Ultimately it affirms that love — not…
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12/14/25: What Is the Meaning of Life? Four Paths to Purpose
In this episode the host tackles the timeless question: what is the meaning of life? He outlines four overlapping ways people find meaning — the religious, the metaphysical, the social, and the material — and explores how each can sustain us. Stories and reflections include faith and...
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12/7/25: Peter Rollins: Communion of the Broken: Grace, Symptoms, and Shared Lack
Peter Rollins starts with a parable about a mystic, an evangelical pastor, and a fundamentalist who each meet Jesus in the afterlife. From that story Peter explores three kinds of unknowing, the paradox that the divine can share our lack, and how that insight reframes salvation and love. The...
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11/23/25: Beyond Binaries: Luke’s Hidden Image of Male Intimacy
This episode examines a censored detail in Luke’s story of Lazarus and the rich man — the original Greek term kolpon, often translated as "bosom," which evokes male intimacy, nurture, and vulnerability — and explores how gender norms, translation choices, and cultural expectations shape who we…
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11/16/25: Born Different, Loved Anyway: Deconstruction, Brain Science & Holiday Peace
In this episode we talk about navigating tense holiday gatherings with conservative family and friends, exploring recent brain research (Ohio State, 2023) that suggests liberals and conservatives process moral and political issues differently. The host reflects on deconstruction, identity, and…
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11/2/25: Ghosts, Guilt, and Grace: Reframing Demons This Halloween
This episode explores how beliefs about demons shaped evangelical childhoods during the Satanic Panic, the harm of fear-based theology, and how deconstruction can feel like deliverance. Through stories, scripture, and audience conversation, the host reframes the demonic as inward fears…
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10-19-25: Swim Between the Canyons: Identity, Faith, and Passing It On
This episode explores lineage—who taught us it was OK to be ourselves—through personal stories: a pilgrimage to Matthew Shepard's murder site in Laramie, reflections on erasure and visibility, and memories of Indigo Girls shows that helped the host reconcile queer identity and faith. Julie also...
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10/12/25: A Spiritual Guide to Resilience in Hard Times
In this episode we wrestle with fear, anger, and despair in today’s political moment, exploring how faith and a broad spiritual sensibility can provide resilience. Drawing on history, philosophy (Gabriel Marcel, Paul Tillich), Indigenous worldview, and personal practices like loving‑kindness...
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10/5/25: Touching the Scars: Why Doubt Leads to Deeper Faith
This episode explores the story of Doubting Thomas and argues that doubt can lead to a deeper, more authentic encounter with the divine. The hosts introduce the idea of the “fidelity of betrayal,” drawing on Jesus’ challenges to religious law and thinkers like Peter Rollins and Meister Eckhart to...
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9/21/25: Religion-Induced Psychosis: Resurrections, Charlie Kirk, and Social Reality
Aaron opens with a humorous chimpanzee "resurrection" story and uses it to examine how the resurrection has shaped Christian belief—contrasting early Christian social-justice roots with modern evangelical otherworldliness. The episode critiques "religion-induced psychosis," the role of social…
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9/14/25: When Faith and Fury Collide: The Charlie Kirk Fallout
This episode explores what Charlie Kirk's assassination reveals about modern American Christianity: the tension between being Christian and being Christ‑like, how religion can be molded by culture, the rise of cult‑like evangelicalism, and the danger of theological movements that seek political...
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9/7/25: Starlight & Second Chances: Embracing Change at The Livery
This episode explores change and spiritual growth as the church celebrates its first service in a new space. Aaron shares a stargazing story—how starlight becomes part of us—to illustrate that life and faith are always evolving, and invites the community to reflect on deconstruction, healing, and...
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8/24/25: When Faith Collapses: Owning Your Beliefs After Deconstruction
This episode follows the host's journey from seminary doubt to spiritual re-discovery. He recounts wrestling with atonement, the collapse of traditional beliefs, and the friendships that shaped his faith. The conversation explores what it means to take ownership and responsibility for your…
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8/17/25: When Myths Collapse: Faith, Politics, and New Life
This episode explores the collapse of American and religious myths, drawing parallels between political crisis and spiritual deconstruction. Aaron reflects on Jesus' myth-shattering ministry, historical examples of renewal after failure, and the fragility of national narratives. The conversation...
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8/3/25: Unveiling Mary Magdalene: Misunderstood and Silenced
In this episode, we delve into the life and legacy of Mary Magdalene, exploring the misconceptions that have long clouded her true role in biblical history. Our guest, Madison, shares insights on how Mary Magdalene’s identity was shaped by historical and biblical misunderstandings, and how she…
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8/10/25: The Power of Humility and Critiquing Arrogance in the Church
In this episode Julie discusses the power of humility in our lives and in the church and how spiritual arrogance and ego often dominates the church scene, especially the lives of pastors. She details how we can spot and resist such individuals and institutions, and why they often proliferate...
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7/20/25: Embracing Mysticism: The Light Within
In this episode of the Central Cast Podcast, we delve into the profound teachings of St. John of the Cross and his emphasis on inner illumination. We explore the concept of the 'dark night of the soul' as a pathway to divine love and unity, transcending traditional religious constraints. The...
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7/13/25: VBS for Mystics Pt2: Mysticism as Rebellion: Exploring Christian Gnosticism
Join us in this intriguing episode of the Central Cast as we delve into the heart of Christian mysticism and its rebellious spirit. Discover the early Christian mystical movement of Gnosticism and how it contrasted with proto-Orthodox Christianity, redefining the human journey from repentance to...
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7/6/25: VBS for Mystics: Unveiling the Infinite Within
Welcome to the first episode of our three-week series "VBS for Mystics," where we explore profound questions about our existence, consciousness, and our inherent connection to the universe. Drawing from the wisdom of philosopher Gabriel Marcel, we discuss the idea that we are not only a part of…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Central is a healing and inclusive spiritual community for those hurt by religion and seeking the sacred. We are a fully affirming community that discusses challenging spiritual topics, reflects through progressive Christian liturgy, communes over food and drink, and serves our neighbors.
HOSTED BY
Central Avenue Church
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Central Cast have?
The Central Cast currently has 55 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Central Cast about?
Central is a healing and inclusive spiritual community for those hurt by religion and seeking the sacred. We are a fully affirming community that discusses challenging spiritual topics, reflects through progressive Christian liturgy, communes over food and drink, and serves our neighbors.
How often does The Central Cast release new episodes?
The Central Cast has 55 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Central Cast?
You can listen to The Central Cast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Central Cast?
The Central Cast is created and hosted by Central Avenue Church.
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