The Snake Made Us Human: Joe Gordon on Fear, Scripture, and Creation

<p>Today's episode begins with a confession: many of us don't like snakes. For some of us, that is putting it mildly. Snakes slither through our nightmares and our sacred stories alike, from the serpent in the garden to whatever might be under the next rock on the trail. But what if fear is only part of the story?</p><p>Jarrod is joined by Dr. Joe Gordon, Professor of Theology at Johnson University, a teacher and writer, and one of the most thoughtful people he knows on the relationship between Christian faith and the created world. Joe has spent years helping students think deeply about God, the Bible, humanity, and the rest of creation. One of his most enduring fascinations is not an abstract doctrine or an obscure theological debate. It is snakes.</p><p>The conversation ranges from the suburban St. Louis garden bed where a four year old Joe first saw a snake, to primatologist Lynne Isbell's argument that our eyesight and our brains were shaped by our long relationship with venomous snakes, to Genesis 1 and the claim that the deepest line in the creation account is not between humans and everything else but between God and everything God has made. Along the way: why Joe teaches theology outdoors, what a bioblitz on a 320 acre campus can do for a doctrine class, why an American lawn is ecologically worse than a desert, and why English ivy on a Georgia hillside is not the same thing as ivy on a thousand year old English wall.</p><p>It is a surprisingly hopeful conversation. Joe suggests that a flourishing world is not one stripped of mystery or danger, but one where we learn to inhabit creation with humility, curiosity, and even affection for creatures very different from ourselves.</p><p>If snakes make you uneasy, stay with us. This isn't a conversation that asks you to love snakes overnight. It is one that treats misunderstood creatures with a kind of redemptive care, and asks whether the world God made might be stranger, richer, and more beautiful than we imagined.</p><p>If this conversation is helpful, please like, subscribe, and share it with a friend.</p><p>#ComplexCreatures #CreationCare #Theology #Snakes #Herpetology #CreatureTheology #Genesis #ChristianEcology #Appalachia #GreatSmokyMountains #Copperhead #Biodiversity #PublicTheology #SpiritualityAndTheCommonGood</p><p>Short set for Instagram or Threads: #ComplexCreatures #CreationCare #Theology #Snakes #Biodiversity #Appalachia</p>