This episode marks a new emphasis for On Becoming. While I have referred to trauma before, here it becomes a lens through which we examine high-control religion (like Evangelicalism). I begin by considering the role of cruelty in Christianity, though a recent article by David French. Next, I turn to Alice Miller's book The Drama of the Gifted Child as a way of thinking about how children are often treated with a lack of respect and thus traumatised. Finally, I turn to James Dobson to work out the ways in which trauma and violence are part of most Evangelical's upbringing.

In this episode, we take a look at various ways of framing Jesus. I grew up thinking that Jesus was supposed to be Lord of my life. But, as time went on, I came to think that this wasn't a very helpful framing. Here we'll consider other ways of framing--Jesus as Cynic philosopher, apocalyptic teacher, charismatic healer, sage, and social prophet. In short, I read Jesus like I read Socrates.

In today’s episode, we’re be looking at Jesus. As with all historical figures, establishing exactly what happened is sometimes very difficult. In this episode, we’ll talk about the gospels and why they are problematic, both because they are propaganda and because they were written so long after Jesus lived. We’ll also talk about the distinction between what has often been called ‘the historical Jesus’ and ‘the Christ of faith’.