Theology Kills

What if Christian faith isn’t about being correct, but about being creative? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae explore Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey through two of history’s most famous women: Eve, the mother of all, and Mary, the mother of Jesus. From the Fall to the Cross, they unveil a spiritual adventure that transforms shame, violence, and mimetic rivalry into trust, integrity, and creative power.

What if the Kingdom of Heaven isn’t a perfection to achieve but a gift to receive? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae unpack the Bible’s quietly subversive use of pregnancy as a metaphor for creativity — the vulnerable, sometimes-painful labor of bringing aliveness into the world. Contrasting Sarah’s violence with Hannah’s trust, the hosts follow Saint Paul in imagining a Kingdom born from cooperation inst...

What if shame isn’t just a feeling, but an internalized form of violence? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae explore a reading of Genesis 3 through the eyes of the victim, interpreting humanity’s Fall into sin as an inflicted wound, not a willful disobedience. Drawing a parallel between the anthropology of René Girard and the psychological model mapped by Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, they imagine a path beyond vio...

What if blame isn’t a path to justice, but a catharsis for pain we don’t know how to process? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae continue their reading of Genesis, interpreting the story of Cain and Abel as an attempt to solve inner conflict by exporting it. Charting a connection from Eve’s self-betrayal to the brother-betrayal of her children, Jaxon and McRae draw on René Girard and Internal Family Systems to suggest...

What if vulnerability isn’t a weakness to overcome, but a creative power to embrace? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae turn to Mary, the mother of Jesus, as the counterpoint to Eve — a living model of what it means to trust God despite confusion, risk, and pain. From the Annunciation to the wedding at Cana to the grief of the Crucifixion, they explore how Mary’s trust gave birth to divine Love in the world.

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What if your body isn’t a liability to control or escape, but a site of divine revelation and relationship? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae confront the contamination anxiety that distorts Christian theologies of the body, and explore how the Incarnation contradicts that disgust with radical, embodied presence. Culminating in a Eucharistic vision of wholeness, they challenge listeners to imagine what’s possible when we f...

What if peace isn’t the absence of conflict, but the presence of integrity? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae explore Jesus’ startling claim that he came not to bring peace, but division — and how his presence exposes the false peace we create through compliance, control, and avoidance. Drawing on psychologist Karen Horney’s conflict coping strategies and master coach Jen Johnsen’s model of conflict-with-...

What if obedience isn’t about mindless rule-following, but about whose voice we trust to help us interpret our reality? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae dive into the linguistic roots of the word “obedience” and draw parallels with René Girard’s concept of méconnaissance, or misrecognition. Moving from the neuroscience of human attention to Simone Weil’s theology of affliction, they look at how “Th...

What if repentance isn’t self-castigation but a rigorous renunciation of our violence? January Jaxon and Andrew McRae explore what becomes possible when we’re safe enough, loved enough, and honest enough to admit we’ve done harm. Repentance, they argue, is the lifelong vocation of unlearning our violent shortcuts to psychological & social stability so we can make peace contagious in the midst of a world at war...