Shows / The Blue Collar Scholar
The Blue Collar Scholar
This podcast will cover the topics covered by the history lectures, sermons, and Bible/theology studies of Will Reitz.
Episodes
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Sermon: When Uzzah Touched the Ark of the Covenant (6-25-2023)
This sermon draws on the story of King David bringing the Ark of the Covenant into Jerusalem to illustrate four lessons for Christians today.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The World Wars, Episode 4: Initial Nazi Victories
The European Theater of World War II will be our focus on the podcast for the next few months. (In the Spring, we will shift the focus to the Pacific Theater.)…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The World Wars, Episode 3: Between the World Wars
This episode briefly explores the Paris Peace Conference, Prohibition, the Roaring '20s, technological advances after WWI, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The World Wars, Episode 2: World War I
In this podcast episode, we will take a criminally-brief dive into World War 1, why it started, who were the major belligerents, and how WWI set the stage for…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Audible® Book Review: "Confederate Reckoning," by Stephanie McCurry
This short episode of The Blue Collar Scholar is a book review and enthusiastic recommendation to read or listen to "Confederate Reckoning: Power and Politics…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The World Wars, Episode 1: Before World War I
This episode kicks off a new class for Spring 2023: The World Wars. The first episode quickly summarizes all the wars and industrialization that helped form…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament Finale, Episode 25: New Testament Theology
This podcast episode will conclude the lessons for the Fall 2022 New Testament class. This episode is a survey of New Testament theology, examining the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 24: Monotheism
We will close out the New Testament class with a few lessons on New Testament Theology. First up, we will discuss monotheism and the Trinity.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 23: Transmission, Translations, & the KJV
This episode will cover the class notes of the last three class periods for the New Testament class. In this episode, we will briefly discuss how the original…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 22: Canon
As a time-saving measure, I will be switching formats for the rest of the semester. Instead of sharing classroom audio, these episodes will use the same notes…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 21: The Apostle Paul
This episode completes the three-part sub-series of biographies of the New Testament. In this episode, we take a look at the biography of Saul of Tarsus, who…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 20: The Apostles of Christ
This episode gives an overview of all the Apostles of Christ, as well as all of the individuals who could possibly be called Apostles based on the text of…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 19: The Biography of Jesus Christ
Now that we have examined each of the books of the New Testament, we will begin to synthesize the material. We shall start with an overview of the life of…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 18: The Gnostic Gospels
You will certainly hear multiple talking heads on documentaries or semi-educational programming talking about how the 27 books of the New Testament were chosen…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 17: The Early Church Fathers
This episode gives a brief overview of the Church Fathers. We discuss the importance of the Council of Nicaea, the Ontological Argument, The Schism between the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 16: Luke & Acts
We complete our study of the text of the New Testament by taking a look at Luke & Acts, which together make Luke the Evangelist the most prolific author of the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 15: Matthew & Mark
The New Testament opens with four accounts of Jesus life. The first two of these Gospels, Matthew and Mark, are the topic of discussion in this lecture. In…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 14: The Books of the Apostle John
The four books with the word "John" in them plus the book of Revelation all all written by an author named "John." This could be several different Johns, or it…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 13: 1st & 2nd Peter and Jude
The #1 disciple, Simon (who Jesus named Peter) left us 2 letters. And Jude, the half-brother of Christ, gave us a short letter that is very similar in style…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 12: Hebrews & James
This episode explores the incredible, academic, and very Jewish book called Hebrews. Who wrote it? Who is Melchizedek? What about those warning passages? …
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 11: The Pastoral Epistles
There is significant disagreement amongst scholars as to whether the Apostle Paul really wrote 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, or Titus, collectively known as the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 10: Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon, & Philippians
As the Book of Acts comes to a close, the Apostle Paul finds himself in prison. While under guard in house arrest, Paul is able to commune with the Roman…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 9: 1st & 2nd Corinthians
The church at Corinth was the Apostle Paul's most messed up church. But he loved them and stuck with them. In this episode we analyze two of his largest…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 8: Romans (part 2)
Salvation is an important part of theology. Indeed, it is one of the core doctrines of Christian theology and the Gospel is the core theme of all of Paul's…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 7: Romans (part 1)
Romans is the best theological text ever written. In this episode, we will examine who wrote it, why it was written, to whom it was written, and what are the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 6: Galatians and 1st & 2nd Thessalonians
In this episode, we begin our discussions about the actual text of the New Testament. We start by introducing the author of much of it, the Apostle Paul. Next…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 5 - Context: The Roman Empire
Knowing about the Roman Empire is key to understanding the context of the New Testament. Jesus, His disciples, and the Apostle Paul all ministered in the Roman…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 4 - Context: The Intertestamental Period
In this episode we take a brief look at the world created by Alexander the Great's monumental conquests, and by his early death and the fracturing of his…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 3 - Context: The Old Testament
This is a valiant attempt at a thorough overview of the Old Testament in a single lecture. In this episode, we examine the story of the Old Testament in…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament, Episode 2 - Context: The Ancient Near East
This episode is a brief survey of the major civilizations and empires that constitute the appropriate context for the Old Testament, which itself is the most…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The New Testament: Introduction
This fall we are starting a new class as we dig into the New Testament. In this episode, we preview the order of topics we will cover along the way, look at…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Sermon: Introduction to the New Testament
This is a sermon given at a local United Methodist church in my hometown on 8/21/2022. This sermon acts as an introduction, of sorts, to the New Testament…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
Ford's Pardon of Nixon; or, Should Biden (Conditionally) Pardon Trump?
In this episode, we wander into dangerous, controversial waters: namely, current events. The events of January 6, 2021, have put Donald Trump in hot water and…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 17: The Legacy of the American Civil War & its Lingering Controversies
The Civil War changed the United States of America. Just how the war changed our country is explored in this episode of the podcast. We will also take on many…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 16: Reconstruction
Reconstruction was the process by which all the states that had seceded from the United States were reintegrated into the Union. It is also the time when…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 15: The Lost Cause
Even before the Civil War was over, the attempt to reframe the entire Confederate project was underway. The result was "The Lost Cause," which asserted that…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 14: What If?
What if the South had won the Civil War? What if Stonewall Jackson had not died at Chancellorsville? What if Abraham Lincoln was never assassinated? What if…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 13: The Last Days of the Civil War
This episode documents the final battles and offensives that resulted in the surrender of the military forces of the South and the collapse of the Confederate…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 12: The African-American Experience in the Civil War, & Andersonville
In this podcast episode, we examine the African-American experience in the American Civil War. Early in the war, Blacks were not allowed to fight, and Union…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 11: The Naval War
Nearly every combat engagement of the American Civil War occurred on land. But let us not forget the extraordinary contributions by the US Navy. Without their…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 10: Gettysburg & Vicksburg
Gettysburg & Vicksburg represented perhaps the greatest individual victories for the Union Army in the Civil War, and those battles ended at virtually the same…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 9: The Union Generals
This episode examines the most significant Generals for the United States of America (the "Union") in the Civil War.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 8: The Confederate Generals
This episode is a quick glance at the most consequential Generals of the Confederate States of America.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 7: Early Battles
From Bull Run to Chancellorsville, we will look at all of the significant battles of the first half of the American Civil War.
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 6: Secession Momentum
South Carolina was the first to secede from the United States, in late 1860. But they were not the only state to do so. For the first half of 1861, nearly half…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 5: Political Developments That Led to the Civil War
This episode summarizes political developments that have already been discussed in previous episodes, explaining how these developments led directly to the…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 4: Bleeding Kansas
The American Civil War had a warm-up game in Kansas, as Free State Advocates and Pro-Slavery Advocates rushed into the territory to influence its development…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 3: Antebellum America
Antebellum (from the Latin for "before the war") America was a significantly different place than the United States of America that emerged from the American…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 2: The Nullification Crisis & the Mexican-American War
The Civil War nearly began in South Carolina almost 30 years before the Civil War actually did begin in South Carolina. This was the "Nullification Crisis,"…
- The Blue Collar Scholar
The American Civil War, Episode 1: Seeds of Civil War
The this debut episode of The Blue Collar Scholar, host Will Reitz begins his series on The American Civil War by looking at the seeds of civil war that were…