The show formerly known as "Dummy for Theology" has undergone a transformation and is now titled "Be Living Water." This name change reflects a more profound personal philosophy and a desire to engage with complex theological questions in a manner that emphasizes authenticity and self-discovery. The new title encapsulates the essence of nurturing harmony and understanding in our spiritual journeys, drawing inspiration from both Christian teachings and Taoist principles. Importantly, "Dummy for Theology" remains an integral component of the new format, as episodes dedicated to exploring logical fallacies and theological inquiries will continue to be featured. Through this evolution, I aim to provide a space where we can collectively wrestle with significant questions while seeking to embody the principles of flexibility, support, and peace in our interactions with others.

The recent transformation of the podcast from "Dummy for Theology" to "Be Living Water" signifies a profound evolution in the thematic focus and philosophical underpinnings of the show. Joshua Noel elucidates this transition by articulating his aspiration to create a platform that embodies authenticity and personal expression while retaining the essence of theological inquiry. The previous title, while reflective of a humble approach to complex theological discussions, has now been recontextualized to embrace a broader narrative that intertwines the principles of Taoism with Christian doctrine. This new direction is not merely a rebranding; it is a commitment to fostering dialogue around the questions that challenge us, rather than providing simplistic answers. As Noel navigates this complex landscape, he emphasizes the importance of flexibility and harmony, drawing parallels between the teachings of Jesus and the tenets of Taoist philosophy, particularly the metaphor of water as a symbol of adaptability and sustenance. Thus, the show aims to serve as a wellspring of spiritual nourishment and intellectual engagement, inviting listeners to reflect on their own quests for meaning and truth.

Takeaways:

• The show has undergone a name change from 'Dummy for Theology' to 'Be Living Water', reflecting a deeper personal philosophy.
• The essence of 'Dummy for Theology' will continue within the framework of 'Be Living Water', ensuring continuity in thematic focus.
• The host, Joshua Noel, expresses a desire to explore broader questions of theology while embracing a more personal and reflective approach.
• The concept of being 'living water' derives from both Taoist philosophy and biblical references, aiming to promote harmony and benefit others.
• In this rebranding, the show seeks to emphasize the importance of asking questions rather than providing definitive answers, fostering a community of inquiry.
• Listeners will experience a variety of content, including discussions on logical fallacies, biblical studies, and personal reflections on contemporary issues.

Mentioned in this episode:

Anazao Ministries Podcasts - AMP Network

Check out other shows like this on our shared network: https://anazao-ministries.captivate.fm/

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I'm not entirely sure how to start this or what I'm going to say exactly.

I know I want it to be as genuine as possible.

I've changed the name of this show.

Dummy for Theology is now Be Living Water.

Dummy for Theology is not going to be done away with.

However, I'm still going to do episodes of Dummy for Theology as part of Be Living Water.

I'm going to talk about the logical fallacies.

We're going to keep doing that stuff because it is important to me.

So I don't think I dropped the ball on that.

The reason for the name change really is a little bit more personal.

First, let me think of Anaz Isle Podcast Network as part of what this show is a part of is like the broader network.

And you guys know I do several other podcasts.

Part of the Whole Church podcast, Systematic Ecology.

Soon I'll be doing a limited series podcast with Christian Ashley, turning the page on divine violence.

I help do some of the Bible after hours voice kind of stuff.

I'm involved in a lot of other podcasts.

The reason for this one, I didn't want it to just be another show.

The reason we did Dummy for Theology is I am passionate about theology and part of the mission of the Onaza Podcast network is to find better questions.

It's kind of what the network is about, is asking the big questions, whether or not we have answers.

And Dumbing for Theology has always been about that.

Finding more questions than answers.

Right.

Being humble is why the whole dummy thing, looking at these different theological debates and saying, I can't give you a solid answer.

I believe all that.

I still care about theology.

The whole Western type of thinking of, hey, let's formulate good doctrine and build on that so we can have new ideas that make sense.

All those I think are actually really good ideals.

It's constructive, it's helpful.

I've also been leaning more into Taoism lately.

Even in my show and other stuff and I talk about that more Eastern kind of thought, a more being of, more simplicity of sometimes we don't need to know the answer.

That doesn't mean we don't ask the question.

It actually means that the question is more important than the answer, which is something I've always believed.

Right.

I've said that before on the show.

I'm not converting to a new religion.

If you see the logo, it's not like, oh, this is suddenly a Taoist podcast.

It's still, I Am a Christian daoist.

This is still my podcast.

Why have a podcast when I could talk about theology on whole church broadcast or some of some of this other stuff, perhaps geek out about it on systematic egology, it's always been more about having a place for my own voice on the whole church podcast.

I do my best to platform and, you know, put other people up and we've built a pretty big platform over there, and I think we do a really good job at lifting up other voices.

Systematic ecology is about the team effort.

So in some ways I'm always representing the team, not just myself.

And sometimes, you know, I express my opinion and say when it's different from others, but it's more about, like the fun stuff that we geek out on and finding a way to work together, which is something valuable, something I love, and I have a lot of fun doing it.

Bible After Hours isn't even my podcast.

I help to the voices and I provide some context here and there, but it's really not my thoughts, it's not my heart in it.

Denmark for theology was a place for me to talk about my beliefs and to go through stuff that I'm struggling with.

But I think it needs to be something more, especially the more I get into Taoism and learning about this harmony.

And I think, you know, we go to the Bible, the same spirit lives in me, lives in you.

I believe that.

Right.

And when we find harmony, we can only find it by being our truest self, the Taoist principle of the te.

I think our truest self is found in Christ.

Again, a Christian principle.

I think these things work together really well.

And when I'm thinking about my true self, who I am, who I was made to be, sometimes I'm sporadic, sometimes I have different things I'm passionate about or want to talk about.

And I don't want to just keep creating new podcasts, right?

So instead I'm going to keep doing Dummy for Theology as part of Be Living Water.

And then some of this other stuff I want to do are going to take the place every now and then.

Like there might be a week coming soon where I start a study on Daniel instead of the next logical fallacy.

So instead of an episode of Dummy for Theology, you'll get a study on Daniel episode, but all of it will be part of Be Living Water, which is a space for me to kind of wrestle with the questions that I'm going through from my own perspective without having to, you know, lift up someone else or lend credibility to other things, which I still want to do, which I'm part of those other projects.

I love doing that.

But I also like having this place for myself to express who I am, my true self, my tay.

And that's going to look like, like sometimes doing the Logical Fallacy of.

I think last one we did was correlation causation.

I love doing that.

I'm going to keep doing stuff like that.

Sometimes it's going to look like, hey, we are right now in a moment in America and in our world of great political turmoil.

The Book of Daniel has a lot to say about this, and I want to look at it, and I think it's helpful.

And I don't think I need to create a third or fifth, seventh podcast to do it.

I think I'm just going to do it here.

And instead of getting the next episode of Logical Fallacy, you might get an episode in Daniel one week.

Or, you know, we do this every other week, so right now.

Or I might do a study on Les Miserable in the Hajjak Notram.

Just everything Victor Hugo wrote, basically, because it's a lot about church and state and politics, and I think that's helpful for our time now as well.

And all of it comes back to this kind of idea of like, for me, the greatest truths are love, our harmony, or how God is the way the Tao that connects all things.

And when we live into Christ, we find our truest self and we find harmony with one another.

I think we do that through theology sometimes.

So the dummy theory, theology is going to keep being a thing because we need to build these doctrines, we need to sit with these questions, let them have significance in our life without necessarily always having the answer.

But to have these questions challenge us so that we can live in humility and harmony with one another as we learn different perspectives.

Sometimes it's going to look like these other studies I've talked about, Victor Hugo and Daniel, and we're going to learn harmony by seeing other times of political turmoil or stories that dealt with church and politics to say, hey, what can we glean from this to find a way to have harmony in the world we find ourselves in today.

And how does it echo days of the past?

Maybe we'll look at Bonhoeffer.

Maybe I'll just read a passage of the Dao Te Ching one day and just tell you some of my thoughts and just sit in it.

Maybe.

I don't know.

There's a lot of different ways this could go.

Sometimes it might end up being devotional because I want a place for me to be my true self, to have my te, which is in Christ.

It's still a Christian podcast, and because it is part of the Onazole Podcast Network, I still want it to be about having these questions.

Not giving you great answers all the time, but giving you these questions for us to really think about, to not have.

Here's our cookie cutter Q and A where I came up with a question and then I have the perfect answer for how we're going to solve it.

In our world today, that doesn't exist.

That's why these stories that address situations like ours, like Daniel and those in Victor Hugo, are really complex, nuanced stories, because the residents are simple.

All right, God said it.

And now we just gonna support this party.

Nope.

Politics are messier than that.

Unity is messier than that.

Harmony is messier than that.

Finding your truest self is messier than just a clear answer.

So still about the questions, for me, more about the questions than the answers.

Some of the other shows, they're also going to try and help you find the answers, but the main thing is that the Amazon Podcast network is focused on actually getting to those questions and not being scared of them.

That's why Systematic Ecology, when we address certain IPs or geek stuff, we don't just brush stuff off that happens.

We go, wait a minute.

This is seeing something that challenges us, even Christians.

I think soon on Systematic Ecology, we're going to be doing an episode of the Righteous Gemstones, which is a HBO Max series that really kind of made fun of mega churches and a lot of Christian culture.

And we are all Christians.

Even a pastor might be a part of that episode.

Pastor Will Rose.

And we're going to look at that and say, what questions is it asking of the church?

And how do we think about this?

Maybe we won't have answers.

Maybe we will.

That's what the Unazile Podcast Network has always been about, is finding those big questions and addressing them, either by meditating in them or thinking through them ourselves, discussing with others what they think about.

These questions always been about the questions.

This show is going to be still about the questions, but also reminding ourselves the importance of finding harmony, of finding God and who we are in our day.

I believe that God is the Dao.

So if you, if you want to go break down like the Dao Te Ching, which is like the main book that a lot of people associate with Daoism.

Dao is the way which I think that is God.

The thing that connects us all, the thing that we find harmony in.

Unity is only achievable.

Harmony is only achievable through Christ.

That's my personal belief.

So I would say God is the Dao, the Te is Tao Te Ching Te is my true self.

And I think my true self is found in Christ because otherwise I am a slave to sin.

I am a slave to the law.

I am a slave to this culture.

I can't break free of those things until I have found Christ who allows me to truly be me without necessarily being so constrained only by our culture.

When it tells me I should be here only by the law and what it says have to behave like or only by, you know, whatever.

Christ allows me to be free from all of that, to find a form of enlightenment where I can find my tay, my truest self in him.

That's what this show is going to become about.

Not Taoism, but harmony, finding your true self.

Me being more genuine with who I am and still going at these big questions, whether it be through theology, story, devotional Bible studies, you know, whatever.

So that's the name change.

That's where we're going with the logo.

You know, I tried to show the Taoism stuff and kept the cross at the center there, calling it Be Living Water.

I wanted it to look more natural.

That's where you have the water, the trees, this kind of life.

Because I want the show to feel more genuinely me, more natural, which is why I didn't know how to start this today.

The name Be Living Water, it comes from two different ideas.

Be Water, which is something Bruce Lee actually really emphasized about Taoism, is that the teaching of being water, as well as a story of Jesus at the well, when the lady, he tells the lady she'll never have to draw again if he drinks from him, because he is the living water.

I'm going to explain this just a little bit.

Three different ideas of water that I think are important to think through.

Two in Taoism, and then one about that story with Jesus again in the Tao Te Ching, when it talks about Be Water, one of the things it says, and I'm not going to do an exact quote, I'm just being real with you guys.

Like my thoughts, how I feel, what I've gleamed from it.

And maybe it's completely wrong.

And this is just what I wanted it to Say fact check for yourselves.

But one of the things it talks about is how water is.

So water is weak, it's flexible, it moves with whatever, but it's stronger than anything it can carve out.

Mountains flex.

So be water, be flexible, be weak, but also be strong.

And in your flexibility, sometimes that is what changes.

The world isn't necessarily this big.

Hey, we have one big idea and boom, a big punch.

But rather just being yourself moving, having this current where you find harmony with the way and the way will make a way, it'll carve out mountains.

Another idea I really like from Daoism.

This is the one I think that Bruce Lee really emphasized in his own work that I'm hopefully going to talk about on a kung fu pizza party with Brandonite soon.

Being water means that you're benefiting all and in conflict with none.

Conflict.

Water isn't competing with anything.

It's not fighting stuff.

Just it is, water is, it's benefiting all.

Look where the water is.

That's where life is.

That's where the trees grow.

It's where the animals live.

You know, under the sea you have the fishes.

Over on land, animals flock to the water to drink.

Water benefits all in conflict with none.

I think that's part of like when the Bible talks about being salt and light and that do the best you can, be at peace with all men.

It's like we are supposed to be a blessing to the world.

Something that's adding, that's benefiting all, not in conflict with anyone.

We're not saying, oh, hey, you can't believe that way.

You can't do this, you can't do that.

But rather I think the Christian call is to find a way to benefit everyone.

It's about, hey, I think even in correction, it's more of a there's a better way rather than a you can't do that or that's going to send you to hell.

I think it's more of a there's a better way is really the message in Christianity.

I think Taoism is really getting at the heart of Christianity and this idea of like being water where you're benefiting all.

How am I loving my neighbor?

And who was my neighbor?

Everyone.

How am I benefiting everyone?

That's the call of Christianity.

It's the call of the Dao.

So be water flexible but with the strength to be able to move mountains in harmony with the way.

Be water benefiting all in conflict with none.

Be living water.

Jesus talks about well, he goes to the well and this Woman's not great, we'll say, not great.

She's drawing water.

Jesus kind of makes this comment of like, drink of me, be one of my followers.

You'll never be thirsty again.

What's he saying there?

Does he literally mean drink his blood and you won't be thirsty again?

Probably not.

Rather, he means that the way that Jesus presented is so satisfying.

We won't have to keep drawing and looking for more.

We won't be thirsty, and our souls won't have this empty space that we keep trying to fill, but rather we'll be satisfied.

That's what he meant by him being that living water.

So if we go to him and we follow his way, we will never be thirsty again.

We won't have this constant need to seek out satisfaction.

He is all in all.

Christ is all in all.

What does that mean practically?

I think practically it means, like, all of us are looking for meaning in this world.

We're trying to find that perfect relationship.

We're trying to find this philosophy or this teaching that really fits us.

And I think really, if we find the way of Jesus, not necessarily his teaching or his rules or his protocols, but the way that he, what was he in harmony with perfectly with God, with the dao.

And if we find that, we'll never be thirsty again.

And we are called in the Bible to be the body of Christ.

It means the church, which I believe I am a part of.

I think all believers are should be able to look at the world and say, follow our way.

Drink from us and you will never be thirsty again.

We are living water.

The church is supposed to be the body of Christ, living water.

The church then is called to show people that way, where if people partake, they will never thirst again.

They won't have to go look for the perfect relations.

They won't have to go find the perfect doctrine.

They won't have to follow the perfect rules.

If they partake of that way, they drink of the Spirit that the church is supposed to be partaking in, that will never have to seek out satisfaction again.

They will have satisfaction in Christ, who is all in all, who the church is supposed to be the body of today.

The church must be living water means I am called to be living water, flexible, in harmony with the way that can move mountains with the faith of mustard seed if you want.

The church is to be living water, benefiting all in conflict with none.

The church is to be living water, where those who partake will never be thirsty again.

They will have satisfaction in Christ, who is all in all.

So the show is changing the name is changing the message isn't the goal isn't.

We still have those big questions.

I'm not.

I'm just trying to wait to be more of myself without creating more and more podcasts.

It's just going to be part of this now when I have new ideas and you guys just suffer through because for some reason you're following a psychopath with ADHD who constantly has new ideas for podcasts.

We'll probably study Daniel soon.

We're definitely going to keep doing logical fallacies.

We'll definitely talk more about Taoism and we'll definitely spend more time thinking about what does it mean to benefit all and to be in conflict with none.

So, you know, with Dung Free Theology, I always end with three takeaway questions.

Not answers, not practices, but questions.

I'm going to do it again for Be Living Water.

Your first three takeaway questions.

How can you be more flexible?

Number one.

Number two, in what ways can you benefit all around you and still part.

Number two, in what ways can you stop being in conflict with others?

We all are in conflict with others in some way.

Competing for the next job or trying to show up your brother or trying to impress a girl, you know, whatever.

We're always constantly in competition, but in what ways can we stop being in competition for others?

What does it look like to just not being competition?

Number two, how can I benefit all and stop competing?

Number three, how can I be living water to those who are thirsty in the world around me?

So those are three takeaway questions today again.

Number one, how can I be more flexible?

Number two, how can I benefit all and stop competing with others?

And number three, what does it look like for me to be living water so that those around me no longer thirst for satisfaction?

Well, guys, I hope this was just as awkward for you guys as it was for me.

And I hope you guys like the name change.

I hope you can get on board and that we can keep going through this thing together.

You know, part of what I love about podcasting is the community.

And we learn together.

We ask questions because we struggle together.

We meditate together sometimes.

And I think this would be a good time to meditate on, like, what does it mean to just be water?

To be living water?

What would that mean?

So I invite you all to meditate with me on water as this podcast changes.

We'll be doing more theology.

Dummy for theology soon.

We'll be doing more Daniel soon, be moving more Taoism soon.

Meditate with me on what it means to be living Water, where you would like to see the show go.

I open to ideas.

You know, I'm just trying to be my truest self.

So talk to me if you're like, hey, man, I noticed this about you.

Why isn't this more involved?

Cool.

Maybe I'll incorporate it.

Let's meditate.

What does it mean to be loving Water together?

And if you have podcast ideas, contact me.

That would be great.

Hope you all enjoyed this and I hope you all with me as we ask these big questions and meditate on these big ideas.

Remember, it's okay to keep on struggling.