What does it mean to live by Christian ethics without God at the center? What happens when Marxist theory meets the bars of Rikers Island, the wards of outpatient psychiatric care, and the walls of San Quentin? In this episode of Excavations, Connie sits down with Chris Alfonso (Jean-Paul Fartre), a Marxist scholar, organizer, and abolitionist, to trace the surprising theological architecture inside radical thought.

They explore the structural parallels between Hegel's dialectic and Christian eschatology, why Jesus might be history's most compelling militant communist, the difference between Marxism as critique and Marxism as state religion, and how theory fails the moment it stops meeting people where they are.

This episode is for anyone who has ever felt the gap between what institutions profess and what they practice. And for anyone trying to keep the faith, in whatever language that takes.

Topics include: liberation theology, abolition, Marxist philosophy, Hegel, Paulo Freire, CLR James, prison organizing, sacred encounter, agnosticism, dialectical materialism, embodied pedagogy, No Brooklyn Jails.

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What happens when you stop apologizing for your body and start reading it as sacred text? In this episode of Excavations, I sit down with Ciarra Jones (@thegardeningtheologian) to talk about what it actually means to reclaim the body after religious trauma. We go deep on queer sexual ethics, the theology of pleasure, disability justice, Eve as liberator, and why so much of Christian tradition has needed us to stay at war with our own flesh.
This is a conversation for anyone who grew up being taught that their body was the problem and is starting to suspect the tradition was wrong.

We cover:
Queer theology and sexual ethics
Embodiment, pleasure, and the sacred body
Deconstruction and religious trauma
Disability justice and theology
Eve, death, rebirth, and what liberation actually costs

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What happens when desire meets doctrine and neither will back down?

In this episode of Excavations, Connie Chen sits down with Colten Barnaby for a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation about the tangled roots of faith, sexuality, and identity. They dig into what it means to grow up Christian with a body full of desires you've been taught to distrust, how worshiping a male God shapes the way we relate to ourselves and others, and why shame doesn't just disappear when you leave the pew.

From trans theology to the violence embedded in liberation, this conversation refuses easy answers, and wrestles honestly with scripture, pleasure, body image, and the communities that formed (and sometimes deformed) us.

Because you can't excavate your faith without excavating yourself.

Connect with us:

• Colten Barnaby on Instagram, Tiktok, Substack
• Connie Chen on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube

Help sustain my work and this podcast on Patreon

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