Andy Barlow, PhD, is a linguist-New Testament scholar with twenty years of experience as a Bible translator in Cameroon and Quebec, seven years as a pastor in Tennessee, and eight years in refugee resettlement in Lexington, Kentucky. His academic degrees are in Intercultural Studies, Linguistics, Theology, Religious Studies, and Biblical Studies. His academic interests are in Petrine studies, Social Identity Theory, and New Covenant Theology.
Andy has been wounded by the institutional church and has deconstructed and reconstructed multiple times in both his academic and faith journeys.
His interests are fishing, kayaking, cooking, reading, and spending time with his wife and four daughters.
Andy Work Barlow
Andy Work Barlow
Andy Work Barlow
Andy Work Barlow
Andy Work Barlow
Andy Work Barlow
EXPERIENCES
Show Date
Sat 5 Sep 2026 4:00 PM to 4:50 PM
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| Title Short | Guilt Free Spiritual Living: Reconstructing Divine Glory apart from Religion |
| Venue | Slippery Slope |
| Experience Description | Irenaeus, in 185 CE, claimed, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive.” This claim views genuine humanity to be participants in divine glory.
The Eastern church is trapped in premodernity, mystically and liturgically striving toward the idea that humans can transform into divine glory (theosis) through sacraments, rituals, and icons.
The Western church is caged in modernity, engrossed in legal, rational constructs of a glory centered on justification, reconciliation, individualistic faith, and sanctification.
What if we, in our postmodern era, could learn to live in divine glory in a manner free from all this religious striving? What if we are striving for a divine glory we already have? Could we move beyond our identity crisis of perpetually striving and never arriving?
How might we reconstruct ‘glory’ becoming UNBOUND from fear, guilt, and religion? What if sanctification is complete and human beings are the true icons of glory? How might we experience a spirituality without demands and learn to function as the fully alive human beings that we already are? How would this change the way we live and interact spiritually as we become UNBOUND for living with the divine and within our communities?
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