Faith and Imagination: A BYU Humanities Center Podcast

Ep. 115: Highlighted Episode: Holy Saturday, Faith Crisis, and the Poetry of R. S. Thomas

Humanities Center — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 16:28:50 +0000

Richard McLauchlan is an independent scholar, a professional biographer, and the author of Saturday’s Silence: R.S. Thomas and Paschal Reading. With Easter approaching, we thought we’d run again this episode on the subject of Holy Saturday, the day between Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection that represents a period of suffering and silence. The poetry of R. S. Thomas speaks profoundly to these features of our human condition and to the hope in Christ that lifts us above them.

Ep. 114: "Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and the Making of Modern Comedy,” with Jason Crawford, Union University

Humanities Center — Mon, 23 Mar 2026 08:00:48 +0000

Jason Crawford is Professor of English at Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, where he teaches and writes about early modern literature and culture, with secondary interests in ancient drama and epic. He’s the author of several academic books and articles, and his work has also appeared in such venues as the Los Angeles Review of Books. We talk with him about his recent book, which presents a familiar subject in a new and brilliantly insightful way. This book is titled God’s Fools: Saints, Prophets, Martyrs, and the Making of Modern Comedy.

Ep. 113: Some Favorite Books of 2025

Humanities Center — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 08:00:31 +0000

We resume a tradition from the past years, discussing some favorite books we read in 2025. As always, our themes involve religion, spirituality, and the intersection of faith and intellect. This time we welcome Makayla Steiner, assistant professor of English at BYU. Matt’s list of honorable mentions: Douglas Coupland, Life After God; Paul J. Pastor, The Locust Years; Robert Cording, Finding the World’s Fullness: On Poetry, Metaphor, and Mystery; and Jean-Louis Chrétien, Ten Meditations for Catching and Losing One’s Breath. Makayla’s list of honorable mentions: Aviya Kushner, The Grammar of God and Regina Schwartz, Loving Justice, Living Shakespeare. Matt’s top 3 list: 3. Cole Arthur Riley, This Here […]

Ep. 112: Highlighted episode: Reimagining Job with Diane Glancy, distinguished American poet and author

Humanities Center — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 08:00:21 +0000

Diane Glancy is a prolific and acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and professor emeritus at Macalester College. Her awards include the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the American Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. In 2018, Publishers Weekly named her book Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears one of the ten essential Native American novels. Today, we discuss her 2020 poetry collection Island of the Innocent: A Reconsideration of the Book of Job.

Ep. 111: Finding our Callings in Every Season of Life, with Karen Swallow Prior, writer and public intellectual

Humanities Center — Mon, 03 Nov 2025 08:00:05 +0000

Karen Swallow Prior is the author of several books, among them The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books, and Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More. A prominent voice in the Christian public sphere, she is a frequent speaker, a senior fellow at the Trinity Forum, a contributing writer at Dispatch, and a monthly columnist at Religion News Service. Karen and I talk today about her most recent book, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful.

Ep. 110: The “Mystical Realism” of Catholic Women Writers of the Early 20th Century, with Emma Mason, University of Warwick

Humanities Center — Mon, 06 Oct 2025 08:00:58 +0000

Emma Mason is Professor of English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick University in England. She’s the author and editor of several books, primarily on nineteenth-century English literature, most recently a study titled Christina Rosetti: Poetry, Ecology, Faith, and she edits, with Mark Knight, the book series New Directions in Religion and Literature for Bloomsbury Press. Her current work explores Catholic women mystics of the early twentieth century, which is what we discuss with her today.

Ep. 109: Imagination’s Visionary Role in Religious and Spiritual Life, with Callid Keefe-Perry, Boston College

Humanities Center — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 07:18:36 +0000

Callid Keefe-Perry is assistant professor of contextual education and public theology at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. A traveling minister within the Religious Society of Friends – the Quakers – he is also the author of two books we discuss today: 2014’s Way to Water: A Theopoetics Primer and 2023’s Sense of the Possible: An Introduction to Theology and Imagination.

Ep. 108: The Writer, the Cross, and the Believing Skeptic, with Darren J. N. Middleton, Baylor University

Humanities Center — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 08:30:29 +0000

Darren Middleton is Professor of Literature and Theology at Baylor University, where he is also director of Baylor’s Interdisciplinary Core. This year, he also assumed the editorship of the academic journal Christianity and Literature, a leading journal in the field of literature and religion. A prolific scholar with books on subjects ranging from the novelists Shusaku Endo, Graham Greene, and Cormac McCarthy to studies of the Rastafari, Darren is also an authority on Christian popular fiction, especially historical fiction. We discuss his book The Writer and the Cross, a collection of interviews with authors of Christian historical fiction, as well as his […]

Ep. 107: Season 5 wrap-up: conversation with Faith and Imagination podcast producer Starly Pratt

Humanities Center — Mon, 25 Aug 2025 04:30:21 +0000

As is our custom, the podcast’s producer and I spend a few minutes reflecting on this season’s great guests and discussing a few moments from this season’s conversations that stood out to us.

Ep. 106: Highlighted episode: Finding Christ in Poetry, with Paul J. Pastor, poet

Humanities Center — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 04:30:04 +0000

Paul J. Pastor recently published a book of poems titled The Locust Years. Recognizing this achievement, and returning to one of our favorite conversations, we highlight this 2022 conversation with Paul after the release of his previous poetry collection, Bower Lodge.

Ep. 105: “Among the Losses”: Remembering the Poet Anya Krugovoy Silver, with Andrew Silver, Mercer University

Humanities Center — Tue, 13 May 2025 01:39:22 +0000

Andrew Silver is the Page Morton Hunter Professor of English at Mercer University, where he has taught since 1998. He is a scholar, playwright, musician, and was named the state of Georgia’s Professor of the Year in 2003. I’m talking with Andy today about his late wife, the poet Anya Krugovoy Silver, who died of cancer in 2018. Andy found his wife’s last collection of poems on her computer the day of her death, and he brought that collection into print as Saint Agnostica, a bracing, beautiful, and soulful account of the end of life. Andy and I discuss this collection, […]

Ep. 104: Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion, with Kelsey Osgood, writer

Humanities Center — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 04:30:10 +0000

Kelsey Osgood is a graduate of Columbia University and Goucher College’s creative nonfiction MFA program. Her work has appeared in New York, The New Yorker, Time, Harper’s Magazine, and elsewhere. Her first book, How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia, was chosen for the Barnes and Noble Discover program. I met Kelsey a few years ago, and spoke with her on this podcast, when I read a beautiful essay she’d written on how religion helps us come to terms with life’s biggest questions concerning life and death. I’m talking with Kelsey today about her new book Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion.

Ep. 103: A Theology of Fiction, with Cassandra Nelson, Lumen Center

Humanities Center — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 04:30:14 +0000

Cassandra Nelson is a Visiting Fellow in literature at the Lumen Center in Madison, Wisconsin, a community of scholars seeking to deepen the dialogue between Christian thought and academic disciplines. She is also an Associate Fellow at the University of Virginia’s Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture and has taught previously at the US Military Academy. Cassandra writes about faith, fiction, technology, and culture, and she recently published the book we will discuss today, A Theology of Fiction, published through Wiseblood Books.

Ep. 102: Keeping the Faith and Living Together in a Polarized Age, with Leonard McMahon, Pacific School of Religion

Humanities Center — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 05:00:52 +0000

We welcome back to our podcast a former guest, Leonard McMahon, who is an assistant professor of pastoral care, spirituality, and political theology at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, and also founder and CEO of Common Ground Dialogue, a political consulting firm specializing in facilitating conversation around complicated social issues, bringing together divergent communities. Leonard is the Faith and Imagination lecturer at BYU this semester, and he will be speaking to us about peacebuilding, a spiritual practice and also a vital but endangered art in our fractious, polarized age.

Ep. 101: Hopkins’s Poetry and the Hope – and Rhythms – of New Creation, with Devon Abts

Humanities Center — Tue, 28 Jan 2025 04:30:45 +0000

Devon Abts is Research and Operations Director for the Clemente Course in the Humanities, an organization whose mission is to provide transformative educational experiences, in the form of free college courses, for adults who face economic hardship and adverse circumstances. We speak with Devon about her work for this organization. But our primary conversation will be about Devon’s work as a theologian, and specifically her insights into the poetry of the innovative English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins. Hopkins is known for his creative, truly ingenious use of language, and Devon will help us understand how the rhythms of Hopkins’s […]

Ep. 100: A Handful of Gems from Our First One Hundred Episodes

Humanities Center — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 04:30:20 +0000

On this one hundredth episode of the Faith and Imagination podcast, its host, Matthew Wickman, commemorates some key moments from the early seasons of the podcast that captured what he wanted the podcast to be and gave further shape and direction to what he hoped it would become. We hope you enjoy reflecting back on our conversations with Arthur Holder, Sarah Bachelard, Deanna Thompson, Tish Harrison Warren, Belden Lane, and Makoto Fujimura.

Ep. 99 A Way of Writing, a Way of Living, with Scott Cairns, poet

Humanities Center — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 04:30:47 +0000

Scott Cairns is Curators’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Missouri. A librettist, essayist, translator, and author of a dozen poetry collections, he has long been a distinguished voice in American religious poetry and an influence on many of the poets we have featured on this podcast. We’re talking today about his latest collection, Correspondence with My Greeks, published this fall by Slant Books.

Ep. 98: Deep Space, Deep Sea, and the Deep Heart of God, with Laura Reece Hogan, poet

Humanities Center — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 04:30:09 +0000

We welcome back to our podcast the award-winning poet and theologian Laura Reece Hogan. Laura is the author of a study of Paul’s theology, I Live, No Longer I: Paul’s Spirituality of Suffering, Transformation, and Joy, published in 2017, and of the poetry collections Litany of Flights and Butterfly Nebula. It is that latter collection, published in 2023, we discuss today, an exploration of spiritual life by way of meditations on deep sea life and the far reaches of the cosmos. Laura is also with us in person as she is giving this semester’s distinguished Faith and Imagination Lecture at BYU.

Ep. 97: Faith and Wonder, with Steven E. Knepper, Virginia Military Institute

Humanities Center — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 04:30:05 +0000

Steven Knepper is Associate Professor of English and Bruce C. Gottwald, Jr. ’81 Chair for Academic Excellence at Virginia Military Institute. A scholar as well as a poet, Steve is the collaborative author of a book on the work of the South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the editor of a volume on the Irish philosopher William Desmond, and sole author of the 2022 book on Demond titled Wonder Strikes. Steve and I talk about wonder, about what it means to open ourselves to the world in an era of seeming constraint, and about the role of faith in the arts and […]

Ep. 96: Contemplative – and Transformative – Reading, with Stephanie Paulsell, Harvard Divinity School

Humanities Center — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 04:30:01 +0000

In Season 3, Matthew Wickman spoke with Stephanie Paulsell, who was Susan Shallcross Swarz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School and Faculty Dean of Eliot House at Harvard College. Paulsell, author of books on Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison, as well as articles on other literary figures and Biblical texts, had written an elegant essay on the spiritually formative aspects of reading and writing, published in a book titled The Soul of Higher Education. As that topic is central to the work and lives of so many of our guests and listeners, we wanted to revisit […]

Ep. 95: God’s Risk in Creation, with Jane Clark Scharl, Poet

Humanities Center — Mon, 16 Sep 2024 04:30:45 +0000

The concluding poem from Jane Clark Scharl’s 2024 debut collection Ponds addresses the risk God takes in creating a world that can be almost mesmerizingly beautiful – a risk, Scharl writes, that “entices [us] to look / no further than” the world itself, to miss perceiving God through the radiance of what strikes our senses. Scharl is a playwright and critic as well as a poet, and we speak today about perceiving the divine by way of nature, about familial relationships, and about seeking signs of God’s presence in a world that, while beautiful, sometimes resists granting those wishes.

Ep. 94 On Deepening Our Religious Experience: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church, with Abram Van Engen, St. Louis University

Humanities Center — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 04:30:24 +0000

Abram Van Engen is the Stanley Elkin Professor in the Humanities and Chair of the Department of English at Washington University in St. Louis. He specializes in American literature, and is the author of City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. We talk with him about his latest book, Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church, published this spring by Eerdmans. Written for a general readership, it’s a book about how and why to read poetry and it builds on Abram’s public work on poetry through his podcast, Poetry for All.

Season 4 wrap-up: conversation with Faith and Imagination podcast producers Sophia Snyder and Starly Pratt

Humanities Center — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 06:30:51 +0000

As is traditional for this podcast, we conclude this season of episodes by reflecting together as a production team on the podcast as a whole, on our extraordinary guests, and on some moments in conversation with these guests that made a particular impression on us.

“I Was in Prison and You Visited Me,” with Andrew Skotnicki, Manhattan College

Humanities Center — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 06:30:48 +0000

Andrew Skotnicki is Professor of Religious Studies at Manhattan College. He has been a devoted minister to people in prison for more than a half century, and we discuss some of the lessons that ministry has taught him, problems he perceives with our system of criminal justice, and the blessings he has received from heeding Jesus’s words to visit those who are sick and in prison.

Healing in a Time of Division, with C. Vanessa White, Catholic Theological Union

Humanities Center — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 06:30:20 +0000

C. Vanessa White is Associate Professor of Spirituality and Ministry, and Director of the Certificate in Black Theology and Ministry, at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She also holds a dual appointment at Xavier University of Louisiana’s Institute for Black Catholic Studies. She belongs to several academic societies, among them the National Black Storyteller Association, the American Academy of Religion, and the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. We speak today about her work as an activist and theologian, and how spiritual life bridges social and religious identities and offers healing in a time of intense division.

On Suffering, Heaven, and Experiencing a Life Renewed, with Jeffrey Vogel, Hampden-Sydney College

Humanities Center — Mon, 01 Apr 2024 06:30:23 +0000

Jeffrey Vogel is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia. An expert thinker and writer on topics like divine silence and apophatic theology—or theology of what lies beyond saying—he is also the author of a beautiful new book, All Manner of Things: Meditations on Suffering, Death, and Eternal Life, which we discuss today.

Highlighted Episode: Storytelling as Theology, with guest Christina Bieber Lake, Wheaton College

Humanities Center — Mon, 18 Mar 2024 06:30:08 +0000

This week we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination Podcast. Today’s highlighted guest, Christina Bieber Lake, sees the novel as an expressly theological exercise. Dr. Lake, the Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English at Wheaton College, is the author of the 2019 book Beyond the Story: American Literary Fiction and the Limits of Materialism. On this episode, Matthew Wickman of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute speaks with Christina about how theology helps us understand literature, whether those same principles apply to literary criticism, how one finds one’s purpose as a teacher and scholar, and what it means to […]

The Beauty—the Poetry—of Christian Experience, with Benjamin Myers, Oklahoma Baptist University

Humanities Center — Mon, 11 Mar 2024 06:30:01 +0000

Benjamin Myers is the Crouch-Mathis Professor of Literature and the Director of the Honors Program at Oklahoma Baptist University. A former poet laureate of the state of Oklahoma, Ben is the author of four books of poetry and two books of nonfiction. We discuss two of those books today, a 2020 critical work titled A Poetics of Orthodoxy: Christian Truth as Aesthetic Foundation, and his beautiful 2022 collection of poems, The Family Book of Martyrs.

Metaphor, Memoir, and Christian Longing and Vision—All from a Midwest Farm, with Tiffany Eberle Kriner, Wheaton College

Humanities Center — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 06:30:10 +0000

Tiffany Eberle Kriner is associate professor of English at Wheaton College in Illinois. The author of the scholarly book The Future of the Word: An Eschatology of Reading as well as a number of articles and chapters in academic venues, Kriner is more recently the author of the memoir In Thought, Word, and Seed: Reckonings from a Midwest Farm, a book that shares her experience operating a sixty-acre farm against the backdrop of America’s racial troubles, the COVID pandemic, and her desire more fully to understand the grace and kingdom of God.

Peter’s Vision, Mystical Theology, and Modern Life, with Robert Flanagan, Virginia Theological Seminary

Humanities Center — Mon, 26 Feb 2024 06:30:49 +0000

Robert Flanagan has served as an Episcopal priest since 2003. He is chaplain at General Theological Seminary in New York and serves as dean’s advisor at Virginia Theological Seminary. We speak today about this 2022 book The Letters of an Unexpected Mystic: Encountering the Mystical Theology in First and Second Peter. We attend especially to how Peter’s mystical theology bears on modern life and on what it teaches us about what it means to encounter God and what that encounter may entail.

Poetry as Attention, as Awakening—as Prayer, with Abigail Carroll, poet and pastor

Humanities Center — Mon, 19 Feb 2024 06:30:29 +0000

Abigail Carroll serves as pastor of the arts and spiritual formation at Church of the Well in Burlington, Vermont. She holds a PhD in American Studies from Boston University, and she is an accomplished poet whose third collection of poems, Cup My Days Like Water, a set of meditations on the Psalms, was published just last year, 2023. We talk about these new poems, particularly the connections between poetry, stillness, prayer, and what it means to seek and follow inspiration in one’s life and work.

John of the Cross’s “Dark Night” and Our Quests for Justice and Transcendence, with Benedict Shoup, University of Notre Dame

Humanities Center — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 06:30:55 +0000

Benedict Shoup is a doctoral candidate in systematic theology at the University of Notre Dame. He is currently writing a dissertation on the pneumatology and contemplative methodology—basically, the spiritual theory and practice—of the sixteenth-century Spanish mystic, John of the Cross. I met Benedict this past summer at a conference in Adelaide, Australia, where he gave a great talk on the ways John of the Cross’s mystical vision informs and potentially empowers seekers in our modern world.

Highlighted Episode: This Sacred Life: Hope in an Era of Climate Crisis, with guest Norman Wirzba, Duke Divinity School

Humanities Center — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 04:30:14 +0000

This week we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination Podcast. Norman Wirzba is the Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke Divinity School. The author of several books, he’s also the director of a multi-year, Henry Luce Foundation-funded project entitled “Facing the Anthropocene.” On this episode, Matthew Wickman of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute, speaks with Norman about humankind’s stewardship of the natural world as delineated in his powerful and sobering book, This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World.

Finding the Sacred in the Everyday, with Darlene Young, poet

Humanities Center — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 04:12:59 +0000

I sat down last spring with Darlene Young, a poetry, fiction, and creative non-fiction writer who teaches in the English Department at BYU. We spoke about her two volumes of published poems, Homespun and Angel Feathers (2019) and Here (2023). We also talked about the relationship between poetry and faith, bringing humor to sacred things, and finding a distinctive voice as a poet and as a devoutly religious person.

Christ in the “Torn Places,” with Christopher Morris, Catholic Theological College, Melbourne

Humanities Center — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 05:00:04 +0000

Christopher Morris is Head of the Department of Pastoral and Spiritual Studies and lecturer in Spirituality at Catholic Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. He is also a spiritual director and has been a Religious Education leader in Catholic education. Much of his scholarship has focused on the notion of “wisdom knowing” and practical ways to cultivate wholeness. In his recent work, these interests have him investigating what this may mean for survivors of trauma—what Chris calls “Christ in the torn places.”

Layers of the Christian Creative Vision, with poet, novelist, and editor Sally Thomas

Humanities Center — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 04:30:27 +0000

We speak today with Sally Thomas about her 2020 poetry collection Motherland as well as her novel, Works of Mercy, published in 2022. A former guest on this podcast, she has published poetry, fiction, reviews, and essays in such venues as First Things, Plough Quarterly, and the New Yorker, and she co-edited, with Micah Mattix, the anthology Christian Poetry in America since 1940. Presently, she serves as Associate Poetry Editor for The New York Sun.

Some Favorite Books of 2023, with guest George Handley, Brigham Young University

Humanities Center — Mon, 01 Jan 2024 04:30:19 +0000

We resume a tradition from the past two seasons, discussing some favorite books we read in 2023. As always, our themes involve religion, spirituality, and the intersection of faith and intellect. And we are privileged, again, to welcome our guest, George Handley, Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at BYU. Dr. Wickman’s Honorable Mentions: Jeffrey A. Vogel, All Manner of Things: Meditations on Suffering, Death, and Eternal Life (Cascade Books, 2023) Patrick Saint-Jean, The Crucible of Racism: Ignatian Spirituality and the Power of Hope (Orbis Books, 2022) Sally Thomas, Motherland (Able Muse Press, 2020) Darlene Young, Homespun and Angel Feathers (By Common Consent Press, 2019) Benjamin Myers, The Family Book of […]

Making Spirit Tangible: On Poetry and Divine Presence, Jill Peláez Baumgaertner, Wheaton College

Humanities Center — Mon, 18 Dec 2023 04:30:02 +0000

Jill Peláez Baumgaertner is Professor Emerita and former Dean of Humanities and Theological Studies at Wheaton College. The author of several collections of poetry as well as scholarly books on such writers as Flannery O’Connor, she currently serves as poetry editor at The Christian Century. We talk today about a beautiful volume of poems she […]

“Why I Am a Churchgoer,” with Mischa Willett, Seattle Pacific University

Humanities Center — Mon, 11 Dec 2023 04:30:25 +0000

This is the first episode we have released in three months. We were having technological difficulties with the system that distributes the podcasts, and it now seems mostly to be fixed. Thank you for your patience—and for listening to these episodes with our wonderful guests. Mischa Willett is a poet, scholar of nineteenth-century British literature, and assistant […]

Reimagining Job, with Diane Glancy, American poet and author

Humanities Center — Mon, 11 Sep 2023 04:30:29 +0000

Diane Glancy is a prolific and acclaimed poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and professor emeritus at Macalester College. Her awards include the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the American Book Award, the Pushcart Prize, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers’ Circle of the Americas. In 2018, Publishers Weekly named her book Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears one of the ten essential Native American novels. Today, we discuss her 2020 poetry collection Island of the Innocent: A Reconsideration of the Book of Job.

Season 3 wrap-up: conversation with Faith and Imagination podcast producer Sophia Snyder

Humanities Center — Mon, 24 Apr 2023 04:30:26 +0000

We’ve come to the end of Season 3 of the podcast. I talk with Sophia Snyder, the podcast’s producer, and we share a few thoughts about the podcast generally and especially about this season’s guests. We also discuss brief clips from a few of this season’s episodes and talk about them – a small sampling of things that stood out to us this season.

Mysticism: An Awareness of the Presence of God, with Chad Thralls, Seton Hall University

Humanities Center — Mon, 17 Apr 2023 18:32:04 +0000

Chad Thralls is a scholar of Christian spirituality and mysticism who teaches at Seton Hall University. His primary area of focus is the contemplative spiritual life, and today we discuss his book Deep Calls to Deep: Mysticism, Scripture, and Contemplation.

Journeys of the Spirit: On Pilgrimage, with Zachary Davis, Faith Matters Foundation and Wayfare Magazine

Humanities Center — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 04:30:35 +0000

Zachary Davis is the Executive Director of the Faith Matters Foundation, the host of the Ministry of Ideas, Writ Large, and Making Meaning podcasts, and the editor of Wayfare Magazine. We discuss the article he published in the inaugural issue of Wayfare, a beautiful piece on the history of pilgrimage that doubles as a story about his personal faith journey.

Contemplative – Transformative – Reading, with Stephanie Paulsell, Harvard Divinity School

Humanities Center — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 04:30:49 +0000

Stephanie Paulsell is Susan Shallcross Swarz Professor of the Practice of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School and Faculty Dean of Eliot House at Harvard College. The author of a book on Virginia Woolf, the editor of a book on Toni Morrison, and writer of articles on many other literary figures as well as on Biblical texts, her work focuses on religion and literature, particularly on the spiritually formative dimensions of the practices of reading and writing. We speak today about an article on contemplative reading she published in a book titled The Soul of Higher Education.

Highlighted Episode: Holy Saturday, Faith Crisis, and the Poetry of R.S. Thomas, with guest Richard McLauchlan

Humanities Center — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 04:30:57 +0000

Richard McLauchlan is an independent scholar, a professional biographer, and the author of Saturday’s Silence: R.S. Thomas and Paschal Reading. With Easter approaching, we wanted to re-release this 2021 conversation with McLauchlan about how Thomas’s poetry captures the meaning of the day between Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, a day of suffering and silence that speaks to the spiritual realities so many of us feel.

Theology, the Arts, and New Creation with Daniel Train, Duke Divinity School

Humanities Center — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 04:30:09 +0000

Daniel Train is the associate director of Duke Initiatives in Theology and the Arts at Duke Divinity School, where he directs the Certificate in Theology and the Arts program. He is the coeditor of The Saint John’s Bible and Its Tradition: Illuminating Beauty in the Twenty-First Century (2018) and also of a 2022 collection we […]

Theology, the Arts, and New Creation with Daniel Train, Duke Divinity School

Humanities Center — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 04:30:08 +0000

“Opponents, Not Enemies; Trust, Not Agreement” with guest Leonard McMahon, Pacific School of Religion

Humanities Center — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 04:30:52 +0000

Leonard McMahon is an assistant professor of pastoral care, spirituality, and political theology at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, and also founder and CEO of Common Ground Dialogue, a political consulting firm specializing in facilitating conversation around complicated social issues, bringing together divergent communities. We speak about his work addressing such issues, exploring what […]

“Opponents, Not Enemies; Trust, Not Agreement” with guest Leonard McMahon, Pacific School of Religion

Humanities Center — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 04:30:15 +0000

The Spirituality of … Anger? with guest Douglas Hardy, Nazarene Theological Seminary

Humanities Center — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 05:00:58 +0000

The Spirituality of … Anger? with guest Douglas Hardy, Nazarene Theological Seminary

Humanities Center — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 05:00:58 +0000

The Reverend Douglas S. Hardy is Professor of Spiritual Formation at Nazarene Theological Seminary in Kansas City. Doug has earned degrees in psychology as well as theology, he is a practicing minister and spiritual director, and he recently completed a term as President of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. We’re speaking today about the provocative and powerful presidential address he recently delivered to members of the Society titled “Toward a Christian Spirituality of Anger.”

Philosophy and Faith in the Public Sphere, with guest Jennifer Frey, University of South Carolina

Humanities Center — Mon, 20 Feb 2023 04:30:47 +0000

Jennifer Frey is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of South Carolina, a faculty fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America, and a Newbigin Interfaith Fellow with the Carver Project. She works extensively in moral philosophy and is particularly interested in matters of virtue. But she is also an engaging public philosopher who writes for such popular venues as First Things, Image Journal, and The Point Magazine, and she is the host of a popular podcast titled Sacred and Profane Love, which takes up the relationship between philosophy, theology, and literature. We talk today about her range of work and about the connections between universities and the public and between philosophy and faith.

Highlighted Episode: Our Denial of Death and the Religious Impulse, with guest Kelsey Osgood, freelance writer

Humanities Center — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 04:30:44 +0000

This week we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination Podcast. Kelsey Osgood is a freelance writer and the author of “How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia.” Her work has appeared in such venues as The New Yorker’s Culture Desk Blog, Time, Harper’s, the New York Times, and Salon. Recently, in Plough Quarterly, she published “The Yahrzeit of Ernest Becker,” a personal essay about coming to terms with large existential questions and how religion responds to our biggest concerns of life and death. On this episode, Matthew Wickman of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute, speaks with Kelsey about the stories we tell ourselves with respect to mental health and religion.

Experiencing Christ in Life and Poetry, with poet Sally Read

Humanities Center — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 04:30:11 +0000

Sally Read is an acclaimed poet whose work has been translated into five languages. She recounts her 2010 conversion to Catholicism in Night’s Bright Darkness, published in 2016, with further reflections on coming of age as a person of faith in her 2019 book Annunciation: A Call to Faith in a Broken World. We speak with her today about her recent collection of poems, Dawn of This Hunger, which poetically revisits episodes from the life of Jesus.

The Gift, Challenge, and Vocation of Living and Teaching Spiritually, with Barbara Quinn, RSCJ, Boston College

Humanities Center — Mon, 23 Jan 2023 04:30:46 +0000

Barbara Quinn RSCJ is a member of the Society of the Sacred Heart, United States-Canada province, and a President Emeritus of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality, or SSCS. She is also Associate Director of Spiritual Formation at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. We speak today about the lecture she delivered as president of the SSCS in late 2021, published last year in Spiritus, the flagship journal of the SSCS.

Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith with Russ Ramsey, Pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville

Humanities Center — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 04:30:11 +0000

Russ Ramsey is a pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, and is the author of several books, including Struck: One Christian’s Reflections on Encountering Death. We speak today about his latest book, Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art through the Eyes of Faith, published in 2022 by Zondervan Press. I’m Matthew Wickman of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute.

Contemplative Realism, or, Spiritual Life in Fiction with guest Joshua Hren, Wiseblood Books and University of St. Thomas, Houston

Humanities Center — Mon, 09 Jan 2023 04:30:37 +0000

Joshua Hren is founder of Wiseblood Books and co-founder of the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of St. Thomas, Houston. His essays and poems have appeared in such venues as First Things, Catholic World Report, New Oxford Review, and LOGOS. His books include the novel Infinite Regress and a volume of poems titled Last Things, First Things, and Other Lost Causes. We speak in this episode about a short “theological-aesthetical manifesto” he published last year titled Contemplative Realism.

Some Favorite Books We Read in 2022, with guest George Handley, Brigham Young University

Humanities Center — Mon, 26 Dec 2022 04:30:07 +0000

As the door closes on 2022, reflecting upon what we’ve learned, where we’ve been, and what we’ve read proves to be a thoughtful and important experience. In this episode, Matthew Wickman and George Handley rejoin to discuss a few of the insights and learning experiences they’ll be taking into this upcoming year coming from some of their favorite books read this past year.

Highlighted Episode: Music of Eternity: Meditations for Advent, with Robyn Wrigley-Carr, Alphacrusis College

Humanities Center — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 04:30:01 +0000

This week we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination Podcast. Robyn Wrigley-Carr is Associate Professor in Theology and Spirituality at Alphacrucis College in Sydney, Australia. She serves on the editorial board and is Book Review Editor for the Journal for the Study of Spirituality. She’s written extensively about the 20th century Anglo-Catholic writer, mystic, and spiritual retreat leader Evelyn Underhill and is the author of Archbishop of York’s advent book for 2021, Music of Eternity: Meditations for Advent with Evelyn Underhill. On this episode, Matthew Wickman of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute speaks with Robyn about the interplay between loving God and loving others as well as her advent book.

Christian Poetry in America since 1940, with guests Micah Mattix (Regent University) and Sally Thomas (poetry editor for The New York Sun)

Humanities Center — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 04:30:55 +0000

Micah Mattix is poetry editor at First Things and professor of English at Regent University in Virginia. He has published a book of essays on poetry titled The Soul is a Stranger in This World, and his criticism has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, and The National Review. Sally Thomas is the author of the poetry collection Motherland as well as a novel, Works of Mercy. She has published poetry, fiction, reviews, and essays in such venues as First Things, Plough Quarterly, and the New Yorker. She serves as Associate Poetry Editor for The New York Sun. Together, Mattix and Thomas are editors of a new anthology we discuss today: Christian Poetry since 1940.

Spiritual, Healing Perception in Nature, with guest Douglas Christie, Loyola Marymount University

Humanities Center — Mon, 21 Nov 2022 18:51:15 +0000

Douglas E. Christie is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University. His books include The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Mysticism, Loss, and the Common Life and The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology. His work explores the early foundations of Christianity and connects its spiritual traditions to important issues in our modern world. We speak about a provocative chapter he recently published titled “Healed and Whole Forever: Spiritual Perception in Nature.”

Highlighted Episode: Art as a Window into the Divine, with guest Katie Kresser, Seattle Pacific University

Humanities Center — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 11:25:51 +0000

This week we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination Podcast. Katie Kresser is a Professor of Art History at Seattle Pacific University and author of the 2019 book Bezalel’s Body: The Death of God and the Birth of Art. On this episode, Matthew Wickman, founding director of the BYU Humanities Center, speaks with her about how art accentuates the relationship between the human and the divine. They also discuss Katie’s theological and devotional vision of art and how she arrived at this vision.

The Religious Turn of One of America’s Finest Poets, Denise Levertov, with Cristina Gámez-Fernández, University of Córdoba

Humanities Center — Mon, 31 Oct 2022 03:30:06 +0000

Denise Levertov was an outstanding poet who became one of the finest religious poets of the twentieth century, or any century. Cristina Gámez-Fernández is an outstanding scholar of Levertov’s work, and she joins the podcast to discuss Levertov’s religious poetry in the context of her distinguished career. Gámez-Fernández teaches at the University of Córdoba in Córdoba, Spain, and is the author and editor of many books and articles, including a forthcoming book titled The Singleness of Perception: The Poetics of Denise Levertov.

Life to the Whole Being: The Spiritual Memoir of a Literature Professor, with Matthew Wickman and George Handley, BYU

Humanities Center — Mon, 24 Oct 2022 03:30:47 +0000

Matthew Wickman is a professor of English at Brigham Young University. He served as the founding director of the BYU Humanities Center the past 10 years and is currently the host of this podcast, while also being the associate coordinator of BYU’s Faith and Imagination Institute. Matthew published an evocative book this year entitled “Life to the Whole Being, the Spiritual Memoir of a Literature Professor”, and his friend George Handley, professor of Comparative Literature at BYU and former podcast guest, offered to turn the tables on Matt today and interview him about his new book.

The Mysticism of Ordinary Life, with guest Andrew Prevot, Boston College

Humanities Center — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 03:30:01 +0000

Andrew Prevot is an associate professor of Theology at Boston College. He is the author of the award-winning book Thinking Prayer: Theology and Spirituality amid the Crises of Modernity (2015), and we talk today about a new book to be published next year by Oxford University Press: The Mysticism of Ordinary Life.

Environmental Lamentation and Hope in American Cultural History, with guest John Gatta, Sewanee: The University of the South

Humanities Center — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 03:30:49 +0000

John Gatta is professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut and University of the South, Sewanee. At that latter institution he held, for many years, the distinguished William R. Kenan chair of English, and he’s a former guest of the BYU Humanities Center. He’s the author of several books including an elegant, and sobering, book we discuss today, The Saving Grace of America’s Green Jeremiad.

The Scandal of Holiness, with guest Jessica Hooten Wilson, Pepperdine University

Humanities Center — Mon, 26 Sep 2022 07:15:37 +0000

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the inaugural Visiting Scholar of Liberal Arts at Pepperdine University and senior fellow at Trinity Forum. She’s the author and editor of several books, including Giving the Devil His Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, which won a book of the year award in arts and culture from Christianity Today in 2019, and a book we discuss today, The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints.

“The Hunger for Home”, with guest Matthew Croasmun, Yale University

Humanities Center — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 03:30:03 +0000

Matthew Croasmun is Associate Research Scholar and the Director of the Life Worth Living program at the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and a Lecturer of Divinity and Humanities at Yale University. He’s also a staff pastor at the Elm City Vineyard Church, a dynamic, diverse, urban church he helped found in 2007 and where he served as lead pastor for six years. We talk with him today about two books he’s published with Miroslav Volf: For the Life of the World: Theology That Makes a Difference, published in 2019, and The Hunger for Home: Food and Meals in the Gospel of Luke, published this year by Baylor University Press.

Season 2 Recap: Reflecting Back, Looking Forward

Humanities Center — Mon, 02 May 2022 10:00:55 +0000

Host Matthew Wickman and producers Abby Thatcher and Bobbe May talk about Season 2 of the podcast, discussing meaningful themes and ideas from each of our season’s wonderful guests. They also look ahead to Season 3, beginning in September 2022.

On Writing of Spiritual Things, with guest Charles Shiro Inouye, Tufts University

Humanities Center — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 15:05:52 +0000

Matt engages today in conversation with Charles Shiro Inouye [Ee-No-Oo-Eh], Professor of Japanese Literature and Visual Culture at Tufts University, where he has served as both a department chair and dean of the colleges for undergraduate education. Charles is the author and editor of several important books in Japanese literature and culture. Last year, he published a poignant and compelling memoir titled Zion Earth Zen Sky in the Neal A. Maxwell Living Faith series. As Matt has his own book coming out soon in that series, he talks with Charles about Charles’s beautiful book and also the experience of writing a spiritual memoir – the challenges and rewards it presents and the ways one’s academic training both assists and impedes that endeavor.

Finding Christ in Poetry, with guest Paul J. Pastor, poet

Humanities Center — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 10:00:48 +0000

Paul J. Pastor is a poet and writer who lives in Oregon. He also serves as editor for two Christian imprints at Penguin Random House. We speak with him today about his remarkable recent collection of poems, Bower Lodge, which focuses exquisite attention on the natural world and discerns through its abundant traces of the divine.

Permeable Selfhood, or, The Persons within Persons We Are, with guest Barbara Newman, Northwestern University

Humanities Center — Mon, 04 Apr 2022 14:28:39 +0000

Barbara Newman is the John Evans Professor of Latin and Professor of English, Classics, and History at Northwestern University. She’s the author of a dozen books, including a new one we discuss today. Titled The Permeable Self: Five Medieval Relationships, the book explores the phenomenon of coinherence – the deep, inextricable influences on our personhood by teachers, mothers, romantic partners, and even beings from the supernatural world.

God’s Peaceful Presence in Seasons of War, with guest Irena Dragaš Jansen, writer

Humanities Center — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 13:49:35 +0000

Irena Dragaš Jansen is a freelance writer who explores the power of art and faith. During the 1990s, she and her family were refugees of the war in Croatia and Bosnia. Now a US citizen and married to her husband, Scott, she is pursuing a master’s degree in art history at George Mason University and is involved in program and resource development of non-profits in Croatia.

Highlighted Episode: Art + Faith, with guest Makoto Fujimura, contemporary artist

Humanities Center — Mon, 14 Mar 2022 10:00:37 +0000

This week, we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination podcast. Makoto Fujimura is an acclaimed contemporary artist whose work has been exhibited across the world. He is founder of the International Arts Movement and a former presidential appointee to the National Council on the Arts. Most recently, he is the author of Art and Faith, published in January of last year by Yale University Press. On this episode, Matthew Wickman, founding director of the BYU Humanities Center, speaks with him about those subjects—art and faith—and about finding beauty in human brokenness, the relationship between creativity and religion, and what Fujimura calls the “theology of making.”

“Perhaps”: Reclaiming the Space between Doubt and Dogmatism, with guest Josh McNall, Oklahoma Wesleyan University

Humanities Center — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 08:48:55 +0000

Joshua M. McNall is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology and Church Relations Ambassador at Oklahoma Wesleyan University. He’s the author of several articles and four books, including one we discuss today that was published just last year. That book is Perhaps: Reclaiming the Space between Doubt and Dogmatism, a compelling look at the role of the imagination in helping us negotiate religious complexity and connect more fully with the things of God.

Aging Faithfully, with guest Alice Fryling

Humanities Center — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 10:00:11 +0000

Alice Fryling is a spiritual director and popular author of nine books on subjects like spiritual formation and relationships, including the well-received book Mirror for the Soul: A Christian Guide to the Enneagram. Today, we’re discussing her most recent book, Aging Faithfully: The Holy Invitation of Growing Older.

Christian Spirituality Today, with guest Glen Scorgie, Bethel Seminary

Humanities Center — Mon, 21 Feb 2022 06:00:50 +0000

Glen Scorgie is professor of theology at Bethel Seminary, a licensed minister of the Baptist General Conference, and has served as president of the Canadian Evangelical Theological Association as well as the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality. We discuss his recent keynote lecture about ways that spirituality has become a widespread cultural phenomenon in recent decades and about challenges facing Christian spirituality within and outside universities.

The Theology – and Poetry – of Suffering, Transformation, and Joy, with guest Laura Reece Hogan

Humanities Center — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 10:00:29 +0000

Laura Reece Hogan is an award-winning poet and theologian. Her book I Live, No Longer I: Paul’s Spirituality of Suffering, Transformation, and Joy won four first place Catholic Press Association book awards and her volume of poems, Litany of Flights, won the Paraclete Poetry prize. She is the holder of advanced degrees in theology and law and is a Third Order Carmelite. We discuss the relationship between theology and poetry and the transformative spirituality that sits at the heart of the Christian vision.

A Theology of Life with Depression, with guest Jessica Coblentz, St. Mary’s College

Humanities Center — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 08:56:07 +0000

Jessica Coblentz is an assistant professor of religious studies and theology at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. With Daniel Horan, she co-edited the volume The Human in a Dehumanizing World: Re-Examining Theological Anthropology and Its Implications, coming out later this year. She is the author of another book published just this year by Liturgical Press, a book we discuss today: Dust in the Blood: A Theology of Life with Depression.

Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit, with guest Yolanda Pierce, Howard University

Humanities Center — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 08:00:57 +0000

Yolanda Pierce is professor and dean of the Howard University School of Divinity in Washington, DC. In 2016 she served as Founding Director of the Center for African American Religious Life at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. She formerly worked at Princeton Theological Seminary. The Rev. Dr. Pierce is the author of a beautiful and poignant book published last year titled In My Grandmother’s House: Black Women, Faith, and the Stories We Inherit. We talk today about the morality, sense of identity, and theology she inherited from her religious and familial upbringing, and what she hopes she is leaving behind.

Disability, Grace, and Life Beyond the Meritocracy, with guest Amy Julia Becker

Humanities Center — Mon, 17 Jan 2022 17:27:15 +0000

Amy Julia Becker is an award-winning writer and speaker on personal, spiritual, and social healing. She is the author of four books, including To Be Made Well: An Invitation to Wholeness, Healing, and Hope, releasing in March. She also hosts the Love Is Stronger Than Fear podcast. We speak with her about her article “When Merit Drives Out Grace,” published in Plough Quarterly, which discusses what Amy Julia has learned as parent to a disabled child.

This Sacred Life: Hope in an Era of Climate Crisis, with guest Norman Wirzba, Duke University

Humanities Center — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 07:00:18 +0000

Norman Wirzba is Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. The author of several books, he’s also the director of a multi-year, Henry Luce Foundation-funded project entitled “Facing the Anthropocene.” We talk with him today about his sobering and powerful new book on that subject, This Sacred Life: Humanity’s Place in a Wounded World.

Highlighted Episode: Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis, with guest Sarah Bachelard, Benedictus Contemplative Church

Humanities Center — Mon, 03 Jan 2022 15:11:49 +0000

Today we highlight a past episode of our Faith and Imagination podcast. Founding Director of the BYU Humanities Center Matthew Wickman raises questions of faith in times of crises with Reverend Dr. Sarah Bachelard. They discuss together how to experience God in a time of turmoil and uncertainty, and how to experience a disruption of our sense of identity and purpose that transforms us and calls us to new ways of life.

For those who missed our episode before, Reverend Dr. Sarah Bachelard is an Anglican priest and founder of the Benedictus Contemplative Church in Canberra, Australia. She is also the author of several books, among them Resurrection and Moral Imagination and Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis.

Some Favorite Books We Read in 2021, with guest George Handley, Brigham Young University

Humanities Center — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 17:15:04 +0000

As we come to the end of another year, we all find cause and time to reflect on what we’ve done, who we’ve met, what we’ve learned, and what we’ve read this past year that has changed us, shaped us, or moved us to become someone more generous and thoughtful than who we were at the beginning of 2021. Matthew Wickman, Founding Director of the BYU Humanities Center, and George Handley, a professor in the Comparative Arts and Letters department here at BYU, talk today about the books that made them think this year—think a little better and a little more imaginatively about the ways faith can help us consider our pasts, live more meaningfully in our presents, and shape our resolutions for the future.

George Handley is a professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities in the Department of Comparative Arts and Letters at BYU. He’s also Associate Director of the BYU Faculty Center and serves on the Provo City Council. He is the author of several books, including works of literary criticism and history, environmental studies, a memoir, religious writing, and even a novel.

Music for Eternity: Meditations for Advent, with guest Robyn Wrigley-Carr, Alphacrucis College

Humanities Center — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 08:34:34 +0000

Robyn Wrigley-Carr is Associate Professor in Theology and Spirituality at Alphacrucis College in Sydney, Australia. She serves on the editorial board and is book review editor for The Journal for the Study of Spirituality. She has written extensively about the twentieth century Anglo-Catholic writer, mystic, and spiritual retreat leader Evelyn Underhill, and is the author of the Archbishop of York’s Advent Book for 2021, Music for Eternity: Meditations for Advent with Evelyn Underhill.

Faith Crisis and a Franciscan Response, with guest Daniel P. Horan, St. Mary’s College

Humanities Center — Mon, 06 Dec 2021 15:08:26 +0000

Daniel P. Horan is Director of the Center for Spirituality and Professor of Philosophy and Religion at St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. He’s the author of several books, most recently A White Catholic’s Guide to Racism and Privilege and The Way of the Franciscans: A Prayer Journey through Lent, both published in 2021. A Franciscan friar, Dan is also an amateur but expert photographer, a runner, a podcaster, and the author of a thoughtful article on how a Franciscan perspective can help us navigate the complexities of faith crisis.

Highlighted Episode: On Prayer and Abundance, with guest Tish Harrison Warren, Resurrection South Austin

Humanities Center — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 03:00:17 +0000

This past summer, the Reverend Tish Harrison Warren and Matthew Wickman, Founding Director of the BYU Humanities Center, discussed prayer and abundance together on our podcast. Now, during this season of thanksgiving and considering upon abundance in our lives, and in the lives of those we love, we have decided to highlight this episode.

In case you missed its first release, the Reverend Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America, a former campus minister, and current writer-in-residence at Resurrection South Austin. Matt and Tish talk together about her book, published just this year, titled Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work, or Watch, or Weep. They also discuss Compline, a formal Anglican prayer, and the importance of seeking an abundant life through the act and practice of prayer.

The Art of Christian Reflection, with guest Heidi J. Hornik, Baylor University

Humanities Center — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 03:00:38 +0000

Heidi J. Hornik is Professor of Italian Renaissance and Baroque Art and Chair of the Department of Art and Art History at Baylor University. A recent guest at BYU, she’s also the author of several books, including one we discuss with her today, The Art of Christian Reflection.

Shakespeare, Religion, and Literary Criticism, with guest Charles LaPorte, University of Washington

Humanities Center — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 03:00:27 +0000

Charles LaPorte is Professor of English at the University of Washington and the author of two excellent books on the intersection of literature and religion: Victorian Poets and the Changing Bible, published in 2011, and, just this year, The Victorian Cult of Shakespeare: Bardology in the Nineteenth Century. We discuss ways that nineteenth-century readers engaged Shakespeare as they would sacred texts – and how that approach continues to describe literary studies even in our secular age.

The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice Part 2, with guest Patrick Saint-Jean, Creighton University

Humanities Center — Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:26:08 +0000

Last week, Matthew Wickman, founding director of the BYU Humanities Center, and Patrick Saint-Jean began their discussion of Patrick’s remarkable new book titled The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola. They talked about Patrick’s international education, as he is a native of Haiti and has degrees from universities in France, Mexico, and the United States. Patrick also shared insights from his own spiritual life, including the story of his conversion, as a Jesuit Regent. Today, Matt and Patrick will continue their discussion about antiracism as a spiritual journey facilitated by exercises and passages from his book, and will move beyond the page to talk about what we can do to change our perspectives and be active servants for needed spiritual and social change.

The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice Part 1, with guest Patrick Saint-Jean, Creighton University

Humanities Center — Mon, 18 Oct 2021 03:00:03 +0000

Patrick Saint-Jean is a Jesuit Regent. A native of Haiti, he has degrees from universities in France and Mexico, a postdoc from the University of Chicago, and he completed his theological studies at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Currently teaching psychology at Creighton University, he is also the author of a remarkable new book titled The Spiritual Work of Racial Justice: A Month of Meditations with Ignatius of Loyola. The book, which we discuss today, explores antiracism as a spiritual journey, a transformation of personal attitudes that will lead to better social policies and more opportunities for flourishing for all of God’s children.

This is part one of a two-part episode with Patrick. Please tune in next week for part two of our conversation.

Highlighted Episode: Wilderness Spirituality, with guest Belden Lane

Humanities Center — Mon, 11 Oct 2021 03:00:29 +0000

This week, we reach into our past episodes to highlight Belden Lane’s “Wilderness Spirituality.” We released this episode in the month of May, a time—at least for those following academic calendars—of busy travel and end of semester business. This isn’t a new episode with Belden Lane; rather, we appreciate his thoughts and careful consideration of the wild spaces of the soul so much that another chance to listen to his episode is always welcome.

Just in case you missed it, Belden Lane—Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies, American Religion and History of Spirituality at Saint Louis University—talks with Matthew Wickman, Founding Director of the BYU Humanities Center, about several of his recent books. These include two that beautifully combine attention to nature, the long tradition of Christian mystical writing, and the rhythms of Lane’s own spiritual life—and ours as well.

Grief and Poetry, with guest Kim Langley

Humanities Center — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 13:05:33 +0000

Kim Langley is president of LifeBalance Enterprises and founder of WordSPA (short for spirituality, poetry, appreciation), an organization that engages poetry as a healing art. We talk about her book Send My Roots Rain: A Companion on the Grief Journey, which discusses how poetry helps us grapple with multiple aspects of grief and find purpose, beauty, and joy even amid devastating circumstances.

Teaching Spirituality in the Humanities, with guest Richard White, Creighton University

Humanities Center — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 03:00:13 +0000

Richard White is a professor of philosophy at Creighton University and the author of several books, including, recently, a book about spirituality and philosophy titled Spiritual Philosophers: From Schopenhauer to Irigaray. He recently published an article titled “Teaching Spirituality: A Personal View.” I have my own experience teaching such a course, and Richard and I sit down today to discuss our experiences, what spirituality means as an academic subject in philosophy and literature, and why teaching about spirituality is so challenging and rewarding.

Art as a Window onto the Divine, with guest Katie Kresser, Seattle Pacific University

Humanities Center — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 08:00:27 +0000

Katie Kresser is Professor of Art History at Seattle Pacific University and author of the 2019 book Bezalel’s Body: The Death of God and the Birth of Art. The book describes how art accentuates the relationship between the human and the divine. We talk about Katie’s theological and devotional vision of art and how she arrived at this vision.

Season 1 Recap: Reflecting Back, Looking Forward

Humanities Center — Mon, 09 Aug 2021 16:31:35 +0000

Host Matthew Wickman and producers Abby Thatcher and Sam Jacob talk about Season 1 of the podcast, discussing the origins of the podcast and key takeaways thus far. They also look ahead to Season 2, beginning in just a few weeks.

Theological Aesthetics and the Work of Michael O’Brien, with guest Rebekah Ann Lamb, University of St. Andrews

Humanities Center — Mon, 02 Aug 2021 15:33:51 +0000

Rebekah Ann Lamb is Lecturer in Theology, Imagination, and the Arts at the University of St. Andrews. Her work explores intersections between theology, visual arts, and literature, and she has additional interests in Biblical Studies, Dante, and Christian Personalism, which asserts the ultimate value of persons, human and divine. We speak with her today about theological aesthetics, asking what theology and the arts bring to each other, and focus particularly on the work of the Canadian Catholic artist and novelist Michael D. O’Brien.

Our Denial of Death and the Religious Impulse, with guest Kelsey Osgood, freelance writer

Humanities Center — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 16:02:05 +0000

Kelsey Osgood is a freelance writer and the author of How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia. Her work has appeared in such venues as The New Yorker’s Culture Desk Blog, Time, Harper’s, the New York Times, and Salon. Recently, in Plough Quarterly, she published “The Yahrzeit of Ernest Becker,” a personal essay about coming to terms with large existential questions and how religion responds to our biggest concerns of life and death.

On Prayer and Abundance, with guest Tish Harrison Warren, Resurrection South Austin

Humanities Center — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 09:00:38 +0000

The Reverend Tish Harrison Warren is a priest in the Anglican Church in North America, a former campus minister, and current writer-in-residence at Resurrection South Austin. She is a regular columnist for the magazine Christianity Today and has also written for such venues as The New York Times, Religion News Service, and Comment magazine. She is the author of a book published just this year, titled Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep, where she addressed Compline, a formal Anglican prayer. We discuss Compline, and also other aspects of the act, practice, and effects of prayer.

Faith and Literary Criticism, with guest Mark Knight, University of Lancaster

Humanities Center — Mon, 05 Jul 2021 15:27:51 +0000

Mark Knight is Professor in Literature, Religion, and Victorian Studies at the University of Lancaster and also general editor of the journal Literature and Theology. Mark’s expertise includes nineteenth-century fiction, theology, and postsecular criticism. We talk about his 2019 book Good Words: Evangelicalism and the Victorian Novel, about the difference religion makes to how we understand the past, and about making a place for religion in the secular academy.

Virtues of Renewal, with guest Jeffrey Bilbro, Grove City College

Humanities Center — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 09:00:54 +0000

Jeffrey Bilbro is associate professor of English at Grove City College, editor-in-chief at Front Porch Republic, and the author of several books, including Virtues of Renewal: Wendell Berry’s Sustainable Forms, published in 2019. Jeff discusses how Berry’s thinking stands in stark contrast to many of the norms and habits of modern society and how greater mindfulness of some key virtues may help us find moral, spiritual, and social renewal.

Spirituality as Study and Practice, with Mary Frohlich, Catholic Theological Union (emerita)

Humanities Center — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 00:00:55 +0000

Mary Frohlich is Professor Emerita of Spirituality at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. She is a former president of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality and also author of the 2019 book Breathed into Wholeness: Catholicity and Life in the Spirit. Mary believes that spirituality informs all aspects of life and being, not just our religious lives; it even informs university disciplines. We talk about what spirituality has brought to her academic training, how study as well as faith has informed her spiritual life, and what it means to find life in the Spirit.

Belief and Belonging, with guest Mark Eaton, Azusa Pacific University

Humanities Center — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 14:58:10 +0000

Mark Eaton is Professor of American Literature at Azusa Pacific University and also, since 2015, editor of the journal Christianity and Literature, now in its 70^th year. Last year, Mark published Religion and American Literature since 1950, a book that shows how prominent American novelists portray America’s evolving religious landscape. We talk about the complexity of religion in modern America, literature’s engagement of that complexity, and the challenges of belief that confront us all.