Think clearly. Act well. Appreciate life.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 70th 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 …
Belden Lane is Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies, American Religion, and History of Spirituality at Saint Louis University. He is the author of several books, most recently two we discuss today that beautifully combine attention to nature, the long tradition of Christian mystical writing, and the rhythms of Lane’s own spiritual life – and ours …
Debra Rienstra is Professor of English at Calvin University, where she teaches early modern British Literature and creative writing. She is the author of several books and is a respected voice on various aspects of Christian life. Presently she is developing a project, and hosts a podcast, associated with refugia, which are places of environmental, …
Van Gessel is Professor Emeritus of Japanese Literature at Brigham Young University, where he also served as dean of the College of Humanities. He is a distinguished scholar of Japanese literature, including of the Japanese Catholic writer Shusaku Endo, six of whose novels (and two short story collections) Van has also translated. Endo writes hauntingly …
Deanna Thompson is Martin E. Marty Regents Chair in Religion and the Academy at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where she also serves as Inaugural Director of the Lutheran Center for Faith, Values, and Community. A distinguished Christian theologian, she has written powerfully in recent years about her experience of living with cancer – the …
