The twentieth-century Welsh poet R.S. Thomas has been called a poet of Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday falls between the day of Christ’s crucifixion and the morning of His resurrection. Commemorative of Christ’s descent to the realm of the dead, Holy Saturday, and the poetry of R.S. Thomas, also speak evocatively to times when we feel …
Art + Faith, with guest Makoto Fujimura
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 + Faith, published in January of this year by Yale University Press. On …
Public Theology and the Common Good, with guest Anne Snyder, Comment Magazine
On this episode of the Faith and Imagination podcast, we spoke with Anne Snyder. Anne is editor-in-chief of Comment Magazine, a national venue for public theology, and she founded their partner project Breaking Ground, a collaborative web commons created to address the crises of the past year with wisdom, imagination, and hope. She is also the author of the book The Fabric of Character: A …
Faith in Poetry, with guest Michael D. Hurley, Cambridge University
We sometimes playfully label things we love – a great movie, a sporting event, a delectable meal – “religious experiences.” But today’s guest, Professor Michael D. Hurley of Cambridge University, says that some well-known English authors sought earnestly to create precisely that kind of experience, a religious experience, through their poetry. Professor Hurley teaches at …
Experiencing God in a Time of Crisis, with guest Sarah Bachelard, Benedictus Contemplative Church
How do we experience God in a time of crisis? Which may be to ask, how do we experience God? How do we experience a disruption of our sense of identity and purpose that transforms us and calls us to a new way of life? Our guest on this episode of the Faith and Imagination …
Spiritual Meaning-Making During the Pandemic, with guest David Perrin, St. Jerome’s University
Feelings of self-transcendence, of connectedness to God, others, and the world, are widely seen as a principal feature of spiritual well-being. So when pandemic conditions shut us in and, to a degree, cut us off from our normal routines of living, this can lead to psychological and even spiritual depression. David Perrin is a professor of …
Storytelling as Theology, with guest Christina Bieber Lake, Wheaton College
The novel has long been celebrated as an art form that captures the complexity of human life, often by portraying the human condition in the density of its everyday circumstances. But today’s guest, Christina Bieber Lake, sees the novel as an expressly theological exercise. Dr. Lake, the Clyde S. Kilby Professor of English at Wheaton …
Literature, Religion . . . Vocation, with guest David Mahan, Yale University
Recently, I became aware of, and joined, a new network of scholars called the SOLAR Network, S-O-L-A-R, for Scholars of Literature and Religion. And this network got me thinking about a range of networks, or interactions, cutting across the worlds of faith and intellect: literature and religion, universities and their communities, theology and practice, and …
On Being Postsecular, with guest Lori Branch, University of Iowa
Postsecular thought refutes an assumption that so many of us take for granted, namely, that we live in a secular age. But what does it mean to be postsecular? Does it mean that we are no longer secular beings? Does it mean that we’re now living in a different era? Did a truly post secular …
Trailer: “Faith and Imagination,” a New Podcast from the BYU Humanities Center
Hello listeners, we wanted to let you all know of a new podcast series from the Center coming this Monday, January 25th 2021, called “Faith and Imagination.” This new podcast series will feature interviews between Dr. Matthew Wickman, founding director of the BYU Humanities Center, and various scholars and others who address the cross sections …