Garret Johnson works with Courage, the Catholic apostolate for people experience same-sex attractions. He describes his experience living the gay lifestyle and responds to my interview with Father Jim Martin, SJ, author of Building a Bridge, and several things Fr Jim said in that conversation that Garrett disagrees with. This is—please be warned—an honest, raw, and redeeming discussion about sex, gay culture, drugs, pornography, identity politics, Catholic doctrine, and the secular narrative. Ga...
Mar 02, 2023•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 42
On a Sunday morning in 1966, a group of white evangelicals dedicated a stained glass window to J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI director was not an evangelical, but his Christian admirers anointed him as their political champion, believing he would lead America back to God. The Gospel of J. Edgar Hoover: How the FBI Aided and Abetted the Rise of White Christian Nationalism (Princeton UP, 2023) reveals how Hoover and his FBI teamed up with leading white evangelicals and Catholics to bring about a white C...
Mar 01, 2023•40 min•Ep. 58
Jason Bruner's How to Study Global Christianity: A Short Guide for Students (Palgrave MacMillan, 2022) provides students with an accessible–yet critically oriented–introduction to the foundational methods and themes in Global Christianity scholarship over the past 40 years. While the field of Global Christianity is itself interdisciplinary, it largely has not reflected upon the various disciplines of which it is comprised. In addressing different methods that have constituted this field of schol...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 44 min•Ep. 19
Today I talked to Kenneth R. Stow about his book Anna and Tranquillo: Catholic Anxiety and Jewish Protest in the Age of Revolutions (Yale UP, 2016). After being seized by the papal police in Rome in May 1749, Anna del Monte, a Jew, kept a diary detailing her captors' efforts over the next thirteen days to force her conversion to Catholicism. Anna's powerful chronicle of her ordeal at the hands of authorities of the Roman Catholic Church, originally circulated by her brother Tranquillo in 1793, r...
Feb 28, 2023•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 374
The United States is in the midst of a religious revolution. Or, perhaps it is better to say a non-religious revolution. Around a quarter of US adults now say they have no religion. The great majority of these religious “nones” also say that they used to belong to a religion but no longer do. These are the nonverts: think “converts,” but from having religion to having none. Even on the most conservative of estimates, there are currently about 59 million of them in the United States. Nonverts: Th...
Feb 26, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 59
Margery Kempe: A Mixed Life (Reaktion Books, 2022) is a new account of the medieval mystic and pilgrim Margery Kempe. Kempe, who had fourteen children, traveled all over Europe and recorded a series of unusual events and religious visions in her work The Book of Margery Kempe, which is often called the first autobiography in the English language. Anthony Bale charts Kempe’s life and tells her story through the places, relationships, objects, and experiences that influenced her. Extensive quotati...
Feb 25, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 28
The illuminations of The Saint John’s Bible have delighted many with their imaginative takes on Scripture. But many struggle to appreciate the calligraphy more deeply than merely noting its beauty. Does calligraphy mean something? How is it beautiful? Planting Letters and Weaving Lines: The Song of Songs, and The Saint Johns Bible (Liturgical Press, 2022), written by a biblical scholar who has spent years working with this Bible, shows how calligraphic art powerfully interplays visual form, text...
Feb 25, 2023•46 min•Ep. 251
Temptation Transformed: The Story of How the Forbidden Fruit Became an Apple (University of Chicago Press, 2023) by Dr. Azzan Yadin-Israel presents a journey into the mystery behind why the forbidden fruit became an apple, upending an explanation that stood for centuries. Dr. Yadin-Israel reveals that Eden’s fruit, once thought to be a fig or a grape, first appears as an apple in twelfth-century French art. He then traces this image back to its source in medieval storytelling. Though scholars of...
Feb 20, 2023•52 min•Ep. 103
Zachary M. Schrag's The Fires of Philadelphia: Citizen-Soldiers, Nativists, and the 1844 Riots Over the Soul of a Nation (Pegasus, 2021) is a gripping and masterful account of the moment one of America's founding cities turned on itself, giving the nation a preview of the Civil War to come. In 1844, Philadelphia was set aflame by a group of Protestant ideologues—avowed nativists—who were seeking social and political power rallied by charisma and fear of the immigrant menace. For these men, it wa...
Feb 20, 2023•59 min•Ep. 1303
Sacred Foundations. The Religious and Medieval Roots of the European State (Princeton University Press, 2023) argues that the medieval church was a fundamental force in European state formation. Existing accounts focus on early modern warfare or contracts between the rulers and the ruled. In contrast, this major study shows that the Catholic Church both competed with medieval monarchs and provided critical templates for governing institutions, the rule of law, and parliaments. The Catholic Churc...
Feb 19, 2023•45 min•Ep. 62
At the time of her death in 1962, Kathleen M. Murphy was recognized as “the most widely and most knowledgeably travelled Irish woman of her time . . . insofar as she let herself be known to the public at all.” An abiding interest in sacred sites and ancient civilizations took Murphy down the Amazon and over the Andes, into the jungles of Southeast Asia and onto the deserts of the Middle East, above the Arctic Circle and behind the Iron Curtain. After the Second World War, Murphy began publishing...
Feb 18, 2023•55 min•Ep. 95
In his new book, The Hope of Life After Death: A Biblical Theology of Resurrection (Intervarsity Press, 2022), Professor Jeff Brannon traces Resurrection and Redemption from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, taking the Bible as a unified whole—not as a library of disparate sources. He is a Biblical scholar and a Protestant Christian in the Reformed (i.e. Calvinist) Tradition. I also asked him to explain our need for salvation and a savior in the first place (which is the same topic I took up in the pr...
Feb 16, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 40
In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon interviews Mairi Cowan, the author of The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada, a microhistory of bewitchment and demonic possession in New France. This account of the possession of Barbe Hallay serves as an example of the social and religious history in and around 17th-century Quebec. With these stories, Cowan illustrates the daily fears and anxieties of people of New France and details how this case of possession co...
Feb 15, 2023•31 min•Ep. 20
In recent years, stories of religious universities and institutions grappling with their slave-owning past have made headlines in the news. People find it shocking that the Church itself could have been involved in such a sordid business. The Slaves of the Churches: A History (Oxford UP, 2020), the result of many years of research, is a study of the origins of this problem. Mary E. Sommar examines how the church sought to establish norms for slave ownership on the part of ecclesiastical institut...
Feb 09, 2023•50 min•Ep. 228
As we start the second year of Almost Good Catholics, I asked my old friend David Basile, the theology teacher (and our very first guest last year) to come back and explain the mystery of our redemption in the sacrifice of Christ crucified. What is more central to our Christian faith, and yet – at least for me – what is more difficult to understand? David Basile is Chair of Theology at Archbishop Rummel High School in Metarie, Louisiana. He explains how Paul’s verdict—“the wages of sin are death...
Feb 09, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 39
The T&T Clark Handbook of Theological Anthropology (T&T Clark, 2020) is a ground-breaking volume that gathers together the voices of veteran theologians and some of the most promising emerging scholars publishing in the field of theological anthropology today. The contributing essays outline the various approaches (classical, modern, postmodern) that Christian theologians have taken to present and interpret the doctrines of creation, the human person as imago dei, sin, grace, and the final desti...
Feb 09, 2023•25 min•Ep. 227
Beginning in the twelfth century, Jewish moneylenders increasingly found themselves in the crosshairs of European authorities, who denounced the evils of usury as they expelled Jews from their lands. Yet Jews were not alone in supplying coin and credit to needy borrowers. Across much of Western Europe, foreign Christians likewise engaged in professional moneylending, and they too faced repeated threats of expulsion from the communities in which they settled. No Return: Jews, Christian Usurers, a...
Feb 05, 2023•51 min•Ep. 58
Peter Hall is my old friend, a once-atheist who now calls himself an agnostic; we’ve known each other for fifteen years since we both taught English literature at an international school in Egypt. He and I talk through our hopes and doubts about God and man. It’s an episode that departs from the Almost Good Catholics model and it begins with me explaining how and why the podcast was moving to the New Books Network: Academic Partners in December of 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit me...
Feb 01, 2023•33 min•Ep. 35
Nicole Archambeau, associate professor of history at Colorado State University, talks about her book, Souls under Siege: Stories of War, Plague, and Confession in Fourteenth-Century Provence (Cornell University Press), with Peoples & Things host, Lee Vinsel. The book explores how the inhabitants of southern France made sense of the ravages of successive waves of plague, the depredations of mercenary warfare, and the violence of royal succession. Many people, Archambeau finds, understood both pla...
Jan 31, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 23
A century after being expelled from Portugal, cryptoJews in Mexico, false converts to Christianity, could not speak of their beliefs for fear of becoming embroiled in the imprisonment, torture, and death in flames that characterized the Inquisition. Without written texts, the Jewish liturgy lost, clans of cryptoJews created a unique body of religious poetry, connecting them to the Laws of Moses, seeking redemption from sin, or hoping for an escape from their embittered lives. The Carvajal clan w...
Jan 30, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 365
Persecution of Christians in the Middle East has been a recurring theme since the middle of the nineteenth century. The topic has experienced a resurgence in the last few years, especially during the Trump era. Middle Eastern Christians are often portrayed as a homogeneous, helpless group ever at the mercy of their Muslim enemies, a situation that only Western powers can remedy. The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire (Baylor UP, 2021) revisits this narrative w...
Jan 29, 2023•49 min•Ep. 18
Jesuit Colleges and Universities in the United States: A History (Catholic University of America Press, 2022) provides a comprehensive history of Jesuit higher education in the United States, weaving together the stories of the fifty-four colleges and universities that the Jesuits have operated (successfully and unsuccessfully) since 1789. It emphasizes the connections among the institutions, exploring how certain Jesuit schools like Georgetown University gave birth to others like Boston College...
Jan 28, 2023•39 min•Ep. 27
Since 2016, and with the blessing of Pope Francis, Father Jim Martin has been talking with LGBT Catholics about their relationship with their church. That’s the subject of his book, Building a Bridge, and also a documentary film by the same title; we talk about what the bridge is and where it might take us. He also reflects on his vocation as a Jesuit priest and editor-at-large at America Magazine: the Jesuit Review and about his travels in the Holy Land. In this episode we refer back to earlier...
Jan 27, 2023•56 min•Season 1Ep. 30
David Geisser was a Swiss Guard protecting Pope Francis and the Apostolic Palace between 2013 and 2015. He was following the footsteps of his father who had been in the service a generation earlier under Pope John Paul II, including on the dark day (May 13, 1981) when a would-be assassin shot the Holy Father. I ask him about his experiences in one of the oldest (est. 1506) and smallest (135 men) military organizations in history. David Geisser’s YouTube channel, It’s Cooking Time National Geogra...
Jan 26, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 29
One morning in December of 2012, Laura Phelps’s little children went to school and lived through an attack by a madman who shot 20 of their classmates. Laura’s community was devastated and she became a ‘Sandy Hook Mom’ helping people find their way through trauma of this senseless violence. She describes her walk with Mary, who watched the execution of her innocent and perfect son, in her book, Sweet Cross: A Marian Guide to Suffering. Laura Phelps’s website. Stabat Mater, Pergolesi (1736) Learn...
Jan 25, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 28
Derya Little has been a Muslim, an atheist, and a Protestant; today she is a Catholic writer and apologist. She tells the story of her conversion, talks about faith, family, Islam, history, the role of women in our Church. Since she and I are both fans of Star Trek and some other science fiction narratives, we riff about these as well (through a lens tinted by Dostoyevsky’s ‘Grand Inquisitor’). Derya Little is the author of From Islam to Christ (2017), At His Feet: Drawing Closer to Christ with ...
Jan 24, 2023•1 hr 14 min•Season 1Ep. 27
Ayyaz Gulzar, journalist and Catholic youth leader in Pakistan, describes the challenges and persecutions the Church faces in the Islamic Republic, which includes the county’s blasphemy laws. He also talks about the many successes and joys he has seen—and some surprises, for example Muslim women praying the ‘Hail Mary’ for Our Lady’s help during childbirth. We recorded this conversation during the floods of the summer of 2022 which have been described as the worst in the country’s history. Artic...
Jan 23, 2023•49 min•Ep. 26
Danielle Bean talks about everyday mysticism and learning to listen for God in her book, Whisper: Finding God in the Everyday. God is there in our daily tasks and especially in our daily relationships. She also talks about the special role that women play in the Catholic Church – the feminine genius – from the Virgin Mary to today’s busy moms. Both of these threads are a delightful continuation of our earlier discussion about St. Thérèse of Lisieux and the Little Way (with Heather King and Laure...
Jan 22, 2023•58 min•Season 1Ep. 25
Jeremy Christiansen’s autobiography, From the Susquehanna to the Tiber, tells the story of his happy Mormon upbringing, the questioning of his faith, and his ultimate pilgrimage to the Catholic Church. The journey was a thorough investigation into 200 years of Mormon History and 2000 years of the foundations of the Christian Church. It was a long adventure and one that shook his family and marriage. Jeremy Christiansen’s book (Sandman Books website): From the Susquehanna to the Tiber. Jeremy Chr...
Jan 21, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 1Ep. 24
Wolfgang Muller, Marriage Litigation in the Western Church, 1215- 1517 (Cambridge University Press, 2021). From the establishment of a coherent doctrine on sacramental marriage to the eve of the Reformation, late medieval church courts were used for marriage cases in a variety of ways. Ranging widely across Western Europe, including the Upper and Lower Rhine regions, England, Italy, Catalonia, and Castile, this study explores the stark discrepancies in practice between the North of Europe and th...
Jan 21, 2023•54 min•Ep. 23
