On this episode of the podcast, I talk with Dr. Norman Wirzba about his new book, Love’s Braided Dance: Hope in a Time of Crisis. It’s a conversation about the nature of hope, especially in the midst of darkness, where no hope can seem to be found, and how learning to love moves us forward. Among the topics we discuss:

• Why asking "what gives you hope?" may not be the best question and why "what do you love" is a better one
• Why it is so important that hope reckons with evil in its most disheartening forms
• Where joy might be found in the midst of the brokenness of the world
• How we can fight the impulse of paralysis or exhaustion
• The importance of recognizing our interdependence within creation
• What it means to say that love is "improvisational" and a "dance"

Get the book: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300272659/loves-braided-dance/

On this episode of the podcast, I interview journalist and author Collin Hansen about his new book titled Tim Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation. The conversation explores a prominent model of evangelism and cultural engagement by a Reformed pastor in contemporary times. Among the topics we discuss:

• The process of writing a different sort of biography of Tim Keller, focused on the people who influenced him
• Notable influences on Keller's ministry, with familiar and unfamiliar names (Kathy Keller, Jonathan Edwards, C.S. Lewis, R.C. Sproul, Elizabeth Elliot, Ed Clowney, Jack Miller, Barbara Boyd)
• What to make of the (recent) online backlash against Keller
• An updated assessment of the "young, restless, and reformed" movement from the person who helped coin the term
• The relationship of "Reformed" and "evangelical" and how they could be a source of renewal for each other
• How the work of journalism might be redeemed as a way of telling stories about the way that God is at work in the world.

Get the book: https://www.zondervan.com/9780310128700/timothy-keller/

On this episode of the podcast, we talk with Dr. Ruben Rosario Rodriguez, about his new book Calvin for the World. Dr. Rosario makes what might be to some a surprising argument: that beyond the smaller circles where Calvin is revered, the real Calvin casts a capacious vision for our troubled times. Among the topics we discuss:

• Dr. Rosario's story of his life with Calvin, and how Calvin made a difference growing up in Puerto Rico, studying in NY, pastoring in a rural community, and now teaching at a Jesuit University.
• Assessing Calvin's legacy and responding to his detractors
• "Liking" Calvin vs. respecting and appreciating Calvin
• The parallels and divergences between Calvin and liberation theology
• Calvin (and Calvinism) responding to the experience of exile and the phenomenon of refugees
• Calvin's transnational ecclesiology and what we can learn from him today

Get the book: https://bakeracademic.com/p/calvin-for-the-world-rub-n-rosario-rodr-guez/553612