Welcome to Episode 8 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Elizabeth A. Castelli. Elizabeth A. Castelli is Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University She is a specialist in biblical studies, late ancient Christianity, and feminist/gender studies in religion. As you will hear in this episode, she is particularly interested in the reception history and "afterlives" of biblical and early Christian texts, that is, how the how the Bible and early Christian sources are used in contemporary social, political, and cultural expressions and debates.

I found this conversation really enlightening for framing conversations about martyrs and martyrdom in our present times. It was helpful to get this deep background about ancient Christian martyrdom and narratives about martyrdom. In terms of the content, I mentioned I would link to a few texts and websites. Here is a link for the four El Salvadoran Church women (Maryknoll Sisters Maura Clarke and Ita Ford, Ursuline Sister Dorothy Kazel, and lay missionary Jean Donovan) who died specifically for their Christian faith in 1980.

Two places that identified Charlie Kirk as a martyr are linked here: The American Mind classified, Charlie Kirk as a martyr as did the Trinity Bible Chapel in Waterloo, Ontario.

You can find the letter of Severus that used a memory of martyrdom to inspire violence and forced conversion of the Jews many hundreds of years ago at the link here.

This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free!

Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement

Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Sarah K. Johnson. The Rev. Canon Dr. Sarah Kathleen Johnson is Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Pastoral Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa and the author of Occasional Religious Practice: Valuing a Very Ordinary Religious Experience (Oxford University Press, 2025). Sarah is also an ordained Mennonite minister and has been made an honorary canon by the Anglican Church. Her research at the intersection of liturgical studies and sociology of religion explores Christian worship in a changing religious landscape. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and served as president of the Canadian Theological Society.

Today's podcast is not specifically on the occasional religious practice that Sarah will be speaking about on November 12, 2025 for the CCE at St. Mark's College, but new research with which she has been engaged on young people and worship. With scholars at Samford University in the USA, and others, Sarah is exploring how and why young people worship at a variety of Christian faith traditions.

This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free!

Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement

Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 4! This episode marks the formal beginning to the Christian Nationalism project, which might acquire a new name soon, that will run from 2025 to 2028, culminating in a conference in May or June 2028. In this episode I speak with Dr. Steven W. Tyra. Dr. Steven W. Tyra holds a PhD in Historical Theology from Baylor University, with expertise in both John Calvin and Martin Luther. He is currently a History and Theology Teacher in the Midway Independent SD, Waco, Texas.

He is the author of Neither the Spirit without the Flesh: John Calvin's Doctrine of the Beatific Vision, published by T&T Clark in 2024. He is currently underway on his second book, which will be published by Bloomsbury Press. Steven has also written two significant articles that challenge the biblical and reformation roots of Christian nationalism which we will discuss today. The first, "'Christ is not the shepherd of wolves': Reading John Calvin on Dominion in a Time of Christian Nationalism" will be published soon in Church History and Religious Culture. I was able to read a draft copy prior to speaking with Steven. The second, "Babeling Nationalism: Reading Genesis 11:1–9 with Luther and Calvin" is published in Principia: A Journal of Classical Education 3, no. 1 (2024) and is available for free download. Please do read it.

This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free!

Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement

Welcome to Episode 3 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Paul Spilsbury, recently appointed President of Regent College in July 2025. Paul came to Canada from South Africa in 1984 to attend Prairie Bible College in Alberta. As you will hear, he also graduated from Regent College and then completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge (Queens' College) before returning to Canada to teach.

Paul's teaching is centered on the New Testament, with a particular focus on the Apostle Paul and the Book of Revelation, as seen in his book The Throne, the Lamb and the Dragon: A Reader's Guide to the Book of Revelation (IVP, 2002), but much of his research is on Second Temple or Hellenistic Judaism, such as The Image of the Jew in Flavius Josephus' Paraphrase of the Bible (Mohr Siebeck, 1998), Flavius Josephus, Judean Antiquities 8–10: Translation and Commentary (Brill, 2005—with C. Begg), and Flavius Josephus, Judean Antiquities 11: Translation and Commentary (Brill, 2017—with C. Seeman).

He is modest about his painting, but he is a juried member of the Federation of Canadian Artists, working primarily in watercolours. Check out some of his paintings at https://www.schindellgallery.ca/artists/paul-spilsbury, or follow him on Instagram. I loved what Paul had to see about the physicality of painting. The life of the mind is a delight, but we are embodied people and we need to pick up a paintbrush, or a shovel, or a hammer, whatever it is, and connect to our bodies.

You must have gotten a sense of Paul Spilsbury's joy as he takes on a significant role in the life of a significant theological college, a joy that springs from his falling in love with the Bible many years ago. But he also expressed his happiness that Regent is a community in which there is genuine shared governance and his role is as a faithful steward, a shepherd. He is not on his own in this work. He also spoke of Regent College as a community connected and dedicated to the arts, to literature, to the world around them, but that all emerges from its grounding in Scripture and the biblical world, as Paul's own research is too.

This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free!

Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement

Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Joan E. Taylor, Professor Emerita of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College, London and Honorary Professor at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia. She is a remarkable scholar with wide-ranging expertise of the historical Jesus, the Bible, early Christianity, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Second Temple Judaism, with special expertise in archaeology, and women's and gender studies.

I'm only going to give you a few of the titles of her many books:

Christians and the Holy Places: The Myth of Jewish Christian Origins (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993; rev. ed. 2003).

The Immerser: John the Baptist within Second Temple Judaism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1997; also published as John the Baptist: A Historical Study (London: SPCK, 1997).

Jewish Women Philosophers of First-Century Alexandria - Philo's 'Therapeutae' Reconsidered (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003; paperback edition 2006).

The Essenes, the Scrolls and the Dead Sea (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).

What Did Jesus Look Like? (Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2018).

with David Hay, Philo of Alexandria: On the Contemplative Life (Philo of Alexandria Commentary Series, Leiden: Brill, 2021).

with Helen Bond, Women Remembered: Jesus' Female Disciples (Hodder & Stoughton, 2022).

And most recently, and the book we will discuss today: Boy Jesus: Growing Up Judean in Turbulent Times (Zonderban Academic, 2025).

I've utilized Dr. Taylor's research on a regular basis, especially her material on the Dead Sea Scrolls and on Philo of Alexandria and the Therapeutae. Today however we are going to be focused on her new book Boy Jesus. I found the book fascinating and challenging and I think you'll hear that as we discuss it. It's fascinating and challenging because it asks us to use our imaginations and to take seriously the infancy narratives as containing historical memory and to ask ourselves what if these events described in the infancy narratives were based in historical events.

This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.

What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors.

A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly.

I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free!

Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement