Episodios

  • A Conversation with Sara Parks

    A Conversation with Sara Parks
    Jun 26 2024
    Welcome to the twenty-third episode of the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Sara Parks. Sara Parks is Assistant Professor in Religious Studies, teaching and conducting research in the field of Early Christianity at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. She joined St. Francis Xavier University in the Fall of 2022. She was formerly Assistant Professor in New Testament at Dublin City University, and before that was a Leverhulme Fellow and Assistant Professor in New Testament Studies at the University of Nottingham in England. We spent much of our time discussing her excellent book Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus, a highly readable introduction to some complex questions and issues in Gospel studies. I recommend it if you are interested in questions regarding the historical Jesus, Q, Jesus’ gendered parables, women in the teaching and ministry of Jesus, and how to assess Jesus, early Christianity, and feminism. What better way to start summer? If you are listening to this podcast, I think you know I’m not joking! The book is excellent and I learned something new within the first five pages of starting it. Also check out her co-authored book with Shayna Sheinfeld,and Meredith J. C. Warren, Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean, a recent winner of the 2023 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies Frank W. Beare Award. 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. This is a podcast about big questions, about big issues, about what matters most to people, what’s important to you, what gets you up out of bed in the morning or keeps you up late at night wondering. We are looking at these big questions and big issues through the lens of individual stories and individual lives. Religious traditions and institutions might be systems, ancient and modern, but people are people and religion lives in and through people. 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. And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: As I mentioned in the last episode, there will be a hiatus of recording new episodes with guests at some point this summer, but we are going to get you new material all through the summer. On June 3rd, Father Nick Meisl will be interviewing me at the St. Mark’s library regarding a new study Bible I edited with Fr. Paul Turner called the Liturgy and Life Study Bible. It is a finalist for the Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Publishing Award for 2024 in the Resources in Liturgy category. It’s a Bible focused on worship within the bible and how the Bible is utilized in worship today. We will be taping the conversation and will have that available for you within a week or two of our conversation. We will also be making available the keynote lectures from our Pope Francis conference from May 2023, featuring Massimo Faggioli, please don’t sue me, Emilce Cuda, who is so good, and Cathy Clifford, whose keynote Sam Rocha told me might have been the best lecture he had ever heard. Some upcoming events: We will be having some new events starting in Fall of next year, including a joint presentation on September 13 on AI with regent College and VST in which we screen a film called The End of Humanity followed by ba panel discussion. Register here for in-person tickets. On October 29, we will have a webinar on the American election featuring Steve Millies and his new book, A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement with U.S. Politics. We will also have a Canadian respondent. Much more to come on Fall 2024 and other speakers! On December 5, we will have Matt Hoven presenting in-person on his new book on Fr. David Bauer, Hockey Priest. Finally, the CCE is presenting a conference in 2025, The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future, MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. Please consider sending in a proposal for a paper. If you are a graduate student and we accept your proposal to present a paper, we will cover your conference registration fees and the cost of the conference banquet. You do not have to present a paper to come. You can purchase a conference pass and simply attend all of the sessions. Consider joining us in Vancouver in 2025. You should also know that the plenary or keynote addresses are free and open to the public, Three Confirmed Plenary Speakers: Dr. Margaret MacDonald, St. Mary's University, Halifax Dr. Samuel Rocha...
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    1 h y 23 m
  • A Conversation with John W. Martens on the Liturgy and Life Study Bible, featuring Fr. Nick Meisl

    A Conversation with John W. Martens on the Liturgy and Life Study Bible, featuring Fr. Nick Meisl
    Jun 11 2024
    This is the twenty-second episode of the second season of What Matters Most, featuring me speaking with Fr. Nick Meisl! Why? I was interviewed by Father Nick Meisl, my colleague and friend, who appeared on episode 13 of season 2 of What Matters Most. The original interview took place on June 3, 2024, at St. Mark’s Library for the book launch of the Liturgy and Life Study Bible, which was just awarded first place for Excellence in Catholic Publishing 2024 in the Liturgy category by the Association of Catholic Publishers on May 31, 2024. Fr. Paul Turner and I were the general editors for this 6 year long project. You’ll learn all about the study Bible in this episode. We had a lovely crowd to celebrate the event and we taped it for your listening pleasure and…it did not record! So, on June 7, Nick and I recorded the conversation again, which you are listening to right now. If you are interested in checking out more of my writing, please check out my author page on Amazon, my blog Bible Junkies, and my page at America Magazine, where I wrote over 600 pieces. If you want to hear a little more of me, check out Jesuitical and Outside the Walls. I mentioned the story of Eutyches in this episode and said I thought it came from Acts 21, or Acts 20. It is actually from Acts 20: 7-12. I was close! Finally, check out the new CCE website, designed by Kenton McDonald-Lin! It is still in development, but look around, check it out, and let us know what you think. And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: I have already spoken to Dr. Sara Parks of St. Francis Xavier University, so get ready for that terrific discussion coming soon. We discussed her book Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus, Women in Q, historical Jesus research in general, was Jesus a feminist, and what exactly is Q. There will be a hiatus of recording new episodes with guests at some point this summer, but we are going to get you new material all through the summer. We will be making available the keynote lectures from our Pope Francis conference from May 2023, featuring Massimo Faggioli, Emilce Cuda, and Cathy Clifford. Some upcoming events: We will be having some new events starting in Fall of next year, including a joint presentation on September 13 on AI with regent College and VST. In October, date to be determined, we will have a webinar on the American election featuring Steve Millies and his new book, A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement with U.S. Politics. We will also have a Canadian respondent. Much more to come on Fall 2024 and other speakers! Finally, the CCE is presenting a conference in 2025, The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future, MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. Please consider sending in a proposal for a paper. If you are a graduate student and we accept your proposal to present a paper, we will cover your conference registration fees and the cost of the conference banquet. You do not have to present a paper to come. You can purchase a conference pass and simply attend all of the sessions. Consider joining us in Vancouver in 2025. Three Confirmed Plenary Speakers: Dr. Margaret MacDonald, St. Mary's University, Halifax Dr. Samuel Rocha, University of British Columbia, Vancouver Reverend Dr. Stan Chu Ilo, De Paul University, Chicago 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. Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. 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. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series. Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca. Let us know what you think. I also want to thank people who have been rating the podcast. The ratings have grown in number and they remain at 5 stars. Thank you so much for your kind support. ask you to help out by letting people know about the podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. You can also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most ...
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    1 h y 11 m
  • A Conversation with Dr. Jaime L. Waters

    A Conversation with Dr. Jaime L. Waters
    May 29 2024
    This is the twenty-first episode of the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Jaime L. Waters of Boston College, an Associate Professor of Old Testament and Program Director of Courage to Preach. I met Jaime in person last summer in Omaha, Nebraska at the Catholic Biblical Association meetings and we bonded over biblical studies, a shared run as authors of the Word, the scripture column at America Magazine, and a shared anxiety about getting to the airport in time. Basically, it’s never too early. Dr. Waters is a native Philadelphian and alumna of Boston College (BA, Theology and Philosophy), with graduate degrees from Yale Divinity School (MA, Religion) and Johns Hopkins University (MA, PhD, Near Eastern Studies). Before joining the Boston College faculty, Dr. Waters taught for nine years in the department of Catholic Studies at DePaul University. She also spoke of her love of Jeremiah and some of the imagery of animal suffering, which evoked her own interest in ecological hermeneutics, the environment and the non -human characters in the biblical texts. But also, her discussion of the relevance of Jeremiah for African American women, especially the passages that talk about the suffering of childbirth, the pain and anguish associated with it, and how many African American women in the US suffer from inadequate medical care, which is not about not having resources or access to care, but whose experience is not being listened to. As she said, her keynote paper at the CBA was a way of developing her own feminist and womanist kinds of ways of reading the Bible. We will certainly hear more on this as Dr. Waters is currently working on a commentary on the book of Jeremiah for the Wisdom Commentary Series (Liturgical Press), as well as a book on methods of biblical interpretation (Baker Academic). She also wrote “The Word” column in America: The Jesuit Review of Faith & Culture, 2019-2022, which we discussed in the episode, and you can find her work online at America magazine on the link above. If you want to dig into more of Dr. Waters work, click on the link to her Boston College webpage here and you will find some of the writings listed below: “A Biblical Model of Love.” Pages 73-80 in Fratelli Tutti: A Global Commentary. Studies in World Catholicism 13. Edited by William T. Cavanaugh, Carlos Mendoza-Álvarez, OP, Ikenna Ugochukwu Okafor, and Daniel Franklin E. Pilario, CM. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2024. “Prophetic Tenacity.” Pages 62-74 in Do Black Lives Matter?: How the Christian Scriptures Speak to Black Empowerment. Edited by Lisa M. Bowens and Dennis R. Edwards. Eugene: Cascade Books, 2023. “Pain and Provocation: A Social-Scientific Reading of Jeremiah 15.” Pages 127-135 in A Sage in New Haven: Essays on the Prophets, the Writings, and the Ancient World in Honor of Robert R. Wilson. Edited by Alison Acker Gruseke and Carolyn J. Sharp. Ägypten und Altes Testament, Band 117. Münster: Zaphon, 2023. What Does the Bible Say About Animals? Hyde Park: New City Press, 2022. Threshing Floors in Ancient Israel: Their Ritual and Symbolic Significance. Emerging Scholars Series. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015. Before moving on, I mentioned my old colleague Arthur Kennedy, a bishop in Boston – imagine that a Kennedy in Boston - and in 2006 Cardinal O’Malley asked him to return to Boston and appointed him as Rector of St. John’s Seminary where he remained until 2012. On June 30, 2010, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Boston. He was ordained to the episcopal office on September 14, 2010 at Holy Cross Cathedral. 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. This is a podcast about big questions, about big issues, about what matters most to people, what’s important to you, what gets you up out of bed in the morning or keeps you up late at night wondering. We are looking at these big questions and big issues through the lens of individual stories and individual lives. Religious traditions and institutions might be systems, ancient and modern, but people are people and religion lives in and through people. 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. And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: Dr. Sara Parks of St. Francis Xavier University, where I hope to discuss many things, but definitely her excellent book Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus, Women in Q. if you have an ...
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    1 h y 17 m
  • A Conversation with UBC Sikh Chaplain Inderjeet Singh

    A Conversation with UBC Sikh Chaplain Inderjeet Singh
    May 15 2024
    This is the twentieth episode of the second season of What Matters Most. I spoke with UBC Sikh Chaplain Inderjeet Singh. This episode was recorded in February 2024, but due to a backlog of episodes is only being released in May 2024. I am happy for you to be able to hear it and learn about Sikhism. Indy, as his friends know him, offered a lot of information about the origins of Sikhism in India, and its connections and differences from Hinduism and Islam and Buddhism, even as these religions clearly influenced Sikhism and do so today through the Guru Granth Sahib, the collection of holy writings that make up what is considered the final guru. I thought the discussion regarding Gurus, teachers, not prophets he stressed, was enlightening. There were ten human gurus and we discussed the first guru, Nanak, and the second guru, Angad, as well as the tenth and final human Guru Gobind Singh, who decreed that the Guru Granth Sahib , linked here, would be the final and eternal Guru; but "the first version of the book was compiled by the 5th Sikh Guru, Arjun, at Amritsar in 1604 ce. He included his own hymns and those of his predecessors, the Gurus Nanak, Angad, Amar Das, and Ram Das, and a selection of devotional songs of both Hindu and Islamic saints (notably the poet Kabīr)," as the Encyclopedia Britannica describes. Guru Granth Sahib is a fascinating collection of literature as it is in many ways a compilation, as just described, of writings from other religions and original compilations from many of the Gurus. This might as Indy said lead to particular issues of translation, but anyone who has translated literature from another language, especially religious literature, knows, it is a process fraught with issues and complexities. Most of the “hymns are arranged according to the musical modes (ragas) in which they are to be sung. The language is mostly Punjabi or Hindi, interspersed with Marathi, Persian, and Arabic words.” Marathi is a language spoken mostly in the Indian state of Maharashtra. There is a lot more to learn about Sikhism and I would be interested to hear from listeners to the podcast: is there a particular aspect of Sikhism you are most interested in knowing more about? Please let me know. Perhaps something more on langar, the free kitchen that is found in Sikh gurdwaras. Inderjeet coordinates Guru Nanak's Free Kitchen, which provides nearly 50,000 meals per year to the unhoused on Vancouver's Eastside. Or perhaps more on the theology of Sikhism? This is something about which I would love to learn more. 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. Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. 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. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series. Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca. Let us know what you think. I also want to thank people who have been rating the podcast. The ratings have grown in number and they remain at 5 stars. Thank you so much for your kind support. ask you to help out by letting people know about the podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. You can also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. This lets people find the podcast more easily and lets people like you enjoy the work that we are doing. I think these are important and inspiring discussions and I would like people to have a chance to listen in! Upcoming Episodes: And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: Dr. Sara Parks of St. Francis Xavier University, where I hope to discuss many things, but definitely her excellent book Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus, Women in Q. if you have an opportunity to read it before she appears later this summer, please do. It’s excellent and I learned something new within the first five pages of starting it. There will be a hiatus of recording new episodes at some point this summer, but I am trying to figure out how we might nevertheless get ...
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    1 h y 48 m
  • A Conversation with Dr. Hans Harmakaputra

    A Conversation with Dr. Hans Harmakaputra
    May 1 2024
    We are deep into season 2 now with the nineteenth episode of What Matters Most. I spoke with Dr. Hans A. Harmakaputra, an Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Classics at Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota about Christian and Muslim saints and views of sainthood. Hans Harmakaputra is the author of A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Saints: The Community of God's Friends, which was at the heart of much of our discussion on today’s podcast. Hans is from Indonesia, a country whose religious environment shaped much of the research for this book. Indonesia is a majority Muslim country, with a substantial Christian minority, Protestant and Catholic. It’s Indonesia that led to questions about what makes a person a saint because both Muslims and Christians share this conception and Hans will talk about an Indonesian Muslim, Abdurrahman Wahid, who is widely considered a saint among Christians and Muslims in Indonesia. Some of this emerges from popular conceptions of sainthood, but as Hans says in the podcast, “some people make a difference between popular religion and this is the official theology. And for me, there is no such thing. People always try their best to connect with the tradition, but also have a hybrid forms of religiosity.” As a scholar, Harmakaputra writes, “I employ a comparative theology method to draw insights from a Muslim understanding of saints and sainthood in order to enrich the Christian theological discourse on saints.” He examines in his book and we discuss scholars such as the Jesuit priest Frans Van der Lugt and the Muslim poet and Philosopher Ibn Arabi, as well as catholic scholars Karl Rahner, Jean-Luc Marion, and Elizabeth Johnson, and Protestant scholars Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Paul Tillich. Below you will find links to his book and the major thinkers we discussed: A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Saints: The Community of God's Friends; Abdurrahman Wahid; The Jesuit priest and martyr Frans Van der Lugt; The Muslim poet and Philosopher Ibn Arabi; Karl Rahner; Jean-Luc Marion; Elizabeth Johnson; Dietrich Bonhoeffer; and Paul Tillich. 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. Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. 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. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series. Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca. Let us know what you think. I also want to thank people who have been rating the podcast. The ratings have grown in number and they remain at 5 stars. Thank you so much for your kind support. ask you to help out by letting people know about the podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. You can also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. This lets people find the podcast more easily and lets people like you enjoy the work that we are doing. I think these are important and inspiring discussions and I would like people to have a chance to listen in! Upcoming Episodes: And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: Mr. Inderjeet Singh, Sikh chaplain at UBC; Dr. Jaime Waters, Boston College; Dr. Sara Parks, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, Nova Scotia. Finally, some upcoming events: May 17, 2024 Sister Damien Marie Savino will be offering the second annual Laudato Si’ lecture, Educating for Laudato Si' at St. Mark’s College. Please click on the link to register! May 16, 2024, Sister Damien Marie Savino will also be doing a workshop on Laudato Si’ at St Joseph the Worker church in Richmond, B.C., so if you are local please come for 7 pm to the parish centre on May 16. Finally, the CCE is presenting a conference in 2025, The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future, MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. Please consider sending in a proposal for a paper. If you are a graduate student and we accept your proposal to ...
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    1 h y 15 m
  • A Conversation with Dr. Alexandre Martins

    A Conversation with Dr. Alexandre Martins
    Apr 19 2024
    Welcome to the eighteenth episode of season 2 of What Matters Most. I spoke to Alex Martins from his office in Milwaukee in February and have been waiting to get this episode to you for the past two months. Alexandre A. Martins is a theologian and bioethicist from Brazil; he is also a nurse. He received a Ph.D. in theological ethics/bioethics from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (USA) where he studied bioethics and global public health from a liberation approach. He then received a Post-Doctorate Degree in Democracy and Human Rights from the Human Rights Center at the Law School of the University of Coimbra, Portugal. He is a specialist in health care ethics and social ethics, especially in the areas of public health, global health, community-based health care, and Catholic social teaching, which you will hear about on this episode. As he tells us in this episode, citing Pope Francis, “you have to listen to the poor,” specifically in terms of health care, to move away from dependency, to sustainability, to local agency. As a healthcare provider and global health advocate, he has served in middle and low-income countries throughout the world, such as Brazil, Bolivia, Haiti, and Uganda. Currently he is an associate professor at the Department of Theology and the College of Nursing at Marquette University in Wisconsin, where he is also director of undergraduate studies for the theology department, and William J. Kelly, S.J., Chair in Theology (2023-2026). He also serves as Regional Coordinator of Catholic Theological Ethics in the World Church for Latin American and Caribbean region, and Vice-President of the Brazilian Society of Moral Theology. There is so much you will learn about Alex’s life in this podcast that is moving, inspiring, and generative of love for the other. At the end of the podcast he says, “let the suffering of the other touch us and let the touch generate a response that puts ourselves with them.” Before we get to that powerful ending, we will learn about basic ecclesial communities in Brazil, his life as a teenager on his own in Sao Paulo, liberation theology, agricultura familiar, Paulo Freire, Paul Farmer, global health, Gustavo Guttierez, and what Christology has to teach us about health care. Here are some links for books and articles written by Alex and others who have influenced his thought. In the Company of the Poor was written by Fr. Gustavo Guttierez and Paul Farmer. I mentioned the book about Paul Farmer by Tracey Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains and it is a beautiful introduction to his work and that of Partners in Health. The method of teaching that Alex mentioned was pioneered by Paulo Freire, whose best-known book is Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian liberation theologian who ran afoul of the Vatican in the 1980s and 90s for his book Church, Charism and Power : Liberation Theology and the Institutional Church. He ultimately left priestly ministry. Also, you might want to look into basic ecclesial communities and agricultura familiar in Brazil. Alex’s scholarship has been broad. He is widely published, and he has lectured in various countries, including Canada. Please check out his lecture for the CCE at on Care for the Sick in Catholic Healthcare. I will mention only a few of his books and I will link to them: Christology and Global Ethics: Encountering the Poor in a Pluralist Reality (Mahwah, NJ.: Paulist Press, 2023) A Prophet to the Peoples: Paul Farmer’s Witness and Theological Ethics, co-edited with Jennie Weiss Block, OP and M. Therese Lysaught, (Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications by Wipf & Stock, 2023). Covid-19, Política e Fé: Bioética em diálogo na realidade enlouquecida (São Paulo, SP: O Gênio Criador, 2020) The Cry of the Poor: Liberation Ethics and Justice in Health Care (Lanham, MD.: Lexington Books, 2020) For his other writings, please check out his Marquette University website. 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. Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. 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. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series. Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for ...
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    1 h y 27 m
  • A Conversation with Dr. Joanna Leidenhag

    A Conversation with Dr. Joanna Leidenhag
    Apr 3 2024
    A note before the significant stuff: you will notice that the intro and outtro are noisier than usual. I was not able to record at home in my home office with my regular equipment, but had to record in my office at work. It's a different location, and a worse microphone, and I will make sure to record at home again. And always. The episode itself sounds great! Welcome to the seventeenth episode of season 2 of What Matters Most. I spoke to Dr. Joanna Leidenhag of the University of Leeds, who is currently Associate Professor in Theology and Philosophy at Leeds. She brings such a keen mind to the study of Christian theology, delving into topics like science and theology, creation, panpsychism, neurodiversity, pantheism, panentheism, and classical Christian doctrine. In general, Leidenhag is a Christian theologian interested in interdisciplinary engagement with analytic philosophy and with the natural and psychological sciences. She engages with Christian doctrines such as doctrine of creation ex nihilo, the incarnation, the resurrection of the body with the metaphysics of panpsychism. Panpsychism holds mind and matter together. Panpsychism is the idea that consciousness is not unique to human beings or even animals, but comes in gradients as a fundamental and ubiquitous feature of reality. Leidenhag argues convincingly that such views are not odd and not at odds with Christian theology classically construed, but a way to understand creation’s value and its relationship to the creator. It’s also a way to keep matter and mind, consciousness, together, to solve the problem of mind-body dualism problem. How are we conscious and material? There are connections with this view of panpsychism and religions of the east such as Buddhism and Hinduism, but this I think is a positive feature of panpsychism and something to be welcomed. Leidenhag also successfully, for me, explained the ways in which panpsychism is related to pantheism and panentheism, and how scientific theories, such as evolution, helps us understand consciousness and its development. Finally, in one of the most interesting aspects of our conversation regarding language and metaphor, Joanna Leidenhag explained how panpsychism helps us to understand passages of Scripture in which nature sings the praises of God. As a biblical scholar, I found this compelling. In fact I loved the idea of the mountains singing in joy and the rivers clapping their hands as metaphor that reflects the reality of all creation calling out in the consciousness of God best suited to each aspect of their unique creation. We also discussed toward the end of our conversation neurodiversity, and autistic people, and what people with autism can teach theologians and the church about what it means to be human, a child of God, and members of the body of Christ. Joanna Leidenhag has published three articles on autism and theology to date, which I will link in the show notes: ‘The Challenge of Autism for Contemporary Theological Anthropology,’ International Journal of Systematic Theology (2020) ‘Autism, Doxology, and the Nature of Christian Worship,’ Journal of Disability & Religion (2021) ‘Accountability, Autism and Friendship with God,’ Studies in Christian Ethics, Vol. 34, Is. 3 (2021). She is also working on a new research project, which she discussed in the podcast, God, Language and Diversity: Spiritual Flourishing in Neurodiverse and Multilingual Communities. I look forward to this new work. She has also written Minding Creation: Theological Panpsychism and the Doctrine of Creation, and her short popular level book called Creation and Ecology that introduces readers to the Christian doctrine of creation. In addition, she co-wrote with Dr John Perry, Science-Engaged Theology, which explores how theologians can use science and empirical studies as a resource within their work. And one more link you will find: Joanna co-edited a special issue in the journal Modern Theology on this topic, also called Science-Engaged Theology. I love the work she is doing and the doors she is opening to collaboration and to rethinking theology. For more of her research, please do check out her academia.edu site and her webpage at Leeds. This is theology in conversation with ideas old and new, theological and scientific, and I just love the work she is doing. Her research opens up a world of wonders, a world alive with consciousness at every level, and it is exciting. Who would not want to be a part of this? 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. Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, ...
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    1 h y 23 m
  • A Conversation with Dr. Emilce Cuda

    A Conversation with Dr. Emilce Cuda
    Mar 20 2024
    Welcome to the sixteenth episode of season 2 of What Matters Most. I spoke to Dr. Emilce Cuda, an Argentinian theologian, university professor, and Roman Curia official. In 2021, Pope Francis appointed her to serve the Holy See as an official in the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, first as head of the office and then as Secretary. In the spring of 2022, Francis appointed her to the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences and to the Pontifical Academy for Life. She views her mission as assisting the Holy Father in preaching the gospel by building bridges that are about the peripheries. Born in Buenos Aires, Emilce completed a cycle of studies at the Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina that resulted in Bachelor, Master, Licentiate, and Ph.D./STD degrees. She also studied philosophy at the University of Buenos Aires. She has an MBA from the Commercial and Economic Sciences University. In December 2022 the National University of Rosario in Argentina bestowed upon her a Doctorate of Humane Letters in honoris causa. She has taught in various professorial capacities in a number of Argentinian universities, Boston College, DePaul, Northwestern, the National University Arturo Juaretche, and others. Emilce is married with two adult children. She is one of the very few lay women to hold executive office in the Roman Curia. She has been based at the Vatican since September 2022. I first met Emilce Cuda in Vancouver when she gave one of the keynote lectures at the Pope Francis conference in May 2023. She is a speaker who brings the fire, which aligns with the nickname Pope Francis gave her, the Vatican pepper. I was also able to spend time with her at CELAM in Bogota, Columbia when I was invited as a Canadian representative for a conference comprising mostly South and Central American and Caribbean theologians and artists discussing theology of the peripheries. On this episode, you will get a sense of what she means by theology of the peripheries and closely related terms such as theology of the people and liberation theology. It’s a joyous occasion to speak with Dr. Emilce Cuda and I hope you find that same joy listening to her. Emilce Cuda asks people who want to understand Pope Francis in North America to read the encyclicals, read Laudato Si’ and Fratelli Tutti, read Praedicate Evangelium on the Roman Curia, where our mission is described as in the Gospels to touch the suffering flesh of humanity. She also directed us to her and Pope Francis’s professor, the late Juan Carlos Scannone, S.J., an Argentinian theologian and his work on theology of the people, though I have not been able yet to determine which book of his she was referring to. I will add that to the show notes when I hear back from Emilce, but in the meantime the link above is a nice overview of his theology. Emilce Cuda also noted the work of another Jesuit, Juan Luis Segundo, S.J. and I have linked to an overview of his life and work from the Boston College website. This was a great conversation because it encapsulates for me what Christian theology should be. It’s good to know Dr. Cuda is at the Vatican doing her work because for me she is a model theologian, paying attention to all of the theologians out there who do not write books but need to be heard. 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. Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. 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. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series. Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at cceconferences@stmarkscollege.ca. Let us know what you think. I also want to ask you to help out by letting people know about the podcast. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. You can also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. This lets people find the podcast more easily and lets people like you enjoy the work that we are doing. I think these are important and inspiring discussions ...
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