Christians Reading Classics
Episodes
37 episodes
The Journals of Lewis and Clark with Craig Fehrman
We treat the Lewis and Clark journals as a true American classic, reading them for voice, humour, and human detail rather than just as a schoolbook summary. With historian Craig Furman, we follow the expedition through science, hardship, Native...
Augustine's Confessions with Joey Sherrard
We sit with Augustine’s Confessions and feel how a 1,600-year-old prayer still names our restlessness with uncomfortable accuracy. We talk with pastor and author Joey Sherrard about reading Confessions as praise and truth-telling, and about rem...
Cassiodorus and Classical Education with Joseph Griffith and Joshua Kinlaw
Cassiodorus is the kind of historical figure who should be famous and somehow isn’t: a high-level Roman statesman who walks away from power and spends his later life trying to save Christian learning from collapse. That turn gives us one of the...
Petrarch's Canzoniere with A. M. Juster
Petrarch's Canzoniere — 366 poems written over 40 years in pursuit of a woman named Laura — introduced the sonnet to European literature and helped move poetry from Latin into the vernacular. It is also, as A.M. Juster's new translatio...
The Great Gatsby with Katy Carl
A century after its publication, The Great Gatsby still demands more of readers than its first audience was prepared to give. This conversation explores wh...
Great American Sermons with John Wilsey and Daniel K. Williams [FULL EPISODE]
What does it mean for a nation to read its own sermons? This America 250 conversation takes up four of them — Winthrop's A Model of Christian Charity, Edwards's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Lincoln's Second Inaugural, and Kin...
Thomas Aquinas For Protestants with Miles Smith
Can a Protestant read Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae without converting to Catholicism? Nadya Williams welcomes Miles Smith IV (Hillsdale College) to ta...
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne with Jeff Bilbro | American 250
Nadya Williams and Jeff Bilbro discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter — its Puritan setting, Hawthorne's fraught ancestry, and the novel's three ...
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with Ivana Greco and Dixie Dillon Lane
Moby Dick by Herman Melville with Christina Bieber Lake
Nadya Williams and Christina Bieber Lake discuss Moby Dick — why Americans should read it, what Melville understood about arrogance and the uncontrollable, and how the novel's humor, sprawling cetology chapters, and the famous doubloon...
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand with David Kee
Nadya Williams and David Kee discuss Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged — its origins, philosophy, and enduring relevance for American Christians. Kee, a business p...
Mansfield Park by Jane Austen with Beatrice Scudeler
Jane Austen's most underrated novel is also her most serious. In this conversation, books editor Nadya Williams and essayist Beatrice Scudeler explore what Mansfiel...
The Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle with Sabrina Little | America 250
Wuthering Heights with Evie Solheim
Nadya Williams and Evie Solheim discuss Wuthering Heights, what makes it a gothic classic, why Emily Brontë's moral ambiguity still provokes, how the novel speaks to a generation starved for romance, and why the new film adaptation tra...
Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe with Obbie Tyler Todd | America 250
Nadya Williams and Obbie Tyler Todd explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as part of season two's focus on classics American Christians should ...
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley with Katelyn Walls Shelton | America 250
Nadya Williams and Katelyn Walls Shelton discuss Aldous Huxley's Brave New World — its haunting parallels to embryo selection, reproductive biotechnology, and pleasure-maximizing culture — and what Christians should make of a novel tha...
The Education of Henry Adams with Leah Libresco Sargeant | America 250
Nadya Williams, Books Editor for Mere Orthodoxy, talks with Leah Libresco Sargeant, author of The Dignity of Dependence, about Henry Adams's The Educat...
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with Shilo Brooks | America 250
Dr. Shilo Brooks joins Nadia Williams to explore Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), examining how this 60-page master...
America 250: Books American Christians Should Read | Season 2 Preview
In this preview episode for Season 2 of Christians Reading Classics, host Nadya Williams sets the stage for an ambitious exploration of books that American Christia...
Reading Ancient Pagans As Modern Christians
Nadya Williams explores the myth of Tantalus and its implications on the nature of success and temptation. She delves into how Tantalus' horrific actions reflect the seductive nature of victory and the potential consequences of testing divine p...
The Scandal of the Christian Imagination
As we wrap up season 1 of Christians Reading Classics, Nadya reflects on the scandal of the Christian imagination and the role of reading classic books in forming a nourished imagination.
T.S. Eliot - The Hollow Men with Eric Hutchinson
Nadya Williams and Eric Hutchinson delve into T.S. Eliot's poem 'The Hollow Men', exploring its themes, complexities, and the nature of classic literature. They discuss what defines a classic, the challenges of appreciating poetry today, and ho...
C.S. Lewis - The Great Divorce with Dr. Leslie Baynes
Nadya Williams and Dr. Leslie Baynes explore the works of C.S. Lewis, particularly focusing on 'The Great Divorce.' They discuss the definition of a classic, the significance of free will, and the themes of choice and divine grace in Lewis's wr...
Dorothy L. Sayers - Gaudy Night with Carolyn Weber
Nadya Williams and Carolyn Weber explore the literary significance of Dorothy L. Sayers' 'Gaudy Night', discussing its themes of women's roles in academia, the intersection of murder mysteries and theology, and the nature of what constitutes a ...
Flannery O'Connor - A Good Man Is Hard To Find with Jon Parrish Peede
Nadya Williams and Jon Parrish Peede discuss the literary legacy of Flannery O'Connor, exploring her impact on American literature and the theological themes present in her work. They highlight the Southern Gothic genre, O'Connor's unique story...
