Faith Angle brings together top scholars and leading journalists for smart conversations around some of the most profound questions in the public square. Rather than a current-events debrief, our goal is a substantive conversation one notch beneath the surface, drawing out how religious convictions manifest themselves in American culture and public life.
Episodes
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
John Inazu and Matthew Kaminski: Learning to Disagree
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
Tuesday Apr 02, 2024
In this episode, we are joined by John Inazu, who is the Sally D. Danforth Distinguished Professor of Law & Religion and Professor of Political Science at Washington University in St. Louis. This week, he published his fourth book: Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect.
John sits down to discuss differences, respect, bridge-building, and the unique role of journalism in all this, with Matt Kaminski, editor-at-large of POLITICO, and the co-founder of POLITICO Europe. Matt served as editor-in-chief of POLITICO from 2019-2023, and he’s covered international politics for more than a quarter-century, still writing regularly on global affairs today.
Together they discuss whether it is possible to disagree in ways that somehow build bridges with neighbors, coworkers, and loved ones, and what role journalists can play in helping us see reality more clearly.
Guests
Additional Resources
Learning to Disagree: The Surprising Path to Navigating Differences with Empathy and Respect, by John Inazu
Confident Pluralism: Surviving and Thriving Through Deep Difference, by John Inazu
"'Beyond Crazy': The Liberal Jew Mugged by a Post-Oct. 7 World," by Matthew Kaminski
Monday Mar 11, 2024
The Exvangelicals: Sarah McCammon and Ruth Graham
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Monday Mar 11, 2024
In this episode, we are joined by Sarah McCammon, National Political Correspondent at NPR, to discuss her book Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. In it, Sarah tells a compelling, personal story about family, marriage, politics, and church—and she concisely boils down insights from scholars like David Gushee, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Christian Smith, and others you’ll hear her reference. If the great de-churching currently happening in American society is most acutely felt by Gen Z and Millennials, Sarah’s story is right in the heart of that. And since no one really knows where the future is headed, one question to ask is: If evangelicals or other religious Americans leave the fold, what replaces that unique sense of purpose, transcendent faith, and community? Joining Sarah to discuss that and other urgent questions is Ruth Graham, the brilliant New York Times’ religion, faith, and values reporter.
Guests:
Additional Resources:
The Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church, by Sarah McCammon
"Evangelical Writer Who Influenced Purity Culture Separates from Wife," by Sarah McCammon and Ruth Graham
"Two Evangelical Leaders on 'Radical Faith'," by Ruth Graham
Testimony: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation, by Jon Ward
Tuesday Jan 23, 2024
Michael Wear and Tim Alberta: The Spirit of Our Politics
Tuesday Jan 23, 2024
Tuesday Jan 23, 2024
In this episode, we are joined again by Tim Alberta of The Atlantic and Michael Wear of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, to discuss Michael's brand new book The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. Michael has been engaging the condition of American politics for more than 15 years, after serving in the White House, helping to launch and lead the AND Campaign, and advising leading policymakers, journalists, practitioners at the intersection of faith and public policy.
Drawing from this experience as well as the work and influence of noteworthy Christian philosopher Dallas Willard, Michael argues that our politics will only get better if we get better. The only way to transcend the current polarized morass we’re in is to deepen and revitalize our spiritual formation. Our politics is downstream of the kind of people we are.
The Spirit of Our Politics argues that the way forward is to better align our political and civic engagement with our religious commitments. And while the democratic answer for believers is never theonomy, or Christian nationalism, or privileging a majority identity—Michael and Tim sketch the contours of what faithful, integrated living might produce.
Guests:
Additional Resources:
The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life, by Michael Wear
The Center for Christianity & Public Life
The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta
"The Surprising Link between the Gospel and Politics," by Michael Wear
Wear We Are Podcast, with Michael and Melissa Wear
"Tim Alberta and Michael Wear: The Kingdom, The Power, and The Glory," Faith Angle podcast episode
Friday Dec 22, 2023
Elizabeth Bruenig and Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac: Advent in the Holy Land
Friday Dec 22, 2023
Friday Dec 22, 2023
On today’s episode, we are joined by The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig for an Advent reflection with Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, assistant pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Rev. Isaac is an evangelical pastor whose life and ministry have been rooted in Bethlehem in the West Bank, where he is a theologian, Bible college dean, a leader of the peacebuilding initiative Christ at the Checkpoint, and part of the ancient but fast-dwindling community of Christians in the Holy Land. This Christmas, as there is war in the Holy Land, this sobering conversation points to the hope of the Incarnation in the midst of suffering—offered from a unique vantage point and moment, in the place of Christ’s birth.
Guests:
Additional Resources:
The Other Side of the Wall: A Christian Palestinian Narrative of Lament and Hope, by Munther Isaac
"Christmas is canceled in the land of Jesus' birth," by Queen Rania Al Abdullah in The Washington Post
"In Bethlehem, the home of Jesus' birth, a season of grieving for Palestinian Christians," by Laura King in The Los Angeles Times
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Tim Alberta and Michael Wear: The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory
Friday Dec 08, 2023
Friday Dec 08, 2023
NPR "Fresh Air" interview with Tim Alberta
"The Long Game" interview with Tim Alberta
Christianity Today Russell Moore Show interview with Tim Alberta
The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life, by Michael Wear
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Romney: A Reckoning with McKay Coppins and Peter Baker
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Tuesday Nov 21, 2023
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Luke Russert and Carl Cannon: Look for Me There
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
In this episode, Luke Russert discusses his new book Look For Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, a reflection on grief, family legacy, religious exploration, and the loss of Luke's father, legendary journalist Tim Russert. Luke is joined by Carl Cannon, Washington Bureau Chief and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics, who shares from his own experience with family bonds, faith, loss, and his personal friendship with Luke's father.
Guests
Additional Resources
Look For Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, by Tim Russert
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
David Brooks and Curt Thompson: How to Know a Person
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
Tuesday Oct 24, 2023
Best selling author and columnist David Brooks sits down with noted psychiatrist Curt Thompson to discuss Brooks' latest book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen.
Brooks' aim is to help foster deeper connections at home, work, and throughout our lives, and he and Thompson cover a lot of ground. From thoughts on friendship, depression, what it means to really listen, and how we reflect God, there's a lot here. It's a generous conversation, and one that we hope offers a kind of relational balm in our troubled time.
Guests:
David Brooks.
Curt Thompson
Additional Resources:
- How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen by David Brooks
- The Second Mountain, by David Brooks
- The Social Animal, by David Brooks
- The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope, by Curt Thompson
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Christine Emba and Richard Reeves: On the Crisis Men Face
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Friday Sep 29, 2023
Christine Emba's recent piece for The Washington Post, "Men Are Lost. Here's a Map out of the Wilderness.," says something haunting about the state of gender dynamics in the country and something both our guests remind us matters equally to men and women alike. On this episode, Christine joins noteworthy scholar Richard Reeves, who recently launched the American Institute for Boys and Men. Not only do they explore their timely scholarship and writing on this topic, but they also engage the nuanced role that faith and religious institutions play in it.
Guests
Additional Resources
"Men Are Lost. Here Is a Map out of the Wilderness.," by Christine Emba
Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, by Christine Emba
Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It, by Richard Reeves
"How to Solve the Education Crisis for Boys and Men," TED Talk by Richard Reeves
Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why It Matters, and What to Do about It, by Richard Reeves
Friday Sep 15, 2023
Friday Sep 15, 2023
In 2009, Newsweek magazine called David Saperstein the most influential rabbi in America. For over 40 years, he was the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He also served as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom, becoming America's chief diplomat on religious liberty issues. He was the first chairman in 1998 of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Joining Rabbi Saperstein is a brilliant journalist for The Atlantic, McKay Coppins, who writes regularly on politics, faith, presidential campaigns, and other stories of compelling human interest.
Guests
Additional Resources
"What Mitt Romney Saw in the Senate," by McKay Coppins
Romney: A Reckoning, by McKay Coppins
Interview with Rabbi David Saperstein