Episodes
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Sunday Mar 03, 2024
Today's story is "Hydrogen: A Recipe" from Protons and Fleurons: Twenty-Two Elements of Fiction. Plus, I tell you the origin story of this curious collection of tales!
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
If you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Sunday Jan 21, 2024
Today's story is "The Other Place" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I tell you about what's coming up in Season Two: the stories in my book Protons and Fleurons: Twenty-Two Elements of Fiction.
The Kickstarter has ended, but Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration will be published in July 2024!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Jan 14, 2024
Sunday Jan 14, 2024
Today's story is "Another Name" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I muse on whether all of what we are in ourselves will be redeemed, or if some things simply have to be let go forever.
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Jan 07, 2024
Sunday Jan 07, 2024
Today's story is "Ledger" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I explain why there are women apostles hanging out at the pearly gates.
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Dec 31, 2023
Sunday Dec 31, 2023
Today's story is "Himself" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I express my cynical doubts about Maslow's hierarchy of needs. (Trust me, it ties in to the story.)
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Dec 17, 2023
Sunday Dec 17, 2023
Today's story is "Crowd" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I commend to you the 14th century Christmas poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," with suggestions about which translations to read.
Armitage translation
Tolkien translation
Tolkien critical edition
Get yourself a paper copy of Pearly Gates from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Sunday Dec 10, 2023
Today's story is "Oh No" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I talk about what Martin Luther and G. K. Chesterton have in common.
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Dec 03, 2023
Sunday Dec 03, 2023
Today's story is "Telling" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I talk about Gone with the Wind as a novel of delusion, and what that reveals about the story against its author's intentions.
Sarah Churchwell, The Wrath to Come: Gone with the Wind and the Lies America Tells
The Rest Is History podcast episode on Gone with the Wind
Linda Stephens narration of Gone with the Wind
Get yourself a paper copy of Pearly Gates from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
Sunday Nov 26, 2023
Today's story is "Grace" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I talk about why there are unhappy endings, and whether the ultimate ending of all things will be happy or unhappy.
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Today's story is "Gray" from Pearly Gates: Parables from the Final Threshold. Plus, I talk over the details of the wonderful art on the cover of the book.
Get yourself a paper copy from Thornbush Press or the complete audiobook without waiting!
And if you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, please support me on Patreon!
Good Fiction, Good Theology
I've been reading and writing stories as long as I can remember. When I was little I didn't make the conscious connection between my favorite storytellers—George MacDonald, Madeleine L'Engle, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis—and their Christian faith. But once I became an adult and found a vocation in theology, it all added up. All the more so when I added Dorothy L. Sayers and Flannery O'Connor to the mix! Now I find I can't do theology without thinking how it might take fictional form, any more than I can tell a story without it being leavened and illumined by matters of faith. If you, too, need good fiction and good theology at the same time, this podcast is for you.