Old Books with Grace

Discovering John Duns Scotus with Thomas Ward

Today, Grace chats with Dr. Thomas M. Ward about the challenging Scottish philosopher and theologian, Blessed John Duns Scotus. He is also the very unfair origin of the word “dunce”! This is ironic when thinking about one of the most complex, subtle scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages. 
Thomas M. Ward is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He specializes in the history of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages. Ward is the author of After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher, and has recently translated, with commentary, John Duns Scotus’s Treatise on the First Principle.
Read Ordered by Love: An Introduction to John Duns Scotus
Read Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages

Thinking through the Apostle Paul with Lynn Cohick

Today, Grace chats with Dr. Lynn Cohick on that enigmatic, fascinating, challenging apostle: St. Paul. 
Lynn H. Cohick (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Director of the Houston Theological Seminary at Houston Christian University. She was Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and taught at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Nairobi, Kenya. She serves as President of the Institute for Biblical Research. Her books include The Letter to the Ephesians in NICNT (2020); Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through the Fifth Centuries (co-authored with Amy Brown Hughes (2017); Philippians in the Story of God Commentary (2013); Women in the World of the Earliest Christians(2009). 
Check out Lynn's work with the Center for Women in Leadership, the Visual Museum, and her podcast, the Alabaster Jar (you can find the episode with Grace!). 

Women Writers of the Catholic Imagination with Haley Stewart

Old Books with Grace is baaaaack for a fifth season! Grace welcomes Haley Stewart for the first episode of this season, on women novelists of the Catholic imagination--including Rumer Godden, Sigrid Undset, and Toni Morrison. If you're like Grace, get ready to dramatically expand your fiction TBR list.
Haley Stewart is the Editor of Word on Fire Votive and the host of The Votive Podcast. She is the award-winning author of The Grace of Enough, Jane Austen's Genius Guide to Life, and The Sister Seraphina Mysteries. She edited a collection of essays on Catholic women novelists titled Women of the Catholic Imagination. Haley lives in Florida with her four children and never has enough bookshelves.
Don't forget to acquire a copy of Grace's book, freshly out in paperback: Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ through the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages (Zondervan Reflective).

Beholding Art & Shaping the Imagination with Lanta Davis

In this last episode of season four, Grace welcomes Dr. Lanta Davis to talk about spiritual formation in the beholding of the art of the past.
Lanta Davis is Professor of Humanities and Literature for the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University. She’s written on literature, art, and history for Smithsonian Magazine, Christianity Today, Christian Century, Parabola, and Plough.  
Support Old Books with Grace and keep it ad-free at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gracehamman

The World of Dietrich Bonhoeffer with Laura Fabrycky

Today Grace welcomes Laura Fabrycky to discuss the fascinating, stirring, challenging life and context of theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as Laura's own transformative experience as a guide at Bonhoeffer's Haus in Berlin. 
Laura M. Fabrycky is a writer, poet, and mother of three. She wrote Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus: Exploring the World and Wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Laura is also a PhD student in systematic theology at ETF Leuven. Her family’s diplomatic postings include Doha, Qatar; Amman, Jordan; Washington, DC; Berlin Germany, and Brussels, Belgium. They currently live in the Washington, DC, area.

The Power of Metaphors with Joy Clarkson

As a forever English major, Grace loves figurative language. So she was delighted to welcome Dr. Joy Clarkson for this episode on the power of metaphor and her recent book, You are a Tree.
Joy Clarkson is the author of Aggressively Happy and host of popular podcast, Speaking with Joy. She is the books editor for Plough Quarterly and a research associate in theology and literature at King’s College London. Joy completed her PhD in theology at the University of St Andrews, where she researched how art can be a resource of hope and consolation. Joy loves daffodils, birdwatching, and a well brewed cup of Yorkshire Gold tea. Learn more at JoyClarkson.com.

Herbert: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if need be. Then, I will read you the poem. I will offer five minutes of silence on the podcast. If you’d like to take this opportunity to meditate on the poem, here is space for you. Today's poem is The Agony by George Herbert.
Philosophers have measur’d mountains,Fathom'd the depths of seas, of states, and kings,Walk’d with a staffe to heav’n, and traced fountains:But there are two vast, spacious things,The which to measure it doth more behove:Yet few there are that sound them; Sinne and Love.Who would know Sinne, let him repairUnto Mount Olivet; there shall he seeA man so wrung with pains, that all his hair,His skinne, his garments bloudie be.Sinne is that presse and vice, which forceth painTo hunt his cruell food through ev’ry vein.Who knows not Love, let him assayAnd taste that juice, which on the crosse a pikeDid set again abroach; then let him sayIf ever he did taste the like.Love is that liquour sweet and most divine,Which my God feels as bloud; but I, as wine.
 
 

Donne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024

This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if need be. Then, I will read you the poem. I will offer five minutes of silence on the podcast. If you’d like to take this opportunity to meditate on the poem, here is space for you. Today's poem is A Hymn to God the Father by John Donne.
Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun, 
         Which was my sin, though it were done before? 
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run, 
         And do run still, though still I do deplore? 
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done, 
                        For I have more. 
 
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won 
         Others to sin, and made my sin their door? 
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun 
         A year or two, but wallow'd in, a score? 
                When thou hast done, thou hast not done, 
                        For I have more. 
 
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun 
         My last thread, I shall perish on the shore; 
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son 
         Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore; 
                And, having done that, thou hast done; 
                        I fear no more.