What Matters Most

Welcome to Episode 2 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr.  Joan E. Taylor, Professor Emerita of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College, London and Honorary Professor at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia.  She is a remarkable scholar with wide-ranging expertise of the historical  Jesus, the Bible, early Christianity, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and Sec...

Welcome to Episode 1of Season 4! It is amazing and wonderful to begin our 4th season! Today I speak with Dr. Fiona Li, an assistant professor and inaugural holder of the Archbishop J. Michael Miller Chair in Catholic Studies at Corpus Christi-St Mark's College. She is originally from Toronto and received her PhD in Theological Studies from Regis College and U of T. Her primary research interests l...

Welcome to Episode 23 of Season 3 with the Reverend Dr. Stan Chu Ilo. Stan Chu Ilo is a Catholic priest from Awgu diocese, Nigeria; and Research Professor of World Christianity, African Studies and Global Health at the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology at DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois (USA). He is also an Honorary Professor of Religion and Theology at Durham Universi...

Welcome to Episode 22 of Season 3 with Samuel Rocha on " Dilexit Mundum: A Christian Education and the Love of the World"  the keynote Lecture of Samuel Rocha given on May 2, 2025 in Vancouver, B.C. at the CCE Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present, and Future conference in Vancouver.  Dr. Sam Rocha is Professor of philosophy of education at UBC where he was awarded the Killam Teaching Priz...

Welcome to Episode 21 of Season 3 with Margaret MacDonald on " Educating the Children of God, Infants to Elders," a keynote Lecture of Margaret MacDonald from May 1, 2025 at the CCE Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present, and Future conference in Vancouver.  Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She was Dean of Arts at Saint Mary’s Un...

Welcome to Episode 20 of Season 3 with Thomas Bolin , who joined me to discuss his important new book An Inspired Word in Season: Reading the Bible Responsibly in a Polarized World , and the always fascinating questions related to how we interpret texts, especially significant texts like those that make up the Bible.  Thomas Bolin is a professor of theology and religious studies. Most recently he...

Welcome to Episode 19 of Season 3 with  Michael W. Higgins, who joined me to discuss Pope Francis and our new Pope Leo XIV.   We discussed his newest book, a portrait of Pope Francis, titled the Jesuit Disruptor .   Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished educator, media commentator, and author, and he shows no sign of slowing down! In 1999 Dr. Higgins was appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of...

Welcome to Episode 18 of Season 3 with my colleagues from St. Mark's College: Dr. Fiona Li, inaugural Archbishop Michael Miller Chair in Catholic Studies, Fr. Nick Meisl, Profess at St. Mark's College, and Dr. Nick Olkovich, Marie Anne Blondin Chair in Catholic Theology.  In this episode we talk about a new Pope, Pope Leo XIV, a native of the United States and a naturalized citizen of Peru. It's a...

Welcome to Episode 17 of Season 3 with our friend Steve Millies, a Catholic political theorist and the director of the Bernardin Center at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and Professor of Public Theology. Steve has written  numerous books, most recently  A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement with U.S. Politics. I spoke with Steve on April 25, 2025 from London, Englan...

Welcome to epsiode sixteen of season three, an episode recorded on April 21, 2025, the day on which Pope Francis died.  I talk about Pope Francis in this episode and the first major interview he gave to Jesuit journals around the world including America Magazine in the USA. I have linked to the interview here: A Big Heart Open to God interview.   I responded to that interview with a piece I wrote...

Welcome to the fifth episode of Pop Culture Matters, a conversation with my good friend and veteran of radio and television in Vancouver and beyond Martin Strong. In this episode we discussed White Lotus season three. It would not have been on my radar for a Pop Culture Matters episode prior to this season, but then again it had never dealt so overtly with Christian and Buddhist spirituality befor...

  Welcome to the fourth episode of Pop Culture Matters, different in all sorts of ways, mostly because it’s just me John Martens and also because Easter, our topic today, is not exactly a pop culture matter, but one thing that does seem to be a pop culture matter are memes telling us that Easter is a pagan holiday. These memes and claims sprout like spring flowers around, ah, Easter! Every year as...

This is not as late as the last episode, only a day behind this time, but this might be the new normal until the conference is over. Nevertheless, it is worth the wait as Tim and I talk about the stable disposition necessary to create the habits needed to create virtue.  This is episode fifteen of season three with  Dr. Tim Pawl , Professor of Philosophy at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul...

Sorry for the lateness on this incredible episode! The busy-ness of preparing for the conference and working on a few academic papers led to a two day delay. But this is a long episode and Paul and I had a terrific conversation, so I hope that makes up for some of my tardiness!   This is episode fourteen of season three with Dr. Paul Gavrilyuk , Professor and Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosop...

This is episode 13 of season 3 of What Matters Most, featuring the Venerable Rev. Dr. Robert James , Associate Professor, Anglican Formation and Studies at VST.   Apart from his work in Anglican studies, Rob is a biblical scholar and has written and published a book of stories from the Bible designed for storytellers to use with children in children’s homilies or Sunday School or church camps. The...

This is episode 12 of season 3 of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Don Baker, Professor of Korean Civilization at UBC in Asian Studies since 1987. The story you will hear him tell about Catholicism in Korea and about the Gwangju democratization movement or resistance in 1980, some of which he was present for, is powerful and moving. It is also a story of the power of moral resistance and the cost...

This is Episode Eleven of Season Three, featuring  Dr. Gerald Schlabach , an emeritus professor in the  Department of Theology  at the  University of St. Thomas  in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he taught for twenty years and also served for six years as chair of the  Department of Justice and Peace Studies . Previously he taught history at  Bluffton College , a Mennonite liberal arts college in Ohio...

This is Episode Ten of Season Three, featuring Dr. Ruben Rosario Rodriguez, the Clarence Louis and Helen Steber Professor in Theological Studies at St. Louis University. He holds a Ph. D. in Systematic Theology from Princeton Theological Seminary (2004). Dr. Rodriguez is also a Presbyterian minister.  Ruben is also an expert in the work of John Calvin, the divisive 16 th century reformer from Fran...

This is Episode Nine of Season Three, featuring Dr. Megan Fritts. Megan Fritts joined the UA Little Rock philosophy faculty in the School of Human Inquiry in 2022. She received her Ph. D. in 2020 from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her work intersects with several subdisciplines, including technology ethics, medical ethics, action theory, 19th century philosophy, and philosophy of religion....

Welcome to the third episode of Pop Culture Matters, a conversation with my good friend and yours Martin Strong. Today we’re talking about Christmas movies, our favorite Christmas movies, and what we think makes for a good Christmas movie.    We asked a lot of people on campus at UBC and St. Mark’s and on social media, what their favorite Christmas movies are. Here’s a list of a bunch of them, in...

This is Episode Eight of Season Three, featuring Fr.  Ryan Duns , S.J., Department Chair and Associate Professor of Systematic Theology in the Theology Department at Marquette University. He received his Ph. D. from Boston College in 2018.  Reading from his Marquette web page , I can tell you that “Ryan Duns, SJ works at the intersection of philosophy and systematic theology. He has published on K...

Welcome to the second episode of Pop Culture Matters, a discussion with Dr. Christine Evans of UBC on the 1955 movie, The Night of the Hunter . She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at UBC.    Christine Evans brings a wealth of knowledge about film and is a captivating speaker. How did we come to speak about The Night of the Hunter and not a more recent film? Martin Stro...

This is Episode Seven of Season Three, featuring Dr. Ross Lockhart , who is Professor of Mission Studies at Vancouver School of Theology and Dean of St. Andrew’s Hall. Ross is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. His main areas of research are in Missiology and Homiletics. He is the author of numerous books, including  Lessons from Laodicea: Missional Leadership in a Cul...

This is Season Three, Episode Six is here, featuring  Dr. Adele Reinhartz, Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, in Canada. Her main areas of research are New Testament, early Jewish-Christian relations, the Bible and Film, and feminist biblical criticism. She is the author of numerous articles and books, including Befriending the Beloved Discip...

This is Season Three, Episode Five is here, featuring D r. Bill Cavanaugh, professor of Catholic studies at De Paul University in Chicago and director of the Center for World Catholicism and Intercultural Theology , a research center housed in the Department of Catholic Studies and focusing on the Catholic Church in the global South—Africa, Asia, and Latin America.    Bill is one of the most signi...