What Matters Most

Welcome to the seventh episode of Pop Culture Matters, The Great Speckled Bird and Gospel Music with Martin Strong, the ninth episode of season four. Martin is on fire in this episode, maybe due to the Louvin Brothers’ plywood Satan burning in the background, and I lower the temperature with a complicated examination of Jeremiah 12:7-13, with a focus on verse 9, where it is possible your translati...

Welcome to Episode 8 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Elizabeth A. Castelli.   Elizabeth A. Castelli is Professor of Religion at Barnard College, Columbia University She is a specialist in biblical studies, late ancient Christianity, and feminist/gender studies in religion. As you will hear in this episode, she is particularly interested in the reception history and "afterlives" of bi...

Welcome to Episode 7 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Sarah K. Johnson.   The Rev. Canon Dr. Sarah Kathleen Johnson  is Assistant Professor of Liturgy and Pastoral Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa and the author of  Occasional Religious Practice: Valuing a Very Ordinary Religious Experience (Oxford University Press, 2025). Sarah is also an ordained Mennonite minister and ha...

Welcome to the sixth episode of Pop Culture Matters, the sixth episode of season four. In today's episode I discuss Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Samhain (sow-in) too. Growing up, I was clear what Halloween was: a night to get candy and dress up. Halloween is All Hallows Eve, hallows referring to Saints, that is, Halloween was the day before All Saints Day on Nov. 1, and two days p...

Welcome to Episode 5 of Season 4! This episode marks the formal beginning to the Christian Nationalism project, which might acquire a new name soon, that will run from 2025 to 2028, culminating in a conference in May or June 2028. In this episode I speak with Dr. Steven W. Tyra. Dr. Steven W. Tyra holds a PhD in Historical Theology from Baylor University, with expertise in both John Calvin and Mar...

Welcome to Episode 4 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Paula Fredriksen.  Paula Fredriksen is the Aurelio Professor of Scripture emerita at Boston University, where she taught for 30 years, and, since 2009, Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Hebrew university in Jerusalem. In addition, she is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She was educated at at Wellesley C...

Welcome to Episode 3 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Paul Spilsbury, recently appointed President of Regent College in July 2025. Paul came to Canada from South Africa in 1984 to attend Prairie Bible College in Alberta. As you will hear, he also graduated from Regent College and then completed a PhD at the University of Cambridge (Queens’ College) before returning to Canada to teach....

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...