What Matters Most

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...

Season Three, Episode Four is here, featuring Dr. Daisy Vargas , Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the U of Arizona (Ph. D. in History, University of California, Riverside; M.A. in Religious Studies, University of Denver), who specializes in Catholicism in the Americas, especially in the borderlands of the American Southwest. She examines race, ethnicity, and religion in the United State...

Season Three, Episode Three is a banger! Do the kids still say that? Dr. Jennifer Newsome Martin , the director of the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame, and the John J. Cavanaugh Associate Professor of the Program of Liberal Studies and Associate Professor, Department of Theology, brings incredible joy to theology and that joy is infectious. She will make you...

Welcome to the first episode of Pop Culture Matters, a discussion with Martin Strong and me regarding Gospel music and the song "Straight Street," written by J.W. Alexander and  Jesse Whitaker in the 1950s and first recorded by The Pilgrim Travelers in 1955. Today we are especially looking at Ry Cooder’s version of the song " Straight Street" and the biblical and other spiritual themes that suffus...

Welcome to the second episode of the third season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Lynn Huber. Dr. Lynn Huber is Maude Sharpe Powell Professor, Professor of Religious Studies at Elon University in North Carolina and author of the new Wisdom Commentary on Revelation , published by Liturgical Press. Apart from her Wisdom Commentary , co-written with her late mentor Gail O’Day, Lynn has written: T...

Welcome to the first episode of the third season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Margaret MacDonald. M argaret MacDonald is Professor of Religion at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Margaret MacDonald is a prominent and preeminent scholar in the fields of New Testament and early Christianity. We discuss Margaret’s excellent book The Power of Children: The Construction of Christ...

Welcome to the twenty-sixth and final episode of the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Massimo Faggioli. Today’s episode is the keynote lecture Massimo gave on May 4, 2023 at the Pope Francis and the Future of the Church: Prospects and Challenges for Renewal conference held at St. Mark’s College on  May 4-6, 2023. His lecture was titled, “ Laudato Si' in a Time of Global Disruption...

Welcome to the twenty-fifth episode of the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Emilce Cuda. Today’s episode is the keynote lecture Emilce gave on May 5, 2023 at the Pope Francis and the Future of the Church: Prospects and Challenges for Renewal conference held at St. Mark’s College on  May 4-6, 2023. Her paper was titled, “ The Reform of the Church is Not a Change but a Commitment.”...

Welcome to the twenty-fourth episode of  the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Cathy Clifford .  Today’s episode is the keynote lecture Cathy gave to bring to an end the Pope Francis and the Future of the Church: Prospects and Challenges for Renewal conference held at St. Mark’s College on   May 4-6, 2023. Her paper was delivered on May 6, 2023 and was titled, ““ Leaning into the D...

Welcome to the twenty-third episode of  the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Sara Parks. S ara Parks is Assistant Professor in Religious Studie s, teaching and conducting research in the field of Early Christianity at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. She joined St. Francis Xavier University in the Fall of 2022. She was formerly Assistant Professor in New T...

This is the twenty-second episode of  the second season of What Matters Most, featuring me speaking with Fr. Nick Meisl! Why? I was interviewed by Father Nick Meisl, my colleague and friend, who appeared on episode 13 of season 2 of What Matters Most. The original interview took place on June 3, 2024, at St. Mark’s Library for the book launch of the Liturgy and Life Study Bible , which was just aw...

This is the twenty-first episode of  the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Jaime L. Waters of Boston College, an Associate Professor of Old Testament and Program Director of Courage to Preach .  I met Jaime in person last summer in Omaha, Nebraska at the Catholic Biblical Association meetings and we bonded over biblical studies, a shared run as authors of the Word, the scripture co...

This is the twentieth episode of  the second season of What Matters Most. I spoke with UBC Sikh Chaplain Inderjeet Singh. This episode was recorded in February 2024, but due to a backlog of episodes is only being released in May 2024 . I am happy for you to be able to hear it and learn about Sikhism . Indy, as his friends know him, offered a lot of information about the origins of Sikhism in India...

We are deep into season 2 now with the nineteenth episode of What Matters Most. I spoke with Dr. Hans A. Harmakaputra, an Assistant Professor of Religion in the Department of Philosophy, Religion, and Classics at Augustana University, Sioux Falls, South Dakota about Christian and Muslim saints and views of sainthood. Hans Harmakaputra is the author of  A Christian-Muslim Comparative Theology of Sa...

Welcome to the eighteenth episode of season 2 of What Matters Most. I spoke to Alex Martins from his office in Milwaukee in February and have been waiting to get this episode to you for the past two months .  Alexandre A. Martins is a theologian and bioethicist from Brazil; he is also a nurse. He received a Ph. D. in theological ethics/bioethics from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (U...

A note before the significant stuff:  you will notice that the intro and outtro are noisier than usual. I was not able to record at home in my home office with my regular equipment, but had to record in my office at work. It's a different location, and a worse microphone, and I will make sure to record at home again. And always.  The episode itself sounds great!   Welcome to the seventeenth episod...

Welcome to the sixteenth episode of season 2 of What Matters Most. I spoke to Dr. Emilce Cuda, an Argentinian theologian, university professor, and Roman Curia official.  In 2021, Pope Francis appointed her to serve the Holy See as an official in the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, first as head of the office and then as Secretary.  In the spring of 2022, Francis appointed her to the Pont...

Regular listeners know that this episode is late! I apologize for that but blame a nasty norovirus that has run amok through our extended family. And directly through me. It seems right, then, that the fifteenth episode of the second season focuses on health and public health with  Fr. Myles Sheehan, SJ .      Fr. Sheehan is a Jesuit priest, physician, and, since December 2020, the Director of the...

This episode is the fourteenth episode of the second season of What Matters Most and features Reverend Grant Ikuta.  Since 2008,  Grant has been the minister at Steveston Buddhist Temple outside of Vancouver. From April 2011 to April 2013, he served as Bishop of Jodo Shinshu Buddhist Temples of Canada. He was educated at the University of Alberta, holding a Bachelor of Science degree with a major...