What Matters Most

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...

This episode is the thirteenth episode of the second season of What Matters Most and features Father Nick Meisl.  Fr. Nick Meisl is an Assistant Professor at Corpus Christi and St. Mark’s Colleges where he teaches the Bible. In addition, he is Pastor of St. Peter’s Parish in New Westminster, BC. He completed his License from the Pontifical Biblical Institute and is currently a PhD candidate at Dur...

This is the twelfth episode of the second season of What Matters Most and features Reverend Mark Kleiner from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.  Mark is open, vulnerable, and honest, about the role of the Gospel in his life, his past struggles with alcoholism, his rock n’ roll life, and his passion for men’s health. As Mark said in the podcast, and as you can find on the Christ Church website, he is the so...

This episode is the eleventh episode of the second season of What Matters Most and features Reverend Dr. Mark Miller. Fr. Mark is currently the visiting scholar in health care ethics for St. Mark’s College and Providence Health Care in Vancouver for the academic year of 2023-2024. Fr. Mark Miller, C.Ss. R., was ordained in 1975 as a Redemptorist priest after studies in Winnipeg, Toronto and West G...

This episode, the tenth of the second season of What Matters Most, features Dr. Cristina Vanin, an associate professor of theology and Director of the Master of Catholic Thought program at St. Jerome’s University in Waterloo, Ontario .   I invited Cristina on the podcast to discuss Laudato Deum , Pope Francis’s newest apostolic exhortation, released in October 2023. Laudato Deum was released just...

Our guest on today's episode of  What Matters Most , the ninth episode of our second season, is Dr. Matthew Anderson.   Matthew Anderson holds a Gatto Chair in Christian Studies at St FX in Religious Studies. He is also an affiliate assistant professor at Concordia University, Montreal. Matthew was born to settlers on Treaty 4 territory. His PhD in Religious Studies is from McGill University (1999...

Today's episode Our guest on this episode of What Matters Most , the eighth episode of our second season is Dr. Jill Hicks-Keeton.  Jill Hicks-Keeton (PhD, Duke) is currently Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Oklahoma, where she teaches courses on biblical literature. In 2024, she will begin a new position, as Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Souther...

Our guest on this episode of  What Matters Most , the seventh episode of our second season, is Dr. Hans Gustafson, Director of the Jay Phillips Center for Interreligious Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota , where he also teaches courses in the study of religion and theology for the Theology Department.   Today we are going to discuss his book p...