Christians Reading Classics

Petrarch's Canzoniere with A. M. Juster

Petrarch's Canzoniere — 366 poems written over 40 years in pursuit of a woman named Laura — introduced the sonnet to European literature and helped move poetry from Latin into the vernacular. It is also, as A.M. Juster's new translation makes plain, a deeply Augustinian collection: raw, confessional, and unresolved. Nadya Williams talks with Juster about the art of poetic translation, the discipline it demands, and why Petrarch still matters. — Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership [http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership]. Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships [https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships] — Chapters 0:13 - Introduction to Petrarch's Canzoniere. 0:42 - Discussion on the arc of the story. 1:26 - Overview of Petrarch's themes. 2:23 - Introduction of Petrarch's work. 2:51 - Introduction of Mike Jester. 4:31 - Definition of a Classic. 5:42 - Petrarch's influence on European poetry. 6:41 - Challenges in translating Petrarch. 9:39 - Mike's journey with Petrarch. 15:16 - Mike's personal journey with poetry. 22:51 - Discussion on translation and Latin. 27:14 - Petrarch's confessional poetry. 30:15 - Importance of poetry for Christians. 33:13 - Spiritual aspect of poetry. 40:39 - Translating challenging poems. 46:40 - Upcoming Propersious collection. 53:23 - Final question about classic literature.

The Great Gatsby with Katy Carl

A century after its publication, The Great Gatsby still demands more of readers than its first audience was prepared to give. This conversation explores why Fitzgerald's third novel flopped in 1925, how its three-act tragic structure works, and what it means to read its vices and virtues with Christian eyes. Along the way: Fitzgerald's complicated Catholic formation, the role of beauty in a moral imagination, the state of American Christian fiction since the mid-century, and the case for writing classics now. With Nadya Williams and novelist Katy Carl, editor of Word on Fire's literary imprint, Luminor. — Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family [http://mereorthodoxy.com/family] Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership [http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership]. Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships [https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships] —

Great American Sermons with John Wilsey and Daniel K. Williams [FULL EPISODE]

What does it mean for a nation to read its own sermons? This America 250 conversation takes up four of them — Winthrop's A Model of Christian Charity, Edwards's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Lincoln's Second Inaugural, and King's Mountaintop Sermon — tracing covenant and city-on-a-hill exceptionalism, the personal terror of revival preaching, Lincoln's strange theological restraint amid civil war, and King's prescient final words. The episode closes on what it means to read the dead with charity, and on John Wilsey's new book, God and Country. With host Nadya Williams, John Wilsey (SBTS), and Daniel Williams (Ashland University). — Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family [http://mereorthodoxy.com/family]. Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership [http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership]. Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship.: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord [https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord] — Chapters * 00:00 - Reading Winthrop * 02:12 - Welcome and Introductions * 04:11 - Why Read Classic Sermons? * 06:54 - Winthrop and the Puritan Errand * 12:12 - City on a Hill: Promise and Warning * 16:37 - Edwards and the Great Awakening * 25:18 - Reading the Room in 1741 * 35:40 - Lincoln's Second Inaugural * 43:31 - The Passive Voice and Providence * 46:33 - King's Mountaintop Sermon * 55:27 - Loving Our Historical Neighbors * 1:03:06 - Why History Is Who We Are

Thomas Aquinas For Protestants with Miles Smith

Can a Protestant read Thomas Aquinas's Summa Theologiae without converting to Catholicism? Nadya Williams welcomes Miles Smith IV (Hillsdale College) to take up the question currently churning on social media. Miles argues yes — and that the more interesting question lies upstream: what do Christians do with Aristotle? Along the way, they consider the Summa's 13th-century context, its reception alongside Dante and through the Black Death, the Socratic shape of Aquinas's method, and why certain books (the Summa, Willa Cather's My Ántonia, Lewis's Till We Have Faces) break us open while others simply don't. — Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership [http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership]. Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship.: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord [https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord] — * 00:00 - Aquinas's Prologue and Welcome * 02:18 - Introducing Miles Smith IV * 03:11 - What Makes a Classic? * 04:18 - Reading Aquinas as a Protestant * 08:34 - The Social Media Debate Behind This Episode * 09:26 - Who Was Thomas Aquinas? * 11:46 - Reason, Revelation, and What Evangelicals Already Assume * 12:47 - The Aristotle Question * 15:20 - Virtue, Flourishing, and the Knowledge of God * 18:04 - How to Begin Reading the Summa * 20:52 - The Socratic Method and Aquinas's Contemporaries * 24:25 - The Summa, Dante, and the Black Death * 29:02 - Theology, Philosophy, and Devotion * 31:03 - Books That Break Us (and Till We Have Faces) * 33:10 - The Classic Miles Wishes He Had Written

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne with Jeff Bilbro | American 250

Nadya Williams and Jeff Bilbro discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter — its Puritan setting, Hawthorne's fraught ancestry, and the novel's three responses to sin: moralistic judgment, escapist relativism, and Hester's redemptive middle path. They also touch on Hawthorne's friendships with the Transcendentalists, the dangers of cancel culture, and Jeff's forthcoming book on AI and creaturely intelligence. —— Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family [http://mereorthodoxy.com/family]. Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership [http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership]. Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship.: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord [https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord] — * 00:00 - Introduction & What Is a Classic? * 05:10 - American Classics & the Year 250 * 07:15 - Short Books vs. Long Books * 09:33 - Hawthorne: Life & Context * 14:11 - The Plot: Hester, Dimmesdale, Chillingworth, Pearl * 17:23 - Three Responses to Sin * 25:08 - Dimmesdale & Self-Deception * 29:10 - Pearl & Spiritual Formation * 33:43 - Chillingworth: Truth-Hunting for Power * 36:17 - What Christians Should Notice * 42:16 - Creaturely Intelligence (Jeff's Forthcoming Book) * 47:31 - What Classic Would You Have Written?