Faith and Letters

Chris Hoke

Chris Hoke is a gang pastor, jail chaplain, and founder of Underground Ministries. His memoir, Wanted: A Spiritual Pursuit Through Jails, Among Outlaws, and Across Borders, renders the stories of his work with current and former gang members in Washington's Skagit Valley in vivid detail.

 

Underground Ministries - https://undergroundministries.org/

 

Daniel Taylor

Daniel Taylor was a professor of English at Bethel University for over thirty years, and is the author of numerous works, including The Myth of Certainty, a book that framed our discussion on faith, doubt, certainty, modernism, and the lived experience of those he describes as "reflective Christians." 

 

www.wordtaylor.com/

Macy Halford

Macy Halford is the author of My Utmost: A Devotional Memoir, which details her lifelong relationship with the classic Christian devotional text, My Utmost For His Highest, by the Scottish preacher Oswald Chambers.

 

She is the former editor of the online book review at The New Yorker, and now lives in Strasbourg where she teaches and continues to write. 

D. L. Mayfield

Danielle Mayfield is the author of The Myth of the American Dream: Notes on Affluence, Autonomy, Safety, and Power. Her essays and features have appeared in a wide range of publications, including Christianity Today, The Washington Post, and Image. 

Much of Danielle's work centers on what she refers to as "downward mobility," the idea that the Christian Gospel's strong call toward solidarity with the poor will inevitably demand much of late-capitalist American Christians. 

dlmayfield.com

 

 

Tim Mackie

Tim Mackie is the theological brain behind BibleProject, an animation studio focused on creating videos to explain the context, themes, and overarching story of the Bible. Tim is an enigma; he holds a PhD in Hebrew Bible and Jewish Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but prior to entering that track was an academic failure in high school; he reads dead languages and dry commentaries as part of his work for a slick digital creative firm. I loved talking with him.   

Tim's got an incredible reading list on his bio page, and spent some time convincing me of the greatness of Abraham Joshua Heschel. He's also got multiple podcasts, including Exploring My Strange Bible and the BibleProject podcast. We ended our long discussion on the Bible, reading, and his own journey by talking about what a young person interested in following in his skater-punk-Bible-nerd footsteps should be focusing on early in their career. 

Exploring My Strange Bible - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/exploring-my-strange-bible/id1271147429

 

BibleProject Pod - https://bibleproject.com/podcasts/the-bible-project-podcast/

 

Tim's bio and reading list - https://bibleproject.com/tim-mackie/

Sara Billups

Sara Billups is the author of "The Irresistible Peril of Publishing," an essay on the challenges writers seeking publication often contend with. I found the piece resonant on many levels — my own publishing travails were certainly fodder for our conversation — but I hope any working artist will find this conversation encouraging. We also discuss Sara's thoughts on being openly Christian in her writing, her city, and with non-Christian friends and colleagues. 

 

The Irresistible Peril of Publishing - https://www.ekstasismagazine.com/blog/2020/3/21/the-irresistible-peril-of-publishing

 

Sara's piece on publicly identifying as a Christian - https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2020/january-web-only/new-years-resolution-call-myself-christian-in-public.html

 

Sara's personal site

https://www.sarabillups.com/

Adam Lewis Greene

Adam Lewis Greene is the creator of Bibliotheca, a painstakingly designed Reader's Bible without chapter or verse notations. Both a beautiful physical object and a return to more ancient forms, Bibliotheca was funded through an explosively viral Kickstarter that became the single-highest grossing book campaign in the company's history. 

Adam and I go very, very deep on Bible design, translation, and scholarship, as well as his own emotional journey through this massive project. Whatever your history with the Bible, I can guarantee you're about to learn something new. 

 

https://www.bibliotheca.co/

Season One Finale with Dan Koch

To cap off this first season of Faith + Letters, I invite my good friend Dan Koch, host of the You Have Permission podcast, to have a conversation with me about how I make the show, what I've learned about myself in the process, and where I'm going from here. If you're interested in podcasts generally, you'll enjoy this episode. 

Thank you so much for listening along with me through Season One! If you'd like to get in touch, feel free to drop me a line at ben.j.bishop@gmail.com. 

John Darnielle

John Darnielle is the lead vocalist and primary member of the Mountain Goats, an American indie rock band, and the author of three novels. His debut, "Wolf in White Van," was nominated for the National Book Award. His most recent novel is "Devil House."

Peter Wehner

Peter Wehner served in three Republican presidential administrations, including as an advisor to President George W. Bush. His essays and opinion pieces on politics and religion appear regularly in the pages of both The Atlantic and The New York Times. He is also the author of several books, including most recently, The Death of Politics: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After Trump.

The subtitle of that book makes his position on the former president clear: I can think of no more consistently staunch critic of Donald Trump than Pete has been these last seven years. One of his main themes as a columnist is the relationship between American evangelicalism and the political movement for which Donald Trump has become both champion and avatar, as well as the distress this has caused him and many other American Christians.

As someone who grew up in the evangelical world, and has been deeply disturbed by the way in which many evangelicals have countenanced, and at times even celebrated, the caustic, self-interested politics of former President Trump, I’ve found a kind of sanity in Pete’s unvarnished take on the situation. 

He and I discussed how to write honestly about those you disagree with without falling into the very hatred you hope to be opposing, his experience working with religious believers in power, and the vexing question of why so many of us Christians don’t seem all that different from anyone else.