Shows
Old Books with GraceLenten Poetry 2026: David Taylor on Gerard Manley HopkinsToday, Grace welcomes professor and author David Taylor in this installment of the Lenten poetry series. They talk about the great nineteenth-century poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and in particular, his masterpiece “The Wreck of the Deutschland.”
W. David O. Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary and the author of ten books, including Open and Unafraid, Glimpses of the New Creation, Naming the Spirit, and the forthcoming, To Set the World Aflame. An Anglican priest, he has written for The Washington Post, Christian Scholars Review, Image Journal, and Christianity Today, among others, while also contributi...
2026-03-0549 minOld Books with GraceLenten Poetry 2026: David Taylor on Gerard Manley HopkinsToday, Grace welcomes professor and author David Taylor in this installment of the Lenten poetry series. They talk about the great nineteenth-century poet, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and in particular, his masterpiece “The Wreck of the Deutschland.”
W. David O. Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary and the author of ten books, including Open and Unafraid, Glimpses of the New Creation, Naming the Spirit, and the forthcoming, To Set the World Aflame. An Anglican priest, he has written for The Washington Post, Christian Scholars Review, Image Journal, and Christianity Today, among others, while also contributi...
2026-03-0449 minOld Books with GraceLenten Poetry 2026: Three Middle English LyricsGrace is delighted to kick off this year’s Lent series. Every other week during Lent Grace will have a guest who has chosen a Lenten-themed poem to share. Today, though, is just a little meditative beginning with three Middle English poems, text below, translations by Grace Hamman.
Westminster Abbey MS 27 (175 in Carleton Brown's XVth Century Lyrics)
Wise men bene but scorned,
& wedows eke foryerned,
Grete men arn bot glosid,
& smale men arn borne doun & myslosed,
Lordis wex euer blynd,
Ffrendis ben vnkynde,
Det...
2026-02-1808 minOld Books with GraceWilliam Blake with Paul PastorToday, Grace chats with the poet Paul Pastor on another poet, the revolutionary thinker and artist William Blake.
Paul J. Pastor is Executive Editor of Nelson Books at HarperCollins, an essayist, critic, and poet, writer of The Rose Fire on Substack, and author of several books, most recently The Locust Years: Poems, from Wiseblood Books. He lives in Oregon.
Grace is going to take a sabbatical from Old Books with Grace for a few months as she and her family are in the middle of several big projects and changes. You can keep up with her a...
2025-12-1250 minOld Books with GraceVices in the Modern World with Elizabeth OldfieldToday Grace welcomes Elizabeth Oldfield to recast these ancient ideas of vices and virtues into contemporary language. Why should we care about these ancient and sometimes worn-thin concepts? How can they speak to our world today--even if that world does not believe the same things as the church believes?
Elizabeth Oldfield is the author of Fully Alive: Tending to the Soul in Turbulent Times. She is a speaker, coach, and consultant, and the host of The Sacred podcast. Elizabeth has a masters in Theology and the Arts and lives in an intentional Christian community in South London...
2025-11-1254 minOld Books with GraceLearning from the Desert Fathers and Mothers with Lisa Colón DeLayToday, Grace welcomes author Lisa Colón DeLay to discuss the fascinating ancient Christians that we now call the Desert Fathers and Mothers. People like Evagrius, Amma Theodora, St. Moses the Black, St. Anthony the Great, and many others offer deep wisdom in their own time and to us today.
Lisa Colón DeLay is the author of The Wild Land Within and has an MA in spiritual formation. She writes, teaches, and creates products and resources related to spiritual formation. Since 2015, she has hosted Spark My Muse, a top-rated religion and spirituality podcast. DeLay grew up in Pit...
2025-10-2949 minOld Books with GraceChatting Chaucer with Jessica WardThis week, Grace welcomes her dear friend from graduate school, fellow medievalist Dr. Jessica D. Ward, to discuss one of their favorites: Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the great Canterbury Tales! Come for Middle English, discussions of why Chaucer deserves his reputation, and continuing discussion of the backgrounds in Grace's new book, Ask of Old Paths, as Grace and Jessica discuss their mutual interests in the Parson's Tale and penitential literature.
Dr. Jessica D. Ward is an early English literature scholar. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses on medieval and early modern literature, culture, and language and h...
2025-10-151h 11Old Books with GraceThe Seven Capital Vices with Rebecca DeYoungGrace invites on one of her heroes (!), Professor Rebecca Konyndyk DeYoung, professor of medieval philosophy and author of Glittering Vices. They talk Aquinas, vices, Jane Austen, and more in this delightful conversation.
Rebecca DeYoung (Ph.D. University of Notre Dame) has enjoyed teaching ethics and the history of ancient and medieval philosophy at Calvin College for over 20 years. Her research focuses on the seven deadly sins, and virtue ethics, as well as Thomas Aquinas’s work on the virtues. Her books include Glittering Vices, Vainglory, and a co-authored volume entitled Aquinas’s Ethics. Awards for her work include th...
2025-10-0153 minOld Books with GraceVirtues & Vices with Scott & Grace HammanWelcome to season six of Old Books with Grace! Today, the tables are turned. Grace welcomes her very own husband, the wonderfully handsome, talented, and clever structural engineer, Scott Hamman, to interview her on her new book, Ask of Old Paths: Medieval Virtues & Vices for a Whole & Holy Life. This episode kicks off a lovely series on virtues and vices this fall featuring many wonderful thinkers.
Get Ask of Old Paths on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Thriftbooks, Target, Bookshop.org, or best of all, contact your local bookstore, or ask your library to purchase a copy!
Fi...
2025-09-1751 minOld Books with GraceBeauty, Art, and Thomas Aquinas with Daniel McInernyIn today's episode, Grace welcomes Dr. Daniel McInerney to think about some big questions: what is the relationship between beauty and art? Art and imitation? This conversation ranges from Aristotle to Austen in its exploration of literary, visual, and dramatic art.
Daniel McInerny is associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Christendom College in Front Royal, Virginia. Daniel is the author of Beauty & Imitation: A Philosophical Reflection on the Arts. He is also a novelist and dramatist and writes the Substack newsletter, The Comic Muse, a review of culture and the arts. Daniel and his...
2025-05-1349 minOld Books with GraceLittle Gidding with Lisa Ampleman: Four Quartets, Lent 2025Welcome to Old Books with Grace! Today marks the final episode in the Old Books with Grace Lent Series, on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.
Today we read Little Gidding as poet and editor Lisa Ampleman joins Grace for a thoughtful conversation.
Lisa Ampleman is the author of a chapbook and three full-length books of poetry, most recently Mom in Space (2024) and Romances (2020), both with LSU Press. Her work has appeared recently on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily and in journals including 32 Poems, Colorado Review, Cortland Review, Ecotone, Georgia Review, The Rumpus, Shenandoah, and Southern...
2025-04-171h 14Old Books with GraceThe Dry Salvages with Andy Patton: Four Quartets, Lent 2025Welcome to Old Books with Grace! Today marks the third episode in the Old Books with Grace Lent Series, on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.
Today we read The Dry Salvages as poet and editor Andy Patton joins Grace for a lively discussion.
Andy Patton is the creator of the Darkling Psalter, a collection of creative renditions of the Psalms. He holds an M.A. in theology from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the Director of Content for the Rabbit Room and is a former staff member at L'Abri Fellowship in England.
Suppo...
2025-04-021h 09Old Books with GraceEast Coker with O. Alan Noble: Four Quartets, Lent 2025Lent is a time of repentance, reflection, and reconciliation. These are actions that happen in time, facilitated by memory and love. So even though we, as followers of Christ, repent, reflect, and reconcile year-round, one hopes, we set aside a time to especially do so, to be as intentional as we can, to pay special attention to our blessed limitations as creatures of God. It is easy to let these things go.
This is what Lent is for. It so happens that these themes—love, memory, time, attention, repentance, creatureliness—are also themes extensively explored in T.S. E...
2025-03-191h 07Old Books with GraceBurnt Norton with Paul Pastor: Four Quartets, Lent 2025Welcome to Old Books with Grace! Today is Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent 2025. And today begins the Old Books with Grace Lent Series, on T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets.
Lent is a time of repentance, reflection, and reconciliation. These are actions that happen in time, facilitated by memory and love. So even though we, as followers of Christ, repent, reflect, and reconcile year-round, one hopes, we set aside a time to especially do so, to be as intentional as we can, to pay special attention to our blessed limitations as creatures of God. It is ea...
2025-03-051h 07Old Books with GraceMeeting Zwingli the Reformer with Stephen EccherZwingli is one of those names that floats around the ether--but in comparison to his more famous reforming counterparts, like Luther or Calvin, he doesn't get brought up much. Grace welcomes author and professor Stephen Eccher to discuss this radical reformer and his sixteenth-century impact.
Stephen Brett Eccher is Associate Professor of Church History and Reformation Studies at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina, where he has taught since 2012. His academic work focuses primarily on Reformation history and theology, especially at the intersection of the sixteenth century Swiss Reformed and Swiss Anabaptist traditions.
H...
2025-02-1940 minOld Books with GraceTalking Trollope with Susannah Black RobertsIn this episode Grace welcomes editor, writer, and reader Susannah Black Roberts to discuss one of their mutual favorites: the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope. George Eliot loved him. Henry James hated him. What are we to think of this wordy man?
Susannah Black Roberts is senior editor at Plough. She is a native Manhattanite. She and her husband, the theologian Alastair Roberts, split their time between Manhattan and the West Midlands of the UK.
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2025-02-051h 05Old Books with GraceAdvent III: His Mercy Hath No SuperlativeWelcome to this week's episode in the Advent 2024 series, each featuring a sermon from the past. Last week we longed for the Second Coming of Jesus with Sojourner Truth, this week we long for Jesus's mercy in our hearts right now, with the seventeenth-century Anglican cleric and metaphysical poet, John Donne, in portions of a sermon preached on Christmas Day, 1624.
Support Old Books with Grace by giving money for books & hosting fees.
2024-12-1824 minOld Books with GraceAdvent II: What Time of NightWelcome to this week’s episode in the Advent 2024 series, each featuring a sermon from the past. Last week we longed for the historical arrival of the Christ Child with Bernard of Clairvaux. Today, we long for Jesus’s Second Coming with the nineteenth-century preacher, activist, and prophet, Sojourner Truth.
Read Sojourner Truth’s narrative of her life.
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2024-12-1113 minOld Books with GraceAdvent I: Christ the BeeWelcome to the first Advent episode of 2024 in Old Books with Grace! In this series, Grace introduces a thinker and a sermon of the past. Each week will focus on one of the advents, comings, arrivals of Jesus Christ: the first, historical coming in Bethlehem; the second coming in the Last Judgment; the present advent of His presence in our hearts. This week is St. Bernard of Clairvaux, on flowers and honey in Isaiah, on Christ the Bee.
Purchase Grace's book, Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Mi...
2024-12-0413 minOld Books with GraceReading the Bible with Medieval and Early Modern People with Erin ZoutendamToday Grace welcomes Dr. Erin Risch Zoutendam to talk about how medieval and early modern people were reading and encountering scripture. Highlights include Augustine, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Julian of Norwich!
Erin Risch Zoutendam received her PhD from Duke University. Her research examines how late medieval and early modern biblical hermeneutics shaped Christian conceptions of mystical contemplation. She currently teaches at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey.
2024-11-1347 minOld Books with GraceMartin Luther in Fiction with Amy MantravadiIn this episode, Grace welcomes historical fiction writer Amy Mantravadi to discuss the Reformers, just in time for Reformation Day! As a medievalist, Grace always has some complex feelings for Martin Luther and company, but Amy brings knowledge and enthusiasm to this conversation about these fascinating sixteenth-century folk, as well as the role of historical fiction in our learning, in our discussion of her new fiction of the Reformation, Broken Bonds.
Amy Mantravadi lives in Dayton, Ohio with her husband, Jai, and their son, Thomas. She holds a B.A. in biblical literature and political science from T...
2024-10-3050 minOld Books with GraceLearning with the Mystics with Shannon K. EvansIn today’s episode, Grace welcomes her friend, Shannon K. Evans, to chat about that fascinating group of people that the church today often calls the mystics. They consider the spirituality of women like St. Teresa of Avila, Margery Kempe, St. Catherine of Siena, and more and what they offer the present-day lovers of God.
Shannon K. Evans is the author of The Mystics Would Like a Word, Feminist Prayers for My Daughter, and Rewilding Motherhood. She serves as the spirituality and culture editor at the National Catholic Reporter and makes her home in Iowa with her fa...
2024-10-1642 minOld Books with GraceDiscovering John Duns Scotus with Thomas WardToday, Grace chats with Dr. Thomas M. Ward about the challenging Scottish philosopher and theologian, Blessed John Duns Scotus. He is also the very unfair origin of the word “dunce”! This is ironic when thinking about one of the most complex, subtle scholastic theologians of the Middle Ages.
Thomas M. Ward is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He specializes in the history of philosophy and theology of the Middle Ages. Ward is the author of After Stoicism: Last Words of the Last Roman Philosopher, and has recently translated, with commentary, John Duns Scotus...
2024-10-0257 minOld Books with GraceThinking through the Apostle Paul with Lynn CohickToday, Grace chats with Dr. Lynn Cohick on that enigmatic, fascinating, challenging apostle: St. Paul.
Lynn H. Cohick (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania) is Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Director of the Houston Theological Seminary at Houston Christian University. She was Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and taught at Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology in Nairobi, Kenya. She serves as President of the Institute for Biblical Research. Her books include The Letter to the Ephesians in NICNT (2020); Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through the F...
2024-09-1946 minOld Books with GraceWomen Writers of the Catholic Imagination with Haley StewartOld Books with Grace is baaaaack for a fifth season! Grace welcomes Haley Stewart for the first episode of this season, on women novelists of the Catholic imagination--including Rumer Godden, Sigrid Undset, and Toni Morrison. If you're like Grace, get ready to dramatically expand your fiction TBR list.
Haley Stewart is the Editor of Word on Fire Votive and the host of The Votive Podcast. She is the award-winning author of The Grace of Enough, Jane Austen's Genius Guide to Life, and The Sister Seraphina Mysteries. She edited a collection of essays on Catholic women novelists titled...
2024-09-0452 minOld Books with GraceBeholding Art & Shaping the Imagination with Lanta DavisIn this last episode of season four, Grace welcomes Dr. Lanta Davis to talk about spiritual formation in the beholding of the art of the past.
Lanta Davis is Professor of Humanities and Literature for the John Wesley Honors College at Indiana Wesleyan University. She’s written on literature, art, and history for Smithsonian Magazine, Christianity Today, Christian Century, Parabola, and Plough.
Support Old Books with Grace and keep it ad-free at https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gracehamman
2024-05-1543 minOld Books with GraceThe World of Dietrich Bonhoeffer with Laura FabryckyToday Grace welcomes Laura Fabrycky to discuss the fascinating, stirring, challenging life and context of theologian and martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as well as Laura's own transformative experience as a guide at Bonhoeffer's Haus in Berlin.
Laura M. Fabrycky is a writer, poet, and mother of three. She wrote Keys to Bonhoeffer’s Haus: Exploring the World and Wisdom of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Laura is also a PhD student in systematic theology at ETF Leuven. Her family’s diplomatic postings include Doha, Qatar; Amman, Jordan; Washington, DC; Berlin Germany, and Brussels, Belgium. They currently live in the Washington, DC, area.
2024-05-0142 minOld Books with GraceThe Power of Metaphors with Joy ClarksonAs a forever English major, Grace loves figurative language. So she was delighted to welcome Dr. Joy Clarkson for this episode on the power of metaphor and her recent book, You are a Tree.
Joy Clarkson is the author of Aggressively Happy and host of popular podcast, Speaking with Joy. She is the books editor for Plough Quarterly and a research associate in theology and literature at King’s College London. Joy completed her PhD in theology at the University of St Andrews, where she researched how art can be a resource of hope and consolation. Joy loves daf...
2024-04-1738 minOld Books with GraceHerbert: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if need...
2024-03-2912 minOld Books with GraceDonne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if n...
2024-03-1312 minOld Books with GraceSidney: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024This year on Old Books with Grace, I am offering a Lent series on penitential poetry from Early Modern poets. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on the need for forgiveness, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction.
In the spirit of Lent, this series will be stripped down to the essentials, which is something I’m trying to maintain in my own life this season. I will give you some background on the poet and poem, where you can find the poem, and translation information if need...
2024-02-2815 minOld Books with GraceTraherne: Four Early Modern Poets on Repentance, Lent 2024Welcome to this year's Old Books with Grace Lent Series.
This year's series is on penitential poetry. That is, on poems of the past that reflect on one’s sin, on need, on lament, on making things right, on conversion and satisfaction. Such poetry is part of an ancient tradition, dating back to the Psalms themselves. Today's poem is "Desire," by Thomas Traherne. You can read along below, or listen as I read:
For giving me Desire,
An Eager Thirst, a burning Ardent fire,
A virgin Infant Flame,
A Lo...
2024-02-1415 minOld Books with GraceRediscovering Flannery O'Connor with Jessica Hooten WilsonDr. Jessica Hooten Wilson joins Grace on this episode to discuss her new book, Why Do the Heathen Rage? A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. How does O'Connor's last novel, left unfinished at her death, fit in with the rest of her work? How does one even begin to reconstruct a fragmented manuscript?
Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Reading for the Love of God. She is a Senior Fellow at The Trinity Forum.
2024-02-0745 minOld Books with GraceCultural Christians in the Early Church with Nadya WilliamsGrace welcomes Nadya Williams, professor and author of Cultural Christians in the Early Church. What do the early Christians--and not just the martyrs and great leaders, but the ordinary folk--have to teach us today in their witness, writings, and historical record?
Nadya Williams (PhD, Classics and Program in the Ancient World, Princeton University) is a military historian of the Greco-Roman world and the co-editor of Civilians and Warfare in World History. She is Book Review Editor at Current, where she also edits The Arena blog. She is a regular contributor to the Anxious Bench, and has also writt...
2024-01-2442 minOld Books with GraceJoseph, or Faith: Advent 2023Welcome to the second episode in the 2023 Advent series of Old Books with Grace. Each Wednesday, this series will look at a member of the Holy Family--Mary, Joseph, and Jesus--and a theological virtue--hope, faith, and love. In this episode, Grace meditates upon Joseph, doubt, and faith alongside three greats: W.H. Auden, George MacDonald, and Madeleine L’Engle.
2023-12-1313 minOld Books with GraceMary, or Hope: Advent 2023Welcome to the first episode in the Advent series for 2023. Each Wednesday, this series will look at a member of the Holy Family--Mary, Joseph, and Jesus--and a theological virtue--hope, faith, and love. Today, Grace Hamman meditates upon Mary and the stretching, longing virtue of hope alongside a fourteenth-century Middle English poem full of Marian imagery.
Poems from this episode:
Heyl, leuedy, se-steorre bryht
Marye, mayde mylde and fre
Grace's book: Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages
2023-12-0620 minOld Books with GraceDiscovering Christian Poets in Translation with Burl HorniachekToday, Burl Horniachek chats with Grace about pre-nineteenth-century Christian poetry from other parts of the world that he collected in a lovely volume from Cascade Books called To Heaven’s Rim. From early Syrian poets like Romanos the Melodist to seventeenth-century Chinese artist Wu Li, the selection of Christian poetry is wide and fascinating!
Burl Horniachek is a Canadian high school teacher, poet, translator and editor. He was born in Saskatoon and grew up near Edmonton. He studied Ancient Near Eastern Studies (Hebrew/Ancient Israel) at the University of Toronto and creative writing at the University of Al...
2023-11-2241 minOld Books with GraceThe Joy of Louisa May Alcott with LuElla D’AmicoCalling all Louisa May Alcott fans! In this episode, Grace chats with Americanist scholar LuElla D’Amico about children’s literature and the work of Louisa May Alcott in particular... including hard-hitting questions like "Should Laurie have ended up with Jo?!" (there is disagreement on the answer).
Dr. LuElla D'Amico is an Associate Professor of English and Coordinator of the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of the Incarnate Word. Her primary research interests lie in girlhood, girl culture, and religion in early and nineteenth-century American literature, and she has published numerous articles in this ve...
2023-11-0850 minOld Books with GraceBeholding Jesus with Medieval Friends with Grace & Scott HammanIn this special episode about Grace's new book, Jesus through Medieval Eyes: Beholding Christ with the Artists, Mystics, and Theologians of the Middle Ages, Grace gets interviewed on medieval ideas about Jesus in art and literature by none other than the inestimable Scott Hamman, her wonderful non-medievalist structural engineering husband (or in his words, "Mr. Dr. Grace Hamman").
Preorder Jesus through Medieval Eyes on Amazon, B&N, or your local bookstore.
2023-10-2549 minOld Books with GraceThe Formative Power of the Imagination with Karen Swallow PriorGrace welcomes Karen Swallow Prior to discuss her brand-new book, The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis (Brazos, 2023), and from that book, the power of imagination and our formation through literature and products of culture.
Karen Swallow Prior (Ph.D., State University of New York, Buffalo) is a reader, writer, and professor. She is the author of multiple books including The Evangelical Imagination, On Reading Well, and Fierce Convictions. She and her husband live on a 100-year old homestead in central Virginia with dogs, chickens, and lots of books. She writes...
2023-10-1146 minOld Books with GraceAppreciating George MacDonald with Marianne WrightGrace chats with Marianne Wright on the novels and sermons of the great Victorian writer and Presbyterian minister, George MacDonald. Why did this somewhat obscure (for us today, at least) novelist inspired some of the most well-beloved writers of the twentieth century, like C.S. Lewis and G.K. Chesterton?
Marianne Wright, a member of the Bruderhof, lives in southeastern New York with her husband and five children. She has edited two books for Plough, Anni and The Gospel in George MacDonald. She writes at seasonsofcommunityliving.substack.com.
2023-09-2750 minOld Books with GraceWomen without Children in Church History with Elizabeth FelicettiIn this first episode of season four, Grace chats with Reverend Elizabeth Felicetti, author of Unexpected Abundance: The Fruitful Lives of Women Without Children, on the dignity and humanity of women without children and their gift to the church.
The Rev. Elizabeth Felicetti is the rector of St. David's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia and the author of the new book Unexpected Abundance: The Fruitful Lives of Women Without Children. Her writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The Christian Century and numerous other places. She holds a Master of Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary and an MFA in W...
2023-09-1349 minOld Books with GraceAugustine and Hope with Michael LambIn the last episode of season three, Grace talks with Dr. Michael Lamb on the great African bishop and theologian, St. Augustine of Hippo, and the virtue of hope.
Michael Lamb is the F. M. Kirby Foundation Chair of Leadership and Character, Executive Director of the Program for Leadership and Character, and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Wake Forest University. He is also a Research Fellow with the Oxford Character Project. He holds a Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University, a B.A. in political science from Rhodes College, and a second B.A. in philoso...
2023-05-3153 minOld Books with GraceLoving Christ our Mother with Julian of NorwichIt's a magical confluence of Mother's Day week, Grace's actual birthday, and the 650th anniversary of Julian's experience with God, so Grace had to mark it in a special way herself. Yes, that's right, Grace is her own guest this week, and she even answers her own get-to-know you literary questions. The main star of the show, however, is the wondrous fourteenth-century contemplative writer, Julian of Norwich, and her beautiful vision of Christ as our Mother.
Preorder Jesus Through Medieval Eyes:
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2023-05-1723 minOld Books with GraceReading Art with Elissa Yukiko WeichbrodtNormally, obviously, Grace talks about old books. But every now and then, OBWG presents an episode on old art. Because encountering old art is just as much about reading, interpretation, and attention as reading old books is! Today, Grace is delighted to welcome Dr. Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt as a guest.
Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt (Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis) is an associate professor of art and art history at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia and author of Redeeming Vision: A Christian Guide to Looking at and Learning from Art. As a biracial Japanese-white woman, she...
2023-05-0351 minOld Books with GraceLearning like Shakespeare with Scott NewstokIn this episode, Grace chats with Dr. Scott Newstok on William Shakespeare (whose birthday is this week!) and the principles of a renaissance education.
Scott Newstok is Professor of English and founding director of the Pearce Shakespeare Endowment at Rhodes College. A parent and an award-winning teacher, he is the author of How to Think Like Shakespeare, as well as Quoting Death in Early Modern England, and the editor of several other books, including a forthcoming edition of Michel de Montaigne’s educational writings.
2023-04-1959 minOld Books with GraceClaude Atcho on The Picture of Dorian Gray: A Book that Changed Me, Lent 2023This year’s Old Books with Grace Lent series, called “A Book that Changed Me,” offers four different conversations with guests on a book of their choice that changed them, made them think deeply about transformation, brought them closer to truth. Books can be mirrors—they can help us to consider ourselves in new light. Books invite us into conversation and reflection we would not have known to participate in without their guidance. Each of the guests in this series has chosen a book that invited them into reflection, remembrance, and self-knowledge. Each conversation is quite different—some more personal, ot...
2023-04-051h 01Old Books with GraceKaitlyn Schiess on A Wrinkle in Time: A Book that Changed Me, Lent 2023Welcome to the third episode of the Lent series on Old Books with Grace, exploring literature, self-knowledge, and transformation. In today’s A Book that Changed Me, Grace chats with Kaitlyn Schiess about Madeleine L’Engle’s marvelous young adult novel, A Wrinkle in Time.
Kaitlyn Schiess is the author of The Ballot and the Bible: How Scripture has been Used and Abused in American Politics and Where We Go from Here (Brazos, 2023) and The Liturgy of Politics: Spiritual Formation for the Sake of Our Neighbor (IVP, 2020). Her writing has appeared at Christianity Today, The New York Times...
2023-03-2246 minOld Books with GraceJason Baxter on Inferno: A Book that Changed Me, Lent 2023Welcome to the second offering in this year's Old Books with Grace Lent series. “A Book that Changed Me” offers four different conversations with guests on a book of their choice that changed them, made them think deeply about transformation, brought them closer to truth. Today, Jason Baxter is the special guest, and Dante's Inferno is the special book.
Jason Baxter is a college professor, speaker, and author of five books, including A Beginner's Guide to Dante's Comedy and, most recently, The Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis. He now lives in South Bend, where he is teaching gr...
2023-03-0850 minOld Books with GraceJoy Clarkson on Silas Marner: A Book that Changed Me, Lent 2023Welcome to the first offering in this year's Old Books with Grace Lent series. “A Book that Changed Me” offers four different conversations with guests on a book of their choice that changed them, made them think deeply about transformation, brought them closer to truth. Today, Joy Clarkson is the special guest, and George Eliot's Silas Marner is the special book.
Dr. Joy Clarkson is the author of Aggressively Happy: A Realist’s Guide to Believing in the Goodness of Life, and a research associate in theology and literature at King’s College, London. She received her doctorate i...
2023-02-2240 minOld Books with GraceEnjoying Elizabeth Goudge with Julie WitmerHave you heard of the midcentury fiction writer, Elizabeth Goudge, author of classics like The Little White Horse or The Scent of Water? Julie Witmer, founder of the Elizabeth Goudge Book Club, comes on Old Books with Grace to talk about Goudge's life and writings, from her talent for writing children, to her love for her characters, to her mischaracterization as a romance writer!
2023-02-0842 minOld Books with GraceModernism & T.S. Eliot with Tony DomesticoGrace welcomes Dr. Anthony Domestico, author of Poetry and Theology in the Modernist Period and chair of the literature department at Purchase SUNY, to Old Books with Grace today to chat about modernist poetry including my favorite twentieth-century poet, T.S. Eliot.
Warning: this episode is slightly longer than usual episodes because Grace lost track of time in her excitement about Eliot!
2023-01-251h 07Old Books with GraceDayspring: Advent 2022Today, Grace concludes the Advent series with some very, very old poetry. Poetry, in fact, that you’re already familiar with. You likely sing a form of it, or listen to it each year. Grace dives into Old English and Middle English translations of the Great O Antiphons, better known to us today as the foundation of the wonderful Advent hymn, O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. Let’s look for the Dayspring, the Dawn, the Sun of Justice on this darkest day of the year.
2022-12-2118 minOld Books with GraceHeaven Cannot Hold Him: Advent 2022Welcome back to this year's Advent series on Old Books with Grace. This episode meditates on Christina Rossetti's A Christmas Carol, and William Langland's Piers Plowman. An interesting duo, separated by 500 years--and you'll find out why Grace pairs them in a contemplation on nature imagery and incarnational love.
2022-12-1415 minOld Books with GraceHarke! Despair Away: Advent 2022In this second installment of the Advent series on poetry, Grace meditates on George Herbert's marvelous poem, "The Bag." Listen to Herbert command despair away as Christ becomes incarnate and carries our prayers in his very body.
2022-12-0719 minOld Books with GraceWere we led all this way for birth or death?: Advent 2022In the first episode of the Advent 2022 series exploring Advent & Christmas poetry from the past, Dr. Grace Hamman meditates on T.S. Eliot's The Journey of the Magi and our status as pilgrims in the world.
Read The Journey of the Magi.
2022-11-3019 minOld Books with GracePraying with Puritans with Robert ElmerGrace welcomes Robert Elmer, the editor of Piercing Heaven: Prayers of the Puritans and Fount of Heaven: Prayers of the Early Church, the first two books in the Prayers of the Church series from Lexham Press. Grace, a medievalist slightly suspicious of Puritanism, learns about the beauty of these prayers from the sixteenth & seventeenth centuries and about Robert's own processes of finding and selecting these historical and powerful prayers.
2022-11-0939 minOld Books with GraceOn Beauty and Literature with Sarah ClarksonBeauty is just as significant to our spiritual and moral lives as truth and goodness. Sarah Clarkson has often found this beauty in literature. Grace welcomes Sarah, author of This Beautiful Truth: How God's Goodness Breaks Into Our Darkness, to discuss the intersections between story, beauty, and suffering. Along the way, some very recognizable names come up as sources of profound beauty in literature: J.R.R. Tolkien, L.M. Montgomery, George Eliot, and more...
2022-10-2653 minOld Books with GraceThe Delights of Dickens with Gina DalfonzoGrace welcomes Gina Dalfonzo, editor of The Gospel in Dickens (Plough Publishing House) and founder and editor of Dickensblog, to chat all things Charles Dickens. What is the appeal of this wordy writer (whom, as Gina reminds us, was NOT paid by the word)? Join Gina and Grace for a fun conversation discussing why we love and return to Charles Dickens over and over despite his foibles and flaws.
2022-10-1257 minOld Books with GraceThe Beauty of Old English with Eleanor ParkerDr. Eleanor Parker joins Grace to discuss the beauty of Old English and her delightful new book on the Anglo-Saxon calendar year, Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year.
Eleanor Parker is Lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Brasenose College, Oxford. She is the author of Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Viking England (2018), Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England (2022), and Winters in the World: A Journey Through the Anglo-Saxon Year (2022). She has also written for History Today and is the creator of the Clerk of Oxford blog.
2022-09-2839 minOld Books with GraceThe Love of Learning with Zena HitzOn the season premiere of Old Books With Grace, Grace welcomes Dr. Zena Hitz, author of Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life, tutor at St. John's College, and founder of the Catherine Project. Why is it important to love learning for its own sake and not instrumentalize it? How can we cultivate an intellectual life? What does Augustine of Hippo mean by curiositas? Hear Grace and Dr. Hitz's thoughts on these questions and more...
2022-09-1458 minOld Books with GraceGod’s Love, Thomas Aquinas, and Tradition with Fritz BauerschmidtIn this last episode of the season, Grace welcomes Dr. Fritz Bauerschmidt to chat about reading difficult authors of the past, like Thomas Aquinas, the love of God as the central feature of Christianity, and the flexibility and strength of tradition.
Frederick Christian (Fritz) Bauerschmidt is Professor of Theology at Loyola University Maryland, specializing in medieval and modern Catholic theology, and a deacon of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, assigned to the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen. He is the author of several books, most recently The Love That is God: An Invitation to Christian Faith (Eerdmans 2020), The Ess...
2022-06-1558 minOld Books with GraceC.S. Lewis & Medieval Humanism with Chris ArmstrongGrace welcomes Dr. Chris Armstrong to the podcast to talk about his book, Medieval Wisdom for Modern Christians, and think through medieval Christian humanism's influence on C.S. Lewis, and how some of these medieval ideas might help think more creatively and faithfully about community, faith, and history today.
Dr. Chris R Armstrong is an educator, academic entrepreneur, author, editor, and church historian (Duke Ph.D., Gordon-Conwell M.A.). He currently serves as Program Fellow in Faith, Work, and Economics for the Kern Family Foundation (WI). He taught from 2004 to 2013 at Bethel Seminary (MN). From 2014 to 2018 he se...
2022-06-0153 minOld Books with GraceTalking Tolkien with Kaitlyn FacistaThis week, Grace welcomes Kaitlyn Facista, creator of the online community Tea with Tolkien. Naturally, they drink tea and talk Tolkien! Topics of discussion include: the upcoming Amazon series (and Kaitlyn's sneak peek of it in London!), how to throw a Hobbit party, why the Silmarillion matters, and the ever controversial Tom Bombadil, among other things.
Kaitlyn Facista is a Catholic convert, wife, mother to four babies at home + two in heaven, and hobbit at heart. She lives with her family in the Midwest. Hobbies include thinking about Tolkien (obviously), making friends on twitter, and spending time wi...
2022-05-181h 00Old Books with GraceLust and Chastity: Lent 2022Welcome to the last season of the Seven Capital Vices and their Remedies Lent Series! It's time to discuss lust and chastity. Rather than think through actions, Grace gets to the bottom of lust: depersonalization of others for the sake of pleasure. Chastity, in contrast, is like a blend of fidelity and the gift of seeing all people as full, precious image-bearers, never to be reducible to bodily pleasure or for that matter, just bodies.
2022-04-1323 minOld Books with GraceGluttony and Abstinence: Lent 2022In this episode, penultimate in the Lenten Vices & Virtues series, Grace probes the vice of gluttony and the virtue of abstinence, which includes restraint and fasting. And what's more Lenten than to talk about fasting? And as is usual for the series: we talk about gluttony and abstinence in highly simplistic ways. Gluttony has little to do with pounds on the scale, and take courage: you're not a glutton for merely enjoying tasty food. Listen to find out more.
2022-04-0621 minOld Books with GraceWrath and Its Remedies: Lent 2022Anger is tricky. It can be good or bad, depending on its provocation and its expression. Because of that complexity, it does not have one clear remedy in the medieval tradition. So we talk patience, meekness, "evenhead," even the gift of knowledge. Alongside medieval writers, Grace explores the balance of feeling feelings and learning righteous anger, and rejecting hatred and wrath.
2022-03-1628 minOld Books with GraceEnvy and Love: Lent 2022Envy is the only vice with no pleasure. All the others have a wickedly delicious flavor initially, but envy is embarrassing, and in it, we despise others and we despise ourselves. Grace unpacks this unsavory vice and its remedy, the answer to its deepest lack, love.
2022-03-0923 minOld Books with GraceIntroducing the Vices and Virtues: Lent 2022In this introductory episode to the 2022 Lent series, Grace dives into the history and meaning of the Seven Capital Vices, their remedies, and their timeliness for Lent. What’s this ancient way of thinking about human behavior worth to us today, when we have so much new and wonderful information on human behavior in general? What even is a vice or a virtue, strictly speaking?! Let's find out.
2022-02-2328 minOld Books with GraceContemplative Reading and Thomas Merton with Sophfronia ScottGrace welcomes Sophfronia Scott, author of The Seeker and the Monk, and director of the MFA creative writing program at Alma College. Sophfronia and Grace discuss learning to have meaningful dialogue with books as you read, even when they were written by long-dead writers, and Sophfronia shares her wisdom on reading Thomas Merton and on the practice of reading contemplatively.
2022-02-1646 minOld Books with GraceTwentieth-Century Literature and Holiness with Jessica Hooten WilsonThis week, Grace welcomes Jessica Hooten Wilson to Old Books With Grace, to chat about her new book, The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, and the power of literature to reveal the subtleties of the good life. Sometimes holiness can be alarming, bizarre, and fascinating... and novels and their novelists, like Flannery O'Connor, C.S. Lewis, and Fyodor Dostoyevsky, can help us to conceptualize the holy life in all its difficulty and otherworldliness.
2022-02-0241 minOld Books with GracePrayer and Liturgy with Kayla CraigGrace welcomes Kayla Craig, author of To Light Their Way, a collection of prayers and liturgies for parents, and the creator of the wonderfully helpful @liturgiesforparents instagram account. We talk prayer books, the definition of liturgy, how written prayers help us find words, and the wonderful, ecumenical prayer sources and books that Kayla has enjoyed and recommends.
2022-01-1947 minOld Books with GraceOn Virtues and Fiction with Karen Swallow PriorGrace welcomes Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, professor and author of On Reading Well: Finding the Good Life through Great Books. We talk about some of my favorite questions: How can virtue be learned and practiced through stories? How do narratives of the past change us? Why is fiction important in learning to live and love well?
2022-01-0548 minOld Books with GraceO Come All Ye Faithful: An Advent MeditationA bit on the history and meanings behind the Christmas song, "O Come All Ye Faithful." How might we follow the invitation in the chorus, "O come let us adore him"? Dr. Grace Hamman thinks through that with the aid of medieval monk and theologian Bernard of Clairvaux.
2021-12-2223 minOld Books with GraceHark! The Herald Angels Sing: An Advent MeditationGrace meditates on the robustly theological hymn by Charles Wesley, music by Felix Mendelssohn, "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing." What do we make of the gift of weakness in God laying his glory by? What do we make of the gift of our own weakness?
2021-12-1522 minOld Books with GraceO Come O Come Emmanuel: An Advent MeditationLearn about the ancient history of the song, "O Come O Come Emmanuel" and meditate on its beauty and meaning just in time for Advent with Dr. Grace Hamman.
2021-12-0159 minOld Books with GraceArt & the Annunciation with Victoria Emily JonesVictoria Emily Jones of Art & Theology discusses some wonderful art depicting the Annunciation, from poetry to visual art, from medieval to modern day, with Grace. Victoria and Grace unpack the multilayered meaning of these beautiful works in their exploration of Mary's encounter with the Angel Gabriel, as we prepare our hearts for Advent and receiving God alongside Mary. You can see all the art from this episode on social media or on oldbookswithgrace.com, or on YouTube.
2021-11-1759 minOld Books with GraceThinking of Jesus as Our Mother With Shannon K. EvansShannon Evans, author of Rewilding Motherhood, joins Grace to talk about the powerful and poignant image of Jesus as our Mother. How does this ancient metaphor affect our lives today? Shannon and Grace talk Julian of Norwich, motherhood, and the theology of this idea.
2021-11-1049 minOld Books with GraceFrom the Endless Knot to the Green Girdle: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, pt. IVAt last, Gawain comes to the mysterious, terrifying Green Chapel. What happens next? Find out, meditate on the results, and rejoice over the wonderful poetry of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, with Grace.
2021-11-0326 minOld Books with GraceGames, Gifts, and Icicles on Armor: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, pt.IIFitt II of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Wander through the icy woods with Gawain as he searches for the Green Chapel, to meet his fate with the Green Knight. Grace explores the medieval context of this fantastic poem and thinks with the poet on what it means to be human.
2021-10-2026 minOld Books with GraceA Beheading at a Feast: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, pt. 1Ever since the siege ceased at Troy, betrayal and treachery has ruled the forebears of Sir Gawain... so we are plunged into the fantastical fourteenth-century masterpiece, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. Let's meet Arthur, Guinevere, a host of secondary characters, our hero Sir Gawain... and a gigantic knight, green from head to toe... Grace considers this strange beginning, the sins of our forebears, the wonderful poetry itself, and the spooky delight of the Green Knight.
2021-10-1323 minOld Books with GraceTalking Austen and L‘Engle With Haley StewartGrace Hamman welcomes podcaster, speaker, and fellow mom writer Haley Stewart of Carrots for Michaelmas and Fountains of Carrots. Haley and Grace chat Jane Austen, Madeleine L'Engle, faith, and the challenging vocations of being writers and mothers (and which Jane Austen adaptations they think are the best and the worst).
2021-09-291h 00Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 10-12 Vol. II with Scott HammanDr. Grace Hamman and her special guest this week, her husband Scott, discuss love, communication, resurrection, learning how to learn, and gush over Austen's profundity in depicting relationships in Persuasion. They also freeze in slight horror and pause the recording awkwardly when their four-year old son emerges to pee at 10:30 at night while they record. Welcome to the grand finale of the Summer Old Book Club!
2021-08-041h 09Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 7-9 Vol. II with Goodwyn BellWelcome to the penultimate week of the Summer Old Book Club! Grace invites her friend Goodwyn Bell to chat about the continuing drama with Mr. Elliot, if where you grew up affects how you read Jane Austen, Anne's charming, blush-filled interactions with Captain Wentworth, the importance of Bath, the confusing lies of Mrs. Smith, what Jane Austen thinks of friendship, and so much more...
2021-07-281h 10Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 4-6 Vol II with Carol IrwinWelcome to Week 6 of the Summer Old Book Club and perhaps the first ever podcast episode featuring a grandmother and her granddaughter discussing Persuasion in great detail! Join Dr. Grace Hamman and her 86 year-old Grama, Carol Irwin, as they think through Mr. Elliot, Mrs. Smith, the intricacies of rank and society in Bath, what a "good" pride entails, and so much more...
2021-07-211h 06Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 1-3 Vol. II with Dr. Jessica HinesGrace welcomes Dr. Jessica Hines to the fifth week of the Summer Old Book Club discussing Jane Austen's Persuasion. Grace and Jessica talk about the mysterious Mr. Elliot, the perplexities of Lady Russell (do we like her or not??), Anne's move to Bath, and bring in some of their great loves: medieval things like Thomas Aquinas and virtue ethics!
2021-07-141h 15Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 10-12, Vol I with Chelsea SwansonDr. Grace Hamman and her special guest and best friend since kindergarten, Chelsea Swanson, lose track of time as they endlessly dissect three chapters of Persuasion that perhaps have the most incredible emotional and interpersonal subtext of all chapters but the end. Plus, discussion of the most stupid Jane Austen injury: Louisa Musgrove jumps off the Cobb!
2021-07-071h 19Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 7-9 Vol. I with Marisa TuallaWelcome to week three of reading Jane Austen's Persuasion with the Summer Old Book Club! Today, Grace chats with her old friend Marisa Tualla, a math curriculum specialist, about ch. 7-9 of vol. I. They talk Jane Austen on gender, loneliness, the fascinating and unusual presence of children in this section, among many other things...
2021-06-231h 06Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Ch. 4-6 Vol. 1 with John IrwinIt's week two of the Summer Old Book Club! Read alongside Grace and her brother, John Irwin, as they discuss chapters 4-6 of volume I of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Grace and John talk about meeting Captain Wentworth (in memory) for the first time, Jane Austen's meanest and most phallic joke, Regency-era ideas about class, the wretched Mary Musgrove, and so much more...
2021-06-181h 10Old Books with GraceAusten's Persuasion: Chapters 1-3 Vol. 1 with Dr. Jessica WardWelcome to the Summer Old Book Club with Jane Austen's Persuasion! Grace and Dr. Jessica Ward, an English professor at Mercy College in NYC and one of Grace's grad school buddies, talk about our introduction to the characters, Austen's cutting humor, personality types, and more.
2021-06-0958 minOld Books with GraceJesus the Judge: Old English Poetry and Medieval Doom PaintingsThe second most ubiquitous representation of Jesus in the Middle Ages, after the Crucifixion, was Jesus seated in judgment on Doomsday. This version of Jesus is certainly less popular today! Grace considers the ramifications of this image for us through its appearance in Old English poetry and in the Doom paintings on the inside of all English medieval churches.
2021-02-1727 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 8: Ch. 66-86We have finally reached the last episode in the series on Julian of Norwich's fourteenth-century masterpiece, Revelations of Divine Love! Here, Grace discusses the stunningly beautiful ending and Julian's idea of living as penance.
2021-02-1021 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 7: Ch. 58-65Julian of Norwich, medieval contemplative writer, writes about Jesus as our Mother. We will think together about how that comparison helps us to understand the nature of Christ. This section is Grace's favorite part of Julian of Norwich's writings! This is the penultimate episode of an eight-week series on the fourteenth-century anchorite, Julian of Norwich, and her insightful, profound work on the character of God and ourselves.
2021-02-0319 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 6: Ch. 51-57Welcome to a particularly challenging week of reading Julian together! Grace tackles Julian of Norwich's difficult showing of the Lord and Servant, part of her visions that she had meditated on for over twenty years. In this showing, Julian considers the Fall, sin, God's love, the Incarnation, time... are those enough things to consider? This episode is the sixth of an eight-episode series on this amazing medieval contemplative writer.
2021-01-2724 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 5: Ch. 41-50This week, Grace discusses chapters 41-50 of Julian of Norwich’s incredible contemplative work, often entitled “Revelations of Divine Love.” This is the fifth episode of an eight-episode series on this 14th century mystical writer and thinker. Some hot topics for this week: prayer and God's character. Enjoy!
2021-01-2017 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 4: Ch. 27-40Grace reads chapters 27-40 of Julian of Norwich's Revelations of Divine Love. These chapters include Julian's famous quote, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well." But surprise! We often cut the first part of that quote out, which is about sin. In fact, this whole section of Julian's writing raises a lot of interesting questions about that tricky topic, which we explore together.
2021-01-1320 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 3: Ch. 15-26This is the third of eight episodes meditating on Julian of Norwich's contemplative, theological masterpiece, often entitled Revelations of Divine Love or The Showings. Grace thinks through the tricky topic of Julian's interest in suffering and God's care for us.
2021-01-0618 minOld Books with GraceJulian of Norwich Week 2: ch. 10-14This is the second of eight episodes meditating on Julian of Norwich's contemplative, theological masterpiece, often entitled Revelations of Divine Love or The Showings. In this episode, Grace thinks through the common themes and important moments in chapters 10-14. Check out the blog at oldbookwithgrace.com if you wish to see the text version.
2020-12-3015 minOld Books with GraceT.S. Eliot's "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"Merry Christmas from Old Books With Grace! In this episode, I think about the great poet and thinker T.S. Eliot's midcentury poem, "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees," and the darkness and light of this season. Check out the text on oldbookswithgrace.com.
2020-12-2315 minOld Books with GraceWelcome to Old Books With Grace!I'm Dr. Grace Hamman and I want to explore the intersections of literature and theology with you. Old books speak to us and allow us to break out of our hidden assumptions and biases about the way the world works. Today, I'm introducing us to the work of Julian of Norwich, the brilliant fourteenth-century contemplative writer, and her background. Check out the accompanying blog at oldbookswithgrace.com
2020-12-1420 min