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Christians Reading Classics

Mere Orthodoxy
Christians Reading Classics
Último episodio

26 episodios

  • Christians Reading Classics

    Mansfield Park by Jane Austin with Beatrice Scudeler

    18/03/2026 | 51 min
    Jane Austen's most underrated novel is also her most serious. In this conversation, books editor Nadya Williams and essayist Beatrice Scudeler explore what Mansfield Park has to say about virtue, vocation, wealth, and the formation of character -- and why Fanny Price, the novel's quiet, overlooked heroine, may be Austen's most carefully drawn moral portrait.

    Get the ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at 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.
    Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonDivinityPhD

    Chapters
    00:03 -- Opening: Austen reads the opening lines of Mansfield Park; Nadya introduces the episode and season premise
    01:48 -- Defining a classic: what makes a work speak across centuries without losing its rootedness in its own time
    05:29 -- Why Mansfield Park for America's 250th: Austen, evangelical Christianity, and the values that crossed the Atlantic
    08:48 -- The plot: Fanny Price, the Bertrams, and what happens when the Crawfords arrive from London
    13:35 -- The problem of Fanny Price: why modern readers resist her, and why Lionel Trilling diagnosed the real issue in the 1960s
    19:57 -- Fanny as a sympathetic character: what it means to be 10 years old, sent away from your family, and expected to be grateful
    25:09 -- The absent adults: Sir Thomas, Lady Bertram, and the novel's indictment of parenting by principle without presence
    27:09 -- Was Fanny autobiographical? The case for Jane Austen as observer, introvert, and moral compass
    33:15 -- What money buys: education, time, space for contemplation -- and what it cannot buy
    39:07 -- Marriage as formation: why Austen's vision of marriage is still revolutionary, and what we've lost by privatizing it
    41:16 -- Why Mansfield Park may be Austen's best: constancy, prudence, and the virtue of being the quiet center that holds everything together
    48:45 -- Closing question: what classic would Beatrice have written? Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
  • Christians Reading Classics

    The Nichomachean Ethics by Aristotle with Sabrina Little | America 250

    12/03/2026 | 38 min
    div]:bg-bg-000/50 [&_pre>div]:border-0.5 [&_pre>div]:border-border-400 [&_.ignore-pre-bg>div]:bg-transparent [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8"> _*]:min-w-0 gap-3 standard-markdown"> Nadya Williams and Sabrina Little explore Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics — its account of virtue as habit, the teleological shape of a good life, and how athletics and daily practice form character. Little connects Aristotle to Aquinas, parenting, and her own work as an elite ultramarathoner and philosopher.








    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.
    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
     

    Chapters
    00:00 - Introduction
    02:35 - What is a classic?
    03:51 - Why the Nicomachean Ethics for American Christians?
    07:19 - Aristotle's aims: eudaimonia and virtue
    10:24 - The contemplative life vs. the practical life
    13:38 - How college life trains students in virtue
    18:13 - Advice for first-time readers of Aristotle
    22:27 - The Examined Run: athletics and moral formation
    28:29 - Teaching virtue to young children
    32:03 - Would Aristotle recognize our struggles today?
    34:57 - Aristotle and women
    36:07 - What classic do you wish you had written?
  • Christians Reading Classics

    Wuthering Heights with Evie Solheim

    05/03/2026 | 51 min
    Nadya Williams and Evie Solheim discuss Wuthering Heights, what makes it a gothic classic, why Emily Brontë's moral ambiguity still provokes, how the novel speaks to a generation starved for romance, and why the new film adaptation trades subtlety for TikTok-style spectacle. Also: Anna Karenina, Virginia Woolf, and Greta Gerwig's Narnia.

    Get the Mere Orthodoxy ebook, Spiritual Formation for the Family, at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family
    Mere Fidelity 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.
    Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, R30 Key Moments in the History of Christianity: Inspiring True Stories from the Early Church Around the World, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity
    Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonPhD

    Chapters
    00:11 – Opening reading from Wuthering Heights and intro to the Brontë sisters
    01:54 – Welcome to Season 2 of Christians Reading Classics; introducing Evie Solheim
    03:25 – What makes a classic? Timelessness, breaking the mold, and the canon
    06:35 – Plot summary: key characters, places, and the structure of the novel
    08:43 – The gothic genre: origins, elements, and its American descendants
    10:22 – Southern Gothic: Flannery O'Connor, Faulkner, and True Detective
    13:12 – How we first meet Cathy — and the unreliable narrators telling her story
    16:28 – Advice for first-time readers: Emily Brontë's biography and creative world
    19:43 – Virginia Woolf's essay on Wuthering Heights and what it means to write like that
    22:56 – Why Wuthering Heights resonates with Americans today: romance, apps, and longing
    27:21 – The new film adaptation: competing with TikTok, not other movies
    31:43 – Comparing Wuthering Heights to Gone with the Wind: land, love, and star-crossed tropes
    36:28 – Good cinematic adaptations: Greta Gerwig's Little Women vs. Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights
    41:10 – Is Wuthering Heights amoral? Reading Heathcliff's fate through a biblical lens
    47:29 – Closing question: the classic Evie wishes she had written — Anna Karenina
  • Christians Reading Classics

    Uncle Toms Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe with Obbie Tyler Todd | America 250

    26/02/2026 | 1 h
    Nadya Williams and Obbie Tyler Todd explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as part of season two's focus on classics American Christians should read for America's 250th. They discuss the Beecher family's influence, the Fugitive Slave Law as the book's impetus, Stowe's deeply scriptural approach to critiquing slavery, the Christ-likeness of Uncle Tom, and why the novel's theological vision — not merely its abolitionism — gave it such enduring power.

    Get your copy of Mere Orthodoxy's ebook, Spiritual Formation for the Family, by going to 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.
    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

    Chapters
    00:00 Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin
     
    02:21 Defining a Classic
     
    06:57 The Importance of Uncle Tom's Cabin for Christians
     
    12:06 The Beecher Family Legacy
     
    20:45 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Impact on American Sentiment
     
    27:43 Introducing Uncle Tom's Cabin to New Readers
     
    29:59 Moral Complexity of Slavery
     
    32:17 The Christian Perspective on Slavery
     
    35:32 Character Development and Redemption
     
    38:50 Contrasting Narratives of Slavery
     
    46:01 Evangelical Reception of Uncle Tom's Cabin
     
    50:45 International Reception and Impact
  • Christians Reading Classics

    Brave New World by Aldous Huxley with Katelyn Walls Shelton | America 250

    19/02/2026 | 51 min
    Nadya Williams and Katelyn Walls Shelton discuss Aldous Huxley's Brave New World — its haunting parallels to embryo selection, reproductive biotechnology, and pleasure-maximizing culture — and what Christians should make of a novel that reads less like dystopian fiction and more like this morning's news.
    -
    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.

    Apply for a full-tuition scholarship for Beeson Divinity School's M.Div program that begins Fall 2026 here: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord
    -
    Chapters
    00:00 — Introduction & what makes a classic
    05:00 — Brave New World mirrors our world: embryo selection, Orchid, Gattaca
    07:16 — Why Christians in America should read this book
    14:19 — Plot overview: hatcheries, Bernard, Lenina, John the Savage
    23:40 — Life in the World State: conditioning, sexuality, soma, death
    35:40 — Huxley's own contradictions: Doors of Perception and his LSD death
    39:17 — Current reproductive biotechnologies: embryo grading, gene editing, artificial wombs
    49:43 — Closing: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin

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Acerca de Christians Reading Classics

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast about classic books being read through a distinctly Christian lens. Hosted by author and classicist, Nadya Williams, Christians Reading Classics introduces—or should we say—re-introduces listeners to classic works that have inspired generations. Interviewing experts who know these books well, the hope is to inspire listeners and awaken their imagination to God's world through literary, theological, and even children's works that have stood the test of time. Christians Reading Classics is a Mere Orthodoxy podcast. Find out more at mereorthodoxy.com
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