Best Miroslav Volf Podcasts (2025)

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How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse / Miroslav Volf 33:54

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7d ago33:54

33:54

What if our relentless drive to be better than others is quietly breaking us? Miroslav Volf unpacks the core themes of his 2025 book, The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others Makes Us Worse. In this book, Volf offers a penetrating critique of comparison culture, diagnosing the hidden moral and spiritual wounds caused by competiti…

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Beauty, Music, and Spiritual Formation with Keith and Kristyn Getty 44:49

1d ago44:49

44:49

In this episode, our guides are modern hymn writers Keith and Kristyn Getty. Back in 2019, we hosted a live Evening Conversation in which they explored the ways in which music can speak to our spiritual hunger and shape our sense of beauty, truth, and purpose: "Our singing doesn't just affect each one of us. We are a witness to the world around us.…

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Mitali Perkins on Just Making 1:04:20

23h ago1:04:20

1:04:20

Mitali Perkins (mitaliperkins.com) has written many books for young readers, including You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for a National Book Award) and Rickshaw Girl (adapted into a film), all of which explore crossing different kinds of borders. Her goal is to make readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening. He…

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Crazy Train 36:38

2d ago36:38

36:38

Crazy Train Ozzy Osbourne Crazy, but that’s how it goes Millions of people living as foes Maybe, it’s not too late To learn how to love, and forget how to hate Mental wounds not healing Life’s a bitter shame I’m goin’ off the rails on a crazy train I’m goin’ off the rails on a crazy train Heirs of a cold war, that’s what we’ve become Inheriting tro…

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Reading Jane Austen: A Novel Approach to Virtue 41:08

8d ago41:08

41:08

Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and th…

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Carolyn Weber on Memoir 48:18

8d ago48:18

48:18

Carolyn Weber was our special guest at The Habit Summer Writers’ Weekend this past June. Carolyn is the author of Surprised by Oxford and Sex and the City of God. She is also a professor at New College Franklin in Franklin, Tennessee. The following conversation was recorded in front of a live audience of writers. Carolyn and Jonathan Rogers talk ab…

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Why I Cannot Despair 31:38

10d ago31:38

31:38

The present tends to seem more distressing to us than the past, for the simple reason that we are not obliged to live in the past. Nevertheless the distress of our present age is real and therein lies the temptation to despair. We see senseless wars and war crimes; we see Machiavellian politics and political corruption; we see growing inequality an…

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The Inklings, Creativity, and Community with Diana Glyer 49:25

15d ago49:25

49:25

Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and th…

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Wendell Kimbrough Thinks You Belong. [From the Archives] 41:00

15d ago41:00

41:00

Songwriter Wendell Kimbrough has been writing, recording, and performing songs based on the Psalms for the last few years. His most recent record is called You Belong. In this episode, Wendell and Jonathan Rogers talk about loneliness, perfectionism, feeling like an outsider, learning to belong–and how one writes songs that sound like the Psalms wh…

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Dirt Road Blues 29:09

17d ago29:09

29:09

Jesus is the teacher who in the parable of the Good Samaritan calls us to show mercy. Jesus is the Good Samaritan who comes to us and saves us after we're are left for dead. Jesus is the one beaten by robbers who we are to be a neighbor to by showing mercy. Jesus is the innocent one crucified with the robbers, so that he can save them too.…

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Music, Creativity & Justice with Ruth Naomi Floyd 30:28

22d ago30:28

30:28

Our Summer 2025 series, Beside Still Waters, focuses on the places where creativity brings life into a world fatigued by brokenness and division. From jazz to Jane Austen and in between, this season we’ll focus on the ways literature and the arts can refresh and challenge our inner lives—and connect us with the Creator of the good, the true, and th…

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Daniel McInerny on Beauty and Imitation 48:42

23d ago48:42

48:42

Daniel McInerny is associate professor and chair of the philosophy department at Christendom College in Virginia. He is also a novelist and dramatist. His scholarship is directed toward reactivating an Aristotle’s understanding of art as imitation, long out of favor among philosophers. HIs biggest step in that direction is his new book, Beauty & Im…

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Fall Like Lightning 34:52

24d ago34:52

34:52

We are all familiar with this theological problem: If God is all-loving, all-knowing, all-powerful, why is there is so much evil and suffering in the world? Theodicy is the attempt to reconcile these realities and thus justify God. But is a Christian theodicy possible?By Brian Zahnd

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Kevan Chandler and Tommy Shelton on The Hospitality of Need 47:28

30d ago47:28

47:28

A degenerative muscle disease has made Kevan Chandler altogether reliant on others for his daily care. So he has invited friends into his life—deep into his life—making his need a nexus for community and joy. Kevan’s new book, co-authored with his friend Tommy Shelton, is The Hospitality of Need: How Depending on One Another Helps Us Heal and Grow …

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What Spirit Are You Of? 33:05

1M ago33:05

33:05

When James and John in their hostility suggested a drone strike on a Samaritan village because Elijah did something like that, Jesus rebuked them for their wrong spirit. From this story we learn that you can find things in the Bible that you cannot find in the spirit of Jesus.By Brian Zahnd

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The Cost of Ambition with Miroslav Volf 59:22

1M ago59:22

59:22

In this episode we’re joined by theologian and bestselling author Miroslav Volf of Yale Divinity School. His latest book is The Cost of Ambition: How Striving to Be Better Than Others is Making Us Worse. The question he explores is one that relates to all of us: how can we find a way to strive for excellence, rather than for superiority over those …

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Meredith Davis Is a Friend to Other Writers 38:38

1M ago38:38

38:38

Besides being a stalwart of The Habit Membership for Writers, Meredith Davis is the founder of the Austin Texas chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. And she’s the author of the middle-grade novel series, The Amazing Adventures of Noah Minor. The Minor Miracle was published in 2024; The Minor Rescue was published earli…

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Receive the Holy Spirit 40:03

1M ago40:03

40:03

Jesus is creating a new humanity by breathing the breath of life upon the Church, just as God in the beginning breathed the breath of life upon a pile of dirt to create the first humanity. This breath of life is the Holy Spirit. Our part in all this is to develop a posture of openness and receptivity to God the Holy Spirit. We want to be the kind o…

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Miroslav Volf on The Cost of Ambition 45:28

1M ago45:28

45:28

Miroslav Volf is a theologian and professor at Yale Divinity School, where he is the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. He is widely known for his work on reconciliation, forgiveness, and the intersection of faith and public life. He’s the author of at least twelve books, including the highly influential Exclusion and Embra…

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Like Father Like Son 35:39

1M ago35:39

35:39

In a world where fear, division, and isolation often feel like the norm—what if love became our home? What if, at the center of the universe, there isn’t just chaos or power… but a holy relationship? On Trinity Sunday, we explore the image of God revealed through Jesus—one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. A God who invites us out of the hou…

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Living Well and Dying Well with Lydia Dugdale 57:53

2M ago57:53

57:53

This conversation is on the practical wisdom the Christian tradition offers for something that affects all of us: matters of life and death. Dr. Lydia Dugdale will be our guide. Lydia has applied practices from this faith tradition in her daily work with patients and families as a physician, professor and medical ethicist in New York City. She draw…

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The Holy Experience of God 36:54

2M ago36:54

36:54

In 1971, commenting on the Charismatic Renewal, the German Catholic theologian Karl Rahner said, "The devout Christian of the future will either be a 'mystic,' one who has 'experienced' something, or he will cease to be anything at all." Christian mysticism is simply the experience of God, and the Holy Spirit is the experience of God.…

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Judith McQuoid on CS Lewis's Irish Childhood 40:39

2M ago40:39

40:39

Judith McQuoid lives in Belfast, Northern Ireland, the hometown of CS Lewis—or Jacks, as he was known when he lived there. Inspired by Belfast, her love of Lewis, and her own family history, Judith wrote a middle-grade novel about young Jacks Lewis and an imagined friendship with a boy from a very different background. It’s a book about creativity,…

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CHRIST: Fulfilling Scripture, Filling the Cosmos 33:19

2M ago33:19

33:19

The Ascension is not about the absence of Christ, but about the ascendancy of Christ. The ascension of Jesus to the right hand of God in the heavens is the ascendancy, the rise, the elevation, the promotion, the exaltation of Jesus to the position of all authority in heaven and on earth. Furthermore, the ascension of Christ does not lead to the abs…

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Reason and Belief with Ross Douthat 58:38

2M ago58:38

58:38

In this conversation, author Ross Douthat draws from the tradition to tackle a foundational question: Why believe? Amid evidence that America’s long trend of secularization has leveled off, a perception of the limits of a strictly materialist worldview, and growing dissatisfaction with “do it yourself” approaches to spirituality, what does traditio…

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Warren Kinghorn Doesn't Think You're a Machine. 45:59

2M ago45:59

45:59

Dr. Warren Kinghorn is a psychiatrist and theologian at Duke University, where he holds joint appointments at Duke Divinity School and the Duke University Medical Center. Warren’s work focuses on the intersection of theology, mental health, and human flourishing—and he brings an integrated, humane perspective to questions that too often get reduced…

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The Third Appearance 32:19

2M ago32:19

32:19

The third appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples in John's Gospel is when Jesus restores Peter after his thrice denial around a charcoal fire in the courtyard of Caiaphas. The story of Jesus and seven disciples having breakfast around a charcoal fire on the shore of the sea of Galilee is one of the most tender and beautiful stories in all …

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Andrew Peterson and Dave Bruno Tell The Rabbit Room's Story 48:20

2M ago48:20

48:20

When Andrew Peterson started the Rabbit Room—this was 2006 or 2007—he didn’t know what to expect. He had no way of knowing that this little group blog written by friends and friends of friends would give rise to annual conferences—Hutchmoot and Hutchmoot UK—to a publishing house, to an event space—North Wind Manor—to The Local Show, to Rabbit Room …

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Long Road Away From What Was 31:26

2M ago31:26

31:26

Emmaus is about seven miles from Jerusalem and a world away from what was. Once we recognize the risen Christ present in Scripture and Sacrament we have entered a new world.By Brian Zahnd

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Our Souls on Technology with Andy Crouch and Jonathan Haidt 43:12

3M ago43:12

43:12

We were made for relationship — to be seen, loved, known, and committed to others. And yet we increasingly find ourselves, in the words of sociologist Jonathan Haidt, “disoriented, unable to speak the same language or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past.” On our podcast Haidt and bestselling author Andy Crouc…

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Will Parker Anderson Talks Publishing 46:20

3M ago46:20

46:20

Will Parker Anderson is a senior editor at Waterbrook-Multnomah, a division of Random House Publishing. He’s also the proprietor of a Substack called Writer’s Circle, in which he provides tips on the writing craft and seeks to demystify the publishing industry. In this episode, Will and Jonathan Rogers talk the “three legs” of publishing: platform,…

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Some Doubted. So What? 34:40

3M ago34:40

34:40

"The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing: we know this in countless ways. It is the heart which perceives God and not the reason. That is what faith is: God perceived by the heart, not by reason." –Blaise Pascal "We must take our subtle spiritual intuitions seriously and view them as the quintessence that underlies the ordinary worl…

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Amy Baik Lee Has a Homeward Ache (from the Archives) 46:49

3M ago46:49

46:49

Amy Baik Lee has written that in every place her life has taken her, "there have been hints of beauty and great knocks of mercy that have called to me from beyond my surroundings, always speaking of a King and Friend and Father whose presence is truly Home.” That sense of longing, those clues that perhaps we were made for a different world, make th…

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Astonished Ecstasy 30:47

3M ago30:47

30:47

Christianity cannot fit within the empirical limitations imposed by the Enlightenment. If we reduce the Christian faith to rational explanation, practical advice, and political agendas we end up with a paper-thin, watered-down, cheap knock-off of Christianity that no longer has the capacity to astonish.…

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The Body as Sacred Offering: Ballet and Embodied Faith / New York City Ballet Dancer Silas Farley 1:02:42

3M ago1:02:42

1:02:42

Silas Farley, former New York City Ballet dancer and current Dean of the Colburn School's Trudl Zipper Dance Institute, explores the profound connections between classical ballet, Christian worship, and embodied spirituality. From his early exposure to liturgical dance in a charismatic Lutheran church to his career as a professional dancer and chor…

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Faith and Foreign Aid 1:01:38

3M ago1:01:38

1:01:38

US foreign aid is unexpectedly in the news in 2025 as never before. What do Christians need to know, to help us be part of the dialogue? America's history of foreign aid dates back at least to the Marshall Plan that followed World War II. Many Christians have been involved. How have these believers thought about the appropriate roles of government …

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Daniel Schwabauer on The God of Story 46:28

3M ago46:28

46:28

Besides creating the One Year Adventure Novel and Cover Story writing curricula for students, Daniel Schwabauer has also written fiction and nonfiction for writers of all ages. He also teaches English at MidAmerica Nazarene University near Kansas City. His new book is The God of Story: Discovering the Narrative of Scripture Through the Language of …

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Believing Thomas 33:36

3M ago33:36

33:36

Thomas, one of the original 12 disciples, has been given the nickname "Doubting Thomas" which is unfortunate because it isn't true. Thomas believed in Jesus. He never doubted. He believed in Jesus' resurrection. He just needed a little more information than the other disciples. Thomas has much to teach us about believing in Jesus.…

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Remembering Pope Francis / Nichole Flores and Ryan McAnnally-Linz 34:43

3M ago34:43

34:43

Pope Francis died on Monday April 21, 2025. And to remember and celebrate his life, we’re bringing out an episode from our archives featuring social ethicist and Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, Nichole M. Flores. Ryan McAnnally-Linz interviewed her in early 2021 about Fratelli Tutti, an encyclical teaching he…

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Finding God in the Garden with Andrew Peterson 32:42

3M ago32:42

32:42

As we emerge from the Lenten season, freshly renewed by the triumph of the Resurrection, beauty and wonder are particularly present for Christians. In this episode, author and songwriter Andrew Peterson shares his insights about the importance of location and living responsibly and attentively in whatever specific place you inhabit. He discusses ho…

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Mark Meynell on Art in the Immanent Frame 49:56

3M ago49:56

49:56

Mark Meynell is a freelance writer and speaker based in the UK. He’s the author of Life After Life and A Wilderness of Mirrors. He’s a co-host of the Tryptich podcast, and he’s an aficionado of Cold-War spy stories. In short, he’s a polymath and an excellent conversationalist. In this episode, Mark and Jonathan Rogers talk about the "immanent frame…

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While It Was Still Dark... 28:13

3M ago28:13

28:13

While it's still dark...things are not what they seem. While it's still dark...angels are at work. While it's still dark...evil is being overthrown. While it's still dark...Christ is risen!By Brian Zahnd

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Art and Sacred Resistance: Art as Prayer, Love, Resistance and Relationship / Bruce Herman 1:01:48

3M ago1:01:48

1:01:48

“Art is a form of prayer … a way to enter into relationship.” Artist and theologian Bruce Herman reflects on the sacred vocation of making, resisting consumerism, and the divine invitation to become co-creators. From Mark Rothko to Rainer Maria Rilke, to Andres Serrano’s “Piss Christ” and T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, he comments on the holy risk of …

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Waiting for Good News with N.T. Wright 22:02

4M ago22:02

22:02

Throughout Lent, we've been releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices. In the final episode of the series, this Holy Week we're considering the discipline of waiting: how we can prepare ourselves to receive good news. Our guide today is N.T. Wright, the Anglican Bishop and New Testament scholar. He describes how Jesus invited his hea…

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Matthew Clark on the Love that Outlives Death 42:39

4M ago42:39

42:39

Matthew Clark is a singer/-songwriter, a storyteller, and a free spirit. He drives around America in a van he calls Vandalf, taking his music and stories and wisdom to audiences across the country. For the last six years he’s been working on a project he calls The Well Trilogy. Three albums of eleven songs, each accompanied by a collection of eleve…

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Palm Sunday: Greatness Redefined 28:27

4M ago28:27

28:27

With his Triumphal Entry on Palm Sunday—lowly and riding on a donkey—Jesus set in motion events that would forever redefine greatness. But can we perceive this greatness? Those who cling to a model of greatness exemplified by warhorse-riding conquerors like Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus are a theological anachronism—instead of living in a…

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Making as a Spiritual Practice with Makoto Fujimura 41:48

4M ago41:48

41:48

Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices. If at the center of reality is a God whose love is a generative, creative force, how do humans made in God’s image begin to reflect this beauty and love in a world rent by brokenness and ugliness? As Makoto Fujimura argues on our latest podcast, it’s in t…

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Allen Levi is a Good Talker. 34:46

4M ago34:46

34:46

In this episode, Allen Levi and Jonathan Rogers discuss this connections between writerly voice and the voice with which the writer speaks every day. Allen Levi is a singer-songwriter and the author of The Last Sweet Mile and Theo of Golden. This episode is sponsored by The Habit Writer Development Cohorts, a six-week online small-group writing int…

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The Fragrance of Eternal Life 32:15

4M ago32:15

32:15

This week's gospel reading takes us to the home of Lazarus, where the sweet fragrance of Mary’s worship contrasts the stench of death from the chapter before. Jesus, deeply moved, enters the dead places —not just in Bethany, but in our lives too. He is the Resurrection and the Life, the one who calls us out of darkness and into eternal life.…

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The Blessing of Limitations with Kelly Kapic 31:19

4M ago31:19

31:19

Throughout the season of Lent, we're releasing weekly episodes focused on spiritual practices. We live in an age of speed and overwhelm, where we often feel we are expected to do more, move faster, work harder, brush past boundaries and limits, and shave margins. When we inevitably fail to meet all demands, we are left feeling not only exhausted, b…