If I asked the question “Does literature matter?”, I suspect most people would quickly answer “Yes.” But if I asked “Why does literature matter?”, I think most of us would stutter in response. We probably don’t know how to give an account of the importance of literature, even if we have a sense that it certainly does matter.

Jason Baxter helps us respond to that second, harder question. His book, Why Literature Still Matters is both accessible and profound. In the span of some 80 pages, he gives us ways to not just think and speak about the importance of literature, but also to feel and remember why literature matters.

For some additional conversations with Jason on our show, please see the show notes for links to an episode about Dante, and a second to an episode about C. S. Lewis in relation to Dante and other Medieval thinkers.

Follow-up Resources:

• Why Literature Still Matters by Jason Baxter
• “The Heartbeat of Dante’s Comedy, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

“C.S. Lewis from Dante and the Medieval World, with Jason Baxter,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

Josh McManaway joins me again for the second of a two-part conversation on reading Scripture. This time, we focus on St. Augustine as reader and preacher of the Psalms. Josh teaches us Augustine’s principles for reading the psalms, which Augustine discovers throughout the Psalter, and what motivated Augustine’s engagement with the psalter from the beginning of his priesthood to his final day.

Follow-up Resources:

• Learn more about the preaching program that Josh runs called “Savoring the Mystery”
• “The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
• “What are you doing here?!?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
• “Augustine’s Homiletic Meteorology” by John Cavadini, article via Church Life Journal

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.

What would it mean to read Scripture well? At minimum, it would mean reading it as a whole. That sounds like a tall task when you think about it, because there are a lot of pages and many of them feature seemingly uninteresting prose. We might prefer to pick-and-choose our favorite passages, while avoiding other passages or entire books all together. But when we do that, we hear and see far less than is actually there––not merely in terms of just encountering fewer words, but in terms of encountering less of the mystery of Christ on each and every page.

My colleague Josh McManaway both teaches people how to read Scripture well and forms preachers to preach on Scripture well through his Savoring the Mystery program. He joins me today to talk about how to approach the Old Testament, how to read the New Testament more fully, and how to begin to regard the Psalter in all its wondrous variety.

Follow-up Resources:

• Learn more about the preaching program that Josh runs called “Savoring the Mystery”
• “The Depth of the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today
• “What are you doing here?!?! Pontius Pilate in the Creed, with Josh McManaway,” podcast episode via Church Life Today

Church Life Today is a partnership between the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame and OSV Podcasts from Our Sunday Visitor. Discover more ways to live, learn, and love your Catholic faith at osvpodcasts.com. Sharing stories, starting conversations.