Things Not Seen Podcast

We revisit our far-ranging conversation with Diana Butler Bass. Her recent book Grounded: Finding God in the World--A Spiritual Revolution is now out in paperback Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We speak with Christian Coon, co-founder and co-pastor of Chicago's Urban Village church, about his new book and lessons learned Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our conversation with Valparaiso University professor of religion, Melanie Trexler, about her book, Evangelizing Lebanon, which looks at the history of Baptist mission work in the Near East Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2014 interview with Reza Aslan. He has recently released a new book, God: A Human History Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Best-selling author and Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber pastors a small church in Denver, at the same time that she has become more of a celebrity and well-known writer. In our conversation, Bolz-Weber discusses her conservative upbringing, her addiction and recovery, and her journey to become a pastor and church planter. We talk about her new book, Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fr. Stephen Katsouros, SJ, talks about Arrupe College, a new dimension of Jesuit education designed to reach the students at the margins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Christian Gospels, and the holy writings of many religions, focus on the importance of welcome and fellowship. Our guest, Joshua Jipp, speaks to us about the centrality of hospitality to religious traditions, and we discuss his new book, Saved by Faith and Hospitality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rev. Dr. Shanta Premawardhana is helping to train leaders in contextual theology for the 21st century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Attorney John Mauck has spent decades on the front lines of religious freedom litigation. We discuss his new book, Jesus in the Courtroom: How Believers Can Engage the Legal System for the Good of His World. We discussed Mauck's role in the passage of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) in a previous episode, The Miracle on Capitol Hill. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Palm Sunday in 1990, attorney Jeanne Bishop received a phone call with the news that three members of her family - including her sister - had been brutally murdered. We take the full hour of our show this week to hear Bishop's account of her twenty-five-year journey towards forgiveness and reconciliation with her sister's killer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This hour we revisit our interview with actor and director Curt Cloninger, who has spent 30 years traveling the country performing thoughtful and thought-provoking one-man shows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kenneth Briggs went on a road trip to discover the condition of the Bible in America. What he found may surprise you. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jason Micheli has cancer, and its not going away. His recent book, Cancer is Funny, is an honest, heartfelt reckoning with the reality of mortality and the Gospel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our award-winning talk with Nancy Ellen Abrams, author of A God That Could Be Real: Spirituality, Science, and the Future of Our Planet, about new discoveries in cosmology and their profound effect on our understanding of the universe and religion. In 2016 this episode won a national award for excellence in radio and podcasting from the Religion News Association. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amy Lillis is former Acting Special Representative for Religion and Global Affairs. In our conversation, we discuss why the State Department took up religion as a diplomatic issue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Michelle Van Loon has been a writer for more than three decades. With her recent book, If Only: Letting Go of Regret, the author has turned her attention to the important subject of grief and regret, and has written a practical spiritual guide for getting over the feelings of "woulda, coulda, shoulda" that affect us all. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Author and journalist Susan Katz Miller is both an interfaith child and an interfaith parent. Her book, Being Both: Embracing Two Religions in One Interfaith Family, is both a memoir and a call to action for intentional interfaith community.  In this rebroadcast from 2014, we talk about how her experiences have shaped her approach to family and religious practice, and the politics of raising interfaith families. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're rebroadcasting our 2014 interview with the late Phyllis Tickle. In our conversation we explore the idea that our culture has been shaped by roughly 500-year cycles, which have helped define our major religious traditions for the past two millennia. According to Tickle, our present epoch - referred to by some as "The Great Emergence" - has the potential to yield a new Christianity distinct from Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy. Dr. Tickle passed away in 2016. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We revisit our 2015 interview with Jim Wallis, founder of Sojourners. We discuss his recent book, America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge to a New America Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mahany's new book, Motherprayer, is a meditation on divine love, seen through the lens of mothering love.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices