Good Books Big Questions
Welcome to Good Books Big Questions: Bold, Loving, and Sensible Conversations About Faith No one ducks the tough questions about faith on this show. Not the host and not the guests. If you’re disillusioned, doubting, discovering faith, or if you simply want a safe space to dig into some big questions you’ve had for a while, you will find good company here. You’ll discover thoughtful, honest, and civil conversations about the issues that keep us up at night. Also, the occasional laugh – and a level of honesty that helps us all keep our faith alive. Good Books Big Questions is a NavPress podcast where conversations about books open the door to bigger conversations about life and faith. Together with NavPress authors, we dive into questions like: What does it mean to truly trust God? How can we worship alongside people who think and vote differently than we do? Where do we find joy in the midst of trauma and suffering? How do we get past easy answers and formulas of faith and think about how to navigate some of the toughest stuff in life and still believe in Jesus? Hosted by Karen Stiller—author of Holiness Here: Finding God in the Ordinary Events of Everyday Life (NavPress, 2024) and The Minister’s Wife: A Memoir of Faith, Doubt, Friendship, Loneliness, Forgiveness and More (Tyndale House, 2020, and an author known for her transparency —this podcast invites you into bold, sensible and loving conversations. Each conversation blends thoughtful book discussion with big, timeless questions of Christian faith and spiritual growth. About the Host Karen Stiller is the author of Holiness Here, The Minister’s Wife, and co-author of Craft, Cost & Call: How to Build a Life as a Christian Writer. She is a writing coach, teacher, freelance editor, and longtime journalist whose work has appeared in Reader’s Digest, Christianity Today, The Walrus, Ekstasis, and more. For 22 years she served as an editor of Faith Today magazine and hosted the Faith Today podcast. Karen has traveled to South Sudan, Uganda, Senegal, Cambodia, and across North America reporting on stories of the Church around the world. She has moderated debates on faith and society at the University of Toronto and holds an MFA in Creative Non-Fiction from the University of King’s College. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in the Sacred Art of Writing at Western Seminary. Living in Ottawa, Ontario, Karen brings curiosity, compassion, and candor to every conversation. Please follow, rate and review Good Books Big Questions wherever you listen to podcasts, and join us for bold, loving, and sensible conversations about faith. Email us here with your feedback. We'd love to hear what you think.
Episodes
Do writers act like big babies when they work with editors? Do you worry about your grammar when you text a friend who is an editor? Deborah’s friends do. But they shouldn’t worry. This NavPress editor just wants to help make writing and books better, and usher important books into the world for all of our sakes. Deborah talks with Karen Stiller about how editors find, woo and work with Christian authors. She shares the story of ho...
How do we stop striving for approval and rest in God’s grace? This is an ongoing question for many people of faith. Author, pastor and speaker Joyce Koo Dalrymple knows what striving feels like, and how tough it is to stop. In this honest conversation Joyce shares the roots of her striving, her wounds of failure, and her journey to believe God’s grace.
Parables of Grace: A Bible Study on God's Heart for His Children is her latest ...
Do we have to sit with Christians whose politics offend and trouble us? Actually, yes, we should, says author Norm Hubbard. Even if it’s really hard. Norm is the author of More than Christians: Practicing Gospel-Shaped Community with the Language of the Early Church.
Norm didn’t intend to write a book that speaks to the current polarized political climate, but that’s what he did. His suggested solution to the challenges of the day...
No one ducks the tough questions about faith on this show. Not the host and not the guests. If you’re disillusioned, doubting, discovering faith, or if you simply want a safe space to dig into some big questions you’ve had for a while, you will find good company here.
You’ll discover thoughtful, honest, and civil conversations about the issues that keep us up at night. Also, the occasional laugh, of course – and a level of honesty...
Can we still find beauty in being a Christian? Or in Christian institutions? Author Jared Ayers was disappointed with the church’s reaction to the growing number of religiously unaffiliated and wrote a book for people in the borderlands of faith.
In You can Trust a God With Scars, Ayers walks readers through a gentle examination of the Christian faith and what it can offer we who search. In this conversation with host Karen Stille...
“No one wants to be in a desert. Bad things happen there,” says Kat Armstrong, the author of The Storyline Project Bible study series. But when she drilled down into the Bible’s desert stories, she found that God provides in the wilderness. Kat talks with Karen Stiller about changing her expectations of God, running up against sexism and resentment, and what it means to flourish. In this lively and challenging conversation, Kat, a ...
Do you need to ask God some tough questions? Have you shaken your fist at God or cried out your most honest pain and heartbreak? For Dieula Previlon, the author of Does God See Me? speaking (or maybe even yelling) to God with complete earthy honesty is an important part of how we live with trauma and grief.
Dieula set out to write a book as teacher and guide, pulling on her years of experience working with women in prisons and aro...
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