Faith Angle

In this episode, we are joined by Sarah McCammon, National Political Correspondent at NPR, to discuss her book Exvangelicals: Loving, Living, and Leaving the White Evangelical Church. In it, Sarah tells a compelling, personal story about family, marriage, politics, and church—and she concisely boils down insights from scholars like David Gushee, Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Christian Smith, and others you’ll hear her reference. If the gre...

In this episode, we are joined again by Tim Alberta of The Atlantic and Michael Wear of the Center for Christianity and Public Life, to discuss Michael's brand new book The Spirit of Our Politics: Spiritual Formation and the Renovation of Public Life. Michael has been engaging the condition of American politics for more than 15 years, after serving in the White House, helping to launch and lead the AND Campaign, and advising leadin...

On today’s episode, we are joined by The Atlantic’s Elizabeth Bruenig for an Advent reflection with Rev. Dr. Munther Isaac, assistant pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem. Rev. Isaac is an evangelical pastor whose life and ministry have been rooted in Bethlehem in the West Bank, where he is a theologian, Bible college dean, a leader of the peacebuilding initiative Christ at the Checkpoint, and part of the an...

In this episode, Luke Russert discusses his new book Look For Me There: Grieving My Father, Finding Myself, a reflection on grief, family legacy, religious exploration, and the loss of Luke's father, legendary journalist Tim Russert. Luke is joined by Carl Cannon, Washington Bureau Chief and Executive Editor of RealClearPolitics, who shares from his own experience with family bonds, faith, loss, and his personal friendship with Luk...

Best selling author and columnist David Brooks sits down with noted psychiatrist Curt Thompson to discuss Brooks' latest book, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen. Brooks' aim is to help foster deeper connections at home, work, and throughout our lives, and he and Thompson cover a lot of ground. From thoughts on friendship, depression, what it means to really listen, and how we reflect God...

Christine Emba's recent piece for The Washington Post, "Men Are Lost. Here's a Map out of the Wilderness.," says something haunting about the state of gender dynamics in the country and something both our guests remind us matters equally to men and women alike. On this episode, Christine joins noteworthy scholar Richard Reeves, who recently launched the American Institute for Boys and Men. Not only do they explore their timely scho...

In 2009, Newsweek magazine called David Saperstein the most influential rabbi in America. For over 40 years, he was the director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. He also served as the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Religious Freedom, becoming America's chief diplomat on religious liberty issues. He was the first chairman in 1998 of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Joining Rabbi Saperstein is a ...

In this episode, we have the privilege of hosting two brilliant thinkers on the state of race in America, and how a faith angle fits into that. Ekemini Uwan is a writer, public theologian, and activist who hosts the excellent podcast Truth’s Table. She co-wrote a book by that title, featuring Black women’s musings on life, love, and liberation. Joining Ekemini is Eugene Scott, who has been a prior guest journalist on Faith Angle’s ...

This episode explores how the arts can help us transcend some of the worries in contemporary society, from polarization and entrenched tribalism, to our massive decline in public trust, to informational rabbit holes, to other discouraging and sometimes heartbreaking news. How do stories help us renew?  

This conversation was originally featured at Faith Angle West 2023 in Seattle, WA. and the full-length talk is linked below. Ali...

Time and again in American life, technology has made room for new, better things that ease human burdens and free up RAM—think just of dishwashers, vacuum cleaners, microwaves, and airplanes. Of course today, Silicon Valley represents this new frontier perhaps better than anyplace else in the world. It’s there that Carolyn Chen –  a sociologist and Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley, where she’s co-directs the Berkeley Cent...

Professor Joshua Ralston is a scholar and theologian who teaches Christian-Muslim Relations at the University of Edinburgh. His three books look at Sharia law from a Christian perspective, at the impact of global migration on the church, and at Europe’s rich religious diversity. He is engaged in the work of bridging divides between Christians and Muslims—each vast, diverse communities who often fundamentally misunderstand one anoth...

Yuval Levin is the kind of thinker, policy analyst, public servant, and scholar you really want in DC. The talk you’re about to hear is one he gave to a group of 15 Michael Cromartie Forum journalists, a highly promising group of early-career journalists. The topic is declining trust in our politics, in religion, and in American journalism—and it’s a deeply insightful and challenging talk that we hope you’ll feel just as stirred by...

At the moment, 193 countries in the world hold membership in the United Nations, and, of that group, 50 are currently Muslim-majority countries. This is a data-point referenced by each of this episode's guest scholars, in their thinking about how Islam and liberalism intersect and in their reflections on the future of Islam in the modern era and on Muslim life in America.

First up is Mustafa Akyol, a senior fellow at the Cato Insti...

Miroslav Volf teaches theology at Yale University, where he also directs the Yale Center for Faith and Culture. He is the author of 17 books, and his 1996 book Exclusion and Embrace was named by Christianity Today as one of the 100 Most Influential Books of the 20th Century. This new book, rooted in a popular Yale undergraduate course, is Life Worth Living: A Guide to What Matters Most, co-authored by Matthew Croasmun and Ryan McAn...

In this episode, we are joined by Shaun Casey, former director of the U.S. Department of State’s Office of Religion and Global Affairs, and Rachel Donadio, a Paris-based journalist, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a former European Culture correspondent for The New York Times. Our guests discuss Shaun's new book, Chasing the Devil at Foggy Bottom, which makes the case that understanding the role of religion in global pol...

In this episode, Ryan Streeter of the American Enterprise Institute and Tevi Troy of the Bipartisan Policy Center join us to discuss the history of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, as well as to provide a roadmap for the office's potential growth and impact under future administrations. 

Guests

Ryan Streeter 

Tevi Troy

Additional Resources

"The False Choices Facing the Republican Party," by Ryan Streeter

"The ...

This episode is lifted directly from one of the most fascinating sessions of November’s Faith Angle Europe, where Dr. Peter Frankopan opened a two-and-a-half-hour session available in its entirety below. Peter is the Professor of Global History at Oxford University’s Worcester College, and alongside Theresa Fallon, the founder of a Brussels think tank focusing on Russia and China, he spoke with 18 transatlantic journalists about tr...