div]:bg-bg-000/50 [&_pre>div]:border-0.5 [&_pre>div]:border-border-400 [&_.ignore-pre-bg>div]:bg-transparent [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.standard-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pl-2 [&_.progressive-markdown_:is(p,blockquote,ul,ol,h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6)]:pr-8"> _*]:min-w-0 gap-3 standard-markdown">

Nadya Williams, Ivana Greco, and Dixie Dillon Lane discuss Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer — 150 years old this year — as a window into antebellum American childhood, the timeless challenge of raising boys, and what it means to read classics across generations. Why does Twain's rapscallion hero outlast Sid in the cultural imagination? What does Aunt Polly's long-suffering love reveal about providence and parenting? And which American classics deserve a second look in the year of America 250?

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Get the ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family for free at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonDivinityPhD

—

Chapter

• 00:00 - Introduction & what makes an American classic
• 03:00 - Favorite American classics for children
• 04:15 - Can you hate a classic? What parents look for
• 06:52 - Books build culture
• 08:45 - How parenting changes reading habits
• 11:58 - Entering Tom Sawyer: the world of the novel
• 13:51 - Tom's misadventures (and Ivana's canoe confession)
• 18:06 - The cast of characters: Tom, Huck, Becky, Aunt Polly
• 24:12 - Reading Tom Sawyer historically: slavery, race, and context
• 26:50 - Who is really raising Tom Sawyer?
• 31:16 - What would you do if you were raising Tom?
• 34:51 - Tom, women, and the civilizing impulse
• 38:44 - How a book about mischief became a great American novel
• 43:52 - Tom vs. Sid: not all children are the same
• 48:52 - The American spirit of adventure and its literary legacy
• 53:34 - Reading recommendations for America 250

Nadya Williams and Christina Bieber Lake discuss Moby Dick — why Americans should read it, what Melville understood about arrogance and the uncontrollable, and how the novel's humor, sprawling cetology chapters, and the famous doubloon scene all serve a single theme: the tragedy of trying to master what cannot be mastered.

—

Get the free ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/family.

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord

—

• 00:00 - Introduction & Opening Reading
• 01:58 - Christina Bieber Lake's Background
• 05:17 - What Makes a Classic?
• 10:01 - Why Americans Should Read Moby Dick
• 14:02 - Melville: Who He Was and What He Believed
• 18:08 - Approaching a 625-Page Novel
• 21:54 - Plot, Characters, and the Ship's Crew
• 25:51 - The Doubloon Chapter: Melville's Theme of Reading
• 28:39 - Humor in Moby Dick
• 31:50 - The Cetology Chapters and Language
• 34:43 - Ahab, Job, and the Desire for Control
• 36:00 - Ishmael as Survivor and Narrator
• 39:39 - The Masculinity of the Novel
• 49:01 - Reception and Why It Flopped
• 50:15 - Long Books and the Muscle of Attention
• 54:30 - Closing Question: A Classic You Wish You'd Written

Nadya Williams and David Kee discuss Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged — its origins, philosophy, and enduring relevance for American Christians. Kee, a business professor at Harding University who teaches the novel, traces Rand's objectivism, the tension between individualism and collectivism, and what a Christian engagement with her work requires.

—

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonDivinityPhD

—

Chapters

• 00:00 - Introduction and Reading from Atlas Shrugged
• 01:10 - Guest Introduction: David Key
• 02:00 - David's Background: From Geneva to Entrepreneurship to Academia
• 08:10 - Defining a Classic
• 10:56 - How David First Encountered Atlas Shrugged
• 13:04 - Who Was Ayn Rand?
• 25:03 - Teaching Atlas Shrugged to Business Students
• 32:27 - Individualism, Collectivism, and the Christian Worldview
• 39:11 - The Mystery of John Galt
• 44:10 - Elevating the Entrepreneur
• 52:35 - Why Christians in America Should Read This Book
• 53:25 - What Classic David Wishes He Had Written

Jane Austen's most underrated novel is also her most serious. In this conversation, books editor Nadya Williams and essayist Beatrice Scudeler explore what Mansfield Park has to say about virtue, vocation, wealth, and the formation of character -- and why Fanny Price, the novel's quiet, overlooked heroine, may be Austen's most carefully drawn moral portrait.

—

Get the ebook Spiritual Formation for the Family at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family.

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonDivinityPhD

—

Chapters

• 00:03 -- Opening: Austen reads the opening lines of Mansfield Park; Nadya introduces the episode and season premise
• 01:48 -- Defining a classic: what makes a work speak across centuries without losing its rootedness in its own time
• 05:29 -- Why Mansfield Park for America's 250th: Austen, evangelical Christianity, and the values that crossed the Atlantic
• 08:48 -- The plot: Fanny Price, the Bertrams, and what happens when the Crawfords arrive from London
• 13:35 -- The problem of Fanny Price: why modern readers resist her, and why Lionel Trilling diagnosed the real issue in the 1960s
• 19:57 -- Fanny as a sympathetic character: what it means to be 10 years old, sent away from your family, and expected to be grateful
• 25:09 -- The absent adults: Sir Thomas, Lady Bertram, and the novel's indictment of parenting by principle without presence
• 27:09 -- Was Fanny autobiographical? The case for Jane Austen as observer, introvert, and moral compass
• 33:15 -- What money buys: education, time, space for contemplation -- and what it cannot buy
• 39:07 -- Marriage as formation: why Austen's vision of marriage is still revolutionary, and what we've lost by privatizing it
• 41:16 -- Why Mansfield Park may be Austen's best: constancy, prudence, and the virtue of being the quiet center that holds everything together
• 48:45 -- Closing question: what classic would Beatrice have written? Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

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Nadya Williams and Sabrina Little explore Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics — its account of virtue as habit, the teleological shape of a good life, and how athletics and daily practice form character. Little connects Aristotle to Aquinas, parenting, and her own work as an elite ultramarathoner and philosopher.

—

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship.: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord — Chapters

• 00:00 - Introduction
• 02:35 - What is a classic?
• 03:51 - Why the Nicomachean Ethics for American Christians?
• 07:19 - Aristotle's aims: eudaimonia and virtue
• 10:24 - The contemplative life vs. the practical life
• 13:38 - How college life trains students in virtue
• 18:13 - Advice for first-time readers of Aristotle
• 22:27 - The Examined Run: athletics and moral formation
• 28:29 - Teaching virtue to young children
• 32:03 - Would Aristotle recognize our struggles today?
• 34:57 - Aristotle and women
• 36:07 - What classic do you wish you had written?

Nadya Williams and Evie Solheim discuss Wuthering Heights, what makes it a gothic classic, why Emily Brontë's moral ambiguity still provokes, how the novel speaks to a generation starved for romance, and why the new film adaptation trades subtlety for TikTok-style spectacle. Also: Anna Karenina, Virginia Woolf, and Greta Gerwig's Narnia.

—

Get the Mere Orthodoxy ebook, Spiritual Formation for the Family, at http://mereorthodoxy.com/family

Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, R30 Key Moments in the History of Christianity: Inspiring True Stories from the Early Church Around the World, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity

Apply for Beeson Divinity School's Ph.D program by April 1 for Fall 2026 admission here: https://bit.ly/BeesonPhD

—

Chapters

• 00:11 – Opening reading from Wuthering Heights and intro to the Brontë sisters
• 01:54 – Welcome to Season 2 of Christians Reading Classics; introducing Evie Solheim
• 03:25 – What makes a classic? Timelessness, breaking the mold, and the canon
• 06:35 – Plot summary: key characters, places, and the structure of the novel
• 08:43 – The gothic genre: origins, elements, and its American descendants
• 10:22 – Southern Gothic: Flannery O'Connor, Faulkner, and True Detective
• 13:12 – How we first meet Cathy — and the unreliable narrators telling her story
• 16:28 – Advice for first-time readers: Emily Brontë's biography and creative world
• 19:43 – Virginia Woolf's essay on Wuthering Heights and what it means to write like that
• 22:56 – Why Wuthering Heights resonates with Americans today: romance, apps, and longing
• 27:21 – The new film adaptation: competing with TikTok, not other movies
• 31:43 – Comparing Wuthering Heights to Gone with the Wind: land, love, and star-crossed tropes
• 36:28 – Good cinematic adaptations: Greta Gerwig's Little Women vs. Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights
• 41:10 – Is Wuthering Heights amoral? Reading Heathcliff's fate through a biblical lens
• 47:29 – Closing question: the classic Evie wishes she had written — Anna Karenina

Nadya Williams and Obbie Tyler Todd explore Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin as part of season two's focus on classics American Christians should read for America's 250th. They discuss the Beecher family's influence, the Fugitive Slave Law as the book's impetus, Stowe's deeply scriptural approach to critiquing slavery, the Christ-likeness of Uncle Tom, and why the novel's theological vision — not merely its abolitionism — gave it such enduring power.

—

Get your copy of Mere Orthodoxy's ebook, Spiritual Formation for the Family, by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/family

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for fall 2026 admission to Beeson Divinity School's MDiv (or M.Div., your choice) and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship.: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord

—

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Uncle Tom's Cabin 02:21 Defining a Classic 06:57 The Importance of Uncle Tom's Cabin for Christians 12:06 The Beecher Family Legacy 20:45 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Impact on American Sentiment 27:43 Introducing Uncle Tom's Cabin to New Readers 29:59 Moral Complexity of Slavery 32:17 The Christian Perspective on Slavery 35:32 Character Development and Redemption 38:50 Contrasting Narratives of Slavery 46:01 Evangelical Reception of Uncle Tom's Cabin 50:45 International Reception and Impact

Nadya Williams and Katelyn Walls Shelton discuss Aldous Huxley's Brave New World — its haunting parallels to embryo selection, reproductive biotechnology, and pleasure-maximizing culture — and what Christians should make of a novel that reads less like dystopian fiction and more like this morning's news.

-

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Apply for a full-tuition scholarship for Beeson Divinity School's M.Div program that begins Fall 2026 here: https://bit.ly/OurRisenLord

-

Chapters

• 00:00 — Introduction & what makes a classic
• 05:00 — Brave New World mirrors our world: embryo selection, Orchid, Gattaca
• 07:16 — Why Christians in America should read this book
• 14:19 — Plot overview: hatcheries, Bernard, Lenina, John the Savage
• 23:40 — Life in the World State: conditioning, sexuality, soma, death
• 35:40 — Huxley's own contradictions: Doors of Perception and his LSD death
• 39:17 — Current reproductive biotechnologies: embryo grading, gene editing, artificial wombs
• 49:43 — Closing: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula Le Guin

Nadya Williams, Books Editor for Mere Orthodoxy, talks with Leah Libresco Sargeant, author of The Dignity of Dependence, about Henry Adams's The Education of Henry Adams—specifically the chapter "The Dynamo and the Virgin." They explore Adams's experience of the sublime at the 1900 Paris World Fair, his unresolved spiritual longings, what his Unitarian background reveals about American Christianity, and how Leah's work on embodiment and dependence offers a striking counterpoint to Adams's life of the mind. Plus: Leah's classic pick, Flatland.

—

Mere Fidelity is a podcast from Mere Orthodoxy and is listener-supported. If you would like to support this work, become a Mere Orthodoxy Member today at http://mereorthodoxy.com/membership.

Get 30% of the Baker Book of the Month, 30 Key Moments In Church History: Inspiring True Stories from the Early Church Around the World by Mark W. Graham, by going to: http://bakerbookhouse.com/pages/mere-fidelity

Apply for a full-tuition scholarship for Beeson Divinity School's M.Div program that begins Fall 2026 here: https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships

Chapters

• 00:00 – Introduction & Background on Henry Adams
• 03:44 – Memoir as a Genre
• 06:27 – Why Read Adams for America's 250th
• 09:21 – The Dynamo and the Virgin Explained
• 13:18 – Adams's Faith and Spiritual Longings
• 20:34 – Technology, Awe, and False Worship
• 26:45 – Tips for First-Time Readers
• 28:24 – The Dignity of Dependence
• 37:31 – Classic You Wish You'd Written

Dr. Shilo Brooks joins Nadia Williams to explore Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), examining how this 60-page masterwork remains profoundly relevant for understanding liberty, education, and authentic Christianity. Brooks illuminates how Douglass's self-taught literacy became an act of spiritual and intellectual liberation—proving that "education and slavery are incompatible." The conversation traces Douglass's journey from Maryland plantation to becoming America's greatest orator, while addressing his critique of slaveholding Christianity versus genuine faith and the enduring lessons on what liberal education requires for sustaining free citizenship.

Chapters:

• 00:05 Opening: Douglass's Unknown Birthday
• 04:14 Why This Book Is a Classic
• 09:49 Target Audiences: Then and Now
• 13:47 Adjusting to Freedom
• 16:32 Teaching Himself to Read (Illegally)
• 19:51 Education and Slavery Are Incompatible
• 23:04 Convincing Students That Reading Changes Lives
• 27:36 The Cast of Characters: Slaveholders and Fellow Slaves
• 33:11 The Wrestling Match with Covey
• 37:15 Teaching Bible School to Fellow Slaves
• 40:18 How Did He Become Such a Beautiful Writer?
• 42:21 Douglass's Theology and Providence
• 45:48 Noble Ambition: Brooks's Forthcoming Book
• 50:25 Classic Books I Wish I'd Written