Give and Take

My guest is L.M. Browning. In her career-defining work, To Lose the Madness: Field Notes on Trauma, Loss and Radical Authenticity, Browning explores the breaking point every mind has after finding her own limit during a gauntlet of traumatic events.Pulled out of this blast-crater moment in her life by a friend, she is brought away from the insanity and deep into the snowy Sangre de Cristo Mountains where, standing in front of a herd of wild buffalo, she comes face to face with the terms we all must come to surrounding the loss we face in this life. Offering no answers and seeking no pity, Browning lays herself bare in this radically authentic offering. She carries restricted subjects such as miscarriage, mental illness, and suicide out of the silence by offering her own private journey as an example of the power of transcendence.

Special Guest: L.M. Browning.

My guest is Matthew Kaemingk. His most recent book is Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear. In it he offers a thought-provoking Christian perspective on the growing debates over Muslim presence in the West. Rejecting both fearful nationalism and romantic multiculturalism, Kaemingk makes the case for a third way—a Christian pluralism that is committed to both the historic Christian faith and the public rights, dignity, and freedom of Islam.

Rev. Dr. Matthew Kaemingk is assistant professor of Christian Ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary. Matthew's research focuses on Islam and political ethics, workplace theology, theology and culture, and Reformed public theology. Matthew earned his Master of Divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and holds doctoral degrees in Systematic Theology from the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and in Christian Ethics from Fuller Theological Seminary. As a Fulbright Scholar in Amsterdam, Matthew studied political theology and the European conflict over Muslim immigration.

Special Guest: Matthew Kaemingk.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016, like most of his campaign, came as a shock to many Americans. In Troll Nation Amanda Marcotte argues that Trump's election was the inevitable result of American conservatism’s degradation into an ideology of blind resentment. For years now, she contends, the purpose of right wing media, particularly Fox News, has not been to argue for traditional conservative ideals, such as small government or even family values, so much as to stoke bitterness and paranoia in its audience. Traditionalist white people have lost control over the culture, and they know it, and the only option they feel they have left is to rage at a broad swath of supposed enemies ― journalists, activists, feminists, city dwellers, college professors ― that they blame for stealing “their” country from them.

Special Guest: Amanda Marcotte .

My guest is Suzanne Stabile. Her newest book is The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey To Healthy Relationships. This book on the nine Enneagram types and how they behave and experience relationships will guide readers into deeper insights about themselves, their types, and others' personalities so that they can have healthier, more life-giving relationships.

Most of us have no idea how others see or process their experiences. And that can make relationships hard, whether with intimate partners, with friends, or in our professional lives. Understanding the motivations and dynamics of these different personality types can be the key that unlocks sometimes mystifying behavior in others—and in ourselves. Suzanne's generous, sometimes humorous, and always insightful approach reveals why all the types behave as they do. This book offers help in fostering more loving, mature, and compassionate relationships with everyone in our lives.

Special Guest: Suzanne Stabile .

My guest is Michèle Gerber Klein. Michèle is a philanthropist, collector and author whose topics are fame, fashion and art. Her first book is Charles James: Portrait of An Unreasonable Man, a biography of the iconic and controversial designer Charles James, published by Rizzoli ex Libris.

Special Guest: Michèle Gerber Klein.

My guest is Jeff Mallinson. Jeff is Associate Professor of Theology and Philosophy at Concordia University, Irvine, a 1517 Thinking Fellow, and Co-Host of the Virtue in the Wasteland podcast. His newest book is Sexy: The Quest for Erotic Virtue in Perplexing Times. In it he asks what would happen if we reframed contemporary conversations about sexuality altogether? Instead of focusing on taboos, boundaries, and rules of sexual engagement, what if we let holy desire seduce people back to erotic virtue?

Special Guest: Jeff Mallinson.

Mark C. Mattes (PhD, University of Chicago) is professor of philosophy and religion at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa. His newest book is Martin Luther's Theology of Beauty: A Reappraisal. Many contemporary theologians seek to retrieve the concept of beauty as a way for people to encounter God. In this volume, one of today's leading Lutheran theologians argues that while Martin Luther's view of beauty has often been ignored or underappreciated, it has much to contribute to that quest.

This groundbreaking book is the first extensive study on Luther's theological aesthetics. Contrary to the common misconception that Luther rejected beauty as a theological essential, Mark Mattes shows that the concept of beauty is actually a crucial theme for Luther's paradoxical understanding of justification by grace alone through faith alone. Christ "without form or comeliness" is God's gift of mercy to troubled sinners, so Christ is beautiful in God's estimation. Likewise, Christ is desirable for sinners seeking relief and liberation from the law's unrelenting accusations and from the enslavement of sin, death, and the devil. The new birth alters the human senses, opening them to discern and appreciate beauty as God has implanted it in the world. Mattes shows that Luther affirms music and visual imagery as human expressions of beauty and discusses the implications of Luther's aesthetics for music, art, and the contemplative life. The author explains that for Luther, the cross is the lens through which the beauty of God is refracted into the world. Mattes also puts Luther's view of beauty in opposition to some key contemporary theologians.

Special Guest: Mark C. Mattes.

My guest is Jamie Wright. After finding her faith at a suburban megachurch, Jamie trades in the easy life on the cul-de-sac for the green fields of Costa Rica. There, along with her family, she earnestly hopes to serve God and change lives. But faced with a yawning culture gap and persistent shortcomings in herself and her fellow workers, she soon loses confidence in the missionary enterprise and falls into a funk of cynicism and despair.

Nearly paralyzed by depression, yet still wanting to make a difference, she decides to tell the whole, disenchanted truth: Missionaries suck and our work makes no sense at all! From her sofa in Central America, she launches a renegade blog, Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, and against all odds wins a large and passionate following. Which leads her to see that maybe a "bad" missionary--awkward, doubtful, and vocal—is exactly what the world and the throngs of American do-gooders need.

The Very Worst Missionary is a disarming, ultimately inspiring spiritual memoir for well-intentioned contrarians everywhere.

Special Guest: Jamie Wright.

My guest is Yang Huang. Her debut novel Living Treasures won the Nautilus Book Award silver medal in fiction. Her newest book is My Old Faithful. Evoking both the drama of familial intimacy and the ups and downs of the everyday, My Old Faithful introduces readers to a close-knit Chinese family. These ten interconnected short stories, which take place in China and the United States over a thirty-year period, merge to paint a nuanced portrait of family life, full of pain, surprises, and subtle acts of courage. Richly textured narratives from the mother, the father, the son, and the daughters play out against the backdrop of China's social and economic change.

With quiet humor and sharp insight into the ordinary, Yang Huang writes of a father who spanks his son out of love, a brother who betrays his sister, and a young woman who dares bring a brown man home to her conservative parents. She writes of an aging wife and the kindness she shows a young prostitute caught soliciting her husband; of a woman returning to China after many years to find her country changed in ways both expected and startling. This collection, by a writer who grew up in Jiangsu province and participated in the 1989 student uprisings, is remarkable in its sense of place and fidelity to lived human experience.

Yang Huang grew up in China and came to the U.S. to study computer science. While working as an engineer, she attended Boston College and earned an MFA from the University of Arizona. Her collection of linked family stories, My Old Faithful, won the Juniper Prize for Fiction. Her debut novel Living Treasures won the Nautilus Book Award silver medal in fiction. Her essays, stories, and screenplay have appeared in Poets & Writers, Literary Hub, The Margins, Eleven Eleven, Asian Pacific American Journal, The Evansville Review, Stories for Film, and others. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and works for the University of California at Berkeley. To learn more about Yang and her writing, visit www.yanghuang.com or follow her on Twitter: @yangwrites.

Special Guest: Yang Huang.

My guest is Adam Hamilton. Adam is the senior pastor of The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, one of the fastest growing, most highly visible churches in the country. His newest book is Unafraid: Living with Courage and Hope in Uncertain Times. It's a book for persons and communities desiring find hope and serenity in an anxious age.

To find out more about Adam and what his ongoing and exciting work head on over to his website: http://www.adamhamilton.org.

Special Guest: Adam Hamilton.