"Joy and suffering are interconnected."

What if joviality isn't just a personality trait—but a virtue we're called to cultivate?

In our newest Imagination Redeemed episode, Joffre Swait takes us on a journey through the story of St. Nicholas to explore how generosity, celebration, and community can restore our capacity for joy—even in a culture that's forgotten how to be grateful.

We talk about:

✨ Why joy and suffering are inseparable

👑 How joviality reflects a kingly nature

🎉 The role of celebration in cultivating gratitude

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 How to parent with joviality (without pretending suffering doesn't exist)

This conversation is an invitation to rediscover the deep comedy at the heart of existence—and to claim your place in it.

Brian and Sarah break down our plans for the next three months of the podcast, reflect on divine abundance and the scandal of the incarnation, and more.

Life often feels like discord—a song gone wrong. Whether you're walking through grief, loss, or the quiet melancholy of longing for something more, it's easy to get stuck in wistfulness or despair.

Through Tolkien's Ainulindalë, this episode explores how to hold both sorrow and hope together. You'll discover how to remember that life is gift—God's original theme of abundance and goodness—while also honestly stepping into what Tolkien called the music of "immeasurable sorrow."

This isn't about toxic positivity or ignoring your pain; it's about learning to sing a third theme that weaves your grief into a larger, more beautiful story. As Thanksgiving approaches, this conversation offers a way to feast differently, carrying your homeward ache with both tears and joy.

Many of the conditions of Middle-earth in its Third Age mirror those of our own day: grapples for power, technological advances used for good and ill, and a high opinion in many circles of efficiency and maximized production. What does a feast signify and entail in such times?

Earlier this fall the Anselm Society had the privilege of gathering for our fall retreat. Part of this retreat was focused on extended workshops; a time to be filled, to grow in knowledge or craft, and connect our vocations to the life of God. What you are about to hear is one of our speakers from our morning workshops, Amy Baik Lee.  Amy takes the time to linger at three festal tables in The Lord of the Rings, drawing what we can learn from them about the practice of sharing art, celebration, and fellowship — and ponder why this practice is vital to the journey of the Church and its saints.

We are delighted to share this incredible talk. If you want access to the other five and a half hours of content from the fall retreat workshops, consider becoming a monthly partner at any level, and we will send you the complete video recordings as a ‘thank you.’ (Anselmsociety.org/fallgiving)

Should we be afraid of Halloween? What about death? What about just…the past? Whether it's our own trauma, fears of the occult, family history, or that big scary word tradition, many of us feel caught between two extremes: either cutting ourselves off from it all, or feeling so surrounded by it that we feel trapped.

In this episode, we journey back to medieval England to discover what Hallowtide—the three-day feast that became Halloween—actually looked like, and why it might hold keys to a healthier relationship with all of it–death, tradition, and the past.

Along the way, we'll mythbust everything you think you know about Halloween, explore the meaning of “honor your father and mother,” and discover practical ways to connect our own stories to the Great Story.

Brian Brown, Matthew Clark, and Terri Moon continue their conversation, exploring the concept of 'we songs' in worship, songs that connect congregants to God and each other. In this episode, we discuss the importance of melody, accessibility, and the role of instruments in creating a hospitable worship environment, one that instills confidence in the normal congregant and that inherently prioritizes the voice of the congregation. Within that framework, we delve into how singing serves as a spiritual discipline, the significance of familiar songs, and the need for crafting music that encourages congregational participation.

Chapters

00:24 Introduction to We Songs

01:32 The Purpose of We Songs

02:01 The Composition of We Songs

02:51 Melody and Accessibility

03:39 The Role of Instruments in Worship

04:48 Hospitality in Worship

06:13 The Voice of the People

07:03 Worship Wars and Music Choices

07:30 Cultural Context in Worship Music

08:57 Fostering Congregational Singing

09:31 The Role of the Worship Leader

10:18 Musical Hosting and Participation

11:19 Different Musical Traditions

12:45 Call and Response in Worship

13:38 Learning and Growth in Worship

14:54 Navigating Musical Preferences

16:32 Voice First Composition

17:08 The Importance of Simplicity

18:40 The Role of the Organ

20:00 Historical Context of Worship Music

22:19 Fostering Confidence in Singing

23:29 The Challenge of New Songs

25:20 The Structure of Worship Songs

26:38 Familiarity and Participation

28:51 Songwriting for Accessibility

29:05 The Songwriting Process and Accountability

31:09 The Role of Corporate Singing in the Church

35:34 Singing as a Spiritual Discipline

39:35 The Importance of Familiar Songs

43:12 Crafting Songs for Congregational Participation

47:03 The Relationship Between Melody and Lyrics

50:12 Understanding Sacred and Common Art

53:55 The Vision of the Church and the Role of Music

In 386 AD, an Italian bishop taught his congregation to sing—and their voices held off an imperial army.

Why do some songs have the power to unite us, remind us who we are, and give us courage in dark times? And how can we get more of them?

Join Brian Brown, Matthew Clark, and Terri Moon as they explore the lost art of "we" songs—hymns and ballads that connect us to God, to each other, and to the great story we're all part of.

In this episode (part 2 of 2), Brian Brown, Gustav Hoyer, and Benjamin Harding talk about the intergenerational nature of Christian creativity, and explore how film scores and children's stories show us how that works.

The discussion includes:

• Why every generation in the church must leave a testimony of their time—failure to do so creates a void in cultural memory
• How Kalos Arts functions as a production company for Christian artists across multiple disciplines (music, visual art, written word), and believes art shouldn't remain inaccessible—people can develop appreciation through guided exposure

• How film scores are great example of how this works; they serve as accessible entry points to classical music

• Why popular art forms like Harry Potter and The Hobbit demonstrate how "children's" stories can contain profound beauty

A bonus episode cross-posted from the Beauty Through Faith podcast! In this episode, part 1 of 2, Brian joins Benjamin Harding and Gustav Hower to say as many provocative things as possible, as quickly as possible.

Things we talked about:

• Beauty as pursuit of God through the material world - How a beautiful girl became his doorway to understanding that pursuing beauty isn't separate from pursuing God—it's incarnational, found in both romantic love and the everyday physical world around us.
• The "You too? I thought I was the only one" moment - When the Anselm Society started hosting lectures on C.S. Lewis, Dostoevsky, and Christian architecture, people flooded in saying they'd always loved stories, music, and art but their churches had no explanation for why these things mattered to their faith.
• Feasting as theology in practice - How simple acts like preparing an abundant meal become a tangible way ordinary people participate in God's work of reconciliation.
• "If we don't cry out His glory, the very stones will" - The church historically ran with Christ's statement by literally making architecture that causes tourists to hush in reverence—creating spaces where beauty itself preaches without words.
• The artist as servant, not hero - The Anselm Society teaches its Artists Guild members to shift from the cultural model of "artist as prophet" to "artist as gift-giver," creating not for hypothetical future audiences but as acts of love for real people in their communities right now.

Join renowned Canadian artist Josh Tiessen‬ for an inspiring evening at the Anselm Society as he shares his artistic journey and explores the intersection of Christian faith, wildlife art, and environmental stewardship.