Risking Enchantment

“I am not a reformer nor an embalmer! I am not a ‘reformer’ (by exercise of power) since it seems doomed to Sarumanism. But ‘embalming’ has its own punishments.”

-J.R.R. Tolkien

For this episode we are delighted to be joined by Dr. Holly Ordway, Fellow of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute. We discuss her recent title, Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography, which traces Tolkien’s experience of the Catholic faith throughout his life, how he integrated it into his daily practices, his personal life and his work. We discuss his early religious experiences, his opinions on changes in the liturgy, and the ways he integrated his work and faith in his translation work especially on the Book of Jonah.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Dr Holly Ordway

Follow Rachel on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow Holly on social media: @HollyOrdway

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Find out more about Holly at http://www.hollyordway.com/

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Works Mentioned

Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography by Dr Holly Orday

Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Dr Holly Ordway

The Letters of J.R.R Tolkien

Tolkien and the Great War by John Garth

What We’re Enjoying at the Moment

Holly: The Three Investigators Series by Robert Arthur, Jr.

Rachel: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

“I'm capable of a great jerk, an effort, and then a relaxation—but steady, every-day goodness is beyond me. I must be a moral kangaroo!”

-Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

In our final episode before the summer break, Phoebe and Rachel are joined by their good friend, and long-time Risking Enchantment listener, Jacob Moran, to discuss his favourite novel: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell. We discuss how Gaskell demonstrates the precariousness of the moral life, even or perhaps especially in middle class and comfortable lives. The novel highlights the need to cultivate every-day virtue and how easily we can stray from our principles. We explore these themes through the various contrasting characters, including Molly Gibson with her steadfast virtue in difficult circumstances, her step-mother Mrs Gibson with all her facade of care.

We hope you enjoy the summer and we look forward to returning with more Risking Enchantment episodes in September.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson, Jacob Moran

Follow us on social media: Rachel: @seekingwatson Jacob: @piousmouse

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell

Keeping Your Word: Unfashionable Virtues in North and South - Risking Enchantment

‘Advice’ by Robert Crawford

What We’re Enjoying at the Moment

Collective Recommendation: 

The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel - Jenny Nicholson

Phoebe:

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot - performed by CityLit Theatre, Chicago

Rachel:

Wildcat (2023)

Jacob:

Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel

“Joyful singing and music is likewise a constant invitation to believers and to all people of good will to work hard to give humanity a future rich in hope.”

-Pope Benedict XVI

In this episode we are joined by Katie Marquette, host of the Born of Wonder podcast. We discuss our love of music, what can learn about the human desire to write new songs about our common experiences, and how participating in the creation of music unites us to the music imbued in God’s creation.

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Katie Marquette

Listen to Katie’s podcast: Born of Wonder

Follow Rachel on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow Katie on social media: @bornofwonder

Read Katie on Substack: https://bornofwonder.substack.com/

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Join Katie Marquette on a pilgrimage to Ireland: https://www.bornofwonder.com/come-to-ireland-with-me

Rachel was also previously a guest on the Born of Wonder podcast. To listen to that episode, click here: S7:10 EP102: Taylor Swift and the Power of Collective Experience with Rachel Sherlock

Works Referenced:

Music is fundamentally joy, says this professor of music

What about Bad Music?

Pope Benedict XVI and The Power of Music

The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis

Recomposed by Max Richter: Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

What We’re Enjoying at the Moment

Katie: Les Misérables [Katie’s recent episode on this topic: S7:12 EP 104: The Economy of Love in Les Miserables with Maddie Dobrowski]

Rachel: Detectorists

"We are watchful for works written in a contemporary idiom that yet reach the roots of fundamental questions, that honor the almost three-thousand-year-long conversations committed to these questions, and that incite our hunger for the splendor of truth."

Masthead for Wiseblood Books

We are delighted to welcome to the podcast Mary Finnegan, deputy editor at Wiseblood Books, a small Catholic press which fosters works of fiction, poetry, and philosophy. In our episode today we discuss the process of publishing, how to strive for excellent in craft while encouraging new writers, and publishing as a vocation. We dive into Dana Gioia's essay "The Catholic Writer Today" and address the problems facing Catholic writing and publishing in our current times.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Mary Finnegan

Follow us on social media: @seekingwatson @maryraphaela

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Wiseblood Books: https://www.wisebloodbooks.com/

University of St Thomas: Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing

Dappled Things: https://www.dappledthings.org/

Works Mentioned

"The Catholic Writer Today" by Dana Gioia - Article in First Things

The Catholic Writer Today by Dana Gioia - Monograph by Wiseblood

Mystery and Manners by Flannery O'Connor

"Christianity and Poetry" by Dana Gioia - Article in First Things

Christianity and Poetry by Dana Gioia - Monograph by Wiseblood

Under Satan's Sun by Georges Bernanos

The Demons: A Double-Volume Novel by Heimito von Doderer

Seneca: The Madness of Hercules, Translated and Introduced by Dana Gioia 

Memory's Abacus: Poems by Anna Lewis

Painting Over the Growth Chart: Poems, by Dan Rattelle

Works of Mercy by Sally Thomas 

How to Think Like a Poet by Ryan Wilson

What We're Enjoying at the Moment

"A Theology of Fiction" by Cassandra Nelson

The End of the Affair by Graham Greene

“What does the Lord want of me?  Of course, this is always a great adventure, but life can be successful only if we have the courage to be adventurous, trusting that the Lord will never leave me alone, that the Lord will go with me and help me.”

    – Pope Benedict XVI

For this episode of Risking Enchantment, Rachel and Phoebe discuss Arthur Ransome’s series of children’s books known as the Swallows and Amazons series. These books are full of wonder and imagination as well as practical detail, as they follow a group of children spending their holidays in the Lake District of northern England. The children sail, set up camp, climb mountains and have many delightful adventures. In our podcast discussion we explore the importance of this sense of adventure for both children and adults, and how this relates to our spiritual lives and how we embrace God’s plan for us. We discuss the balance of duty and responsibility with the sense of freedom that this kind of adventuring perspective brings, and we highlight the connection with Creation that can come from being out in nature.

Works mentioned in this episode

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome

Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Matilda by Roald Dahl

‘Swallows and Amazons for Ever!’ Slightly Foxed, by Jim Ring

Spe Salvi by Pope Benedict XVI

“Encounter of His Holiness Benedict XVI with the Youth, Saint Peter's Square, Thursday, 6 April 2006”

S2:9 EP18: Wonder in a Digital Age, Born of Wonder podcast

“Swallows, Amazons and Adventure, Part 1” by Jon Sparks

“Oxford Junior Dictionary’s replacement of ‘natural’ words with 21st-century terms sparks outcry”, The Guardian, Alison Flood

What We’re Enjoying at the Moment:

Phoebe: BBC’s Hildegard von Bingen - In Portrait (1994)

Rachel: Knitting

“Whether I shall turn out to be the hero of my own life, or whether that station will be held by anybody else, these pages must show.”

• David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

We are joined for this episode of Risking Enchantment by Catholic author Eleanor Bourg Nicholson. Eleanor has previously published several Gothic novels including, A Bloody Habit (2018) and Brother Wolf (2021), with her latest novel Wake of Malice set to publish later this year.

In this episode we discuss our deep love of the novels of Charles Dickens. We explore three of his greatest works, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Great Expectations, each of which follows a young male protagonist through the many adventures, triumphs and pitfalls of his life. In each case we look at the virtues and the failings of these heroes, the Romantic tropes that Dickens employs to characterize them, and the subversions of these that he uses, particularly in the case of Great Expectations.

Works Mentioned:

Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Dickens: A Critical Study by G.K. Chesterton

David Copperfield: Ignatius Critical Edition (coming soon) by Charles Dickens

“The Age of Cant” by Theodore Dalrymple

What We are Enjoying at the Moment

Eleanor: Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Rachel: Wives and Daughters by Elizabeth Gaskell

But if there’s nothing, if there’s nothing

- Wake, 'Offerings'

In this episode we are joined again by Shane Jenkins to discuss the album Offerings by Typhoon. Led by singer-songwriter Kyle Morton, the album is a fascinating, at times difficult, but ultimately transfixing examination of the end of a life. It follows various characters through the experience of dementia, sickness and death, allowing the listener to enter into that space through its rich musicality and lyricism. In our episode we pull out some of the imagery of the album, it's literary and biblical references and allusions and address its powerful and important themes.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Shane Jenkins

Follow us on social media: @seekingwatson @shanekins

Shane's Website: https://sjenkin46.wixsite.com/ipofollies/about

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Music: Ashton Manor by Kevin MacLeod

Works Mentioned

Offerings by Typhoon

Hunger and Thirst by Typhoon

White Lighter by Typhoon

"Kyle Morton & Typhoon: In Conversation with Great Minds" — The DePaul Humanities Center

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

'Little Gidding', The Four Quartets, by T.S. Eliot

The Choruses from The Rock by T.S. Eliot

'The Hound of Heaven' by Francis Thompson

8 1/2, dir. Frederico Fellini

Lost in the Cosmos by Walker Percy

What We're Enjoying at the Moment

Shane:

Cargo by Pio Harnett

Rachel:

The Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith

Welcome back to Risking Enchantment! For our first episode of 2024, Rachel and Phoebe discuss the place that poetry has in our everyday lives, its importance in our faith, and why it’s good to learn poetry by heart. We highlight some of the poems that have been most impactful in our lives and spotlight some of the great resources for Catholics interested in poetry today.

Click here for more information about Select Tours: Irish Wisdom and Wonder Pilgrimage with Katie Marquette and Christy Isinger.

Click here to browse Wiseblood Books.

Works Mentioned:

“Have it by Heart”, The Spectator by Douglas Murray

“Influences”, The Boston Review by Seamus Heaney

“Christianity and Poetry”, First Things by Dana Gioia

100 Great Catholic Poems by Sally Read

“America, and Fall, Needs Poetry”, The American Conservative by Katya Sedgwick

“Should Catholics care about poetry?”, Catholic News Agency, by Mary Farrow

“Catholics Need Poetry” Word on Fire by Andrew Tolkmith

Wiseblood Books

“The Integral Humanism of Poetry,” Evangelisation and Culture by James Matthew Wilson

Poems Referenced:

“The Lovesong of J.Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot

“A Christmas Childhood” by Patrick Kavanagh

“Wind” by Ted Hughes

“Advent” by Patrick Kavanagh

“Little Gidding” by T.S. Eliot

Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot

“Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost

“The Road not Taken” by Robert Frost

“Oíche Nollaig na mBan” by Seán Ó Ríordáin

“‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers” by Emily Dickinson

The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

“Ceasefire” by Michael Longely

“The Wasteland” by T.S. Eliot

"It is emptiness like the hollow in the reed, the narrow restless emptiness which can have only one destiny: to receive the piper’s breath and to utter the song that is in his heart." - Caryll Houselander

In our Christmas episode of Risking Enchantment, we are looking at a seasonal devotional classic, Caryll Houselander’s The Reed of God. This small book packs a powerful punch in its meditations on the humanity of Mary, the Mother of God. We discuss its themes of emptiness, the promise of fulfillment and the secrecy of God’s life growing within us. We reflect on how Christmas can be a time of both joy and grief, but that we can bear God into the world in all the small moments and acts of service in our lives.

We would like to wish all our listeners a very happy Christmas season. Risking Enchantment will return in February 2024. 

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander

A Rocking Horse Catholic by Caryll Houselander

“Reed of God”, Catholic Insight by Sarah Gould

“Journey of the Magi” by T.S. Eliot

“Into the Dark with God”, You Crown the Year with your Goodness by Hans Urs Von Balthasar

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

What We’re Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: Christmas Choral Concerts - The Dublin Bach Singers and Culwick Choral Society

Rachel: “Holy Ghost” and “Manna”, Manna Part: 1 by Chris Renzema

“52:10” and “The Color Green”, A Liturgy, A Legacy and a Ragamuffin Band by Rich Mullins

Principium by The Arcadian Wild

After an unexpected hiatus, Risking Enchantment is back. In this episode we’re taking a look at some classic family movies and what they can tell us about our attitudes towards growing up, and our modern tendency to stay in a perpetual adolescence. We’re looking at the kingdom of Vulgaria in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, where children are illegal but the toy maker is in high demand from the Baron and Baroness. We are also discussing Jim Henson’s Labyrinth where Sarah goes on a journey to leave behind some of her childish ways, and toys, in order to step up to her responsibilities and make new friends.

Hosts: Rachel Sherlock, Phoebe Watson

Follow me on social media: @seekingwatson

Follow the podcast on Instagram: @riskingenchantmentpodcast

Find out more at www.rachelsherlock.com

Sign up for our email list at www.rachelsherlock.com/podcast

Works Mentioned:

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

Labyrinth (1986)

“You Have No Power Over Me”: When David Bowie Was Satan (A Tribute Of Sorts)

"You Remind Me of the Babe With the Power": How Jim Henson Redefined the Portrayal of Young Girls in Fanastial Movies in His Film, Labyrinth

Everyone needs to grow up

Childless society gone to the dogs, warns Pope

"On Three Ways of Writing for Children" by C.S. Lewis

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

"The Lovesong of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T.S. Eliot

"How T.S. Eliot Predicted the Coming of Male Millennials"

"The Drift from Domesticity" by G.K. Chesterton

What We're Enjoying at the Moment

Phoebe: A Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

Rachel: Offerings by Typhoon (album)