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Christians Reading Classics

Mere Orthodoxy

Christians Reading Classics is a podcast about classic books being read through a distinctly Christian lens. Hosted by author and classicist, Nadya Williams, Christians Reading Classics introduces—or should we say—re-introduces listeners to classic works that have inspired generations. Interviewing experts who know these books well, the hope is to inspire listeners and awaken their imagination to God's world through literary, theological, and even children's works that have stood the test of time.

Christians Reading Classics is a Mere Orthodoxy podcast.

Find out more at mereorthodoxy.com

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22 episodes
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Avg 56 min
English

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S2 · E53
Thursday · 53 min
Billy Budd, with Christine Norvell
A beautiful story can still be brutal, and Billy Budd proves it. Christine Norvell, author of The Sycamore Fig Tree, joins to discuss Melville’s unforgettable portrait of a sailor who seems almost made for admiration—which makes his tragedy that much more thought-provoking. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E52
October 1 · 46 min
Aristotle, with Philip Freeman
Aristotle is everywhere in Western civilization, but most of us meet him as a difficult assignment instead of a real human being with a complicated story. We sit down with classicist and biographer Philip Freeman, author of Aristotle: The First Teacher, to follow Aristotle from an out-of-the-way town in northern Greece to the intellectual pressure cooker of Plato’s Academy and then into his own ambitious project at the Lyceum. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E32
September 24 · 48 min
Howard Thurman For Our Time with Myles Werntz
We’re joined by Miles Werntz, associate professor of theology at Abilene Christian University and editor of Nothing Can Separate Us: Healing for Souls and Nations, a reader of Thurman’s writings. Together we trace Thurman’s story from the segregated South to Morehouse and Howard University, through his journey to India to meet Mahatma Gandhi, and into his bold experiment of founding one of America’s earliest intentionally interracial churches. Along the way we explore why Thurman distinguishes “the religion of Jesus” from what Christianity has sometimes become, and how that distinction both helps and troubles readers who love the church. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E33
September 17 · 58 min
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh, with Daniel McInerny
The complicated struggle of faith is no new phenomenon. Philosopher and novelist Daniel McInerny joins today to revisit Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited and ask why this Catholic classic still feels like it is describing our own age, our own friendships, and our own hunger for beauty. Along the way, we tackle a surprisingly practical question for readers and writers alike: what is a classic, really? Not just a book that tells timeless truths, but a work that pushes a tradition forward and deepens the conversation about what a human being is for. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E32
September 10 · 57 min
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, with Eric Hutchinson
Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor known for his philosophical insights, penned his thoughts in a private notebook that became one of the most enduring classics of Western literature. In this episode, Nadya Williams speaks with Eric Hutchinson, Associate Professor of Classics at Hillsdale College, to delve into the essence of Aurelius's Meditations and the Stoic principles that shaped his life. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E31
September 3 · 56 min
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis, with Daniel K. Williams
In this episode, we explore the enduring power of C.S. Lewis's 'Mere Christianity' and its place in the broader history of Christian apologetics. Daniel K. Williams, a historian and expert in apologetics, shares insights into what makes a work of apologetics a classic, how Lewis's work has influenced generations, and the evolving landscape of Christian defense strategies. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E30
August 27 · 53 min
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner, with Matt Stewart
Wallace Stegner scholar Matt Stewart talks with Nadya Williams about why quiet novels can hit harder than flashy ones and how Crossing to Safety turns friendship, academia, and marriage into real drama. We also ask what makes a classic, how books survive by luck as much as merit, and why long obedience in relationships might be the rarest plot of all. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E29
August 20 · 1 hr
A Canticle For Leibowitz by Walter Miller with Brad Birzer
A monastery in the desert preserves the shattered remnants of civilisation after nuclear fire, and the relics include something chilling: the technical knowledge that could destroy the world all over again. That is the dark engine driving Walter M. Miller Jr.’s A Canticle for Leibowitz, and it is why this 1959 post-apocalyptic science fiction classic still refuses to go stale. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E28
August 13 · 47 min
Notes on the State of Virginia by Thomas Jefferson, with Cara Rogers Stevens
Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia is one of those rare books that can feel like a museum archive, a political manifesto, and a personal notebook all at once, and it still shapes how Americans argue about freedom. We sit down with historian Cara Rogers Stevens (Ashland University), author of the award-winning Thomas Jefferson and the Fight Against Slavery, to ask a basic but uncomfortable question: what do we do with a “classic” that is brilliant, influential, and morally fraught? 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E27
August 6 · 1 hr 15 min
Nolan's Odyssey and Epics with Jonathan Geltner, Eric Hutchinson, and Rob Wyllie
A Hollywood blockbuster can make “The Odyssey” feel like a parade of monsters and set pieces but Homer’s epic is stranger, quieter, and more demanding than that. We sit down with poets and scholars Jonathan Geltner, Eric Hutchinson, and Rob Wyllie to ask a deceptively basic question: what is an epic, really? The answer takes us from dactylic hexameter and oral performance to the way epic poetry can build a culture’s imagination of gods, duty, and the shape of reality itself. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E26
July 29 · 57 min
Augustine - Enchiridion and Morals of the Catholic Church with Joseph Lanier and Travis Montgomery
A pastor asks Augustine for a short summary of the Christian life, and Augustine delivers a compact handbook that is so honest it practically stops mid-sprint when it reaches love. That tension, between real-life limits and real spiritual depth, is where our conversation lives today. We are joined by Joseph Lanier and Travis Montgomery, co-authors of *Every Perfect Gift: Classical Virtues for Christian Formation*, to explore why Augustine still trains our instincts for discipleship, moral theology, and spiritual formation. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E25
July 23 · 1 hr
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky with Maria Baer
A foggy train pulls into St Petersburg and two young men face each other across a third-class carriage. That opening scene from Dostoevsky’s The Idiot is our doorway into a novel that refuses to let anyone stay comfortable, especially when a pure-hearted man starts telling the truth in rooms built on performance. Nadia Williams talks with writer and reporter Maria Baer to talk about why 21st-century American Christians should still read this translated Russian classic. We dig into what makes a “classic” more than a school requirement, how to pick a translation that actually keeps you turning pages, and why reading older books helps us notice the invisible norms shaping our own lives. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E24
July 16 · 36 min
Jack London: An American Classic with Elizabeth Stice
Elizabeth Stice, professor of history at Palm Beach Atlantic University, joins to discuss Jack London as an American classic. They explore London's wild life — oyster pirate, hobo, Klondike adventurer — and how it shaped works like Call of the Wild, White Fang, John Barleycorn, and Martin Eden. Stice unpacks the tension between London's socialist sympathies and social Darwinist streak, and why Christians can find genuine value in a writer so openly skeptical of faith. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E23
July 9 · 1 hr 1 min
The Declaration of Independence and the Classics with Brad Birzer
A single sentence can reorder a civilization, and “we hold these truths to be self-evident” is one of those sentences. Nadya Williams sits down with historian Dr Brad Birzer to read the Declaration of Independence closely and ask why it still sends a jolt through American politics, moral imagination, and public life 250 years later. 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E22
July 2 · 1 hr 5 min
The Declaration of Independence with Matthew Spalding and Jake Meador
The Declaration of Independence is only a few paragraphs long, but it tries to do something enormous: justify a political break while teaching a moral vision of human equality, liberty, and rightful government. Nadya Williams and Jake Meador sit down with Dr Matthew Spaulding of Hillsdale College, a leading scholar of the Declaration and author of The Making of the American Mind, to read the document as an American classic that still forms our public arguments and our private conscience. — 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. Register for Beeson Divinity School's 2026 Preaching Conference, July 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama: https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/preaching-institute/preaching-conference?utm_source=Mere+Orthodoxy&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Preaching+Conference+2026 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E21
June 25 · 1 hr 6 min
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis with Oliver Traldi
What does it mean to love someone well — and what does it cost when that love curls inward? Nadya Williams and Oliver Traldi discuss C.S. Lewis's Till We Have Faces, tracing how Lewis reframes the myth of Cupid and Psyche to expose the jealousy beneath even the most devoted love, the limits of philosophy before the divine, and what it means to render an account of your own life. — 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. Register for Beeson Divinity School's 2026 Preaching Conference, July 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama: https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/preaching-institute/preaching-conference?utm_source=Mere+Orthodoxy&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Preaching+Conference+2026 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E20
June 18 · 55 min
East of Eden with Philip Bunn & Matthew H. Young
Steinbeck's East of Eden returns the Cain and Abel story twice over, tracing original sin, mimetic desire, and the fragile hope encoded in timshel across the arc of early American history. Philip Bunn and Matthew H. Young join host Nadya Williams to read Steinbeck as political theorist, moral cartographer, and reluctant humanist. — 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. Register for Beeson Divinity School's 2026 Preaching Conference, July 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama: https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/preaching-institute/preaching-conference?utm_source=Mere+Orthodoxy&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Preaching+Conference+2026 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E19
June 11 · 1 hr 4 min
James Fenimore Cooper with Dr. Wayne Franklin
James Fenimore Cooper gets filed away as “important” long before many of us actually read him, and that gap is the problem we wanted to solve. I’m joined by Dr. Wayne Franklin, one of the leading Cooper scholars and the author of major biographies of Cooper, to talk about what makes a classic live past its own pages. His definition sticks with me: a classic is a book that, once you start it, you realize you already know, because it has permeated the culture and taught later writers what stories can look like. - 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. Register for Beeson Divinity School's 2026 Preaching Conference, July 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama: https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/preaching-institute/preaching-conference?utm_source=Mere+Orthodoxy&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Preaching+Conference+2026 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E18
June 4 · 55 min
The Journals of Lewis and Clark with Craig Fehrman
We treat the Lewis and Clark journals as a true American classic, reading them for voice, humour, and human detail rather than just as a schoolbook summary. With historian Craig Furman, we follow the expedition through science, hardship, Native diplomacy, and the moral complexity that the journals preserve in plain sight. — 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. Register for Beeson Divinity School's 2026 Preaching Conference, July 14-16 in Birmingham, Alabama: https://www.samford.edu/beeson-divinity/preaching-institute/preaching-conference?utm_source=Mere+Orthodoxy&utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=Preaching+Conference+2026 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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S2 · E17
May 28 · 45 min
Augustine's Confessions with Joey Sherrard
We sit with Augustine’s Confessions and feel how a 1,600-year-old prayer still names our restlessness with uncomfortable accuracy. We talk with pastor and author Joey Sherrard about reading Confessions as praise and truth-telling, and about remembering Augustine as a working pastor rather than a distant genius. — 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 and be considered for a full-tuition scholarship. https://bit.ly/beesonscholarships 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. Listen and read The Daily Liturgy by going to http://mereorthodoxy.com/daily-liturgy
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