Embodied Faith and the Death of Platitudes
The Overcomers with Matt Chandler
Boxing gym as embodied discipleship
Josh explains how boxing taught him embodied weakness, coaching, and a model for discipleship rooted in the body.
I sat down with artist, writer and friend Josh Nadeau to explore his path from theological precocity to personal crisis and ultimately, redemptive beauty. Josh shares how growing up steeped in Reformed theology didn’t insulate him from a slow descent into apathy, addiction, spiritual numbness, and walking through life “as a ghost”. It was beauty—raw, embodied, soul-stirring beauty—that woke him up. We talk about deconstruction, embodiment, addiction, the love of God, and why aesthetics — embodied faith — might be what Saints are made from. If you’re barely hanging on or wondering what a holy life could look like beyond checklists, I commend his book Room For Good Things to Run Wild to you.
In This Episode
- Growing up “super Christian” and deeply catechized
- University: the intellectual wrestling match of faith
- Burnout, apathy, and alcohol: five years of slow unraveling
- Rock bottom: bourbon at 5am and the call of hidden music
- Churchy clichés and the need for something that can bear the weight
- The boxing gym: embodied weakness and discipleship
- Gnosticism, disembodied faith, and hunger for incarnation
- Theology of the Body & rediscovering the sacred in flesh
- Becoming a saint: not instant, not easy, but beautiful
- God’s love beyond usefulness, the danger of returning to slavery
- Why Josh wrote Room for Good Things to Run Wild
- Beauty as the apologetic for a disenchanted age
- Speaking to the silent middle: the “4 out of 10” Christian life
Guest Resources
- Room for Good Things to Run Wild by Josh Nadeau
- Josh’s Instagram
- Josh’s Substack
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Overcoming the Darkness by Nate Pickowicz
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