More Christ

Arthur Versluis, Professor of Religious Studies at Michigan State University, holds a doctorate from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and has published numerous books and articles. Among his many books are Platonic Mysticism (SUNY Press 2017), American Gurus (Oxford UP, 2014), Magic and Mysticism: An Introduction to Western Esotericism (Rowman Littlefield, 2007), The New Inquisitions: Heretic-hunting and the Intellectual Origins of Modern Totalitarianism (Oxford UP, 2006), Restoring Paradise: Esoteric Transmission through Literature and Art (SUNY: 2004); The Esoteric Origins of the American Renaissance (Oxford UP: 2001); Wisdom’s Book: The Sophia Anthology, (Paragon House, 2000); Island Farm (MSU Press, 2000); Wisdom’s Children: A Christian Esoteric Tradition (SUNY: 1999); and American Transcendentalism and Asian Religions (Oxford UP, 1993). His family has owned a commercial farm in West Michigan for several generations, and so he also published a book called Island Farm about the family farm, and about family farming in the modern era. Versluis was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to Germany and is the editor of JSR: Journal for the Study of Radicalism. He is the founding president of Hieros, a 501c3 nonprofit focused on spirituality and cultural renewal. For more, please see: https://arthurversluis.com/

Naghmeh Panahi was born into a Muslim family in Iran. From the age of two, Naghmeh witnessed a country at war. In 1979, Iran underwent an Islamic Revolution and then entered an 8-year war with Iraq which heavily involved the city of Tehran where Naghmeh grew up. Bombings and missiles were a daily occurrence. Walking to school meant walking through the rubble of friends’ homes and entering a classroom of missing friends and painful memories. Eventually chemical warfare was used, and unimaginable side effects plagued the country. At an early age the horrors of war caused Naghmeh to seek God for answers about why he would allow such suffering. Naghmeh and her twin brother became steadfast in their pursuit of God. As Muslims they read the Quran, performed Islamic prayers, and fasted. Eventually, recruiters from the Iranian military began entering elementary schools and encouraging boys to enlist in the military, saying that if they died they would go to heaven because this was a holy war. The young boys were sent to the front lines to run through land mines so that the trained soldiers could safely follow after them. If parents objected to their children enlisting, they would be taken by the police and imprisoned for speaking against the government. With a young son in jeopardy, Naghmeh’s family knew they must leave Iran. At the age of 9, Naghmeh and her family moved to San Jose, California. Within weeks of their arrival, Naghmeh and her twin brother discovered the God they had been looking for, Jesus Christ. They learned that through the death of Jesus Christ their sins were forgiven. They learned that they did not have to die in a holy war or do religious work in order to reach God, but instead God came in human flesh through the person of Jesus Christ. Most importantly they learned that Jesus loved them. Naghmeh and her twin brother became dedicated followers of Christ at the age of 9. Naghmeh’s parents were furious when they found out that she had become a Christian and considered moving the family back to Iran. Instead of moving, Naghmeh’s family was persuaded to move closer to family in Boise, ID where they hoped the seclusion of the area would provoke their children to return to Islam. Eventually their hearts softened after secretly reading a Bible they had taken from Naghmeh seven years earlier. They too became followers of Christ. https://www.tahriralnisa.org/ Naghmeh’s hope was to be a missionary medical doctor in a third world country, so she became a pre-med student at the University of Puget Sound. Soon after September 11th, 2001 Naghmeh returned to Iran, this time as a Christian. This is when Naghmeh experienced the plight of Christians and religious minorities in Iran and also gained first-hand experience of the oppression and violence women are subjected to everyday in the Middle East. Her own life was in constant danger as a Christian convert from Islam. She was arrested by the Iranian revolutionary guards multiple times, and with guns pointed at her head was told to renounce her Christian faith or she would be raped and killed. She lived in constant fear of associating with other Christians because many times the house churches were raided, and her friends and fellow Christians were arrested and imprisoned. In 2002 Naghmeh met Saeed Abedini and helped start one of the largest house church movements in Iran. In 2004 she married Saeed, and by 2005 the house churches had grown to over 2,000 members in over 30 cities. As the house churches grew so did the persecution. Due to increased persecution and arrests Naghmeh and Saeed left Iran and returned to America where Naghmeh raised her two children Rebekka and Jacob in Idaho. In 2012, her husband, Saeed Abedini, was arrested while visiting Iran. Through God’s grace Naghmeh was able to bring world-wide attention not only to Saeed’s imprisonment in Iran, but also to the plight of persecuted Christians worldwide.

Holly Ordway is the Cardinal Francis George Professor of Faith and Culture at the the Word on Fire Institute and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and is a Subject Editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies. Her book Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire Academic, 2021) received the 2022 Mythopoeic Society Scholarship Award in Inklings Studies. Her newest book is Tolkien’s Faith: A Spiritual Biography, which wad released in time for the 50th anniversary of Tolkien’s death on September 2nd, 2023. For more details and video interviews, see the publisher’s page for the book; you can also buy it on Amazon US & Blackwell’s Books in the UK as well as on Amazon UK. https://hollyordway.com/

"The Tammy Peterson Podcast" delves into issues such as faith through a counter-cultural lens. Behind the podcast stands a 62-year-old cancer survivor and wife of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, who has just begun the journey to become a member of the Catholic Church. Tammy and I spoke about this journey, beginning with her upbringing in Canada, before looking at the Peterson's love story, some struggles the family have faced, the blessings they have received in marriage and as parents, a modern miracle, femininity vs feminism, the role of the body in the Christian way, a new life of prayer, and more. Please, check out Tammy's podcast, here: https://www.youtube.com/@Tammy-Peterson

Adam B. Coleman is the Author of “Black Victim To Black Victor“, Op-Ed Writer, Public Speaker, and the Founder of Wrong Speak Publishing. You can read more about Adam and engage with his work here: https://www.adambcoleman.com/about https://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Victim-Victor-Identifying-ideologies/dp/B0915JT4XD/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1U7TUDE5H6FMS&keywords=black+victim+to+black+victor&qid=1703286536&sprefix=black+victim+to+black+victo%2Caps%2C532&sr=8-1

Jason M. Baxter is a college professor, speaker, and author of five books, including The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis and A Beginner's Guide to Dante's "Comedy". He currently teaches Great Books at Notre Dame and is a curricular consultant for St. Thomas More Academy in South Bend, Indiana. For more, please see: Jason M. Baxter (jasonmbaxter.com) Amazon.co.uk: Jason M. Baxter: books, biography, latest update Jason Baxter, Author at The Imaginative Conservative Jason M. Baxter – Catholic World Report Oppenheimer’s Tragic Fate | Jason M. Baxter | First Things

Dr Joshua Furnal (Ph.D. Durham) is an Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology at St. Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth. He is an Associate Editor of Brill Research Perspectives in Theological Traditions and the co-editor of the Contributions to Philosophical Theology series. Recently, he has been the recipient of four visiting research fellowships: the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies (Italy), the Hong Kierkegaard Library (USA), Gladstone’s Library (UK), and the National Institute for Newman Studies (USA). Before coming to Maynooth, he held a tenure-track teaching and research position at Radboud University in the Netherlands. Prior to Nijmegen, he was a Visiting Research Fellow with the Leslie Center for Humanities and a Lecturer in the Department of Religion at Dartmouth College. Also, he has been a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Catholic Theology at the University of Tübingen, and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Durham University (UK) in the Department of Theology and Religion. His recent book, ‘Catholic Theology after Kierkegaard‘ was published by Oxford University Press. For a 30% discount on OUP’s website, use this code: AAFLYG6 His main research interests are in the areas of 19th & 20th century Continental Philosophy and Systematic Theology. In particular, he is interested in modern philosophical engagements in Catholic Theology and the intersection between Catholic thought and contemporary culture. At Radboud University, he contributed directly to the research output of Radboud’s Center for Catholic Studies. He has been recognized for internationally outstanding, research-led teaching across various disciplines. At Tübingen, he taught ‘Theology and Film‘. At Dartmouth, he taught ‘Kierkegaard & Religious Existentialism’. At Durham University (UK), he taught in the areas of Philosophy of Religion, the history of Christian doctrine, and Religion & Film. At Radboud, he taught in the areas of Fundamental and Dogmatic Theology. At Maynooth, he teaches in the area of Systematic Theology. For more, please see here: Joshua Furnal | Assistant Professor of Systematic Theology | St. Patrick's College, Maynooth The Dialectic of Faith and Reason in Cornelio Fabro’s Reading of Kierkegaard’s Theology - Joshua Furnal, 2017 (sagepub.com) Joshua Furnal | St Patrick’s Pontifical University, Maynooth (sppu.ie) Catholic Theology after Kierkegaard eBook : Furnal, Joshua: Amazon.co.uk: Books

Welcome to More Christ. We seek to bring some of the world's most interesting and insightful guests to discuss life's central and abiding questions. In this one hundred and ninth episode in a series of discussions, I'm joined by Dr Paul Gottfried. Paul Edward Gottfried is an American paleoconservative political philosopher, historian, and writer. He is a former Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania. He is editor-in-chief of the paleoconservative magazine Chronicles and is an associated scholar at the Mises Institute, a libertarian think tank. Here's a list of books referenced in this episode: Marcas Ó Conghaile Muirthemne's Amazon page For more from Paul, please see: Paul Gottfried - Chronicles (chroniclesmagazine.org) Amazon.co.uk Paul Gottfried | Mises Institute tom woods paul gottfried - YouTube

Welcome to More Christ. We seek to bring some of the world's most interesting and insightful guests to discuss life's central and abiding questions. In this one hundred and eighth episode in a series of discussions, I'm joined by Autumn Kern from The Commonplace podcast. Please see the recommended reading lists for this episode and for the channel, below: https://amzn.to/3tSDTmM https://amzn.to/46Suiv0 "...The Commonplace podcast exists to bridge the gap between the starting line of the home-schooling journey and the resources in the classical world. It’s your home-schooling Virgil, leading you from the ideas floating high in the sky down to the dirt where you can wrap your hands around them and start planting them like seeds in your children’s lives." Check it out, here: https://www.thecommonplacepodcast.com/podcast

Welcome to More Christ. We seek to bring some of the world's most interesting and insightful guests to discuss life's central and abiding questions. In this one hundred and seventh episode in a series of discussions, I'm joined by Dr Matthew Petrusek. Matthew is the Senior Director of the Word on Fire Institute and its Professor of Catholic Ethics. He has authored and edited several books, including: - Evangelization and Ideology: How to Understand and Respond to the Political Culture - Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity, The Search for a Meaningful Life - Ethics and Advocacy: Bridges and Boundaries - Value and Vulnerability: An Interfaith Dialogue on Human Dignity. He lectures broadly in both English and Spanish on moral philosophy/theology, politics, social issues, and the Catholic intellectual tradition. You can follow his work and see more from him, here: https://www.wordonfire.org/author/dr-matthew-petrusek/ https://twitter.com/MattPetrusek https://www.wordonfire.org/videos/idolatry-of-identity/lecture-1-wokeism-the-frankenstein-of-political-ideologies/