In this episode, I sit down with Winfield Bevins to talk about beauty and why it matters for everyday life, the church, and spiritual formation. We discuss his book How Beauty Will Save the World and how beauty shapes attention, formation, and the way we live, work, and follow Jesus. Winfield shares his own story, including seasons of burnout and vocational transition, and how art and creativity became central to his faith and calling. We talk about creativity beyond the arts, the pace of modern life, and how beauty helps form us spiritually, reorient our desires, and shape communities of faith. This is a grounded conversation about renewal, formation, and learning to see the world with care and hope.

Winfield Bevins is an internationally recognized author, artist, and the founding director of Creo Arts, which is a non-profit that exists to bring beauty, goodness, and truth to the world through the arts. Winfield is also artist-in-residence at Asbury Theological Seminary where he champions the integration of art, theology, and mission. Over the past decade, he has helped start numerous initiatives and academic programs that have trained leaders from around the world. He is the author of several books, including, How Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Power of the Arts for the Christian Life.

Winfield's Book:

How Beauty Will Save the World

Winfield's Recommendation:

Surprised by Joy

Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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In this episode, I talk with David Dault about his book The Accessorized Bible and the ways the Bible is actually used in our churches, institutions, and public life. We wrestle with how the Bible can be taken seriously without being turned into a prop, a weapon, or a justification for harm. Our conversation moves through questions of power, responsibility, and interpretation, and keeps returning to a simple but difficult concern: whether or not our ways of using the Bible are making life more possible for the people around us.

David Dault is an assistant professor of Christian spirituality in the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University of Chicago. His previous faculty appointments were at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL, and at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, TN. He began his teaching career at American Baptist College in Nashville, TN, where he served as chair of the department of theology and biblical studies.

He is the host and executive producer of Things Not Seen: Conversations about Culture and Faith, an award-winning radio show and podcast, and is the podcast editor for Commonweal magazine, the Paulist Fathers, and GIA Publications.

David received his Ph.D. in religion from Vanderbilt University, and he holds an M.A in religion from Vanderbilt, as well as an M.A. in theological studies from Columbia Theological Seminary.

He lives with his family in Hyde Park, a neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.

David's Book:

The Accessorized Bible

David's Recommendations:

Midnight Mass

The Essays of James Baldwin

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In this episode, I’m joined by Craig Detweiler and Elijah Davidson for our Best Movies of 2025 conversation. We count down our top films of the year and explain why each one made our list. We talk about the themes that stood out in 2025 movies, including grief, violence, faith, memory, creativity, and what it means to be human. We also discuss overlooked films, shrinking theatrical releases, genre storytelling, and how personal experiences shaped the way we watched and ranked these movies. This episode offers a thoughtful, honest look at the year in film and the cultural moment behind it.

Elijah’s List:

10. Hamnet/Predator: Badlands

9. Frankenstein

8. Avatar: Fire and Ash

7. Train Dreams

6. Sinners

5. Presence

4. One Battle After Another

3. Black Bag

2. Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

1. 28 Years Later

Craig’s List:

10. The Phoenician Scheme

9. Roofman

8. Weapons

7. Wake Up Dead Man

6. The Ballad of Wallis Island

5. It Was Just an Accident

4. Train Dreams

3. Sinners

2. One Battle After Another

1. The Testament of Ann Lee

Joshua’s List:

10. The Ballad of Wallis Island

9. The Life of Chuck

8. Blue Moon

7. 28 Years Later

6. Sinners

5. Train Dreams

4. One Battle After Another

3. Sentimental Value

2. It Was Just an Accident

1. Wake Up Dead Man

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What’s actually happening to the church in America and why does it matter beyond Sunday morning? In this episode I’m joined by Ryan Burge, a social scientist who studies religion in the U.S. and brings long-term data, charts, and lived pastoral experience into a conversation often driven by fear or nostalgia. We discuss his book The Vanishing Church, the quiet decline of the moderate church, the rise of polarization inside Christianity, and how broader cultural tribalism has reshaped faith communities. We also explore the growth of the religious “nones,” why church closures are happening steadily but largely unnoticed, and what’s lost when the church can no longer function as a space where people learn how to live together across difference.

Ryan Burge is professor of practice at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. Before that he was an associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University, and was also the graduate coordinator. He has authored over thirty peer-reviewed articles and book chapters alongside four books about religion and politics in the United States. He has written for the New York Times, POLITICO, and the Wall Street Journal. He has also appeared in an NBC Documentary, on Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, as well as 60 Minutes which called him, “one of the country’s leading data analysts on religion and politics.” He served as a pastor in the American Baptist Church for over twenty years, leading First Baptist Church of Mount Vernon, IL for 17.5 years until its closure in July 2024. He has been married to his wife Jacqueline for over seventeen years. They have two boys.

Ryan's Book:

The Vanishing Church

Ryan's Recommendation:

Dominion

Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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What does it mean to take Jesus seriously when he announces good news to the poor, freedom for the captive, and release from debt? In this episode of Shifting Culture, I’m joined by theologian and practitioner Kelley Nikondeha to talk about her new book Jubilee Economics and the disruptive, concrete vision of Jubilee found in Scripture. We explore why Jubilee was never just a spiritual metaphor but a real economic practice involving debt forgiveness, land, labor, and community restoration. Kelley shares stories from her work in Burundi—where economic collapse forced hard, human decisions about care, reentry, and neighbor-love—and helps us reframe Jesus’s sermon in Luke 4 as dangerous, embodied good news. This conversation asks what Jubilee might look like today, and what it might cost us to love our neighbors well in a debt-saturated world.

Kelley Nikondeha is a liberation theologian, community development practitioner, and author of First Advent in Palestine and Defiant. She is Co-founder of Communities of Hope in Burundi.

Kelley's Book:

Jubilee Economics

Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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As 2025 comes to a close, I wanted to pause and look back, not at what was loud or polarizing, but at what people actually stayed with. This episode gathers the 10 most listened to conversations of the year, and together they reveal something honest about this moment: a deep longing for a faith shaped by humility instead of power, a discipleship rooted in real life, and a way of Jesus that resists fear, shame, and easy answers. This episode counts down from #10 to #1. I introduce each clip, then step back and let the voices speak for themselves. You’ll hear excerpts from conversations with John Eldredge, Sheila Gregoire, Trevor Hudson, Michael John Cusick, Kerry Burnight, Matthew Bates, Beth Allison Barr, Andrew Root, and John Fugelsang voices that helped shape Shifting Culture this year and, judging by the listens, shaped many of you as well.

Episodes featured:

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In this episode, I am joined by Lore Wilbert and Byron Borger for a roundtable countdown of our top ten books of 2025. Moving from number ten to number one, we reflect on the novels, memoirs, theology, and cultural criticism that most shaped our reading year. Along the way, the conversation opens into deeper questions about faith and doubt, grief and hope, community and isolation, and what it means to stay human in an anxious, mechanized world. Rather than chasing trends, this episode lingers with books that slowed us down, challenged empire, and pointed toward love, imagination, and faithful presence. This is a conversation about reading as formation and why the stories we choose matter more than ever.

Go to Hearts and Minds Books to order any of these books and let Byron know you heard about them from Shifting Culture.

Lore’s List:

10. The Serviceberry

9. The Signature of All Things

8. Heating and Cooling

7. Great Circle

6. Nervous Systems

5. Wild Dark Shore

4. Monsters

3. The Names

2. Circle of Hope

1. The Correspondent

Byron’s List:

10. Becoming God’s Family

9. The Core of the Christian Faith

8. You Can Trust a God with Scars

7. Liturgies for Resisting Empire

6. The Violent Take it by Force

5. Bear Witness

4. Rags of Light

3. Good Soil

2. The Last Supper

1. World of Wonders

Joshua’s List:

10. Making Time

9. We Tell Ourselves Stories

8. Wild Dark Shore

7. Spellbound

6. The Anti-Greed Gospel

5. The Teacher of Nomad Land

4. Twelve Churches

3. The Correspondent

2. Christ in the Rubble

1. A Beautiful Year

Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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In this episode, I sit down with Bill and Kristi Gaultiere for a thoughtful conversation about empathy - what it really is, why it’s so often misunderstood, and why it matters for the way of Jesus. We talk about God’s great empathy for us and how the incarnation reveals a God who enters our experience, not just intellectually but emotionally and bodily. Together, we explore the role of emotions in the spiritual life, the weight of shame and grief, the reality of compassion fatigue, and how empathy, truth, and responsibility belong together. This conversation is an invitation to receive God’s love more deeply and to learn how that love reshapes the way we live, love, and care for others.

Bill is a psychologist (PhD) and ordained pastor and Kristi is a licensed professional counselor (PsyD). Together they lead Soul Shepherding, which is a nonprofit ministry to help pastors, leaders, churches, and others to go deeper with Jesus in emotional health and loving leadership. They lead immersive retreats that integrate Jesus-centered psychology and spiritual formation. Participants have the option to earn a Certificate in Spiritual Direction to improve their relationship skills and earn side income as a spiritual director or coach. They are authors of a number of soul care books, including Journey of the Soul, which was #1 on Amazon in Christian Counseling, and Healthy Feelings, Thriving Faith. Their newest book is Deeply Loved: Receiving and Reflecting God’s Great Empathy for You.

Bill & Kristi's Book:

Deeply Loved

Connect with Joshua: jjohnson@shiftingculturepodcast.com

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