What Matters Most Podcast Por John W. Martens arte de portada

What Matters Most

What Matters Most

De: John W. Martens
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What Matters Most is focused on listening to people and what is on their minds, particularly dealing with the big questions of religion and spirituality. It emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement, a Centre at St. Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, but our programming is intended for all interested parties, Catholic or not. In the What Matters Most podcast, we talk to people, some well-known, some not so well-known, some Catholic, some Christian, some not affiliated with any religion, some affiliated with other faiths (Muslims, Sikhs) to find out what matters to them. It is a podcast focused on spirituality and faith, but truly focused on listening to others, to learning from those connected to the Church and to those who are not. It is grounded in personal conversations that ask guests to talk about what has motivated their vocations or their work and what gives their lives meaning and purpose. The format can best be described as a conversation that allows us to get to know our guests.2024 Cristianismo Espiritualidad Ministerio y Evangelismo
Episodios
  • The Language(s) of Christianity: A Conversation with Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu

    The Language(s) of Christianity: A Conversation with Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu
    Mar 11 2026
    Welcome to Episode 87 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with to Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu. This episode focuses on language, post-colonial biblical studies, and how colonialism turned the Bible into a weapon of power and oppression around the world. Ekaputra Tupamahu is an associate professor of New Testament and director of masters programs at Portland Seminary and George Fox University. He received his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 2019. Dr. Tupamahu has a broad range of academic interests, including the politics of language, race/ethnic theory, postcolonial studies, immigration studies, critical study of religion, and global Christianity (particularly Pentecostal/Charismatic movement). All these interests inform and influence the way he approaches the texts of the New Testament and the history of early Christian movement(s). His monograph, Contesting Languages: Heteroglossia and the Politics of Language in the Early Church, (Oxford University Press, 2022), explores the complex dynamics of language and power in the early Christian context. Apart from discussing Contesting Languages, we will discuss three articles by Ekaputra, starting with The Bible and the Wounds of Empire: Postcolonial Reflections on Interpretation, Genealogy of the "Great Commission": Matthew 28:18–20 and Its Modern Afterlives, and Is Acts Really "The Most Overtly Missionary Book"? Challenging Whiteness in the Interpretation of Acts. Dr. Tupamahu's scholarly writings have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and academic publications, including the Journal for the Study of the New Testament, The Bible and Critical Theory, Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies, the Indonesian Journal of Theology, and the Asian Journal of Pentecostal Studies. He has also contributed to significant academic volumes such as the Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, Global Renewal Christianity, Asian Introduction to the New Testament, and the T&T Clark Handbook to Asian American Biblical Hermeneutics. Today's podcast will introduce us to Scripture, as Micah Kiel's episode did, but in this context, we are confronting the ways in which the Bible can be used to support political and economic colonialism that harm whole groups of people, marginalize them, steal their language, and even leads to murder. So, let's listen as Dr. Ekaputra Tupamahu introduces us to the way the Bible has and can be used as a means of harm. What happens when the Bible speaks the language of oppression and not liberation? It's not easy to hear that the language of the Bible has been used to speak down to peoples. The way, even today, it has been used to take away colonized peoples' ability to speak. As Eka said, do we have a voice? Eka cited a book by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Can the Subaltern Speak? Do colonial peoples' contribute to biblical studies or will we hear them even if they speak? Eka spoke about language death or language morder by colonialism, as colonialism is like empire an expansion of culture that kills other smaller cultures. The impacts of colonialism and the colonial projects that for hundreds of years have been used as tools of oppression for millions of people in the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Africa still resonate today. This is why Eka says that post-colonialism reading does not mean a template or a method one applies but a critical response. The world is still shaped by the colonial era, the impact still continues, and one can argue colonialism is rising up again as powerful nations threaten takeovers of smaller countries by force so they can have what they want. This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors. A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to ...
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    1 h y 20 m
  • Be Transformed: A Conversation with Dr. Micah Kiel

    Be Transformed: A Conversation with Dr. Micah Kiel
    Feb 25 2026
    Welcome to Episode 17of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Micah Kiel. This episode focuses on being transformed and what it means to take seriously not only our spiritual lives, but the temporal lives and needs of others, particularly those who are struggling with poverty or have otherwise been marginalized. Micah Kiel holds a Ph.D. (New Testament) Princeton Theological Seminary, a M.Div. Princeton Theological Seminary, and a BA (music performance) St. John's University. He and his family live in St. Joseph, MN. In this episode, we discussed his book Be Transformed: A Biblical Journey Toward a More Just World (Liturgical Press, 2024) which won the 2025 Association of Catholic Publishers First Place Award, Scripture: scholarly works and the 2025 Catholic Media Association Third Place Award, for Catholic Social Teaching. Today's podcast will introduce us to Scripture, and its call for us to be transformed at both a personal and social level, and how Catholic Social Teaching (CST) can help us translate Scripture into practical demands for our lives. CST is traced back to Pope Leo XIII Rerum Novarum in 1891 and I thought Micah's definition of Catholic social teaching helping us translate Scripture into practical demands for our lives is insightful. It takes, he said, the core principles of Scripture and makes it into something practical for our world today, dealing with issues like AI and worldwide environmental degradation that Scripture does not speak directly to, but that we must address for healthy and moral living today Micah alluded to or mentioned a number of CST encyclicals, like JP II's Laborum exercens in 1981, which deals with the value of human work, Laudato Si' and Laudato Deum, which deal with the environment, Gaudium et Spes, on the fate of humanity today and the common good, and Populorum progressio, on how the economy must serve all people. These are all available on line if you have not read them, and even if you have! This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors. A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free! Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most. John W. Martens Director, Centre for Christian Engagement
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    1 h y 20 m
  • "Soulwork:"Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Curriculum: A Conversation with Dr. Judith Scholes and Dr. Nick Olkovich

    "Soulwork:"Decolonizing and Indigenizing the Curriculum: A Conversation with Dr. Judith Scholes and Dr. Nick Olkovich
    Feb 11 2026
    Welcome to Episode 16 of Season 4! In this episode I speak with Dr. Judith Scholes and Dr. Nick Olkovich. This episode focuses on decolonizing curriculum and indigenizing curriculum, and what that means particularly at Catholic colleges on Musqueam land at a large public university, UBC. Today's podcast introduces us to a Wabash grant that Judith and Nick are directing, Exploring Pedagogies of Social Justice, Decolonization, and Indigenization in a Canadian Catholic Context, that has been active at Corpus Christi College and St. Mark's College since 2024 and will be completed in 2026. This grant is from the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion. There are three overarching questions the grant seeks to engage: How can religion and theology faculty take a leadership role in articulating the pedagogical implications of the priorities in our Strategic Plan, especially the commitments to dialogue, social justice and civic engagement?How can we create opportunities for diverse voices across disciplines to come together, listen, and learn from one another?How might our unique context in Vancouver, British Columbia and on Coast Salish territory teach us how to listen and learn more openly, more reflexively, and more often? Dr. Judith Scholes and Dr. Nick Olkovich introduce us to the complexity of these questions and why it is essential for all of us to engage these questions. How do we understand decolonization, indigenization, and reconciliation? "We're not trying to include the other on our own terms," as Nick said. We want to move away from, indeed reject, ways of knowledge that in practice consider some people as inferior to others, as Pope Francis discussed in Laudato Si' and Querida Amazonia, and that consider there to be one, true culture in the world. We all need to be listening to and learning from others, especially in our context indigenous peoples. This is a process that is constantly unfolding, undoing colonial practices and determining what we do in their place. Some of the things we can do is center indigenous voices, and learn from them on their land. And as Judith wisely said, schools are the place where we ought to indigenize, as schools were the primary though not the only place where this process of di-indigenization took place. She also referred to Daniel Heath Justice, professor in the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies at UBC, and his questioning as to what comprises knowledge in the academy. I will link to his webpage. I will also link to the article Judith mentioned, which is available for free online, by Adam Gaudry and Danielle Lorenz, Indigenization as inclusion, reconciliation, and decolonization: navigating the different visions for indigenizing the Canadian Academy. This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark's College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors. A few thanks are in order. To Martin Strong, to Kevin Eng, and to Fang Fang Chandra, the team who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas. If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. It's the free gift that you can give to all of your friends! And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. And subscribe to the podcast. If you are listening, please subscribe. It's free! Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most. John W. Martens Director, Centre for Christian Engagement
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    1 h y 19 m
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