Welcome to Episode 21 of Season 3 with Margaret MacDonald on "Educating the Children of God, Infants to Elders," a keynote Lecture of Margaret MacDonald from May 1, 2025 at the CCE Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present, and Future conference in Vancouver.

Margaret Y. MacDonald is Professor of Religious Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She was Dean of Arts at Saint Mary’s University from 2014 to 2020 and previously taught at St. Francis Xavier University (Nova Scotia) and the University of Ottawa. In the winter of 2018, she held the McCarthy Chair in Biblical Studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute (the Biblicum) in Rome.She received her doctorate from the University of Oxford where she held a Commonwealth Scholarship.

Please enjoy Margaret's lecture!

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

Welcome to Episode 20 of Season 3 with Thomas Bolin, who joined me to discuss his important new book An Inspired Word in Season: Reading the Bible Responsibly in a Polarized World, and the always fascinating questions related to how we interpret texts, especially significant texts like those that make up the Bible.

Thomas Bolin is a professor of theology and religious studies. Most recently he was a professor of Theology and Religious Studies at St. Norbert College, a small, Catholic, Liberal Arts college sponsored by the Norbertine Order in the heart of Green Bay, Wisconsin. He teaches courses in the languages, history and culture of the Hebrew Bible and related ancient cultures. He is the author of four books and numerous articles, including Ecclesiastes and The Riddle of Authorship (Routledge, 2017) and Ezra-Nehemiah (Liturgical Press, 2012). Bolin researches the literary and religious histories of ancient Israel and early Judaism, and the history of Christian biblical interpretation. He is a recipient of the Leonard Ledvina Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Donald B. King Distinguished Scholar Award from SNC.

I spoke with him on June 11, 2025, from his home in Wisconsin. I loved my conversation with my friend Tom Bolin. My only regret is not asking even more questions about the history of biblical interpretation and the process of biblical interpretation because I enjoy nerding out in that way and I loved both of those chapters in Tom’s book An Inspired Word in Season: Reading the Bible Responsibly in a Polarized World. But this book is important not just for wrestling with the perennial problems of how we interpret texts and what counts as a valid or good interpretation, but for its relevance for our polarized world right now. Whether you think the Bible ought to influence the political world as it does today, the reality is that it does influence us in profound ways, and from my perspective in some highly negative ways. Reading the Bible well is important for a healthy society. Reading the Bible poorly has helped to create justification for some evil practices not just in the past but today.

Join us as we discuss reading the Bible in a polarized time.

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

Welcome to Episode 19 of Season 3 with Michael W. Higgins, who joined me to discuss Pope Francis and our new Pope Leo XIV. We discussed his newest book, a portrait of Pope Francis, titled the Jesuit Disruptor.

Michael W. Higgins is a distinguished educator, media commentator, and author, and he shows no sign of slowing down! In 1999 Dr. Higgins was appointed President and Vice-Chancellor of St. Jerome's University. He served as President until 2006 when he became President and Vice-Chancellor of St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. While at St. Thomas he also taught English and Religious Studies. He was also President at St. Mark’s College in Vancouver and hired me for my present position, for which I am grateful!

In addition to his academic career, Michael W. Higgins is the author or editor of over a dozen books and has been a regular columnist for the Toronto Star, the Kitchener-Waterloo Record, the Catholic Register and the Canadian Correspondent for The Tablet (London).

I spoke with him on May 9, 2025, from his home in Guelph, Ontario. I wanted to speak to Michael because of his great knowledge of the papacy and of ecclesial politics and I wanted to get some initial thoughts on what it means to have another Pope from the Americas, the US and Peruvian Pope Leo.

Join us as we discuss Pope Francis, Pope Leo, and the nature of the modern papacy.

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