Shifting Culture

What happens when a poet and a theologian decide to write letters to each other about faith? In this episode, I sit down with Christian Wiman and Miroslav Volf to discuss their book Glimmerings and talk about the language we use for God and why it so often falls short, the tension between God's presence and absence, what the Book of Job has to say about suffering, and whether faith can survive, even deepen, without easy answers. It's a conversation about holding paradox, paying attention, and what it looks like to keep believing in the middle of real life.
Miroslav Volf is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Theology at Yale Divinity School and the founding director of the Yale Center for Faith & Culture. His books include Exclusion & Embrace: A Theological Exploration of Identity, Otherness, and Reconciliation, winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. His Gifford Lectures (2025) are titled Amor Mundi: God and the Character of Our Relation to the World.
Christian Wiman is the Clement-Muehl Professor of the Arts at Yale Divinity School. He is the author, editor, or translator of fifteen books, including Zero at the Bone: Fifty Entries Against Despair and Hammer Is the Prayer: Selected Poems. His work appears regularly in Harper’s, The New Yorker, and Commonweal.
Miroslav & Chris' Book:
Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian
Chris' Recommendations:
The Banquet Years
Miroslav's Recommendation:
The Cost of Discipleship
Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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In this conversation, I sit down with Kristen LaValley to talk about the complexity of growing up in the church and what happens when faith both forms us and harms us. We talk about spiritual trauma, shame, neurodivergence, fear-based theology, and the moment when the frameworks we were given stop holding. Kristen shares her story of growing up in ministry, leaving church leadership, and slowly rebuilding a faith centered not on performance or fear, but on the love of God. This episode is about healing, asking honest questions, and the long work of moving toward wholeness—trusting that flourishing is possible, even after faith has hurt you.
Kristen LaValley is a writer and storyteller whose words offer a refreshing perspective on faith and spirituality and resonate with those who carry tension in their faith. She offers insights that intersect doubt and belief, hope and suffering, beauty and heartache. With a deep love for the Christian faith and a willingness to explore its complexities, Kristen's writing offers nuanced conversations that challenge readers to think deeply and wrestle with important questions. Kristen lives in Massachusetts with her husband, Zach, and their five children.
Kristen's Book:
Growing Up Saved
Kristen's Recommendation:
Monk and Robot
Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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Chris grew up Catholic, lost his faith in college after his twin brother nearly died and he was later diagnosed with stage three cancer, and spent years immersed in atheism shaped by thinkers like Bertrand Russell and the New Atheists. In this episode, we talk about the limits of scientific materialism and romantic idealism, the problem of suffering, the reality of consciousness, and why atheism is never just disbelief but always carries a worldview. Chris shares why he ultimately returned to Catholicism, how he holds faith and doubt together, and why hope, transcendence, and human dignity still matter in a culture shaped by fear, anxiety, and self-interest.
Christopher Beha is former editor of Harper's Magazine; the author of a memoir, The Whole Five Feet; and the novels Arts & Entertainments and What Happened to Sophie Wilder. His most recent novel, The Index of Self-Destructive Acts, was nominated for the 2020 National Book Award. 
Chris' Book:
Why I Am Not an Atheist
Chris' Recommendations:
Madame Bovary
The Dying Grass
Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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A few weeks before leaving to pursue mainstream music, Tim Timmons was told he had five years to live. In this episode, we talk about the story behind his song “Even If,” how that confession was forged in the middle of stage-four cancer, and how his journey is now portrayed in the film I Can Only Imagine 2. We explore what it means to hold grief and gratitude together, to surrender outcomes without giving up hope, and to resist contempt through enemy-love in a divided culture. This isn’t a polished victory arc. It’s a conversation about paying attention to Jesus in the 10,000 ordinary minutes of our lives — and discovering that even if the healing doesn’t come, God himself is still our hope.
Tim Timmons is a singer-songwriter who has spent over two decades in ministry, writing songs born from personal experience with pain, cancer, hope, and joy. In 2001, he received a terminal cancer diagnosis with a five-year prognosis—he's now 24 years into that journey. "The gift of cancer is perspective," he shares. "It's really the open door to speak into people's stories."
Since his 2013 debut "Cast My Cares," Timmons has been creating what he calls "prayers set to music," including co-writing MercyMe's Grammy-nominated "Even If." His latest work with Integrity Music explores themes of God's presence through struggle, including singles like "You Never Let Go" and "Roar"—songs that put praise into action even in the midst of hardship.
After 15 years leading worship in Orange County, California, Timmons now tours full-time, carrying a message forged in the fire of his own battle with incurable cancer. "I hear so many stories after every show where people are just stuck in religion—exhausted, shame-filled, powerless, and joyless," he notes. "I want to have songs that actually help them through their journey and invite them beyond fear."
When home in Nashville, Tim, his wife Hilary of 23+ years, and their four children live out their faith in everyday moments. Six years ago, he founded the non-profit 10000 MINUTES with a weekly podcast inspiring people to practice Jesus in all 10,000 minutes of their week, not just the 80 spent in church. He is also the author of the forthcoming book, Waking Up Again: A Journey of Grief and Gratitude (March 3, 2026).
Tim Timmons' greatest desire—whether through his cancer story, his theology, or his songs—is to help people discover the real life found with Jesus, one day at a time.
Tim's Book:
Waking Up Again
Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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Jason Green was serving in the Obama White House when a phone call from his mother sent him home to sit with his grandmother in the hospital — and into a story he never knew was his. In this conversation, we talk about the hidden history of Quince Orchard, a Black community founded after emancipation, and three segregated churches that chose to merge in 1968 after Dr. King’s assassination. We explore remembrance before reconciliation, the communal strength of the Black church, breaking cycles of harm, and what it actually costs to build resilient, integrated community in a divided time. If you’re asking where we go from here — chaos or community — this episode is for you.
Jason G. Green is a Maryland-born community organizer, attorney, entrepreneur, and storyteller whose work sits at the intersection of economic opportunity, community trust-building, and democratic renewal. He is the author of the forthcoming book Too Precious to Lose (One World | Penguin Random House, 2026), an intimate narrative that blends a personal, community history with a broader call to repair the connections that bind us together.
Green served as Special Assistant to the President and Associate White House Counsel to President Obama, advising on domestic and economic policy during the recovery from the Great Recession. He later co-founded SkillSmart, a pioneering workforce and economic-impact software company that has helped quantify more than $100 billion in economic development activity and supported a talent pipeline of more than 50,000 skilled workers across the United States.
He is the President and CEO of EverGreen Labs, a strategy studio that helps organizations deepen stakeholder alignment, improve market positioning, and drive measurable business outcomes. Green previously served as Executive-in-Residence at Zeal Capital Partners, supporting early-stage companies focused on the future of work, financial technology, and health equity.
A civic leader deeply committed to history, memory, and reconciliation, Green is a trustee of the Pleasant View Historic Association and a founding commissioner and former chair of the Montgomery County Commission on Remembrance and Reconciliation. His award-winning PBS documentary, Finding Fellowship, explores the intertwined Black and white history of Quince Orchard and the community-led fight to preserve its legacy
Green has served several corporate and nonprofit boards, including Daivergent, Flare, Clear Impact, Per Scholas, the Arena, the Washington University Alumni Board of Governors and Regional Cabinet, and the Yale Law School Executive Committee and is a non-resident fellow at the Urban Institute. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis.
His work—spanning technology, public service, storytelling, and community leadership—is rooted in a belief that our shared future depends on our capacity to connect and build together. Green currently lives in Dallas, Texas, with his wife Ritu and their son Aidan.
Jason's Book:
Too Precious to Lose
Jason's Recommendation:
Great Expectations
Connect with Joshua: [email protected]

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