ONLINE COURSE: The Good, the True, the Beautiful: Reading Literature to Restore the Soul with Karen Swallow Prior, October 29–December 17, 2025: Offered through the Free to Be Faithful initiative of the Institute of Christian Studies in Toronto, this eight-week online course taught by literature scholar Karen Swallow Prior (author of On Reading Well and other books) “invites students into the sacred act of reading—exploring how classic and contemporary works of fiction and poetry can reawaken moral imagination, deepen empathy, and cultivate spiritual resilience. Together we will reflect on the formative power of beauty and goodness through the written word, guided by voices both timeless and timely.”
The class will meet Wednesdays from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. ET and will include lectures and discussion. The cost for first-time ICS students, not for credit, is $289 USD. (To take it for credit costs about $1,110 USD.) Read the ICS’s course introduction on Substack, and view additional course offerings at https://f2bf.icscanada.edu/#courses.
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ONLINE POETRY COMMUNITY: Versed~, founded and led by Dr. Adam Walker: A recently minted Harvard PhD grad and award-winning educator, Adam Walker is a scholar of English and American literature specializing in Romantic poetry. I’ve really been enjoying his “Close Reading Poetry” YouTube channel, where he has posted such videos as “6 Poets Tolkien Fans Should Read,” “The Theological Aesthetics of Gerard Manley Hopkins,” “Mary Sidney Herbert, the Mother of English Devotional Poetry,” “Reading John’s Gospel as Visionary Literature,” and many, many more. He seeks to make great poetry accessible to everyone. I love the combination of erudition and warmth that he exudes.
This March, Walker launched Versed~, “a space where the serious love and study of poetry is available beyond the paywalls of the universities—a place where readers can talk about books, make friends, compare notes, and share their writings with other readers.” He continues:
Our meetings blend the rigor of the classroom with the warmth of a living room. . . . Versed offers a wide range of learning opportunities, including live classes, a library of past courses, exclusive access to unpublished courses, and resources designed for everyone from beginners to advanced readers. At Versed, students can sharpen their literary skills, master various techniques in the art of close reading, and encounter works of great literature with other readers. Here, you’ll find all the insight of a university course, without the pressure, just good books and better company.
You can join for just $20/month.
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PODCAST EPISODES:
These are both available for listening wherever you get your podcasts.
>> “How to Read a Poem” with Ben Myers, The Artistic Vision, July 15, 2025: Dr. Benjamin Myers [previously], the 2015/16 poet laureate of Oklahoma and author of four books of poetry, kicks off a new “how to” lecture-style series for The Artistic Vision, providing tips on how to read (and listen to) poetry. “The purpose of poetry is the cultivation of attention,” he says. He urges readers to resist the temptation to try to “solve” the poem, and emphasizes the role of beauty and sound in enhancing the poetic experience. For consideration, he highlights the poems “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos William, “The Song of Wandering Aengus” by William Butler Yeats, “Birches” by Robert Frost, and “The Lake Isle of Innisfree” by William Butler Yeats. For those who want to learn more, he heartily recommends How to Read a Poem by Tania Runyan.
>> “On the Artistic Vision of Flannery O’Connor” with Jessica Hooten Wilson, The Artistic Vision, December 11, 2024: Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson—author of The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints and the forthcoming Reading for the Love of God: How to Read as a Spiritual Practice, among other titles—discusses the sacramental vision of the Southern fiction writer Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964). She touches on the role of the dark and grotesque in O’Connor’s work; symbolism, allegory, and the accumulation of meaning; her favorite O’Connor short story, “Greenleaf”; Mystery and Manners, a collection of O’Connor’s essays and other prose; being called upon by O’Connor’s estate to present O’Connor’s unfinished third novel, Why Do the Heathen Rage?, to the public for the first time, and artist Steve Prince’s indispensable contribution to the project; and “The Woodcarver,” a parable of craft by the ancient Taoist philosopher Chuang Tzu (Zhuangzi).
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MEDLEY: “You’re Nearer / Nearer, My God, to Thee” by Nnenna Freelon: Cued up in the video below, from a 2016 Jazz Vespers service at Duke University Chapel, is a medley by the American jazz singer Nnenna Freelon, which combines a 1940 Broadway musical number by Rodgers and Hart with a nineteenth-century hymn. What a compelling mash-up! It appears on Freelon’s 2000 album Soulcall.
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ARTICLE: “Christians in the Movies: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” by Mike Frost: “Hollywood movies are full of religious nuts. . . . But it’s not all bad news. Mainstream cinema has presented us with some powerful, complex, and authentic depictions of devout Christians,” writes Mike Frost, a minister from Australia. He gives ten examples.
Art & Theology 