Artists need solitude to create (or “conjure”), but we need one another too. Mandy and Matt and Christina discuss finding a balance between these seemingly contradictory needs.

Annie Nardone offers two books
and a warm drink to curl up with
in this Pages, Pints, and Pours.

Isaac Hans, photographer, is the
Winter 2024 Feature Artist in
Anselm Society's new column.

SD Smith returns to the table to discuss his new book, The Found Boys.

Dr. Michael Ward uses various writings of C.S. Lewis as literary illumination to help us understand joy and tears even more deeply.

Chase Whitney emphasizes the significance of tears as a uniquely human experience, and discusses how joy and tears can make room for each other as we seek God in our lives.

Pages, Pints, and Pours pairs
a legendary drink with a
foodie-actor’s memoir.

Matt, Mandy, and Christina gather together to debrief about our recent podcast guest Lancia E. Smith on the power of naming.

Hope, like a candle in a window,
can draw travelers out of the
dark into the light of Christ.

Join Mandy as she talks with Amanda about how we might “reclaim the holidays for [our] heart’s formation and the glory of God”.

Christina dives deep into the real meaning of Halloween. It’s not what you think.

The story goes like this. A
woman got brave and started a
book club. How did it turn out?
(You can read all about it here.)

Matt’s debut middle-grade fantasy novel, Red Rex, is here! Join Mandy and Christina as they talk with Matt about the dream, the process, the plot, the characters, the illustrations — and the footnotes.

Christina Brown on the poet’s—
and our—cathedral-shaped
journey toward union with God.

Calvin and Hobbes, and the Spiderman question for all of us…does great responsibility come with great power?

Painting as a Pastime by the
great Churchill: really? Yes,
and Queen Mum loved her
Drinkypoo (recipe included)

Taylor Swift is the most popular musician since the Beatles. And Matt doesn’t understand. So he sits down with a thoughtful fan to see if she can show him the ways of the Swifties.

Everywhere she turned that
night, the ancient city revealed
a feast of light and beauty.

We all have young storytellers in our lives. How can we best encourage them?

Gianna Soderstrom
muses on the ministry of second
breakfasts -- and the power of
inviting others into our homes.

Creating alongside others for half a day is a sweet hint of
heaven. Elisa Lambert shows 
us how to make it happen.

Christina and Evangeline interview Lancia Smith, founder of Cultivating.

Read a review on Ted Hughes’s Poetry in the Making and pair it with a Breakfast Martini (recipe included).

There is an inextricable link between joy and being known.

You heard you’re not supposed to love the world. You heard wrong.

Matt and Mandy interview fellow Anselm Guild member Jacoby Elliott, who is a musician, writer, and visual artist.

Mandy interviews poet, playwright, and critic Jane Scharl to discuss poetry.

Read a review on Annie Dillard’s The Writing Life and pair it with a High Tide (recipe included).

Matt has never been able to get into Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel Dune or the film adaptations. So he brings Brian Brown and Peter Houk to the digital pub table to convince him of the merit of Dune.

Join Mandy as she talks with Amanda about how we might “reclaim the holidays for [our] heart’s formation and the glory of God”.

All earthly Christmases
disappoint us, but hiver,
the Eve of Everything,
can sweeten the bitterness
of winter with fresh hope.

Places, like people, only realize their potential when they are loved.

Matt, Mandy, and Evangeline discuss the criteria for whether a movie should be considered a Christmas movie and then discuss a number of “close calls” to determine which are properly Christmas movies and which are imposters.

A special Christmas episode with Sally Clarkson!

Live at the Anselm Christmas Party, Matt asks whether CS Lewis should have added Father Christmas to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." He soon gets interrupted by a couple extra-special guests.

Christ comes as the ruling King, but he also comes as the gentle Shepherd.

Does Father Christmas belong in Narnia? Brian picks a fight, we continue Lewis and Tolkien's debate, and along the way, we hit on how to portray morality in literature, and even the true meaning of Christmas gifts.

Mary is the first Christian, the first person in whom Christ dwelled. Her life and song teach us to bear Christ too.

Welcome to a special series on the season of advent. Sit in the dark, wait for the light, prepare for his coming.

The final installation of our advent series meditating on these three truths: God is light, God sent His light into the world through Christ, we are called to walk as children of the light.

This week, we await the promised shepherd through Isaiah, Hind’s Feet on High Places, Handel's Messiah, and Manchester by the Sea. 

Christmas isn’t just safe and cheery. It has a deeply beautiful dark side.

Christmas is a beautiful building block to begin to plant a flag, make a place, and let things have their proper meaning again.

Mary, the God-bearer, shows us what it looks like to receive Christ. This week we meditate on the Magnificat, the Consolation of Eve, and Thomas Tallis' Magnificat setting.

Joy explains the history of Advent, the theme of Advent, and some ways you can celebrate it, all through the lens of beautiful art.

A sonnet of reclamation, by Malcolm Guite.

An original poem from our 2014 digital Christmas pageant.