The Habit

Joy Clarkson is the author of Aggressively Happy and host of the podcast, Speaking with Joy. She is the books editor for Plough Quarterly and a research associate in theology and literature at King's College London. Joy completed her PhD in theology at the University of St Andrews, where she researched how art can be a resource of hope and consolation. Her new book is You Are a Tree: And Other Metaphors to Nourish Life, Thought, And Prayer. In this episode, Joy and I talk about the ways that figurative language shapes the way we think about the world and ourselves, and Joy tries to convince Jonathan that the distinction between simile and metaphor is meaningful. This episode originally aired January 2024.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Timothy Jones is a pastor and author known for helping people uncover greater warmth and depth in their relationship with God. His new book is Fully Beloved: Meeting God in Our Heartaches and Our Hopes. As Sandra Mccracken says, Fully Beloved “names the ache of loneliness and our lifelong quest for belonging.” In this episode, Tim Jones and Jonathan Rogers talk about the Trinity, Julian of Norwich, and the creative energy that is released when you realize that you are more loved than you thought.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bethaney B. Wilkinson, writer and spiritual director who champions slow, soul-nourishing living. She explores tending inner terrain and balancing longings with real limits. They unpack distraction versus creative openness. Conversation highlights accepting the life you have, spotting burnout signals in the body, and focusing energy on what you can actually influence.

Wesley Vander Lugt, pastor, theologian, writer, and arts advocate, explores beauty as a necessary, soul-breathing force. He discusses beauty as traces of God's glory, how attention and slowness reveal it, beauty’s resistance to commodification, and its power to enlarge us beyond self. Conversations range from riven things and Flannery O'Connor to cultivating resonance with art.

Becca Jordan, a Nashville singer-songwriter, worship leader, essayist and theopoetics student. She explores glory as divine radiance, the tension between longing and fame, creative rituals like lighting a candle, failure as a source of beauty, and theopoetics as theology through language and desire. The conversation highlights vulnerability, hymn-rich worship, and bringing whole selves to art.

Curt Thompson is a psychiatrist, a speaker, and the author of several books–most recently, The Deepest Place: Suffering and the Formation of Hope. In this episode, Curt and Jonathan Rogers talk about what it means to be hospitable to your own suffering, engaging suffering as the way of redemption, and the role of storytelling in mental and spiritual health. This episode originally ran in August 2023.Support the show: https://therabbitroom.givingfuel.com/memberSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Andrew Roycroft, a former pastor turned freelance editor and writer, talks about shifting from ministry into full-time writing and editing. He explains launching the New Grub Street Substack. Conversations cover how editing can feel like pastoral care, Seamus Heaney’s humane poetry, Ireland’s bardic love of language, and his Project 66 poems for every Bible book.

Marsh Moyle, author and long-term Central Europe resident who organized translation and publishing projects behind the Iron Curtain, discusses trust, community, and moral imagination. He recounts life under and after communism and a café exercise that exposes trust deficits. Conversations explore law versus love, a Trinitarian alternative to extremes, hospitality as trust, and how true personhood grows within real communities.

Leif Enger, a celebrated novelist known for his lyrical storytelling, discusses his latest work, I Cheerfully Refuse. He explores the nuances of dystopian fiction, defining it as a plausible societal decline rather than an apocalyptic event. Enger shares how the COVID lockdown inspired his writing process, reflecting on themes of community and hope in unsettling times. He emphasizes the power of literacy as a means of resistance and highlights how his characters navigate personal and societal challenges, connecting deeply with readers.

Joyce McPherson, a dedicated biographer and author of children's literature, shares how she balanced writing ten biographies, including a recent one on Jane Austen, while raising nine kids. She reveals her unique approach of writing in 45-minute increments to fit her busy life. The conversation delves into the art of biography as both a narrative tool and a way to inspire young minds spiritually. Joyce also discusses the flexibility of self-publishing versus traditional routes, and her love for capturing the complex lives of historical figures.