Speaker and author Vicki Courtney has been writing books for women since the late 90s. Her new book is Motherhood Is Not Your Highest Calling: The Grace of Being a Good-Enough Mother. Vicki says iIt’s the book she would have liked to read when she was a young mother unable to shake the idea that motherhood defined her identity. In this episode, Vicki and Jonathan Rogers talk about swapping “perfect” for “good enough.” We talk about fitting a writing life into motherhood. And we talk a little about what it’s like to change your mind about something you published twenty years ago.

This episode is sponsored by The Habit's Focus Retreat, October 26-30 in Nashville. Find out more at TheHabit.co/Retreats.

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W. David O. Taylor is Associate Professor of Theology & Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, as well as the director of various initiatives in worship, theology and the arts. He teaches courses in systematic theology, art and worship, art and theology, art and beauty, spiritual formation through the psalms, and theology and science fiction. Along with Daniel Train, he edited a new collection of essays about art and the Holy Spirit—Naming the Spirit: Pneumatology and the Arts. One of the contributors to that collection is Steve Guthrie. Steve is a professor of theology and religion and the arts at Belmont University in Nashville. He is also chairman of the board of the Rabbit Room. In this episode, David, Steve and Jonathan Rogers talk about inspiration, breathing in and breathing out, particularity and mutuality, and quite a few other things.

This episode is sponsored by The Focus Retreat, presented by The Habit. October 26-30 in Nashville. Find out more at TheHabit.co/Retreats.

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Jason M. Baxter is a speaker, college professor, and author of eight books, including the best-selling Medieval Mind of C.S. Lewis, A Beginner's Guide to Dante's Comedy, Why Literature Still Matters, and now a new translation of Dante's Comedy. On his Substack, Beauty Matters, he writes about the role of the humanities in our technologically driven age. He currently works at Benedictine College in Kansas as the Director for the Center for Beauty and Culture. In this episode, Dr. Baxter and Jonathan Rogers talk about why literature matters, and how the arts begin to close the gap between who we are and what we long for.

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Father Damian Ference is a priest of the diocese of Cleveland. He serves at Borromeo Seminary in Wickliffe, Ohio as Director of Human Formation and Assistant Professor of Philosophy. He is also the author of Understanding The Hillbilly Thomist: The Philosophical Foundations of Flannery O’Connor’s Narrative Art. In a letter to a friend, O’Connor wrote, “Everybody who reads Wise Blood thinks I’m a hillbilly nihilist, whereas I would like to create the impression…that I am a hillbilly Thomist.” Father Ference argues in his book that O’Connor wasn’t just making a throwaway joke, but that the philosophy and theology of Thomas Aquinas shaped O’Connor’s art all the way to the ground. In this episode Father Ference and Jonathan Rogers talk about solid, down-to-earth metaphysics, trusting the senses, showing and telling, and virtue, habit, and freedom as they apply to creative work.

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Heidi White is a teacher, a podcaster, a speaker, and an author. In her speaking and writing she explores literature, education, and the Christian imagination. Her new book is The Divided Soul: Duty and Desire in Literature and Life. In this episode, Heidi and Jonathan Rogers talk about the division and ultimate reunification of “want” and “ought,” and they discuss the truth that this division is central to all story because it is central to the human experience.

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Karen Swallow Prior is a public intellectual— a writer, speaker, and literature teacher. Her work centers on the intersection of faith, narrative, and cultural life. Her Substack, The Priory, is devoted to the holy cultivation of a rich inner life. Her new book is You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good and Beautiful. In this episode, Dr. Prior and Jonathan Rogers talk about following your passion (she has her doubts about that advice), knowing your limitations (she doesn’t think you can be anything you want to be), and listening for your calling (she doesn’t think it has to be all that mystical).

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Mitali Perkins (mitaliperkins.com) has written many books for young readers, including You Bring the Distant Near (nominated for a National Book Award) and Rickshaw Girl (adapted into a film), all of which explore crossing different kinds of borders. Her goal is to make readers laugh or cry, preferably both, as long as their hearts are widening. Her new book is for grownups. It’s called Just Making: A Guide for Compassionate Creatives. In it, Mitali begins answering the questions, “Why should we make art while injustice and suffering wreak havoc?” “How can we justify making beautiful things?” and “How do we keep doing the work?” In this episode Mitali Perkins and Jonathan Rogers talk about justice and creativity, the ups and downs of Mitali's career, five destructive interior forces that keep us from doing creative work, and practices that counteract those forces.

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Carolyn Weber was our special guest at The Habit Summer Writers’ Weekend this past June. Carolyn is the author of Surprised by Oxford and Sex and the City of God. She is also a professor at New College Franklin in Franklin, Tennessee. The following conversation was recorded in front of a live audience of writers. Carolyn and Jonathan Rogers talk about memoir-writing, the memoirist’s ever-developing sense of self, and what it means to be both honest and honoring of others in a memoir.

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