Lent in Middle-earth. In this episode, we discuss the Lenten subtext, language, and images in J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King.” What can Christians learn from fiction authors about the faith, devotional reading, understanding the world outside the churches through the view of the cross, and how all of reality is bent towards Easter at all times, in all places, by all people? This and much, much more on today’s show.

The Hangman’s Nous. In this episode, we read an excerpt from The Maniac, by G.K. Chesterton, followed by Myth Became Fact, from C.S. Lewis’ book of essays, “God in the Dock.” The primary question we discuss, then, is whether men and women can live a healthy and sane life with mystery, without myth, and without higher truth. What has happened to modern churches that exorcised mystery from preaching, teaching, evangelism, and worship? What anchors the Body of Christ when it’s unmoored from Church history and tradition? What have been the consequences for churches that treat the Christian story as more fantasy than fact? What does Lewis mean that God is “mythopoeic”? What does it mean that Christianity is, according to Lewis, “perfect myth and perfect fact”?

Little Plastic Castles. In this episode, we read the first Inkling, Owen Barfield, as he defends the use of old words, old stories, and old ways of expressing what’s good, beautiful, and true against modern proponents that argued for more modern “scientific” ways of judging language, esp., poetics and myth, as well as religion and culture.

Liturgy Amongst the Rubble. In this episode, we read poems by W.H. Auden about pulp fiction, ancient myths, conversion, liturgy, poetics, and how industrialization and corporatism build a new Babel inside and around the churches.

What Do You Mean, There’s More to This? In this episode, we answer a listener's question about Taylor Swift that leads us into a conversation about symbols and meaning, religious iconography, wild truth, and seeing reality through what’s occurring in the sacraments.

Just My Imagination. In this episode, we read Eugene Peterson’s book, Under the Unpredictable Plant, and discuss theological imagination at length. What are the consequences when the church takes its cues from a culture with no imagination? Can Christians tell biblical stories without a theological imagination? What happens when the earthly and heavenly are divided by a lack of imagination into merely rationalized explanations?

It’s A Show, About Nothing! In this episode, we revisit and discuss C.S. Lewis’ introduction to Athanasius, On the Incarnation. We end up doing a recap of the past year, which means Christmas movies, the incarnation, and lots and lots of rabbit trails on this episode of The Banned Books Podcast.

Today on the Almanac, we remember the saint behind the title of a popular book and miniseries about World War 2.

Today on the show, we remember the religious aspects of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.

This Is The End... Gillespie and Riley wrap up their discussion of John Bunyan’s story about the Pilgrim’s Progress. This week, we get apocalyptic.

What about the reality we left behind? Gillespie and Riley get to the last chapter of The Pilgrim's Progress. This episode, baptism, carrot on a stick Jesus, and why verbs matter.

Fee-Fi-Fo-Fu... wait, wrong story! Gillespie and Riley continue their discussion of John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. This week, giants, good friends, and more cages.