What Matters Most

About What Matters Most

What Matters Most is focused on listening to people and what is on their minds, particularly dealing with the big questions of religion and spirituality. It emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement, a Centre at St. Mark's College, the Catholic college at UBC, but our programming is intended for all interested parties, Catholic or not. In the What Matters Most podcast, we talk to people, some well-known, some not so well-known, some Catholic, some Christian, some not affiliated with any religion, some affiliated with other faiths (Muslims, Sikhs) to find out what matters to them. It is a podcast focused on spirituality and faith, but truly focused on listening to others, to learning from those connected to the Church and to those who are not. It is grounded in personal conversations that ask guests to talk about what has motivated their vocations or their work and what gives their lives meaning and purpose. The format can best be described as a conversation that allows us to get to know our guests.

Publisher

John W. Martens

Category

religion & spirituality

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

7 Oct 2022

Latest episode

28 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

150 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   28 Oct 2026

   Meditating on Hinduism and Catholicism: A Conversation with Dr. Ted Ulrich

   I absolutely loved speaking with Ted. I learned a lot about Ted himself, which I did not know regarding his Hindu practice and the young age at which he took it up. It was wonderful to hear about his deep devotion to his Christian faith and the Hindu meditation he will practice in his words until the day I die. He represents the best of the openness of Catholicism to other religious traditions, as his openness to these traditions is grounded in his personal openness and acceptance. This started with his meeting of Dr. Usharbudh Arya at the Meditation Center of Minneapolis, which is still operating. This led to his continued practice but also his academic study of Hinduism and comparative theology at St. John’s University and the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. I mentioned in passing the beautiful architecture at St. John’s University; the chapel at St. John’s and it architect Marcel Breuer were the inspiration for the film The Brutalist. If you get a chance, you should see it!  Completed in 1961 and designed by modernist architect Marcel Breuer, the chapel has a 100-foot concrete bell tower, parabolic arches, and massive hexagonal stained-glass walls. If you cannot get there, check it out online. I appreciated how Ted wrestled with his meditation practice when he began to study theology formally and found that through documents such as Lumen Gentium and Nostra Aetate, the Church’s openness to other traditions had expanded. This has only increased over the decades since and I encourage people of all faith traditions to read the new document "A Journey of Hope: Sixty Years of Interreligious Dialogue and Fraternity in the Light of the Conciliar Declaration Nostra Aetate" on September 16, 2026. I have mentioned it before but it might demand its own episode. Ted mentioned pluralism, inclusivism, and exclusivism as stances that are discussed in the Christian understanding of relationships to other world religions. If you want even more background on these terms, please check out the first episode of season two on What Matters Most with the Rev. Dr. Rob James: Incarnation, Soteriology, Exclusivity/Inclusivity, Pluralism, Particularism, and Universalism: A Conversation with Rev. Dr. Rob James . And please check out the names of other scholars who do this work, such as Paul Knitter, Fr. Francis X, Clooney, SJ (https://www.hds.harvard.edu/people/francis-x-clooney), and James Fredericks, all mentioned by Ted and all who do comparative theology. Ted also mentioned Mircea Eliade, a Romanian scholar who spent much of his career at U of Chicago. Eliade did comparative religion and has been criticized for presentations of religion in terms of essentialism and perennialism, but he was a giant in an emerging field and still worth reading. Finally, Ted mentioned the person about whom he wrote his doctoral dissertation, Henri Le Saux, a Roman Catholic priest, who later took the name Abhishiktananda. If you are interested in this work, do find some of the writings and the thinkers referred to here, including Ted’s writings. If you are having trouble tracking them down, please do contact me. And think about taking the course at St. Mark’s College with me, Catholicism and Interreligious Dialogue where we dig into work like this for the whole course. Welcome to What Matters Most, episode 7 of our fifth season. You were just listening to Dr. Ted Ulrich, a professor in the theology department at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. In this episode I speak with Ted Ulrich about Hinduism and Catholicism and how they both form a part not just of his academic life, but his spiritual life and practice.    This is the first episode on What Matters Most to discuss Hinduism, which surprised even me! I found this an episode filled with warmth and honesty from Ted, something which is central to him as a person.  Ted adopted our cat Francesca when we moved away from Minnesota back to Canada as Francesca could not accept the adoption of our new dog Emerald into the house. Francesca cared for our old German Shepherd Hunter and she mourned Hunter’s death, searching for him for weeks, and bemoaned Emerald, hiding for over a month when she came to live with us, coming out only when Emerald was crated for bed. Ted came over to our home over a period of time and let Francesca get to know him before he adopted her. I think you will hear that same sort of sensitivity in this episode as Ted talks about his Hindu meditation practice that he took up as a boy and the Catholicism that is his central spiritual and religious practice and belief. And Emerald was with me as I recorded and Francesca was with ted as he recorded. Dr. Ted Ulrich received his bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota in chemistry, his master's from St. John's University in theology, and his doctorate from The Catholic University of America in comparative religion. He teaches courses in world religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, and Christian theology. In addition, he has led numerous study-abroad trips. Four of them were to India. These involved homestays in villages and focused on the Hindu, Muslim, and Syriac Christian religions. His writing and research have focused on interreligious dialogue in general and Swami Abhishiktananda in particular. Abhishiktananda (Henri Le Saux) was a Catholic priest and Benedictine monk who, while retaining his identity as a priest and monk, became involved in Hindu monasticism. More recently, Ulrich spent the 2017-2018 academic year in India on a Fulbright Fellowship. His ongoing project is comparing and contrasting the development of the respective views of Aurobindo Ghose and Mahatma Gandhi on violence and nonviolence. A decade before Gandhi's national leadership in India, Aurobindo had been a main leader in India's freedom struggle. Whereas Gandhi had a strict emphasis on nonviolence, Aurobindo thought that the most effective method should be used. In some circumstances that might be passive resistance and in other circumstances violence. Later, he became known across the world as a mystic and spiritual master. Ulrich has published in a variety of venues, including the International Journal of Hindu Studies, the Journal of Dharma Studies, the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, and The Journal of Interreligious Studies. On this episode we discussed his articles “The Catholic Church and the Non-Christian World: Teaching Lumen Gentium §16 and Nostra Aetate” and “Catholic Theology, Comparative Study, and A Practice Of Hindu Meditation.”  Also, he has given talks at Annamalai University, Pondicherry University, Madras University, Madurai Kamaraj University, Jadavpur University, Gandhigram Rural Institute, and the University of Mauritius. This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Upcoming Podcast Episodes and Events Let us know what you want to discuss next on Pop Culture Matters. Follow us at our Instagram page @stmarkscce or our new Facebook page Centre for Christian Engagement at St. Mark’s, and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca What Matters Most: Conversations About Religion has started its fifth year. Coming soon, an episode featuring the Rev. Dr. Rob James from his new home in England on 50 OT Stories for children, and Danny Zacharias and Chris Hoklotubbe on their book Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation, as well as an episode on purgatory (or two) Upcoming events: Our next event is with Bill Cavanaugh on November 16, part of the Christian nationalism series leading up to our Cross Purposes: Christianity and Nationalism conference. His lecture is called Idolatry and the Eucharist and you can now sign up for the lecture on Eventbrite for in person or live streaming. Please check it out. After Bill’s event, we will be having a panel on housing affordability on December 5 and then on Jan 13, 2027, Dr. Fred Aquino on John Henry Newman on Faith and Reason. Fred was a coauthor, with Logan Gage, of the positio on Newman’s philosophy of faith and reason that was part of the effort to declare St. John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Universal Church at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica on November 1, 2025. Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most! John W. Martens

2. 

   21 Oct 2026

   Encore: Pop Culture Matters: Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Samhain

   Welcome to the encore edition for 2026, the sixth episode of Pop Culture Matters, the sixth episode of season four, and the sixth episode of season five, first released in 2025! In today's episode I discuss Halloween, All Saints Day, All Souls Day, and Samhain (sow-in) too. Growing up, I was clear what Halloween was: a night to get candy and dress up. Halloween is All Hallows Eve, hallows referring to Saints, that is, Halloween was the day before All Saints Day on Nov. 1, and two days prior to All Souls Day on Nov. 2. These links seem strangely tenuous now. Halloween stands on its own. But then I also heard later that Halloween emerged from or was adopted from Samhain (sow-in), an ancient pagan Celtic festival that was celebrated on November 1 in Ireland and Scotland and preceded the arrival of Christianity. These connections, touted both by modern Wiccans and pagans and bemoaned by fundamentalist Christians, have led some Christians not to celebrate Halloween due to pagan or satanic connections. Fang Fang tells me Christians in Indonesia are encouraged not to celebrate the festival. Since I am no expert on Halloween, but do see its ubiquity all around me, I wanted to understand how we got from a Church festival that focused on purgatory, to a modern celebration of wirches, goblins, spooky movies, and a lot of candy. I relied specifically on an excellent book from 2003 by Nicholas Rogers, a historian now retired from York University. The book is Halloween: From Pagan Ritual to Party Night (Oxford University Press, 2003), and one its best features is that history and practices from both Canada and the USA are discussed. I have to say that one thing that I did not get into, as I think it needs its own episode, is Dia De Los Muertas (Day of the Dead). This festival, which is celebrated in Mexico and parts of the USA,  traditionally is celebrated on November 1 and 2, though other days, such as October 31, are often included. Day of the Dead in some ways preserves more of the medieval traditions surrounding  All Hallows Eve than Halloween does. Nicholas Rogers covers it in depth, but not only does it need its own episode, I think it could benefit from a conversation with someone who knows the lived experience of Dia De Los Muertas. Next year! This podcast emerges from the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC, a centre that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, other religious traditions, and those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation. Upcoming Podcast Episodes and Events And now some news on upcoming podcast episodes: Let us know what you want to discuss next on Pop Culture Matters. Follow us at our Instagram page @stmarkscce or our new Facebook page Centre for Christian Engagement at St. Mark’s, and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca What Matters Most: Conversations About Religion has started its fifth year. Coming soon, an episode on Hinduism and Catholicism featuring Dr. Ted Ulrich, the Rev. Dr. Rob James from his new home in England on 50 OT Stories for children, and Danny Zacharias and Chris Hoklotubbe on their book  Reading the Bible on Turtle Island: An Invitation to North American Indigenous Interpretation. Upcoming events: Our next event is with Bill Cavanaugh on November 16, part of the Christian nationalism series leading up to our Cross Purposes: Christianity and Nationalism conference. His lecture is called Idolatry and the Eucharist and you can now sign up for the lecture on Eventbrite for in person or live streaming. Please check it out. Thanks again for listening and remember pop culture matters. John W. Martens Intro music for this podcast from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/simon-folwar/ancient-caves License code: WGRTZGRDSALHU07U

3. 

   13 Oct 2026

   "That Culture of Encounter is truly an eschatological moment": A Conversation with Dr. Jane Barter on Magnifica Humanitas & AI

   Welcome to What Matters Most, episode 5 of our fifth season. You were just listening to Dr. Jane Barter, a professor in the University of Winnipeg Religion and Culture department and Joint Masters Program Chair. I’m Dr. John Martens, the host of What Matters Most and Director for the Centre for Christian Engagement at St. Mark’s College at UBC in Vancouver. In this episode I speak with Jane Barter about Pope Leo’s first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas.  This is the fourth episode on What Matters Most to discuss the encyclical and like our previous episodes, new ground was broken in my understanding of the encyclical during this conversation. I walked through the encyclical on my own a few months ago, and then I spoke to two ethicists, Drs. Tisha Rajendra and Ruben Rosario Rodreiguez, on AI, migration, war, and whatever else came up for them in their readings. The third episode dedicated to Magnifica Humanitas featured St. Mark’s theology faculty and our conversation focused a lot on the anthropology of the document, the role of education, about AI and with AI, the problem of deep fakes and how that impacts especially women and children, and how one builds a civilization of love, grounded in truth and humanity, in contrast to the forces that desire power, the technocratic paradigm, and increasing calls for warfare. This episode with Jane Barter focused a lot on the human cost of AI, something I toyed with as a title for this episode, and the way the inherent dignity of human beings is constantly under threat by the structures of sin, now found in AI, which is manifested in violence against people militarily, such as in Gaza, and in the violence of work in which people are increasingly seen as things to be monetized and surveyed. This is a powerful episode. Dr. Jane Barter’s (she/her) research interests include political theology, contemporary, Christian thought, theopolitics, religion, and memory. Barter’s research bridges the fields of Christian theology, political theology, decolonial, and feminist thought. Her work engages Christian thought and history with contemporary ethical and political questions, with particular attention to the context of colonialism. She has published three monographs, including her a recent book on witnessing to political atrocity, Theopolitics and the Era of the Witness (Routledge. 2025). She recently co-edited (with Doris Kieser, St. Joseph’s College, University of Alberta) a special volume of the Journal of Moral Theology on the papal visit and apology to survivors of Residential Schools in Canada. She is also general editor of the forthcoming (2026) multi-volume T & T Clark Encyclopedia of Christian Theology (Bloomsbury Press). She is currently working on a new book, The Pope’s Two Cities: Babel and Jerusalem in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. The word I was struggling to find to describe my conversation with Jane was “generative.” I used the word productive, but that sounds too much like the work of a factory and I was aiming for something more creative. Generative was the word. Jane delved into aspects of the document that I had not seen with as much clarity as she brought, including Christian theologies of labour and whether Catholic theology is too optimistic about the rights of labour being respected in the time of AI and digital capitalism. She spoke clearly about the alienating and corrosive impacts of technocratic capitalism and the forms of enslavement taking place under technocratic capitalism. But she also noted that Pope Leo in his recognition of this is doing something new, that the role of work is a central element of his papacy and that Leo is acknowledging that the treatment of labour under digital capitalism is foundationally abusive and that AI perpetuates a value system of some people being considered more valuable than others. But Leo is pushing back against that, not the first pope to do so for certain, but also interpreting CST as grounded in a preferential option for the poor. AI supports violence, against the environment and against people. There are also military victims of AI, as Jane described the use of it in Gaza and being“chillingly discriminate in how it kills human beings.” She said, “we don’t see the victims of AI…the human and environmental exploitation.” Human labour, that is, human beings, becomes another thing to be optimized. She also spoke about the encyclical falling short, even though she had praise for much of it, and it was on the issue of speaking too abstractly about human dignity and not concretely enough about the politics necessary to overcome AI, the technocratic paradigm, and the violence it is unleashing. It remains she said too idealized, too focused on the heavenly Jerusalem, not enough on the Jerusalem here on earth. To focus too much on ideal humanity, even too much the idealization of  Mary, shifts our gaze from the human cost of war in Gaza, of the Mary of Gaza, the many Marys of Gaza. The culture of encounter she said is eschatological; yes, we hope for a life in the world to come, but this does not allow us to abdicate our responsibility to life here on earth and to make that life better for all. Yes, the inherent dignity of human beings is always, has always been, under threat by the structures of sin, but there is something new that has been unleashed by AI. Jane spoke of us being on the precipice of something new that cannot necessarily be answered by the old answers of CST, that something new might have to be created. This is our work, our human work, and it is a threat but also a challenge that we can answer. People have power. A few links regarding documents and people that were mentioned in this episode. Sura 19 Maryam; (https://quran.com/maryam/19) Mary of Gaza; Francesca Albanese, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories. What Matters Most is produced by the Centre for Christian Engagement at St Mark’s College, the Catholic college at UBC. The CCE is a centre at St. Mark’s College that explores the Christian and Catholic intellectual tradition and seek to learn from others, other Christians, members of other religious traditions, and from those who do not claim any particular or formal religious affiliation.  This is a podcast about big questions, about big issues, about what matters most to people, what’s important to you, what gets you up out of bed in the morning or keeps you up late at night wondering. We are looking at these big questions and big issues through the lens of individual stories and individual lives. Religious traditions and institutions might be systems, ancient and modern, but people are people and religion lives in and through people. Our goal, then, is to talk to a lot of people, to learn from them, to listen to them, and to find out what motivates them, what gives them hope, what gives them peace, and what allows them to go out into the world to love their neighbors. And how they like to worship. Since St. Mark’s Centre for Christian Engagement seeks to enable the creation of a culture of encounter and dialogue, let me invite you into that discussion. Send me questions, send me ideas for guests, send me comments. Let us know what you want to discuss next on the Podcast in general or on Pop Culture Matters. Follow us at our Instagram page @stmarkscce or our new Facebook page Centre for Christian Engagement at St. Mark’s, and drop us a line as to what you want to see or hear. Or email us with your suggestions to jmartens@stmarkscollege.ca A few thanks are in order. First of all, I am grateful to Martin Strong, who guides me in the podcasting world and joins me for the Pop Culture Matters regularly.  Second, the episodes are edited, engineered, and produced by Kevin Eng who is the first listener to all the episodes and my consultant for each episode, especially with the snippets that begin each episode. Thank you, Kevin, for all of your expertise and support. Finally, to the Fang Fang Chandra, the CCE assistant, who helps me bring this podcast to you, but also makes the CCE run so much more smoothly. I also want to thank our donors to the Centre, whose generosity enables this work to take place at all: Peter Bull, Angus Reid, and Andy Szocs. We are thankful to their commitment to the life of the academic world and of the work of the Church in the world by funding the work of the CCE. I am also thankful to the Cullen family, Mark and Barbara, for their support of the ongoing work of the CCE through financial donations that allow us to bring speakers to the local and international arenas. If you are interested in donating yourself to the CCE, please check out the CCE website where you can find the donate button on the top right corner. We are a non-profit organization, and all donations over $20.00 are tax deductible. Or support us on Patreon. If you do not know what Patreon is, ask your children or your grandchildren! If you are enjoying the podcast, please let your friends know. And also let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. It really makes a difference! Thanks again for listening and remember what matters most.  This work matters, so thanks for being a part of it. Dr. John W. Martens

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

7 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

7 ratings