Window Light Podcast

About Window Light Podcast

The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! https://windowlight.substack.com/ Photo Credit: “Monk’s Cell at Monastère de la Verne”, Egon Wegh (CC BY-NC 2.0) windowlight.substack.com (https://windowlight.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast)

Publisher

Matthew Shadle

Category

religion & spirituality · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

1 Aug 2024

Latest episode

2 May 2025

Latest episodes

11 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   2 May 2025

   The Schemmel Lecture: The Future of the Synodal Church in the US

   After a long hiatus, the Window Light podcast is back with the final episode of Season 2, a recording of the Frederik and Emma Schemmel Theology Lecture I delivered at Clarke University in Dubuque, Iowa on April 15. The topic of the lecture was “The Future of the Synodal Church in the US,” and I focused on how the proposals put forward in the final document from the Synod on Synodality not only promise to renew the Church, but also can serve as a prophetic witness to a world characterized by loneliness, polarization, and a declining sense of human dignity. Thank you to Clarke University for making a recording of the lecture available to share. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

2. 

   13 Dec 2024

   Interview: Taylor Patrick O'Neill

   In this episode, I interview Taylor Patrick O'Neill (https://substack.com/profile/134845770-taylor-patrick-oneill), a professor at Thomas Aquinas College’s New England campus and a co-founder of the Sacra Doctrina Project, a community of theologians hoping to revive the traditional speculative and sapiential dimensions of Catholic theology. In our conversation, we talked about the Sacra Doctrina Project and its mission, but we also discussed the 20th-century debate between Thomists and the ressourcement movement, the state of academic theology today, the appeal of universalism, and O’Neill’s work on the doctrine of predestination. Interview date: October 30, 2024 The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

3. 

   12 Nov 2024

   Interview: Kent Lasnoski

   In this episode of the Window Light podcast, I interviewed Kent Lasnoski, the president of San Damiano College for the Trades, a Catholic higher education institution opening its doors in the fall of 2025 that will offer students a liberal arts education combined with training in the trades. Lasnoski was previously a professor of moral theology at Quincy University in Illinois and Wyoming Catholic College. We talked about the mission of the college, its curriculum, and how a professor of moral theology came to be the president of a college, among other things. Interview date: October 25, 2024 The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

4. 

   15 Oct 2024

   Special Episode: Interview with Paul Fahey

   Paul Fahey, the host of the Third Space (https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/podcast) podcast (https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/podcast) and the author of the Third Space (https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/) newsletter (https://www.catholicthirdspace.com/) on Substack, recently interviewed me for his podcast about voting as a Catholic, and particularly about the U.S. Catholic bishops’ guide for voters, Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship. We talked about the history of the document, the impact of political polarization on Catholic voting, and how the political landscape has changed for Catholics in the past eight years, among many other things. Paul has kindly given me permission to include our interview as an episode of the Window Light podcast. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

5. 

   8 Oct 2024

   Interview: Jordan Denari Duffner

   Season 2 of the Window Light podcast begins with an interview with Jordan Denari Duffner, a theologian, speaker, and scholar focusing on interreligious dialogue between Catholics and Muslims. She is the author of Finding Jesus Among Muslims: How Loving Islam Makes Me a Better Catholic and Islamophobia: What Christians Should Know and Do About Anti-Muslim Discrimination. Jordan and I talked about her work, Pope Francis’s dialogue with Muslims, how Catholic parishes can promote dialogue with Muslims in their community, and how to raise children rooted in the Catholic tradition but open to religious pluralism. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

6. 

   6 Sept 2024

   Interview: Karen Guth

   Original Publication Date: June 11, 2024 I’m excited to present to you the first Window Light interview in several months: my conversation with Karen Guth, an associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. We discussed her recent book The Ethics of Tainted Legacies: Human Flourishing after Traumatic Pasts, which discusses the ethical problem of people or institutions that have made important contributions to society but that are found to have committed, or been complicit in, great evils. Dr. Guth and I spent a lot of time discussing the Mennonite theologian John Howard Yoder and the sexual abuse he committed, as well as the response of his church, academic institutions, and fellow theologians, because considering how to address the tainted legacy of a major theologian seemed particularly important for a newsletter with a theological focus. But we also discussed figures from the entertainment industry like Bill Cosby and Woody Allen, the removal of Confederate monuments, and the efforts of Georgetown University to address its historical involvement in the institution of slavery, among other things. See the original post (https://windowlight.substack.com/p/interview-karen-guth) for an edited transcript of the interview. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

7. 

   29 Aug 2024

   Interview: Hosffman Ospino

   Original Publication Date: August 8, 2023 This episode of the Window Light podcast features an interview with Dr. Hosffman Ospino, the Chair of the Department of Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry. We talked about a number of topics, beginning with his work as the primary investigator for the National Study of Catholic Organizations Serving Hispanic Youth (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NT7IYH4BYF4s36yhYs6UNyFoB-dcu0lm/view) and what Catholic organizations need to know about the growing Hispanic youth population. We also talked about the connections and boundaries between theology and sociological research, Dr. Ospino’s work on the theology of catechesis, and the future of Hispanic theology in the U.S. See the original post (https://windowlight.substack.com/p/interview-hosffman-ospino) for an edited transcript of the interview. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

8. 

   21 Aug 2024

   Interview: Eleonora Rai

   Original Publication Date: June 9, 2023 This episode features an interview with Dr. Eleonora Rai, an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Turin (Italy). We talked about Dr. Rai’s research on sixteenth and seventeenth-century Jesuit theologian Leonard Lessius, a pivotal figure from that period who is nevertheless not well known. We talked about Lessius’s views on free will and predestination and his role in two major theological controversies of the time. We also discussed Dr. Rai’s more recent research on Lessius’s economic views, as well as Lessius’s cause for canonization. The interview is engaging from beginning to end, so give it a listen. See the original post (https://windowlight.substack.com/p/interview-eleonora-rai) for an edited transcript of the interview. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

9. 

   15 Aug 2024

   Interview: Becket Gremmels

   Original Publication Date: May 30, 2023 This episode features an interview with Dr. Becket Gremmels, the System Vice President of CommonSpirit Health, the largest Catholic healthcare system (and the largest nonprofit healthcare system) in the United States. The conversation addressed Dr. Gremmels’s personal journey toward becoming a professional healthcare ethicist and some of the major trends shaping the field of healthcare ethics today. We also discussed some of Dr. Gremmel’s research, including research hoping to set guidelines for the future use of artificial intelligence in healthcare settings. In 2019, Dr. Gremmels wrote an article (https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/article/11402) for the Journal of Moral Theology arguing that the increased specialization needed for practicing professional healthcare ethics, and the practical and specialized sorts of questions addressed by professional ethicists in their day-to-day work, are contributing to an increasing divide between the work of moral theologians and professional healthcare ethicists. Some of the topics that came up in our conversation certainly illustrate this contention, but hopefully this conversation between a moral theologian and a professional healthcare ethicist is a small step toward bridging that divide. See the original post (https://windowlight.substack.com/p/interview-becket-gremmels) for an edited transcript of the interview. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

10. 

    10 Aug 2024

    Interview: Mary Kate Holman

    Original Publication Date: April 14, 2023 This episode features an interview with Dr. Mary Kate Holman, then an assistant professor of theology at Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois, and now assistant professor of religious studies at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. We discussed the twentieth-century French theologian Marie-Dominique Chenu, O.P., as well as Dr. Holman’s research and writing about him. The conversation covered Chenu’s roles as a scholar who revolutionized the study of the medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas and as a theological guide for the worker priest movement in post-World War II France. We also discussed the part Chenu played at the Second Vatican Council and his relationship with liberation theology in the years that followed. We ended by discussing Chenu’s continuing relevance, particularly as a source of wisdom as we experience increasing religious disaffiliation in the United States. See the original post (https://windowlight.substack.com/p/interview-mary-kate-holman) for an edited transcript of the interview. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

11. 

    1 Aug 2024

    Interview: M. Therese Lysaught and Jason King from the Journal of Moral Theology

    Original Publication Date: April 4, 2023 This episode features an interview with M. Therese Lysaught and Jason King, the editor and editor emeritus, respectively, of the Journal of Moral Theology (https://jmt.scholasticahq.com/). We discussed how the journal originally filled a niche in the theology publishing world and has expanded in innovative ways while remaining faithful to its mission of providing a “big tent” for conversations about Catholic moral theology. We also talked about the editorial process, “Reviewer Number Two,” and writing tips for authors to improve their manuscripts before submitting them to a journal. The conversation also turned to the pros and cons of open access publishing and the connections between academic publishing and social media. See the original post (https://windowlight.substack.com/p/interview-m-therese-lysaught-and) for a transcript of the interview. The Window Light Podcast is a feature of Window Light, the newsletter for expert analysis on the fields of Catholic theology and ministry, explorations of historical theology, commentary on current events, and theological and spiritual reflections. The podcast features interviews with scholars and practitioners in the fields of theology and ministry. Be sure to subscribe to the Window Light newsletter for regular posts and other features! Get full access to Window Light at windowlight.substack.com/subscribe (https://windowlight.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4)

Reach and audience

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

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 14 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

15

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

32

Contact Window Light Podcast

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.