Vintage Saints and Sinners – Details, episodes & analysis

Karen Wright Marsh explores one of the lessons from her new book, Wake Up To Wonder: 22 Invitations to Amazement in the Everyday, with her daughter, Nan Marsh.

They relive their 165 km pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago. Of the thousands who walk this path each year, some take to the Camino out of prayerful devotion, others to work through a personal loss, discern new purpose, or meet the challenge of a rigorous trek.  Listen now to discover why Nan and Karen decided to walk all the way to Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain – and what they discovered along the way.

ABOUT NAN MARSH

Nan Marsh studied poetry at the University of Virginia and lives in Richmond, Virginia, where she works as the office manager of Cincinnati Montessori Secondary Education Program and savors long walks through Richmond’s beautiful Museum District.

ABOUT KAREN’S NEW BOOK

Wake Up To Wonder: 22 Invitations to Amazement in the Everyday is the new book by Karen Wright Marsh. In Wake Up to Wonder, Karen introduces us to 22 faithful yet oh-so-human Christians from across centuries and cultures. Inspired by their example, she offers playful, simple practices that bring deeper meaning and purpose to everyday life -- a collage of spiritual and personal experiments anyone can do.  Wake up to wonder and discover that a life of spiritual depth, amazement, and connection is within reach, today and every day.
Visit https://karenwrightmarsh.com/wake-up-to-wonder

In her chapter “Keep On Walking,” Karen tells the story of Margery Kempe (1375-1438) and her obsession with walking – and how it inspired her own walk across Spain.

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“Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.”  These ancient words hold a challenge: a promise of a life that matters, a future of purpose and influence.  

But first, the question: Who does God mean me to be?  Who does God mean you to be?

In this special episode of the Vintage Saints and Sinners Podcast, Karen Wright Marsh tells the stories of four girls, born across the centuries, who grew up to be women who set the world on fire, each in her own way.

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380)  

Born in medieval Italy, a time when girls were barred from education and married off young, Catherine resisted expectations, fueled by a fire to serve others and to speak truth.

Amanda Berry Smith (1837-1915)

Born enslaved in America, Amanda survived poverty and prejudice to live out her fire to preach the Gospel, travelling from England to Liberia to India and beyond.

Mary Paik Lee (1900-1995)

Born to educated, Christian parents in Korea, Mary and her family were forced to emigrate to the United States, where harsh racist laws and attitudes prevented them from flourishing.  Still, Mary was fired to survive for the sake of herself and future generations. 

Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)

Born the tenth child of an aristocratic German family, Hildegard was donated to the church at the age of eight.  After decades of enclosure, Hildegard’s fiery mystical visions led her out to lead, to create, to teach, to heal, to preach and to compose poetry and chant for a new community of women.

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Lauren Winner joins host Karen Wright Marsh to consider relationship advice from 12th century abbot Aelred of Rievaulx.

Aelred of Rievaulx (1110-1167) guided monks living a cloistered communal life, far back in the misty medieval past. His teachings on authentic spiritual friendship still ring true in today’s secular, sexualized, commercialized, technology-driven world where friendship, like much of life, feels more complex than ever. 

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

Guest Lauren Winner is an author, historian, Episcopal priest and Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School.  She writes and lectures on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish–Christian relations.  Lauren has appeared on PBS’s “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, and Christianity Today.

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Alton B. Pollard III joins Karen Wright Marsh for a conversation on building bridges, casting visions and finding the way forward.

Who are the little known saints who’ve altered the trajectory of your life?  A junior high teacher?  A courageous parent?  Rev. Dr. Pollard tells the stories of people who’ve inspired him to become the leader he is today: a seminary president with hopeful visions of transformation.

Reverend Dr. Alton B Pollard III is a national author, speaker, ordained minister and the president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. As a scholar of African American and U.S. religion and culture, he has written on mysticism and social change, the social witness of Howard Thurman, and a new edition of W.E.B. DuBois’s The Negro Church. Pollard was previously dean of the School of Divinity and professor of Religion and Culture at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

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Walter Kim and host Karen Wright Marsh wrestle with the complex legacy of Martin Luther, the singular man who changed for the world forever.

Who was Martin Luther -- really? Grace-filled theologian? Confrontational reformer? Tender pastor? Harsh anti-Semite? Walter Kim examines the many sides of one of history’s most important figures.

Walter Kim is the president of the National Association of Evangelicals and a Presbyterian pastor who has served as chaplain at Yale University.  He has taught at Boston College and Harvard University, where he received his PhD.  Walter Kim's commitment to exploring biblical theology and cultural issues is grounded in his personal experience as the child of Korean American immigrant parents.

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

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Philip Yancey joins host Karen Wright Marsh to tell the story of his friend, Dr. Paul Brand, the compassionate, innovative healer esteemed the world over.

Bestselling writer Philip Yancey spent years following and working with renowned leprosy surgeon Dr. Paul Brand. A trained engineer and orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Brand innovated surgical techniques for damaged hands and feet. And as a missionary, he put his faith in practice by serving some of the lowliest people on the planet: members of India’s Untouchable caste (now known as Dalits) afflicted with the disease leprosy.

Philip Yancey, is an author with more than 15 million books in print, published in over 50 languages.  With integrity, insight and compassion, Yancey explores the most basic questions and deepest mysteries of the Christian faith, taking millions of readers with him. 

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

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Alton B. Pollard III and Karen Wright Marsh discuss the story and complex thought of W.E.B Dubois, that towering figure in American social, political and intellectual life.  

In 1903, W.E.B. Dubois famously said, "The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color-line.”  Through his long life, Dubois focused his powers of intellect and influence to counter white supremacy and claim the promises of democracy. His spirit of fierce integrity is needed now more than ever.

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

Reverend Dr. Alton B Pollard III is a national author, speaker, ordained minister and the president of Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary. As a scholar of African American and U.S. religion and culture, he has written on mysticism and social change, the social witness of Howard Thurman, and a new edition of WEB DuBois’s The Negro Church. Pollard was previously dean of the School of Divinity and professor of Religion and Culture at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

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Lauren Winner joins host Karen Wright Marsh to tell the story of Brother Lawrence (1614-1691) and his mindful practice of the presence of God. 

He spent decades down in the steaming monastery kitchen, scrubbing pots and pans, a “servant of the servants of God.” Uneducated and disabled by war, Brother Lawrence grew into an unlikely spiritual genius whose insights can still transform us today.

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

Guest Lauren Winner is an author, historian, Episcopal priest and Associate Professor of Christian Spirituality at Duke Divinity School.  She writes and lectures on Christian practice, the history of Christianity in America, and Jewish–Christian relations.  Lauren has appeared on PBS’s “Religion & Ethics Newsweekly” and NPR’s “All Things Considered.” She has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post Book World, Publishers Weekly, and Christianity Today.

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Larycia Hawkins and host Karen Wright Marsh recount the story of John Wesley, founder of Methodism.

As a young man, pious John Wesley declared the “absolute impossibility of being half a Christian.”  Crushing failures humbled his grand ambitions-- yet prepared Wesley for a renewed faith, one energized by freedom, love and transformative action

Guest Dr. Larycia Hawkins is an American scholar and speaker whose act of embodied solidarity became the subject of the award-winning documentary film Same God.

Dr. Hawkins is general faculty at the University of Virginia, where she teaches in the departments of politics and religious studies and serves in the Religion, Race, and Democracy Lab.

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: www.karenwrightmarsh.com

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Writer Carlene Bauer and Karen Wright Marsh explore the many sides of Flannery O’Connor.

The American author, Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964) insisted that she was not a mystic and did not lead a holy life---yet faith infuses her fiction, letters, and private journals, tracing themes of sin and grace, fall and redemption, and the ultimate reality: God revealed in the Incarnation. What do we make of this unexpected saint?

Guest Carlene Bauer is the author of a memoir, Not That Kind of Girl, and a novel called Frances and Bernard, inspired by the lives of Flannery O'Connor and Robert Lowell.  Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Elle, The Los Angeles Review of Books, n + 1, and The Virginia Quarterly Review.

Meet host Karen Wright Marsh, and learn more about the show here: karenwrightmarsh.com

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