Episode 40: Imaginative Apologetics, Part Two - Interview with Holly Ordway

Five Books for Catholics

The books recommended in this interview are:

1. Tales of Faith: A Guide to Sharing the Gospel through Literature by Holly Ordway
2. Faith, Hope and Poetry: Theology and the Poetic Imagination by Malcolm Guite
3. Imaginative Apologetics: Theology, Philosophy, and the Catholic Tradition by Andrew Davison
4. Spiritual Direction from Dante: vol. 1, Avoiding the Inferno; vol. 2, Ascending Mount Purgatory; vol. 3 Yearning for Paradise by Fr. Paul Pearson

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Apologetics consists in defending the faith by explaining the reasons for belief in Revelation. It is summed up in Saint Peter's exhortation to “always be prepared to make a defence to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you” (1Peter 3:15). Recently, however, several apologists have been stressing the need to engage not just the mind but also the imagination. This strand of apologetics has been called imaginative apologetics.

In a previous post, Holly Ordway recommended and explained her top five books on imaginative apologetics. Here is the rest of the interview, where she explains some more recommended readings and her own books on imaginative apologetics.

Holly Ordway is the Cardinal Francis George Fellow of Faith and Culture at the Word on Fire Institute, and Visiting Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University. She holds a PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and is the author of Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages (Word on Fire Academic, 2021). Her other books include Tales of Faith: A Guide to Sharing the Gospel through Literature (Word on Fire Institute, 2021) and Apologetics and the Christian Imagination: An Integrated Approach to Defending the Faith (Emmaus Road, 2017), and Tolkien's Faith: A Spiritual Biography (Word on Fire Institute, 2023). She is also a Subject Editor for the Journal of Inklings Studies and a published poet.

Read the interview at ⁠www.fivebooksforcatholics.com/imaginative-apologetics-part-two/