On Being with Krista Tippett

In this Unheard Cut, Armenian Orthodox theologian Vigen Guroian offers an alternative ending to Mel Gibson' film about the Passion story.

Shane Claiborne is an original voice, a creative spirit, in a gathering movement of young people known as the "new monastics." With virtues like simplicity and imagination, they are engaging great contradictions of our culture — beginning with the gap between the churches they were raised in, the needs of the poor, and the "loneliness" they find in our culture's vision of adulthood.

We've selected a series of passages from the writings of our very own -- Krista Tippett. Her new book, titled "Speaking of Faith," was released in March. In this bonus clip, Krista finds that dealing with terms such as faith and religion and spirituality can be tricky. She's interested in reclaiming the connotations of these words, as they are lived.

A conversation with South African Quaker and cosmologist George Ellis. He argues that ethics, like mathematics, is a part of the universe that we discover rather than invent.

The neglected story of the world's great doubters with Jennifer Michael Hecht, author of "Doubt: A History." In an age of strident religious and atheist voices, we'll explore how questioning, as much as certainty, has driven human life forward.

Jimmy Carter speaks of his born-again faith with a directness that is striking even in today's political culture. Hear his reflections about being commander in chief while following "the Prince of Peace"; about upholding the law of the land while privately opposing abortion; and about his marriage of 60 years as a metaphor for the challenge of human relationship both personal and global.

We've selected a series of passages from the writings of our very own -- Krista Tippett. Her new book, titled "Speaking of Faith," was released in March. In this clip, Krista deals with one of the more popular themes of our radio show: science and belief. Krista loves her conversations with scientists. Science, like religion, she says, is about questions more than answers.

Ingrid Mattson, the first woman and first convert to lead the Islamic Society of North America, describes her experience of Islamic spirituality, which she discovered in her twenties after a Catholic upbringing. We probe her unusual perspective on a tumultuous age for Islam in the West and around the world.

We've selected a series of passages from the writings of our very own -- Krista Tippett. Her new book, titled "Speaking of Faith," was released in March. In this clip, Krista tells us how she came to take religion seriously after her tenure in Germany, and looks to her conversation with Karen Armstrong for some of the answers.

Last month, conservative Christian leaders demanded that Richard Cizik be silenced or removed from his post. They charged that his concerns about climate change and torture have shifted attention away from moral issues such as gay marriage and abortion. But for Cizik, poverty, war, and the environment are moral issues too. We revisit Krista's 2006 conversation with Cizik that took many listeners by surprise.

We've selected a series of passages from the writings of our very own -- Krista Tippett. Her new book, titled "Speaking of Faith," was just released in March. In this excerpt, Krista tells us how certain religious figures unsettled her political views of the world -- as did the people her politics were designed to save. She reads from the second chapter, "Remembering Forward."

Theologian Vigen Guroian experiences Easter as "a call to our senses." We'll explore his Eastern Orthodox sensibility that is at once more mystical and more earthy than the Christianity dominant in Western culture. And at this time of year and beyond, Guroian does real theology in his garden as richly as in church.

We've selected a series of passages from the writings of our very own -- Krista Tippett. Her new book, titled "Speaking of Faith," was just released in March. In this excerpt, Krista connects memories of her grandfather's complexity with what it once meant to be an Evangelical Christian, and what it means today. She reads from the second chapter, "Remembering Forward."

Avivah Zornberg is one of the great, creative interpreters of Talmud and Torah in the contemporary world. She guides us through the Exodus story that is remembered at Passover, and that has inspired oppressed peoples in many cultures across history. We find meaning in the text that Cecil B. DeMille and Disney never imagined — about the worst and the best of human nature, and the realities and ironies of human freedom.

We've selected a series of passages from the writings of our very own -- Krista Tippett. Her new book, titled "Speaking of Faith," was just released in March. In this excerpt, Krista reads from the first chapter, "Genesis: How We Got Here."