A Conversation with Sara Parks

What Matters Most

Welcome to the twenty-third episode of the second season of What Matters Most, featuring Dr. Sara Parks. Sara Parks is Assistant Professor in Religious Studies, teaching and conducting research in the field of Early Christianity at St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. She joined St. Francis Xavier University in the Fall of 2022. She was formerly Assistant Professor in New Testament at Dublin City University, and before that was a Leverhulme Fellow and Assistant Professor in New Testament Studies at the University of Nottingham in England.

We spent much of our time discussing her excellent book Gender in the Rhetoric of Jesus, a highly readable introduction to some complex questions and issues in Gospel studies. I recommend it if you are interested in questions regarding the historical Jesus, Q, Jesus’ gendered parables, women in the teaching and ministry of Jesus, and how to assess Jesus, early Christianity, and feminism. What better way to start summer? If you are listening to this podcast, I think you know I’m not joking! The book is excellent and I learned something new within the first five pages of starting it.

Also check out her co-authored book with Shayna Sheinfeld,and Meredith J. C. Warren, Jewish and Christian Women in the Ancient Mediterranean, a recent winner of the 2023 Canadian Society of Biblical Studies Frank W. Beare Award.

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 now some news on upcoming podcast episodes:

As I mentioned in the last episode, there will be a hiatus of recording new episodes with guests at some point this summer, but we are going to get you new material all through the summer. On June 3rd, Father Nick Meisl will be interviewing me at the St. Mark’s library regarding a new study Bible I edited with Fr. Paul Turner called the Liturgy and Life Study Bible. It is a finalist for the Association of Catholic Publishers Excellence in Publishing Award for 2024 in the Resources in Liturgy category. It’s a Bible focused on worship within the bible and how the Bible is utilized in worship today. We will be taping the conversation and will have that available for you within a week or two of our conversation.

We will also be making available the keynote lectures from our Pope Francis conference from May 2023, featuring Massimo Faggioli, please don’t sue me, Emilce Cuda, who is so good, and Cathy Clifford, whose keynote Sam Rocha told me might have been the best lecture he had ever heard.

Some upcoming events:

We will be having some new events starting in Fall of next year, including a joint presentation on September 13 on AI with regent College and VST in which we screen a film called The End of Humanity followed by ba panel discussion. Register here for in-person tickets.

On October 29, we will have a webinar on the American election featuring Steve Millies and his new book, A Consistent Ethic of Life: Navigating Catholic Engagement with U.S. Politics. We will also have a Canadian respondent. Much more to come on Fall 2024 and other speakers!

On December 5, we will have Matt Hoven presenting in-person on his new book on Fr. David Bauer, Hockey Priest.

Finally, the CCE is presenting a conference in 2025, The Promise of Christian Education: Past, Present and Future, MAY 1-3, 2025, at ST. MARK'S COLLEGE, VANCOUVER, CANADA. Please consider sending in a proposal for a paper. If you are a graduate student and we accept your proposal to present a paper, we will cover your conference registration fees and the cost of the conference banquet. You do not have to present a paper to come. You can purchase a conference pass and simply attend all of the sessions. Consider joining us in Vancouver in 2025. You should also know that the plenary or keynote addresses are free and open to the public,

Three Confirmed Plenary Speakers:

Dr. Margaret MacDonald, St. Mary's University, Halifax

Dr. Samuel Rocha, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

Reverend Dr. Stan Chu Ilo, De Paul University, Chicago

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.

Thanks to Martin Strong, Kevin Eng, and Fang Fang Chandra for all of their help and support in crafting this and all the other episodes. 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. In addition, the Cullen Family, Mark and Barbara, continue to support the work and outreach of the CCE, particularly in our lecture series and support of our conferences.

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. Please follow me on Twitter @biblejunkies, or on Facebook, at Biblejunkies, or on Instagram @stmarkscce. Or email me or Ms. Fang Fang Chandra at [e-mail]. Let us know what you think.

If you are enjoying the podcast, please let people know by rating and reviewing What Matters Most on your favourite podcasting platform. It really does help people find these inspiring conversations!

John W. Martens

Director, Centre for Christian Engagement, St. Mark's College at UBC