Andrew Peterson on the Authors Who Kept Us Christian

The Russell Moore Show

Christianity Today, Russell Moore

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 914 Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does a Shire full of hobbits in Middle-Earth, a county full of farmers in Kentucky, and a wardrobe full of a lion have in common? For Russell Moore and singer/songwriter/author Andrew Peterson, they were all a way to find home. In this episode—recorded inside Peterson’s book-lined Chapter House in Nashville, right down the road from Moore—the two talk about the authors who, by God’s grace, helped hold their faith together when it could have come apart. From the wisdom of Wendell Berry to the imagination of C.S. Lewis to the honesty of Frederick Buechner, these authors gave a clarity that helped these two keep the faith. This isn’t just a literary conversation. It’s about how God uses stories, sentences, and sometimes even sword-wielding mice to reach people in moments of doubt, disillusionment, or despair. Along the way, they talk about what it means to read widely, to hold onto wonder, and to be the kind of Christian who can still be surprised by joy. They also somehow end up talking about Moby Dick, Dungeons & Dragons, and how ChatGPT was wrong and right about what books each of them would take to a desert island. Books and authors mentioned in this episode include: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry A Room Called Remember and Telling Secrets by Frederick Buechner The Chronicles of Narnia, Till We Have Faces, Mere Christianity, and more by C.S. Lewis Godric by Frederick Buechner David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson Moby Dick by Herman Melville Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction by Alan Jacobs And selections from Andrew’s own works: Adorning the Dark, The God of the Garden, and The Wingfeather Saga Whether you’re deep in faith, on the brink of losing it, or just looking for something beautiful to read, this conversation will remind you why the right book at the right moment can do more than explain—it can point to new life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, y'all, before we start, wanted to let you know that this is a new, a refreshed, relaunched version of the Russell Moore Show, including a new theme song, which those of you who enjoyed our episode with John Garrett will recognize as his song Citizens.
0:19.3	And it's one of my favorites.
0:22.5	I love that song and listen to it often,
0:26.7	and so I'm really happy to have it here as our new theme song.
0:29.6	We also have a new feature here.
0:33.7	Rather than taking a bunch of questions all at once,
0:36.7	I'm going to take them one at a time, a new segment at the end of every episode where I
0:40.2	answer a question from a listener. So stick around after the conversation to hear it. And in the
0:45.9	meantime, send me your question about life, work, faith, ethics, whatever, to questions at russellmore.com. And if I can, I'll try to answer it.
0:57.7	Thanks for listening. Enjoy the episode.
1:00.8	C.S. Lewis gave me a way to think about Jesus. Beekner gave me a way to think about my faith
1:06.0	and my story. And then Wendell Berry helps me think about how I live.
1:12.9	Hello, this is Russell Moore, and this is the Russell Moore Show, brought to you by Christianity Today.
1:18.4	Here, we look for signposts in a strange time by standing fast to what really matters.
1:25.1	Kingdom over culture wars, truth over tribalism, pilgrimage over partisanship,
1:30.1	sanity over cynicism, witness over winning, and Christ over everything. Today we have a conversation
1:36.6	to do just that.
1:51.6	Hey everybody, this is Russell Moore, and this is one of our periodic episodes on books. And be sure to stick around to the end where I'll answer a question from a listener. I have been wanting for a long
1:57.1	time to have a conversation with my friend Andrew Peterson about books and about authors.
2:03.5	And today, I want to specifically talk about authors who kept us Christian.
2:09.6	And obviously, by keeping us Christian, we mean grace of God and the Holy Spirit.
2:13.7	But the way that God used particular authors in our lives to redirect us back to what we
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