Welcome to the Maxwell Institute podcast. I'm Joseph Stewart. Spiritual experiences are famously

transformative. They sometimes inspire dramatic effects of conversion and healing, of vision and

new life direction. But even in their more quotidian forms, they expand our cognitive and

emotional capacities, help cultivate virtues, and intensify our feelings

of closeness to God, others, and things we deem of ultimate importance. For Matthew Wickman,

spiritual experience makes us feel more deeply alive, and literature functions as a special medium

for capturing the nuances of spiritual experience, helping us reflect more deeply on them and become more receptive to them.

In Wickman's life experiences, which he reflects on in his new book from the Maxwell Institute's

Living Faith series, Life to the Whole Being, the spiritual memoir of a literature professor,

literature has helped him to negotiate the complex relationship between spirituality, faith, and organized religion.

He discusses all this by way of deeply personal experiences, theological reflection, and discussion of literary texts by Virginia Woolf, Denise Levertov, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Christian Wyman, and more.

Before we begin our conversation, could you please follow the Maxwell Institute

on social media, including Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube under the handle at

BYUu Maxwell? Thanks for doing that. Let's dive into our conversation with Professor Wickman.

Matt Wickman, welcome to the Maxwell Institute podcast.

Thank you, Joey.

It's good to be here.

It is a blessing to have you here.

We're here to discuss your book Life to the Whole Being, the spiritual memoir of a literature

professor.

And let's start with the title of your book.

The phrase, life to the whole being, comes from Parley P. Pratt.

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