Ross Douthat on miracles, suffering and how to talk to atheists about religion

The Spiritual Life with Fr. James Martin, S.J.

America Media

Christianity, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.8 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 12 August 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Host James Martin, S.J. welcomes New York Times Opinion columnist and host of the “Interesting Times” podcast Ross Douthat onto “The Spiritual Life” to talk about: - The eclectic variety of religious experience Ross encountered as a child through his parents’ exploration of charismatic and Pentecostal communities and his family’s eventual conversion to Roman Catholicism. - Ross’ five-year struggle with Lyme disease, detailed in his memoir The Deep Places, and where he found God amidst his mysterious illness. - The importance of finding gratitude for the ordinary pleasures in life. Read Fr. Martin’s spiritual advice column about this episode here: https://www.americamagazine.org/podcasts/2025/08/12/ross-douthat-james-martin-spiritual-life-suffering Do you have a spiritual question for Fr. Jim? You can write to us at: [email protected] Become a subscriber today at https://www.americamagazine.org/subscribe

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the spiritual life. I'm Father Jim Martin. On this podcast, we reflect on how people
0:09.8	experience God in their prayer and in their daily lives. And I am joined by my superlative producer,
0:16.2	Maggie Van Doren. Maggie, good to be with you. It's great to be with you, Jim. And we have quite an interesting
0:22.4	guest ahead of us. Coming straight from the New York Times is Ross Douthit. Yeah, I'm really excited.
0:29.3	I've been dying to have him on the podcast, and we had a wonderful conversation. Yes,
0:34.0	Ross is a distinguished author and cultural critic. He's an opinion columnist for The New York Times, where he writes on religion, culture, politics, and global affairs.
0:44.4	He also hosts a podcast that you were on Jim, Interesting Times with Ross Southith, and that is produced by the New York Times opinion.
0:52.2	Ross is raised in New Haven, Connecticut, and graduated from
0:55.3	Harvard University, where he studied history and literature. His early career included writing for
1:01.0	the Atlantic and contributing to a variety of leading publications. Ross is a practicing Catholic,
1:06.8	which shapes his commentary especially on questions of belief, spirituality, and moral responsibility in an increasingly secular age.
1:15.8	Ross is the author of several influential books, including To Change the Church, Pope Francis, and The Future of Catholicism,
1:23.6	along with two books that we actually speak about on this podcast interview, The Deep Places,
1:29.6	and Believe Why Everyone Should Be Religious.
1:33.3	And Jim, you've known Ross for quite some time now, right?
1:37.9	Yeah, a while. I was trying to think where I first met him.
1:40.5	I think I actually critiqued something that he wrote. And then we met over lunch.
1:45.5	And then we had a public event that was sponsored by America Media on civility. I can't
1:52.0	even remember when this was, maybe seven or eight years ago, certainly a pre-pendemic.
1:56.4	And then, you know, I obviously followed him and read his stuff, read his columns. And I was really interested in the book that he wrote, which we talk about the deep places about his struggles with Lyme disease. And then a couple of weeks ago, I was on his podcast, interesting times. So I'm happy that he is reciprocating, which is great.
2:15.4	Yeah, it's really great to have him on.
2:24.1	Before we get to that conversation, we have a question from our audience, and this comes from Louise.
	...

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