The Best of Strong Women: Read for the Love of God With Jessica Hooten Wilson
The Strong Women Podcast
Sarah Stonestreet
2.4 • 602 Ratings
🗓️ 6 August 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re taking a small break this summer to gear up for season six of the Strong Women podcast. During this break, we’ll be re-airing episodes we think you’ll enjoy!
Stories have a profound way of shaping us. They form our attention, affections, and our character for better or worse. That’s why reading what’s good, true, and beautiful matters—and this takes practice. Jessica Hooten Wilson returns to the podcast to help us embrace the practice of reading as a means of spiritual formation.
Reading for the Love of God by Jessica Hooten Wilson
The Scandal of Holiness by Jessica Hooten Wilson
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Christ and Apollo: The Dimensions of the Literary Imagination by William F. Lynch
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
Kristin Lavransdatter Vol. I: The Wreath by Sigrid Undset
This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Everlasting Man by G.K. Chesterton
The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor
On Christian Doctrine by St. Augustine
Elisabeth Elliot: A Life by Lucy S.R. Austen
A Voice from the South by Anna Julia Cooper
The Strong Women Podcast is a product of the Colson Center, which equips Christians to live out their faith with clarity, confidence, and courage in this cultural moment. Through commentaries, podcasts, videos, and more, we help Christians better understand what’s happening in the world, and champion what is true and good wherever God has called them. Learn more about the Colson Center here: https://www.colsoncenter.org/
Visit our website and sign up for our email list so that you can stay up to date on what we are doing here and also receive our monthly journal: https://www.colsoncenter.org/strong-women
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Stories have a profound way of shaping us. They form our attention. They aim our affections. |
| 0:07.0 | They shape our characters for better or for worse. That's why reading books that teach us what is good, true, and beautiful, really matter. |
| 0:15.0 | And sometimes this takes practice to develop a taste for that, right? |
| 0:19.0 | I always love talking to Jessica Houton Wilson. And so I am bringing |
| 0:23.1 | you one of my favorite conversations with her about reading for the love of God. And why should we |
| 0:30.1 | read books? Like, why is that part of our formation? And she helps us think through, you know, |
| 0:36.6 | the different ways to read and how to pick out good books and what classifies as a good book and how to avoid silly books. |
| 0:47.1 | I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation. |
| 0:49.6 | Before we get into it, I want to tell you about a new thing that the Colson Center is doing, that you are not |
| 0:55.1 | going to want to miss. The Colson Center has joined with Focus on the Family to create a feature |
| 1:00.6 | film documentary called Truth Rising. Now, on the Strong Women podcast, we feature stories of men and women |
| 1:07.6 | who found their strength, calling, and courage in a faithful God. |
| 1:11.6 | I think you'd agree. |
| 1:12.6 | There's something unique about hearing stories of real people who have faced challenges |
| 1:18.6 | similar to you. |
| 1:19.6 | And it encourages us to see how they've responded, and it inspires us that we can go and do |
| 1:25.6 | the same thing where God has placed us, whether it's big or small. |
| 1:31.4 | He's called us to this time and in this place. |
| 1:35.5 | Well, this project, Truth Rising, amplifies that message that we are called to a time and place. |
| 1:42.6 | Oz Guinness calls this a civilizational moment, and it's not an accident that we're part of it. |
| 1:48.4 | The project is hosted by a few very special people to the Colson Center, like Oz Guinness, and, of course, very special John Stone Street, my husband, also the president of the Colson Center. |
| 1:59.6 | It also features some of our friends over here at the Strong Woman podcast, like Katie Fouse, the president of the Colson Center. It also features some of our friends over |
... |
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