This is thinking in public a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

front-line theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Moller, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

in Louisville, Kentucky.

Ross Dauthit is one of the most influential public intellectuals in America today.

He is a columnist for the New York Times opinion page.

Before that role, he was a senior editor for The Atlantic.

He is the film critic for National Review,

and he has appeared regularly on television and

another major media. He's the author of several books including bad religion, how he

became a nation of heretics, and privilege, Harvard and the education ruling class.

His new book has just been released from Simon and Schuster.

The title is To Change the Church, Pope Francis,

and the future of Catholicism.

Rosdauthit, welcome to thinking in public.

Ros we've known for some time that you've been working on this book,

on Pope Francis and on the papacy, again the title

to change the church, Pope Francis, and the future of Catholicism.

Anyone who's been reading your columns in the New York Times, anyone who read bad religion,

your earlier book, in some ways new to anticipate this book.

But how do you feel about the timing of this book now?

The argument you're making in this book falling into the discussion of 2018 did the book

...