This is Thinking in Public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about frontline theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Mober, your host and president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville,

Kentucky.

Archbishop Charles Chappu is a prelet of the Roman Catholic Church having served as the ninth

Archbishop of Philadelphia, serving as the leader there of Catholicism in Philadelphia, one of the

oldest and largest and most influential diocese. in Philadelphia,

in the oldest and largest and most influential diocese in Roman Catholicism.

Prior to his service in Philadelphia, Archbishop Chappu served as the Archbishop of Denver,

a native of Kansas. He is author of several books, but his two most recent,

strangers in a strange land and things worth dying for are the topic of our conversation today.

Archbishop Chappu, welcome to Thinking in Public.

Thank you very much, Dr. Mulder. I'm happy to be with you.

You have written just in the last few years a couple of books. You've written more, but the two books,

Strangers in a Strange Land

and things worth dying for,

seem to express your heart and mind

in a way that requires some explanation I think.

How did you come to the point where you believe these two books were necessary

and what is this project about?

Well, yeah, I didn't ever think I'd write books and I've been kind of talked into it by publishers. My first book was a very small book that was published by a very small Kelly publisher and I really fought doing it but he talked

me into doing it and after you do one I guess you feel like you're capable of doing others. And the other books I've written have really risen from,

well, the first were a serious reflection on our culture

...