Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson: Bringing Parents, Teachers, and Churches Together in Classical Education

About our Guest

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas. She is the author of numerous books, including The Scandal of Holiness: Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints, published in 2022 by Brazos Press. Her book, Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, received a 2018 Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in the Culture & the Arts.

Award-winning author Jessica Hooten Wilson explains that learning to hear the call of holiness requires cultivating a new imagination--one rooted in the act of reading. Learning to read with eyes attuned to the saints who populate great works of literature moves us toward holiness, where God opens up a way of living that extends far beyond what we can conjure for ourselves. Literature has the power to show us what a holy life looks like, and these depictions often scandalize even as they shape our imagination. As such, careful reading becomes a sort of countercultural spiritual discipline.

To hear about Jessica’s newest book, Scandal of Holiness, here is a recorded lecture at Union University.

Show Notes
This lively and often deeply contemplative conversation with guest Jessica Hooten Wilson offers not only reasons for choosing Classical Education, but also simple and easy ways to support sanctity and truth in the joy of raising families. Here is support for the choices you make and how to replace that which infringes upon those choices.

Some questions in this episode include:
What is education for?
Why is sainthood something that has captivated your imagination?
Walk us through your blog essay: Awakening from Digital Slumbers
What does it mean to remember, and how do we embrace the importance of memory?
How can the church help families?

Books & Titles Mentioned In This Episode

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangrin, Jr.
Memento Mori by Muriel Spari
The Family & The New Totalitarianism by Michael D. O'Brien, Introduction by J.H. Wilson
The Diary of a Country Priest by George Bernanos
“Summer’s Harvest” poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins
“Awakening from Digital Slumbers” (an online essay by Jessica)
Documentary: The Social Dilemma
Giving the Devil His Due: Flannery O’Connor and the Brothers Karamazov by: J.H. Wilson
The Scandal of Holiness, Renewing Your Imagination in the Company of Literary Saints by J.H. Wilson
Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West, Co-Editor J.H. Wilson
Learning the Good Life from the Great Hearts and Minds that Came Before by J.H. Wilson
“Mike Teavee” poem by Ronald Dahl
Books by Wendell Berry
“Allegory of the Cave” or “Plato’s Cave” by Plato
Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset (Jessica mentioned Well-Read Mom reading in May, 2022)

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Credits:
Sound Engineer: Andrew Helsel
Logo Art: Anastasiya CF
Music: Used with permission. cellists: Sara Sant' Ambrogio and Lexine Feng; pianist: Alyona Waldo

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