On the podcast this week, Canon Mark Oakley talks about the books that have helped him through the pandemic so far.

“Literature is more a verb than a noun; a living conversation,” he says. “Opening up the covers is opening up the door to a hospitable place, asking me to come in and take a seat. Literature makes thing matter. Literature, like faith, is a celebration of the meaning of experience and of the experience of meaning.”

This talks was originally given at a one-day online event organised last month by the Church Times Festival of Faith and Literature. Buy access to a recording of the whole event here.

Canon Mark Oakley is Dean of St John’s College, Cambridge, and the author of The Splash of Words: Believing in poetry (Canterbury Press), which won the 2019 Michael Ramsey Prize.

Click the play button above to listen to this podcast. You can also listen to the Church Times Podcast on the Church Times app for iPhone and iPad, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, SoundCloud, and most other podcast platforms.