Stina Kielsmeier-Cook had a plan. Or more accurately, she thought God had a plan: She would marry her college sweetheart, and their shared love for Jesus and radical Christian commitment to serving the poor would anchor their marriage in something real and eternal.
But a couple of years into their marriage, her husband, Josh, lost his faith, and now Stina is navigating an increasingly common reality: mixed-faith marriage.
We talk to Stina about her new book, Blessed Are the Nones: Mixed-Faith Marriage and My Search for Spiritual Community, in which she grapples with the challenges (and opportunities) of sustaining a marriage, raising kids and nourishing her own faith life in a new state of “spiritual singleness.” Along the way, she meets women saints, Catholic nuns and religious “nones” who point the way to a reimagined Christian community for an increasingly secular world.
In Signs of the Times, the influential (and controversial) Vatican II theologian Hans Küng has died at 93 and a look back at the Vatican’s Easter Triduum.
Links from the show:
Hans Küng, influential Vatican II theologian censured by John Paul II, dies at 93
Cardinal: Too many Catholics don’t understand that some church teachings can actually change
Don’t call Dorothy Day a saint. But a ferry? Sure.
Stina’s book: Blessed Are the Nones: Mixed-Faith Marriage and My Search for Spiritual Community
The Great Courses Plus (Get a month of unlimited access for free!)
Subscribe to America
Join our Patreon community.