Ep. 450 Ian Morgan Cron Returns - Beauty Is a Doorway Home: What St. Francis Knew 800 Years Ago episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 11, 2026 · 52 MIN

Ep. 450 Ian Morgan Cron Returns - Beauty Is a Doorway Home: What St. Francis Knew 800 Years Ago

from Shifting Culture · host Joshua Johnson / Ian Morgan Cron

In this episode, Ian Morgan Cron and I talk about Chasing Francis, the novel he wrote twenty years ago (before anyone called it deconstruction) about a megachurch pastor who loses his faith mid-sermon and goes looking for St. Francis in Italy. We get into a 13th-century church that looks a lot like ours, beauty as a doorway back to God, why Francis walked across a battlefield to meet a sultan, the difference between spotlight attention and lantern attention, and why the sermon on the mount should be read as instructions.Ian Morgan Cron is a bestselling author, Episcopal priest, trained psychotherapist, Enneagram teacher, Dove Award-winning songwriter, and one of the most sought-after voices in American spirituality today. His Enneagram primer The Road Back to You has sold over one million copies and launched a global conversation about self-knowledge and spiritual formation. But Chasing Francis is where it all started — and where it still leads. Ian’s work spans psychology, theology, the arts, and pastoral care. He speaks from lived experience: he has sat with the burned out, the doubting, the spiritually shipwrecked — and he has been all three himself. He is the host of the widely popular podcast Typology and has appeared on media across the country.Ian's Book:Chasing FrancisIan's RecommendationsThe Master and His EmissaryThe Myth of NormalConnect with Joshua: [email protected] to www.shiftingculturepodcast.com to interact and donate. Every donation helps to produce more podcasts for you to enjoy.Follow on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Threads, Bluesky or YouTubeSupport the podcast and the ministry that my wife and I do around the world. Just click on the support the show link below Support the show

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Aug 11, 2026

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In this episode, Ian Morgan Cron and I talk about Chasing Francis, the novel he wrote twenty years ago (before anyone called it deconstruction) about a megachurch pastor who loses his faith mid-sermon and goes looking for St. Francis in Italy. We get into a 13th-century church that looks a lot like ours, beauty as a doorway back to God, why Francis walked across a battlefield to meet a sultan, the difference between spotlight attention and lantern attention, and why the sermon on the mount sh...

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Ep. 450 Ian Morgan Cron Returns - Beauty Is a Doorway Home: What St. Francis Knew 800 Years Ago

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