Great Catholic Book Club
by Tyler and Sadie Woodley
There is one perspective that encompasses all that is true, good, and beautiful. It doesn't erase any point of view, it refines them all. That perspective is the Catholic intellectual tradition, and it changes everything, including how you read. The Great Catholic Book Club takes one book each month — science fiction, literary classics, fantasy, modern fiction — and explores it through the lens of Scripture, the Catechism, and the saints. Not just what the author intended, but what the story reveals about virtue, grace, sin, and the human condition when you bring the fullness of Catholic thought to bear on it. You'll never read the same way again. Every book is Catholic. Monthly episodes and free study guides at greatcatholicbookclub.com
Episodes
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The Man, the Myth, the Art of JRR Tolkien | Speech by Sadie Woodley
Before there was a book club, there was this talk. Sadie Woodley's first public lecture — on the life, works, and Catholic faith of J.R.R. Tolkien — is where the Great Catholic Book Club began. It was delivered at a small gathering in Iowa City, and we think it still holds up beautifully. Sadie...
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Ender's Game: A Catholic Take on Moral Reasoning
Ender's Game asks one of the hardest questions in all of science fiction: what are we allowed to do to a child, if the stakes are high enough? Orson Scott Card's novel is a masterpiece of moral pressure. The adults in Ender's world are not monsters — they're desperate, and they believe they're...
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Flannery O’Connor and the Catholic Imagination | Speech by Sadie Woodley
Flannery O'Connor wrote about grace the way a brick through a window delivers light — suddenly, violently, and with no apology. In this episode, Sadie Woodley delivers a talk originally presented at the Iowa City Public Library, drawing on her own experience as a stranger in a strange land to...
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The Theology of Bob's Burgers: The Belchers as a Catholic Family
What if one of the most quietly Catholic families on television runs a burger joint in an unnamed coastal town and has absolutely no idea? In this episode, Sadie Woodley takes a close look at Bob and Linda Belcher — not as a culture critic, but as someone who finds the sacramental hiding in the...
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Great Catholic Book Club 2025: Book List and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Discussion!
What if the most honest question in all of science fiction is also the most Catholic one? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy opens with the end of the world and a man in his bathrobe asking why any of it matters. Douglas Adams played it for laughs — and it is genuinely, brilliantly funny — but...
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Good Kid m.A.A.d Catholic: A Journey Through Faith and Hip-Hop
What does Kendrick Lamar's Good Kid, m.A.A.d City have to do with your soul? More than you might expect. In this episode, Sadie Woodley takes a slow, attentive walk through one of the most celebrated albums in hip-hop — not as a music critic, but as a fellow pilgrim. Kendrick's Compton is a world...
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Starship Troopers: The Myth of the Atheist Utopia
Tyler and Sadie from the Great Catholic Book Club discuss their February pick, Robert A. Heinlein’s Starship Troopers, critiquing the book’s vision of an atheist, militarized utopia and its behaviorist view of human nature. They contrast Heinlein’s prescription of force and elite rule with...
About this show
There is one perspective that encompasses all that is true, good, and beautiful. It doesn't erase any point of view, it refines them all. That perspective is the Catholic intellectual tradition, and it changes everything, including how you read.
The Great Catholic Book Club takes one book each month — science fiction, literary classics, fantasy, modern fiction — and explores it through the lens of Scripture, the Catechism, and the saints. Not just what the author intended, but what the story reveals about virtue, grace, sin, and the human condition when you bring the fullness of Catholic thought to bear on it.
You'll never read the same way again. Every book is Catholic.
Monthly episodes and free study guides at greatcatholicbookclub.com
Hosted by
Tyler and Sadie Woodley
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