Esther Maria Magnis: re-enchanting suffering

A raw account of the beauty of life and the ugliness of death.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

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Esther Maria Magnis is a German writer whose book With or Without Me is a memoir of her journey with faith and the perception of reality.

With unflinching honesty Esther takes us through her childhood and adolescence as she, along with her brother and sister, deals with the grief of her father’s cancer diagnosis, her prayers, and her journey through the loss of faith, into materialism, self-deconstruction and finally the turn back to the idea of God.

Justin and Belle talk to Esther about her raw account of coming to terms with faith through the beauty of life, the ugliness of death, and even the apparent silence of God.

With or With Out Me is published by Plough.

With or With Out Me

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Podcast

Culture

Poetry

Re-enchanting

Wildness

31 January 2024

1 min read

Martin Shaw: re-enchanting... visions, dreams and storytelling

On the Re-enchanting podcast Martin Shaw talks with Belle and Justin about a visionary encounter and his homecoming as a fulfilment of a life invested in mythology and storytelling.

Nick Jones

Nick is the senior editor of Seen & Unseen.

A man wearing a hat sits at a table talking and raises both hands in front of himself to gesture

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Martin Shaw is a renowned storyteller and mythologist, who in the last couple of years has his own quite extraordinary conversion story to tell. After many years as a poet, author and teaching others through the West Country school of myth, Martin had a visionary encounter that confounded all his expectations. Martin is now a Christian but sees this homecoming as a fulfilment of a life invested in mythology and storytelling. He tells Justin and Belle his story as they discuss storytelling, mythology and rediscovering Christianity as a ‘dream’.

Visit Martin Shaw's website. https://drmartinshaw.com/

There’s more to life than the world we can see. Re-Enchanting is a podcast from Seen & Unseen recorded at Lambeth Palace Library, the home of the Centre for Cultural Witness. Justin Brierley and Belle Tindall engage faith and spirituality with leading figures in science, history, politics, art and education. Can our culture be re-enchanted by the vision of Christianity?