Episode 31: Ashley Hales & Nathan Oates

The Englewood Review of Books Podcast

The ERB Podcast is back after our summer reprieve! Jen is joined by returning guest Ashley Hales, and first-time guest Nathan Oates, to discuss the ways their writing interacts with the themes of stability, limits, and the work of ministry in our current cultural climate.
Ashley Hales is the author of two books. Her first book, Finding Holy in the Suburbs, released in 2018. Her second book, A Spacious Life: Trading Hustle and Hurry for the Goodness of Limits, releases on September 14, 2021. Ashley has a PhD in English from the University of Edinburgh. She is a pastor’s wife and mother of four as well as host of the Finding Holy podcast.

Nathan Oates writes, speaks, and serves as lead pastor of Emmaus Church Community. For more than a decade, Nathan has been captivated by the Rule of St. Benedict, and this curiosity and life practice informed his book also releasing in September. That book is titled, Stability: How an ancient monastic practice can restore our relationships, churches and communities. Nathan holds a masters degree in spiritual formation from Wheaton College and lives in Northern California with his wife, three children, and a dog named True.

Books Mentioned in this episode:
If you’d like to order any of the following books, we encourage you to do so from Hearts and Minds Books(An independent bookstore in Dallastown, PA, run by Byron and Beth Borger)

• Finding Holy in the Suburbs: Living Faithfully in the Land of Too Much by Ashley Hales
• A Spacious Life: Trading Hustle and Hurry for the Goodness of Limits by Ashley Hales
• Stability: How and Ancient Monastic Practice Can Restore Our Relationships, Churches and Communities by Nathan Oates
• Seeking God: The Way of St. Benedict by Esther de Waal
• The Rule of St. Benedict
• Slow Church: Cultivating Community in the Patient Way of Jesus by C. Christopher Smith and John Pattison
• Tolkien's Modern Reading: Middle-Earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Holly Ordway
• Faustian Economics (Essay) by Wendell Berry
• Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good by Steven Garber
• The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love and Learning, Worship and Work by Steven Garber
• The Pastor: A Memoir by Eugene Peterson
• The Sign of Jonas by Thomas Merton
• Wayward: A Novel by Dana Spiotta
• Reading While Black: African American Biblical Interpretation as an Exercise in Hope by Esau McCaulley
• Reparations: A Christian Call for Repentance and Repair by Duke Kwon and Greg Thompson
• Dakota: A Spiritual Geography by Kathleen Norris
• Still Life by Louise Penny
• The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni by Nikki Giovanni
• A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
• The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions by Arthur Bennett