My New Podcast Launch: The Classic Literature Podcast Season 1, Episode 1. Charles Dickens.

My New Podcast launches today. "The Classic Literature Podcast".

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Podcast Website: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568906

The First Ever Episode of The Classic Literature Podcast.

“In the beginning was the Word…” — John 1:1

Welcome to The Classic Literature Podcast. I’m your host, Jeremy McCandless, and I’m so glad you’ve joined me for this first episode of a new bi-monthly journey—one that explores the great works of classic literature, approaching these great books via the world out of which they emerged—a cultural heritage, rich in spiritual metaphor.

Each season, we’ll walk alongside the giants of literary history—authors who in many ways have shaped nations, stirred hearts, whilst at the same time wrestling with the deepest questions of human existence. But we won’t just admire their craft. We’ll ask: What spiritual soil did these stories grow from? What echoes of grace and redemption resound within their pages?

📚 Season One: Charles Dickens
We begin with the novels of Charles Dickens—a man whose fiction is steeped in the moral imagination of Victorian Christianity. From the haunting redemption arc of A Christmas Carol to the prophetic justice of Bleak House, Dickens wrote with a heart attuned to the poor, the broken, and the spiritually blind. His characters often stumble toward grace, and his stories pulse with biblical echoes—sometimes overt, sometimes hidden in metaphor.

🎭 Season Two: William Shakespeare
Next, we’ll turn to the Bard himself. Shakespeare’s plays are rich with theological tension—mercy and justice, sin and forgiveness, fall and restoration. Whether in the tragic unravelling of King Lear or the resurrection joy of The Winter’s Tale, we’ll explore how Shakespeare’s work reflects the Christian cosmology of his time, and how his characters mirror the soul’s journey toward light.

🌍 Future Seasons  
Looking ahead, we’ll dig into Russian soul with Dostoevsky and Tolstoy, we will also hopefully explore the moral clarity of Jane Austen, and trace the spiritual storms of the Brontë sisters. Each season will offer fresh insight into how these authors wrestled with faith, doubt, virtue, and the divine drama of human life.

So whether you’re a lover of literature, a seeker of spiritual depth, or simply curious about the spiritual threads woven through some of the world’s greatest novels, this podcast is for you.

Let’s begin this journey together. Let’s read with reverence, reflect with honesty, and rediscover the stories that shaped our culture—and still speak to our souls.