Jessica Hooten Wilson

Oct 23

10 min read ⭑

“The Spirit moves in me even when I’m not aware. I’m like the dry bones in Ezekiel that suddenly have life. In him, I have all my being.”

When it comes to the world of books, academic research and deep thinking, Jessica Hooten Wilson feels right at home. She’s the Fletcher Jones Endowed Chair of Books at Pepperdine University as well as an award-winning scholar and author of multiple books, including “Flannery O’Connor’s “Why Do the Heathen Rage?”,” “Reading for the Love of God” and “Scandal of Holiness.” She also co-hosts “The Scandal of Reading” podcast, chatting with fellow authors, professors and theologians about why Christians should read good literature. Today, she’s getting honest about her favorite chaotic Tex-Mex restaurant, sweet moments of hiking adventure with her 9-year-old and her multifaceted passions and endeavors. Read on to learn which spiritual habits and resources keep her family grounded in God’s truth and how God is leading her to overcome her writing fears.

QUESTION #1: ACQUAINT

There’s much more to food than palate and preference. How does a go-to meal at your favorite hometown restaurant reveal the true you behind the web bio?

Although I lived in a few places growing up (I was born in Alaska and spent some of my middle school years in England), I consider Texas home. Every time I return to see my parents and sisters and their families, we go out for Tex-Mex. My go-to is Lupe Tortilla. It’s chaotic and crazy with my children arguing for chicken tenders, me insisting they eat Mexican at a Mexican restaurant, nephews jokingly banging forks on the table as they chant for queso and all of the adults making sure it’s still happy hour pricing on the margaritas. The smell of tortillas being made, the taste of tequila, the sounds of cousins and grandparents laughing — that’s going home.

Recently, I dined at the home of a friend who made homemade guacamole, and I had to warn him about the high bar that I — as a Texan — set on good Mexican food. But it’s been a joy getting reacquainted with California Mexican food. It’s different — more cilantro, less jalapeño; more corn tortillas and cotija than flour and cheddar; more seafood than beef. I find that I always want to invest in discovering where I am and becoming localized rather than longing for where I’m from. We just got to California in January 2024, but we plan to make this home.

QUESTION #2: REVEAL

We’ve all got quirky proclivities and out-of-the-way interests. So what are yours? What so-called “nonspiritual” activity (or activities) do you love engaging in, which also helps you find essential spiritual renewal?

It’s true that I’m most myself when reading or writing. I feel kind of cranky and lost if I spend too much time away from books. They’re my anchor, and they remind me of God’s particular calling on my life. But if I’m not reading, I want to be moving. My 9-year-old son and I hiked several miles this morning up the mountain behind our home. At first, it was supposed to be a short hike, but then, as the path got steeper and harder, my son grew more determined to go a little farther.

Once he’d reached a peak, past a particularly difficult section of terrain, he could see the peak that marked the end of our hike. He decided to keep going, and we made it to the top. I was elated, praying with him at the top, folding his hands in mine and begging God to remind us of this hike in life every time we struggle, not literally but metaphorically, with the challenges that will come. We both felt triumph and gratitude simultaneously this morning. I love those moments outside, challenging my body, sharing with my kids and enjoying the beauty of different vistas.

Of course, I should also confess to baking fancy cakes when I need a stress reliever. So there’s balance — hiking or sugar intake. Whichever suits the moment!

QUESTION #3: CONFESS

Every superhero has a weakness. Every human too. We’re just good at faking it. But who are we kidding? We’re broken and in this thing together. So what’s your kryptonite, and how do you hide it?

Just one kryptonite? I’m being interviewed by saints here. I struggle with authenticity, pride, ambition — I could keep going. I don’t know if I hide my sins. I usually lay them out there. When someone asks, “How are you?” (whether it’s the cashier or my pastor), I have a tendency to overshare. It’s how I confront my teenage sin of being inauthentic. I used to write “authentic” on my closet door to see every morning in college. Now, I pray and ask friends to pray every time I’m going to give a talk or be on a stage — not because I’m nervous about doing poorly, but I greatly fear not being myself or, worse, only being me up there pointing to myself and forgetting that it’s all God and all about him. I chant Psalm 115:1 regularly: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us … ”

The worst is when someone insults my pride by accidentally or intentionally talking down to me. Then I struggle not to spell out my self-worth in a resume — even though I know my self-worth is in that I’ve died and Christ lives in me. I try to be like Maria Skobtsova. Sometimes the conference organizers who invited her to keynote couldn’t find her because she was taking out the trash. I want to be like her.

QUESTION #4: FIRE UP

Tell us about your toil. How are you investing your professional time right now? What’s your current obsession? And why should it be ours?

I’m an Enneagram 7, so I thrive off of doing a bunch of things at one time. I’ve spent the last few years discovering women writers from the ancient world until now and showing what they bring to the church and intellectual history of ideas. From all this research, I’m editing an anthology of women who wrote about how women are made in God’s image and what this means. I’m adapting medieval short stories by a woman author for children’s YA (young adult) fiction. And I’m drafting a book called “Twice Rebels” about how women outside of the church have to insist that they matter and don’t desire to be men while, inside the church, they are not second or subservient. I’m also beginning to research a biography on Sigrid Undset, who wrote one of the greatest novels of the 20th century: “Kristin Lavransdatter.” A must-read for Christians!

QUESTION #5: BOOST

Cashiers, CEOs, contractors or customer service reps, we all need grace flowing into us and back out into the world. How does the Holy Spirit invigorate your work? And how do you know it’s God when it happens?

The Spirit moves in me even when I’m not aware. I’m like the dry bones in Ezekiel that suddenly have life. In him, I have all my being. And I’m grateful for the vocation I have. When I teach, I sometimes feel the crackle of unseen lightning as students discover truth or beauty. But mostly, it’s afterward in the evaluations or in emails the following semester or in a chance meeting years later, that I hear how God used me to speak to them in the classroom. I just had to be a regular presence for him to work through. In public speaking, likewise, I know the Spirit has come by the applause and encouragement afterward — and I forget what I’ve said because I was merely God’s puppet, and that’s liberating! Or if I read a passage from a book I wrote or a quote from something I published cited by someone else, the words sound like someone else wrote them. Eugene Peterson would sometimes read his work and compliment it, saying, “That’s really good!” because the book felt like a gift he’d been given that he shared with the world. I love when the Spirit takes over in that way.

QUESTION #6: inspire

Scripture and tradition beckon us into the rich and varied habits that open our hearts to the presence of God. So let us in. Which spiritual practice is working best for you right now?

I begin every weekday with the Daily Office. The Lord is reshaping me with the prayers, psalm, Scripture and creed. Although I wish I was reciting it with my family or church, I’m often alone listening to an app walk me through the liturgy while I literally walk to work.

For three years, I read the Bible in a year, and I miss that rhythm. My husband leads a weekly Bible study where we can dig deeper into the Gospels with students. Our Sunday evenings are precious times of worship with family. We pray as a family before our meals. And every evening ends the same for us at home. With each child (or often altogether), we sing a hymn, read a story and say a prayer. My husband and I then pray later before we too turn in.

This August, we decided to memorize a new prayer as a family, one from the tradition. I do wish we could also add Scripture reading together. But we fail to keep that practice as many times as we start it. I only pray that one day we may succeed and reading the Bible together will be as habitual as brushing our teeth!

QUESTION #7: FOCUS

Looking backward, considering the full sweep of your unique faith journey and all you encountered along the way, what top three resources stand out to you? What changed the game and changed your heart? What radically altered your life? What changed your reality?

When I was 15, I read “Flannery O’Connor’s short stories,” and I’ve never been the same. She taught me to see the world sacramentally — that everything matters and everything has meaning. Because of her stories, I learned to stare into the darkness and find the light. Her stories even taught me how to read the Bible and to see everything through it, like it was my lens for all reality. I could list another handful of great books that taught me how to love what’s worth loving: “The Brothers Karamazov,” Dante’s “The Divine Comedy,” Augustine’s “Confessions” and Cooper’s “A Voice From the South.”

What’s changed my spiritual life, though, has been Anglicanism, discovering the riches of “The Book of Common Prayer” (check out Julie Lane-Gay’s book on this, “The Riches of Your Grace”), the liturgy of the church, and the via media (the middle road) in all things. I feel free in the tradition to hold tight to what’s always been true and to be ready for what’s around the corner by the Spirit’s surprising innovations.

Lastly, classical education was introduced to me in 2004, and I have found within this education resources for wisdom. I’ve learned to teach as an embodied soul among other souls, to see history as global and to discover books outside of the West that exhibit how all truth is God’s. Education is part of sanctification.

We all have things we cling to to survive (or even thrive) in tough times — times like these! Name one resource you’re savoring and/or finding indispensable in this current season, and tell us what it’s doing for you.

I’ve already mentioned The Daily Office app, which really is my main go-to in this season of life. I’ve also relied on Father Mike’s “The Bible in a Year” podcast in the past or “Bible Recap” with Tara Leigh Cobble. Trying to read Hebrew and Greek is my most exciting adventure when it comes to learning the Bible. (I’ve used Bill Mounce’s Zondervan series and The Teaching Company’s course on Biblical Hebrew for this.) I have an interlinear Bible that makes hearing Scripture in church come to life as I investigate the original words for myself.

If I have time to turn on a podcast, it’s “The Alabaster Jar” right now — I’ve learned so much from them about the women of Scripture and church history.

QUESTION #8: dream

God is continually stirring new things in each of us. So give us the scoop! What’s beginning to stir in you but not yet fully awakened? What can we expect from you in the future?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since the moment I could hold a pen. For the past decade, I’ve written nonfiction, what a colleague called evangelical literary criticism. But I’ve been ruminating on what stories I want to tell — am I ready to write fiction again, or will I write some lame novel that shouldn’t have been shown to anyone but my mom? Is the biography I’m beginning to work on meant to be something more, or is that God’s answer to my prayer to tell a good story? I suppose my biggest fear is that I’ll miss the chance to be a storyteller because I become too busy teaching or take the easier route of saying yes to nonfiction, which, for me, is safer. I pray often about my desire and how to gauge it with my responsibilities.

Do you tend to choose the safer option? Scripture is full of examples of people who wanted to find a safer route for their lives — but God led them to a place full of risk instead. Take Moses, who tried to say no when God called him to confront Pharaoh and lead the Israelites out of Egypt. Or Jonah, who ran away when God told him to preach to the people of Nineveh. Or Zechariah, who doubted the angel’s good news that he and his wife would have a baby in their old age.

Now imagine if God had allowed those people to wallow in their fear. How would that have changed history? Individual lives in those stories? Pause here and think of the risks God may be calling you to recently. What could happen if you stepped out and believed he would carry you through?

Jessica Hooten Wilson is the Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University. She is the author of several books, most recently Flannery O’Connor’s “Why Do the Heathen Rage?”: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at a Work in Progress. Her book Giving the Devil His Due: Demonic Authority in the Fiction of Flannery O’Connor and Fyodor Dostoevsky received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year in arts and culture award, and The Scandal of Holiness received a 2022 Award of Merit. Among other awards, she received the Hiett Prize for Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture in 2019.