Season 11 Episode 4: Michael Coren

The Vicars' Crossing

From England’s working class to high-profile media personality, Michael Coren charts his encounters with people of faith, fame, and fortune.
Growing up in a blue-collar mixed-religion family and then entering a career in media, Michael Coren was, and in some ways still is, the consummate outsider. In Heaping Coals, he writes of his life leading up to entering the seminary, being ordained, and his early successes as a journalist, encountering Oscar-winning writers and celebrities.
After marrying and settling in Canada, Coren became a darling of the Christian right with his TV and radio shows and syndicated column. His shift to more progressive Christianity and politics embodies Romans 12:20 — heaping coals onto the heads of one’s enemies — and charts the returning of good for evil through a process of self-reflection.
From outsider to institutional mainstay to penitent, Coren shares not just a humble admission of fault but an articulate and convincing account of one man’s spiritual awakening.
We chat about the book and Michael’s upcoming visit to London.