The UnCommon Good with Bo Bonner and Dr. Bud Marr

Finding the Fullness of Faith: A Conversation with Matthew David Wiseman on His Road to Rome - 06/06/2026

Episode Summary

Author and independent scholar Matthew David Wiseman joins Dr. Bud Marr to share his remarkable journey from Southern Baptist roots through the Hebrew Roots and Messianic movements before finding his home in the Catholic Church. Wiseman's story reveals how his deep engagement with Torah observance, oral tradition, and apostolic succession ultimately led him to conclude that Catholicism alone holds the living authority necessary to unify and interpret the Christian faith. His book, The Two Jerusalems: My Conversion from the Messianic Movement to the Catholic Church, offers a uniquely scholarly and personal account of conversion, Scripture, and the Jewish roots of Christianity.

Episode Notes

In this episode, Dr. Bud Marr sits down with Matthew David Wiseman — independent scholar, tutor, and author — for a wide-ranging conversation about one of the most theologically rich conversion stories you'll hear. Bo Bonner is traveling in Europe for the month of June, so Bud is flying solo and bringing some exceptional guests to the show.

Highlights include:

• Matthew's upbringing as a Southern Baptist in West Texas and his family's gradual move toward home church worship
• His introduction to the Hebrew Roots Movement — a Gentile Christian movement emphasizing Torah observance, kosher laws, and Saturday Sabbath
• How disagreements over the interpretation of the Law (especially calculating feast days and the liturgical calendar) exposed the need for a living oral tradition
• His discovery that the Law of Moses is not self-interpreting — and how that realization cracked open the question of ecclesiastical authority
• His transition into Anglicanism, drawn by apostolic succession, and his eye-opening first encounter with Eucharistic liturgy — which he recognized as a fulfillment of temple worship and the Passover Seder
• The fragmentation of the Anglican Communion and how watching it fall apart confirmed for him that authority without a final arbiter cannot maintain unity
• His reception into the Catholic Church in 2016 in St. Andrews, Scotland — and why that moment felt like completion, not just conversion
• The influence of James Kugel's How to Read the Bible, Peter Kreeft, and C.S. Lewis on his intellectual journey
• Reflections on the Jewish roots of the Mass and the continuity between ancient Israel's worship and Catholic liturgy

Matthew's book, The Two Jerusalems: My Conversion from the Messianic Movement to the Catholic Church, is available now. Contact Divine Treasures to check local availability.

His interview on EWTN's The Coming Home Network is also available online and is highly recommended.

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