Everyone runs marathons. But why do sensible people torture themselves over a distance of more than 42 kilometers? And why do hundreds of thousands of people cheer them on?

German journalist, runner, and photographer Hilmar Schmundt ran the Berlin Marathon with an eye towards its spiritual—even effervescent—elements and interviewed me about religion, running, and 21st-century asceticism along the way.

Read the results in Chrismon, a magazine supplement (auf Deutsch) for Die Zeit.