On Weeds and Fairy Tales Glenn starts off the discussion with “On Weeds and Fairy Tales,” an article in Touchstone by Vigen Guroian. Guroian argues that reason and imagination work together to help us make sense of the world, but only imagination lets us get beyond facts into the realm of meaning and helping us …
From Impiety to Totalitarianism In today’s show Chris reads portions of Leon R. Kass’s, The Beginning of Wisdom. The book contains Kass’s reflections on the book of Genesis. Kass is Jewish, and a conservative scholar teaching at the University of Chicago. His reflections on the impiety of Noah’s son Ham, and how Ham’s descendant Nimrod, …
How the Current Cultural Trend Came to Absolutize the Present in Opposition to the Past This week Tom follows up his topic last week on Presentism. He introduces the topic of ‘historicism’ and looks at its role in setting the conditions for the current trend of turning against the past in the name of the …
The New Iconoclasm: Presentism and Its Trendy Enemies In this episode Tom introduces the topic of the intellectual fashion of making ‘present’ experience that which has utmost significance. He further shows how this idea has been wedded to the notion that the past has little significance other than being an outmoded relic of evil and …
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Culture to Language or Language to Culture? Glenn starts off by talking about Tolkien and philology, the study of language to understand culture, and looks at its role in creating Middle Earth. He then notes that this idea has largely been reversed in the modern world, where we belief language shapes thought and culture. This …
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Friendship According to: Aristotle, Aquinas, C. S. Lewis, and the Bible In today’s episode Chris raises the subject of friendship for consideration. What is it? How many forms of friendship are there? What’s the relationship of friendship to citizenship? Can we have too many friends? What’s a bigger threat to friendship, good fortune or bad? …
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The Disturbing Embrace of Therapeutic Culture by the Church Tom introduces the theme of ‘the Psychological Captivity of the Church’, setting the topic in relation to Evangelical Christian practice. Chris and Glenn chime in with a host of supportive details that highlight aspects of how the Church has gotten to this place and describing ways …
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Chivalry, Howard Finster, and Other Musings What is Chivalry and why is it important? Glenn starts out with a history of the concept and its key elements. The group then reflects on the loss and even inversion of those elements within our culture before moving into a discussion of folk artist Howard Finster. Resources:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBT9LasyC3E&t=3s&fbclid=IwAR1xQgB0t5Kl3deTB_-knygHrP6-4LVx_Qmb6_SW_pDfdycZc830BYdS3n4
Goldberry & the Art of Redeeming Faerie Who is the mysterious River-daughter, and how did Tom Bombadil make such a catch? Chris once thought that Goldberry was an afterthought in the story of Tom Bombadil, but after writing a chapter on her for his book on Bombadil, he’s pretty sure that she’s at the heart …
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Origen’s Revenge: Contempt for Sex Differences Returns to the Church This week the Pugsters interview Brian Patrick Mitchell, Eastern Orthodox theologian, and friend of C. R. Wiley. Dr. Mitchell discusses the role of a peculiar strand of Platonism championed by Origen and later by Maximus the Confessor, and how it contradicted the Hebraic understanding of …
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