This special issue of Audition features interviews with five cultural historians, each reflecting on how assumptions of the meaning of "the human person" has shaped some aspect of the American experience. They are all interested in how particular understandings of human nature have influenced American history, and how the distinctive shape of American history has shaped understanding of the meaning of human nature and the contours of human flourishing.Each of these thinkers contributed an essay to the anthology Figures in the Carpet: Finding the Human Person in the American Past (Eerdmans). In conversation with Ken Myers on this podcast, Wilfred M. McClay (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga) discusses the differences between the terms "self" and "person." Eric Miller (Geneva College) recounts how Christopher Lasch's insightful books and essays exposed dehumanizing patterns in American cultural life. Eugene McCarraher (Villanova University) explains how many early 20th-centuury thinkers saw modern business corporations as proponents of a more communal shape to public life. Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn (Syracuse University) raises some probing questions about how television shapes moral understanding in children. Christopher Shannon (Christendom College) compares how medical institutions interpret the meaning of suffering with the Christian tradition's interpretation (aided by the writing of Ivan Illich).Each of these guests has been featured on a past issue of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal; when heard together, the resonance implied among their diverse concerns become more evident.

The meaning of the human and the meaning of the spiritual are the big themes on this issue of Audition. First, we hear an excerpt from Yuval Levin's penetrating essay, "The Moral Challenge of Modern Science," which maintains that science is not, as many claim, just a set of neutral tools. Then part of a chapter from Nigel Cameron's provocative book Are Christians Human? An Exploration of True Spirituality is featured. The section excerpted asks the question "Was Jesus human?" and looks at ways in which Jesus' humanity is often implicitly denied even while explicitly affirmed. Finally, we hear a long section from the audio documentary Best-Selling Spirituality: American Cultural Change and the New Shape of Faith. What's behind the contemporary affirmation of "spirituality" at the expense of "religion"? Ken Myers hosts this exploration of how contemporary culture is shaping how people think about the meaning of faith.For more information about these and other audio products, consult the MARS HILL AUDIO website.

P. D. James's dystopian novel The Children of Men was the basis for a film opening on Christmas Day in the U.S. On this issue of Audition, Ken Myers talks with Ralph Wood and Alan Jacobs about the power and meaning of James's fiction, specifically of the themes raised in the bleak (but finally hopeful) story now adapted for the screen by Alfonzo Cuaron. A 1980 interview with P. D. James is also featured, in which she talks about why evil characters are more interesting than good ones, and why mysteries need murders.

On this issue of Audition, we feature a number of interviews about Christian novelists, poets, and mythmakers.- Alan Jacobs (What Became of Wystan: Change and Continuity in Auden's Poetry) tells us about how W. H. Auden's conversion to Christianity affected his poetry (an excerpt from The Public Poetry of W. H. Auden)- Ralph Wood (The Gospel according to Tolkien: Visions of the Kingdom in Middle Earth) talks about J. R. R. Tolkien's view of language, and the dangers of a society that debases language (an excerpt from Maker of Middle Earth)- Susan Srigley (Flannery O'Connor's Sacramental Art) explains how Flannery O'Connor's fiction reveals her incarnational view of life (excerpt from Hillbilly Thomist: Flannery O'Connor and the Truth of Things)- Thomas Howard (Narnia and Beyond: A Guide to the Fiction of C. S. Lewis) describes how myth differs from the modern novel, and what is lost when the gods disappear from our stories (excerpt from Till We Have Faces and the Meaning of Myth)- Alan Jacobs (The Narnian: The Life and Imagination of C. S. Lewis) details how C. S. Lewis was more open-minded than his Victorian atheistic teachers, and how that open-mindedness left room for Lewis to become a Christian (from the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal, volume 77)Thanks for listening!

Audition is the new podcast produced by MARS HILL AUDIO. Hosted by Ken Myers, this first issue includes an exclusive interview with theologian and bioethicist Nigel Cameron on how bioethical issues are discussed in public debate. It also features excerpts from interviews that can be heard on current and future issues of the MARS HILL AUDIO Journal. Guests and topics include: • Cultural historian Stephen McKnight on the religious beliefs of Sir Francis Bacon • Biologist Tim Morris on why Creation and Redemption have to be seen as part of the same story • Music historian Calvin Stapert on how Mozart's music conveys a sense of the goodness of Creation • Orthodox theologian and master gardener Vigen Guroian on how the senses convey the transcendent • Humanities professor Paul Valliere on why Orthodox thought on politics differs from that in the Western churches • Law professor Russell Hittinger on the origins of the idea of "society" in Catholic social thought • Historian Mark Noll on how Protestants flourished in America by not asking some important questions • Journalist Stephen Miller on his book, Conversation: A History of a Declining Art. New issues of Audition will be produced at the end of every month, and will contain material from the MARS HILL AUDIO archives, from forthcoming products, and unique interviews on timely cultural issues. Thanks for listening!