From the Center

When God wants to get our attention, He brings suffering, or He brings beauty -- how are we to address beauty?

Can God speak to us through our suffering? In this episode, Director Hodges and Ben discuss how suffering can be used to draw us closer to Him, and how similarly He can use beauty to do the same thing.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story about an old man who is visited by Jesus in a dream on Christmas Eve, and He promises to come in person on Christmas Day... Here is our Christmas present to you, a reading of the story by Director Hodges. Merry Christmas to all! We will take a three week break, and post our next episode on January 12th.

In this next episode about Civilization, Director Hodges and Ben extend their discussion about identity, addressing our modern day fixation on self-identity. Can we know who we are when we define ourselves?

It seems that our identities as individuals and as members of a civilization are intermingled. In this episode, Director Hodges and Ben Cumming discuss the notions of identity - how do we teach our children who they are? Includes a description of the track of modern philosophy from Descartes to Nihilism.

In our series on the foundations of civilization, we have come through the Logos, to definitions of words and the importance of a common language, and now to how language leads to stories that give voice to meaning. In this discussion, Director Hodges speaks with Dr. Junius Johnson, scholar and writer, about his book on Fairy Stories and the importance of story to define the identity of a people.

What does it mean to live the "good life"? Director Hodges and Ben discuss the pursuit of happiness, flourishing, and how different civilizations have understood the fulfilled human life.

With Thanksgiving coming up, Director Hodges and Ben discuss the place of giving Thanks in the life of a civilization. GK Chesterton said, on being asked why he was a Christian, "I was happy, and I wanted someone to thank."

In our continuing investigations regarding the foundations of Civilizations, Director Hodges and Ben discuss the common practice of Sacrifice. It seems a strange thing to do, but it seems every civilization has practiced it in one form or another. Some more gruesome than others, but there is an underlying common principle.

What is the essence of language? Director Hodges and Kyle Dillon explore the place of the Logos in the common speech of a Civilization, and how it makes community possible.