From the Center

In an ongoing effort to make sense of the ideas that are most influential in our present day, Director Hodges discusses the roots of what is called "Critical Theory," with faculty member Jonathan (Jack) Vowell, who is working on his PhD in literary criticism. In this first of two parts, they discuss the idealism of GWF Hegel and the materialism of Karl Marx and then set the stage for part two, in which these two address how these ideas have influenced the 20th century, and today.

For centuries we held that logical reasoning, supported by Revelation, was the way to get to the truth of any issue. At least to the best our finite minds can accomplish. In the last couple of centuries, while we have lost our communal trust in Revelation, we have at least retained the notion that logic and reasoning is the best way to know what is true. Today, we are hearing that logic and reasoning are only ONE way of many to approach truth, and logical fallacies that used to be "points off" in a debate are now allowed, and even encouraged. One of the most recent and prevalent logical fallacies is a combination of "begging the question" and "ad hominem" that Eric Raymond coined "Kafkatrapping." In this podcast, Director Hodges considers the Kafkatrap, where it is being used in our day, and how it might be addressed.

Since justice is on so many minds these days, we thought it would be good to discuss the call to forgive. Director Hodges has a conversation with world-class bible teacher, writer, missionary, and pastor Ronnie Stevens.

How does the bible approach the idea of Justice? It seems to be on everyone's mind these days, so Director Hodges and Pastor Kyle Dillon discuss how the word is used in the bible, and what implications it might have on our considerations of Social Justice.

This is the second part of a two-part investigation into the history of the ideas that brought us to this place today. It began with Descartes and Rationalism, but in this episode, we begin with Nietzsche at the end of the 19th century and work our way to today. Hodges and Vowell in the continuation of a conversation from last May.

At the end of our year at the Center, we offer an extended lecture on Post-modernism, and set of ideas closely related to Modernism, and to a degree outdated now, as we are moving into a new era, too new to name completely. In this first half of a long episode that we have broken into two parts, we ask faculty member Jack Vowell to give us the highlights of this year's lecture on post-modern thought, and in it Hodges and Vowell consider the effect that the assumptions of Modernism have had on our day, including sowing the seeds of a kind of irrationality that seems to be influencing our debates today.

Continuing the last episode, Hodges continues to lay out his four-points of "paleo-conservative" thought, taken from Burke, Eliot, Kirk, and others. The need for #3 intergenerational community, and for #4, common religion as a pre-requisite for healthy society.

One mistake: In the recommendation portion of the podcast, Hodges refers from memory to a portion of TS Eliot's FOUR QUARTETS, saying that the quote he recalled was in the second section of East Coker - it is in the fourth section of East Coker.

One of our most popular episodes has been the one we did on Socialism. We thought that the word "Conservative" has lost some of its meaning today, so we decided to address the essence of what some have called "Paleo-conservativism" in distinction to "Neo-Conservativism." Hodges and Vowell discuss the essences of Edmund Burke's "moral imagination" which he pits against the "idyllic imagination" found in the works of Rousseau, and lived out in the bloodbath of the French Revolution and the following Reign of Terror. The four points of the moral imagination that Hodges recounts are: the view that man is basically fallen, that life is tragic, that mankind needs a view of community that transcends our own generation, and that society requires a common belief about religion. This episode covers the first two, while the latter two are included in the next episode.