Pragmatic Christian Podcast

Henrik Rydenfelt is a pragmatist philosopher who joins the show to discuss the father of pragmatism, Charles Peirce, and normativity in science.

In this episode, Alan Bean discusses his experience as a progressive Baptist, his experience at seminary, pastoral ministry, as well as his work in criminal justice reform.

Ulf Zackariasson is a philosopher whose work centers on American pragmatism and philosophy of religion. Zackariasson teaches at Uppsala University in the Department of Theology and received his doctorate at the same institution in 2002 with the dissertation, Forces By Which We Live: Religion and Religious Experience from the Perspective of Pragmatic Philosophical Anthropology. His research interests mainly concern American pragmatism (both classical pragmatism and neopragmatism) and the possibilities it offers to process philosophical problems that arise from the human phenomenon of religion, such as questions about the role of religion in the public sphere, religious experience and moral religious criticism.

Andrew Jasko is a religious trauma activist and spiritual transition coach. He raises awareness about the psycho-spiritual harms of fundamentalist religion and provides resources to facilitate transition into secular life and spirituality.

In this episode we discuss some alternatives to fundamentalist Christianity, and how our fundamentalism can carry into our post/ex-evangelical lives.

Andrew Jasko is a religious trauma activist and spiritual transition coach. He raises awareness about the psycho-spiritual harms of fundamentalist religion and provides resources to facilitate transition into secular life and spirituality.

Tim Keefe joins us again for part 4 of our ongoing series in American Pragmatism. The Neopragmatists were (are) a group of philosophers who appropriated pragmatist themes and helped revive American Pragmatism in the late 20th century.

William James is known as the “Father of American psychology," as well as one of the most influential philosophers to ever come out of the United States. After citing Charles Peirce’s pragmatic maxim in a lecture on religion, James became the leader of a movement in philosophy known as Pragmatism.

"Pragmatism asks its usual question. "Grant an idea or belief to be true," it says, "what concrete difference will its being true make in anyone's actual life? How will the truth be realized? What experiences will be different from those which would obtain if the belief were false? What, in short, is the truth's cash-val;ue in experiential terms”

-William James, Pragmatism: A New Name For Some Old Ways Of Thinking

American Pragmatism was born out of the conversations of a small group of men who called themselves “the Metaphysical Club”. It was a group made of lawyers, scientists, and philosophers, who shared an interest in Darwin, as well as a common conviction that beliefs have consequences.

It was in this club where William James first heard Charles Peirce read his “pragmatic maxim”: “Consider what effects, which might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object”.

In this episode, Tim Keefe joins the show to talk about the most influential ideas of the Metaphysical Club, as well as Charles Peirce’s “pragmatic maxim”.

Tim Keefe joins the show to discuss his life-long study in philosophy, and to help set the stage for our series on the history and ideas of American Pragmatism.

Adam Hansen joins us for Part 3 of our “Two Atheists and a Christian” series.