In this episode, I speak with the president of the University of Tulsa, Brad Carson, about Allen Bloom's infamous book, The Closing of the American Mind. Brad and I ultimately decide that while we like some of Bloom's key ideas about what a university is for, we do not love the book itself, which has some serious flaws (though we may differ slightly about what we think those flaws are).

As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Read more about Brad Carson and myself on The Virtue Blog by clicking the link below:

https://thevirtueblog.com/

Audio Edited & Music Produced by Anthony Monson

In this episode, I speak with professor of theology Fritz Bauerschmidt about Graham Greene's novel, The Heart of the Matter. We discuss the moral psychology of sin, and how it is that human beings are able to knowingly act against their own good (in this case: knowingly and deliberatively choose their own eternal damnation). How can someone find what is evil good? The answer in this case is a deft exploration of the interplay between pride and pity, self-deception and self-conceit.

Read more about Fredrick C. Bauerschmidt and myself on The Virtue Blog by clicking the link below. The link also includes all social media platforms, streaming platforms, and contact email.

https://linktr.ee/SnPLove

Audio Edited & Music Produced by:

Anthony Monson

I am pleased to share a very special episode of Sacred and Profane, our first episode recorded in front of a live audience, and with the amazing Dr. Cornel West! The context for this episode is that the Classic Learning Test (which has sponsored several episodes this season, and on whose board of academic advisors I happily serve) held its third annual higher education summit in beautiful Annapolis, Maryland, and invited me to record an episode for the educators who had gathered for three wonderful days to discuss aspects of the summit’s theme: Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.” The result is the conversation that is episode 41, in which Cornel West and I discuss James Baldwin’s The Fire Next Time and Go Tell it on the Mountain. Cornel argues that Baldwin is a “Socratic prophet” and a “love warrior”, and that if we only approach him through a political lens we will miss or misunderstand so much of what he has to say. Cornel helpfully traces out some of Baldwin’s main influences: From Conrad and James to Mahalia Jackson and Ray Charles, but argues that, in the end, Go Tell it on the Mountain is a profoundly Augustinian novel. As always, I hope you enjoy our conversation.

Sacred and Profane Love Episode 40: The Tragic Vision of Eugene O'Neill by Sacred and Profane Love

Sacred and Profane Love Episode 39: Gabriel Marcel's Thirst by Sacred and Profane Love

Sacred and Profane Love Episode 38: The Poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins by Sacred and Profane Love

Bonus Episode: Matthew Mehan on Children's Literature by Sacred and Profane Love

Sacred and Profane Love Episode 37: Boethius and John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces by Sacred and Profane Love

Sacred and Profane Love Episode 36: The Realist Poetry of Czeslaw Milosz by Sacred and Profane Love

Sacred and Profane Love Episode 35: Morten Hoi Jensen on Jens Peter Jacobsen by Sacred and Profane Love