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The Saint of Holy Groveling, the Hungover Mystic, and a deep, aching longing for God
Jack Kerouac is remembered as the voice of the open road, speed, freedom, and excess, yet beneath the motion lived a deep spiritual loneliness. He carried an intense longing for God that pleasure, travel, and rebellion never resolved. The party always ended in sadness. The road always circled back home. Formed by Catholic prayer, haunted by sin and grace, and bound to his mother in a small house far from the myth, Kerouac lived as a strange solitary mystic, restless for God and unable to escape the ache of faith that followed him everywhere.
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Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
We trace existentialism from Kierkegaard’s pivot to the single individual before God to the secular push for meaning without God, then test what still helps in a noisy, anxious culture. We offer a grounded practice of stillness and a challenge to choose rather than drift.
• what existentialism means and why it endures
• Kierkegaard’s shift from systems to the single individual before God
• Nietzsche, Heidegger, Sartre, and Camus in brief
• existence precedes essence and its cultural echoes
• subjectivity as owned truth, not private whim
• despair as the self refusing to be itself before God
• the leap of faith as passionate trust when guarantees end
• gifts to keep: honesty about anxiety, critique of the herd, real decisions
• risks without God: radical autonomy and thin hope
• a practical stillness exercise to cultivate the inner life
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You can find my other creative work on beingtravismullen.substack.com
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Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
We trace Dostoevsky’s polyphonic craft through the Karamazov brothers, probe Ivan’s moral revolt, and unpack the Grand Inquisitor’s claim that people prefer miracle, mystery, and authority to freedom. A silent kiss, not an argument, becomes the counter-move to control.
• polyphony as method and why it matters
• Dimitri, Ivan, and Alyosha as desire, reason, and heart
• Ivan’s scrapbook of atrocities and moral revolt
• the Grand Inquisitor’s temptations reframed as policy
• miracle, mystery, and authority versus freedom
• silence and the kiss as theological reply
• modern echoes in state, church, and corporations
• addiction, whim, and the comfort trap
• Alyosha’s empathy and service over control
• letters, criticism, and Dostoevsky’s craft choices
What if the deepest challenge to faith isn’t disbelief but the demand that God justify a world where children suffer? We sit with that fire as we step into The Brothers Karamazov, mapping the novel’s polyphony across Dmitri’s desire, Ivan’s relentless moral outrage, and Alyosha’s tender, tested faith under Father Zosima’s guidance. Rather than flatten the story into heroes and villains, we follow how each voice carries real weight—and how living with that tension becomes the point.
Ivan’s parable, The Grand Inquisitor, takes center stage. In it, Christ returns during the Spanish Inquisition and remains silent while a cardinal explains why the church will burn him: people don’t want freedom; they want miracle, mystery, and authority. Bread instead of responsibility. Spectacle instead of trust. Power instead of love. It’s a devastating argument precisely because it sounds familiar. Swap robes for suits or slogans and you can hear the Inquisitor in modern bureaucracies, cults of personality, corporate paternalism, and any system that buys our conscience with comfort.
So what counters a totalizing logic of control? Dostoevsky’s answer isn’t a debate point—it’s a kiss. A silent act that refuses the terms of coercion. We trace how Alyosha can voice rage against injustice and still move toward reconciliation, how addiction to whim becomes its own tyranny, and why service clarifies where control only clouds. Along the way we connect the novel’s themes to today’s tensions: trading agency for safety, mistaking certainty for truth, and confusing power with wisdom.
This conversation aims to do what the book does—train moral imagination, not hand out easy answers. If you’ve ever felt caught between justice and mercy, or wondered whether freedom is too heavy to carry, you’ll find language and stories here that help you keep going without going numb. Listen, share with a friend who loves big questions, and if this moved you, subscribe and leave a review so more readers and thinkers can find us.
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Support the show
Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
In Part Two of our Dostoevsky series we move from diagnosing the underground to exploring the way out. Dostoevsky shows us that the true hero is not the exceptional man but the good man, and goodness is only remarkable in its ability to love while knowing the depths of the underground.
We explore how Father Zosima counsels the brokenhearted with hope that refuses to collapse into platitudes, and how his radical teaching—“I am responsible not only for myself, but for everyone else, and I, more than anyone else”—reshapes the way we think about responsibility in an age of chaos. Alongside Zosima we follow Alyosha, who brings mercy into the mess by walking with children, grieving mothers, and fractured families, sowing seeds of restoration instead of judgment.
Along the way we contrast Dostoevsky’s vision with the flat caricatures of modern culture, from television antiheroes to the Joker, and ask why sin for Dostoevsky is not just disobedience but a conscious revolt against meaning itself.
This episode traces how grief, responsibility, and mercy form Dostoevsky’s vision of redemption—and why that vision is more urgent than ever for our own underground age.
Dostoevsky's concept of "the underground" offers profound insights into human nature, revealing how people deliberately choose destructive behaviors even when they know it will hurt themselves and others.
• Dostoevsky portrays the dual nature of humanity - we are neither completely fallen nor saved, but move in and out of "the underground" throughout our lives
• The underground represents not just sin but a "rebellion against meaning itself," explaining phenomena like school shootings and destructive chaos
• Modern solutions like education, technology, economic reform, and political revolution fail to address the underground because they only target external conditions
• Father Zosima in "The Brothers Karamazov" demonstrates spiritual direction that acknowledges complexity rather than offering formulaic answers
• Dostoevsky's path out of the underground isn't about bypassing darkness but confronting it first, understanding its hold on us, and finding authentic pathways toward redemption
• The radical ethic "I am responsible not only for myself, but for everyone else" shifts focus from blaming external factors to examining our own contributions to societal problems
Please leave a five-star review, subscribe, and share with anyone who might resonate with this conversation.
Dostoevsky saw something in human nature that most modern thinkers miss – what he called "the underground." Far more than just sin or moral failure, the underground represents our capacity for deliberate, irrational self-destruction and our rebellion against meaning itself. In this riveting conversation, we explore how Dostoevsky's psychological insights illuminate our contemporary crises.
Why do school shooters emerge? Why do seemingly normal people suddenly choose chaos? The answers lie in Dostoevsky's understanding of humanity's dual nature – we move between light and darkness, between meaning and the underground. As our guest explains, "This is not a perpetual state of man, this is an aspect of human nature that the modern world is bringing up for examination."
The conversation takes us deep into "The Brothers Karamazov," Dostoevsky's masterpiece that philosopher Nicolas Berdyaev claimed was sufficient "justification for the existence of the Russian people in the world." Through Father Zosima and Alyosha, Dostoevsky offers not just diagnosis but potential healing – spiritual direction that acknowledges complexity rather than offering formulaic answers.
What emerges is a profound challenge to both secular and religious simplifications. Education, technology, economic reform, political revolution – all these modern solutions fail to address the underground because they target only external conditions. Even rel
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Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
Fyodor Dostoevsky revolutionized literature by creating battlegrounds of the mind and heart where faith and darkness constantly struggle for dominance. His concept of "the psychology of the underground" offers profound insights into human nature, revealing how our willfulness often overrides our reason in ways that defy rational explanation.
• Born in 1821, Dostoevsky's life was shaped by trauma—his father's murder, a mock execution, and four years in a Siberian prison camp
• His novels explore the "underground" psychology where humans choose willfulness over reason, sometimes acting against their own self-interest
• Notes from the Underground presents an extreme example of this psychology through its nameless protagonist who rejects redemption
• His masterpiece The Brothers Karamazov demonstrates how various characters navigate the underground in different ways
• Father Zosima represents the path out of the underground through his radical approach to responsibility and forgiveness
• Dostoevsky's work continues to influence modern culture, from films like Taxi Driver to our understanding of chaotic evil
• His psychology validates biblical insights about human nature while adding vivid color and complexity to our understanding of sin
• Unlike many modern narratives, Dostoevsky portrays the full spectrum of human morality, from the darkest underground to genuine redemption
If you want to begin exploring Dostoevsky, start with Notes from the Underground to understand his psychological framework, then move to Crime and Punishment or The Brothers Karamazov for his most complete vision of the human condition.
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
Episode #11: Life After Deconstruction, How to Be Free Without Losing Your Soul: Nikolai Berdyaev (part two)
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Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
Nikolai Berdyaev challenges both Marxism and bourgeois liberalism with his prophetic vision of freedom rooted in Orthodox Christianity, not in political centrism.
• Exiled Russian philosopher who viewed freedom as cosmic and primordial—the very ground of human existence
• Criticized the "bourgeois spirit" as a degrading clutching after security and small-mindedness
• Rejected institutional religion and revolutionary violence equally
• Believed human beings are co-creators with God, called to participation in divine creativity
• Saw Christianity not as a system of control but as a mystical inheritance alive with fire and risk
• Proclaimed "The Kingdom of God is freedom. It is not order. Order is the kingdom of Caesar"
• His works include The Meaning of the Creative Act, Freedom and Spirit, and Slavery and Freedom
If you found this meaningful, please leave a five-star review, subscribe and share with anyone who might resonate with this conversation.
Nikolai Berdyaev stands as one of the most challenging prophetic voices of the 20th century, yet remains criminally overlooked in our conversations about meaning, faith, and resistance. Born into Russian aristocracy but drawn to Marxist revolution in his youth, Berdyaev's journey from revolutionary to Christian mystic offers a startling vision of freedom that transcends our tired political categories.
After being imprisoned by the very Bolsheviks whose ideals he once championed, Berdyaev returned to Orthodox Christianity—not as a system of submission, but as a mystical inheritance alive with fire and risk. When Lenin deported him on the infamous "Philosopher's Ship" in 1922, Berdyaev found not defeat but liberation, writing some of his most powerful works from exile in Paris.
What makes Berdyaev urgently relevant today is his refusal to be contained by any system. He was too radical for the church, too spiritual for the Marxists, too mystical for the liberals, and too prophetic to rest comfortably anywhere. In our age of algorithmic thinking and political polarization, his thought offers a way beyond the stifling binaries that dominate our discourse.
At the heart of Berdyaev's vision stands a revolutionary understanding of freedom. For him, freedom wasn't a political arrangement or consumer choice—it was cosmic, primordial, the very ground of human existence. Human beings are co-creators with God, called not to submission but to participation in divine creativity. "Christianity is the religion of divine and human freedom," he wrote. "Where there is no freedom, there can be no love, no creativity, no personhood."
This explosive vision of freedom led Berdyaev to critique what he called "the bourgeois spirit"—a state of soul characterized by a clutching after security and small-mindedness. The bourgeois trades greatness for comfort, honor for security, and truth for convenience. Sound familiar? His diagnosis of modern spiritual malaise feels more relevant with each passing year.
Join us as we explore Berdyaev's life and thought—a voice crying out from the ruins of modernity that the human spirit will not be contained by any system, that true rebellion lies not in political revolution but in the recovery of our divine-human freedom.
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Support the show
Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
Travis Mullen and Professor Robert Inchausti explore G.K. Chesterton's insights on how Christianity transcends cultural collapse and continually renews itself throughout history. They examine Chesterton's paradoxical understanding of orthodoxy as something exciting and revolutionary rather than stale or safe.
• Chesterton identified five historical periods when Christianity supposedly "died" but was actually being rediscovered beyond cultural constraints
• Current religious deconstruction often involves shedding cultural expressions (megachurches, corporate practices) rather than faith itself
• True orthodoxy is not a set of doctrinal checkboxes but a poetic, paradoxical vision that embraces mystery
• Freedom comes through tradition and ritual, not unfettered choice
• Humor serves as a spiritual weapon that opens doors to truth when serious arguments fail
• Chesterton's prophetic vision warned of soulless progress, technocratic control, cultural amnesia, and moral relativism
Join us next time as we continue exploring voices that help us find meaning in a fragmented world. Please leave a five-star review, subscribe, and share with anyone who might resonate with this conversation.
How G.K. Chesterton used paradox, playfulness, and holy laughter to dismantle the fashionable despair of his age—and why it still speaks to ours.
In a world where meaning is constantly taken apart and nothing is left standing, G.K. Chesterton didn’t just argue back—he laughed.This episode explores how Chesterton used humor, wit, and joyful defiance to challenge the creeping nihilism of his time—and how his insights prefigure today’s culture of deconstruction.Whether mocking the modern reduction of man to machinery or flipping fashionable philosophies on their heads, Chesterton didn’t retreat into cynicism—he charged into it with a joke and a hymn.For Chesterton, laughter wasn’t escape. It was resistance. It was sanity. And it was sacramental.What if the death of religion is actually just the death of a particular cultural expression of it? G.K. Chesterton, the witty and profound British writer, observed that Christianity has "died" five times throughout Western history—yet each time, what actually died were just the cultural frameworks containing it.
Travis Mullen and Professor Robert Inchausti delve into Chesterton's remarkable insight that Christianity isn't tied to any particular cultural moment but transcends them all. As our contemporary religious landscape undergoes massive transformation, this perspective offers a refreshing way to understand deconstruction: many who believe they're rejecting Christianity might actually be shedding obsolete cultural expressions—megachurches, corporate ecclesiastical practices, fundamentalist literalism—while the eternal truths remain.
Chesterton flips our understanding of orthodoxy on its head, calling it "the most perilous and exciting" path rather than something "heavy, humdrum and safe." True orthodoxy isn't about rigid doctrinal compliance but embracing a paradoxical vision that welcomes mystery instead of demanding certainty. This joyful humility allows us to live comfortably within questions rather than frantically attempting to solve everything through rationalism or control.
Perhaps most surprising is Chesterton's radical view of freedom—not found in unfettered choice or autonomy (as modern culture claims) but through tradition, ritual, and relationships we can fill with our freedom. These structures don't limit human flourishing; they provide the framework within which it thrives.
The conversation culminates with Chesterton's prophetic voice speaking to our technological age, warning of "real stupidity" in the era of artificial intelligence, where "you have taught your machines to mimic your minds, but you have forgotten how to nourish your souls."
Whether you're deconst
Send us Fan Mail
Support the show
Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
Wonder as rebellion. That's the surprising path Gilbert Keith Chesterton blazed through the intellectual landscape of early 20th century England—and precisely why his voice feels so startlingly relevant to our screen-addicted, anxiety-ridden modern world.
Born into the spiritual uncertainty of late Victorian England, Chesterton emerged as perhaps the most joyful apologist Christianity has ever known. Where others defended faith with stern dogmatism, he championed orthodoxy with wit, paradox, and an infectious sense of delight. His prodigious output—over 4,000 newspaper columns, hundreds of poems, novels, plays, and theological works—reveals a mind that refused to be constrained by false dichotomies or rigid thinking.
What makes Chesterton particularly fascinating was his approach to intellectual combat. Unlike the polarized, winner-take-all debates of our time, Chesterton maintained genuine friendships with his philosophical opponents. He debated socialist George Bernard Shaw and progressive scientist H.G. Wells dozens of times, always with respect, humor, and a willingness to acknowledge their insights even while disagreeing with their conclusions. When he wrote that "bigotry is not believing you're right; bigotry is not admitting when you're wrong," he offered a model of discourse desperately needed in our fractured public sphere.
Perhaps Chesterton's most enduring contribution was his political philosophy of distributism—a "third way" between unfettered capitalism and state socialism. Alongside his friend Hilaire Belloc, he advocated for an economic system where property ownership would be widely distributed among families and small producers rather than concentrated in corporations or government. Though never mainstream, these ideas continue to influence conversations about economic justice, localism, and sustainability today.
For those struggling with the spiritual aridity of modern life, Chesterton offers a transformative insight: orthodoxy is not a retreat from the world but its re-enchantment. His ability to see the extraordinary in the ordinary—to maintain that the world doesn't lack wonders but only our capacity for wonder—provides a powerful antidote to cynicism and despair. When he wrote that "angels can fly because they take themselves lightly," he was inviting us to recover a perspective that combines deep seriousness about truth with the lightness of joy and humor.
Ready to discover how a 300-pound man with a sword cane and cigar became one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the modern age? Dive into this exploration of Chesterton's life, works, and continuing relevance for anyone seeking to maintain faith, wonder, and intellectual integrity in challenging times.
Gilbert Keith Chesterton offers us a radically different approach to defending orthodox Christianity through wonder, joy, and paradox rather than rigid dogmatism. His life and work demonstrate that faith isn't a retreat from reality but the re-enchantment of it.
• Born in 1874 in London to a middle-class family with literary leanings
• Educated at St. Paul's School and the Slade School of Art but never earned a formal degree
• Underwent spiritual darkness in his twenties before finding joy in Christian faith
• Became a prolific writer with over 4,000 newspaper columns, novels, plays, and theological works
• Notable works include Orthodoxy (1908), The Everlasting Man (1925), and Father Brown detective stories
• Developed distributism as a "third way" between capitalism and socialism based on widely distributed property ownership
• Famous for public debates with intellectual giants like H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw
• Used humor as a spiritual weapon, maintaining that "Christianity is not too solemn but too serious to be taken humorlessly"
• Believed paradox reveals deeper truth and that holding contradictory ideas is a mark of intelligence
• Influenced C.S. Lewi
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Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
This episode dives deep into the restless brilliance of Søren Kierkegaard — the 19th-century philosopher, outsider theologian, and reluctant father of both existentialism and Christian authenticity. If you've ever doubted the plastic gods, burned out on hollow church talk, or longed for a faith that costs something real, Kierkegaard was speaking to you.
We explore:
If you're deconstructing — or have burned down the easy answers — Kierkegaard offers you no comfort… only truth, paradox, and the possibility of becoming real before God.
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Contact: [email protected]
Instagram: @subversiveorthodoxy
Host: Travis Mullen Instagram: @manartnation
Co-Host: Robert L. Inchausti, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and is the author of numerous books, including Subversive Orthodoxy, Thomas Merton's American Prophecy, The Spitwad Sutras, and Breaking the Cultural Trance. He is, among other things, a Thomas Merton authority, and editor of the Merton books Echoing Silence, Seeds, and The Pocket Thomas Merton. He's a lover of the literature of those who challenge the status quo in various ways, thus, he has had a lifelong fascination with the Beats.
Book by Robert L. Inchausti "Subversive Orthodoxy: Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in Disguise" Published 2005, authorization by the author.
Intro & Outro Music by Noah Johnson & Chavez the Fisherman, all rights reserved.
From the publisher's feed
Major themes of the podcast: contemplation, the self, cosmic humility, creativity, serving those in need, and more.
Outlaws, Revolutionaries, and Other Christians in…
This podcast is for listeners who no longer fit comfortably within dominant religious or political categories and who remain committed to truth, responsibility, and love of neighbor.
The conversations here are shaped by the book Subversive Orthodoxy and the wider body of literature it engages — theological, philosophical, and literary voices who take faith seriously as a way of seeing and inhabiting the world.
Episodes explore how an ancient faith continues to form human dignity, responsibility, and hope inside modern life. The emphasis falls on formation, attention, and meaning. Through conversation, reflection, and creative engagement, the show works to recover humility, restore attention, and re-humanize our neighbors in a distracted age.
If this way of thinking resonates, you're welcome to listen and join the ongoing work.
Hosted by:
Travis Mullen and Robert "Larry" Inchausti, Professor Emeritus of English at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

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