The Ad Fontes Podcast

In Onsi's final episode as a host, he, Colin, and Rhys talk about the dominant force in American Protestantism: the non-denominational megachurch (or, to its truest admirers, "hot dog church"). Does Davenant do hot dog church? What are its strengths? How does it fit into the Reformation tradition?

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Texts Discussed
"Catholicism Made Me Protestant" by Onsi Kamel
Confessions by Augustine

Spotlight
Second Annual Bay Area Davenant Dinner (Saturday August 12 2023)

The classical education world has experienced some healthy internal debate recently. Two significant features of modern education - an emphasis on diversity and the prevalence of standardized testing - have come into focus in discussions around the increasingly popular Classical Learning Test (CLT). Here, we repost audio of a Twitter Spaces conversation between Colin Redemer and Jeremy Tate, Founder and CEO of the CLT as they discuss the state of the CLT and classical education more broadly.

Articles Behind the Discussion
"Classical Education's Woke Co-Morbidity" by Matthew Freeman
"Awkward Family Dinner: A Review of Reforming Classical Education" by Austin Hoffman
"Revisiting Platonic Education: The Ever Shareable Feast" by Colin Redemer
"The Ends of "Mere Classical" Schools" by Clifford Humphrey
"Diverse Classics and Whole Person" by Jeremy Tate
"Toward A Classical Counter Elite" by Matthew Freeman
"Is the CLT going woke?" by Ben Merkle

Recorded LIVE at our 2023 National Convivium Irenicum, Colin and Onsi are joined by Pastor Daniel Doleys to discuss the sessions from our annual gathering, which focussed on "Christ and the Nations: A Protestant Theology of Statecraft". They talk about Schleirmacher,  kingship, supererrogation (whatever that is), and more.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: "Against Aristotle on the Eternity of the World" by John Philoponus
Colin: "White Dress" by Lana Del Rey
Daniel: "Divine Providence" by Stephen Charnock

Texts Discussed
N/A

Spotlight
Synopsis of a Purer Theology 

This week, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys answer YOUR questions! They talk about Onsi's problem with C.S. Lewis, working in a Catholic college, a curriculum for the classics, Protestant and Thomism, whether modernity exists, and why they've remained silent on the topic of fairies.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: The Book of Khalid by Ameen Rihani
Colin: "She Walks in Beauty" by Lord Byron
Rhys: First Person Singular by Haruki Murakami

Texts Discussed
The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer
Theogony and Works and Days by Hesiod
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Lives by Plutarch
Enduring Divine Absence by Joseph Minich
Bulwarks of Unbelief by Joseph Minich
The Discarded Image by C.S. Lewis
The Myth of Disecnhantment by Jason Josephson-Storm

Spotlight
Italy's Forgotten Reformation (Register by Wednesday 24th May!)

How does our society perceive gender confusion? Continuing their readthrough of Begotten or Made? Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss what Oliver O'Donovan calls "the psychological case", one of two ways our society tries to explain the problem, but which he argues is fraught with insonsistencies.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: The Philosophy of History by G.W.F. Hegel  
Colin: The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Rhys: God's Clockmaker: Richard of Wallingford and the Invention of Time by John North

Texts Discussed
Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan

Spotlight
Subscribe to Ad Fontes to gain access to our upcoming Spring 2023 edition!

People talk a lot about "the image of God" these days, or the imago dei. But what do they mean by this? Often, it's not what people used to mean. This week Onsi, Colin, and Rhys talk about shifting views of "the image of God", the lack of traditional consensus on the topic, and whether you even need the idea to talk about human dignity.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: The Art of Bible Translation by Robert Alter
Colin: The Nixton Tapes: 1973, edited by Douglas Brinkley and Luke A. Nichter  
Rhys: A Brief History of the Hundred Years War by Desmond Seward

Texts Discussed
Rhys' midwit meme
De Trinitate by Augustine
Categories by Aristotle
Summa Theologiae I.91.a3 by Thomas Aquinas (on angels and the image of God)
Institutes 1.15.3 by John Calvin

Spotlight
First Annual Davenant Award Banquet (Wednesday 19th April 2023)

Procreation is linked to the male-female binary. But how do we respond to that reality: with welcome, or resentment? Onsi, Colin, and Rhys continue their readthrough of Oliver O'Donovan's Begotten or Made?  and tackle this question and more as they reach Chapter 2, "Sex By Artifice."

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: The Search After Truth by Nicolas Malebranche
Colin: Mutlipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman
Rhys: They Were Counted by Miklos Banffy

Texts Discussed
Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
"St. Andrew's Day, 1935" by George Orwell
Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body by Pope John Paul II

Spotlight
Register now for Spring Term Davenant Hall class! (Deadline 3/31/23)

Should Christian classical education teach Plato? Or any philosophy, for that matter? This week, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss Colin's recent Ad Fontes article, responding a to a review of his chapter in Reforming Classical Education. They discuss whether Christian high schoolers should really be learning philosophy, and why Christians who believe philosophical primary texts to be important should handle them with care.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: The Republic of Arabic Letters: Islam and the European Englightenment by Alexander Bevilacqua
Colin: Discourse of Method and Mediations on First Philosophy byRene Descartes
Rhys: The Dissolution of the Monasteries: A New History byJames G.L. Clark

Texts Discussed
Reforming Classical Education: A New Paradigm
"Awkward Family Dinner: A Review of Reforming Classical Education" by Austin Hoffman
"Revisiting Platonic Education: The Ever Sharable Feast" by Colin Redemer
"Same-Sex Marriage and Constitutional Law" by Martha Nussbaum
Republic by Plato

Spotlight
The New Albion - Rhys Laverty's new Substack (subscribe now!)

How did our society's view of freedom come about? And why would Christians ever have a problem with compassion? Continuing their readthrough of Begotten or Made?, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss these big questions, which ends up involving a surprisng conversation about opera.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: The Passenger andStella Maris by Cormac McCarthy
Colin: Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche
Rhys: Stories With Intent by Klyne R. Snodgrass

Texts Discussed
Begotten or Made? by Oliver O'Donovan
"Wartime broadcast, 1940" by Princess Elizabeth and Princes Margaret
That Hideous Strength by C.S. Lewis
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis  
Meaning in History by Karl Lowith
The Magic Flute by Mozart
Fidelio by Beethoven

Spotlight
The Shining Human Creature by Thomas Traherne

How should Christians approach Bible translation? Should Scripture be fitted into out native language, or should our native language stretch to make room for Scripture?
This is a key question for Protestantism, which was birthed in the context of new biblical translations. Translations produced by Protestants, such as Luther's Bible and the KJV, have undoubtedly shaped their native tongues. This week, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys talk about different translations and their approaches.

NOTE: most books below are linked via Bookshop.org. Any purchases you make via these links give The Davenant Institute a 10% commission, and support local bookshops against chainstores/Amazon.

Currently Reading
Onsi: Collected Poems by C.P. Cavafy  
Colin: A Secular Age by Charles Taylor  
Rhys: Richard II by William Shakespeare

Texts Discussed
"On the Different Methods of Translating" by Friedrich Schleirmacher
The Message by Eugene Peterson
"Presbyterians in Egypt" by Onsi Kamel
STEPBible

Spotlight
Ad Fontes Winter 2023 (coming Thursday 23rd February!)