How should Christians think about profanity? Scripture makes clear commands about our speech, yet Scripture itself seems to use some choice language at times. How do we reconcile this? And how have great Christian minds of the past approached these things?

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.

Currenly Reading
Onsi: The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Colin: The Aeneid by Virgil
Rhys: The White Ship by Charles Spencer

Texts Discussed
Commentary on Ephesians by John Calvin
Selected Literary Essays by C.S. Lewis

Davenant Spotlight
Maps of Misreading: The Hidden Influence of Horace in Augustine's Confessions - Davenant October Fellows Lecture

Colin's back, and he thinks that on our previous episode (with John Ahern), Rhys and Onsi gave contemporary Christian music (CCM) too hard a time. Isn't it a good thing that the best songwriters and producers in the world are making CCM, and that Christian music is worth so much money? Doesn't writing the perfect pop song for Christ demonstrate virtuosity and poetry? And isn't it sustaining the church the last place where communal singing happens?

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.

Best and Worst CCM Songs:
Onsi BEST: "Creed" by Rich Mullins/"Soul Will Sing" by Travis Greene
Onsi WORST: "Oceans" by Hillsong
Colin BEST: "We're Blessed" by Fred Hammond
Colin WORST: "Way Maker" by Leeland/"Graves Into Gardens" by Elevation Worship
Rhys BEST: "Blessed Be Your Name" by Matt Redman/"Great is the Lord" by Steve McEwan
Rhys WORST: "Who You Say I Am" by Hillsong


Texts Discussed
Four Birds of Noah's Ark by Thomas Decker
Review of Four Birds of Noah's Ark by Colin Redemer

Davenant Spotlight
A Protestant Christendom? The World the Reformation Made
Jurisdiction Regal, Episcopal, Papal

Somewhere, right now, people are arguing about church music - and it's been that way for nearly 2000 years! Why is that? This week, Onsi and Rhys are joined by John Ahern to discuss big questions which have recurred again and again in church history: music or lyrics? Performers or laypeople? How (if at all) do we fund church music? With particular reference to the Middle Ages, our hosts consider how church history can inform our CCM dominated moment.

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: Schuyler Quntel RSV Bible
Rhys: The History of Christianity in Britain and Ireland by Gerald Bray
John: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke/Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

Texts Discussed
Confessions by St. Augustine
Docta Sanctorum Pactum by Pope John XXII

Davenant Spotlight
Quarter for the End of Blogs

Calling something "practically medieval" is never really a positive thing. But were the so-called Dark Ages really so dark? Onsi, Colin, and Rhys set out to bust some medieval myths prominent among Protestants, and in Western culture at large. They talk about technology, science, sex, death, feudalism, personal piety, 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: Retrieving Nicaea by Khaled Anatolios
Colin: History of the Pelopennesian War by Thucydides 
Rhys: The Stripping of the Altars by Eamon Duffy

Texts Discussed
"Petrarch's Conception of the 'Dark Ages'" by Theodor Ernst Mommsen
The Lay-Folks' Catechism
The Light Ages by Seb Falk
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
"The Neglected Craft: Prudence in Reformed Political Thought" by Adam Carrington
The Lamp

Davenant Spotlight
A Protestant Christendom? The World the Reformation Made
Jurisdiction Regal, Episcopal, Papal



Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.

We talk a lot about the sin and scandal of public figures in the Church... but do we talk about talking about it? That's what Onsi, Colin, and Rhys do this week! How can a philosophy and theology of sin affect the way that we talk about it?

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 Arabs: A History by Eugene Rogan
Colin: Dune by Frank Herbert
Rhys: The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

Texts Discussed
The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill Podcast
Kanye the Pious
Unintended Consequences of Failure Porn


Davenant Spotlight
Mere Orthodoxy

Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.

Have childless philosophers ruined Western civilization? Why are great intellectuals usually such terrible fathers and husbands anyway? And is it easier to be a theologian parent than a philosopher parent? This week, Onsi and Rhys are joined by Davenant Teaching Fellow Alastair Roberts to discuss the relationship between celibacy and the intellectual life.

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: America's Great Game: The CIA's Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East by Hugh Wilford
Rhys: The Light Ages: The Surprising Story of Medieval Science by Seb Falk
 Alastair: assorted commentaries on Joel!

Texts Discussed
The tweet that started the discussion
Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
JD Vance on the "childless left"
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
On the Affections of Fathers to Their Children by Montaigne


Davenant Spotlight
Natural Law and Scriptural Authority - Davenant Hall Fall 2021 Class (register by September 10th!)

Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.

It's the middle of summer... so we're talking about spring! Launching off of "Ver Erat Aeternum", an Ad Fontes essay by E.J. Hutchinson, Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss the season. Why is it historically associated with Paradise in different cultures, and is that right? And are created phenomena like the seasons meant to teach us anything?

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: Church Dogmatics by Karl Barth
Colin: Republic by Plato
Rhys: Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist and Other Essays by Paul Kingsnorth

Texts Discussed
Metamorphoses by Ovid
"East Coker" by T.S. Eliot
"The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot
Hexameron by St. Ambrose
Through New Eyes by James B. Jordan
God of All Things by Andrew Wilson


Davenant Spotlight
Ad Fontes Print + Digital Subscription

Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.

What is piety? What happened to it? And can we make it great again? This week Onsi, Colin, and Rhys talk about piety (not to confused with "pietism" or "piousness") - our natural bonds and relationship to those around us. They cover its place in the ancient world, what the Reformation had to say, and what (if anything) it might look like today.

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 Iliad by Homer (trans. Robert Fagles) 
Colin: Children of Men by P.D. James
Rhys: The Odyssey (Audiobook) by Homer (trans. Robert Fagles; read by Ian McKellan)

Texts Discussed
Euthyphro by Plato
The Aeneid by Virgil
A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes
Institutes III.ii by John Calvin
The Hidden Structure of the Ten Commandments by Rabbi David Fohrman
Man of the House by C.R. Wiley
The Household and the War for the Cosmos by C.R. Wiley
Minari

Davenant Spotlight
Support the work of The Davenant Institute

Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.

Do you have free will in listening to this podcast? Listen and find out! This week Onsi, Colin, and Rhys discuss free will, launching off of The Davenant Institute's new translation of Peter Martyr Vermigli''s On Free Will and the Law. They discuss the Greek myths and philosophers, totaly depravity, God's foreknowledge, and the pastoral relevance of a clear doctrine of free well.

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: Walkman by Michael Robbins
The 21: A Journey into the Land of the Coptic Martyrs by Martin Mosebach
Colin: After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis' 'The Abolition of Man' by Michael Ward
Rhys: Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer by C.S. Lewis

Texts Discussed
On Free Will and the Law by Peter Martyr Vermigli
The Odyssey by Homer
Treatises Against the Anabaptists and the Libertines by John Calvin
Paradiso by Dante
The Enchiridion on Faith, Hope, and Love by Augustine
Journal of Inklings Studies

Davenant Spotlight
The Ad Fontes Website

Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.

Does this podcast have a hidden meaning? Probably not. But plenty of history's great writings have hidden meanings (well, maybe they do). This week, Rhys and Colin discuss esoteric writing, where the author's real meaning is veiled, and apparent only to a small inner group with the right knowledge (often to prevent themselves getting killed). Springing off of Leo Strauss' Persecution and the Art of Writing they talk about the benefits and dangers of esotericisim in philosophy and literature, and then wonder whether Scripture is esoteric in some way.

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
Colin: The Blind Guides of the Classical Education Movement by Shawn Barnett
Rhys: Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard

Texts Discussed
The New Thinkery Podcast
Persecution and the Art of Writing by Leo Strauss
Planet Narnia by Michael Ward
Either/Or by Soren Kierkegaard
Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
Politics by Aristotle (section on natural and unnatural slaves)
The Art of Biblical Narrative by Robert Alter

Davenant Spotlight
Davenant House

Theme Music
"Midnight Stroll" by Ghostrifter. Free to use under Creative Commons. Available here.