The Permanent Things

In this episode, I talk to Dr. Daniel Spillman, a professor in OBU's Western Civ. sequence, about the dangers of Utopian thinking and the death toll that comes from immanentizing the eschaton. 

Books mentioned in this episode:

Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville

Communism: A History by Richard Pipes

Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

1984 by George Orwell

Animal Farm by George Orwell

In this episode I discuss Homer and Virgil with the eminent classicist and translator Stanley Lombardo. I am particularly taken by Lombardo's concept of "Locking eyebrows with the old masters," that is reading to see the world through the eyes of Homer or Virgil. 

A note on audio quality: because my usual podcasting long-distance service failed us, I had to resort to speaking with Prof. Lombardo via cell phone. The audio quality in this episode is thus not up to the usual show standards. The quality of the conversation, however, more than makes up for that.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Homer's Iliad, trans. Stanley Lombardo 

Homer's Odyssey, trans. Stanley Lombardo

Virgil's Aeneid, trans. Stanley Lombardo

D.H. Dilbeck, author of Frederick Douglass: America's Prophet, discusses the role of faith in the life of the famous abolitionist and runaway slave.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, by Frederick Douglass

My Bondage and My Freedom, by Frederick Douglass

Frederick Douglass: America's Prophet, by D.H. Dilbeck

Books mentioned in this episode:

The American Revolution and the Press: The Promise of Independence by Carol Sue Humphrey

Prelude to Independence: The Newspaper War on Britain, 1764-1776 by Arthur Schlesinger

The History of Printing in America by Isiah Thomas

In this episode, I ask Dr. Christopher McMillion, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Oklahoma Baptist University, six questions about the American constitution.

Books mentioned:

The Constitution of the United State of America

The Federalist Papers

Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, by Pauline Maier

In this episode, I'm joined by Alan Noble, editor of Christ and Pop Culture and author of Disruptive Witness, for a discussion of modernity, secularization, and the work of Charles Taylor.

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

A Secular Age, by Charles Taylor

Liquid Modernity, by Zygmunt Bauman

How to (Not) be Secular, by James K.A. Smith

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis

Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, by Alan Noble

In this episode, I take a few minutes to explain why the liberal arts matter for the church.

Books mentioned:

Politics by Aristotle

Confesssions by Augustine

The Voice of Liberal Learning by Michael Oakeshott

I'm joined by Tawa Anderson, apologist and philosopher, to discuss points of agreement and points of conflict between the eighteenth-century Enlightenment and the traditional Christian view of the world.

Books mentioned in this episode:

An Introduction to Christian Worldview: Pursuing God's Perspective in a Pluralistic World, by Tawa Anderson, David Naugle, and Michael Clark

The Universe Next Door: A Basic Worldview Catalog, by James Sire

A History of Western Philosophy: From the Pre-Socratics to Postmodernism, by C. Stephen Evans

"What is Enlightenment" by Immanuel Kant 

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Christopher Hair about the work of John Milton, particularly his Paradise Lost. We discuss the unique charms of Milton's work and what makes Milton such an important writer for understanding the past and for thinking about today.

Books mentioned in this episode:

Paradise Lost by John Milton

Areopagitica by John Milton

In this episode I take a solo flight to talk about death and its inevitability. Starting from the Princess Bride and Hamlet, we take a brief tour of the memento mori topos in Western literature from Homer and the Bible to Gerard Manley Hopkins and Robert Frost. 

Works Mentioned in the Episode:

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

The Book of Common Prayer

The Iliad by Homer

The Odyssey by Homer

The Aeneid by Virgil

Confessions by Augustine

"The Wanderer" 

Beowulf

The Divine Comedy by Dante

The Dance of Death by Hans Holberlin the Younger

Everyman

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

Devotions Upon Divergent Occasions by John Donne 

Idylls of the King by Alfred Lord Tennyson

In Memoriam by Alfred Lord Tennyson

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

"Spring and Fall" by Gerard Manley Hopkins