Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien 425 pp. Houghton MIfflin Harcourt. $28.00 There’s a special kind of joy that fills the air when a group of people, who share a certain sort of niche interest, get exciting news about their common niche. Such are the moments that make me…
Tag: Beowulf
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #135: Songs of Innocence and Experience
General Introduction – Some eschatology – Listener feedback – A Dante omission – A dedicated After Virtue episode? – Jacques Barzun on baseball – YOLO, tower libraries – Cain and the Alien series Poet and Prophet – Rival powers – The invisible chains across the Atlantic – Human goodness and human freedom – Struggle and…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #134: Cain
General Introduction – Nathan levels up! – Listener feedback – Christian naturism – Rogers, Rogers everywhere – Telos and Matthew 5:48 – Christian college and losing one’s faith – The problem with universal morality The Genesis Account – The first mortal born of humans – A function name, not an origin name – Cain’s sacrifice…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #131
General Introduction – A full slate of PhDs – Listener feedback – Some Lewis corrections and additions – A technical comment, plagued by technical problems – Yes, Grubbs knows about Tolkien’s Beowulf Hebrew Science – Our desert God – Weather as punishment – Deus ex turbine – The God who is not in the wind…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #48: Canons (Within Canons)
General Introduction – The end of an era – What we want on our statues – What’s on the blog? – Freshman comp clichés – More on DVD players in cars What is a Canon? – The Biblical Canon – Inclusion and exclusion – The Western Canon – The six types of criticism and canons…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #30: REVENGE!
Our theme music this week is Ted Leo’s “The Sons of Cain,” from 2007’s Living with the Living. Does it remind anyone else of Hey Dude for some reason? General Introduction – A month of Christian Humanists – What’s on the blog? – Nathan axe crazy – Like us on Facebook! Cain, the Sons of…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #28: Kings
General Introduction – Listener feedback: In which Michial takes offense at compliments – What’s on the blog? – A notice about next week King David – What picture does the Hebrew Bible give us of monarchy? – The transition from judges to kings – God’s rejection of Saul – Heightism in ancient Israel – A…
The Christian Humanist, Episode #27: Superheroes
General Introduction – Football season begins – What’s on the blog? – An argument about Jaws Our History with Superheroes – Crib notes: Only Gilmour was way into comics – Michial played too many video games – Marvel vs. DC Premodern Models of Heroism – The hero as function of a larger metaphysic – Greek…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #22
Welcome to Season 2.5. The theme music this week is “Rock and Roll Dixie,” from the soundtrack to the video game The Neverhood. We also have a special guest host, Nathan Gilmour’s brother Ryan. General Introduction – Welcome to Season 2.5 – David Grubbs, our reporter from the field – We get the dirt on…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #17: Critical Theory vs. Great Books
General Introduction – Congratulations to David Grubbs, teacher of outstanding merit – What’s on the blog this week? – Buy our stuff! Renaissance and Reformation Education – Religious education – The move toward State education – Apprenticeships and grammar school – Calvin as the father of the Christian college – The birth of humanism –…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #16.1
Another Gilmour-less episode. It may be until tomorrow before it gets added to iTunes, etc. I’m sure you’ll recognize the theme music. General Introduction – No Nathan – What’s on the blog? Our Emotionally Scarring Experiences – The Shining haunts Michial’s dreams – Slasher movies – Beetlejuice and a man in a yellow wolf suit…
A Postscript on Dragon-slaying
In case my point was too vague in my post last week about dragon-slaying, this is what I meant.
Of Dragon-slaying and Human Dignity
I’ve always been a sucker for a good monster story. As a boy, I would browse through my parents’ books, especially the encyclopedias, and stop whenever I saw an illustration of a monster. This was particularly true of dragons, of which I was specially fond. This was also how I first encountered Beowulf: as a…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode 11: Epic
This week’s music: “Her Right Hand Rules the World,” by They Sang As They Slew, from Get Well (Northern Records, 2004). Great band, great record, great Tolkien reference. General Introduction – Nathan’s back, and he’s angry at us – Another CHP ex cathedra announcement Defining and Misdefining Epic – Thanks, FailBlog – That’s so random…