Download or Stream this Episode Nathan Gilmour leads Todd Pedlar and Michial Farmer in a discussion of Shusaku Endo’s novel Silence.
Tag: Flannery O’Connor
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #155.1: Banned Books
Michial Farmer and Nathan Gilmour talk about banned books and the history of censorship.
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #152: What Is Enlightenment?
Nathan Gilmour leads a discussion with Michial Farmer and Danny Anderson about Immanuel Kant’s 1784 essay “What Is Enlightenment?”
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #146: Psalm 119
Nathan Gilmour chats a spell with David Grubbs and Michial Farmer about Psalm 119. The trio ranges from the literary form of the verse to the ways that the Psalm has shaped the identities of monks and fundamentalists, landing eventually on some pedagogical speculation.
Christian Humanist Profiles 12: Structuralism, Modern Literature, and Christianity
Anyone who’s spent any time at all with the New Testament is familiar with the opening sentences of the Gospel of John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart…
Anonymity, Fame, and Alienation
In 1966, Ralph Harper, the Episcopal priest and expositor of existentialism, found himself in the middle of the alienating twentieth century. Spiritual alienation, of course, existed long before 1966, and long before Harper’s “century of homelessness and exile, of nervous disorder and persecution, of actual enslavement and barbaric cruelty.” And yet the alienation of Harper’s…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #139: On Idolatry
Nathan Gilmour moderates a discussion about the treatise On Idolatry by the Patristic theologian Tertullian. Listen as we get mad at Tertullian and move the discussion into the realm of boycotts, guilt, and politics! Our theme music this week is Steve Taylor’s “Guilty by Association,” from 1984’s Meltdown. Does Taylor know that he’s implicitly attacking…
Christian Humanist Profiles, Episode #7: Our Posthuman Brave New World
A few months ago, I got into an argument with a friend of mine about Google’s new driverless car. I’m much less optimistic about technology than he is, and I couldn’t share his enthusiasm about this new technological marvel. All I could think of was the tens of thousands of professional drivers—taxis and buses and…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #108: Generations
General Introduction – We’re back—at least some of us are – Introducing Danny Anderson – The Christian Humanist Empire expands – Listener feedback The Generation Gap – The history of teenagers – The widening of the gap – Earlier generation gaps – Technological speed – Marketing and separate worlds – The ‘20s and the ‘60s…
Christian Humanist Profiles, Episode #1: Flannery O’Connor’s Theology of Disability
When Flannery O’Connor died in 1964 at the age of 39, she left behind her a rather slim body of work: two novels, a collection of letters, a dozen or so essays, and most of all, 32 short stories, ten or twelve of which have entered the American canon. The rare students who make it…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #89: Flannery O'Connor
General Introduction – This time David’s sick – Advising time – Old English – Listener feedback Who Was Flannery O’Connor? – Contemporary popularity – Iowa Writer’s Workshop – Christian theology – Appeal to the layman – Lupus and teleology – Other Southern writers “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” – In conversation, in the…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #87: Death
General Introduction – Nathan’s snottier than usual – David goes back to bed – Listener feedback Death in the Bible – A Psalm of Moses – Daniel speaks out – Job knows that his redeemer liveth – Conscious afterlife? – Christ and Lazarus – The Bible’s lack of systematic theology Other Ancient Views – Nathan…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #81: Realism
General Introduction – Why we don’t have a Dr. Who episode – The Facebook page So What Is Realism? – The Oxford Guide weighs in – Realism vs. unbelievability – Artistic movements – Architectural realism – The discarding of decoration Realism Before Realism – The probable and the possible – Realism vs. nominalism – Iconography…
The Christian Humanist, Episode #75: Ante-Dante
General Introduction – Disappointing David Grubbs – Listener feedback – Stroking and broking the ego – (Yeah, my math is off) – A correction – Theologico et Ratio Translations – Old Lady Sayers – End notes, not footnotes – Reproducing rhyme and meter – Ciardi’s middle ground – Musa, king of Dante – Wikipedia as…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #45: Language Is Sermonic
General Introduction – Sweaty technology – In which we creep up on fifty – Name-dropping with Nathan Gilmour – Giving the listeners what they want How English Departments Used to Work – The rise and fall of rhetoric – Charles Eliot changes everything – Authors and periods and other literary matters – The populist origins…