David Grubbs leads Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer in the first of three discussions of Jedediah Purdy’s 1999 book For Common Things.
Tag: Ralph Waldo Emerson
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #154: Terministic Screens
Danny Anderson leads a conversation with Nathan Gilmour and Michial Farmer about Kenneth Burke’s essay “Terministic Screens.”
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…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #140: Answers to Your Questions
We answer your emails today! If you’d like to be included on a future listener-feedback episode, send your comments, complaints, critiques, or criticism to thechristianhumanist@gmail.com. Here are the time marks for the individual emails and subjects, should you wish to skip ahead. [03:05] Mark Heard and listener feedback about listener feedback. (See below.) [04:29] Karl…
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 #125: The Great American Novel
General Introduction – Keeping the seat warm – Danny gets it right! – Listener feedback – Christian Humanist University Personal Definitions – Exemplifying American-ness – The changing representation of Huckleberry Finn – Shakespeare as American author – Subverting the American spirit – Great Novels from other countries The Nationalist Epic – Ex post facto epics…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #68: Romanticism
General Introduction – Welcome back, Professor Grubbs! – Welcome back, respectability! – How did Nathan blog so much? What Is Romanticism? – Not the sentimental relationship – Not the genre – Not the global mindset – The Romantic movement and the Enlightenment – Searching for a starting date – The problem with Romantic innovation –…
Our American Virgil
As an uninformed but opinionated teenager working my way through both youth group and Honors World History, I grew obsessed with the Fall of the Roman Empire. I must confess that my interest in the subject did not drive me to any book beyond the text for my ninth grade social-studies course (and given my…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode #40: The King James Version
General Introduction – Do suits make you smarter? – Pardon Michial’s head cold – A plug for the CWC The History of the King James Version – And the Bibles that preceded it – The battle over footnotes – The Geneva Bible – A unity text The KJV’s Influence on English-Language Literature – Emerson and…
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 #22.1: Science
Our outro music this week comes from Michael Knott’s 1994 record Rocket and a Bomb. The song’s called “Jan the Weatherman.” Hey, “Jan” rhymes with “Dan,” and our special guest this week is tornado chaser Dr. Dan Dawson. He’s kind of a weatherman, anyway. General Introduction – Where’s David Grubbs? – Welcome to our special…
The Christian Humanist Podcast, Episode 14: Origin Stories
The music this week is Bruce Cockburn’s “Creation Dream,” from Dancing in the Dragon’s Jaws (1979). General Introduction – Reader feedback – What’s on the blog this week? The Genesis Account of Creation – When did we first encounter it? – Oh, those strategic bushes! – We take another shot at Robert Zemeckis’ Beowulf –…
Emerson, Poe, and the War on Science
I’ve been accused of being “anti-science” on the podcast, a charge against which I’ve done my best to defend myself. My suspicion, as I say in that second post, is not of science qua science but of science’s attempt to either (a) discover metaphysical truth; or, more often these days, (b) discount metaphysical truth as…
How to Teach Emerson
If you keep up with the book blogosphere at all, you’ve no doubt already stumbled across this piece from the Chronicle of Higher Education, a brutal takedown of Ralph Waldo Emerson. The article is worth reading, if only for the blustery vitriol with which William Major and Bryan Sinche attack the Sage of Concord. A…