For Your Consideration

In this episode of our podcast, we are pleased to bring you audio of a lecture delivered on Tuesday, April 12th by our director, Dr. Richard Horner. Here is how Dr. Horner described the talk:Perhaps no book in the Hebrew Bible has been more difficult to interpret and translate than the book of Ecclesiastes. To what reality does the famous opening phrase point? Exactly what question is the author trying to address? What answers does he give? What wisdom does this book have to offer to us today for how to live well in a broken and troubled but wondrous world?This was no ordinary talk at the Study Center. It was Dr. Horner’s final lecture after more than twenty years as the Center’s executive director. The evening began with a full house for reception honoring Dr. Horner. Also, as you will hear in the recording, Dr. Horner’s lecture was preceded by some brief remarks from Dr. Jay Lynch, the founder, along with his wife Laura, of the center and the president of the Center’s board, paying tribute to Dr. Horner’s service and God’s faithfulness.You can download a PDF of Dr. Horner’s handout for the talk here: “Reading Ecclesiastes.” Please feel free to share this talk or any other of our other podcast episodes with anyone you think would be interested.During the summer months, the podcast will be mostly on hiatus, but we will resume in the fall with more interviews and audio from study center events. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In this episode of our podcast, we are pleased to bring you audio of a lecture delivered on Tuesday, March 29th by our director, Dr. Richard Horner. Here is how Dr. Horner described the talk: Why does Matthew tell the story of Jesus differently from Mark and Luke? Perhaps he is confused or mistaken, but if not, then what is he doing? Come join us for a brief exploration of this problem, for a glimpse of how the four gospels relate to each other, and for a taste of what we’ve been offering in “Reading the Gospels” over the past twenty years.Next week, you can look for audio of Dr. Horner’s final lecture as executive director, “The Wisdom of Qoheleth: Ecclesiastes as a Meditation on Life in a Troubled World.”Please feel free to share this talk or any other of our other podcast episodes with anyone you think would be interested. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

On March 17th, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Scott Hawley of Belmont University at the Study Center for a second talk titled “Taming Chaos: Generative Modeling As a Foil to Human Creativity.”Dr. Hawley is a Professor of Physics at Belmont, and his research interests include machine learning, neural networks, and the ethics of A.I. Last week, we posted his talk on machine learning and classification. Today, we are glad to post his reflections on generative models and creativity. Here is how Dr. Hawley described the talk: “We did it. We finally killed art.” This tweet in the summer of 2021 by Ryan Murdock summarized the feeding frenzy of worldwide activity in generative ‘A.I.’-based artwork since he first paired text prompts with image-generating software last January. The hard-won styles of seasoned masters could be appropriated with little more than a suffix of “in the style of [....].”  Sophisticated generative models of visual art have become increasingly common, with ever-higher qualities of output and speed of execution. Yet these exist along the continuum of the timeline of generative art stretching back centuries. The interplay between randomness and the intentionality of the artist is at the heart of disputes over whether such products constitute artwork and to what extent computational methods mimic or diverge from human creativity. In this talk, we provide a survey of historical and cutting-edge generative art methods, conversations, and opportunities presented by generative models used by humans in the creation of visual, textual, and auditory artistic artifacts.During the talk, Dr. Hawley made extensive use of slides and you can view those here while you listen. You can also follow Dr. Hawley on Twitter @drscotthawley.And finally, here is a link to a recent short essay by Dr. Hawley at A.I. Theology, “Human Mercy Is The Antidote To AI-Driven Bureaucracy.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

On March 17th, we had the pleasure of hosting Dr. Scott Hawley of Belmont University at the Study Center for a talk titled “Curves and Categories: Machine Learning, AI, and the Nature of Classification.” Dr. Hawley is a Professor of Physics at Belmont, and his research interests include machine learning, neural networks, and the ethics of A.I. He joined us to explore the fascinating and complex nature of classification and what it reveals about intelligence, human and machine. “Machine learning classification techniques,” Dr. Hawley explained, are increasingly applied to fields as diverse as biology, astronomy, the humanities, law, medicine, the entertainment industry, criminal justice, library science, aesthetics, robotics, and more, in an effort to automate human decision-making on massive scales. The problematic socio-political ramifications of this enterprise are becoming increasingly evident, and merit a closer examination of the philosophies and methods of classification from their origins in antiquity up to present large-scale A.I. systems.During the talk, Dr. Hawley made extensive use of slides and you can view those here while you listen. You can also follow Dr. Hawley on Twitter @drscotthawley. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

Dr. Benjamin Lipscomb is professor of philosophy specializing in contemporary ethical theory at Houghton College. He is the author of The Women Are Up To Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe, Philippa Foot, Mary Midgley, and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics, which was published in November 2021. Mike Sacasas had the pleasure of talking to Prof. Lipscomb about his book, these four remarkable philosophers, the story of ethics in the 20th century, C. S. Lewis’s famous debate with Anscombe, and much else. We trust you’ll enjoy the conversation. Below are a few of the titles mentioned during the interview. Mary Midgley: Beast and Man: The Roots of Human Nature Wickedness The Myths We Live By Elizabeth Anscombe: “Modern Moral Philosophy” Ethics, Religion and Politics: Collected Philosophical Papers, Volume 3Iris Murdoch: Existentialists and Mystics: Writings on Philosophy and Literature The Sovereignty of the Good Philippa Foote: Virtues and Vices: And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine dominating the headlines and the specter of nuclear conflict darkening our imagination, we’re glad to bring you a conversation with Dr. Jonathan Askonas, associate professor of politics at the Catholic University of America and an expert in Russian-American military affairs. The conversation covers a lot of ground, beginning with a discussion of the origins of the present crisis and going on to consider the religious dimensions of the Russian nuclear service and the role the internet plays in modern warfare. During the discussion of nuclear warfare, Dr. Askonas referred to Russian Nuclear Orthodoxy: Religion, Politics, and Strategy by Prof. Dmitry Adamsky. You can read a book review round table moderated by Dr. Askonas here. The day after I interviewed Dr. Askonas, Prof. Adamsky published a commentary on the present situation at Foreign Affairs: “Russia’s Menacing Mix of Religion and Nuclear Weapons.” During the final minutes of the conversation, we also discuss the work of the late French theorist, Paul Virilio, specifically The Administration of Fear. We hope you find this conversation helpful and illuminating. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

It was my pleasure to speak with Dr. Alan Noble about his recently published book, You Are Not Your Own: Belonging to God in an Inhuman World. Dr. Noble is Associate Professor of English at Oklahoma Baptist University and the founder and former editor of Christ and Pop Culture. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Vox, Buzzfeed, First Things, Christianity Today, and The Gospel Coalition. Noble’s first book, Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, likewise explored the contours of faith and faithfulness in our contemporary cultural milieu. In our conversation, we discuss some of the major themes of You Are Not Your Own, including how modern society undermines the possibility of human flourishing, the consequences of the relentless pursuit of efficiency, and alternative ways of imagining the good life grounded in our belonging to God. I hope you enjoy our conversation. Also, if you’ve not done so already, please check out the terrific program we’ve put together this spring at the Study Center. Best, Mike SacasasAssociate Director This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

The Christian Study Center hosted a kick-off event to launch the spring semester this week, and as part of the event Dr. Richard Horner, our executive director, presented a talk titled, “Why Pascal?—One More Time.” Audio of that talk and an engaging Q/A session that followed is included here. The talk explored the continuing relevance of the thought of Blaise Pascal, a seventeenth century French philosopher and mathematician, who has played a critical role in Dr. Horner’s own thinking about the nature of the modern world. This talk also sets up the reading group Dr. Horner will be leading throughout the semester beginning next Friday, February 4th at noon. The group, titled “Pascal and His Heirs,” will meet at the study center and the readings will come from the writings of Pascal, Flannery O’Connor, Leszek Kolakowski, and Merold Westphal. Subscribers to this newsletter should note that our plan is to continue to use this platform to distribute audio from our program, including two other lectures Dr. Horner will be giving this semester, as well as occasional interviews with guest scholars.For more information about our program this semester be sure to visit our website. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

In late October, the study center hosted an event for local clergy and ministry leaders. The theme of the event was Rest: What It Is and How to Find It. Even before the pandemic, it was clear that burnout was a widely distributed symptom of a restless culture. After the experience of the past year and a half, it was the all the more clear that we needed to rethink how we are ordering our lives. It was important, too, to think of rest not only as something we do on occasion to renew bodies, but rather as a way of being that we carried into all the facets of our lives. Dr. Horner and Mike Sacasas both contributed to the teaching and discussion, which sought to unpack the various sources of our exhaustion, physical and otherwise. In the audio included with this installment, you can listen to a 40-minute clip from the morning session during which Mike explored the assumptions embedded in our economic and technological structures undermining our pursuit of rest and satisfaction. We hope you find the discussion edifying. Below you can read a few of the sources that focused our discussion. “‘Branding’ is a fitting word for this work, as it underlines what the millennial self becomes:  a product. And as in childhood, the work of optimizing that brand blurs whatever boundaries remained between work and play. There is no ‘off the clock’ when at all hours you could be documenting your on-brand experiences or tweeting your on-brand observations. The rise of smartphones makes these behaviors frictionless and thus more pervasive, more standardized. In the early days of Facebook, you had to take pictures with your digital camera, upload them to your computer, and post them in albums. Now, your phone is a sophisticated camera, always ready to document every component of your life — in easily manipulated photos, in short video bursts, in constant updates to Instagram Stories — and to facilitate the labor of performing the self for public consumption.”  — Anne Helen Petersen, “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation” “The demands made by tools on people become increasingly costly. This rising cost of fitting man to the service of his tools is reflected in the ongoing shift from goods to services in over-all production. Increasing manipulation of man becomes necessary to overcome the resistance of his vital equilibrium to the dynamic of growing industries; it takes the form of educational, medical, and administrative therapies. Education turns out competitive consumers; medicine keeps them alive in the engineered environment they have come to require; bureaucracy reflects the necessity of exercising social control over people to do meaningless work. The parallel increase in the cost of the defense of new levels of privilege through military, police, and insurance measures reflects the fact that in a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy.” — Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality “Leisure, it must be clearly understood, is a mental and spiritual attitude — it is not simply the result of external factors, it is not the inevitable result of spare time, a holiday, a weekend or a vacation. It is, in the first place, an attitude of mind, a condition of the soul.” — Josef Pieper, Leisure: The Basis of Culture “There is a realm of time where the goal is not to have but to be, not to own but to give, not to control but to share, not to subdue but to be in accord. Life goes wrong when the control of space, the acquisition of things of space, becomes our sole concern.” — Abraham Heschel, The Sabbath  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com

On September, 14th, the Christian Study Center hosted a kick-off event to launch the fall semester. As part of the event, Dr. Richard Horner, our executive director, presented a talk titled, “What Frames What?—One More Time.” The talk revisits a critical diagnostic question, which Dr. Horner has been ask for nearly two decades. Through this question Dr. Horner explores the defining features of modernity and the point to which they have now brought us. It is an exploration not so much of post-modern culture, but of modern culture fully realized. This talk also sets up a reading group Dr. Horner will be leading throughout the semester beginning this Friday, September 24th. The group will meet every other week at noon at the study center and will read some of the key thinkers that have shaped Dr. Horner’s understanding of the modern world. This Friday the group will be discussing the first four sections of Descartes’s Discourse on Method.Subscribers to this newsletter should note that our plan is to continue to use this platform to distribute occasional audio, like this lecture, and also to publish a monthly installment with an essay, links, and information about the study center. For more information about our program this semester be sure to visit our website. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit christianstudycenter.substack.com