The Theology Pugcast

Listen in for a quick question and answer session following yesterday's episode on Romanticism.

In this semi-live episode, the Pugsters return to Romanticism, a topic we’ve touched on in a number of other Pugcasts. After a quick explanation of Romanticism as a response to cultural stress, the guys discuss some of the pathologies that have entered Western society as a result of the Romantic movement, including Expressive Individualism. But it turns out that not everything about Romanticism was a negative. Both C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were influenced by a positive version of Romanticism that rejected elements of modernity in favor of a more traditionalist vision of society.

On today’s show the guys unpack aspects of contemporary culture and its move away from ontological truth. Language, once it’s detached from referencing the real, becomes a field of competing power plays and conflict. How are Christians to enact truthfulness, avoid falsehood in their discernment of truth, and speak the truth as it become increasingly costly to do so? The Pugsters consider such questions and various ways forward.

Today the Pugsters are joined by Dr. Luke Sheahan, President of The Academy of Philosophy and Letters, and Editor of The University Bookman. Among other things, Luke is an authority on the intellectual history of conservatism in the United States. The conversation includes a discussion of some of the more important luminaries in American Conservatism, the nature of "freedom of association" and why traditionalist conservatives from a range of theological traditions often have more in common with each other than with people in their own communions. Why Associations Matter: The Case for First Amendment Pluralism Amazon;  Kansas Academy of Philosophy and Letters (APL) www.philosophyandletters.org  Conference in College Park, MD, June 2-4 Conference Schedule Register for the Conference (Put C.R. Wiley or Luke Sheahan as sponsor) The University Bookman https://kirkcenter.org/bookman/ Russell Kirk The Conservative Mind (1953) Robert Nisbet The Quest for Community (1953) Edmund Burke Robert P. George, Princeton University History of the Postwar Conservative Movement

In this episode, Moira Greyland Peat and Rachel Fulton Brown return for the first time together as Pugcast guests to explore the importance of story and imaginative fiction as a vehicle for communicating truth in ways that can transcend nonfiction. Along the way, Moira, Rachel, and the Pugsters talk about what makes stories fail, the impact of substituting ideology for truth in pop culture, the relevance of these ideas to music, and a host of related ideas. Moria’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Last-Closet-Dark-Side-Avalon-ebook/dp/B0787XLK4H?fbclid=IwAR2Q0CTcN3yBO_dtI682Pk8TsycvpXYAgBgLWX_mpp4Njk--gcvC3JyxBGs Moria’s Music: https://soundcloud.com/moira-greyland?fbclid=IwAR3zoziXcVJZBQvR7D-Buolej162FLLBO_RMWVhjCLhaktXnYjVFMroetlE Rachel’s Poetry: https://www.dragoncommonroom.com/?fbclid=IwAR0NjL42V6WBsw-6fquyvUpeAcgO5dkRwOfPe_GXl902TsyY3gL3pxrsA10

Today the Pugsters are happy to welcome Jason Baxter on the show! Jason is the author of a new book on C. S. Lewis entitled: The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis: How Great Books Shaped a Great Mind. Have you ever wondered why no one seems to come close to C. S. Lewis when it comes to apologetics and fiction (except J. R. R. Tolkien, of course). Jason Baxter knows why--C. S. Lewis had a medieval mind and all of his admirers have think like modern people. So, what does it mean to think like a Medieval man? Well, for one thing, you need to read old books, really old books. But that's just a start. Listen in and find out what else is involved. We hope you like the show! Find more from Jason at jasonmbaxter.com

Ever feel like an upgraded body would be good to have? You're not alone, and there are people who are ready to help--for a price. How about an extra 10 years of life, wouldn't that be nice? Why stop there? Why not an extra 20, or 100, or 10,000? Believe it or not, there are people who think that mortality is an engineering problem. Now here's another wrinkle, there are theologians that agree. What should we think about all of this? Today the Pugsters take up the topic of H+ (or Humanity 2.0).

Today the Pugcast is joined by Mark Bauerlein, professor emeritus of English at Emory University and an editor at First Things. Mark made waves back in 2008 with his book, The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone under 30). He was accused of being a luddite, and an alarmist in those halcyon days of Web 2.0. Unfortunately for us all, he turned out to be right in many of his predictions. It wasn't so much that the millennials he describes were incorrigible so much as they were betrayed by their so-called educators and technophile utopians. Tune in and find out how bad things are and what can be done about it!

This is the time of year when we get a lot of memes about how Easter is a warmed-over pagan holiday. Everything from the name “Easter” to the use of eggs and rabbits is a claimed to be connected to a pagan fertility goddess. Our resident historian Glenn takes great delight in debunking these kinds of myths, and in this episode he and the guys talk about the historical and linguistic facts about Easter and how it is celebrated along with the implications of C.S. Lewis’s idea of the “good dreams” of the pagans and why Christians buy into these misrepresentations of their own history.

Tom introduces one of the driving assumptions that is underwriting the flux and chaos of current social trends: the assumption that truth is relative, perspectival, unable to be attained apart from our individual or group filters. The guys join in with many historical and contemporary insights into some key figures and ideas which have played into the rise and dominance of contemporary relativism and they set forth some initial steps in engaging it from a rich Christian vision. Relativism (New Problems of Philosophy) by Maria Baghramian and Annalisa Coliva: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07T3DQ4Y5/ref=KC_GS_GB_US_nodl#