Celebratory fun highlights this Pugcast. As the gang records on St Patrick’s day, Tom thought it would be great to share in the celebrations by highlighting some fun-filled facts from Stephen Mansfield’s book In Search for God and Guinness. The book is far more than a story of the relation of Christianity and the Guinness family and beer. It also covers the long history of beer and the divine, and the way in which Christianity transformed and renewed the relation, as can be seen by the devout Guinness family and business and the beer sharing their name. Especially insightful is the way in which the Guinness family treated its employees. Glenn and Chris share in the discussion with wide-ranging facts and insights. This allows the conversation to lead where it may (one of the great aspects of the Pugcast), ending with Glenn sharing some rich insights on St. Patrick, Christianity in Ireland, and the Celtic Circle Cross.

Working off the introduction to Bradley Birzer’s J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth, the Pugsters talk about Tolkien, Lewis, and Chesterton and their ideas about myth and faerie. Tolkien believed that just like pagan philosophers grasped truths that were most perfectly expressed in the Gospel, the stories of myth and faerie were bits of “splintered light” that pointed beyond themselves to deeper reality. For Tolkien, pagan myths presented an almost sacramental vision of the world, though the myths need to be “sanctified” by Christian truth to avoid the dangers of paganism. The guys bring their own unique perspectives to these and related themes about the value of myth to us today.

Today the guys discuss the vexed topic of esoteric teaching and interpretation. Esoteric teaching is teaching intended to sort people into two groups--those who understand and those who do not. Why would anyone want to do that? Isn't that elitist? Isn't it undemocratic? Well, yes, it is those things--and Jesus undeniably spoke esoterically when he told parables--he said so in Matthew 13:10-17. The problem of esoteric teaching leads to a free-ranging conversation in which the guys get into what bugs them about contemporary approaches to interpretation as well as the subject of metaphysics (surprise, surprise).

In this show, Tom addresses a listeners question with reflections from past shows as well as recent insights. Tom looks at various realities, forces, and trends that have led culture to the present moment of sweeping madness. Chris and Glenn penetrate the topic with perspicacity and wisdom. René Girard shows up in the conversation, adding a fascinating gloss to the topic.

Glenn introduces concepts from medieval epistemology (i.e. the branch of philosophy dealing with knowledge and truth) and how these got challenged in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, particularly through the recovery of the ideas of the ancient Greek skeptic Pyrrho. After a foray into Descartes, who tried to answer Pyrrho, we look at Blaise Pascal, the father of probability theory. Pascal used a barometer to short-circuit Pyrrho’s approach and in the process laid the foundation for a new approach to knowledge based on probability. This new epistemology has shaped thinking in the West ever since and largely created the modern world.

Little by little, the notes and reflections of J. R. R. Tolkien have been published posthumously by his son, Christopher. Among the many volumes is the Tenth Volume in The History of Middle-Earth, entitled Morgoth's Ring. The book contains many of Tolkien's reflections on the nature of evil, mortality, and the eschatology of Middle-Earth. Among the gems is the publication of the conversation between Finrod (an Elf-Lord, the Eldar) and Andreth (a wise-woman from among the Edain--aka men). The Pugsters enjoy a free-range conversation that not only touches on the nature of evil in Middle-Earth, but also reaches our own--primary--world.

This week the Pugsters are joined by Jonathan Edwards scholar Dr. Christian Cuthbert to discuss his research at Yale on the preaching of Jonathan Edwards on the subject of warfare. In the 18th century the Connecticut River Valley was on the frontier. It wasn't unusual for Native American warrior bands to attack colonial villages--add to this the rival claims of the French and English powers in the New World and war wasn't merely a matter of debate regarding the justness of a conflict half-way around the world--it was a matter of survival, and the conflict could be 20 miles away--or right next store. The discussion is illuminating--and in some ways surprising. This is new ground in Edwards studies and Dr. Cuthbert is right at the forefront of it.

Tom introduces two contrasting cultures by talking about the Gospel and its role in shaping a culture of life. He then draws off of Benjamin Wiker's book 'Architects of the Culture of Death'. The leads into one of the core figures discussed in the book, the philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer and his contribution to nihilism and pessimism. Chris and Glenn add substantive insights and reflections throughout the discussion.

Glenn, our intrepid historian, takes us back to the twelfth century to show how a new worldview developed that shaped how we study the natural world (i.e. what we call “science” but they called “natural philosophy” or “natural theology”) and changed the aesthetics of the era, leading both to early empiricism and to realism in art. Chris and Tom move the conversation into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the undoing of the medieval ideas Glenn had explained. The nineteenth century saw the rise of modern science that changed how we think about both the material world and knowledge, which resulted not only in materialistic worldviews that denied meaning in the world but also led to a deconstruction of art and a rejection of beauty.

When the legacy of Charles Darwin is considered discussion generally focuses on the his account of human origins and whether or not evolution is a "blind watchmaker". But Darwin's influence has bled over into ethics, politics, philosophy, and other facets of human culture. Today the Pugsters discuss his broader legacy and how that influence can be resisted. As an added bonus, Chris recommends Thomas Hooker Brewing Company! https://hookerbeer.com/