The Theology Pugcast

In today’s episode the guys unpack Plato's understanding of human psychology and social order. They note his positive insights as well as limits as they set forth fuller Christian insights into the ways in which improper ordering of our desires tends toward destructive political orderings.

Today the Pugcast is joined by Nate Spearing, highly decorated combat veteran with 14 years and 12 deployments in Army Special Operations. Nathan has a broad range of experiences domestically and overseas and has spent his entire professional life walking out a theology of violence as a Christian in war. Nate was homeschooled, and today is the father of five children. Along with his wife, they are educating their children at home.  Since leaving the military in 2016, Nathan has started several successful small businesses in real estate and construction. In the wake of the Covid crisis, Nathan launched www.Spearing.co to inspire and train people to live boldly — especially during times of crisis — through a variety of courses on business, self defense, and family resilience. https://spearing.co

This week, the Pugsters look at some of the themes in Michael Heiser’s books dealing with the worldview of the biblical authors. Glenn leads the discussion, which revolves around two big ideas: the idea of a heavenly court, with angelic beings having authority over areas such as nations; and the account of the Nephilim in Genesis. For the latter, Heiser uses 1 Enoch, a document that shaped much of the Jewish worldview at the time of the New Testament and had a direct influence on 2 Peter and Jude. 1 Enoch claims that the “sons of God” were angelic beings (“Watchers”) and that the Nephilim were thus half angelic, half human hybrids. Their disembodied spirits were the demons and evil spirits of the New Testament and were responsible for much of the evil in the world. The guys discuss these and other matters, including whether we need to adopt all elements of the worldview of the biblical authors, especially when they are using non-canonical sources.

In today’s show Chris introduces a term coined by the French intellectual, Paul Ricouer—the hermeneutic of suspicion. In the 19th century, theorists including Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud promoted the idea that rationality was nothing more than rationalization. Beneath the surface of any argument was something selfish and irrational. They believed that interpretation should begin with suspicion. One of the bitter fruits of this approach is the shift from persuasion through argument to identify politics. The Pugsters discuss what this means for the church.

Early postmodern promoters argued that the end of metanarratives like Christianity and the Enlightenment would lead to a peaceful plurality of group narratives, without the aim of any to dominate. This would lead to an end of oppressive worldviews with totalitarian aims. But mutations in postmodern thinking, those connected with Critical Theory, have taken a totalitarian turn, positing new absolutes along with a dominating aim. Tom leads the topic and Chris and Glenn contribute much to the discussion.

In an earlier episode, the Pugsters talked about Tolkien’s ideas of the value of pagan myth and the need to Christianize it. In this episode, Glenn picks up on that and applies it not to mythology but to culture, specifically, the religion of pre-Christian Ireland and what happened when it was Christianized. In pagan Ireland, the Druids were walking encyclopedias of everything related to the culture—religion, rituals, magic, law, history, music, …. When Ireland converted to Christianity, they assumed that religious leaders similarly had to learn everything there was to know about Christianity and culture. Along with tangents on the history of monasticism and martyrdom, the guys talked about a number of saints’ lives and the contributions of Irish Christianity to civilization.

In today's show, Chris introduces an important study of individualism that was published back in 1985 by Robert Bellah and a team of sociologists, entitled: Habits of the Heart--Individualism and Commitment in American Life". A best-seller at the time, the book is almost forgotten today, which is a shame since the world we live in is the world they warned us about and hoped we'd avoid. The team, through field research identified four forms individualism can take in the American tradition--two of which support healthy community life, and two which undermine it. The healthy forms of individualism were in decline in 1985, and the situation is worse today. Of course, the subject gives Tom and Glenn a lot to talk about. Join the discussion and see what sort of individual you are!

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).