Young Heretics

Are you a good magician, or a bad magician? This week, I start diving into the weird and complicated world of magic, from Disney to the Book of Acts. There's lots to say here, but let's start with what we want to avoid, namely: stealing people's voices and usurping the throne. In a deep cut from back when Disney wasn't awful, I hereby present: the Ursula-Jafar Theory of Bad Magic. Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

YOU ARE ENTIRELY A STAR CHILD! Maybe you've seen the internet meme where someone--or perhaps some program--translates the lyrics of Smash Mouth's "All Star" into Aramaic and then back into ornate, florid English. For '90s kids who grew up screaming those lyrics, this is hilarious. But it's also kind of revealing about our assumptions when it comes to register in translation. Why does the process of going into Aramaic, then back into English, end you up in a higher register than the original? Answers to these and other questions on a new installment of Words, Words, Words. Plus, here's a new essay on translation by yours truly in the Claremont Review of Books: https://claremontreviewofbooks.com/homer-without-heroes/  Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

They’re putting chips! In people’s brains! We have to talk about it. But this is Young Heretics—so let’s not talk about it from a panicked, world-is-ending catastrophe mindset, or from a naïve, tech-will-save us progressive mindset. With one eye on tradition and one eye on the future, I want to embark this week on an attempt to seriously argue that what we’re doing with tech is, and always has been, actual magic—with all the enticements and dangers that come along with that. Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Take a look at Ralston College's MA in the Humanities: https://www.ralston.ac/humanities-ma Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

I'm joined today by Johnny Burtka, whose new Gateway to Statesmanship is a collection of writings on one of our most neglected virtues. Statesmanship is the art of leading in complex and difficult times, especially when all of the options on the table involve painful trade-offs (sound familiar?). Johnny and I discuss the changing conditions of history, the fight over "Christian nationalism," and what it would mean for a modern politician to recover the ancient virtue of prudence. Pick up Johnny's book, Gateway to Statesmanship: https://a.co/d/5XJ3C0j Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

Since last we spoke, I have literally traveled around the world--and I can say with certainty there's nowhere I'd rather be than here. This week, a few reflections from my trip to Cambodia about what every culture has to grapple with when it comes to depicting God--and what's unique to the Bible. No one has ever seen God. So how can anyone know him? It's a question fundamental to both art and science, and absolutely everyone everywhere has to face it. Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

Why is the Gen Z Bible a joke and not a translation? In this installment of our series on register, I'm doing a close reading (yes, actually) of a passage from the Gen Z Bible. Bear with me, because there's actually a method to my madness, and it speaks to the strengths and weaknesses of another, much more widely used version of the bible--the Message. Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

Is it spirit or flesh? Matter or form? Symbol or symbolized? On this episode I want to argue that these questions aren't only religious questions--or rather, they're religious questions that cut right to the heart of reality. They've become newly important as anti-humanists propose to leave our embodied life as human beings behind. Discard the spirit and you get senseless matter; discard the matter and you get heartless calculation. Only with the two combined can we be fully human. Pre-order my new book, Light of the Mind, Light of the World: https://a.co/d/2QccOfM Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/

I've got a new book coming out! Light of the Mind, Light of the World: How New Science is Illuminating Ancient Truths about God will come out on August 13, and it's available now for pre-order. We are confronted today by a dark philosophy that views the world as a machine and humanity as a mistake. But as listeners of Young Heretics know, this philosophy is not only evil: it's also hopelessly out of date. Light of the Mind, Light of the World is a story of how God reveals himself through science and scripture alike. It's an ancient message, and an urgent one for our times. Pre-order now and be one of the first to get your copy! https://a.co/d/2QccOfM https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Light-of-the-Mind-Light-of-the-World/Spencer-Klavan/9781684515332

The veneration of icons is one of the longest-lasting and most intense controversies in the history of the church. But it's not just a matter of religious practice: it also happens to touch on even more ancient and profound issues in the nature of perception and reality. So, just exactly what Young Heretics has been all about this year! Thanks to encouragement from you guys, I'm going deeper on the subject of icons, art, and reality (though not much deeper on the whole Travis Kelce/Taylor Swift situation--but Tay does feature.) Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/ Pick up my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh

Is the Message a good translation of the Bible? Is it even a translation? This is one of the questions I get asked all the time, and with good reason: people like the vividness of a more plainspoken translation, but they worry about the accuracy of bringing the Bible so far down to earth. How can we tell the difference between a faithful but idiomatic translation, and one that goes off the reservation? How do translators think about these things, and how should we? It's such a profound issue that I'm going to do a few episodes about it, dipping into ancient Greek literary criticism, cockney slang, and the French translation of Harry Potter to explain how we ought to think about tone and register. Someone oughta stop me: I am having way too much fun. Subscribe to my new joint Substack with Andrew Klavan (no relation): https://thenewjerusalem.substack.com Check out our sponsor, the Ancient Language Institute: https://ancientlanguage.com/youngheretics/ Sign up to be in the mailbag: https://rejoiceevermore.substack.com/ Pick up my book, How to Save the West: https://a.co/d/9S57cfh Check out the Guardian's guide to Cockney slang:  https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/09/guide-to-cockney-rhyming-slang